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5 Tips for Successful Blogging

12 November 2009

, Author - Allan Kent

What is a Blog?

It’s short for ‘weblog’ and is in effect like an always online newsletter, but different in that it encourages 2 way communication. It is a great opportunity to offer real time information and give your audience the opportunity not only to add their own opinions, but to see those of others. Some people might see it as the online version of ‘Talk back radio’ and we know how successful that has been!

A Blog can have some real business benefits (see below for some examples), but in order to realise those results, you have to, at the very minimum, cover off the 5 points below effectively:

 

  1. Define your Audience
    Only once you know who your audience is can you go about meeting their needs. What is likely to be helpful or interesting to them? What will encourage them to engage, participate, refer others, come back again and again?
  2. Valuable Content
    The content will only be valuable if it is interesting or useful to your target audience. Make sure you write content to their level. Will they understand your technical jargon? If not, don’t use it.
  3. Keep in mind Search Engine content indexing
    Write content for your audience, but keep in mind relevant search key words as they need to be able to find your content. Is your audience from the same country or from around the world? Do you need to use different terminology – for example if you are writing about camper vans, remember the Americans call them Recreational Vehicles or RV’s and would no doubt use these search terms rather than the search terms we might use. If you have a website, placing the blog within it will help the site rank better as the Blog content adds to the webs content providing the search engines with more text to index.
  4. Ensure that the Blog is easy to read
    Make sure that the colours are easy on the eye (black text on a white background always works well), the font is not too small and navigation between topics is easy to understand.
  5. Browser compatibility
    Ensure that your Blog displays as it should on all the main browsers. Nothing will deter your audience from engaging in your Blog more than a Blog that is obviously not displaying properly on their browser.

Some of the more obvious business benefits from running a Blog include:

  • Relationship building – between the company and your customers
  • Viral marketing – Blogs are ideal tools to promote word of mouth marketing
  • Market research – finding out what your customers really think and using them for their suggestions for improvements
  • As a technical support aid – perhaps replacing a traditional Frequently Asked Questions page
  • Brand building – putting your name and expertise out there

Karen

11:19 a.m. Thursday, 15 October 2009

I think that your comments are good to note, particularly in terms of writing blog content that is relevant to search engines for our particular target audience here in New Zealand.

Kevin Butchart

5:00 p.m. Thursday, 15 October 2009

Hi, I think those tips are really useful. Here's another one to maybe add to the list. If it is a company Blog, decide who is to be the 'voice' of the Blog. Beware of letting it become a free for all amongst staff, even management. There needs to be some control, some consistency regarding what is being said on the company's behalf. In addition guidlines may well have to be set determining how much time should be given to blogging.

Garth

10:47 a.m. Friday, 16 October 2009

your explanation clarifies the reasons to have a blog. many thanks for the tips. now all I need to do is to implement them.

kiroshimasylvia

8:31 a.m. Monday, 2 August 2010

I like this particular article It gives me an additional input on the information around the world Thanks a lot and keep going with posting such information. I appreciate the concern which is been rose.

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