Small Biz Blog Wiz - Easy, Affordable and Productive Blogging for Small Businesses

What are You Missing by Not Blogging?

There is no reason that most small business shouldn't be blogging with the barriers to blogging as low as they are. Yet, there are many still holding out. I offer these business owners a quick list of blog benefits they are missing out on:

1. Exposure - A blog helps "get your name out there" in a big way. More importantly, a blog helps you get in front of people actually looking for your product or service. Your blog will receive quality traffic from people that want to hear about you, learn from you, etc. Your blog gets you local, national and even international exposure for your business.

2. Leadership - Let them learn. As a blogger in your niche market you can stand out among the rest, especially with the insights you have about your industry. Don't hide your genius. Share it with the world through a blog. Their are people looking for high-quality analysis of the issues in your industry. Be the one that provide that analysis and brand yourself as the expert you truly are.

3. Business - The bottom line is all that matters. Your blog can help build your business by attracting customers and prospects to you. Business is just more fun (and a heckuva lot more profitable) when the world is beating a path to your door. Let your blog be your business's front door and pretty soon you will hear opportunity knocking.

The entire list could be much longer, but these top three benefits can have the biggest potential positive impact on your business. Or, they can be the biggest gaping holes for non-blogging businesses. With blogging as easy and affordable as it is, what's stopping you from using a blog to grow your business?

Should We Be Working Together?

Should we be working together to build your small business blog? Take a look at the 5 questions below to find out:

1. Are you a sole-proprietor, home-office worker or small business owner?

2. Do you mainly service your local area?

3. Do you strive to be ahead of your local competition and know as an industry leader?

4. Are you hesitant about web technologies, internet marketing and online advertising?

5. Are you willing to invest 15 minutes to discuss the possibility and potential of a blog for your small business?

If you answered YES to all five questions then we should definitely be working together. Call me (480-430-0301) and let's chat about the possibility of bringing your business online easily, affordably and productively.

Ask for the Order on Your Blog

Good small business owners know the importance of asking for the order. The same holds true for your web site or blog. Tell visitors what you want them to do and they are more likely to do it - plain and simple.

Link: Crafting a Persuasive "Call to Action" on Your Site

"After your headline, your call to action is the most important element on your website. It should stand out from the rest of your copy and be easy for visitors to find. To draw attention to it, use bolding, a larger font size, a different color--whatever best suits the style of your site."

Is Your Blog Ready for More Visitors

As more people access to the internet via broadband connections, more time will be spent online, more interaction and discussions will occur and, of course, more money will be spent. Is your small business blog in position to take advantage of this coming tidal wave of visitors ? If you're not sure then contact me.

Link: USATODAY.com - Middle class goes broadband as price falls

"Broadband adoption increased 59% from March last year to March 2006 among U.S. households with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000, according to a survey to be released Monday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project."

What is RSS?

RSS. Those three letters have risen to a place of prominence in the last few years. Some believe that RSS is the end of email (wrong). Others believe that RSS is a bit player, that it won't last and is of no use to the small business owner (also wrong). We'll cover the potential for RSS to transform your marketing in a future post, but first we need to find out...exactly what is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in the new technology that people are using to "subscribe" to their favorite blogs. Think of subscribing to a blog much like subscribing to the newspaper. The newspaper arrives at your doorstep each and every morning. No need to leave home and go get it, no wondering if its there and no concerns that you have mistakenly receive yesterday's newspaper.

The same applies when using RSS. By adding a blog's RSS address to your computer's software, all of the latest posts from the blogs you subscribe to are delivered to you every morning or whenever you choose to log-on. You just log-on and all of the posts that you haven't read yet are ready for your review. You can pick and choose what you want to read, subscribe or unsubscribe from different blogs or share posts  and other useful content with colleagues.

The beautiful thing about reading blogs and other web content using RSS is that you don't need to go from site-to-site checking to see if the content has changed. One log-in delivers all of your new content right to your virtual doorstep. No surfing to a bunch of sites that may or may not have been updated since your last visit. Let the software do the hardwork of checking those sites or blogs and you can enjoy the fruits as you sit down to read the new content that has been electronically delivered to your virtual front door.

As RSS technology becomes more widespread, the type of content or information you can receive via RSS becomes broader. Not only can your favorite blogs be delivered to you every morning, you can also receive weather, news, your calendar appointments; heck, even your favorite World Cup team's schedule can delivered to you via RSS. So, start by getting an account with Bloglines or Newsgator (two easy-to-use, web-based "newsreaders" - this is the software that finds new content from your favorite blogs), subscribe to a few feeds (start with this one) and let the fun begin!

