10 Business Blogging Tips to Improve Your Blog Performance

Business blogging is a different kettle of fish to blogging for money and that, in turn, is entirely different to blogging socially. The type of blog you manage will determine the voice, design, and style of your blog as well as the efforts you're likely to put into promoting it.

A business blog needs to be professional as well as appear it. Regular posting on topics that your readers will genuinely find interesting can promote you as an expert in your field. A blog can keep the line of communication between you and potential customers open. It enables you to post relevant, keyword rich postings that encourage new traffic and help build your client base.

It's far from an exhaustive list but below are ten tips to remember when blogging for business:

1 - Set Your Goals Early

In just about every guide you ever read it says "set your goals"; it might be a cliché but it's true. With a business blog your most likely goal is to incréase sales but other worthy goals can include:

• Communicating with your existing or potential clients
• Relaying company news
• Answering queries and questions
• Providing guides for current customers
• Providing a portal to everything useful related to your industry

The design of your site, type of content to include, whether or not to include ads, and numerous other decisions will be governed by the reason that you start blogging. The sooner you realize what it is that you want to achieve, the sooner you'll achieve it.

2 - Use SEO Friendly URLs and SEO Plugins

WordPress is an invaluable SEO tool. It is a dedicated Content Management System but, more than that, it has a team of frighteningly dedicated users that create themes, plugins, widgets, and more and then provide them free of charge to other users. Among these tools are a great number of SEO related tools that can be used to determine your meta description and title tags.

A simple but potentially effective SEO fix is to change the format of permalinks or URLs so that they dispense with the default page id to be replaced with an easier to read and keyword optimized page URL. You can do this through the Wordpress dashboard.

3 - Consider Your Media Placement

Adding photos and illustrations, logos, videos, and other forms of media are great for reader engagement, but you should consider each of your blog assets and place the most valuable and useful in the most prominent position. The quicker you can grab a reader's attention, the more likely you will be to keep it for longer.

Certain themes allow you to easily embed video and slideshows into the sidebar of your blog and this can be a very useful tool to make your pages appear more attractive while relaying genuinely useful information.

4 - Consider Your Ad Placement

The primary target of a business blog is not usually to make money directly through the blog itself. Therefore, the placing of third party ads is not necessarily a good choice. However, you can add ads for your company or service as well as associate websites. You can even add banners to specific categories, tags, or pages in your blog. Don't overdo the number of banner ads and other distracting advertisements though and try to keep the interface clean and professional.

5 - Offer Your Readers the Chance to Pass You Around

Add me, share this, retweet, and email this functions should be provided to your users. When you post something useful and one of your readers shares it, it has the potential to go viral and create a lot of exposure for your blog and therefore your website and your business. This works especially well with highly unique content and can be text, audio, video...

Some themes have these functionalities built into them, but do ensure that they're enabled. Alternatively find a sidebar widget or a social bookmarking plug-in that offers the same features and install this. Many blog readers read a number of blogs regularly and by enabling them to add you to social bookmarking and social networking sites you may well develop a long term relationship with them while also letting them inform others of what you provide.

6 - Keep Quality Content Coming

Try to set yourself a regular schedule but remember that it can be broken and it can be added to when necessary. If news breaks, then post your commentary on it. If you intersperse product reviews and articles that relate to your business then try to schedule these. Make sure you post regularly, at the very least once a week, and spend some time getting involved in the community that builds up around your blog.

7 - Not Every Post Need Be an Advert

As long as you fill your blog with relevant, interesting, and well written posts then visitors will take the time to look around, read a few posts, and even clíck the ads to your site in order to see exactly what you have to offér. Not every single post needs to include multiple links to your website pages.

You can download plugins that further the likelihood of users reading more posts. Some add a list of related posts to the bottom of each entry while many themes provide the chance to show "most popular" and "most commented" posts to further direct the flow of traffic around your blog.

8 - Respond Where Responses are Expected or Deserved

Managing a blog is more than posting a missive of the week's news every Friday. No matter how often you post you should spend some time interacting with the community that develops around your blog. Answer questions and queries, provide insight, and give a response where one is requested.

A business blog should always be professional, which means keeping posts and messages that are too personal away. Similarly, spam comments can prove extremely damaging for your SEO as well as the trust your readers place in your business. There's decent spam settings in Wordpress and you can further extend these.

9 - Stuck for Inspiration? Immerse Yourself in Web 2.0

More specifically read forums and blogs, wikis and news sites related to your industry. Look for those news stories, articles, and videos that you like the most and are relevant to your blog and write about them. Read the comments in your blog and look through your analytics to determine the pages that are most popular with readers.

