7 Questions To Ask Yourself
BEFORE Starting A Business Blog
Copyright © 2005 Priya Shah
Blogging is the latest buzzword in online marketing
and PR.
But with so many marketers jumping on the blogging
bandwagon, few people are giving a thought to whether blogs are
really up their alley, or taking the time to consider the best
ways of going about it.
If you are planning to start a business blog,
ask yourself these questions before you take the final plunge.
1. Do you really need a blog?
Writing and maintaining a blog takes a certain
degree of commitment, as well as a passion (or at least a liking)
for stringing words into a decent sentence. If you don't enjoy
writing that much, you could always create an audio or video blog.
But would your business objectives really be served
by starting a blog? Or could other methods of online marketing
- like SEO, ezine advertising or newsletter publishing work just
as well, if not better?
2. Whom do you want to reach with your blog?
The first step to reaching your audience is understanding
where they go to find information about your products.
If your audience largely consists of people who
live in your town or use products that they search for in the
newspapers, offline advertising might be more suited to your purpose.
If however, your target audience belongs to one
or more of these segments, a blog might be just the thing to boost
your business.
- Internet users
Does your target audience really use the internet?
If not, then starting a blog (or any online activity, for that
matter) will just be a huge waste of time and effort.
- Blog readers
Does your target audience read blogs? Or do they
prefer to get their information in their inbox? If the latter
is true, then an email newsletter might be a better option than
a blog.
- Search engine users
A blog is an excellent way to boost your search
engine rankings and get listed for a lot of your target keywords.
If you know that your audience uses search engines to find information,
a blog will increase your chances of getting their attention.
3. What do you want to achieve with your blog?
There are a lot of things that a blog can do for
your business. Blogs can help you -
- Increase your visibility and search engine rankings
- Brand yourself, your products, your services,
your company
- Build a community and network with people who
have similar interests
- Expand your reach to those outside your current
sphere of influence
- Establish your credibility as an expert or thought-leader
in your field
- Put a human face on your business
- Reach out to potential customers and stakeholders
Deciding exactly what you want to achieve with
your blog can help you get focused, so that you can spend your
time and effort in activities that help, not hinder your business
objectives.
4. How much time can you spend on your blog?
Serious business bloggers not only spend time
writing their own blogs, but also spend a great deal of time reading
up on current events and browsing other blogs in their field for
information.
If you are prepared to put in the time and effort
required to do that sort of research, your blog will serve as
a good branding tool for your business.
If not, you should either hire someone to do the
research or seriously rethink your decision to start a blog.
5. What blogging platform will serve your needs
best?
Deciding your blogging platform is an important
step that you should take only after becoming familiar with the
features and benefits of each option.
The reason it is so crucial is because it can
be extremely difficult to migrate an established blog to a new
platform once you have started it. Moving your blog can result
in you losing your data, search engine listings and readers, so
don't take this decision lightly.
Decide which platform will best meet your marketing
objectives, time constraints and personal preferences before you
make your first post.
According to T.L. Pakii Pierce who writes at "How
to Blog for Fun & Profits!", if you are short of
time, and want to spend more time writing, then a hosted solution
like Blogger, Blogware, Squarespace or Typepad might serve your
purpose better.
This might also prove a better option if you want
to get started as soon as possible, are new to the internet, or
are unfamiliar with scripts or code.
If, on the other hand, you're a control freak
(like me) and don't mind spending some time and effort to customize
your blog, then a server-installed software, like Wordpress, b2Evolution
or Movable Type might be just right for you.
If you don't want to install the scripts yourself,
choose a hosting solution with Fantastico, which comes with a
one-click install of a number of blogging software.
6. How do you plan to promote your blog?
Why is it good to know this before you start your
blog? Because it will help you decide where best to invest your
time and effort when you need to build traffic to your blog.
You'll learn more about the methods to promote
your blog when you subscribe to the email course below. Some of
these tasks can be outsourced, while others you would have to
do yourself.
Decide what you want to take on and look out for
service providers to handle the other functions so you can start
building traffic to your blog as soon as possible.
7. How will you assess the success of your blog?
To determine how successful your blog is in boosting
your profile or profits you will have to measure your blog traffic
and track sales or leads that have come through it.
Planning this in advance will help you take more
informed decisions about your blogging metrics, choice of blogging
platform and degree of customization you require on your blog.
Understand that blogging is not for everyone.
It's just another form of communication.
Don't get so hung up on the technology that you
end up ignoring more appropriate ways of communicating your message.
Some things may be easier to communicate face
to face, in a conference room, or even through the good old telephone.
But if you asked yourself all the questions above
and decided that blogging meets all your objectives, then a blog
may be just what the doctor ordered for your business.
Priya Shah is a former journalist who writes on
business blogging
and publishes an internet
marketing newsletter. Subscribe to her free
eCourse on Blogging for Marketers
