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Blogging for Business

By Michael Heraghty, October 10, 2003

The practice of keeping web logs (or blogging) has become the latest phenomenon to sweep the Internet. An estimated 1.3 million blogs have been created on the Web, roughly two-thirds of which are still active

Note that, for business blogging, you should use your real name. There's no point in using a blog to promote yourself if you're going to conceal your identity!

The most professional approach to using a Web log to promote your business, is to register and use a domain name that's based on your own name (e.g. www.joesoap.com).

What Should I Write About?

For business blogging, it's best to pick a theme (or themes) that relates to your profession, particularly your personal area of expertise. For example, if you are in the widget manufacturing business, you could keep a site devoted to discussing all the latest developments in the wonderful world of widgets. Your blog doesn't have to be a news site; but it should be topical, and the opinions should be yours.

Remember that anyone in the world can read your blog, including the competition! Don't divulge information that you usually wouldn't. Think of each entry in your blog as a personal press release. Anything that you publish is fair game for others to dissect, discuss, rehash, and even republish. Bloggers like nothing more than to comment on what other bloggers have written!

It's equally important not to slander or defame anyone, or to infringe on anyone's copyright. It's best to assume that your blog entries are subject to the same laws that apply to the publishing of printed information.

Openness is a great policy and makes for better reading. Just remember, there are limits.

How Should I Write Entries?

Here are three top tips:

1. Always spell-check before you post. Your blogging tool may come with a built-in spell-checker. If not, create your entry offline first, using regular word processing software (such as MS Word), then cut-and-paste into your blog.
   
2. Include hyperlinks in each entry. Users love links, and by including them, you show that you've put thought and research into your entry.
   
3. Watch your word count. Because it's harder to read from a screen than a printed page, don't write entries that are too long. On the other hand, avoid making them too short, as this may look like you're not committed to your blog. Between 200 and 800 words is optimal.
   

How Often Should I Post?

If you're serious about building a community of readers, you should aim to post entries a minimum of three times a week. Users are more likely to bookmark your blog and return to it regularly if they are going to find new content every time.

Getting visitors to bookmark your blog is a great achievement — don't ruin it by disappointing them on their return. Update it regularly!

How Will People Find Me?

If you build it, they will come. The great thing about weblogs is that, over time, they start to build up large stores of content — thus increasing their chances of being found by search engines.

Pay particular attention to the titles of your entries, and try to use phrases that users would search for. If the user finds a single entry to be enjoyable, he or she is more likely to read more of the blog, and to return regularly.

Increasingly, blog content management systems now come with an RSS feature, which is another great way of enabling your blog to be found. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary," depending on who you ask. Every time you post, your blog tool will create a summarized version of your site, in XML format, on a single page.

Once you've activated the RSS using your content management system, it isn't something you ever need to worry about, or even see, again. But there are lots of "aggregator" sites out there that scour the Internet for these RSS pages and produce various reports of the information they find, creating links back to the originating sites. These aggregator sites are increasing in popularity, and there are more of them springing up all of the time.

For this reason, Web logs tend to get noticed, and linked to, a lot more than regular Web sites.

How Do I Build Up a Community?

Include a small "notify" form on the page, which asks visitors if they'd like to be notified when you update your blog.

 

You can then establish email contact with the individuals who regularly read your blog. Many of these will be like-minded, and may well be useful business contacts.

Another way to create a community of users is to allow comments to be posted at the end of each of your entries. You should set up the blog so that comment-posters must also leave email addresses - again, allowing you to establish contact.

How Do I Make Money from All of This?

You don't. Not directly, at least. Blogs aren't about making money. It's extremely unlikely that anyone would pay to subscribe to your blog.

On the other hand, you can achieve many other goals through your weblog - such as trying an idea; promoting your new book; establishing yourself as knowledgeable, or even as an expert, in a given area.

So go on get blogging. If nothing else, you'll get a kick out of it in years to come, when you look back at those old entries and photos.

Whatever else it is, a Web log is still a diary, after all.

Why You Should Start a Corporate Weblog

While a website is a good idea for every business seeking the widest clientele possible, a weblog (also known as a 'blog') can even do more wonders. If you have a business and it is operating without a blog (or worse still, stuck without a web address of its own), here are some things to think about while you ponder what a blog can do for you and your business.

1) Blogs make business sites more personal. Since blogs are updated by individuals (or a group of individuals), the 'voice' of the blog author/s will often shine through. It makes a static website seem more than just a brochure or catalogue for your goods and/or services.

Let's face it, when clients call a company for information, they're often relieved to hear a real person's voice rather than a recorded message, right? Blogs give that sense of talking to a 'real person.'

Of course, 'personal' doesn't mean that you need to write about your children's latest accomplishments or how your mother spent your inheritance money. In fact, most business blogs stir clear from these topics. However, authors of business blogs can still make references to their family or friends without giving out deepest darkest secrets.

For example, business blogger Lee LeFever writes about having nasal surgery in this post. Then, he managed to relate his entry to the importance of communication (his specialty).

2) Blogs make it fast and easy to manage content. A lot of people find website building and maintenance so daunting that's why many individuals still opt not to give their businesses an online presence. The current technology available for content management in blogs removes this hurdle. Now, more than ever, it has become easier to run a site.

With the existence of 'push button publishing,' even the most HTML-challenged individual can start and maintain a blog using one of the software/platforms available.

3) Dynamic content means visitors always have a reason to keep coming back. Brick and mortar stores put up new items in display windows regularly. Retail shops are always looking for new items to add to the list of products available. Services are often reviewed and updated. Even restaurants and cafes with a regular menu come up with a 'Special of the Day' for a bit of variation.

All business owners know this: customers love seeing new things. If they know that they like the things they see in a business establishment, they would keep coming back. They like to check for what's new or what's different.

So, why should your business keep a website static?

4) Search engines like Google are 'friendly' to sites that have fresh content. Of course, when you put a site or a blog, you want people to find it. One major way that people find sites on the Internet is through search engines. Since search engines like regularly updated sites, blogs tend to rank high in search results as opposed to static websites that are hardly updated.

5) Bloggers have the tendency to promote each other. Therefore, if you create a great business blog that people find useful and relevant, you have a built-in PR staff who will help spread the word about your business.

As the word about blogs continue to spread, more and more people will find this venue an important tool in business.