I first heard the word “blog” almost 15 years ago at a church retreat workshop for youth group webmasters, and I’ve been filling the Internet with my comings and goings ever since, with a mercifully small audience. But it’s only been in the past few years that I’ve started blogging for business more seriously and trying to gain a significant following that is interested in my work and knowledge. To make your content delicious, you need a great base and the right toppings.

WordPress has been my blogging platform of choice since graduating from the online diary world of Xanga and Livejournal. It’s a fairly user-friendly system that requires no coding knowledge, but can easily be customized if you have the know-how and inclination. It comes in a hosted version with fewer customization options (Read More »

The world of business blogging exploits the full global-reach marketability of your company. Savvy blogging draws new and existing customers into a conversation that will increase site-traffic, generate exposure, and potentially increase your customer-base and  future sales.

But get it wrong, and your business blog can turn from an asset to a liability.

Mistake #1 – Irregular Blogging

Blogging compliments your business, and like any part of your business, it needs to be current and regularly maintained. Irregular blogging can lower your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) content, dropping your business page rank, and effectively minimizing potential customers. Consistent, interesting and relevant posting will build your reader-base, and show commitment to your business and your customers.

Mistake #2 – Inconsistent Voice

Unless your business blog is specifically designed to individualize your bloggers, … Read More »

Ross Furlong of blogstar.co.uk, recently posted a great infographic about business blogging in one of the LinkedIn groups that I follow. With the post, he asked a good question: are corporate blogs an inward facing vanity project or a marketing powerhouse for customer engagement?

*Original infographic posted here: http://www.blogstar.co.uk/our-blog/

Why Do Businesses Blog?
In answer to his question, I reflected on the stats concerning “why” a business blogs. Seventy percent of the responders said that they blog to share expertise, in comparison to the 52% who said that they blog to attract new customers. While sharing expertise is a definite draw for people to read your blog, if this is your ultimate goal for blogging, you haven’t yet internalized the purpose of a corporate blog.
While sharing expertise is what we are doing when we write for … Read More »

Business blogging is more than just a way to get content about your company “out there.” A good business blog should become a hub for conversation; it’s not only a great marketing tool, but its a portal for your customers to be heard. The more you hear from your customers, the more you will know what they need and want from your business. If you struggle with writing content that will compel readers to respond, here are a few great blogging tips to start opening up your blog for more conversation.

1. Write as a person, not as a business.
In Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, authors Scoble and Israel write that if you aren’t maintaining a blog and having “naked conversations,” you can’t learn from your customers, and “they won’t come to see you … Read More »

Every time I read about a content management system, I inevitably see the value proposition of creating an unlimited number of blogs. On the surface that seems great right?  However, in terms of business blogs – is it?

Let me ask you this – who wants to create an unlimited number of blogs? Most of us can’t even get one business blog to work effectively. Instead of creating a lot of blogs that don’t work, focus on creating one blog that does work. Here are a few things your blogging software should do for you:

Make the content strategy clear to all writers
Suggest topics of interest
Permit many writers while maintaining control
Enable real Search Engine Optimization (on the keywords YOU are trying to own)
Take care of the heavy lifting in terms of cross … Read More »

When was the last time you went to a restaurant and ordered a casserole? Well, if you wouldn’t order it for your table, why do you serve it to your readers?

Blog casserole is what happens when you lack strategy and don’t know what to write… so you just write stuff. It’s not necessarily meaningful or intriguing or even funny – it’s just stuff.  It’s blog casserole. The problem with blog casserole is that no one really likes it. Your readers will eat it but they won’t like it, and they may be less likely to return for another meal.

Instead of blog casserole, treat your customers reading your business blog the same way a chef treats his or her customers to delicious food with variety and spice! In our next post, we’ll teach you how to serve up delicious blogs that … Read More »

So you’ve got a business blog and you’re hoping for great things but you’re keenly aware that nothing comes easy. Even if you’re running a free blog tool, you are investing time… and time is money. Here are 7 ways you can be sure to pour lots of time into your business blog and get almost nothing in return.

Don’t Plan: Do not have any idea what you are trying to accomplish with your corporate blog from a content perspective. Do not align any blogs with that content strategy and whatever you do, don’t put your blogging ideas into any kind of editorial calendar. Simply write whatever comes to mind when you feel like it or have some spare time.
Use short blog titles with no keywords. After all, it’s not like your blog title is … Read More »

I am going to be doing a small series on Business Blogging.  What is business blogging you ask?  Simply put business blogging is the art of being real with your customers, partners and prospects.  It requires a business to take down the facade and put themselves out there in a transparent nature.

Why would anyone do that?  There are so many reasons I will not cover them all here.  As a starter, it builds trust.  Let me be clear, being honest doesn’t mean you air your dirty laundry for all to see.  It means you speak about real topics that people can relate to in language they can easily understand.  It means you admit you’re not perfect and are always trying to improve.  It also means you answer people when they talk to you on your blog via comments, or in … Read More »