Blog Basics for the Small Business Owner
So exactly what is a blog? The word blog is actually derived from the word weblog (blog for short). A blog is a type of website/online journal you can easily and frequently publish individual entries known as a post on any topic you want.
Your business blog can be used as a two-way conversation vehicle to share, inform, engage and interact with your online target audience by posting informational content, audios, or videos.
Choosing a Blogging Platform
Whether you plan on having a business or personal blog you still need to decide on the blogging platform you want to use. I’ve listed the most popular blogging to get you started:
WordPress – as of today the most popular blogging platform
Typepad – Professional business blogging platform, charges a monthly fee
Moveable Type – An expensive blogging platform, High powered blogs
Blogger.com – informal look, free and powered by Google,
Each blog software has its own flexibilities and features that allow you to customize your blog to fit your blogging needs and style. Your blog can be hosted by your blogging platform, (wordpress.com or by an affordable full- featured web hosting company that offers a one-click installation option. I choose WordPress as my blogging platform, to get a list of web hosting companies for WordPress visit WordPress Web Hosting.
Some of the benefits of having a blog:
If you are a small business owner you can use your blog as a low cost marketing tool for your product or service, it’s a inexpensive way to reach your online audience anytime located anywhere in the world. You can show off your skills and become an authority in your field, gain trust, and credibility.
Using a blog for your business:
- Easy to setup and publish
- A successful method for publishing a website
- An excellent way to drive targeted traffic to your business, you’re able to get started quickly
- You can blog as often as you like, it’s easy, fast, direct, and affordable
- Freely publish articles on the web at any given time (you can write your post ahead of time and automatically schedule them to be published on a certain date and time)
- You don’t need a stamp or email address when you are ready to share information with your reader verses sending out an electronic or printed newsletter
- Search engines love blog sites verses a traditional static websites because they are frequently updated
- Sharing information about your field of interest (allows you to become an authority figure)
- You are able to inform, start a conversation and stay connect with your audience
- Build transparency through your blog, helps increase your credibility
- And of course lets not forget a blog is easily updated
Connect with your Readers through your blog
- Get to know your audience, convert your visitors into readers
- Your blog should encourage interaction
- Engage your audience, establish connections and make it easy to receive feedback
- Build relationships with your readers (if they have a blog visit their blog and leave comments
- Make it easy for your readers to subscribe to your blog
Before starting your blog have a clear understanding about what you want to accomplish with your blog. Happy blogging!
