Length of Posts

Try to keep your blog posts as short and concise as possible.

Your customers’ time is limited and valuable. People’s attention spans online are usually shorter than they are in print. Most readers only scan and browse sites until something catches their eye.

Readers should be able to finish your article in five minutes. If you have more to say about a particular topic, break it up into multiple posts. If they enjoy the first post, they are more likely to click the links to read further.

Always make a great point, but make it quickly. That way people will want to come back for more.

Compelling Blog Post Titles

Writing compelling post titles is a very important part of blogging.

The title of your article is the first thing people will see and it is often in the largest text other than the name of your blog. It is also what makes your readers decide whether they want to read the rest of your post or not.

Here are a few tips:

• Use a question to encourage people to leave comments.
• Use keywords so search engines can easily find your post.
• Choose keywords that are the most popular search terms.
• Keep it short, simple, and straight forward.

If after you’ve published a blog post it doesn’t seem to be having the draw you thought it would, no worries. Just update the title to see if more traffic comes in.

Measuring Your Blog’s Success

Once you determine your objectives for your business blog, you need to decide how you will track and measure your success.

• If your objective is to sell more product, have your sales increased? By how much?
• If it is to market your services, have you gotten more inquiries or clients?
• If it is to build an online community, how many comments are your posts getting? Or how many new email subscribers?

The most obvious measurement is to track traffic using Google Analytics, but remember that blogging is more of a long-term strategy rather than a short-term one. Do not be discouraged if your blog is not getting thousands of views a day at first. It takes time and effort to build an audience.

Defining Your Blog’s Objectives

Before creating a business blog, make sure your goals and objectives are very clear. Do not start one just because it seems like a good idea or because everyone else is doing it.

What do you want your blog to do for your business? Increase sales? Build better relationships with your customers? Maybe get some feedback from current clients?

Once you have defined your company’s blogging objectives you might even find that what you need is multiple blogs, each with a different goal.

Basic Blogging Info

Did you know that in 2008 blogs in the United States had over 77 million visitors?

Blogs bring more visability for your business, add SEO content to your website, are incredibly easy to update, and create relationships with your customers.

Your business blog can be about industry news, company information, new products or services, any relevant information for your customers, awards, and promotions or sales.

To promote your blog you can use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. You can also mention your blog in your more traditional marketing pieces.

Writing and Social Media Services for small businesses and nonprofits

When a customer is trying to find your company or organization, they no longer use the Yellow pages. They turn to the internet to find whatever it is that they are looking for.

Where do they start? Google. Use your small business or nonprofit blog to generate qualified leads. By having a blog that is updated frequently and uses the correct keywords, your blog posts will appear near the top at Google, Bing, and other search engines. Being one of the first on the list translates into more potential customers clicking on your link instead of your competitor’s.

So now you know why your business needs a blog. Are you too busy actually running your business to write one? If so, then let Karla take care of it for you. For about the same cost as that ad you used to buy in the phone book, Karla will update your blog with high quality posts a couple of times per week.

Karla is also available to manage your company or organization’s various social media accounts, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+.

Contact Karla at karlawheaton@yahoo.com or 207.712.3091.