Making your site work for you;
Starting a blog for personal expression implies that it doesn't really matter just how many views you get, if you are searching at running a business based or marketing blog then views are of the most importance. So how can you get those views?
The fundamentals of blogging;
A blog can be an internet publication which usually take the form of a diary or journal, although they are able to also be used for news and reviews about specific topics or products. Blogs usually include personal comments, viewpoints and experiences and also often containing links, videos and images. Many individuals begin keeping a blog as a way of expressing personal or professional views.
Blogs however can quite easily be utilized as a platform for authoring and marketing your organization or products online. At the moment blogs are experiencing an enormous popularity across all sectors of the internet and can be an effective and very inexpensive solution 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 wary of advertising but will happily read a blog provided that it has some interest to them on a personal level. A lot of the worlds top companies use blogs to provide more value and a more personal touch when attempting to introduce people to their companies a strategy that seems 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 need a topic or theme for the blog. A great way to get some guidelines for your topic is to look around the internet first and see what other people are talking about on their blogs. Generally speaking you want to have one core theme for your blog similar to the way that many newspapers have columnists that talk about one specific topic. This topic can be extremely narrow or very wide but it is important to ensure that your readers know very well what kind of things it's likely you'll cover otherwise they're more likely to read one article they are interested in and then stop following your blog in the event that you begin talking on a topic which has no interest to them.
Once you have an over-all outline for what you want your site to be about you need to start thinking of what you want to name your blog. Short catchy names are excellent but be sure to try to include some clues as to what the blog covers in the title. This can make it easier for people to find your blog.
Of course deciding on a topic and training a cool name will undoubtedly be of no use if you don't have a place to post your blog. There are a huge amount of places around the internet where you could post a blog nowadays, a few of which are free and some of which charge a charge for use. If you cannot find a spot to put your blog I recommend simply performing a quick Google search for blog hosting sites and then performing a little research into which option is best for you. Of course if you have your own website already then you can also post your blog right to it's own page there. One big benefit of this is that additionally, it may bring people in to have a look round the rest of one's webpage should they like what they see on your blog.
Things to remember about writing;
Writing a blog is by no means rocket science, but there are several things that you should attempt to bear in mind to make sure your blog is simple and enjoyable for your followers to read.
1. Ensure that your English (or whatever language your blog is in) is up to a certain standard. While society cares far less about perfect grammar, spelling and syntax than it did during the past it is still vital that you at least make sure that you make your blog legible. Obviously most websites and blogs have a built in spell check too so there is really no excuse for bad spelling.
2. Try to express yourself clearly. Blogs aren't really formal writing and are definitely not supposed to be an essay. Try to keep your sentences and paragraphs reasonably short and keep your language light and easy to read.
3. Consider adding videos and/or pictures to your site. Research shows quite clearly that folks 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 make an effort to minimize the volume of advertising you have in each blog post. It's OK to provide people an option to buy your product or via an affiliate link purchase a product you are talking about and which may interest them, but having a huge amount of "spam" links and banners around your page is really a huge turn off. In the end as we have already said people usually arrived at blogs searching for information or perhaps a little light leisure reading, never to be bombarded by your sales page.
5. Be engaging. Try to be a normal person. Even though you are selling a product or marketing an organization people relate easier to real people with real stories and ideas than they do to someone who sounds robotic and one-sided.
How to promote your blog;
All of your hard working finding the perfect blog idea and name in addition to a great place to post it will come to nothing if you can't get visitors to read it and finding readers is centered on promoting your blog. Just writing good content and posting to an excellent blog hosting site is not really enough to get you a good audience. You can find literally millions of blogs out there with people posting new blogs even as you read this so if you don't have a great way of promoting your blog you should have trouble getting readers.
There are many choices accessible to you when considering how exactly 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 marketing and forum pages. Other possible options include getting blog hosting or article hosting sites to review your site and hopefully post it on their front pages or more on their search rankings and things such as entering blogging competitions. Finding individuals who blog about similar topics may also help you as you can partner up using them and do some type of cross promotion where you send people to their blog plus they return the favour.
The key to keywords;
For those who know roughly what they are looking for however, not where to find it search engines such as Google and Yahoo are really helpful. For the same reason these se's are great for the blogger too. You can find out more use algorithms which search for key words in an internet site or blog. Even if your articles is good if you don't utilize the right keywords then people still might not be in a position to find you. Correct keywords are essential and should reflect what you need people to be considering when they find your site. A good way of making sure you have the right kind of keywords is to do a seek out the keywords you need to use and see what results you get. If the outcomes are close to everything you are offering you've hit the nail on the top or even try rethinking your choice of keywords.
Keeping it neat;
Maintaining your business blog clean and uncluttered is essential for drawing in customers. Consider it if you go into a store and even onto someone's website the first thing you notice is what the general layout looks like so when they state first impressions count. If you went into a store and there was random aisles filled with odds and ends lying around would you be as interested as if the aisles were neat and you also could find exactly 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 a personal blog. When you are lacking ideas about functional yet simple backgrounds and colour schemes for the blog searching around the internet to get some sites which have got a good look are a good idea.
Don't push your message too hard;
The whole notion of a company or marketing blog is to promote your organization and/or your selected products. That said consumers can easily 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 will probably simply frighten away the customers you have worked so difficult to get visiting to begin with. Providing readers with "Value" is a superb way of gaining and keeping their trust and making certain they keep returning. The easiest way to supply this value is by producing good blog material that is as unbiased as possible, whilst obviously being kind to your personal product, which is relevant and up to date. There is nothing wrong with promoting the fact that you have a new product or line, but make an effort to keep it from sounding like you are simply there to market your readers something without providing them with anything worth reading in to 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 hand out these things on your own blog, and actually if you do it gives people an excellent incentive to help keep tuning in so they don't miss among your great offers. Other value that should be added to a good blog include things such as good advice on how to achieve what the client wants to achieve. For example paint companies posting easy methods to get that perfect finish or health food companies blogging about great news methods to use their products in recipes. All this added value turns you from a seller into a trusted expert and source of news and information.
It is also vital that you be sure to keep your blog up to date otherwise it's value will decrease quickly and readers will start to drift away.