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A business blog is a great way to expose yourself and your small business. There are a variety of reasons why they’re such a great marketing vehicle. In this article we’ll discuss the top 5 reasons why blogging for business is so valuable and has so much potential.

1. Search Engines Love Blogs!

I’ve spent a lot of time promoting both my business website and my blogs. From experience I can tell you that promoting a blog is 10 times easier than promoting a traditional website, and the results have been 10 times more impressive. Why? Search engines just love blogs. They’re current, their content changes regularly, and they’re relevant. You have an opportunity to use your most important keywords on a regular basis, and the search engines just can’t get enough.

There are literally dozens of blog directories where you can list your blog in very specific categories. This means that those using the directory and looking in your category are very likely to have an interest in your blog. All of these links back to your blog from the directories also boost your search engine rankings.

2. Demonstrate Your Expertise

Posting regularly to your blog with insightful comments, observations and lessons show that you know what you’re talking about. Doing this regularly over time will prove to your readers that you’re an expert. It’s far better to demonstrate your expertise than to try and tell people that you’re an expert. Your blog will give you this opportunity

3. The Only Investment Needed is Your Time

Blogging is probably the lowest cost form of marketing available. All you need to invest is your time. Of course that’s not an investment to be taken lightly. For your blog to be successful you MUST post regularly. You’ll want to post at least once a week. 2-3 times per week is a more reasonable goal. I personally post 2 or 3 times each week, and this only takes about an hour of time out of my week. This will probably pale in comparison to the time and money you spend on most of your other marketing efforts.

4. Connect with People on a Personal Level

Most of what you find on a traditional website, brochure, article or other marketing collateral is very impersonal. People are looking to make a personal connection with those they do business with. A blog gives you an incredible opportunity to be you. It’s important to share some personal stories, history and opinion on your business blog. It will show your reader that you’re a real approachable person. I’ve even had people I’ve never met start talking to me like they’ve known me for years. Later I found out that before we met they’d read my blog.

5. Develop Marketing Materials

One of the most overlooked benefits of blogging is the backlog of quality content you’ll develop. Successful blogging requires that you post regularly. This means that you’ll be writing several times each week. Do that for a few months and you’ll have material for dozens of articles, maybe even a book! Most of the articles I write started as posts on my blog.

Blogging for business provides a great opportunity to expose yourself and your business in a very positive light. Take some time to find a few business blogs in your industry. You’ll quickly see how much value the blogger and their business get from this medium. Then decide if starting a business blog is right for you.

Scott Ingram is the founder of NetworkInAustin.com, a networking resource for networkers in Austin, Texas who use networking as a business development and marketing strategy. They offer free blogs to their members and even help their members promote their business blogs. Scott also posts regularly to his own blogs: Business Networking in Austin and Austin Networking Events.

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The new hot commodity is a blog for your small business so you’ve decided you must have one.

Before you begin think about it long term. Where do you think
the blog is headed? What is the objective? Do you want it to be
found by the search engines for specific terms? How often
will you post? Who will the audience be? What will it look like
a year from now? Five years from now?

If you think you may have this blog for a long time, consider
hosting it with your own domain name. Blogger provides you
with a free domain name (name.blogspot.com), or the option
of ftp to your own domain. If, at some point in time in the
future you want to move the blog and you’ve been using the
blogspot name, you won’t be able to take it with you. This means
that all of the people who have your blog in their reader will
“lose” you. It also means that you’ll have to start from ground
zero with the search engines.

Do some digging before you jump. A couple of good networks
where you can get some education are:

- Blogging for Business at http://blogbrandz-network.ryze.com/
Make sure you sign up for the “Blogging for Marketers” email course. Priya has loaded the course with good blog information (and it costs you nothing).

- Blogger Forum at http://www.bloggerforum.com/modules/newbb/
The Blogger Forum is very welcoming to newbies. Browse around
and just by looking at previous posts, you can learn a ton. they also have a section on blog platforms which talks about the different options available.

Once you’re ready to go, what are you going to write about? Make sure you’ve brainstormed ideas so you don’t run into the inevitable writer’s block. You can always start with what you’ve written before. Do you have a newsletter? Look through your archive and “refresh” some of those old topics as a blog posting. How about your website? Do you have content you can turn into a blog topic? Do you participate in online forums or discussion lists? Find some advice you gave to someone there and turn it into a blog post.

This should get you started. Remember that small business blogging is a long term activity. Be ready.

Denise O’Berry is a small business expert who helps small business owners take action to grow their business. Don’t know what to write about? Get the cure for blog writer’s block at http://www.whatspossible.com/blogidea/

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It’s inevitable. Everyone hits the wall. Whether you’ve been blogging ten weeks, ten minutes, or ten months, eventually you’ll find yourself with absolutely nothing to say.

Or so you think.

So what in the world do you do when you’re stumped?

1- Talk about what you’ve already talked about

Pick a topic you’ve gone over before and give it some spin.

Try a new angle, like playing devil’s advocate. For example, if you are a search engine journalist, and last week your position was that most mainstream sites need Google traffic to survive, try proving your point from the “con” perspective, instead of the “pro” position.

There are dozens of ways to write about the same thing. By putting your point another way, you might give someone in your audience what a client of mine referred to as an “Ah-ha!” moment. That’s when they realize the true value of the items for sale at your site to them and their business.

2- Talk about what someone else is talking about

If you want to have a popular blog, find other bloggers in similar areas, and talk about what they said in their posts. Friendly debate can often spark the soap-opera like drama that will have both your audiences visiting both blogs to see what “the other fella” had to say.

As an added bonus, if both of you are using Trackback in your blogs, you’ve got yourself a mini-link party that other people who are speaking on similar topics will want to join..

3- Have yourself a good rant

The intimate nature and voice of blogs lends itself well to the opinionated, angry ramble. But as a professional, don’t let yourself get too unfocused, and remember to back up your opinion with facts.

4- Feature someone, something or somewhere

I like to call mine “of the Day”.

As I zip around the Net conducting my business and research, if my attention is called to a resource or tool that my audience might find useful, I hit my blog bookmarklet and save that bad boy for later.

Then when I get too busy for a full blown tip, I’ll crown the resource, feed, tool, download or freebie the featured “Deal of the Day”, changing the word deal to something else more appropriate as needed.

After a while, my audience started to look for it as a feature, as opposed to being upset at the interruption in my mad, mad rambles.

5- Let someone else talk for a change

Invite a guest blogger, or post an article that offers free reprint rights, the same way you would in a newsletter. Of course you want to leave the resource box intact, or let the guest promote their site, which brings me to the most common complaint about this tactic.

“But I don’t want to send people away from my site.”

Guess what? You’ll never believe what I found out. Ready?

In a recent startling discovery, I’ve found that 100% of my visitors eventually turn off their computers or take otherwise drastic measures that cause them to leave my site. Apparently this is beyond prevention, though you can stall them for hours sometimes with good content.

Of course you don’t want to send them on their way prematurely, but if you’re a good blogger, and have done what you can to make sure they sign up to your blog email updates or site feed, they’ll be back. Just be sure that you’re giving them a good enough reason.

In the meantime, since they’re going to leave anyway, it might as well be somewhere that gives you some direct or in-direct benefit.

So there you have it - enough material for five more days of posts.

Happy Blogging!

Need more than five days worth of blog posts? Get more at http://www.freetraffictip.com/blogaboutthis .or learn more about blogs and RSS at FreeTrafficTip.com .

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