Blog

[Djfreema]

What are your views on having a blog on your website.

I think this could be quite interesting particularly for a start up business and may even help sales.

Let me know what you think,

Darrell

[Niteflyer]

I don't think my customers will particularly want to read about, how I might be struggling to find clients and secure advertising slots etc......

If your business is going 100% perfectly (not many do) then it could be a good idea, but to me the point of a blog is to record your TRUE feelings and this could be costly!

As always, just my opinion!

Matt

;)

[MyNI]

Agreed, it is a bit like that TV programme 'Airline'. All it seemed to do was highlight the incompetance of easyjet. To be fair I would imagine that all airlines experience the same difficulties as easyjet, but the difference is that they don't tell everyone about it on national television.

[Mwebb]

A blog is a great tool for a website. It doesn't have to be about how your business is doing, but maybe your views and opinions on your market sector. Reviews of products, and service. Generally another way to promote you. It does not have to be a diary.So really it depends on your market sector.
For example i could have a blog on my site about the new cars i have test driven, you then get people commenting that i am right or wrong with my analysis. Doesn't say anything about how my business is performing!

However, you do need to update blogs regularly, or you will not see any benefit, if you cannot do this, a RSS feed is another great way to build content for your site, and gain traffic.

[eMarketing Mark]

Just to state from the start that I help companies to set up and how to use Business Blogs as marketing, relationship tools etc. so have a vested interest here

There is so often a confusion between Business blogs and personal Blogs which can put people off even considering using one for their business.

I've given my personal take on that in this article (http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/whats-the-difference-between-a-business-blog-and-a-personal-blog/) but as a summary, it's the personal blog that might talk about how things are going, what's the weather like etc. A business blog on the other hand gives you the opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your business area, develop your reputation and credibility, start to engage with potential customers through the comments function in blogs, help with your PR and a whole host of other uses.

As an added bonus, they are incredibly Search Engine friendly when set up right and because they are focused on a Business area have the targeting and fresh content that the SEs value highly.

They are not for everyone and they do take work. However, as an example, Matt, you could include a blog aimed at explaining the benefits of leasing or buying property, showing the potential pitfalls and how to avoid them, highlighting local properties, explaining the process etc etc all of which would give you a whole raft of content which would be SE usable and draw people to your site. If you then include an interactive FAQ section then you are immediately getting across online your knowledge and expertise in your area and you are encouraging potential clients to communicate with you and ask more questions. Just a couple of initial thoughts.

Very happy to talk through with anyone about how they can use Business Blogs in their business - just PM me! If you prefer to look at it yourself then there's a free email based course on the blog based site I have set up on this subject which will help.

All the best,

Mark

[SillyJokes]

I have two blogs and I can never find time to contribute to either of them to be honest. They get a fair amount of traffic, exspecially the one with the pictures of Charlene Hart sitting on my world record holding whoopee cushion, because I understand she is a c list celeb/glamour model.

But beyond that it is always way down on my to do list.

[Alex Bellinger]

I too have an interest in blogging and also podcasting which could be seen as a similar 'social media' tool.

From a business perspective they can be great at building credibility, trust and SEO. Be warned though - they are time consuming.

Mark, has a very good blog on the potential business benefits. Wasn't aware of it before, but well worth checking out.

[eMarketing Mark]

Thanks for the mention of the site, Alex, much appreciated. I'm trying to make it as useful as possible, not only for people looking to develop and promote a business blog, but also to try to show people the range of uses for a Business Blog from a marketing or customer building point of view.

However, as people have commented here, using a blog for marketing a business is not for everyone. Although once set up they aren't expensive from a money point of view, there is a cost from a time point of view, which needs to be factored in. Very much in the same way as networking does.

However, for most businesses, large and small, there are certainly specific ways in which they can be used to produce impressive returns in terms of visibility and customer interaction when done correctly.

All the best,

Mark

[She Says]

This also interests me, and I was wondering how much time do you think I should expect to put into it? I was thinking along the lines of commenting on celebrities, actors etc as we sell alot of t shirts to fans eg 'I (heart) Bono' and tribute t shirts.
But my partner says that as the web is cluttered with popular culture commentary it would just be adding to the noise and not much use to our business.

So I am still undecided!

S xx

[eMarketing Mark]

Hi She Says,

What you would need to do is create a particular reason why your blog should be visited over and above the others - be different, take a different angle on the news and so stand out from the rest of the crowd. Your partner's right in that there is a lot of information out there - that doesn't mean that yours can't be the one that they go to rather than the others.

However, this is something that takes effort and time. If you are portraying yourself as the place to go for the news then you also have to be very up to date with what is going on and there are a lot of sites that deal in this area.

For a slightly different take on it, and as you mention that your end goal is to sell T-shirts, you might like to look at a French blog which has achieved this "different angle" and which seems to be relevant to what you do. It is called www(dot)lafraise(dot)com (means 'the strawberry', as it happens though that's not particularly relevant :smile:) and it sells T-Shirts. Its model is that it asks people to submit designs and then puts them up for people to vote and comment on - the ones getting the highest votes it then prints and sells them.

Great concept using some of the natural blog features on engaging people in a conversation and creating what you might call "product evangelists" - people love certain designs and so not only vote for them but also tell their friends about it bringing more people to the site and selling more T-shirts.

I'm not suggesting that this is a route that you might want to follow but hopefully might show what you can achieve using a slightly different twist on a standard idea.

All the best,

Mark

[She Says]

Hi Mark, thank you for your reply. I will have a look at the site you suggested and have a serious think about how I could approach a business blog. As I feel I have hi-jacked this thread a little (sorry!) I will start a new thread if I have any further questions :)
Many thanks
Sxx