Often, a business makes the decision to add a blog to their marketing arsenal because their competitors are doing so. No one wants their competition to have a leg up on them. But most businesses soon discover that blogging can become a chore because they don't have a clear blogging action plan to follow. Here are some tips that will help.
How to Blog for Business
Few of the online marketing tools are as fun or as effective as social media sites, and with just a simple blogging action plan, you can become an expert in building a relationship with your blog followers.
As you begin to blog, start simple since you do not want to announce that all of this is new to you. By simply beginning your blog and adding to it daily, you are creating the foundation for a great, online marketing tool. As you are writing for your blog, remember to keep your content interesting, professional and on point.
If you become frustrated building your blog, keep it to yourself. You do not want to get in the habit of ranting on your blog, nor do you want to be talking sales on your blog. Instead, you want to talk about important developments in your field or niche. Write for a large audience even if you don't have one.
Look at other blogs in your field to gain ideas. Then take a look at your site, and see where you need to make improvements. Look at things like your graphics, layout, presentation, content and the actual writing. Is your site interesting, or is it just taking up space? Good content is the key to gaining a blog readership.
Get Creative with your Business Blogging Tips
You can find ready-made templates and hire a writer to give to give your blog a professional polish. So take the time to develop your own look and feel. If you find a blog that you like, do not simply clone it. Look at what other blogs offer, and take the best parts of the design to use on your own blog. Always be on the lookout for things that you can use to improve your blog, and then you will create a blog that is better than any of the ones that you used for inspiration.
If you simply cannot come up with your own idea, then you can start with someone else's idea and customize the heck out of it. Try to find a customizable theme so you can give your blog its own identity. Change the colors, the proportions and even the font to get it to be as unique as possible. You want your blog to look professional and individual, so you can save time starting with a free theme template, but then make it unique.
Whenever you start a blog, no one will be looking. You can start letting people know about your blog, and in time you will build a readership. It is probably not a good idea to post stats on your site until you actually have at least a few hundred followers. Keep adding content. There more content you have, the bigger your readership will be. There will come a day when you have created a huge body of work, and you will probably also notice that you have developed quite a readership as well.
Changing your stats on your own will hurt your reputation. Let them develop naturally. If you want to build up your numbers and comments more quickly, simply join a couple of forums on your topic and invite readers to review your blog and leave comments. Offer to do the same for them. This way you may even get some good feedback on ways that you can improve your blog as well. As you begin to get comments, make sure to respond to them where applicable, because you will frequently start a conversation that will keep that reader coming back to check in on you.
Another great way to increase the comments left for your blog is for you to leave various comments on other people's blogs. Using links will get people to visit your blog. More often than not the owner of the blog will be curious enough to check out your blog, for many of the same reasons that you are visiting their blog. This is a process rather than a one-click solution, however it is very effective. As you are leaving comments, just know that once they are posted they are permanent, so always be professional with your comments.
Once your audience is established, you can cut back on your comments, but you should still continue to interact with your blogging community, because it is a synergistic system.
A few simple rules can help you with blogging.
- NEVER alter stats. It is dishonest.
- Showcase your achievements.
- Always be positive and professional with your posts and comments.
- Always respond to reader feedback and thank them for it. Then invite further comment by asking a question.
- Building a blog is a slow process so keep going even when it seems like nothing is happening.
- Keep making regular posts. Even if you do not get comments, eventually you will build an impressive body of work, and visitors will find you.
Blogging is a great way to connect with your customers and readers. It starts out pretty slowly, but if you follow these business blogging tips, in time you will have a full community of followers who look forward to your regular posts.
How to Blog for Business
As you begin to blog, start simple since you do not want to announce that all of this is new to you. By simply beginning your blog and adding to it daily, you are creating the foundation for a great, online marketing tool. As you are writing for your blog, remember to keep your content interesting, professional and on point.
If you become frustrated building your blog, keep it to yourself. You do not want to get in the habit of ranting on your blog, nor do you want to be talking sales on your blog. Instead, you want to talk about important developments in your field or niche. Write for a large audience even if you don't have one.
Look at other blogs in your field to gain ideas. Then take a look at your site, and see where you need to make improvements. Look at things like your graphics, layout, presentation, content and the actual writing. Is your site interesting, or is it just taking up space? Good content is the key to gaining a blog readership.
Get Creative with your Business Blogging Tips
You can find ready-made templates and hire a writer to give to give your blog a professional polish. So take the time to develop your own look and feel. If you find a blog that you like, do not simply clone it. Look at what other blogs offer, and take the best parts of the design to use on your own blog. Always be on the lookout for things that you can use to improve your blog, and then you will create a blog that is better than any of the ones that you used for inspiration.
If you simply cannot come up with your own idea, then you can start with someone else's idea and customize the heck out of it. Try to find a customizable theme so you can give your blog its own identity. Change the colors, the proportions and even the font to get it to be as unique as possible. You want your blog to look professional and individual, so you can save time starting with a free theme template, but then make it unique.
Whenever you start a blog, no one will be looking. You can start letting people know about your blog, and in time you will build a readership. It is probably not a good idea to post stats on your site until you actually have at least a few hundred followers. Keep adding content. There more content you have, the bigger your readership will be. There will come a day when you have created a huge body of work, and you will probably also notice that you have developed quite a readership as well.
Changing your stats on your own will hurt your reputation. Let them develop naturally. If you want to build up your numbers and comments more quickly, simply join a couple of forums on your topic and invite readers to review your blog and leave comments. Offer to do the same for them. This way you may even get some good feedback on ways that you can improve your blog as well. As you begin to get comments, make sure to respond to them where applicable, because you will frequently start a conversation that will keep that reader coming back to check in on you.
Another great way to increase the comments left for your blog is for you to leave various comments on other people's blogs. Using links will get people to visit your blog. More often than not the owner of the blog will be curious enough to check out your blog, for many of the same reasons that you are visiting their blog. This is a process rather than a one-click solution, however it is very effective. As you are leaving comments, just know that once they are posted they are permanent, so always be professional with your comments.
Once your audience is established, you can cut back on your comments, but you should still continue to interact with your blogging community, because it is a synergistic system.
A few simple rules can help you with blogging.
- NEVER alter stats. It is dishonest.
- Showcase your achievements.
- Always be positive and professional with your posts and comments.
- Always respond to reader feedback and thank them for it. Then invite further comment by asking a question.
- Building a blog is a slow process so keep going even when it seems like nothing is happening.
- Keep making regular posts. Even if you do not get comments, eventually you will build an impressive body of work, and visitors will find you.
Blogging is a great way to connect with your customers and readers. It starts out pretty slowly, but if you follow these business blogging tips, in time you will have a full community of followers who look forward to your regular posts.
If you are looking for actionable, step-by-step action plans to learn how to make your blog more effective, then check out the resources below.
Related Blogging Resources
ProBlogging Action PlanBuild a Better Blog in 31 Days:Guaranteed @ Problogger
ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business : @ProBlogger
