You run a small business, you have a website, you advertise, you do all the usual things you should to promote your business, you can take that to the next level with a blog.

Ideally you should have a blog as part of your website, off a URL on your site such as http://www.example.com/blog/ or as a subdomain such as http://blog.example.com/ you can easily set up blogs on sites such as wordpress.com and blogger.com to use your domain, so you don’t even have to host it on your web server.

Blogging is a great way to connect with your customers/clients, it lets you showcase your expertise in your area, and give the latest information out to your customers. It doesn’t take long, if you do start a blog, you need to update it regularly, but just half an hour a day to do a post is just fine. Make sure when you do post a blog entry, it’s relevant to your site, and keep it brief. You want to talk to your customers on your blog as if you’re talking to a friend. Answer comments if you get any, and promote your blog. Most of all you can engage your customers in a conversation, this will give you more of an idea what your customers actually want.

The main advantages of blogging:
  • Get good relevant content on your site – good for getting high a rank in search engines.
  • Get people linking to your site – good for getting high ranks in search engines.
  • It showcases your expertise – if you can demonstrate your expertise, people trust you.
  • It shows how passionate you are about your business – you are in business, you have to be passionate about your chosen business, or you wouldn’t be doing it.

How to start a blog:

  • Contact me – I can help you set up a blog for your business.
  • Use a free blog provider such as wordpress.com or blogger.com.
  • Install blog software on your web host, you usually need PHP and MySQL on your hosting.