Blogging is huge, millions of people every day read blogs to find their news and get information on their hobbies and be entertained. Websites like The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, CNN and others are essentially blogs. Stories or posts are listed in date order with older posts archived forever.
The main reason to start a blog is to connect with your customers. Hairdressers can keep in touch with their clients about new techniques, accountants can write about tax issues, hotels can write about events happening in their area. The list of what you can do with a blog is endless. You can also use your blog to get feedback from your customers in the form of comments.
Another excellent reason for starting a blog is to direct people to your website and to increase your one way links by linking to your websites content. Think of it like having two websites. A blog also gives you the chance to write in depth about the products and services you sell.
Lets face it there’s never enough space on your main website for all the detail of all your products or services. You could probably talk forever about what you do and how you do it but too much text on your main ‘selling’ site is going to put people to sleep!
But……this text can be incredibly valuable as fodder for the search engines. Use your blog to write in depth about the items you sell, go into lots of detail, post up video demonstrations and give hints and tips. Your blog posts will target keywords and phrases that you couldn’t possibly include on your main website.
Here’s a few ideas for blog posts:
- Product launches, new photos.
- Write about your industry and say what you really think!
- Mention charity events that you or your staff are getting involved in.
- Post pictures of funny things that happen around the office.
- Run surveys and get feedback.
- Include product reviews and tests.
- Top 5’s or 10’s.
When you write for your blog make sure to link certain key phrases back to your main website. This will count as a link.
Try to set up a schedule for writing for your blog. Decide how many posts a week or month you want to produce and stick to writing posts on the same day and even the same time. Most blogging platforms let you schedule your blog posts so you could write days before publication. Be consistent and your readers will look forward to your ramblings.