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

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.

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 Courtland Bovee

Millions of blogs fight for readership online (over 75 million by some counts), with thousands more being created every day. Making yours stand above the rest may seem like a daunting task, but here are ten suggestions for making your blog posts stand out from the crowd.

1. Write each post title so it grabs the reader’s attention. It is the first thing someone reads, and it should get your reader’s attention right away. Your title should both pique the reader’s interest and be informative. Do not write “Business Writing Advice”; instead, say “The Best-Kept Secret to Reducing Your Business Writing Worries.” Longer titles have the advantage of describing in detail what your post is about; 8-12 words are a good range.

2. Keep sentences short and clear. A little goes a long way. Readers are busy people and they will not spend hours detangling complex syntax or sifting through blocks of text. Also, use strong language. Start a new paragraph every few sentences, and limit each post to 250 words, if possible. If you cannot write it in under 250 words, split it into two entries.

3. Break up the text. Use numbered lists, bullet points, and subheadings to make your posts easy to scan. Lots of white space on the page is a good thing-it allows your reader to take mental breaks and let the knowledge soak in. In addition, with the inevitable clutter of banner ads and side text, this technique puts some distance between your writing and all those distractions.

4. Keep current. No one wants to read old news. Your job is to stay up-to-date so your readers do not have to themselves. Read newspapers. Scour the web for references. For example, if you write a blog about business communication, subscribe to Google News Alerts using keywords related to the field, such as blogs, podcasting, instant messaging, business letters, memos, and business reports, so you will always be well informed. Posting items from last month or last year will lose your reader’s interest faster than you can say “Enron.”

5. Be bold. Timidity is an easy path to anonymity. Do not be afraid to create and state your opinions. Of course, there are some situations in which objectivity rules-but you have to give people a reason to read this blog by you and not by the person next door.

6. Be accurate. If you make a statement, be prepared to back it up. Know what your sources are and quote them accurately. Misinformation spreads like wildfire online; do not be the spark that sets it off or the wind that fans it.

7. Contribute to the conversation. Links are great-but then what? Do not just post links to the same tired sites, offer your reader something new. Contribute to the conversation. Your goal is to be the site to which everyone else is linking-so you had better have something worth writing about.

8. Stay focused. Once you have defined the theme of your blog, stick to it. A blog about piggy banks has no business posting about the latest innovation in alternative energy. Such a deviance will only confuse your reader and chip away at your virtual authority.

9. Use key words liberally. Keywords are, well, key. Harness your blog’s search engine potential by dousing your title and post with effective keywords that will help interested parties find your page in the vast, muddled blogosphere. This is one of the most important elements of getting your blog read-go at it with gusto.

10. Be consistent. Keep a schedule and stick to it. Post frequently-at least several times per week if you want to increase your potential of attracting new readers. Let your blog languish for weeks without updates and your audience will move on to fresher ground.

Maintaining an informative blog that people want to read takes hard work and good writing skills. Find what makes your writing unique-and flaunt it for all it is worth.

About The Author
Courtland L. Bovee, one of America’s leading instructors in clear and effective communication, co-authors several leading college-level texts with John V. Thill, a prominent communications consultant and current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Global Communication Strategies. Their website, Business Communication Headline News, the #1 business communication site on the web, is at http://www.businesscommunicationheadlinenews.com

More helpful tips on writing a blog

by Anna Berk

Blogs have become quite popular within recent 2-3 years. As of September 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs. More and more people nowadays start the blog on a stand alone domain name. Blogs help people to express themselves, it is a perfect tool to start personal on-line diary or professional blog related to any subject.

Apparently blogs are one of the easiest ways to create a website. With WordPress preinstalled, it literally takes a few moments to have a professional looking site up and running and available for millions of visitors from all round the world.

Creating a blog on WordPress does not demand any technical experience or knowledge from you. A great number of design templates will help you to customize your blog and make it to look attractive and professional.

WordPress allows you to post blog content online, thus there is no need use FTP connection from your web hosting provider.

As well it allows you to update your blog content from any place of the world by just loginging to blog admin area which will look like http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/. All you need is to remember your admin login and password. WordPresss automatically updates the order of the posts, archiving older posts by post date and moves the most recent posts to the top of your blog index page.

When you set up stand alone blog on paid web hosting it has more chances to be well indexed and crawled by search engines, since stand alone blog has individual URL and can obtain Google page rank. It is necessary to choose the right keywords in the post title and body.

When stand alone blog is indexed and crawled the chances of blog monetization are preety good. Having a high page rank you may sell text links, banners that will allow you to make profit and pay for the web hosting services.

WordPress also allows your blog visitors to leave comments and in this way interact with the author of the blog, that is one of the most important parts of the blogging process.

Despite of the fact that there are some excellent services that offer free blog hosting services, more and more bloggers prefer to use paid blog hosting. And certainly there are several reasons for this.

When you sign up for a paid web hosting services to create your stand alone blog on a separate domain name you get reliability and some guarantees, such as uptime guarantee. You get in most cases perfect professional and responsive technical support that will help you to answer questions and resolve technical issues when you need this help. This is of great importance if you are newbie and this is your first time setting up blog on WordPress.

Generally for Blog hosting Linux web hosting services are more preferrable. Since Linux web hosting is cheaper and more reliable. However this is you who decide!

