Making your blog work for you;
Starting a blog for personal expression implies that it doesn't really matter just how many views you get, if you are looking at running a business based or marketing blog then views are of the most importance. So how do you get those views?
The fundamentals of blogging;
A blog can be an internet publication which often take the form of a diary or journal, although they can also be used for news and reviews about specific topics or products. Blogs usually include personal comments, viewpoints and experiences in addition to often containing links, videos and images. Many individuals begin keeping a blog as a means of expressing personal or professional views.
Blogs however can without difficulty be used as a platform for authoring and marketing your organization or products online. Right now blogs are experiencing an enormous level of popularity across all sectors of the web and can be an effective and very inexpensive solution to reach a wider audience.
One of the greatest things about blogs is that folks often read them at leisure. Clients and consumers are becoming more and more cautious with advertising but will happily read a blog so long as it has some interest to them on an individual level. Almost all of the worlds top companies use blogs to provide more value and a more personal touch when attempting to introduce visitors to their companies a technique that is apparently producing good results.
Where to start?;
Starting a blog is surprisingly simple all you really need may be the time to write and somewhere to post your blog. To start with you will obviously need a topic or theme for the blog. A terrific way to get some guidelines for your topic would be to look around the web first and see how many other people are talking about on their blogs. In most cases you want to have one core theme for your blog like the way that lots of newspapers have columnists that talk about one specific topic. This topic can be quite narrow or very wide but it is important to make sure that your readers know what kind of things you are likely to cover otherwise they're likely to read one article they are interested in and stop following your blog if you begin talking on a subject which has no interest to them.
Once you have a general outline for what you want your site to be about you need to start thinking of what you want to name your site. Additional resources are great but ensure that you try to include some clues as to what the blog covers in the title. This will make it much easier for people to find your blog.
Of course choosing a topic and working out a cool name will be of no use if you don't have a place to post your blog. There are a large amount of places round the internet where you can post a blog nowadays, some of which are free plus some of which charge a fee for use. If you cannot find a spot to put your blog I would suggest simply doing a quick Google seek out blog hosting sites and doing a little research into which option is most beneficial for you. Needless to say if you have your own website already then you can also post your site to it's own page there. One big advantage of this is that additionally, it may bring people in to have a look round the rest of your webpage should they like what they see on the blog.
What to remember about writing;
Writing a blog is by no means rocket science, but there are many things that you should attempt to bear in mind to make sure your site is easy and enjoyable for the followers to read.
1. Ensure that your English (or whatever language your site is in) is up to certain standard. While society cares much less about perfect grammar, spelling and syntax than it did in the past it is still vital that you at least make sure that you make your site legible. Obviously most websites and blogs have a built-in spell check too so there really is no excuse for bad spelling.
2. Make an effort to express yourself clearly. Blogs are not really formal writing and so are definitely not supposed to be an essay. Make an effort to keep your sentences and paragraphs reasonably short and keep your language light and readable.
3. Consider adding videos and/or pictures to your blog. Research has shown quite clearly that folks engage a lot more readily with pictures and especially with videos than with walls of solid text.
4. Even if you are promoting something, company or service try to minimize how much advertising you have in each blog post. It's OK to provide people an option to buy your product or through an affiliate link purchase a product you are discussing and which might interest them, but having a huge amount of "spam" links and banners around your page is a huge turn off. In the end as we have already said people usually arrived at blogs searching for information or perhaps a little light leisure reading, not to be bombarded by your sales pitch.
5. Be engaging. Try to be a normal person. Even though you are selling a product or marketing an organization people relate better to real people with real stories and ideas than they do to a person who sounds robotic and one-sided.
How to promote your site;
All your hard working locating the perfect blog idea and name as well as a great place to post it will come to nothing if you cannot get people to read it and finding readers is about promoting your site. Just writing good content and posting to an excellent blog hosting site is not actually enough to get you a good audience. There are literally millions of blogs on the market with people posting new blogs even while you read this so unless you have a good way of promoting your blog you will have trouble getting readers.
Here are a few choices open to you when considering how exactly to promote your blog. You can advertise your blog by placing links to it or mentioning it in emails and on social media marketing and forum pages. Other possible options include getting blog hosting or article hosting sites to examine your blog and hopefully post it on the front pages or higher on their search engine rankings and also things such as entering blogging competitions. Finding people who blog about similar topics can also help you as you can partner up with them and do some type of cross promotion where you send visitors to their blog plus they return the favour.
The main element to keywords;
For those who know roughly what they're looking for but not where to find it search engines such as for example Google and Yahoo are really helpful. For the very same reason these se's are great for the blogger too. Many se's use algorithms which seek out key words in a website or blog. Even though your articles is good if you don't use the right keywords then people still might not be in a position to find you. Correct keywords are essential and should reflect what you would like people to be thinking about when they find your blog. A good way of making sure you have the right kind of keywords would be to do a seek out the keywords you need to use and see what results you get. If the outcomes are close to what you are offering you've hit the nail on the top or even try rethinking your choice of keywords.
Keeping it neat;
Maintaining your business blog clean and uncluttered is essential for drawing in customers. Consider it if you get into a store and even onto someone's website one thing you see is what the general layout looks like and as they state first impressions count. If you went right into a store and there was random aisles full of odds and ends lying around would you be as interested as though the aisles were neat and you could find just what you're after easily?
For this reason it is often good to use a slightly more spartan approach with a business blog than you'll with an individual blog. In case you are lacking ideas about functional yet simple backgrounds and colour schemes for the blog searching around the internet to find some sites which have got an excellent look can be helpful.
Don't push your message too much;
The whole idea of a company or marketing blog is to promote your organization and/or your chosen products. That being said consumers can simply be overwhelmed or defer by constantly being blasted by adverts or sales messages. In the event that you overload your site with links, advertising material (including banners) and sales pitches then you are likely to simply frighten away the clients you have worked so difficult to get visiting in the first place. Providing readers with "Value" is an excellent method of gaining and keeping their trust and making sure they keep coming back. The easiest way to supply this value is by producing good blog material that's as unbiased as you possibly can, whilst obviously being kind to your personal product, which is relevant and up to date. There is nothing wrong with promoting the fact that you have a new product or line, but make an effort to keep it from sounding as if you are simply there to sell your readers something without giving them anything worth reading in to the bargain.
Value you can include;
Most companies offer giveaways, free samples and special offer codes within their marketing material. There is absolutely no reason you can't also hand out these things on your blog, and in fact if you do it offers people a great incentive to keep tuning in so they don't miss among your great offers. Other value that should be added to a good blog include things such as good advice on how to achieve what the client wants to achieve. For example paint companies posting tips about how to get that perfect finish or health food companies blogging about great news methods to use their products in recipes. All this added value turns you from the seller into a trusted expert and source of news and information.
It is also important to be sure to keep your blog up-to-date otherwise it's value will decrease quickly and readers will begin to drift away.