Business Blog Advice

I’ve often written about how the media drives online search patterns, and how bloggers can capitalize on this in order to increase their traffic levels. Here’s a prime example of that, wrapped up in a weird story about a Sarah Palin birthmark on a cow in Texas.

Today, I was doing some research to track the Internet popularity of Sarah Palin topics. If you don’t know who Sarah Palin is by now, go back under your rock … this doesn’t concern you.

I actually started tracking the Internet search patterns of the Governor on the day that Senator McCain announced her as his running mate. The results were pretty predictable at first. Internet searches for “Sarah Palin” started to climb, as people began looking her up in Google, Yahoo, etc. One of the most popular phrases seems to be Sarah Palin pictures — not surprising, considering she is a former beauty queen.

But I was not expecting the degree to which her Internet popularity skyrocketed! I use tools like WordTracker and Google’s keyword tool to track this kind of thing (I’m a search engine marketing geek … what can I say). And I’ve never seen search numbers like those pertaining to Sarah Palin pictures and the like.

Many of the entertainment, media, political and pop culture bloggers and well aware of Palin’s rising popularity, and the smart ones are publishing plenty of blog posts, articles and fact sheets about Sarah Palin topics. This is the key to getting maximum traffic to your blog.

Of course, not everyone can blog about Sarah Palin pictures and get away with it. But this is just an example of the media driving Internet search patterns. Your job, as a business blogger who wants to increase traffic levels, is to know what topics are being covered in your industry and to find a way to capitalize on that.

Oh, and I promised you a picture of a Sarah Palin birthmark on a cow. I am a man of my word!

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

Through my highly advanced powers of mathematical computation, I’ve just realized that the online booklet, The Business Blogging Bible, is about 50% complete.

Six of the twelve sections are done — including the following topics:

• Planning your business blog
• Creating your business blog
• Design considerations
• Increasing usability
• Writing blog content
• Optimizing the blog for search engine visibility

I’ve just started on the next 12 sections of the booklet, which will probably be the most popular sections for most bloggers. It will include ways to promote your blog, generate leads and sales with your blog, and much more. Oh so much more.

Check it out here.

Working at home has become one of the hottest topics online. There are hundreds of websites and forums created for people who want to work from home full time.

The latest manifestation of this trend is the so-called “work at home blogs” and the bloggers who operate them. In truth, the concept of blogging for a living is not that new. Some bloggers have been making a living from their blogs through various advertising programs for several years now. But what has exploded recently is the popularity of this concept.

That’s why I call work-from-home blogging the “New American Dream” … a lot of people want it.

Now, I don’t make my living from blogging. Not entirely, anyway. My blogs contribute to my overall revenues, but I also have several other revenue streams in place that, when combined, help me earn a living while working from home.

With that said, I know enough about bloggin’ for a livin’ to be able to offer some advice on the subject. Here are some ways you can run a home-based business from your blogging efforts.

• Affiliate programs — Regardless of your blog’s topic, I’m willing to bet you could find an affiliate program that’s related to that topic. Affiliate programs are perfectly suited for bloggers, and they can be a good way to work from home via the blog. The premise is simple. You send traffic to the affiliate’s website, and you earn a commission from the people who go on to purchase the marketer’s products / services.
• Business blogger for hire – I know several people who make a living by blogging for companies who don’t have time to do it themselves. This is sometimes referred to as “ghost blogging” — the same thing as ghostwriting, only it’s done through a blog.
• Advertising revenue — This is probably the most popular way to earn money from a blog. There are endless advertising opportunities for bloggers. You can use Google AdSense. You can create your own ad space program. Et cetera. Of course, success with this approach is directly proportionate to the popularity of your blog (an obscure blog won’t make much money from advertising programs).
• Blogging for product sales – If you sell software, e-books, or other things that can be purchases from the Internet, you can use your blog to promote these items. I have created an e-book in the past, and it still sells well to this day … mainly because of the blog that’s associated with that e-book.

by Brandon Cornett
A company blog can help you expand your company’s presence online, which in turn can help you attract new customers and generate business via the Internet.

That sounds great. But how do company blogs work? And more importantly, how can you use your company’s blog to achieve the best possible results?

The Company Blog Defined

Company blogs are exactly what they sound like — blogs operated by companies. By itself, a blog is simply a content-management system that allows you to quickly and easily publish content onto the web (usually in reverse chronological format). But when a company truly embraces the blog it can become much more than a simple software tool.

The biggest appeal of blogs is that they allow for easy web publishing. In fact, anyone who can create a Word document or a basic email message is technically qualified to operate a blog. It really is that simple.

This is the primary reason why company blogs have become so popular lately. Among other benefits, a company blog allows one person to perform the jobs of two people. In the past, it often took two people to get new content onto the company’s website — a writer and a webmaster. But with a blog, it only takes one person — the company blogger!

How to Start a Company Blog

If you’re new to the world of blogging, I strongly recommend paying someone to help you create your company’s blog. First of all, it will save you a lot of headache and hassle.

For instance, I could install, launch and customize for one of my clients in a day. I do it all the time, so it’s just something I’m intimately familiar with. But if one of my clients tried to launch a company blog on their own, it would probably take days or weeks — not to mention a lot of trial-and-error headache.