About the Author

Do you really need perfect reliable web hosting services for your blog on a stand alone domain name? Then Eskhosting.com is right for you. Eskhosting offers ideal custom web hosting plans, blog hosting on WordPress, 24/7 technical support via live chat, e-mail and toll free number, 100% uptime, instant activation of your web hosting account.

Related articles:

• Using Free Blog Templates
• How Does Blog Hosting Work?
• Why I Love WordPress for Blogging

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.

Your guide to the world of free blog templates as a design strategy for your blog. An overview of blog themes and templates, how they work, where to find them and more.

Free blog templates can save you a lot of time and energy when designing your blog. In this tutorial we will take a closer look at blog template designs and how you might use them. But first, let’s start with a basic definition:

Web Templates Defined

The template concept actually started long before blogs came onto the scene. I’ve been involved with website development for nearly a decade now, and as long as I can remember there have been website templates available to simplify the design process.

Basically, a website template is a pre-built website that you can make your own. You can do this by customizing the template, adding your own logo, your own content, your own images, etc.

The primary advantage of using a website template is that they save the designer a tremendous amount of time. Instead of coding a website from the “ground up,” the designer starts with a pre-built “shell” and customizes it to his or her liking (or to the client’s liking).

Blog Templates Explained

In much the same way, a blog template is basically a design “shell” that you can apply to your blog (and the customize the design template as you see fit). But there’s one key difference between templates for websites and those for blogs — the blog templates are unique to a certain type of blogging program.

Each type of blogging program (such as Blogger and WordPress) functions in a unique way, as far as the structure and function of the blog. So a WordPress template will not work with Blogger, nor will a Blogger template work with WordPress.

If you’re running a WordPress blog, you will need to use WordPress templates exclusively (with WordPress, these templates are known as WordPress “themes”). If you’re using Blogger, you will need to stick with templates designed specifically for Blogger. If you’re using TypePad … well, you get the idea.

Where to Find Free Blog Templates

I’ll only cover the two most popular blogging programs here (WordPress and Blogger), because otherwise this article could go on endlessly. Let’s start with WordPress templates (which are also referred to as “WordPress themes”).

You can download free WordPress templates from many places. The most popular place is the official WordPress themes page, located at the following address:

http://themes.wordpress.net

There are hundreds of free templates for WordPress within the site listed above. You can use the “Test Run” link to see how each blog template / theme would actually look and function. You can also download each template for free.

Here’s the thing about the WordPress themes found on this site. Most of them have a line in the footer area that credits the theme / template designer. It’s usually a link to the creator’s website as well. That’s understandable, and you should leave this credit in place. But some of the people who create blog templates will insert several additional links as well, usually to the websites of their clients or other sites they own.

For example, the bottom of your WordPress theme might say something like this:

“This theme created by Blog Design Guy, and is sponsored by cheap Viagra and premium wood blinds.”

In the example above, the Design Guy link would likely be the actual template designer. The other two links would be to his client website, or other websites he owns. So essentially, this person is offering “free” WordPress themes that are really designed to increase the link popularity (and search engine ranking) of multiple websites.

Personally, I find this lame. I fully understand (and respect) the need to cite the designer and link to his or her site. After all, they created the WordPress template for people to use free of charge. But I think spamming up the templates with multiple links is silly. I recommend you avoid using WordPress templates / themes that employ this tactic. Stick with the ones that only link to the designer’s site.

Other places to find WordPress blog templates / themes:

• www.wpthemespot.com
• www.topwpthemes.com
• www.justskins.com
• www.templatemonster.com

Moving on to Blogger Templates

Blogger (www.Blogger.com) is another popular blogging program, and here too you have many options for choosing free blog templates for your own use.

When you set up your Blogger account, you will have to choose a blog template to use initially. Keep in mind that this template can be easily changed later on, so don’t think you’re “married” to it by any means.

Here’s the weird thing about Blogger (at least the last time I used it): When you first sign up for a blog account with them, you will only see a handful of blog templates … but after creating your free blog account you will have access to additional templates for Blogger.

As with WordPress templates, there are also plenty of other places to find free blog templates to use with Blogger. In many cases, the templates you find at third-party websites (outside of Blogger’s domain) are of better quality than the free blog templates offered by Blogger.

With that said, here’s where you can find plenty of template options you can freely download for your Blogger blog:

• www.blogger-templates.blogspot.com
• www.blogspottemplates.blogspot.com
• www.mashable.com/2007/09/13/blogger-templates/

Conclusion + Questions

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial on free blog templates as a design approach for your blog. If you any questions about using a blog design template or anything else related to this article, leave me a comment below and I’ll respond here for the benefit of all readers.

Good luck with your blog design and template customization! 

Generating traffic is the key to success with any business blog. One of the best ways to increase your blog traffic is by increasing your blog ranking in major search engines like Google.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, sort of. The challenge with boosting your blog rankings in the major search engines is that most other business bloggers are trying to do the same thing. After all, anybody who publishes a business blog wants top ranking in the search engines.

So how do you boost your blog ranking with so much competition? This is the question I’ve tackled in a new article posted to the website today.

Read the full article here:
Boosting Blog Rankings for More Traffic

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.