Blogging for Nonprofits Easy as Lunch

Blogging can be easy and casual for businesses or nonprofit organizations. Here is a great post about finding your conversational voice and blogging like its a business lunch.

Link: studio 501c: a blog can be like a business lunch

"It's a “business-lunch blog” -- a simple, general blog that chronicles events and ideas in the life of the nonprofit organization.  I call it that because the tone and topics are similar to that of a conversation you might have with one of your stakeholders -– a donor, client, staff member, board member -- over lunch."

Public Relations Through Blogging

If your name hasn't been in the newspaper (the police blotter and obituaries don't count!) in the past 90 days then your public relations need some tweaking. And there is no better way to tweak your public relations than with a blog.Your blog can be a great first step in establishing strong relationships with local reporters who cover your industry.

First, set up your blog. Make it uncluttered, proffessional and easy-to-read. Ensure that email and RSS susbcriptions are easy to find and use.

Next, start posting good content related to your area of expertise. Offer articles and information along with opinion and analysis of news and current events related to your industry. This is a great way to be seen by fellow bloggers and mainstream media journalists researching stories and events.

Last, let some important people know about it. Look for events and opportunities that put you in the same room as local reporters, editors and producers. Make sure the appropriate folks hear about your blog. Next time a story appears about your area of expertise, offer additional information and analysis on your blog, then email the reporter to let him about your comments. Make sure you have something to say and then let the right people know that you've said it. This will also help to establish yourself as an expert that can relied upon for quotes in future stories.

It only takes a couple small steps to get your public relations ball rolling, especially when you have a blog to use as your soapbox.

Will the Search Engines Find Your Blog?

Building a business blog is a great idea that's easy to implement. Getting a significant amount of traffic via the search engines is a great idea that can be a bit more challenging, albeit very rewarding. Here is a comprehensive article with practical advice on how to optimize your blog for search engines. The quote below from the article is especially useful for all business bloggers.

Link: Optimization for Business Blogs ~ ISEdb.COM

"The important thing to remember is that no matter how many optimization tactics you employ with a blog, there is no substitute for quality content. Blog optimization is only as effective as the quality and usefulness of the content you’re optimizing. "

Engage in the Conversation

So, you've started blogging about your small business (if you haven't, what are you waiting for), you're starting to see visitors targeted to your site for certain search terms, and you now want to start engaging others regarding your area of expertise - your business! Here is how to get started:

Comments - Comments are, by far, the easiest and most direct way to engage in the conversation. You leave comments on other people's blogs and other people leave comments on your blog. The conversation is engaged and business happens! Be sure to post relevant comments on blogs within your industry. Also, using a tool such as coComment allows you to more easily track your comments and conversations.

Trackbacks - Trackbacks are great way to tell someone that has written a blog post that you'd like to opine on, "Hey, I thought your post was interesting. Here's what I have to say about that issue on my site." Trackbacks are easy to use and effective. When used appropriately, they are also a great way to drive traffic to your site. Of course, trackbacks are two-way - other bloggers can also trackback to what you've said on your blog, furthering the conversation and building the community.

Pings - Pinging is similar to trackbacks, but instead of saying, "Here is what I have to say about your post," a ping tells the blog search engines, "Hey, I just said something on my blog. Come on over and check it out." It's a method of letting the blog search engines know that you've updated your blog. You can a pinging services to ping multiple blog search engines at once. I recommend Pingoat and Ping-O-Matic.

These three technologies are central to what blogging is all about. Use them and you will be effectively engaging people, attracting visitors to your blog and marketing yourself with every comment, trackback or ping you send.

No Web Site? No Blog? No Problem!

If you're in business then you've already given at least some thought to an easy-to-use, affordable AND productive web presence. Most Web site development processes and providers are ridiculously technical and difficult to understand. This is an unnecessary burden to the business owner which leads to fewer companies going online.

When I purchase a pizza, I don't know (and certainly don't care) about the pre-heating requirements of the oven. I just want the result - a well-cooked, delicious, hot pizza pie. The same applies to blog and Web site development. Why should you have to bothered by the endless alphabet soup (RSS, HTML, XML, PHP, etc.) of how the oven (web technology) works? You really just need - yes, need - to harness its power (let it cook the pizza) and maximize its benefits to, in this case, grow your business (eat and enjoy the pizza).

That is where I step in. Give me a call (480-430-0301) and let's chat for 10 minutes about the future of your business and how you can maximize the power of the web to grow your bottom line.

And if you're in the Phoenix-area, I'd be happy to treat you to a pizza!