Business Blogging: Where Do I Start?
By Denise O'Berry
The new hot commodity is a blog for your small
business so you've decided you must have one.
Before you begin think about it long term. Where
do you think the blog is headed? What is the objective? Do you
want it to be found by the search engines for specific terms?
How often will you post? Who will the audience be? What will it
look like a year from now? Five years from now?
If you think you may have this blog for a long
time, consider hosting it with your own domain name. Blogger provides
you with a free domain name (name.blogspot.com), or the option
of ftp to your own domain.
If, at some point in time in the future you want
to move the blog and you've been using the blogspot name, you
won't be able to take it with you. This means that all of the
people who have your blog in their reader will "lose"
you. It also means that you'll have to start from ground zero
with the search engines.
Do some digging before you jump. A couple of good
networks where you can get some education are:
- Blogging
for Business
Make sure you sign up for the "Blogging for Marketers"
email course. Priya has loaded the course with good blog information
(and it costs you nothing).
- Blogger
Forum
The Blogger Forum is very welcoming to newbies. Browse around
and just by looking at previous posts, you can learn a ton. they
also have a section on blog platforms which talks about the different
options available.
Once you're ready to go, what are you going to
write about? Make sure you've brainstormed ideas so you don't
run into the inevitable writer's block. You can always start with
what you've written before.
Do you have a newsletter? Look through your archive
and "refresh" some of those old topics as a blog posting.
How about your website?
Do you have content you can turn into a blog topic?
Do you participate in online forums or discussion lists? Find
some advice you gave to someone there and turn it into a blog
post.
This should get you started. Remember that small
business blogging is a long term activity. Be ready.
Denise O'Berry is a small business expert who
helps small business owners take action to grow their business.
Don't know what to write
about? Get the cure for blog writer's block at http://www.whatspossible.com/blogidea/
