Blogging For Small Business

The Benefits of a Thought Leadership Blog

Blogging for small business is the one of the easiest ways to generate traffic to your website if your content is relevant and valuable. A blog is short for “web log” and can be thought of as a journal. For example, you could write about your experiences as a financial planner and useful information you learn.

Unlike a news article, the content style and format are not critical. Blogging for small business can also trigger discussions and comments that further development the content. I’ve read several blogs that get first-page Google search rankings for Divorce Law, Real Estate, etc. These pages drive massive traffic and it’s completely free.

If you search for information on any local product or service, you’ll be sure to come across several blogs with relevant discussions. I like blogging because threads or strands of information can be provided without writing a long dissertation. The key to blogging is valuable content and high frequency.

Post things that are timely, relevant, useful and helpful

Getting someone to visit your blog is easy. Write a blog about a special interest, find a group related to your topic on one of the social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook) and post a comment about the blog and provide a link to it.

To drive more traffic to your blog (and potentially more leads), you can use niche keywords that will give your pages higher search engine rankings. The free blogging sites I recommend for newbies are Blogger.com and WordPress.com.

Most of the social networking sites also have blog functionality that can be utilized as well.

The easiest way to develop content for a blog is to look at what others are writing about and then re-write it. Google looks for unique content so be sure anything that is copy and pasted is 60% different in word and sentence structure.

Another simple way to discover blog topics is to ask your list. Have your customers ask the most burning questions they want answered. Each question can become the topic of a blog post.

The goal of blogging for small business is to drive traffic to your opt-in page, however, it cannot be forgotten that blogs can be viral – if done properly. By blogging consistently, you have the opportunity to position yourself as a trusted adviser and provide professional direction to the readers.

Blogs are a form of social media and readers can generate their own content by commenting below a blog post. As an author, you want to create discussions and promote commenting that automatically builds the page of information for you.

Quick tips on how to drive more traffic to your blog:

• Monitor similar blogs to make sure that your content is fresh, different and better.
• Post brief messages on other blogs that mention your own blog site.
• Swap links with other blogs. When you see blogs whose visitors might also be interested in yours, contact the blogger and suggest swapping links so that both blogs have links to each other.
• Give visitors an incentive to spread the word about your site. Reward the visitor who posts the best new information with special recognition on your site.

To learn how to start blogging for small business and create a thought leadership blog in your industry, contact Halo Effects, an Arizona internet marketing firm for a free consultation.

Social Media

Social networking sites have made getting your message out to like-minded people faster and cheaper than ever before. They provide free marketing by leveraging the power of groups and friends. You can use site-builders to add video, pictures, text, links and hosting is free. These sites can be set-up as communication and traffic funnels to your primary business website and are also a component of effective search engine optimization.

Here is a list of social networking sites that your company should be visible on:

My Space

Most famous in the U.S. but not heavily adopted internationally, it is dominated by Generation-Y users and began with an emphasis on music. The site allows you to create your own website, blog, post bulletins and send messages to “friends” that you collect in your network.

Twitter

Known as today’s water cooler, Twitter works like a group chat to share “what you are doing” with connected friends and family. With diligence, you can create a following of people who are interested in what you are working on.

Facebook

More complex than Twitter and a more mature audience than MySpace, Facebook allows you to create a personal website, share and connect with like-minded people.

Digg

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. The shared content turns into a conversation and allows people to vote on an idea or comment you post.

Squidoo

Squidoo allows you to make and share “lenses” which are web pages anyone can create on topics they care about. You can earn income by creating links to ecommerce sites such as Ebay and Amazon. A lens gets shared between groups and you can promote your site to other Squidoo users. Squidoo sites are also considered “authority” sites by the major search engines so it’s possible to reach high search rankings (first page of Google) if you use the right keywords in the title and lens description.

Here are some valuable tips for making Social Networking Sites effective response sites:

• Don’t overcrowd the site or use fancy graphics. Less is more. This is the biggest mistake I see online marketers make on these sites…too many videos, too many pictures and too many graphics.
• Make the focal point of your site a single video or text offer that directs a visitor to an opt-in site for an ethical bribe.
• Allow people to look at 1 thing, not 50. If they have more than one choice, they won’t make any.
• Make it a business site, not a personal site that has a bunch of your friends making inappropriate comments. Don’t directly sell your business but rather tell your story.
• Only invite others from your target market to become your ‘friends’. It’s best to invite people who have similar interests or background because they will be most likely to connect with you.
• Let people get to know you. People don’t want to be sold something outright, build relationships first and then offer an ethical bribe to bring a prospect closer to what you are selling.

To learn how social media can become part of an effective online marketing campaign, contact Halo Effect, an Arizona internet marketing firm for a free assessment of your business website.