We completed our series on practical tips for writing a successful blog.
The entries from start to finish are linked below:
You may be surprised at some rewarding benefits of blogging that you may experience:
All this and more can result from a blog that works for you. So, to summarize, some of our most important recommendations for developing a successful business blog:
1. Cultivate a writing style that is characterized by an honest and authentic perspective that demonstrates your passion and expertise. Potential clients reading the blog will be drawn to authenticity above all else - they are not interested in reading promotional writing from the cold voice of a seemingly large business. They would like to support businesses run by people who love what they do and who are able to express their knowledge effectively.
2. Commit to regular posting to encourage loyal readers. Readers subscribe to blogs that are active with regular posts - the frequency of posting will reflect on the activity and vigour of the business itself.
3. Write posts that are on topic and of reasonable length (500 words is a good number to aim for).
4. Link abundantly to helpful resources for your readers and the posts of other blogs. If you make your site rich with resources in your industry, it will help to establish your business’ reputation and attract new clients and like-minded thinkers to help your business grow.
Once blogging on a regular basis and beginning to build new relationships, it can be helpful to keep track of the progress of your blog. Statistics are easy to review for ongoing measurable information about the readers of your blog.
Recommended tools for monitoring statistics are:
You can also visit major blog search engines to find link citations to your site made by other bloggers. A few popular blog search engines are: Technorati, Feedster, Blogpulse and Bloglines.
In measuring your overall ROI and blog success, there are several metrics it can be helpful to review:
Blogging is not only about writing content effectively, but also about building relationships and expanding your professional network. Quality posts come first; promotion of these posts comes second. Both are essential to becoming a blogging success.
Responding to comments is essential. You should think of commenters, as well as your readers, as potential clients or sources of referrals. With this in mind, take the time to reply to their comments in a thoughtful and respectful manner. Responding in a timely manner will show that you appreciate their feedback and set you on track to building a relationship with them.
Responding to negative feedback can be a sensitive area for any business. The advantage of the blog is that these comments happen where you can easily respond to them as opposed to on other sites or through word of mouth to other potential clients. You can use every comment as an opportunity to learn more about your existing or potential clients and their needs.
1. Make sure you are really listening. Read the comment or email carefully before setting out to respond to it.
2. While it may be rare, there is a time when comments can get out of hand. There are people often nicknamed “trolls” who deliberately seek to ignite controversy and will blatantly say offensive things to achieve this. Let your readers know how you will handle unreasonable comments in advance, so that when you take action you have the support of your initial ‘policy.’ While some bloggers do not censor any comments, the level of control you have over them is entirely up to you. Take a position on what you consider an unacceptable comment, and explain this to your readers openly and honestly.
3. Acknowledge the comment with kindness, openness and a willingness to understand. Ask them questions to find out more and if possible, take immediate action to demonstrate you have taken their feedback seriously. Apologize if in error.
4. Consider involving them in the solution to their problem. In most cases they are readers who want to help your business improve - so take advantage of their criticism in order to find out more about how your business can grow through learning about their needs.
Commenting on other blogs is the first step in building out your online network. It is also important for you to give feedback by commenting on the blogs of those you read and respect - this will help to develop relationships and ultimately serve to increase visibility to your blog. Readers will consult the comments section of certain key posts, and if they read a response that is especially well thought out and helpful, there is a good chance they will visit the site. Commenting can also help to build relationships with other bloggers, who may become long term correspondents supporting your business. Effective comments demonstrate careful thought about the post, and do not come across as promotional or self-serving.
The term Social Network refers to a collection of individuals who share a common biological, social or ideological relation. The phrase Social Networking generalizes the current trend of emerging online applications that allow individuals to create symbolic digital connections with others. These virtual relationships allow individuals to share information in a variety of formats. Successful Social Networking services have begun around a variety of common interests. Some focus upon the sharing of photos, music or video while others focus around a common interest such as dating, wine or sports, others allow individuals to notify one another of their whereabouts, activities or upcoming events, and others attempt to encompass all of the aforementioned.
The ability of an organization to build social networks is fundamental to it’s success. Most business functions, such as the hiring of employees, strengthening of corporate culture, marketing of products to consumers, receipt of product feedback and provision of product support rely heavily upon the construction of meaningful social networks. The propagation and integration of technology into the lives of the common public facilitates the emergence of many innovative products and services that assist individuals in maintaining complex interpersonal relationships between acquaintances, colleagues, friends and family. These new technologies grant individuals an unprecedented ability to connect and influence one another instantaneously.
