Is a Blog Right For Your Business?

Home
>
Blogging, RSS & Feeds
>
Is a Blog Right For Your Business?

Is a Blog Right For Your Business?

Lemmings are cute, but dumb. If you tell them to jump off a cliff, they will. Just like the people who start blogs because everyone is doing it. Guess what happens after a little while? The blogs die.

In managing a list of many Web sites, most of which are blogs, I deleted countless sites from the list because the sites and blogs no longer existed. The people ran out of steam or had no reason to start them in the first place.

How do you know when a blog is right for your business? Learn why people start blogs, how they find their niche and how blogging tools can be used for more than blogs.

Some people like to read blogs, others like to read newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some read a few or all of them. No matter the method the information is distributed, each medium has one thing in common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter and your business with all of these readers and delivers important content in a particular style.

I've been blogging since June 2000. If you review my early blog entries in meryl's notes, you'll notice they're more personal. When blogs first hit the scene in the late '90s, they were personal diaries and journals. Like the blog business, my blog has transformed from personal to business speak, although I still add personal notes here and there.

A few bloggers tend to talk about their work, their products and their little world. That might work for celebrities where fans want to know everything about them, but it doesn't work for the average business person. Other business people want information on how to succeed and when a blog spends time hawking products offering information of no value, few people will return. The people whose products sell well are the ones who provide valuable information. Readers already know what kind of information they're getting, so they trust that when they buy something, it will be of the same or better quality. This value must be reflected in their blog. It's much like people who only sign up for a newsletter after first seeing an example.

No one wants to be a lemming (I would hope). How do you decide whether or not to set up a blog? The answer isn't black or white (what did you expect?). Ask these questions:

Can you regularly update it - at least five times a week?
Do you have something to say other than just linking to others?
Do you read other blogs or feeds?
Can you provide information of value to others not just to yourself?
How large is your newsletter subscriber list?
How many unique visitors do you get on an average day, week or month?

The big decider is whether or not you can write in the blog almost daily. The people behind the high traffic blogs post multiple times a day. Though resourceful, merely linking to other sites doesn't give visitors much reason to make the effort to come to yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a great way to learn how to carry a discussion. Find other blogs covering topics similar to yours and check them out. Disagree with their opinions? Write about it and explain your reasons. Cross-blog discussions are common, and that's where trackback comes in handy.

Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to comment on another blog posting in your blog instead of in that blog's comments page, then you link to the conversation through the trackback link. Trackback is similar to the permalink, the permanent URL for the blog entry, but it has a different URL for copying and pasting in your blog's trackback box.

Aside from the technical aspects of operating a blog on a daily basis, subscriber list size and Web site traffic are good indicators of what kind of reaction you'll get when opening a blog. Starting from scratch with little traffic means you have a long road ahead and lots of work to do. There is no magic formula anyone can sell you for $97 to make your blog an overnight success. But with some perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can engage many prospects and clients.

Considering there are numerous blogs out there, pick a niche topic when starting a blog for a better shot at attracting and keeping an audience. meryl's notes focuses on three areas: webby, geeky and wordy. In reality, this is too much. What I need to do for my readers is create three separate blog entry points, so those interested in writing, newsletters and Internet marketing get nothing but the wordy entries. Those interested in Web design get the webby stuff and the technophiles receive the geeky content.

I also manage a personal blog separate from meryl's notes. It's about cochlear implants and deafness. This could fall under the geeky category, but it's a personal blog and doesn't belong in meryl's notes. This blog is written for a different audience.

The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with syndication capabilities so those using feed readers or aggregators can read the content through the software. When sending a new issue of a newsletter, comment on it or link to it in the blog, that way the blog and feed readers will get the goods, so all three bases are covered.

Blogging tools aren't just for, well, blogging. Such tools are an excellent way to help you update your Web site more often than you otherwise would. I use it to manage the list of tableless Web sites. Using blogging tools is much easier than the way I managed it before, updating the HTML files by hand. Though using a blog tool, it isn't a blog. In this case, the blog tool has become a content management system (CMS).

