How to start a good business blog
Writing a blog is a great way to manage your career… if done right. You will broaden your network of contacts, learn a tremendous amount, and you might even have some fun doing it. But where to start?
I have been thinking about writing a post on this for a while, and was prompted into action by a great email from Mike Bubyn. So far, I have been lucky enough to get a reasonable amount of traffic on Innovation Creators and a few friends have asked me how they can set up their own blog. For what it’s worth, here’s my advice:
Steps for getting your business blog set up
If you want to create a professional looking site and generate a reasonable amount of traffic, you will probably want to do more than just sign up for a site at blogger.com. However, it is still very easy. The whole process should only take you an hour or two.
- Select a good blog host. I recommend Wordpress.com. Top business bloggers use them. Wordpress themes mean you can put together a professional look within minutes. Right behind them is TypePad. If you are interested in playing with the technical details of a blogging system and getting some hacking experience, get an account at TextDrive and install Wordpress. If you want to be really cutting edge, install Typo
- Register your blog with Technorati. Technorati helps you keep track of who is linking to your blog. Blogging is all about community and conversation. Technorati is a critical tool that can be used to facilitate that conversation.
- Prepare to track who is coming to your blog. Get Sitemeter, Performancing or Google Analytics. You can even get all three. All three ask you to cut and paste a little snippet of code into you template. The code helps you to keep track of what people are reading and who is linking to your site.
- Immediately put together a blog roll of related blogs that you are impressed with. This will be useful for your visitors, and it will help with your search engine rankings.
- I think it is a good idea to post your photo. It worked for Ross Mayfield and Doc Searls. Blogs are primarily about communication, and a photo helps establish a connection with your readers - or maybe its best to think of it the other way round; the photo helps your readers to feel more connected to you.
- In the about page, put together a few short sentences of what you are trying to accomplish.
- Register with feedburner. They’ll give you a snippet of code that will help you keep track of how many people are subscribing to your feed.
- Add your email address on the site, but use an email obfuscator. I recommend one by Tim Williams. You can get the code at www.jottings.com/obfuscator
Tips on actually writing a successful business orientated blog and creating significant traffic.
- Remain professional - no personal attacks against people inside or outside your company. Flames might be funny, but a business blog represents you online. A personal blog is a marketing tool. The brand is you. Don’t do anything to needlessly tarnish that brand. For example, even though she aims to be a fringe blogger, Miss Rouge’s HorseCowPig blog is a great main stream example of a how you can write an interesting, fun, professional and highly successful blog without slamming people on a regular basis.
- Write at least 50% of your posts in a vacuum, or at least only in reaction to what is happening within your world and the challenges you are facing. If you have writer’s blog, er.. writer’s block, you can go to something like techmeme and see what people are discussing. However, I think it is always better to try and start with your own ideas.
- Respond to comments. I recommend keeping comments open, but moderating them. There is a lot of comment spam out there, just as there is a lot of track back spam out there. Do not let people automatically post all comments directly. You’ll find yourself linked to every spam blog (or splog) out there.
- If you write about a good article on another site, try to add value. XYZ said this, which made me think about ABC.
- Link to other bloggers. If you are taking about Google, and you want to comment on something they are doing, such as Google Trends, go to technorati and find someone who is blogging about Google Trends. This is sharing the wealth.
- A good rule of thumb is at least 2 links per post
- Remember that your blog is like an extended cover letter. Do not put anything in your blog that you will not be proud of. For every job you apply for, there is a chance that your prospective employer will read your entire blog.
Advice on style
- Be bold about each thesis you put together. I think of each blog post as a mini essay. An essay with a strong clear thesis is generally more interesting. I once heard a rumor that the Economist tells its writers that the magazine’s moto is: simplify, simplify, exaggerate. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, it’s a good guide.
- People like lists and shorter posts. It’s a good idea to keep it short sweet and direct. I’m afraid I don’t often take my own advice on this one. I have written posts that print out as 15 page pdfs.
