Guest post by Nick Stamoulis
There are very few hard and fast rules when it comes to Internet marketing and business blogging. That’s why everyone uses phrases like “best practice” and “guidelines” when offering advice; what works for one blog in one particular niche may not work for another (that’s why copying the competition is never a guarantee for success!) But I’m going to explain my 3 business blogging musts that every business blogger should do if they want their blog to succeed and help them build their online brand.
1. Buy your domain
Don’t ever launch your business blog on a free blogging platform! This is not a personal blog; it’s the voice of your business. While there are some great free blogging platforms out there, a business blog should always be something that you own 100%. A lot of free blogging platforms come with terms and conditions, meaning you don’t have absolute authority over your own blog!
You are essentially renting your blog space from that company, which means you have to play by their rules. You may not be able to customize your business blog the way you want (meaning you have to sacrifice your brand and messaging strategy) and if you accidentally do something that violates their terms and conditions, they have the power to shut your blog down completely!
If your blog is on a separate domain from the rest of your website, make sure it’s properly branded and integrated back to your company site. You want to use your business blog to attract a targeted audience and then funnel them over to your site where you can focus on conversion. Your business blog should be an accurate representation of your brand, but it will also need its own separate link building campaign to help it rank well in the search engines and drive traffic.
2. Keep it fresh
I tell my clients I’d rather they didn’t launch a business blog in the first place than launch one, write a few posts in it and leave it to die a slow and painful death. What kind of message are you sending potential clients when they come to your blog and all the information is outdated? If you’re going to launch a business blog, be prepared to commit to it for the long haul. It’s very easy for bloggers to get frustrated or bored with their business blog over time. Maybe they aren’t seeing the growth in traffic they were expecting or maybe they feel like they’ve run out of topics; it’s still no excuse to stop writing! Blogging is arguably one of the most long term elements of an Internet marketing campaign. It could take years before you see the results you want but you have got to stick with it!
If you are having a hard time coming up with fresh content for your blog on a regular schedule, consider hiring a writer or accepting a few guest posts every month to beef up your business blog. Turn to coworkers and employees for help and ask each department to write one blog post a month so there is always new content from a unique perspective fueling your blog.
3. Incorporate elements of SEO
At the end of the day a business blog isn’t worth anything if no one is reading it. In order to help attract targeted readers to your business blog, you have to properly optimize it for SEO, just like you did to your regular company website. The same general principles of on-site optimization of a website apply to a business blog.
- What are your high priority keywords? Those should become your post categories.
- Incorporate broad and long-tail keywords into the titles and content of your blog posts so they can rank well for related searches.
- Interlink related posts to spread link juice from some of your more “loved” posts to ones that didn’t fare as well in the search engines.
- Properly optimize the URL structure of each post to include related keywords (keep it short!)
- Monitor comments; it’s ok to be discerning. Those comments become more content for the search engines to read. Make sure it’s content you want associated with your business blog.
Nick Stamoulis is the President and Founder of Brick Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Journal. With over 12 years of experience Nick Stamoulis has worked with hundreds of companies small, large and every size in between. Through his vast and diverse SEO, search engine marketing and internet marketing experience Nick Stamoulis has successfully increased the ?online visibility and sales of clients in all industries.
About Guest Author
Those are some great tips you got there Nick but i guess you missed mentioning interaction with your followers. It’s a must in the blogging industry because through this, you can build a strong relationship with your followers and chances are that you’ll be able to make sale if you earn their trust.
You can find a Niche or find a product to promote (one that you get a commission from – like amazon or clickbank). Then you need to write articles and build backlinks to rank higher than your competition…
I have tried both – it takes time – experiment to find what is best for you…
Lee Jay recently posted..How to Hold Your Guitar
SEO for blogging is very important because this technique helps a blog to be visible to everybody. The more optimized a site is, search engines will give priority to the site. Yet, keyword research, as a part of the SEO process is pretty difficult to perform, but plays an vital role for site optimization.
Samantha recently posted..Sunpentown SD-65E Dehumidifier Review
Good points, I don’t think there is anything worse than checking out a businesses website to find that it hasn’t been updated in months. I makes you start wondering if they are even still doing much of a business.
Michael recently posted..Chicago Bathroom Remodeling Project
Many bloggers tend to ‘wing it’ when they create a new blog. It can really hurt us when we experience a down site because of the hosting services that we chose wasn’t all that reliable.
