Example of an Ebook
How to Write a Business Blog and Boost Your Business?
By Tom Bird
IS THIS BOOK RIGHT FOR ME
This book is for those who wish to find a powerful tool to boost their business. No matter whether you are a sole proprietor, the owner of a corporation, or just started your own enterprise – this book will be helpful.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
According to BusinessWeb, “Tom Bird is perhaps the most influential business blogger on the Internet.” His blog – Tom Strauss at his businesses — has been called both a destination and an event. At its second anniversary, it had 84,000 comments, now it’s pushing 70,000. Find out why people say, “You’re only a stranger once.”
Content
HOW BUSINESS BLOGS CAN BOOST YOUR BUSINESS
All kinds of businesses that want to be discovered on the web should have a blog. They need to. Business blogs are an effective and smart way to inform current and potential customers of new products and promotions, improve your popularity rank in search engines, and attract new customers that are searching for topics related to your business. Entrepreneurs can create a blog, where they can place information, both original and from different sources. In this way, your business blog may become a resource of information related to your professional field.
For example, if you own a restaurant, creating and maintaining business blogs with photos, announcements of new menu dishes, and recipes relating to the restaurant, may engage people with your brand and make them come back again. In essence, blogging creates a brand that can become a popular one on the Internet. You will also attract new clients that search online for restaurants and interesting promotions in your city or town.
WHAT DOES BLOGGING PROVIDE TO YOUR BUSINESS?
Blogging is a low-cost tool to having a presence for your business on the web. For small business owners that have no time to learn web html, or no money to hire a developer/designer, blogging becomes a helpful inexpensive tool to put your company profile on the Internet.
Business blogs give to you a chance to share your knowledge and business experience with a larger audience. In addition, blogging is a powerful benefit for trainers and consultants.
Software for blogging is easy to use. Simply write your ideas and thoughts, link to interesting resources, and publish it to your blog. All that is required is the push of a few buttons. For example, you may use blog services such as: WordPress, Blogger, and Tumbler that all offer easy blogging tools to get started.
Updating your blog is much quicker than doing coding and uploading, or contacting a web designer with changes to the website.
Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors. B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month.
STEPS TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS BLOG
1. Strategy
First of all, define what you want to achieve as a result. Why are you making a blog and what is the main subject or topic that you will blog about? Do not repeat sales messages, blog only an extra value content. Copy-pasting the parts of your marketing plan, or scanning business brochures is not the best way to go. Create your content strategy in broad terms and that will be a solid step into the world of blogging.
2. Calls for action
Once the visitors have finished reading your posts, what do you want them to do? You can add a typical call to action to end your post. Just invite people to tell their ideas, find out their experiences on the subject, or find out if your post has missed something important.
You can also ask them to sign up for an email newsletter. Include an email sign-up, or add a button beside each post. In addition, you can navigate your readers to a page on your website. Add related features and links around the post that promotes your products or services.
3. Management
If it is your first business blog, then appoint a person that will take responsibility for developing new content, and managing it. You can handle the blog on your own, or hire a professional blogger. However, remember that no one knows your business as well as you do. So make the choice wisely.
4. Contributors
Even if you own a small business, it will be useful to involve as many people as possible. Look around and ask people that have time and skills to write a post to your blog.
5. How find new content
There are many ways to find new content. Here are some suggestions:
Use Google. Mention suggestions that Google shows you when you type in certain word or phrase.
Use the Google keyword tool to find out what people are frequently looking for on Google and determine target search phrases.
Listen to your clients. Write down their questions and answer them via your blog.
Take a look at the everyday queries you are dealing with. Make a blog post about it.
6. Look at what content you have already created
Search for inspiration everywhere. Do not just copy-paste. Take your training material from courses or seminars, find old research data and case studies and turn them into a relevant and meaningful post for your readers.
7. Calendar
Make a content calendar. Determine what you will write about and when. Remember that you will have to decide how often you should make posts.
8. Waiting
It will take time to become popular, build a community, and be seen as expert. Be patient.
9. How to measure a success of the blog
Analyze the quantity of comments, and readers, Google analytics traffic data, social shares and current sales. You can determine the rise of popularity of your blog and its influence on your business.
10. Enjoy
You talk about your business all day every day so this is just an extension of that. However, if you are blogging just to create new content, people will soon realize that they are getting limited value from your blog.
PRE-SCHEDULING BLOG POSTS
Do you write your posts and publish all of them at one time? Do you know that many blog services provide an option of pre-scheduling posts? For example, you can finish a post on Monday at noon and have it automatically posted at Tuesday morning. Such an option will help you organize your time, and make for more effective blog posting.
