Does most business owners know what a blog is?
- Thread starter PixelPerfectDesigner
- Start date
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Kasumi
I would be confident in saying that I think most business owners know what a blog is!
In terms of which is more important I totally agree with elainec100.
There are certain businesses that can rely solely on a business blog to generate sales, although for a majority I would suggest a business blog compliments an already established web site.
In terms of which is more important I totally agree with elainec100.
There are certain businesses that can rely solely on a business blog to generate sales, although for a majority I would suggest a business blog compliments an already established web site.
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- Original Poster
- #4
I run a small web design business and I'm trying to find out if there's a market for designing blogs for small businesses.
The reason I asked for whether blogs are less or more valuable than websites is because I wanted to know if business people would value blogs as much as websites, and I'm guessing that most people would value blogs less because they're just the "ice on the cake", I don't know I could be wrong here, any comments are appreciated.
The reason I asked for whether blogs are less or more valuable than websites is because I wanted to know if business people would value blogs as much as websites, and I'm guessing that most people would value blogs less because they're just the "ice on the cake", I don't know I could be wrong here, any comments are appreciated.
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There are a lot of blog templates online and I'd probably tend to go straight to those if setting up a blog, for ease more than anything else. I might be missing something altogether, but I don't really see a blog as particularly income generating so wouldn't want to spend a fortune on it, whereas a website is a different animal altogether.
Blog design could be a little "add-on" to your services but I'd have thought the webdesign would be much more lucrative.
Silky
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But seriously, I think a blog is only useful if it imparts additional and useful information - i.e. gets people to keep coming back - like e-newsletters.
I hate it when I sign up to a newsletter only to find it's simply a tool for selling more of their products. It makes out it's going to give you more information, but then you find you only get that when you spend £10 on their latest report or whatever.
Nope, I'd prefer a website - besides who has time to keep a blog up to date? And I think this can often be a disaster. The number of sites I've seen that mention "See our blog to find out the latest news" and you find it was last update a year ago.
I hate it when I sign up to a newsletter only to find it's simply a tool for selling more of their products. It makes out it's going to give you more information, but then you find you only get that when you spend £10 on their latest report or whatever.
Nope, I'd prefer a website - besides who has time to keep a blog up to date? And I think this can often be a disaster. The number of sites I've seen that mention "See our blog to find out the latest news" and you find it was last update a year ago.
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K
Kasumi
Ashley_price you have hit on the number one problem in my opinion why blogs fail...
However a well thought out, regularly updated blog can compliment a business website very well with news, offers and specials etc. Plus it can give a good indication of a businesses ambition and overall ethos.
Whenever I am helping a client with online promotion of a blog I suggest that they set aside time each week, to write articles/updates and then schedule them to publish a few days apart every couple of days where possible.
There is nothing worse then reading a blog post that is over a year old
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My observation would be that most SMBs just don't prioritise the neccessary time to have a blog that's actually interesting... it's a chicken and egg - unless it's seen to add sales it doesn't get prioritised, but it doesn't have a chance to get sales because it hasn't been prioritised... most SMB sites I know have some sort of a "news" section anyway where special offers tend to be put. I'd say it's an add-on rather than a full business
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And just as important is spelling and punctuation, as in "sentance" is spelt "sentence" and you should use question marks (?) not exclamation marks (!) when you ask a question!
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D
Dawg
You might also consider the setting up of a blog to use as a website, basically by putting the static pages in front of the dynamic one. This way you get ease of setup, the seo capabilities of a blog, access to thousands of templates, (or you can design your own), all done very quickly on an existing backbone. Several people here are experts in doing wondrous things like this with Wordpress.
David: 'blog' is short for 'web log', or a log of thoughts/information in diary form on the web. (ish..)
David: 'blog' is short for 'web log', or a log of thoughts/information in diary form on the web. (ish..)
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I've contributed to three blogs where I work. Each were set up as a strong effort by management to experiment with the power of blogs and ultimately build a community of regular readers, which would hopefully lead to clickthru's to the parent web sites.
It's quite early to see exactly what success the blogs will have in the long run. I tend to update them every two days if not more. I think by Christmas we will have an idea of visitor numbers and knock-on effect to web site sales. I'll post back here then!
It's quite early to see exactly what success the blogs will have in the long run. I tend to update them every two days if not more. I think by Christmas we will have an idea of visitor numbers and knock-on effect to web site sales. I'll post back here then!
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Good call, Kasumi
Most importantly of all, a blog helps you interact with your customers and potential customers. You get to receive feedback from them, spend a bit of time listening to what they want and what they think, and as such it's worth rubies.