Look at emerging keywords and news topics and try to act quickly. Slant the resulting article in favor of your business, if possible, and then post this to your blog too. There's plenty of online portals and sites for news in your industry and you can use email updates, RSS readers, and browser or home page plugins to display them regularly and in an orderly and comprehensible way.

10 - Blogging is Great for Business But Business is Also Great for Business

Getting stuck into a blog and truly developing your blog community can be a great way to build traffic to your website and develop clients for your business. Reading related blogs and becoming an active member in social networks can help you find out what your readers want and deliver it frequently.

Blogging and Web 2.0 in general can quickly become addictive. It should be treated as a tool to assist in managing your online business, which means that you need to concentrate on the other aspects of your business. Outsource your blog development and content creation if necessary and enjoy the results.

10 Tips for Launching your Business Blog

Are you thinking about launching your business blog? You're not alone. A recent study by GuideWireGroup revealed that approximately 89 percent of businesses polled use blogs as a way to communicate with their customers. In another survey, Burson-Marsteller found that 15% of Fortune 500 companies have blogs. A successful business blog can generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each year, with figures for large corporations typically much higher.

So, business blogging is becoming a mainstream marketing tool. That does not mean, however, that blogging comes easily or naturally for many companies, their owners and employees. Blogging, like any form of content, is a commitment of time and resources - namely, you have to know how to write (or have access to good writers) and you have to maintain your blogs with fresh, original and insightful new material on a regular basis.

This should not scare you away. It should, though, inspire you to learn the basics of business blogging before you turn your baby loose on the world. Planning out your blogging strategy first is a wise move, because it gives your blog a greater chance of success. Here are 10 tips for launching your business blog:

1. Identify your readers.
Before you start writing anything, make sure you understand who your target market is. This is also known as your "buyer persona", which marketing guru David Meerman Scott defines as "...a distinct group of potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach." Basically, you want to tailor your topics to the groups of people who are most interested in your company. Otherwise, you're missing the mark and losing out on potential leads and sales. To identify these buyer personas, there are 3 questions you should ask yourself--

Where do your customers come from?

What type of content will be useful to them?

Where do your customers hang out online?

2. Create social media accounts.
If you haven't already done this, register accounts with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Start with these and expand later. This is important because you need places to post links to each new blog, so that your groups, fans, and followers can read them. Posting on social media also encourages people to subscribe to your RSS feed, another great way to promote your blog.

3. Establish your social media presence.
Lay the groundwork for later blog promotion by establishing relationships with your target markets. One of the best ways to do this is through social media. Now that you have accounts started, you can go in and join forums, listen to conversations and hear what people are saying about your industry. Add thoughtful and insightful comments whenever possible. Hire employees to do this if you don't have time, but try to contribute every once in a while if you can.

4. Determine where to place your blog.
You can either put your blog on a page within your website or give it its own domain. Your choice depends largely on your goals. Do you want the blog to be part of your site, and linked to it directly? Or do you have plans to use your blog for other purposes, such as to earn revenue through ads or creating a secondary business from it?

A blog can help your website to rank higher, and it can also rank highly on its own. So, think about your long-term objectives when deciding where to place it.

5. Use the right keywords.
If you're placing your business blog on a page within your site, most likely you'll be using the same keywords for your blog that you are using for your site. If you've done good keyword research, then these are the keywords that reflect your business and are the search terms that people are using to find you. If your blog is separate, consider if any keyword changes need to be made. You may want to take your blog site in a different direction from your site. Again, this depends on your goals for your blog.

Incidentally, if your blog does have its own domain, you'll want the domain name to be brandable, easy for consumers to recognize and search engine-friendly.

6. Choose a blogging platform.
You have options here. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, but you can also check out Joomla, Blogger, TypePad and others.

7. Plan your posts.
Think about the direction you want your blog posts to go in. A good way to stay on track is to start with one main topic and draft a few blogs in advance. Post them on a regular schedule and you'll have a supply of targeted blogs that add fresh content to your site and point back to your company each week. Coming up with topics can be a challenge, but there are a lot of helpful resources on the Web if you get stuck.

8. Network with influencers.
Once you've got your blog started, it's a good idea to look around at other bloggers in your industry. See what they're doing, what they have to say, and leave insightful comments on their blogs. This kind of web networking will help you establish relationships with these people, which in turn will prompt them to help spread the word about your blog and your company. This kind of free advertising is invaluable. It connects you to credible and respected individuals within the blogosphere and markets your business for you.

9. Promote your blog.
As mentioned earlier, offering a blog subscription through an RSS feed is an effective way to promote your blog. There are other ways to get the word out, as well. Write an optimized press release, submít articles to directories that link to your blog page, submit your blogs to social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg (or set up an account with Ping.fm and have it done automatically). Make sure that you link to your blogs in your social media posts.

