So you have dreams of having a successful home based online business, right? And to actualize your dreams you have setup your business site and you’re passionately working on your promotional strategies while looking forward to hordes of traffic flooding your site, right?
But, hold it for a moment. How about a blog, did you add a blog to your home business website? You did? Oh, that’s great!
Fact is if you’re running an online business and you do not have a blog added to your website then you are like a swimmer is swimming against the current! No matter what you may have heard before now, simply setting up an ecommerce website does not guarantee that you will have clients and customers standing in line for your offers. You will need to use different strategies to drive enough traffic to guarantee your business success. This is one reason why you need to add a blog to your home business site because it’s simply an incredible online marketing tool right now.
Now, despite the many gains of adding a blog to your home based business site, there is a big problem faced by those who decide to add a blog to their business sites. This problem is that of concentrating more efforts on updating the blog to the detriment of their business!
This is really a big problem. For example, in running your blog you will need to constantly write highly engaging content, read and reply to readers’ comments, visit other blogs and post comments, be on the social media sites to connect with other bloggers, join blogging communities to connect with others, etc.
While all of these are necessary, the unfortunate thing is that you have just enough time to do all of these and also focus on other areas of running your home based business, especially if you are a solopreneur. And this has resulted in many abandoning their main businesses and becoming “emergency bloggers” without any real goal for their blogs! This is really pathetic and I’m sure you don’t want to be in this situation.
In this post I want to offer you a few tips on how you can effectively incorporate a blog into your business website without endangering your main business. Used well, these tips will definitely help you gain an edge over your competitors who are not blogging.
So, if you are ready, let’s boost your website success with these business blogging tips!
1. Determine Your Business Objectives
Once you’re convinced of the potentials of a blog the first thing you need to take care of before starting that blog is to determine your business objectives and how a blog will be of help in achieving those objectives.
This is definitely important because the key to having a successful blog as a business owner is keeping your goals clear and concrete at every step of your blogging adventure. It can be all too easy to get sidetracked, especially if you are just learning about the exciting possibilities of blogging technology. But if you want your blog to succeed you need to stay focused.
Write up a plan for how often you will update your business blog; how you will promote the blog, how you will retain your blog readership, and of course other areas of your blogging adventure. Once you have these set out, you must ensure that you stick to this plan in everything you do.
2. Get a Good Blog Design
When you use a free blog platform like blogger.com you’re provided with pre-designed templates. But it is a wise thing to go for paid blog services like wordpress.org if you truly want the benefits of a business blog. Using a free service takes the control of your blog from you. In fact, the blog is not yours as the hosting service can pull it down at any time. But if you opt for paid blog service (my advice is go for wordpress.org), you’ll need to get a good designer to design and layout your blog to match your company’s identity and needs.
3. Choose Your Blog Topics with Care
Of course, this should not be a problem since you’ve determined your business and blogging objectives in the first place. You just need to have a line-up of topics you want for your blogs but be sure they are in consonance with your business objectives. Strive to be consistent with your topic all the time. That does not mean you shouldn’t blog about general and unrelated topics that have broad appeal. This could sometimes make your blog more popular. But remember, your blog is there not on its own but a tool for marketing your business.
4. Understand the Do’s And Don’ts of Blogging
There are several blogs out there dedicated to teaching people the dos and don’ts of blogging. Please do READ them! Also include in your reading, blogs that are consumer-based in order to give you ideas on running your business blog. Remember that legal issues are sometimes involved in blogging; it is safer to include disclaimers and limitations of liabilities. Create blogging policies and schedule updates regularly.
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5. Strive To Hold On To Your Readers
Update your content regularly and keep it relevant and fresh. Avoid outright marketing on your blog or you will shy away your readers. Learn how to make your business blog pull in your readers without necessary sounding like a salesman. In all you do always reinforce your company’s core values.
6. Use the Right Methods to Promote Your Business Blog
Actively promote your business blog by submitting your blogs to blog search sites and directories. Your blog is like a setup booth in the biggest trade show on earth today. Marketing possibilities are just around the corner waiting to strike your sale scales up. Be sure that your blog contain valuable and exclusive information and ensure that it is constantly updated to keep readers popping in.
Use effective keyword phrases to generate high ranking status in the SERPs. In this way, you have better chances of people finding your business website through your blog. Remember more traffic means more potential sales.
7. Listen to Your Readers
Regularly monitor your blog traffic through implementing good stats and monitoring tools like Google Analytics. Read readers' comments, measure your results by what they are saying and if necessary make the needed adjustments. First impressions matters and your blog design plays an important factor here. You can always play with your blog design but remember that whatever design you decides on agree with your company’s identity.
Conclusion
Using a blog to promote your home based business is not different in most ways from making money blogging. However, business blogging has its own unique pitfalls. If you must successfully include a blog in your home business marketing strategy ensure that you have a clear indication of what you want. Put the above tips into use and never forget that your business blog is simply a marketing tool for your home business website.
Over to You: Do you have a blog as part of your business marketing tool? What are the challenges you are facing running your blog in conjunction with your business? Are these tips in any way helpful? Please share your experience with us in your comments below.
Hi Chadrack,
Its no doubt that blogging can really boost your business to an extent that will even confuse you.
Think of someone like Neil Petal of quickspeout.com, he was able to power his business…..Crazy Egg and Kiss Metrics with just blogging.
Therefore, i agree with you on the benefits of a blog to your business.
Thanks for sharing my man.
@Theodore Nwangene,
That’s really the truth. Most blogs on the blogosphere today are actually business blogs being used by savvy entrepreneurs to power their online businesses. Setting up only a static site these days is nothing. Only thing you have to be careful if not the blog will take your whole time!
Thanks for the comment.
Hi Chadrack,
Great share!
I believe that adding blog to the ecommerce website will be really helpful. But blogging takes a lot of time so we need to be very conscious of this fact also. It really boils down to the Goals in life.
Thanks Chadrack for the share.
Sapna
@sapna,
I agree with you there. i also advise business persons who wants to get into blogging because of the gains to get some career bloggers to help out if the money is there. Running a business and managing a blog is not really easy.
Thanks for the comment.
Btw. keep on giving us those funny and insightful infographic posts of yours! 🙂
Great article. As a business owner I am always looking to save money where I can. By renting office space, my company saves 3 thousand dollars a year!
@Smith,
That is really great! Would you also advocate renting a blog (if there is really anything like that!)?
Hi Chadrack – at the moment I just have a blog, no business! But I think this is great advice – any business could benefit from having a blog, but you’re right to point out the potential pitfalls and the importance of going about it the right way from the outset.
I notice Smith has asked about renting a blog – I don’t know about that, but outsourcing your blogging activity might be an option, if the business owner doesn’t have the time, skills or inclination to maintain a blog themselves. As Sapna points out, it’s very time-consuming.
But if you can find some way to do it, I think a blog’s a great way to keep in touch and build relationships with your customers.
Excellent advice!
Sue
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