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7 Questions To Ask Yourself BEFORE Staring A Business
Blog
Blogging is the latest buzzword in online marketing and
PR.
But with so many marketers jumping on the blogging bandwagon,
few people are giving a thought to whether blogs are really up
their alley, or taking the time to consider the best ways of
going about it.
If you are planning to start a business blog, ask yourself
these questions before you take the final plunge.
1. Do you really need a blog?
Writing and maintaining a blog takes a certain degree of
commitment, as well as a passion (or at least a liking) for
stringing words into a decent sentence. If you don't enjoy
writing that much, you could always create an audio or video
blog.
But would your business objectives really be served by
starting a blog? Or could other methods of online marketing -
like SEO, ezine advertising or newsletter publishing work just as
well, if not better?
2. Whom do you want to reach with your blog?
The first step to reaching your audience is understanding
where they go to find information about your products.
If your audience largely consists of people who live in your
town or use products that they search for in the newspapers,
offline advertising might be more suited to your purpose.
If however, your target audience belongs to one or more of
these segments, a blog might be just the thing to boost your
business.
- Internet users
Does your target audience really use the internet? If not,
then starting a blog (or any online activity, for that matter)
will just be a huge waste of time and effort.
- Blog readers
Does your target audience read blogs? Or do they prefer to get
their information in their inbox? If the latter is true, then an
email newsletter might be a better option than a blog.
- Search engine users
A blog is an excellent way to boost your search engine
rankings and get listed for a lot of your target keywords. If you
know that your audience uses search engines to find information,
a blog will increase your chances of getting their attention.
3. What do you want to achieve with your blog?
There are a lot of things that a blog can do for your
business. Blogs can help you -
- Increase your visibility and search engine rankings
- Brand yourself, your products, your services, your
company
- Build a community and network with people who have similar
interests
- Expand your reach to those outside your current sphere of
influence
- Establish your credibility as an expert or thought-leader in
your field
- Put a human face on your business
- Reach out to potential customers and stakeholders
Deciding exactly what you want to achieve with your blog can
help you get focused, so that you can spend your time and effort
in activities that help, not hinder your business objectives.
4. How much time can you spend on your blog?
Serious business bloggers not only spend time writing their
own blogs, but also spend a great deal of time reading up on
current events and browsing other blogs in their field for
information.
If you are prepared to put in the time and effort required to
do that sort of research, your blog will serve as a good branding
tool for your business.
If not, you should either hire someone to do the research or
seriously rethink your decision to start a blog.
5. What blogging platform will serve your needs best?
Deciding your blogging platform is an important step that you
should take only after becoming familiar with the features and
benefits of each option.
The reason it is so crucial is because it can be extremely
difficult to migrate an established blog to a new platform once
you have started it. Moving your blog can result in you losing
your data, search engine listings and readers, so don't take this
decision lightly.
Decide which platform will best meet your marketing
objectives, time constraints and personal preferences before you
make your first post.
According to T.L. Pakii Pierce who writes at "How to Blog for
Fun & Profits!" http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com, if
you are short of time, and want to spend more time writing, then
a hosted solution like Blogger, Blogware, Squarespace or Typepad
might serve your purpose better.
This might also prove a better option if you want to get
started as soon as possible, are new to the internet, or are
unfamiliar with scripts or code.
If, on the other hand, you're a control freak (like me) and
don't mind spending some time and effort to customize your blog,
then a server-installed software, like Wordpress, b2Evolution or
Movable Type might be just right for you.
If you don't want to install the scripts yourself, choose a
hosting solution with Fantastico, which comes with a one-click
install of a number of blogging software.
6. How do you plan to promote your blog?
Why is it good to know this before you start your blog?
Because it will help you decide where best to invest your time
and effort when you need to build traffic to your blog.
You'll learn more about the methods to promote your blog when
you subscribe to the email course below. Some of these tasks can
be outsourced, while others you would have to do yourself.
Decide what you want to take on and look out for service
providers to handle the other functions so you can start building
traffic to your blog as soon as possible.
7. How will you assess the success of your blog?
To determine how successful your blog is in boosting your
profile or profits you will have to measure your blog traffic and
track sales or leads that have come through it.
Planning this in advance will help you take more informed
decisions about your blogging metrics, choice of blogging
platform and degree of customization you require on your
blog.
Understand that blogging is not for everyone. It's just
another form of communication.
Don't get so hung up on the technology that you end up
ignoring more appropriate ways of communicating your message.
Some things may be easier to communicate face to face, in a
conference room, or even through the good old telephone.
But if you asked yourself all the questions above and decided
that blogging meets all your objectives, then a blog may be just
what the doctor ordered for your business.
_______________________________________________
Copyright © 2005 Priya Shah
Priya Shah is a former journalist who writes on business blogging
and publishes an internet marketing newsletter. Subscribe to her
free eCourse
on Blogging for Marketers
_______________________________________________
MORE RESOURCES updated Fri. October / 11 / 2024
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