10. Measure results.
If you're going to take the time to blog for marketing purposes, you'll want to know how well you're doing, right? Since it relies primarily on the building of human relationships over time, blog ROI can be tricky to measure. But, you do have many tools at your disposal to help you determine how much or how little your blog is contributing to the bottom line.

Free online tools like Google Analytics and Google Alerts provide you with information about how your customers are finding you online, and can tell you a lot about your blog page, in particular. Facebook Insights is a way to track activity on your Facebook account. Other tools are available, so look into them.

Launching your business blog is, like any project, all about preparation. If you do your homework and lay a solid foundation, your blog will produce results. Keep in mind that blogging is a form of content marketing and, as such, is primarily about building relationships with customers. So, be patient, follow these tips, and watch your business grow!

By Beth Hrusch

The SEO's Toolkit Part Three: Resources

Welcome to part three of this three part series on SEO tools and resources. In the last two articles we discussed the variety of Firefox extensions used for SEO as well as an assortment of other free or affordable SEO tools. In this article we'll discuss some of the resources you'll want to access on a regular basis to keep up to date and informed on the goings-on in the search engine and SEO realm.

We're going to cover a few different types of resources below and I'm going to try to keep this article to a reasonable length so let's begin ...

Media

When there's a breaking story or you want an expert opinion on a subject, a good first place to hit are the media sources in that industry. The SEO industry is no different and there are some impressive albeit often unconventional media sources. Some of my favorites are:

Webmaster Radio

Webmaster Radio is an Internet-based radio station with some great programing ranging from affiliate marketing to PPC to organic optimization and much more. With shows hosted by experts in their fields from Danny Sullivan (Search News) to Dave Szetela (PPC) you'll find solid information that is well-rounded. I'd list my favorite shows but what I like may be different than you and what I need to know may be different than what you need to know, so look through their programming and either listen through your work day as I often do or download the podcasts for later listening.

WebProNews

WebProNews offers up-to-the-minute information on virtually every event. They have reporters writing constantly and have other scoring SEO blogs and other news sources, compiling the information in one place for easy access. They also have great articles by third-party writers and a very active readership that is proactive in their commenting. Definitely near the top of my go-to list when I'm looking for news and current feedback.

Addme

This site is difficult to classify as it fits into a couple categories but I decided to include it under media as that's my primary use. They include tools, resources, a directory and much more on their site. My primary use of this site is for the articles and newsletter.

Search Engine Watch

No list of SEO resources would be complete without including Search Engine Watch. This site is the one that started it all. Search Engine Watch provides everything from fantastic articles and breaking news to search engine stats and an awesome forum. A definite bookmark.

Blogs

As with many industries - blogs are a great way to keep informed on the latest goings-on in the SEO realm. The trick, however, is figuring out which blogs are worth reading and which authors are truly knowledgeable. Over the years I've read many blogs and to be honest - I still do. Below are some of the key blogs I reference on a regular basis.

SEO Book Blog

Aaron Wall over at SEO Book has an excellent blog worth reading on a regular basis. I have yet to visit his blog and not find some tid-bit of information that was worth reading either because of the information itself or because often he's just entertaining. Another to add to your weekly reading list.

Matt Cutts Blog

It's nice to get it from the horse's mouth. For those who don't know - Matt Cutts is the head of Google's Webspam team. He blogs about Google, technology and occasionally his cat. One has to read what he writes knowing that he's a Google employee and as such can't really give away the farm, BUT he gives tons of great advice, insight and tips. The perk being that you don't have to ask if following his advice will get you banned. :)

SEO By The Sea

Bill Slawski (the author) focuses his attention on the more technical side of things with tales of patents, algorithmic possibilities, statistics and functionalities. For many, his would be one of the more dry blogs if not for his gift with words and ability to make even the most bland of subjects palatable. You don't need to visit his blog daily but adding it to your weekly journey through the web is recommended.

SEOmoz Blog

What blog list would be complete without the inclusion of the SEOmoz blog. Rand Fishkin and crew keep their visitors up-to-date on some great research, news and SEO tips. From opinion pieces to months-long whitepapers, you'll find useful information. Again - not necessary to visit every day but a weekly pass is always worthwhile.

Forums

Forums are a great place to gather information, especially on current events such as ranking updates. That said, reading forums can be a risky thing. Almost anyone can join a forum and post their thoughts. While this format allows us to capture a wide range of information and knowledge - it also results in less qualified people giving advice as well. So while I recommend reading forums, I also recommend taking things with a grain of salt - at least until you figure out who's who.

SEO Chat Forums

The SEO chat forums are easily one of the largest and most popular of the SEO forums. They cover a HUGE array of issues from Google and social media to Alexa rankings and (hold your hats) Ask Jeeves (that's right - the forum's been around for THAT long). Users worth noting are rustybrick, fathom, and randfish.

