Top Ten Easy Steps to Starting a Business Blog

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Though they had been around for many years, blogs burst on the scene as a hot marketing tool around 2003 when marketers discovered easy-to-use blogging platforms like Blogger, Typepad, and Wordpress.

However, just because anyone can set up a blog, doesn't mean everyone should, and many professionals and businesses start blogging, without giving any thought to why, how and who will be doing the blogging.

Over 50% of blogs are abandoned within the first 90 days. While this isn't really important if you're writing a personal diary, political or celebrity blog, it is very important if you start a blog for your business and don't keep posting on it consistently and with purpose.

When a prospect lands on a blog that hasn't been updated in months, it's akin to walking into a vacant store with busted windows and dust blowing in. It's just not pretty; and it doesn't look good for you, your business reputation, and your branding.

Don't let that happen to you. Start right, start smart, and follow a few suggested guidelines. First, let's review some basics:

What is a business blog?

Because a blog is an inexpensive, fast way to build an online presence, it is an ideal way for entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, speakers, authors and other professionals to establish their credibility and expertise.  Since your readers can post comments, you create a conversation with your audience and build rapport and trust as a result.

The very nature of a blog is perfect for the busy professional.  They are quick and easy to update.  You are creating fresh content frequently (two to three times a week is recommended minimum) that is useful to your prospects and customers and loved by search engines.  In contrast to "traditional" static website, a blog is a dynamic site that encourages your visitors to interact with you through commenting so they can get to know you better.

When you create a conversation with your audience (visitors, readers, prospects), you are establishing your credibility.  You build your network and increase the visibility of your products and services in a casual way.

A blog is an essential tool in the professional's marketing toolbox.  Combined with a website, an ezine, database management and ecommerce system, you will have everything you need to develop and run your business globally and online.

10 Steps for Starting Your Blog

Before you get to the nitty-gritty of setting up your blog, there is some pre-work to do. This will ensure you start right and put your best foot forward.

1.    Before you do anything else, examine the reasons why you want to publish a blog. What is the purpose for the blog?  How does the blog's purpose relate to your business purpose?

2.  What are the business objectives or outcomes or goals you want from your business blog? Some people use a blog as a lead generator to build their database. Some are looking to build a visibility platform while others use the blog to develop content for other purposes like books, articles and programs. What do you want to get out of your blog?

3.    Who is your ideal reader? Who are you writing to/for? For most businesses I've worked with, the ideal reader is similar to their ideal client. It's important to know your audience so you can meet their needs and address their concerns, challenges and what they're looking for to improve their lives.

4.    How do you want your readers to feel when they read your blog? This may seem like a weird question, yet it will help you tap in the emotions of your audience. Do you want your reader to be inspired, motivated, and moved to action? Again, tapping into this will help you focus your content on serving your reader.

5.     What do you want your readers to DO when they read your blog? This relates to the goals you set for your blog. If your blog is a lead generator then you must have very clear steps for guiding your reader to subscribe to get blog updates and/or get your lead generating content.

6.     How much time do you have to devote to your blog each week?   This is getting to the heart of blogging. If you cannot commit to creating constant, consistent content, then you're doing yourself and your readers a disservice. Be honest. The most effective and successful blogs are those with fresh, new content posted at least two to three times per week. Is that reasonable for you to manage? Will you have a team of bloggers? Remember, there are many, many ways to create content. It doesn't have to be all you all the time.

7.  What's your blog's core message? This relates to the topic of your blog and the niche you are focused on. What do you want your readers to learn? Why should anyone read your blog and more importantly why should they subscribe and follow your blog? This is another key piece to get in place before you start your blog.  Brian Clark publisher of Copyblogger.com recommends creating "cornerstone content." This is a series of posts that articulates your core message and provides new readers with an introduction and overview of what they can expect to learn from you.

8.  Create an editorial calendar. It's no secret that content rules on a blog so it's helpful to have a content plan going in to the game. A key element of a good blog is having a list of 7-10 keyword rich categories. Once you determine the categories (or sub-topics) of your blog, you can plan your content calendar. If you plan on posting three times per week, then plot out post ideas for each of your categories. Make a list of 5 topics for each category. Then, fill in your calendar. 5 topics times 10 categories and you've got 50 blog posts in the pipeline.

