The word 'blog' seems to bandied about in business circles as the 'must have' item of the moment, but what is all the fuss about and do you really need one?
To help you decide whether you should have a blog, this short article is based on the questions that we asked when thinking about the subject.
What is a blog?
The term blog is the commonly known term for web log and is basically a collection of entries posted up onto a site that can be viewed on thee World Wide Web. They are generally displayed in date order (most recent first) and allow visitors to comment on each entry (although not essential).
There a number of blogging platforms that make it very easy to create your own. The best known are WordPress and the Google owned Blogger. According to Wikipedia, there were over 150 million blogs in October 2011 and that figure will be dwarfed by the number of blogs today.
What are the benefits of having a blog?
1. Google loves blogs! One of the most important ranking factors these days is having fresh unique content on your site. A blog is a very simple way of adding this regularly and is likely to contain the keywords that you want Google to associate with your business.
2. Keep your customers and potential customers updated with what is going on. This can include upcoming events, special offers, general news about your business or field of work. In fact, anything that is relevant and may be of interest can be utilised to encourage visitors to return.
3. You may be able to become an expert in your field. A better term may be authority as we were always told that the word expert means has been (ex) and drip under pressure (spurt)! If you write about interesting and/or useful issues that relate to your line of work, you may find that you start to build a following and this in turn could lead to all sorts of networking opportunities.
4. It is extremely therapeutic! The opportunity to get things off your chest, share things that make you laugh or cry and airing your views (within reason) can be a great way to reduce stress levels.
5. You can reach the whole world and it is really cheap!
How do I start my own blog?
If you are technically minded, you probably wont need to read this paragraph. However, if you are like me and would prefer to leave all the geek stuff to someone else and get on with running your business, you will be please dot know that here is an easy, relatively painless and inexpensive way to create your own blog.
To help get you on your way, we have created a simple step-by-step guide top creating your own blog .
As we cannot be experts in every relevant subject, we would love to receive 'guest' articles that may be of interest to anyone running their own business or thinking of doing so. ADD YOUR ARTICLE