Organizations must recognize the relevance of these new services and learn how to utilize them in order to achieve their business objectives. The influence of globalization expands a consumer’s ability to access the goods and services of competing businesses regardless of their physical proximity. This emerging threat may prove catastrophic for organizations unable to exploit advances in social networking to meet the expectations of their potential customers, employees and affiliates.
Once you’ve started writing - keep them reading. It has been said many times that “Content is King.” Content will become the most important thing that draws in your readers on the blog, creating trust and building loyalty as they learn from your expertise. Through the use of several techniques you can encourage and maintain this readership.
A benchmark for effective content is that you are creating something of value for potential clients. Put yourself in the position of the reader to understand what kind of writing would be useful, and consider what blogging qualities keep you reading and entice you to subscribe to blogs you read.
Here is a list of basic blogging ideas for you to consider. We encourage you to brainstorm additional ideas on your own or with your colleagues before your blog launch, and every few months from there after. This way, you will always have a list of ideas to reference when having difficulty with content development or audience engagement.
Now that we have gone over the anatomy of a blog and the types of interactions that can take place through the blogging medium, it is important to prepare in advance for a professional blogging practice. Forethought about other blogs in your industry, the frequency and types of entries you wish to promote, and attention towards effectively collaborating on the blog with other employees will help to assert control over the qualities of the web presence you wish to develop.
As a blogger you participate in a large virtual conversation, and as in any conversation listening is important. On an ongoing basis it is integral to keep up with other blogs writing about your area of interest so you can react to conversations, and keep up to date with issues affecting your industry.
Using a blog search engine, take some time to find bloggers that are writing about the same or similar topics that you are planning to write about and subscribe to them using an RSS feed reader. A few weeks leading up to the launch of your blog, you should spend some time reading the blogs you’ve subscribe to and try to identify what you think might be missing in terms of valuable information for readers - you may be the one to fill in those blanks.
It is a good idea to set out a minimum number of entries to aim for each week. This will allow you to develop a consistent publishing schedule that your readers can come to depend on. Readers are always wary for abandoned or rarely updated blogs - they are drawn to sites with a regular stream of useful information. To begin, three entries per week is recommended. An even more ambitious goal would be five times per week, one for each weekday.
What you might find when you start blogging is that you are not always in the right mood to write. However, there will be other times where you’ll have lots of ideas and feel like you are able to write multiple entries at once. So do it! Break up longer entries into a three part series, or create multiple independent entries. Instead of publishing all of them at once, consider taking advantage of WordPress’s scheduling posts tool and set up evenly paced publishing.
When all the traditional features of the blog are set in place, your blog will become a part of the blogging community. As a blogger, you will come to understand by putting into practice some of the most integral features of the blogging toolbox. Understanding the following terms will help you to use them with confidence when communicating with other bloggers and establishing a reputable online presence.
When you post content to a blog, you become part of the vast, virtual conversations talking place between bloggers, readers, subscribers and commenters. The blogosphere refers to this virtual network of blogs you participate in as a blogger.
A “passive” or distance commenting in which a blogger references another blogger’s post via the individual post’s Permalink or Trackback link on their blog.
A pingback is a signal that typically notifies blog directories whenever you have updated your blog. There is a section under Options in WordPress where you can also configure it to automatically ping a list of blog directories.
This is the first blog post in a series of six or seven that will look at practical tips for writing a successful blog, using WordPress. These posts are designed to get you started on the right foot with an introduction to common blogging lingo, writing tips and information on how to market your blog.
While blogs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, there are common features to all that define the blog as a communication medium. These features enable larger virtual conversations to take place between bloggers, readers and subscribers.
“Content is king,” an often repeated adage in the blogosphere, speaks to arguably the most important component of your blog. In the form of individual articles, entries, or posts, the main content of the blog is arranged in reverse chronological order with the newest entry closest to the top and identified by date, time, and author.
Identifying the content and/or themes of an individual blog post, titles act as an important indicator for blog readers and subscribers. Quality titles grab reader’s attention and include relevant keywords that can lead to better improved search engine rankings, increased linking by readers and distribution in popular social networks such as Digg and del.icio.us.
Here’s a few articles that should help you optimize your blog titles:
In a section following each post, readers can write responses and share feedback. Depending on the information shared by the commenter, each comment can have a name, web site, date and time associated with it. The names of readers will be hyperlinked if they have their own web site. This section can also contain Trackbacks and Pingbacks.
Each post is stored and cataloged by date in a searchable blog history, or archive. The archive is usually visible on the sidebar, though it may be contained within a separate page.