It’s not that my clients are inept … they just don’t have the experience going through the process of blog setup. Save yourself the hassle — pay a blog expert a small fee to do it for you!

Choosing a Blogging Program

Once you have somebody identified to help you set up your company blog the right way, you will want to choose a blog program. I won’t go into this too heavily because I’ve outlined the process in my Business Blogging Bible. Just know that it’s a necessary step before you go any further.

I recommend giving WordPress, Blogger and TypePad a trial run. Those are the three most popular blog programs used by most companies, and they all work well for company blogging purposes. I use Blogger and WordPress exclusively, and while they both have their own “personalities,” I would recommend either program without hesitation.

Writing Content for Your Company Blog

So now you have a blog program installed on your web host, you have familiarized yourself with the basic workings of the program, and you are ready to start publishing content onto your company blog.

Excellent! But where do you begin?

First, I would make sure you have three things for your company blog — a designated blogger, a basic blog strategy on paper, and an initial content plan to help you get started. You can follow the hyperlinks for more about each of those ingredients, so I won’t belabor the point here.

Blogging Expectations

The last thing I want to touch on is the expectation you should have for your company blog. In time, a company blog can help you achieve many goals at the same time. A company blog can help you increase your search engine rankings, your traffic levels, and your web-driven business as a whole.

But it takes time to get there … especially for a small business that does not have the “built-in” audience of a larger corporation. When Bill Marriott started his blog, for example, he had an instant audience (and plenty of media coverage). But things will be different for “Joe’s Landscaping Company.”

The point is, blogging takes a consistent effort — just like any other form of marketing communications. You need to publish useful content to your company blog on a regular basis. If you do, you’ll eventually start to enjoy the benefits outlined in this article. Just don’t expect these things right off the bat. It takes time and persistence.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial on company blogs and blogging. If you have any questions about blogging for business reasons, or if you need help setting up a blog for your own company, please don’t hesitate to contact me through my Internet marketing website.

Creating a business blog takes time and effort. But like everything else in business, you get out of it what you put into it. In this blog post, I’d like to motivate you toward creating a business blog by explaining the key benefits of blogging.

Creating a Business Blog - What are the Benefits?

• Easy to Publish — Business blogs are fairly simple to publish, even for somebody with no web-coding skills whatsoever. Just how easy is it? Well, if you can use an email program or create a Word document, you have the technical skills needed to publish a blog. Of course, creating a business blog in the first place will take a little more know-how (especially if you are creating a highly customized business blog). But once your blog is up and running, publishing content is as easy as typing an email message.
• Easy to Expand — Creating a business blog is obviously the first step you must pursue. But what about expanding your blog down the road? How do you go about that? Once again, the process is fairly simple and straightforward. After creating your business blog, you can easily add categories, sections, pages, new authors and more. Blog programs are designed to be expandable.
• Easy to Network — After creating your business blog you will obviously want people to find it and use it. This is another area where blogs surpass regular websites. Most bloggers are highly social online. Bloggers like to link to and recommend other business blogs they find interesting and useful. This kind of active networking can help you reach new audiences and attract endless amounts of traffic to your blog.

These are just a few of the benefits that can come from creating a business blog … the list goes on. So if you’ve been thinking about creating a blog for your business but you lacked the motivation, hopefully this information will get you on track!

More on how to create a business blog.

Business owners often ask me the question, “Should I create a business blog?” And I usually respond with another question: “Do you want to start blogging?”

I don’t mean to come off like a Zen riddle here, but it’s a very legitimate question to ask. My point is this. Many business owners feel the need to create a business blog simply because others in their industry are publishing blogs. That is the wrong reason to create a business blog.

Blogging takes work and dedication, and it goes a lot easier if you really want to blog. On the other hand, if you create a business blog simply because others are doing — and you lack the passion and purpose needed for an effective blog — than you will face an uphill battle from the start.

Good Reasons to Create a Business Blog

• You love to write and wish to apply that skill toward your business development.
• You have something informative, interesting or helpful to share with others.
• You have a lot of information at your fingertips that could be put to good use through an online publishing channel.
• You want to start an online conversation with your audience.

These are all good reasons to create and manage a business blog. But creating a blog just because the other guys and gals are doing is a bad idea. Trust me.

Anyone with a business blog can benefit from additional traffic. If your blog is a sales tool, then additional traffic means more sales. If your blog is a branding tool, then additional traffic means greater brand awareness.

You get the idea.

Doing something noteworthy is the best way to increase traffic to your business blog. When you write, or create, or offer something noteworthy, people will start talking. And they’ll start blogging … and linking … and sending more traffic your way.

Best of all, this technique is based on a simple principle of proportionality. The more noteworthy your act, the more buzz it will create.

Case in point, I recently completed a 130-page web marketing book for lawyers (in support of a law firm marketing website I own), and I’m now giving the book away for free. The website’s blog features a virtual cover of the book with a big “download for free” link beneath it.

I’ve also started to actively promote the book through various channels, including via online press release. This press release on the lawyer marketing book went out today, as a matter of fact.

