Blogging For Business Gets You Eyeballs

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination." ~ Tommy Lasorda

Blogging has become a commonplace web activity. Whether you write them or read them, everybody knows what a blog is about. What many people don't realize is that a business blog can gain you eyeballs -- i.e. customers.-- in more ways than one. When I first mention writing a blog many business owners groan and immediately protest the amount of time required. But the investment of time in a blog can pay of more than you know.

How can a blog help my business?

• Gains you SEO (search engine optimization) links to your website
• Share your expertise so customers get to know you
• Establishes your expertise so the search engines find you
  
• Helps your customers which creates a "feel good" connection
• Offers an opportunity to bring in guest posts and strengthen offline connections
• Creates an opportunity to exchange a dialogue with your customers
• Provides a vehicle for consistency in your business message
• Can be a time-saving way of sharing information with a lot of customers
  

Learn from the Experts

There are many six-figure bloggers out there who have implemented simple steps to achieve their success. Creating success from a blog is not rocket science, it just requires persistence and follow through. The recently launched e-book Beyond-Blogging interviews 15 six-figure bloggers, revealing the steps they took to reach their blogging success. Several of them don't make any money from their blogs, but instead use their blog as a vehicle for bringing in new clients and building a 7-figure business.

How do I start a blog?

1. Choose a subject for your blog. It's important find a niche and focus on that niche in order to establish your expertise.
2. Determine who will write your blog. You must look within your organize and create a team of individuals who will contribute to your blog content. Give everybody who desires the opportunity to contribute, and you will create a robust resource for content.
3. Come up with your blogging schedule. How often you blog should be consistent. Users should know when to expect new posts. Create a calendar that is realistic for your schedule. You should blog a minimum of 1 time per week, but 5 times per week is optimum.
4. Choose a blogging tool. There are many tools out there. The articleHow Do I Set Up a Blog? might help you determine which tool is right for you.
5. Implement your plan, and be consistent. It is very important to follow through on your blogging plan. If you announce your blog, do a few posts, then give up, that will make an impression on your customers. You can write your posts ahead of time in order to stay on schedule, but be certain to block out a portion of your calendar to blog implementation.
6. Utilize social media to publicize your blog. Social media is the optimum outlet to gain readers for your blog. Along with your blog, you should create a social media plan to help promote your blog posts.
   

Interested in creating a blog? Bonnie Landau offers a coaching for creating, developing and marketing a successful blog. Contact Possibilities Unlimited to find out how you can use a blog to build your business.

Are you ready to win?

Winning Points for Commenting on Blogs

If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score? ~Vince Lombardi

According to Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere, 184 million people in the world have started a blog. With that many people engaging in regular posting, blogs have become a standard way of discussing topics of interest. Regularly commenting on blogs can be a valuable tool for building relationships and gaining SEO links in the major search engines.

How do comments build relationships?
When you regularly read and comment on the same blog, that blog’s owner is likely to take notice. In many cases, this can establish a relationship between you and the blog owner, almost in the same way that having regular discussions with a coworker might. This connection can be established in as little as a few weeks, and can lead to offline discussions and networking opportunities for each of you. If there is a person you want to make a business connection with, but they are a stranger, seeking out the person’s blog and regularly posting comments is an excellent way to open the door.

How can comments build SEO Links?
The more links you have to your website, the higher your page rank is going to be. Comment on blogs is a great way to increase your link count.

When commenting on blogs, you don’t have to use your real name when you post. Instead, using your name followed by a keyword will help gain some search engine indexing (for example: Bonnie the Web Designer). Most blogs will give you the option of linking back to a web site when you leave a comment. Be sure to take advantage of this option by entering your URL. It even better to link to a specific page in your site that you’re trying to get indexed using the keyword you've chosen.

How do I find blogs to comment on?

• Word of Mouth
• Blog directories
• Following on Twitter
• Using keywords in search engines

Does the topic of the blog matter?
It is going to be considered a more relevant link if the topic of the blog relates to your business. But even blogs that are unrelated give you a link back to your site. So if you've chosen to comment on a blog for your hobby, let's say, still use the strategy of your name + keyword to gain a link back to your site.

Are you ready to win?

Why Start a Blog for Your Business?

"True competitors know it's exhilarating to be involved in something that's very challenging. They don't fear it. They seek it. Is it fun to do that which is ordinary, easy, simple, something anyone can do? Not at all."

~ John Wooden, Former UCLA Basketball Coach,

Winner of 10 NCAA Championships

Blogging has been quite the rage for the past several years. First begun as an online means of recording a diary, blogs have become about sharing all sorts of information. You can find blogs on every subject, sub-subject and in every medium found online. With so many blogs out there, why would you start a blog for your business?

1. Demonstrate your knowledge: A blog is a quick and easy way to share information that shows your knowledge in your field. You can have multiple authors to share the knowledge throughout your organization. There are many ways to demonstrate knowledge:

• Commenting on trends
• Eliciting customer input
• Announcing your latest launch
• Explaining a new idea
• Giving instructions
• Reference industry blogs/websites with useful information

2. Share your personality: Blogging doesn’t have to be formal writing, so you can interject a bit of humor and personality into your posts. It’s an opportunity to help clients get to know the people in your company. This can often help to further relationship-building, which is key to building a larger customer base.

3. Educate your clients: Do you find yourself answering the same questions over and over to your clients? Do you wish you had a collection of these answers? This is one of the reasons the Landau Design blog was created. As we work with many companies that are just delving into the web space, we created a blog to explain web terminology and opportunities. We can demonstrate knowledge and help clients who feel lost in the world of the web.

4. Receive feedback from your clients: Blogs have a built-in mechanism for commenting, so it creates the perfect opportunity for getting input from clients. You can include polls and questions to elicit feedback, as well as reading comments on informational posts. It’s the optimum situation for getting input and suggestions that you might otherwise never hear.

5. Improve your search engine ranking: Blogging by nature lends itself to increased search engine indexing. While the indexing will be for your blog and not your website, you will tie the two together so it benefits your website. Why is this so?

• You have more content to index, which means more opportunities for indexing
• You have an easy way to give and get links (optimum way to increase page rank)
• You have a built-in keyword index that the search engines pick up on
• If you blog with Blogger, they are owned by Google and rumored to index their blogs daily

More information:

• Should You Start a Business Blog?
• 12 Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog
• 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers - Is a Blog Right for You?
• How Do I Start a Blog?