Small business owners don't have a need for the fancy and pricey CMSes out there. They find it easier to use blogging software to manage their sites or hire someone to adapt the tool for their site.

Blogs have found a place in businesses and people are finding creative ways to use them. Some companies have a blog on the intranet for communicating project status, jeopardies and metrics. They're used for knowledge management. With information pouring in, blog tools provide a way to share, organize and process the information.

Being a follower can be good or bad. No one wants to walk off a cliff with the lemmings, but everyone wants to succeed. Best practices won't help, since the decision to blog is based on the organization's mission, needs and goals along with its target market's desires and needs. A blog about lemmings? There is one, sort of. Or maybe you'd like to start your own and talk about dumb business moves.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net who increases conversion rates by writing and editing content so organization can focus on their core business. She is the editor-in-chief of the eNewsletter Journal and Shavlik's The Remediator Security Digest. Visit her Web site at http://www.meryl.net/blog/.

In The News:

Live blog: Coyotes lead Kings 2-1 in Game 5
Tucson Citizen
22, 2012, under USA TODAY News We're live-blogging Game 5 of the Western Conference. The Los Angeles Kings, visiting the Phoenix Coyotes, can clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals with a win. 10:24: Radim Vrbata puts the puck over a wide-open net.

and more »

Live blog: Coyotes, Kings tied 1-1 in Game 5
Tucson Citizen
22, 2012, under USA TODAY News We're live-blogging Game 5 of the Western Conference. The Los Angeles Kings, visiting the Phoenix Coyotes, can clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals with a win. 9:43: Coyotes back on the power play.

and more »

5 Common SMB Online Marketing Optimization Issues Solved: Q&A with Lee Odden
Search Engine Watch
Ongoing Engagement Means You'll Never Run Out of Things to Talk (or Write) About We asked Odden what advice he has for entrepreneurs who have shied away from blogging and/or social because they don't feel they can produce enough contenton a regular ...

and more »

Live blog: Devils lead Rangers 3-1 in Game 4
Tucson Citizen
21, 2012, under USA TODAY News NEWARK – We're live blogging Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final. The New York Rangers lead the New Jersey Devils 2-1 in the best-of-seven series: 10:34: Rangers pull Henrik Lundqvist with more than two minutes left.

and more »

Bloglovin, a prettier take on RSS and Tumblr, gets Betaworks investment
GigaOM
Now, the company said it has about 1.4 million members worldwide and 2.4 million monthly unique visitors, who use the site to follow blogs in a range of areas, from fashion and food to photography and interior design. Like an RSS reader, ...

and more »

12 Reasons Why Blogging Is The #1 B2B Marketing Tactic
Business 2 Community (blog)
What is a 'Blog'? Shorthand for “Weblog,” a blog offers an easy way to present brief chunks of frequently refreshed Web content. Backed with easy-to-use technologies for syndication (eg, RSS), comments and trackbacks, blogs are often the blazing ...

and more »

Twitter applies greater precision to 'Who to Follow' feature
Red Rocket Media News
If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic. Micro-blogging service Twitter is tweaking its 'Who to Follow' feature, as not everyone is interested in “Justin Bieber, FC Barcelona or Kim Kardashian.

and more »

Blog To Get More Patients? IDA's New Dental Marketing Websites Can Showcase ...
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
New websites from Internet Dental Alliance, Inc. (IDA) let doctors easily embed their blogs into their IDA New Patient Portals to automatically generate fresh content and new patient leads. IDA's Portals let doctor's integrate the RSS feeds from their ...

and more »

How to Get Bloggers to help in Your Press Release Distribution
PR Newswire (press release)
In Vision Smart News online press release distribution system if the press release is crafted well it will help reach various blogs by way of RSS feeds. To learn more about a How to Get Bloggers to help in Your Press Release Distribution contact Qamar ...

and more »

COMMENTARY: Does "The Stage Door" need a Facebook page? My thoughts.
Naples Daily News (blog)
But how do you feel about getting anywhere from 50-90% of the blog content via Facebook? 4. This is the big one. Does anyone else have concerns about me building an audience for and inside Facebook - a platform controlled by someone else?

and more »

Google News