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awesome tip .. this one is really very useful and interesting and i hope this would be of great use to all blog creators..great blogging tips . Thanks for the informative one
I completely agree with Must #1
Why work on another mans site when you could buy your own domain, and build your empire? It only makes sense, right?
Michael recently posted..Money Instructions
You might want to sign up and register a unique name at all the popular social networking and media sites shortly after registering a domain name. It is becoming difficult to get a matching twitter, facebook, etc. account to go with your domain name.
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Twitter: rumblinglankan
says:
Start a blog is something that I advise my clients as well and mostly as a sub domain of the main page. I see many company blogs limiting themselves to company announcements when they can get much better results by sharing much more great content.
Nishadha recently posted..How to Select a SEO Company For Your Business
You done nice work on your blog keep it up give more information about Android Applications
All true. Nice summation. :) Although we can’t forget about reliable hosting, I’ve learned my lesson with that way back. It can really hurt us when we experience a down site because of the hosting services that we chose wasn’t all that reliable.
Gary Ashton recently posted..Barbara Childs of REMAX Elite gives thanks for her two closings and being able to work at the model home in windstone
Sometimes when we’re stumped with no fresh ideas on what to write about next, it doesn’t hurt to get a little help from our friends. :)
Alice Jensen recently posted..Af: Julie
Twitter: bloggersethics
says:
You summed it so easily in three simple but basic and must tips.
thanks for the share
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Twitter: DanielleMcGaw
says:
this is some great info Nick. If a business blog has already been established, do you think it is a bad idea to start changing categories around and such?
Danielle McGaw recently posted..5 Techniques You Can Use to Take Your Internet Marketing Business to the Next Level in 2012
When I started blogging I struggled to create decent content – I think it’s something that you simply learn to do. As a non-natural writer it did take me a while – although practice does make prefect.
Excellent business blogging tips. Buying your domain is a must and I just recently helped a client migrate away from a free blogging platform. For the cost, there’s no reason to just get started with your own domain from the start. Moving later is a headache.
Great advice!
Melanie recently posted..How is This Work Related?
Blogging is a way of setting up a website where you express yourself and also educate people from all part of the world via writing and submitting your article on any topic you are good at.
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Twitter: indblog
says:
Oh I could not agree with number 1 more if I tried. The amount of people who start up their business using free domains (cjb.net is one free domain that lots of people use) is staggering, and what is more staggering is when their business fails they blame the product instead of their own cheapness.
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Hello Nick! This post is very informative and inspiring one. Lots of idea and thought that can be use of. Thanks for sharing this informative and useful post.
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Great post, Nick! The pointers you gave here are very applicable not just for those setting up online businesses, but also any blogger who would like their blog to become successful and have a steady readership. Making sure that your blog has got fresh content is very important. With so many blogs on the Internet about every single topic or niche that you can think of, giving readers something new and interesting to read can really help you stand out.
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Twitter: davelucas
says:
Hi Nick!
I agree “KEEP IT FRESH” are the three vital words that every serious blogger or business needs to be aware of ALL THE TIME. It is so peculiar when I visit a blog via an ad (or a business blog) that hasn’t seen a new post since “January 4, 2010″ —
I disagree that there is a mandate to “buy your own domain” – there are many successful PRO bloggers that have not – and there are thousands who had no choice but to abandon the domain when the money ran out — In these times of global economic crisis and world domination by the one per-centers, unless you are making money hand over fist and never have to stretch a budget to make sure the electric bill and cable are paid (let alone the internet) and there’s food on the table ALWAYS – you have no business putting your eggs in the “domain” basket. Shucks, I’ve even seen blogs RUINED when domain hosting services vanish and somehow the name ends up in other hands.
BLOG ON!
Dave Lucas recently posted..The Social Tsar
Hi Dave,
I think owning your own domain is incredibly important for business blogs, but it may not be as necessary for individual bloggers. You are absolutely right about shoddy domain services ruining a blog or website, but that’s a post for another day!
Thanks for reading,
Nick
Yes all these things are so much essential for running corporate blog, corporate blogging will help you to get new customers for your business. It helps you to make better customer service with your customer and it can also help you in the brand development of your business.
Keeping it fresh is perhaps one of the most important Business blogging musts. If a company is not able to create the content by themselves, they can always outsource it to others. SE’s love frequently updated blogs.
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Many bloggers tend to ‘wing it’ when they create a new blog. They post updates as they go along, but I think it is very important to have posts in reserve when it is difficult to take time out to create one from scratch. Obviously, as you pointed out, the same rule applies to businesses! Thanks for the post, I think its inspiring for a business blogger.
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