If you're operating a small to medium business, you've
probably been told over and over that you need to have
a professional Business Blog. i have overly said it myself,
and there are plenty of good reasons and ways that a
business can successfully use a blog. You can share
information about your products and services, relate
success stories from your customers, and discuss
important topics that are in the news and industry
related. However, there are a number of challenges or
mistakes that business owners can easily make which
will affect the success of your blog. These mistakes can
potentially turn your blog from being an asset into a
liability.
1. Getting Too Personal
It is very easy to be personal on your blog posts, as it is
natural to try to relate your personal life and interests.
Some personal touch of course can make the blog post
more interesting and compelling, but one must be careful
not to be too controversial or too negative. You are
trying to connect with customers and your business blog
is not the place to shock your audience.
2. Use of a Third Party Domain
Businesses that are starting out may be tempted to use
a free system like Blogger.com or Wordpress. By doing
this, you lose out on a few benefits. If you use your own
website and your own domain, each time you post a new
blog entry you enrich your own domain and keyword
content. This draws traffic to your main website. Later
on, if you decide to switch from one platform to another,
or to your own professional website, even if you're able
to import all of your old blog entries, the URLs will
change and any valuable backlinks you may have
accumulated over the years will be instantly lost.
Instead, take the time to invest in a professional website
from the start that includes a Content Management
System like Drupal which can incorporate your blog
easily.
3. Finding the Right Balance
Your business blog should complement your other
marketing efforts. On the one extreme, a business owner
might spend all their time blogging and ignore other
advertising mediums like social media, while on the other
hand, many bloggers fail to write new blog entries
regularly, relying instead on print ads or other marketing
efforts. While there is no rule of thumb as to how often
your blog needs to be maintained, successful business
owners and bloggers will set a schedule for themselves
and stick to it, whether it's daily, weekly or monthly. The
best advice is to create a Message Calendar for your
business so that you always know what topics or
services you're supposed to be discussing or working on
at any given time.
4. Dilute Keywords
Over time, a good blog will build up great search engine
value due to the use of keywords in your blog titles and
posts. Search engines will regularly index your blogs and
note the words that you're using. However, if you aren't
careful, and are writing blog posts that are not directly
relevant to your business, you risk diluting your keyword
content and ranking. Bloggers should be careful to write
on topics that are very specific and relevant to their
business and industry.
5. Use of a Blog as a Home Page
While this may work for some businesses or individuals,
the rule of thumb and expectation is that your business
site should have its own home page and the blog should
be accessible through standard navigational menus.
Business owners may be tempted to use their blog as
their home since their regular efforts to post new blogs
will ensure that their home pages are always fresh. This
philosophy is flawed because your Home page needs to
be crafted very specifically to speak to your clients and
potential clients and achieve high conversion rates. A
new visitor may not have any interest in your most
recent blog post, and placing those posts on the home
page can actually result in a drop in sales or
conversions.
6. Not Building An Email List
From Day One, every blogger should be inviting readers
to become subscribers. There are ways to dramatically
increase subscription rates through lead generation
options, but what's important initially to simply ask for
the subscription, and make it it easy for site visitors to
sign up. For that, I recommend MailChimp, particularly
since it's free for new bloggers!
These are the issues which business owners should be
aware of as they are getting started on their blog, or
perhaps looking for ways to improve their blogs. Please
feel free to post whatever questions you may have in the
comments section below as I would be happy to help in
any way.
probably been told over and over that you need to have
a professional Business Blog. i have overly said it myself,
and there are plenty of good reasons and ways that a
business can successfully use a blog. You can share
information about your products and services, relate
success stories from your customers, and discuss
important topics that are in the news and industry
related. However, there are a number of challenges or
mistakes that business owners can easily make which
will affect the success of your blog. These mistakes can
potentially turn your blog from being an asset into a
liability.
1. Getting Too Personal
It is very easy to be personal on your blog posts, as it is
natural to try to relate your personal life and interests.
Some personal touch of course can make the blog post
more interesting and compelling, but one must be careful
not to be too controversial or too negative. You are
trying to connect with customers and your business blog
is not the place to shock your audience.
2. Use of a Third Party Domain
Businesses that are starting out may be tempted to use
a free system like Blogger.com or Wordpress. By doing
this, you lose out on a few benefits. If you use your own
website and your own domain, each time you post a new
blog entry you enrich your own domain and keyword
content. This draws traffic to your main website. Later
on, if you decide to switch from one platform to another,
or to your own professional website, even if you're able
to import all of your old blog entries, the URLs will
change and any valuable backlinks you may have
accumulated over the years will be instantly lost.
Instead, take the time to invest in a professional website
from the start that includes a Content Management
System like Drupal which can incorporate your blog
easily.
3. Finding the Right Balance
Your business blog should complement your other
marketing efforts. On the one extreme, a business owner
might spend all their time blogging and ignore other
advertising mediums like social media, while on the other
hand, many bloggers fail to write new blog entries
regularly, relying instead on print ads or other marketing
efforts. While there is no rule of thumb as to how often
your blog needs to be maintained, successful business
owners and bloggers will set a schedule for themselves
and stick to it, whether it's daily, weekly or monthly. The
best advice is to create a Message Calendar for your
business so that you always know what topics or
services you're supposed to be discussing or working on
at any given time.
4. Dilute Keywords
Over time, a good blog will build up great search engine
value due to the use of keywords in your blog titles and
posts. Search engines will regularly index your blogs and
note the words that you're using. However, if you aren't
careful, and are writing blog posts that are not directly
relevant to your business, you risk diluting your keyword
content and ranking. Bloggers should be careful to write
on topics that are very specific and relevant to their
business and industry.
5. Use of a Blog as a Home Page
While this may work for some businesses or individuals,
the rule of thumb and expectation is that your business
site should have its own home page and the blog should
be accessible through standard navigational menus.
Business owners may be tempted to use their blog as
their home since their regular efforts to post new blogs
will ensure that their home pages are always fresh. This
philosophy is flawed because your Home page needs to
be crafted very specifically to speak to your clients and
potential clients and achieve high conversion rates. A
new visitor may not have any interest in your most
recent blog post, and placing those posts on the home
page can actually result in a drop in sales or
conversions.
6. Not Building An Email List
From Day One, every blogger should be inviting readers
to become subscribers. There are ways to dramatically
increase subscription rates through lead generation
options, but what's important initially to simply ask for
the subscription, and make it it easy for site visitors to
sign up. For that, I recommend MailChimp, particularly
since it's free for new bloggers!
These are the issues which business owners should be
aware of as they are getting started on their blog, or
perhaps looking for ways to improve their blogs. Please
feel free to post whatever questions you may have in the
comments section below as I would be happy to help in
any way.
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