The number one rule for creating a successful business blog.
- Stick with it. Lots of people blog for 3 months and stop. You need to blog constantly, and at a constant pace. If your audience expects 1 a day, you have produce 1 a day. if your audience expects 1 a week, that’s fine, but make sure you produce 1 a week. You will loose a lot of momentum if you suddenly stop for 2 weeks. Expect it to take months to build up a sizable audience.
Sticking with it is actually the only hard and fast rule to creating a successful business orientated blog.
Good luck.
Interesting Finds
Web Office
Rod Boothby’s paper on Web Office is a great vision piece on what the future of office productivity may…
Rod, this is a great article and I highly recommend your tips here to anyone who’s just getting started at business blogging. Actually, even the experienced ought to take something new away from your ideas.
You didn’t talk very much in your post about how or why to monitor what others are saying about you and how that skill can help you boost your traffic and your reputation as well. Maybe you could do another post explaining what you think about that? I’d be interested in what you have to say.
Web Office
Rod Boothby’s paper on Web Office is a great vision piece on what the future of office productivity may…
“no personal attacks against people inside or outside your company.”
Only a Canadian would say this, eh?
Easton,
Thanks for the comment. Monitoring what people are saying, and being part of the conversation are critical. I’m not sure I do a great job of it myself. Though I tend to find a lot of cool and interesting blogs by checking on the referal links in SiteMeter.
What do you do to monitor the conversation around your blog?
Dominic,
Did you notice my Red and White colour scheme?
There’s no maple leaf, but it’s pretty close.
You’ve offered some great tips here. As a blogger for about a year and a half now, I’m learning more and more everyday. I especially like your last tip. If you feel very passionate about your blog, it should be something that should be in the long-term plan.
Patience, persistence, and perserverance are the characteristics of a great blogger and business person. Thanks for sharing!
Rod, thanks for the question.
Like you, I use Sitemeter and check those referral URLs. I also have an assortment of “ego feeds” set up using PubSub, Technorati, Google Blogs Search, and a few other sources. These feeds notify me when someone mentions my name, my blog’s name, my company’s name, or even my topic of interest (business/corporate blogging).
It does take a few minutes to set up those search feeds, but once they’re up and running, they save a blogger lots of time.
Good to see you posting here.These are all great reasons to start a business blog, and I bet a lot of business owners don’t know them yet. Guys like you and me sure have our work cut out for me.
————–
Muthu
Business Sales
Just ran across this post, and must say even though today is 2 years past the OPD, this is great advice. And it’s still applicable today. I think everyone should read this who is planning on starting a blog (or currently has their own.) Required reading! Great work.
Great post. I recommend the tips here. Very effective.
Great tips.
Would add:
- don’t split the post in more pages if not necessary, just for the purpose of increasing impressions
- avoid embedded linking advertising (the nasty kind of ADs that you get rolling the mouse over some link)
- avoid huge advertising between the title and the post content
Enrico
Stick with it, stick with it, stick with it. AND make sure it is ACTUALLY feasible to rank for what you are trying to rank for. My blog for starting a cleaning business advice has made me a nice living!
thanks for your good tips,blog to make money at the end of the cost comparison is a good way, I also try to have the opportunity to..
Great tips and a great find. Motivated me to action thank you.
Many great resources here! I had no clue about feedburner, so actually being able to see how many people are coming on board will be a huge motivator for me. Thanks much!
Kit in Seattle
You got some great material on here, I see why people love your blog so much. Will make sure we subscribe to rss and keep up with your new stuff. Thanks so much for writing. Me and my family are on 3 year trip around the world having a blast. Come visit our blog we update with all types of crazy stuff.
Unstoppable Family
Brian and Rhonda Swan
Some great hints here as I am just thinking about beginnging in the world of blogging and am just getting some thoughts together.
BTW its HORSEPIGCOW not horsecowpig (as if it makes a difference, lol)