9.  Do your homework. Critical to your blog's success is knowing your competition. Who is already blogging in your niche? What are they writing about? If blogs in your niche are scarce this may be a great opportunity to dominate the search engines with your own content. Finding great blogs will take a bit of time and research. Start at Technorati.com and search for blogs using your keywords. Next use Alltop.com and Blogs.com to find the best of the best.

10. Build your blog. Now that the research is done, you know your message and have a content ready to go, it's time to get down to business and build the blog. This is where the fun part starts and cannot be easily covered in a bullet point.

Two things to think about:

1) are you a do-it-yourselfer or will someone build the blog for you?

And 2) are you a techie or not? There are many blogging platforms each with pros and cons. If you're a techie, you may prefer wordpress.org and if you're not comfortable with tech stuff, then TypePad may be a better option for you.

As you can see, there's more to business blogging than initially meets the eye. The more preparation and thought you put into your blog BEFORE you start, the more successful it will be. Once the prep work is done and the blog is built, you'll have a powerful marketing tool for creating a highly visible web presence and attracting the right people to your business.

What else would you add to this list to prep your blog for success? Share your best blogging tips in the comments below.

Related Information:

How to Get The Best From Your Blog (free 5-part video course)

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More Blogging Tips

*This article was originally published on SocialMediaExaminer.com

Comments

[David J DeCarlo]

Your advice is excellent and I have slowly implimented many of your ideas. Readership has improved, although not as much as I would have thought.

Particularly puzzling is the non existence of any comments.

Readership goes up dramatically when I email my contacts about an interesting blog. That was one of your ideas.
David

[Kymbelry]

Hi Denise: Second time I've read this posting and got something new still. AN idea for you - tweet each of your 10 points one by one. Nothing like a good reminder list with one point at a time. Thanks, Kymberly

[Denise Wakeman]

Thanks, Kymberly. Great idea. I do extract tweets from transcripts of teleseminars and it's a natural extension to tweet pieces to blog posts to drive people back to the entire article. I'll get my VA right on it!

Blog on!

[Denise Wakeman]

Hi David, one of the best ways to get comments is to ask for them and tell people how to comment: click on the comment link to tell me what you think about xyz.

Ask questions at the end of your post, ask for readers' opinions, feedback, etc. Also controversy tends to generate a lot of conversation.

[Susan Carraretto]

Great advice Denise. I love this question, "How do you want your readers to feel when they read your blog?"

Thanks.

[Samsonmedia]

I tell my clients that as long as you blog once per MONTH it won't reflect badly on your business. Once per week is a bit more ambitious but totally realistic, I think. Two to three times a week is where clients usually are like, "Whoa, that's waay too much for me." I tell them to COMMIT to once a month and up it from there. By telling them they HAVE to blog multiple times a week is usually a non-starter. But I totally agree that whether it's once per month, or three times a week, not having an update for months is bad form and doing you more harm than good.

[Gwen Orwiler]

Thank you Denise! (I was referred to you from my friend Deidre Hughey) I just stopped in today to check out what your advice was re; my blog. I'm feeling like it's draining me [because it's too long]vs inspiring ME so imagine what message it's sending to my readers! I'm making a commitment to shorten it since it's audience is Boomer Women...BUSY Boomer Women. Thanks for the inspiration! Look forward to our paths crossing! Make it a great day! Gwen

[Bruce]

Hey there Denise,
Great post here. I help set up blogs for businesses and find that most of my clients have no idea about the core message of their blog. They only see it as a one dimensional way to "sell" their wares.

I explained that it goes deeper than that. I further explain that "with great publishing power, comes great responsibility," to make a twist on Spiderman! LOL

[Nora Jeanne@Make Money On Internet]

Thanks for the great advice.

The information you provide gives any new blogger a more structure way to approach blogging, how to monetize it and how to make a blog successful.

I like the part when you teach how to get people to comment on your blog post. This is a very valuable tip.

Once again thanks

[Remco de Vries@online marketing]

Thanks for the wonderful tips...I’m having trouble deciding what topic to blog about. I think this is the best tip to do for my online marketing coaching in which I am having difficulties.