Blogging your way to a Better Home Business
Ranked #133,780 in Business & Work, #1,049,913 overall
Kickstart your Business Website Traffic! Add a Blog!
Times are tough, especially for small businesses. Every penny you spend must bring a respectable return on your investment. Well, there's good news. A blog will, in many cases, boost your website traffic over and above what advertising can do, and with a very small up front investment, if any. And with repeated additions of keyphrase rich content, you will reap rewards way into the future. A blog is the best Bum Marketing tool a small business owner can use!
Setting up a blog on your website, properly configuring it, and consistently adding blogposts will create backlinks into your website every time you post. Backlinks are the gold standard of the web. The more backlinks you have into your website, the closer to the top you will show on the Search Engine Return Pages for keyphrases which pertain to your business. So the more regularly you blog, the better your site will do in the search engines.
How does this work? When you add a blog to your site, using a popular tool such as Wordpress, you can configure your blog, through the administration area, to notify the Update Services every time you post, so the more often you post about things pertaining to your area of expertise or product, the more backlinks you create. Adding backlinks sets off a flurry of search engine spider activity, since the spiders follow the backlinks to your blogpost. This gets your post indexed quickly.
Another tool that most blog software, including Wordpress, uses to make your keyphrases stronger is tagging. When you add an article, you have the option to add "tags". Tags allow you to stress what you feel are the most important subjects a blog article is about in such a way that it emphasizes those tags to the search engine spiders. You can make these tags even stronger by turning those tags into Technorati Tags, which can be done in wordpress using a plugin, and which then creates more backlinks into your blog from the Technorati website once you've signed up for Technorati and claimed your blog.
There's another way to create backlinks in programs like Wordpress, and that's by making it easy for folks who visit to add your blogpost to digg or the social bookmarking sites. Using a service like AddThis works well,and wordpress has a plugin that automatically adds AddThis to every one of your blogposts. Every time someone creates a social bookmark to one of your blog posts, it's a backlink for you.
The key to making a blog work effectively for your business or endeavor is to blog regularly. Once a month is okay, once a week is great, a few times a week is stellar. If you're one of the rare people who can blog daily, you can generate huge amounts of traffic. It's amazing how this works. If you watch your website statistics using a program such as google analytics or awstats, you can correlate spikes up in traffic to your blogposts. It has happened on every website I've tracked. And the more pages and posts you add, the more your traffic will steadily increase month by month. Each blog post becomes a back door into your site, bringing you highly targeted traffic.
If you don't have time to add to your blog, there are tools that can add blog content for you, at least for some niches. Another option is to outsource your blog writing.
If you need more information, there's a fabulous report on blogging available that will answer any question you have. If you need a blog setup, design and/or hosting, try my favorite design service.
Setting up a blog on your website, properly configuring it, and consistently adding blogposts will create backlinks into your website every time you post. Backlinks are the gold standard of the web. The more backlinks you have into your website, the closer to the top you will show on the Search Engine Return Pages for keyphrases which pertain to your business. So the more regularly you blog, the better your site will do in the search engines.
How does this work? When you add a blog to your site, using a popular tool such as Wordpress, you can configure your blog, through the administration area, to notify the Update Services every time you post, so the more often you post about things pertaining to your area of expertise or product, the more backlinks you create. Adding backlinks sets off a flurry of search engine spider activity, since the spiders follow the backlinks to your blogpost. This gets your post indexed quickly.
Another tool that most blog software, including Wordpress, uses to make your keyphrases stronger is tagging. When you add an article, you have the option to add "tags". Tags allow you to stress what you feel are the most important subjects a blog article is about in such a way that it emphasizes those tags to the search engine spiders. You can make these tags even stronger by turning those tags into Technorati Tags, which can be done in wordpress using a plugin, and which then creates more backlinks into your blog from the Technorati website once you've signed up for Technorati and claimed your blog.
There's another way to create backlinks in programs like Wordpress, and that's by making it easy for folks who visit to add your blogpost to digg or the social bookmarking sites. Using a service like AddThis works well,and wordpress has a plugin that automatically adds AddThis to every one of your blogposts. Every time someone creates a social bookmark to one of your blog posts, it's a backlink for you.
The key to making a blog work effectively for your business or endeavor is to blog regularly. Once a month is okay, once a week is great, a few times a week is stellar. If you're one of the rare people who can blog daily, you can generate huge amounts of traffic. It's amazing how this works. If you watch your website statistics using a program such as google analytics or awstats, you can correlate spikes up in traffic to your blogposts. It has happened on every website I've tracked. And the more pages and posts you add, the more your traffic will steadily increase month by month. Each blog post becomes a back door into your site, bringing you highly targeted traffic.
If you don't have time to add to your blog, there are tools that can add blog content for you, at least for some niches. Another option is to outsource your blog writing.
If you need more information, there's a fabulous report on blogging available that will answer any question you have. If you need a blog setup, design and/or hosting, try my favorite design service.
Getting started with Business Blogging
- Wordpress
- The most popular blog software
- Configuring Update Services Notification in Wordpress
- Notifying the Update Services creates backlinks to your blog every time you publish a post.
- Blog Mastermind Pro Blogging Guide
- All the secrets to using your blog to boost your business.
How to Write a Killer Blogpost
1. Research your keyphrases and zero in on a couple keyphrases that are used in Google and that have strong Commercial Intent. Use one of them in your blogpost title, and again, once or twice, in the body of the article. Use the second keyphrase once or twice in the body of the article. Use both as Tags.