What’s my point?

To those in the legal industry, this is something noteworthy. It’s an Internet marketing training guide, full of helpful tips and resources … and it’s free. This will help me generate buzz, inbound links to my blog, traffic to my blog, etc.

Now ask yourself, “What can I do that’s noteworthy? How can I get people’s attention in a way that increases my blog traffic? What will get my audience excited?”

Answer these questions, and you’ll have identified your path to increased blog traffic. Then all you have to do is follow that path.

Good luck with your business blogging adventures!

A business blog is only as good as the content it offers, which means the blog is only as good as its author.

If you really want your business blog to be a success, you have to work hard to captivate your readers with quality content. This will keep them on the blog longer, make the more likely to come back, and encourage them to tell others about your blog.

But it all starts with captivating your readers. Here are three quick tips on how to do that.

1. Use Relevant Images - Your blog posts will be more eye-grabbing if you insert a supporting image / graphic into applicable posts. It won’t always make sense to do this (this post has no image, for example), so use your best judgment. In this previous post, I used images to reinforce the lesson I was offering. In this post on pay-per-click marketing, I used an image to clarify the difference between SEO and PPC.

2. Write a Great Title - You should put some thought into the titles of your blog posts, and for a number of reasons. For one thing, the title has some bearing on search engine visibility (learn more about optimizing blog titles). But more importantly, the title is going to largely determine whether or not people even read your individual blog posts, or your blog in general.

3. Offer a Solution or a Revelation - The Internet is over-saturated with what I like to call “fluff” articles and content. This is thoughtless content that’s only written to fill up a website or fuel a search engine optimization program. I hate this kind of content, and I know you probably do as well. So don’t add to it! Use your business blog to solve readers’ problems, or to educate them on something they hold valuable. Do this, and you will have their attention.

by Brandon Cornett

What do you need when launching a business blog? Well, lots of things really. The necessary “ingredients” will vary from one business blogger to the next. In fact, entire books have been written on the subject of launching a blog.

So instead of rehashing what’s been written before, I’ll offer what I feel are the five most important considerations when starting a business blog.

The 5 P’s of Starting a Business Blog

• Program
• Purpose
• Person
• Passion
• Persistence

Program
Before you can start growing your blog, you obviously need to choose a blogging program. These are the all-inclusive systems that will power your business blog. The three most popular programs are Blogger, WordPress and TypePad.

Some companies with big IT departments actually create their own blogging programs, but in my opinion this is often a waste of time and money. WordPress, for one, can be customized and configured to support any business blogging objective. So why reinvent the wheel?

All three of the programs mentioned above can support a business blog, but they do have their advantages and disadvantages. My advice is to experiment with each one before making a decision. It’s also wise to talk to an experienced blogger who has used more than one program. He or she can help you understand the pros and cons of popular blogging programs.

Purpose
What are your blogging goals? What do you hope to get out of your business blogging efforts? How will your blog support your company’s marketing and communications goals?

You should answer these questions before you start blogging. It’s much easier to give a blog shape when you know the blog’s mission. Clearly define the purpose of your business blog, and then put that purpose in writing. You might even have a multi-purpose blog that supports several objectives. That’s fine too, as long as you define that purpose.

You can see that my blog’s purpose is clearly defined and specific. This makes my blogging duties much easier, and it will do the same for you.

Person
Who will publish your blog? Will you have one author or several authors? Will you write the blog’s content yourself or delegate it to someone else in your organization? These questions all fall under the “Person” factor — the third of our five P’s.

The author(s) of a business blog will solely determine the blog’s success or failure. The author is the blog, so it’s critical to choose the right person for the job. If you run a one-man or one-woman operation, you will obviously be the blog’s author. If you run a larger organization, you may have the opportunity to delegate blogging duties to the best candidate.

Whoever does the actual blog writing, it’s crucial that they possess the final two P’s of our list — passion and persistence.

Passion
If you are going to maintain a business blog, you will get much further and enjoy greater benefits if you blog with passion and enthusiasm. There are two primary reasons for this:

1. If you blog about something you are enthusiastic about (a particular niche, industry, product, etc.), you will be more likely to blog often. As a result, your business blog will grow rapidly and thus provide more search engine visibility.

2. If you blog with enthusiasm and energy, people will find your blog more interesting (than if you were half-hearted about your blogging). This will in turn help you grow your readership and foster interaction with your audience through the form of reader comments. So instead of having passive readers, you could enjoy the lead-producing benefits of active participation.

Half-hearted commentary stands out like a purple elephant in the corporate blogosphere. This kind of commentary does more harm than good, whether it comes from the CEO, the communications chief, or Joe Employee. Enthusiasm comes across in blog posts — and it’s contagious.

Persistence
With any business blog, success comes over time. This is true regardless of how you define success. Whether you’re blogging to increase sales, establish authority, generate leads or reinforce your brand, you will need to be persistent in your efforts.

This is especially true for smaller businesses, since a small business blog will not have the “built-in” audience of a larger corporation. In the early days, you will likely be blogging to an audience of one — yourself. But in time, persistence can change all of that!