Here are three benefits you get using pre-scheduling when writing your business blog:
1. Improved efficiency
Sometimes you have inspiration to write and you have a lot to tell, and you do not want to waste it. At other times, you need to write a post, but nothing comes up. Writing while you are in the mood will be more productive, so you can spend less time on blogging. Just schedule your posts for future dates.
2. Improve quality
To get a fresh look at your post you need to walk away from writing for some time. If you do not, you may miss things when you proofread the post. If you schedule your posts, you have more time to proofread them and find errors before they go live to your readers.
3. Improve consistency
If you pre-schedule posts, you do not have to worry about publishing them at the right time. Scheduled posts allow readers to know when to expect the new one.
WRITING A CONTENT TO THE BLOG
Does your blog have a content strategy? Are you using content effectively in your blog? Do you know what a content strategy is? Some tips are:
Content management is when you create, distribute, and share interesting content related to your business to achieve specific benefits. Those benefits might engage new clients for your business, or result in rising direct sales. Your blog post may include content such as texts, data collections, images, video and audio.
Here are nine kinds of content you may use in content strategy for your business blog:
1. Articles
2. Infographics
3. Guest blog posts or feature articles
4. Online video
5. Reports or white papers
6. E-books
7. Podcasts or audio
8. Seminars and courses
9. Social media profiles (updates, tweets, etc.)
How do I make readers pay attention to my content? Every blogger asks this question. When looking for answers, you need to ask yourself a few questions.
1. Is this topic actual? This is a major question. The information has to interest the current and potential readers. The following are topics for postings to your business blog.
New product or service
Improvements or expansion of products or services
Organization or staff changes
Achievements by company or personnel
Information resources
Response to problems or crisis
Special events
Your donations
Awards
Giveaways or promotions
Case studies
Research findings
Human interest stories
2. Find a special angle for each story. Write different specialized releases, or one generic post, depending on the audience covered. Determine the local appeal and unique aspects of the story. You can combine several different aspects to expand the appeal of your message. For example, you can tell an interesting story with a product announcement in one post.
3. What is the purpose of the post? Knowing your objective and goal gives, you focus on writing. Below is a list of possible goals.
Maintain or increase awareness
Establish credibility and authority; build brand
Become an expert source
Promote products or services
Increase sales
Drive traffic to your main site
Expand market share
4. Does your post answer the relevant questions? Is it concise?
A web reader takes about five seconds to decide whether or not to read your post. Use not only attention grabbing headings, but also fluent content. Go short on adjectives, and long on facts. Use short sentences for easy reading. The best approach is to include enough information to allow a reader to understand it at first sight. Remember that a long post may turn away the reader, so keep your post short and simple.
5. Does it need an illustration or graphics?
Using visual aids will give your post greater impact. Remember that the illustration should be relevant and good quality.
6. Should it been reviewed?
If you are new to writing posts, it will be a good idea to ask someone proofread your blog post. As you are not experienced, you might miss errors.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS BLOG AN AUTHORITY SOURCE IN YOUR SPHERE
One of the best things you can do for your business blog is to make it a source of authoritative content. People trust blogs with authority, and come back to them again and again. Also, they tell other people about the blog and share information. That leads to a larger community, traffic improvement, and more reach to your customers.
Here are a few tips to make your business blog an authority source.
1. Talk about more than your business. You may write a post about related problems and interesting information.
2. Don’t be anonymous. If you want readers to trust your blog and content, include your name and names of people who make a contribution with posts.
3. Get authorative bloggers into your blog. Ask a blogger with authority to write about your blog, or make a post for you. This will give more authority to your business blog. Even if it is only several times, you will get the attention of readers.
Writing a blog is much more than slapping some words on a website. Professional bloggers should understand this, and offer content that effectively appeals to the target audience. Here are some things to consider to become a professional blogger:
Know how to engage with your audience. Understand your target audience and their needs. This will allow you to have more opportunity for meaningful conversations with current and prospective customers, rather than simply having them read your blog.
Invest the time for blogging. Even if you are very busy running your business, find time for writing. You may need to hire a professional blogger to maintain your blog.
Develop a blog content strategy. It should be based on your goals for the blog — from customer support to search engine rankings.
These are a few tips for business blogging that will get you moving in the right direction. Blogging can be an easy and fun way to boost your popularity on the web, and develop a community of people who are interested in the information you provide them. It allows you to develop a brand, a style and voice for your business.
So, stop excuses! Next time someone asks why you have not got a business blog, now you can say that you have a plan! Just put your plan into action and start your business blog today.
