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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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After the initial burst of buzz (and balderdash), blogs have become yet another medium businesses now have to consider as part of their marketing mixes. But blogging isn’t for everyone. Following is a short list of thoughts that may help you decide if blogging is right for your business or organization.

You SHOULD seriously consider writing a blog if:

* You’re in an industry, such as hedge funds or healthcare, in which expertise and “thought leadership” plays an important role toward establishing credibility and/or attracting leads.

* Your industry generates an ample flood of news that requires analysis or more widespread distribution.

* You can readily identify an audience (existing or potential) that actually wants more news and insight on the topics you’ll blog about.

* Your organization genuinely has something to say, an angle, point of view or intellectual approach that makes a meaningful contribution to your profession or industry.

* You have someone in your organization who will assume responsibility for the blog, who is both willing and able to sustain the blog with regular posts.

* The rest of the organization will respect the blogger’s efforts by allocating time and money for it.

You SHOULD NOT consider writing a blog if:

* You’re in a relatively static industry, such as floor tiles or custodial services, in which a discussion of strategies, new ideas or “cutting-edge” resources is irrelevant and/or unnecessary.

* You cannot identify (or even imagine) a readership base that would seek or value your written contributions.

* Your organization doesn’t really have anything to say. (If this is the truth, be honest with yourselves. Better to say nothing than to create clutter by blogging for its own sake.)

* No one in your organization is prepared to write regularly (at least once a week}.

* Your organization is opinion-phobic and will not allow a blog to be posted without a time- consuming committee and/or legal review first.

* Your organization is in a sensitive industry, such as securities trading, that makes open discussions dangerous.

In sum:
Good blogs are open, informal and opinionated exchanges of relevant news and ideas an audience is genuinely interested in. If you can meet the key requirements - you have ideas, an audience and the license to speak freely - then give a blog some thought. But if you don’t, don’t force it. Focus your efforts on other communications vehicles.

Jonathan Kranz is the author of Writing Copy for Dummies, http://kranzcom.com/book.html, and the principal of Kranz Communications, http://kranzcom.com, a marketing communications and public relations writing firm specializing in B2B and consumer services marketing. He offers customized in-house and on-site marketing and PR seminars, and is a popular speaker at professional association events, meetings, workshops and conferences, http://kranzcom.com/speaking.html

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Blogging is all the rage in the media. Business magazines continually report that blogging can increase visitors to your website and increase sales for your business. So it is no wonder that there are now millions of blogs with millions of bloggers trying to jump on the bandwagon called blogging. Does this describe you? You’re probably wondering why you’ve been blogging for some time now without much success. Read on for the answer.

Think about this: there are millions of blogs but only a few hundred or so drive any significant amount of traffic. Those blogs are doing something right; you’re doing something wrong.

To understand why some blogs work while others don’t you should study the popular blogs to see what they do. Have a look at the following sample of blogs that are heavily read and reach a lot of readers. Try to spot common themes between them:

1. http://www.business-opportunities.biz
2. http://www.calacanis.com
3. http://microsoft.weblogsinc.com
4. http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php

Here’s what these blogs do right and what you should do to emulate them:

1. They freely link to other websites and other blogs. So many people are afraid to link elsewhere from their blog because they don’t want to redirect their readers elsewhere; they want to keep their readers on their own blog. The big boys aren’t afraid and they have plenty of links. Here’s what happens; when you link to other blogs and websites those people will find out about it. When they find out about it, they will have a look at your blog. When they look at your blog they may decide to link to it. Slowly, you’ll get more links to your blog which will bring you more traffic. And, when you get more links you’ll also get more search engine traffic. Don’t ask for links; give and you shall receive.

2. They use descriptive words in the anchor text of their links. When you link to other blogs, use descriptive text in the link. This is called the “anchor text.” If you scroll down to the bottom of this article you will see that I use “sales leads” as descriptive text in the link to my website. This is because search engines will associate the descriptive text with what the website is about and will help in search engine results for that keyword. Search engines need to find your blog so help them find other blogs and other blogs will then help them find you. This is another example of “give and you shall receive.” You do it for others and they will do it for you.

3. They write about news, current events, other businesses, other people, other blogs, and other websites. The biggest mistake that new bloggers make is that they only write about themselves and their businesses. You may think that you are the most important person in the world (rightfully so) and that your business is the most important business in the world (and it should be to you), but others don’t see it that way. Stop writing so much about yourself. Nobody wants to hear it. Writing about yourself is the best way to bore people. You can write about yourself but keep it to less than a quarter of the time.

4. They write interesting topics with an interesting point of view. I think this is self explanatory. This is the best way to have loyal visitors.

5. They blog often. Most of the top bloggers post a blog once or twice a day. Their readers know that they can visit the blog each and every day and find something new. You have to condition yourself to do the same.

This is what the top bloggers do and this is what you, too, should do if you want your blog to generate traffic.

My name is Tino Buntic, creator of TradePals, providing sales leads to business professionals across the country. I also have a business blog which I use to promote my website. Feel free to link to my website or blog and I will reciprocate.

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