Business blogging is not only a trend, but a necessity. Brick and mortar businesses are turning to blogs as a way to create and establish a sense of community within their employees and customers. Online businesses, especially those trying to capitalize on free advertising, find blogs to be an invaluable tool, as they create their sales funnel and strategic marketing structures. Learn the basics here, and get the most out of the time and effort invested in your business blogging.
- Get on Your Own Domain and Personalize It — It is absolutely imperative to get on your own domain. While there are free blogging platforms, which are very well known and rank well on the search engines. There is always a risk of having your content monitored and even banned, especially if they think it is spammy in any way. It is not very pleasant to work for weeks or even months on a blog, only to wake up one day and find all your content gone. Not only that, but it doesn’t look very professional to advertise your business blog with a WordPress or blogpost URL. Emphasize your individuality by changing the default design. It might even be worth spending a bit of money to have the same design for all your social media pages and your blog.
- Provide Real Content — Your goal is to keep your readers coming back, and suggesting your blog to their friends. This will never happen if your blog is filled with useless information or a bunch of disjointed links to affiliate and sales pages. Make your content really count. Use this space to establish yourself as a real authority. Become a person a value, and your business will inevitably grow as a result.
- Link your Advertising to your Blog — This is particularly important to those using article marketing. Most article directories frown upon linking your articles to affiliate pages. Most readers will also be interested in reading any other articles or posts you might have related to the topic they have just read. So, linking your free advertising to your blog will not only improve your blog’s ranking by providing quality backlinks, but it will also help establish rapport between you and the reader. Remember that people are far more likely to buy from someone they know and trust.
- Link Your Blog to your Sales-Page or Main Business Page Once they reach your blog, then you can add links to affiliate and sales pages. You can also add banners, AdSense ads, or any other method of monetizing your blog. Especially if you have a self-hosted account, you have full control on the kind, and amount, of links you add.
- DO NOT SELL ANYTHING!!! — While your blog IS the place to incorporate your sales links, it is NOT the place to be too overtly sales oriented. Don’t forget that your main purpose is to establish a relationship with your readers/subscribers. So, while adding a call to action IS acceptable, don’t make your entire content a sales pitch. Remember best practice is ALWAYS to provide real content.
Follow these simple business blogging tips and you will maximize your blogging efforts. Do your keyword research and get started today!