DigitalPoint Forums

DigitalPoint is also an ancient forum (2000 - ancient by web standards at least). It covers a wide range of topics from SEO to PPC and affiliate programs. Some users worth noting there are shoemoney, daven, and, of course, digitalpoint. A great place to ask your questions. Heavily visited and they have a ranking system for their users so you can get a decent feel as to whether they're reliable.

SitePoint Forums

There are a variety of reasons I like SitePoint and I own a number of their books. Their forums focus on design and development (not SEO), but every SEO needs resources on the design and development side.

Newsletters & Other Resources

Of course there are other resources that every SEO or webmaster needs to be able to get their hands on. Here they are:

Google Webmaster Guidelines

These are the guidelines set out by Google telling you what you can and can't do and what tactics to look out for. Worth a look over periodically as they do change from time-to-time. If you're heading into the forums for advice, you'll definitely want to take a gander at the guidelines first to make sure that if you get led astray - at least you'll know what can get you banned or penalized.

By Dave Davies

10 easy steps to fresher blog content

Blogging isn't easy, when you get started you can think of hundreds of ideas for great new articles, but as time goes by it can be difficult to find your posting rhythm, and to come up with unique ideas for posts that actually benefit the blogosphere and add value. I've decided to have a think about new and interesting ways of generating the fresh content that your blog so desperately needs. Hopefully these eight ways to generate fresh content for your blog will help you in

1. Frequent Forums

Some of the best ideas for new and fresh content I’ve had come from questions asked on some of the forums I frequent. If you keep an eye on a few forums within your niche, there will be questions popping up that you know the answer to, but haven’t realised that there is a knowledge gap within your readership.

Sometimes it's difficult to take a step back and think "Well I may know how to do X / Y but do my visitors?" Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers are great question resources. They also are beneficial in generating increased traffic if you reference an article you’ve put together that solves someones problem.

2. Keep the old moleskin handy

Sad as it sounds I keep a notepad beside my bed. I always seem to get the best ideas late at night, or early in the morning. I get amazing ideas whilst giving the old pits a scrub in the shower. Must be the aroma of the shower gel or something. Or maybe its because of this.

3. Do post titles first

Write down post titles as they come to you, and then work on fleshing out the content later. I keep a working draft of about twenty posts in Wordpress, then decide which ones I can really write passionately about. Those things will come to you at the most random of times, so it’s important to get them stuck into your drafts as soon as they come to you.

4. Read outside your niche.

It's very easy to get locked into reading only tech blogs if you are a techie, or reading exclusively the things that relate to your chosen industry. Think outside the box, and read some of the thought leaders outside of your comfort zone. You'll find that by doing so, new content ideas will come to you as a result of your eyes being a bit more open.

5. Scour your comments.

If there is a significant feedback generated on your blog, and you have built up a good rapport with visitors, then you will be getting comments. Comments can be as simple as someone saying "Thanks for the article" (cynical Paul recons these are link hunters /spammers most of the time), or they can be much deeper than that. If you find yourself adding a large response to a commenter, that may be a sign of a content gap that you can fill. If you don’t know the answer to someone’s question - link to someone who does.

6. Fill content gaps

I frequently find myself whilst writing a blog post, that concepts crop up which I could explain further in another blog post. Always worthwhile re-reading the bits and bobs you’ve written before and finding how you can expand and improve. The benefit of this will be twofold, firstly your articles will feel more rounded, and secondly your internal linking will be much richer, which leads to deeper site interaction.

7. Newspapers / Magazines / Newsletter

Newspapers and magazines are always a good source of content ideas. If you are writing a blog on a certain topic - e.g. gardening - then flowers monthly is going to highlight some new ideas which would be of interest to your visitors. If you blog about architecture, get a subscription to Architects Journal. You get the picture. Copyblogger has a great article on cosmo headlines.

8. Buzz Monitoring

I've pimped the benefits of buzz monitoring enough in the past, but it still serves a purpose in generating content ideas. With news breaking faster than ever before, its important to get in on buzz monitoring to find out that snippet of information that could turn into a great new post. Tools like twitter can help with this, as mentioned below.

9. Twitter Search

Twitter is a live stream of conversation. Therefore it is a snapshot of what is hot and what is not in the blogosphere. I keep an eye on Twitter Trends to let me see if there are breaking #hashtags which I should be keeping up with, and writing about.

10. Brainstorming - Spider Diagraming

A bit of an old fashioned one here, but if you write down all the tags you currently have within your blog, and connect the lines with related terms, you should be able to see patterns that will connect the tags. Flesh out new connected tags, and then write one article concerning that new tag - Bingo! New content.