Whoever said earlier in this thread that a blog is not income generating, I beg to differ - happy customers equal loyalty, repeat orders, and recommendations... you can achieve this with a really good blog, and it costs nothing but a little bit of time
Check out the Innocent blog for inspiration - they get loads of customer interaction there, it's fantastic. http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent_drinks/ - I've been on there recently, chatting to their nutritional expert, Dr Shilps - as a customer I love this easy access to the brand and the team, it feels very personal
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- Original Poster
- #20
Thanks for all your comments here, I think I didn't make myself clear enough in first place. I'm not trying to find out whether I should have a blog or not. I know and believe blogs are essential to businesses, especially small business that have limited budget. What I wanted to know is that are they sellable, and are they being valued as just "addon" or as attractive as websites.
I'm really interested to see what people that are NOT in the design, internet, technology, media, marketing industries would say, anyone?
I'm really interested to see what people that are NOT in the design, internet, technology, media, marketing industries would say, anyone?
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- Original Poster
- #21
Good call, Kasumi
Most importantly of all, a blog helps you interact with your customers and potential customers. You get to receive feedback from them, spend a bit of time listening to what they want and what they think, and as such it's worth rubies.
Whoever said earlier in this thread that a blog is not income generating, I beg to differ - happy customers equal loyalty, repeat orders, and recommendations... you can achieve this with a really good blog, and it costs nothing but a little bit of time
Check out the Innocent blog for inspiration - they get loads of customer interaction there, it's fantastic- I've been on there recently, chatting to their nutritional expert, Dr Shilps - as a customer I love this easy access to the brand and the team, it feels very personal
That's a really nice blog. And I think that's excatly what some businesses should be doing, spend more time GETTING CONNECTED with their customers.
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Don't know about sellable - if I was going to 'do one' I would use word press or similar. I like free things
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Don't know about sellable - if I was going to 'do one' I would use word press or similar. I like free things
Me too - that's why I use WordPress Having said that, if you look back through recent UKBF discussions, a lot of people are in favour of hosting their own WordPress blogs (some argue it's better for SEO, and of course there's that whole "making it look like the rest of my site" issue that a lot of people are quite passionate about).
So yes Pixel, I reckon it's sellable; anyone can set up a WordPress hosted site if they've got a little time to spare and don't want anything too fancy, but for dimboes like me who wouldn't have a clue how to set up a self-hosted blog, such a service would be useful
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- Original Poster
- #26
Having said that, if you look back through recent UKBF discussions, a lot of people are in favour of hosting their own WordPress blogs (some argue it's better for SEO, and of course there's that whole "making it look like the rest of my site" issue that a lot of people are quite passionate about).
So yes Pixel, I reckon it's sellable; anyone can set up a WordPress hosted site if they've got a little time to spare and don't want anything too fancy, but for dimboes like me who wouldn't have a clue how to set up a self-hosted blog, such a service would be useful
I will certainly spend some time looking back at the old posts.
I totally agree with you that wordpress blogs are fairly easy to setup, however, most people won't bother or know how to customise it so that it acts more like a CMS and not just another Blogger.com blog. I've seen sites out there that "looks" like a normal website but it's really just a Wordpress blog(with alot of customisation of).
As far as I know there aren't MANY(if any) web design companies that specialised in just in blog design, so I'm thinking is that a gap in the market? or maybe the market does not exist.. yet.
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Looks like I'll be doing a blog on my site though I hate the word "blog" and the thought of it being a diary is even worse. I'm wondering who really wants to click on someones site and read their diary of whats happened from week to week literally but if you can use the blog facility to perhaps write interesting articles that benefit the reader and add to their web visit experience I think thats a good thing.
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I'm not sure, but I do know of at least one - Better Business Blogging (Mark, who runs it, is a member here). Do your research carefully, just to be sure
It doesn't have to be a diary, it can have all sorts of things in it - if your articles are related to your industry, then all the better, as you can demonstrate thought leadership.
Mine has all sorts on it, but I'd never describe it as a diary... it's a marketing blog, and I try to keep everything on-topic as much as possible. The most popular post on mine is the one about "Wii arm" - it's almost off-topic, but because I'm talking about a product, I've managed to get away with filing it under 'products'
The posts where I discuss TV ads are quite popular too.
At the moment, I'm doing a series of posts about presenting and interpreting business/marketing stats - that's a lot of fun
Check it out if you like: http://debbidoo.wordpress.com
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debbidoo, had a quick browse through yours, yes thats what I meant, writing useful articles and news of interest. I think some perceive a blog whereby you diararise your day to days and I kind of think that can be a bit self indulgent? maybe not, I don't know. One thing I do know I struggle with is writing 3 sentences when one will do.:redface:
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Ta
I always hope they're interesting and useful, but I'm sure there are posts that are less so You're probably right, but I think this is changing, albeit slowly. Business blogging takeup in the UK is (if I remember rightly) lagging far behind the US, but it's picking up a little now - businesses are recognising how useful blogs are, finally. It's a bit like the Internet when that first started out - at first, nobody could see the point of having a website; they were seen as a bit self-indulgent, a big ol' ego trip. These days, there's very few businesses that don't have one
You could always employ a professional blogger - there's plenty of them out there
(nicer if you do it yourself though - despite any failings you think your writing may have, it's still yours and so your customers will appreciate it )
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I like the word blog is actually a problem here. It creates the impression of a diary and makes it difficult for a business person to see how it could generate revenue.
