The Basics of Blogging
Many people are talking about blogging and how important it can be for your business, especially if your business is online.
However, many of my clients and associates have expressed uncertainty about blogging… uncertainty as to how it can help them, what’s involved and where to begin.
I could write an entire book on blogging for success but for now I’m just going to summarise the very basics. I don’t profess to be an expert in this field however in early 2007 I made it a mission of mine – one of many – to learn as much as I could from the world’s leading bloggers. So here’s a sample of what I’ve discovered…
Why should you blog?
There are a variety of reasons to blog. Some people just like to create a type of online journal for their friends and family, however from a business perspective blogs can help you to attract traffic to your website, to create valuable relationships, to build your credibility or you can use them to subtly (or perhaps not-so-subtly!) promote your products, services and events. That’s just for starters.
How to begin:
First you need to get yourself blogging software. There are several free programs you can use such as Wordpress, Typepad, Blogspot, Blogger and Mumspace. Wordpress is the main one I use (http://www.SmallBusinessDiva.wordpress.com) and is one of the most popular, perhaps because it’s so easy to use and has a selection of great plug-ins you can add. I won’t go into detail about plug-ins now… maybe later.
Another thing to look for when you begin is to be able to host your blog on your own website. I haven’t been able to do this as yet as my web program isn’t compatible with Wordpress and I just love Wordpress. I’m still working on this bit. However for most websites, to download Wordpress software to host on your own site go to www.Wordpress.org or to use Wordpress from their domain, go to www.Wordpress.com.
From there it’s fairly easy to set up the basics, with heaps of templates to choose from. Once you learn the basics you can gradually start to add plug-ins to increase the things you can offer on your site and what you can do with it.
What do I write about?
Once you’ve got the basics set up, it’s time to start writing. Another thing I love about Wordpress is that if you’re in a writing mood, you can write as many posts as you like and then go to Edit Timestamp and set the date to publish on a set date. So you can write say once a week and set your blog up to post one article each day. Set and forget.
It’s good to be able to post to your blog often. Search engines love sites (including blogs) that are updated regularly so a blog that is updated daily is ideal, although once a week is still good – don’t leave it any longer than that. If your blog is hosted on your own website and you’re posting to it often, the Search Engines are going to like your website even more.
Another vital point is to inject your personality into your blog. Anyone can read information from so many places across the Internet, but people reading your blog like to get to know the blog owner… they generally like to get to know them, their personality and their opinions.
Article length can be anywhere from 10 words to 1000 words – whatever is right for what you are writing about and your mood at the time. I tend to keep my posts less than 250 words. Sometimes I want to share information that will take more words however I try not to post too many longer posts close together. Where possible, look at including a few pictures and videos too as these can add interest and increase where your blog might be listed for people to find and read (eg Google Images).
If you’re not a keen writer, look for ways to delegate your writing. You can set up Wordpress to allow others to blog for you (you just approve it before it’s published), use video instead of writing, use ghost writers, ask other bloggers to write a Guest Blogger Post, or refer to other blogs, articles and news events. It’s important to do what is appropriate for you, your niche and the type of people who will be reading your blog.
It’s also important to encourage people to leave comments on your blog as this helps you to build a relationship with them and it increases the links and thus traffic for your blog. Plus, when someone leaves a comment, you can reply to their comment, again increasing links.
Are you still with me? There’s a lot to learn but I just wish someone had given me a summary BEFORE I began my blogging journey.
Ideas:
If you’re stuck for ideas, read other blogs and comments – these will often help get your mind thinking and you will soon come up with your own ideas from these. Alternately you can refer readers to other blogs (e.g. “I just read this great post at {blog link} about…”), blog about up-coming events, news, businesses, recommendations, seminars, your new products/services, helpful tips and information related to your business.
How to attract that traffic:
Once you’ve got your blog set up and are posting to it regularly, you want to attract readers – or traffic – right?
I could write another 10 pages about the methods of attracting traffic to your blog but I think I’ve probably given you enough information to begin with so I’ll just summarise a few for now.
Some of the many ways to attract traffic to your blog include:
-
Use lots of links – refer to other pages on your website, other blogs, other websites. This is sometimes referred to as “Link Love”. It’s important to give ‘Link Love’ to others first in the hope they’ll link back to you. Give it time… the links will start coming back to you before you know it. You’ll soon discover that bloggers are generally a very giving bunch.
-
Carnivals – there are many carnivals around and if you can’t find one to suit your blog topic, start your own. Carnivals are where a number of bloggers will each write a post on a particular topic, for example, animals. If you have written a post about animals, you can submit that post to the carnival organisers. The carnival is hosted on a particular site and will refer readers to 5, 10 or however many posts they choose. These are often done on a regular basis, perhaps monthly.
Don’t be discouraged if it you don’t see a lot of visitors to your blog for a while – be patient. You can check your blog statistics every day and notice hardly anyone visiting. Then, all of a sudden, it will just take off. The main thing is to keep posting regularly, especially in the early days when you may think you’re wasting your time writing all these great posts that nobody sees.
Happy blogging…