Do you find yourself wanting to write about the things you enjoy? Do you have something of value to share? Will your expertise in a certain topic help others?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you or your business may want to consider starting a blog.
What is a blog?
A blog, or online journal, is a powerful communication tool that can help you engage your site visitors, deepen relationships with your readers and customers, and increase repeat visits to your site.
- The word “blog” is a contraction of the term “web log.” It is a type of website featuring entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.
As of June 2008, blog search engine Technorati indexes over 112 million blogs!
How do you know if blogging is right for you or your business?
There are hundreds of reasons why starting a blog would be beneficial to you and your business.
A few potential benefits of blogging include:
- A blog allows your business to engage with current and potential new customers in a direct, informal, no-pressure way, allowing people to get to know you, your products and services and gain a better understanding of your company.
- Blogs are collaborative in nature, and will provide insight into customers’ needs, concerns and interests. That information can be used to develop new products or services, or tweak existing ones.
- Blogging will give your company a personal voice, and is a great platform to share the expertise of top executives, division leaders, all the way down to interns! Getting to know company personnel can help boost customer loyalty and become more approachable.
What do I write about?
I can’t help with that, but I can encourage you to write about what you know, what inspires you, what interests you, share your experiences and takeaways, teach people about your products and services, etc. Most importantly, pick a topic that excites you, and make sure you are passionate about your chosen subject!
Some basic tips for developing blog content:
- Provide useful information and resources on your chosen topic.
- Include your personality, and your experiences to make the information come alive, and reflect your voice.
- Mix things up – include photos, videos, links to other sources, and offer your interpretation
- Not every post has to be a novel – offer How-To tips, Top Ten lists, etc,
Remember – The goal is to write often so that you can create a long lasting readership for your blog visitors.
How to Be a Successful Blogger
You will not know if you are successful unless you define what success looks like to you.
If you decide that a blog makes sense for you or your business, keep the following in mind:
- Start by setting goals. Decide what you want to accomplish with your blog, and let that influence your content strategy and tone. If you are a business, establish policies upfront.
- Make sure to keep it relevant. Your audience wants to know who you are and what you are up too. It is OK to make posts personal and speak directly to your audience. Readers want to know your thoughts on industry trends, what type of projects you are working on, what events you are hosting/attending/sponsoring, and how you feel about them.
- Use relevant keywords throughout your blog. This will help with search engine optimizations, frequent content updates will keep readers coming back for more, and many times shorter and more frequent updates are preferable to longer, infrequent ones.
- Stick with it! If you decide to start a blog, make a commitment to keep it going! An abandoned blog looks worse than no blog at all!
So, to blog or not to blog, what are you going to do? Are you a blogger, please share what you are writing about and what inspired you to get started! Don’t forget to tell us where to find you, leave your blog address so we can come visit!
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You have updated Hamlet indeed.
This is a big question newbies always pose. It is about bringing yourself as an individual and presenting it on your blog.
And yes, an abandoned blog is BAD. I can attest to that. I actually think I wrote about it before because I was blogging less, at least one or two times a month. One day I looked at Blondish.net and found it was not what I wanted it to be. It was like a huge mess going in different directions.
I decided to start focusing. In return, I found I had more to say, but started a new blog on the side about the more personal aspect of me. I am pretty sure I will be doing a third for my writing, but it is currently stuck at Blondish.net until I find the time to move over 125,000 words somewhere else.
Blogs take time… I like to compare it to farming. You have to nurture it and if you do not keep up, it will die.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Nile! It’s only been a week and I am already thinking about starting a personal blog too, I have so much to say!
I love your farming analogy and I can’t wait for my blog to blossom!