Guest Blogger, Kim DeYoung
The growth of your business is reflected in the relationships that you create.
Blogging is one of the best ways to build those relationships with your community on a regular basis. It enables them to be heard and it gives you an open forum to respond.
Blog technology is growing every day and blog sites are becoming quite advanced and dynamic. Many new business owners are foregoing the traditional website and are selling their products and services on a blog.
Whether you have a separate blog or your business is based around a blog website, it may be beneficial to take advantage of this dynamic communication tool. I really do believe that blogging can be one of your best relationship-building tools your business can have.
Before you start blogging there are important questions that you have to clarify in order to blog effectively and sustainably. It would be helpful to write out your answers, envisioning fully what you want to accomplish.
- What will you blog about? List some topic ideas or concepts that will be beneficial to your reader. Always keeping in mind how you can be of service to your community will help you build the relationships that will grow your business.
- What tone will your blog have? Will you write as if you’re talking with your friends or will you have a more authoritative or formal tone?
- Is your blog for fun and entertainment or to generate a profit? For example, a blog about the life and trials of a mother of triplets has a different approach than a blog that might review products to make the life of a mother of triplets easier.
- How regularly will you contribute to your blog?
- How will you generate ideas to blog about?
- How will you organize your ideas?
- Will you have guest bloggers? If yes, who will you consider inviting to blog? You don’t have to be specific about who, just concepts for ideal guest bloggers.
If you have clarity before you begin, knowing the direction you want to go with your blog, the specific community that you’ll be writing for, and your objective in writing your blog it will save you a lot of time, energy, and money.
Visit Kim DeYoung, the Get It Done Girl, who shares her secrets on building relationships and blogging in her free report: 7 Mistakes Most Bloggers Make and How to Avoid Them. Be sure to check it out! They can really help you to grow the business you’ve always wanted. www.GetItDoneBlog.com
One other tip I would offer: find out if the readers you want to attract are interested in what you want to write about this. You can do that by using the Google Ad-Words: Key Tool to search for the key words that readers are using in their searches. It does no good to write about abc when people are searching for xyz, no matter how good your content is.
Jeannette Paladino recently posted..Response cached until Thu 12 @ 1:09 GMT (Refreshes in 23.86 Hours)
Great post! Those are excellent questions for anyone who is thinking about blogging. Even if someone starts blogging with no real intention of ever making any money at it, you know never know. You could be that one person who really connects with their readers and you may end up with a large enough readership that someone wants to advertise on your site. Answering your simple questions will provide a roadmap of sorts to give new bloggers direction. Sure as we find our blogging voices, we may decide to take a different route but if you know from the start what your topic is and who you’re writing for, you’re ahead of the game.
Sherryl Perry recently posted..To Blog or NOT to Blog That is the Question
Interesting post and good points made. The tip about how regular you will post is important because I have seen many get very enthusiastic and try and blog 4 or 5 times a week. Then they realise the work involved and drop back or even not blog for a while which can affect regular readers’ expectation especially in the early days.
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Hi Jeanette – thanks for your suggestion getting info about what your readers want. Google’s keyword tool is a great one. Here’s the link for anyone who’d like easy access to it. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
Another idea is to post a survey to your list using Survey Monkey. http://www.SurveyMonkey.com
Take care,
Kim
Hi there Susan – when I started out blogging I thought more was better and set out for 4-5 times per week and it just wasn’t realistic. 3 times a week feels manageable for anyone who’s serious about their blogging efforts. The truth is whatever you choose to do, make it consistent. Thanks for your comment.
Kim DeYoung recently posted..How to Promote Your Teleseminar
Good points that people should take into account.
Before I started blogging I started discussions in a lot of Linkedin groups asking:
Do you read blogs?
If so, what makes you read a blog?
A lot of people commented and the conclusion was that they majority reads a blog because of the author, topic or because they want to be entertained. In other words no matter how serious the topic, you have to write it in an easy going and entertaining way.
Catarina Alexon recently posted..Is Ahmadinejad provoking a strike on Iran
This is an excellent and timely post for me as I reconsider the purpose of my own blog. So often, people just jump into a trend without knowing the key elements that you point out. Thanks!
Good basic info to consider. I met with a top rated blogger to run through my plan before launching. The iterative process was helpful. Get a blogging buddy.
Great tips for a new blogger. there is so much to learn about blogging such as keywords, SEO, how to get traffic, etc. My advice for a new blogger would be to start blogging. Dont try to figure it all out before you start. I have been blogging for a year and I still think I have more to learn about how to have an effective blog. If I had waited until I knew it all, I would have never started.
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