Making your site work for you;
Starting a blog for personal expression means that it generally does not 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 can you get those views?
The basics of blogging;
A blog can be an internet publication which often take the proper execution 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. Lots of people begin keeping a blog as a way of expressing personal or professional views.
Blogs however can without difficulty be utilized as a platform for authoring and marketing your organization or products online. Right now blogs are experiencing an enormous popularity across all sectors of the web and can be a highly effective and very inexpensive way to reach a wider audience.
The most effective things about blogs is that folks often read them at leisure. Clients and consumers are becoming a lot more cautious with advertising but will happily read a blog provided that it has some interest to them on an individual level. Almost all of the worlds top companies use blogs to deliver more value and a more personal touch when attempting to introduce visitors to their companies a strategy that appears to be producing good results.
Where to start?;
Starting a blog is surprisingly simple all you really need is the time and energy to write and somewhere to create your blog. To start with you will obviously require a topic or theme for the blog. A terrific way to get some guidelines for your topic is to look around the web first and see what other people are talking about on their blogs. In most cases you need to have one core theme for your blog like the way that lots of newspapers have columnists that discuss one specific topic. This topic can be quite narrow or very wide but it is important to ensure that your readers know very well what kind of things you are likely to cover otherwise they're more likely to read one article they are interested in and then stop following your site in the event that you begin talking on a subject which has no interest to them.
Once you have an over-all outline for what you would like your blog to be about you need to start thinking of what you want to name your site. Short catchy names are great but be sure to try and include some clues in regards to what the blog covers in the title. This will make it easier for people to find your blog.
Of course deciding on 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 always a large amount of places around the internet where you could post a blog nowadays, some of which are free and some of which charge a fee for use. If you cannot find a place to put your blog I would suggest simply doing a quick Google search for blog hosting sites and performing a little research into which option is most beneficial for you. Needless to say if you have your personal website already then you can also post your site to it's own page there. One big advantage of this is that it can also bring people directly into have a look around the rest of your webpage if they like what they see on the blog.
Things to remember about writing;
Writing a blog is in no way rocket science, but there are several things that you should attempt to keep in mind to make sure your blog is easy and enjoyable for your followers to read.
1. Make sure your English (or whatever language your site is in) is up to a certain standard. While society cares much less about perfect grammar, spelling and syntax than it did before it is still important to at least ensure that you make your site legible. Obviously most websites and blog sites have a built in spell check too so there is really no excuse for bad spelling.
2. Make an effort to express yourself clearly. Blogs are not really formal writing and so are definitely not said to be an essay. Try to keep your sentences and paragraphs reasonably short and keep your language light and readable.
3. Consider adding videos and/or pictures to your site. Research shows quite clearly that people engage a lot more readily with pictures and especially with videos than with walls of solid text.
4. Even if you are promoting a product, company or service try to minimize the volume of advertising you have in each blog post. It's OK to provide people an option to purchase your product or via an affiliate link buy a product you are talking about and which might interest them, but having plenty of "spam" links and banners all over your page is a huge turn off. In the end as we have previously said people usually come to blogs looking for information or perhaps a little light leisure reading, never to be bombarded by your sales pitch.
5. Be engaging. Try to be a normal person. Even if you are selling something or marketing an organization people relate easier to real people who have 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 finding the perfect blog idea and name in addition to a great place to post it will arrived at nothing if you cannot get people to read it and finding readers is focused on promoting your site. Just writing good content and posting to an excellent blog hosting site is not actually enough to truly get you a good audience. There are literally an incredible number of blogs on the market with people posting new blogs even while you read this so unless you have a great way of promoting your blog you should have trouble getting readers.
There are many choices accessible to you when considering how to promote your blog. It is possible to advertise your blog by placing links to it or mentioning it in emails and on social media and forum pages. Other possible options include getting blog hosting or article hosting sites to review your blog and hopefully post it on their front pages or more on their search rankings together with things such as for example entering blogging competitions. Finding individuals who blog about similar topics may also help you since you can partner up with them and do some form of cross promotion where you send visitors to their blog plus they return the favour.
The main element to keywords;
For people who know roughly what they are looking for however, not where to find it search engines such as for example Google and Yahoo are really helpful. For the very same reason these search engines are great for the blogger too. Many search engines use algorithms which seek out key words in an internet site 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 crucial and should reflect what you would like people to be considering when they find your site. A good way of earning sure you have the right kind of keywords would be to do a search for the keywords you want to use and see what results you obtain. If the results are close to everything you are offering you've hit the nail on the head if not try rethinking the selection of keywords.
Keeping it neat;
Maintaining your business blog clean and uncluttered is important for drawing in customers. Consider it if you get into a store and even onto someone's website the first thing you see is what the general layout looks like and as they say first impressions count. If you went right into a store and there is random aisles full of assorted items lying around can you be as interested as if the aisles were neat and you could find just what you're after easily?
For this reason it is good to use a slightly more spartan approach with a business blog than you would with an individual blog. In case you are lacking ideas about functional yet simple backgrounds and colour schemes for the blog searching round the internet to get some sites that have got a good look are a good idea.
Don't push your message too hard;
The whole idea of a company or marketing blog would be to promote your company and/or your selected 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 you then are likely to simply frighten away the clients you have worked so difficult to get visiting to begin with. Providing readers with "Value" is a wonderful way of gaining and keeping their trust and making certain they keep coming back. The easiest way to provide this value is by producing good blog material that's as unbiased as possible, whilst obviously being kind to your personal product, and that is relevant and up up to now. You'll find nothing wrong with promoting the point that you've got a new product or line, but try to keep it from sounding like you are simply there to sell your readers something without giving them anything worth reading into 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 give away these things on your own blog, and in fact if you do it gives people a great incentive to help keep tuning in so that they don't miss one of your great offers. Other value that should be added to an excellent blog include things such as for example good advice on how to achieve what the customer wants to achieve. For instance paint companies posting tips about how to get that perfect finish or health food companies blogging about great news ways to use their products in recipes. Additional hints of this added value turns you from the seller right into a trusted expert and source of news and information.
It is also vital that you ensure you keep your blog up to date otherwise it's value will decrease quickly and readers will start to drift away.