Get Your Business Blogging

If you are a regular reader to this blog, you’ll know I’m passionate about blogging for business.

I’ve been blogging for quite a while now and it has proven to be an excellent way to build my business. Plus it is a fabulous vehicle to help other people with tips and advice.

But, if it is new to you, it can be daunting. Where do you start?

I’ve put together 10 tips to help you get the most out of blogging for your business.

10 tips to get you blogging

1. What is your blog for?

Before you dive into blogging you need to be clear about why you are doing it. What is your aim?

• to build credibility?
• use it as a search marketing tool?
• will it be your main company site too?
• are you going to use it as a tool to communicate with your customers?

You may want to use it for all of these purposes. But it is essential to get this clear in your mind before you start.

2. Decide on your URL

If your blog is to be part of your main site, your URL will be incorporated into your main sites name e.g. www.companyname.com/blog. However if it is to be a separate site try to pick a URL that incorporates your keywords/topic name.

An example of this is this blog. I’m a freelance copywriter therefore the name of my blog is www.freelancecopywritersblog.com.

3. Software

The next stage is to decide on which platform you are going to blog. You can use a free blog such as through WordPress but if you do that you must remember that you will not get any benefit from inward links. All the links you get will be building WordPress’s site not yours. Therefore I would strongly recommend you get your own blog on your own URL.

4. Customise it

Create a blog that will perform as you want it to. Blogging platforms have various plug-ins you can use to enhance your posts. Through WordPress there are plug-ins such as All in One SEO, Google XML Sitemap and Tweet This to name but a few.

Your choice of plug-ins will be determined by your goals.

You can also customise templates to create an image that coordinates with your company.

5. Content

When starting out it is very important you decide what kind of topics you are going to blog about. Try and keep within your specific field. After all people will subscribe to your blog because they are interested in what you are talking about.

On this blog I discuss various copywriting and marketing subjects. People subscribe because they want to learn about those fields and know that each post will be relevant to them.

It is also a good idea to use your keywords as categories on your blog – that makes it easier for people to find information they are interested in.

6. Easy to share

If one person is interested in what you have to say, there is a good chance that other people will be too. Use a plug-in that makes it easy for your readers to share your post with others through social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Delicious.

7. Keep it social

Spread the word of your blog through RSS feeds into your Twitter account and Facebook. List your blog on directories and publish your URL.

8. Monitor

To keep up to date with what’s going and to find out what people are saying about you, your blog and your company use tools such as Google Alerts and Social Mention.

9. Blog regularly

The more often you blog the more people you will reach. Try to blog at least 3 times a week –if you can post daily.

10. Link

One of the most powerful benefits of blogging is that it creates back links to your main site. In every post make sure you add in textual hyperlinks to your main site utilising your main keywords.

I hope those 10 tips will help you set on the right foot. Blogging really is a powerful tool that every business should utilise. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, blogging can and will help you reach a wider audience.