2. Write about a single subject. This could be a product you're launching, an upcoming event, or your business being featured in the news. If you have more subjects to talk about, create more blogposts. Each blogpost is its own back door into your site, so the more the better.
3. Write as if you're speaking on the phone to your best friend (but delete the expletives!) Make it conversational. And if people respond to this conversation by commenting, by all means, respond back to them! The best blogs are an ongoing conversation, and allow people to get to know you and your organization, which develops trust. People do business with you when they trust you.
4. Make your articles short and sweet. A range of 300 to 700 words is ideal.
5. If possible, link to related content within your blog. If you use wordpress you can utilize a plugin that does this.
2. Write about a single subject. This could be a product you're launching, an upcoming event, or your business being featured in the news. If you have more subjects to talk about, create more blogposts. Each blogpost is its own back door into your site, so the more the better.
3. Write as if you're speaking on the phone to your best friend (but delete the expletives!) Make it conversational. And if people respond to this conversation by commenting, by all means, respond back to them! The best blogs are an ongoing conversation, and allow people to get to know you and your organization, which develops trust. People do business with you when they trust you.
4. Make your articles short and sweet. A range of 300 to 700 words is ideal.
5. If possible, link to related content within your blog. If you use wordpress you can utilize a plugin that does this.
Quick Tips for a More Effective Business Blog
How to avoid obvious pitfalls when setting up a blog
1. Set up the Wordpress (or other blogging) software on your own domain and hosting. I can't stress this enough! Using wordpress.com or blogspot or typepad is a recipe for disaster. If their server is down, you can't complain. If they decide they don't want your site there, they can just ditch it with no explanation. And using a free service looks unprofessional. Don't cheap out on this step, please!
2. If you don't already have a domain name, choose a good one. No hyphens, and no numbers of any sort, neither digits nor spelled out, since people won't remember those things and will end up at your competition's website. Stick with a dot com wherever possible.
3. Keyphrase research is key to creating good blogposts! Make sure you're using keyphrases that get good traffic, but that don't have a lot of competition. Develop a lot of those niche keyphrases, and have each blogpost target one, and you'll be creating maximum benefit from each by creating multiple back doors into your site.
4. Make your blog interactive! Yes, it can be a pain dealing with comment spam, but turning off commenting is taking away from your visitors the most important way you can interact with them and build their trust in you! And they need to trust you before they'll buy your product or service. And you can install a couple plugins to help with the comment spam.
2. If you don't already have a domain name, choose a good one. No hyphens, and no numbers of any sort, neither digits nor spelled out, since people won't remember those things and will end up at your competition's website. Stick with a dot com wherever possible.
3. Keyphrase research is key to creating good blogposts! Make sure you're using keyphrases that get good traffic, but that don't have a lot of competition. Develop a lot of those niche keyphrases, and have each blogpost target one, and you'll be creating maximum benefit from each by creating multiple back doors into your site.
4. Make your blog interactive! Yes, it can be a pain dealing with comment spam, but turning off commenting is taking away from your visitors the most important way you can interact with them and build their trust in you! And they need to trust you before they'll buy your product or service. And you can install a couple plugins to help with the comment spam.
Three Biggest Mistakes Beginner Business Bloggers Make
Avoid these mistakes and build a stronger Business Blog Presence!
If you're a beginner business blogger, these are the three deadliest mistakes you can make!
You don't blog often enough! Every time you blog you're creating a new back door into your site, optimized for a different keyphrase or two. The more back doors there are, the more chance of people finding you. Add new content at least weekly, and preferably more often.
You use the shortcut jargon from your industry, instead of the actual terms that people who want to find you would use. Each industry has its own jargon. In web design, we talk of sites and themes, instead of Websites and Wordpress Themes, in the Internet Marketing field it's SEO, SERPs, and Spiders, instead of Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Results Page, and Search Engine Spiders. Use the full length terms, they're much more likely to be used by someone looking for you who isn't in your industry and wants to hire you or buy something from you.
Ramble on and they'll ramble away. Blog articles should be very targeted- Short, sweet and to the point. One of the best formats to use is to ask a question in the headline, a question your potential customer might ask, and answer it in the blog article. Write as you speak, as if you're having a conversation. Keep it simple, but don't talk down to people either. 300-700 words is ideal. If you have to go longer, break it down by section, and use bold headers so people can skim easily to find what they want.
You don't blog often enough! Every time you blog you're creating a new back door into your site, optimized for a different keyphrase or two. The more back doors there are, the more chance of people finding you. Add new content at least weekly, and preferably more often.
You use the shortcut jargon from your industry, instead of the actual terms that people who want to find you would use. Each industry has its own jargon. In web design, we talk of sites and themes, instead of Websites and Wordpress Themes, in the Internet Marketing field it's SEO, SERPs, and Spiders, instead of Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Results Page, and Search Engine Spiders. Use the full length terms, they're much more likely to be used by someone looking for you who isn't in your industry and wants to hire you or buy something from you.
Ramble on and they'll ramble away. Blog articles should be very targeted- Short, sweet and to the point. One of the best formats to use is to ask a question in the headline, a question your potential customer might ask, and answer it in the blog article. Write as you speak, as if you're having a conversation. Keep it simple, but don't talk down to people either. 300-700 words is ideal. If you have to go longer, break it down by section, and use bold headers so people can skim easily to find what they want.
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by NinjaWebServices
NinjaWebServices
BJ of Ninja Web Services has been blogging since shortly after blogger.com was launched, and knows the power of blogging for boosting business traffic... more »
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