The aim of Blogging for Business

I want to emphasise that this blog will be for businesses who are considering having a blog or are in the early stages of blogging. It’ll be practical advice and hints on starting, writing for and maintaining a business blog from a non technical perspective.

A lot of the blogs I’ve read seem to assume that you have a fair amount of technical knowledge, which may be the case for some small online businesses, where the webmaster is the owner. However I wanted to start a blog to highlight the benefits that blogging can bring to many businesses, who may not even really know what blogs are, or think that blogs are not appropriate for their business.

Please leave a comment if you would like some ideas about blogging could give your business a boost.

Setting up the blog

I use WordPress for my blogs. It’s free and easy to set up. Even I managed to set up this Blogging for Business Blog in a few minutes. It’s a bit harder if you want to integrate the blog into your existing website as you have to go do this through your web host. It is better if the blog is integrated into your site and if you want to have ads or affiliate links you will need to do this. This is beyond my scope to explain how you do this but your webmaster( which may be you), in my case, ny son, can do this for you.   I will host this blog once my son does the integration.

I find WordPress simple and easy to use. I would start by adding your profile, just a few lines about who you are. Then use the links option to link to your website, you can add a new link category “My site(s)”. Next you can add some categories which will be relevant to your blog.

I think it’s a good idea to register your blog with Technorati, an internet blog search engine immediately. You claim your blog and you can add a description, tags(blog subjects or catergories) and a bio.

Then you have to start writing some posts for your blog!

What are affiliate links?

An affiliate link is an automated process by which a website owner places a link or banner on their website, if a visitor to that website clicks on that banner or link, the website owner receives a referral fee or commission either per click or purchase by that website visitor.

You will have to host WordPress on your own site, if you wish to place ads on your blog as it’s not possible to have affiliate links if you use WordPress as your host. Your webmaster can integrate WordPress into your site.

Affiliate links are an important source of revenue for some businesses but may be irrelevant to others. They are my main source of income. I have affiliate links for accommodation, car hire, travel insurance and books.

Even if you sell your own products or services, you could be making some extra revenue by promoting complimentary goods/services on your website or blog. For example if you have a photography business, you could have a web page or blog about weddings. where you could have affiliate links to honeymoon specialists, bridal wear suppliers or florists.

What is the aim of your blog?

If you want to blog for your business, you’ll have to think carefully about the aim of your blog. What exactly are you going to write about in your blog that will serve the dual purpose of promoting your business and making visitors want to read your blog?

I am assuming that you have an existing business, so you have to think what you are trying to achieve through your blog. Do you want to build up brand loyalty with existing customers? Do you want to find new customers? Your blog must have an aim, not point in having a blog because it seems the “in” thing to do.

The aim of my Europe travel blog is to encourage travellers to see more of the real Europe by getting off the beaten track therefore my blog had to reflect this. I want to attract new clients to my site and retain contact with existing clients through my blog. My blog is a mixture of travel news eg news about airlines, travel trends, and posts about places I’ve visited and am writing about in my destination guides.

You have to try to hit a balance whereby you inform, interest and entertain your reader whilst promoting your goods/services. If you make your blog a blatant advertising tool nobody will be interested in reading it. If you devote time and effort to your blog but don’t promote your business, why bother?

How I started blogging for my business

You may think that blogging is just for techno nerds, you couldn’t be more wrong. Blogging has gone mainstream, if your business doesn’t have a blog you are missing out. I discovered business blogging by chance in October 2006. I have an online travel business, Europe a la Carte. I received an email from a student who was writing her dissertation about travel business blogs. I thought how strange, I didn’t realise that businesses had blogs. I though they were just personal online diaries. For example a person travelling around would go to an internet cafe every so often to write about their trip and upload some photos so that family and friends could be kept up to date with their travels.

I did some reading up on business blogs and it all sounded so positive, I thought I must give this a go. You can read my first post here.