I know create all my newer sites based on wordpress - which with a little skill you can make look like a normal website. You also then have the ability to use blog like features for any kind of date-related or regularly added to information. For example as news items, press releases, articles, example of work in progress,etc
There are several reasons for me to do this. In no order of priority just my brain order.
1) The site can now be listed in blog directories. More links better rankings.
2) The "blog" entries can be republished on other sites automatically. For example with a tick of a box when adding a press release on your site it could be sent automatically to multiple other press release sites.
3) The rest of the site becomes "mostly" editable - My business and the way I present it to businesses constantly evolves so to be able to change the text, pages when I want also me to be responsive as a business. Often it is those little changes that are low value to a graphics designer that sit on their job list being bumped by larger jobs. Result you wait ages for the changes to be done. Rather than spending 10 minutes doing it yourself.
4)Wordpress has a great array of plugins which add extra functionality. There are lots of marketing type plugins which can promote the required actions that you would like visitors to take.
5)The ability to add information and edit the site, keeps it fresh, inline with your business and presents customers with your best shop window rather than showing last years models. The fresh content is appealing to search engines.
6) When you update a blog-based site it can be set up to inform the major search engines and blog search engines that you have updated so they can visit to get the latest version.
A separate tradition blog is a possibility and is a create way to promote your expertise. Worth looking at the British library blogs http://www.bl.uk/blogs/ which are interesting examples of good content that brings people in to the British library services.
Hope that helps.
I know create all my newer sites based on wordpress - which with a little skill you can make look like a normal website. You also then have the ability to use blog like features for any kind of date-related or regularly added to information. For example as news items, press releases, articles, example of work in progress,etc
There are several reasons for me to do this. In no order of priority just my brain order.
1) The site can now be listed in blog directories. More links better rankings.
2) The "blog" entries can be republished on other sites automatically. For example with a tick of a box when adding a press release on your site it could be sent automatically to multiple other press release sites.
3) The rest of the site becomes "mostly" editable - My business and the way I present it to businesses constantly evolves so to be able to change the text, pages when I want also me to be responsive as a business. Often it is those little changes that are low value to a graphics designer that sit on their job list being bumped by larger jobs. Result you wait ages for the changes to be done. Rather than spending 10 minutes doing it yourself.
4)Wordpress has a great array of plugins which add extra functionality. There are lots of marketing type plugins which can promote the required actions that you would like visitors to take.
5)The ability to add information and edit the site, keeps it fresh, inline with your business and presents customers with your best shop window rather than showing last years models. The fresh content is appealing to search engines.
6) When you update a blog-based site it can be set up to inform the major search engines and blog search engines that you have updated so they can visit to get the latest version.
A separate tradition blog is a possibility and is a create way to promote your expertise. Worth looking at the British library blogs http://www.bl.uk/blogs/ which are interesting examples of good content that brings people in to the British library services.
Hope that helps.
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All great points, Bobster
A lot of people are building their sites round WordPress blogs now, for the same reasons you mentioned. It does make sense, for a lot of people. I'm lucky in that I built my own site so I can update it whenever I like, but for a lot of businesses that's not an option and that's when a blog-based site, acting like a CMS, is ideal.
Really enjoying this thread BTW - cheers for starting it, Pixel
A lot of people are building their sites round WordPress blogs now, for the same reasons you mentioned. It does make sense, for a lot of people. I'm lucky in that I built my own site so I can update it whenever I like, but for a lot of businesses that's not an option and that's when a blog-based site, acting like a CMS, is ideal.
Really enjoying this thread BTW - cheers for starting it, Pixel
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- Original Poster
- #33
>> Bobster, thanks for pointing out all the great benefits of using a "Blog" for businesses. Those are the exact reasons why I think more businesses should use wordpress/blog for their site. I guess the difficult part is convincing/educating the non internet savvy people that blogs are not just something kids use to write about their friends and favourite tv shows, but it can also be used as a great marketing tool for businesses.
>> Deb, thanks for sharing your view in this thread
>> Deb, thanks for sharing your view in this thread
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R
RyanV49er
Back to the original question, I think blogs are seen as very much cottage internet sites to the majority of conventional business owners. However, 5 minutes online with them is all it takes to show the impact a blog can have.
I once spent 20 minutes reassuring a CEO that yes, in fact, he has been on a blog before. I had to spout off a lits of about 20 famous sites that he had heard of that were blogs before he realised how widespread and influential the blog network is.
I once spent 20 minutes reassuring a CEO that yes, in fact, he has been on a blog before. I had to spout off a lits of about 20 famous sites that he had heard of that were blogs before he realised how widespread and influential the blog network is.
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