Business Blog Advice

by Brandon Cornett

Here today, gone tomorrow. It seems that’s the lifespan of many business blogs these days. The blog goes up, it fails to deliver the desired result, and the blog is abandoned. It’s an endless cycle of waste.

Wasted time, wasted energy and, in come cases, wasted money!

In order to break out of this cycle and ensure the success of your blog, you must first understand the reasons why business blogs fail. This will give you insight into what not to do, as well as revealing the things you should be doing.

Reason #1 - The Blog Lacks a Purpose

A business blog that lacks a purpose will also lack direction. When that’s the case, the blogger does not know who the intended audience is or what kind of information they want. Without these essential ingredients, how would you even begin to write the first post?

Ask yourself the following questions with regard to blogging. What are my goals? What do I hope to get out of my publishing efforts? How will my blog support my company’s marketing and communications goals? You should answer these questions before you even write your first post.

You should be able to state your blog’s purpose in one or two sentences. For example: “The purpose of my blog is to educate small business owners on the benefits of Internet marketing.” Notice that this statement has an action (to educate), an audience (small business owners), and a subject (Internet marketing).

Reason #2 - The Blog Lacks Originality

There are literally millions of bloggers publishing content online each week. So how will your blog stand apart from the rest? Even within your topical niche and specific area of expertise, there is guaranteed to be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of bloggers publishing new content on a regular basis.

In order to succeed in such a crowded space, a business blog must offer something original. Originality can come from many sources. A blogger can provide tips or instructions that are hard to find elsewhere, offer a fresh new insight into a particular topic, or even create a new topic that nobody else is blogging about. These are just three ways to add originality to a business blog. The main thing is to be original in some way, shape or form.

Reason #3 - The Blogger Lacks Patience

In some cases, a new blogger will already have an audience from day one. For example, if a popular news columnist ventures online to start a blog, he or she will soon have fans flocking to the new site. But such cases are rare.

It is more realistic that when you first start blogging you will have an audience of one (yourself). But this can change over time, as long as you put in the effort to publish quality content on a regular basis. Many business bloggers lack the patience and determination necessary to build an audience. It’s hard work, and it usually takes weeks, months or even years to accomplish.

It’s really all a matter of expectation. If a business blogger expects to generate a vast amount of leads or sales from the blog in a short time, he or she will normally come away frustrated. On the other hand, when the publisher outlines clear objectives for the blog and publishes quality content over a period of time, the audience will eventually grow. And with that audience comes blogging success in general (leads, sales, subscriptions, or inquiries).

Your Roadmap for Success

Now that you understand the common reasons why business bloggers fail, you’ll be better able to avoid the same mistakes in your own publishing efforts. Establish your blog’s purpose early on. Strive to make it unique and interesting in some way. And be patient but persistent with your blogging efforts. Success will come eventually.

About the Author: Brandon Cornett has published several e-books with blogging advice for small business owners. He also provides a wealth of tips and advice through his own blog. Visit the author online at http://www.ceoblogwatch.com

2 comments

There are many ways to increase traffic to a business blog (or an educational blog, or any other kind of blog for that matter). But in my opinion, the best way to increase blog traffic is simply by posting often with quality content.

In fact, there are so many benefits of posting quality content that I’m going to dedicate this entire blog post to the subject…

Increase Blog Traffic With Quality Content

Let’s start by discussing the reasons why people visit a blog in the first place. Think of your own web habits for a moment. Specifically, think about the blogs that you visit a lot. What do they have in common? I’m willing to guess that your favorite blogs do a good job of entertaining you or educating you … or both. And they do this with quality content.

So that’s one of the ways to increase blog traffic with quality content. It turns random visitors into regular readers!

But the benefits of quality blog content don’t end there. Other bloggers and webmasters are also more likely to link to and/or cite one of your blog posts (or your blog in general) if it contains great information. And as you probably know, increasing the number of links to your blog from other websites also increases your search engine ranking. This of course means even more traffic to your blog.

So that’s another way to increase your blog’s traffic levels with quality content. It encourages other bloggers and web publishers to link to your blog, which increases your search engine visibility.

Now I’ve given you two good reasons for publishing great information on your blog. But there’s a third reason that’s closely related to the link popularity mentioned above. When all of those other bloggers and website publishers link to your blog as a resource of some kind, they will send you direct traffic as well. In other words, those links will help you improve your blog’s search engine ranking as well as sending visitors your way. So the links now have a direct and indirect way of increasing your traffic levels.

What Is Quality Content?

Now we know how to increase blog traffic with quality content. Specifically, we have outlined three ways that great content increases traffic levels. It turns visitors into fans, it helps you improve your search engine ranking, and it generates referral traffic from other websites.

But what is quality content and how do you create it?

In my opinion, quality website content has the following traits:

• It explores the subject matter in great detail, regardless of the subject being addressed.
• It is well-written with proper spelling and grammar. Thus it is easy for people to read.
• It is interesting and insightful. It doesn’t just rehash what everyone else is saying — it speaks for itself.
• It is updated often to address current events / changes within the subject matter.
• It is written with a clear purpose in mind. To entertain, to educate, to persuade, etc.

So now you know how to increase blog traffic with quality content. The only thing left for you to do is start generating that great content! Good luck.

1 comment