No Comments Written by Robert on April 10, 2008 – 8:58 pm

For many, a blog is a sort of online diary, a place where others can go to find out what someone is thinking about or doing. You’re probably less familiar with blogs as business tools. The fact is that successful blogs are generating money for their owners.

Many blogs have gained regular followings, and the number of users means that they also function as lucrative advertising tools. But money isn’t the only business advantage to creating an online blog for your small- or medium-sized business. You can use blogs to help build your business in several different ways:

Placing ads. Many bloggers are out to attract as many visitors as they can. Once they get a steady audience, they can use a service like Blogads or Google’s AdSense to generate advertising revenue.

Building community. All blog tools, including Blogger, give readers a way to comment on what the authors say. Other readers can comment on previous comments; the author can comment on the comments in another blog post; and the resulting dialog bonds everyone and creates a lively site of devoted ‘‘followers.’’

Making announcements. A blog gives you a way to get the news out about new product lines or promotions before ads hit the newspapers and long before the printed catalog arrives in a customer’s mailbox.

Placing affiliate ads. You sign up for well-known programs that steer potential buyers to Amazon.com or eBay.

Building interest in your Web site. By talking about yourself, your knowledge, or your services, you encourage customers to commit to them.

Asking for donations. If you need a few extra bucks, you make use of the PayPal Tip Jar, a feature that gives visitors a way to donate to your cause.

A blog is actually quite a sophisticated Web site in its own right. But Blogger takes away the technical hurdles of setting up archives and allowing comments to be posted, and lets you control the content. Starting out a blog is the easy part so easy that you are able to concentrate on making your blog stand out from the crowd.

How you do that is easy to say and far less easy to carry out: You come up with something compelling to say, and you keep adding fresh content on a regular basis. You can also customize your blog if you wish, adding images, unique typefaces and headings, and a look and feel that matches your Web site. The sections that follow describe both the technical aspects of getting started and the content behind your business blog.

Getting Started with Google Blogger

The mechanical part of creating a blog is straightforward: you start by going to Blogger. Like other Google services, Blogger is free to set up and use as long as you wish.

1. Click the ‘‘Create Your Blog Now’’ arrow and sign in with your existing Google account.
2. The page ‘‘Create a Google Account’’ will appear. Click on the ‘‘sign in first’’ link as you already have a Google Account at this point. (If you don’t have a Google Account for some reason, just complete the form according to the directions on the page.)
3. After you sign in, you will be prompted to ‘‘Sign up for Blogger.’’ Fill in your ‘‘Display Name,’’ check off that you accept the Terms of Service, and click the ‘‘Continue’’ arrow to continue.
4. Go to a page called Name Your Blog. You are prompted to enter a title and URL for your blog or to choose to host your blog some place else. At this point you realize: I’ve got to figure out what I want to do with this blog. Who do I want to reach? What am I going to say? And most important: Am I really prepared to write something in a blog every day, or am I going to get people to help me with this? Before you move forward, take a moment to do some thinking about your blog’s goals and objectives.

Determining What You’re Going to Say

A blog is a powerful tool for reaching new customers or holding on to existing ones and building loyalty provided you actually have something to say, something that your audience will want to read and that will keep them coming back to you on a regular basis.

Even if you never place an ad on your blog page, you can gain benefits from viral marketing: the word-of-mouth advertising that often comes from creating a blog that develops a ‘‘buzz.’’ Suppose your company sells umbrellas. You can use your blog to share your knowledge and passion for umbrellas. Keep in mind that, with your blog, you’re trying to connect with people who share the same passion who love this particular type of product and want to hear more about it.

Your first step in planning your blog might be compiling a list of possible topics:

• News. If you partner with a new fabric supplier or purchase a new line of exotic rosewood to use in creating your umbrellas, you should announce that in your blog.
• Humor. If you or someone in your company has a good sense of humor you can gather jokes or humorous anecdotes about umbrellas and how they have been used through the ages.
• Instruction. You know a lot about umbrellas, and you can convey your knowledge about materials, sizes, or rare brands to your customers in your blog posts.
• Positive publicity. Use your blog to spread positive information about your company; a blog is the perfect place to announce a charitable donation or a campaign to help a good cause, for instance.
• Give out inside information. You don’t have to reveal trade secrets in your blog, but you can talk about individual employees, manufacturing techniques, or other ‘‘behind the scenes’’ glimpses into your company that will put a human face on your products.

The topics above could also be covered in a newsletter or a Letter from the CEO posted on your Web site. A blog is not the only place where you can communicate to your employees. Ideally, you’ll use all of these communications tools to get the word out. But why is a blog better than these other, more traditional venues? For one thing, a blog has an air of timeliness of being an up-to-the-minute record of events.

These days, visitors to Web sites turn to blogs before they turn to newsletters or other pages because they are used to finding out what’s new and getting the information in easily digestible bits. Your blog posts don’t have to be lengthy or even overly substantive: just keep up with them and say something new on a regular basis, and people will keep coming back.

Coming Up with a Title

A good blog title is like a good Web page title: it’s short and easy to remember. Not all blog titles actually tell you something about the contents of the blog before you visit it. Some of the most famous ones, like Instapundit, indicate that you’re going to be listening to someone spout off about all sorts of topics. But others are simply clever and easy to recall:

• Blog Jam (the blog of radio station WEMU).
• Boing Boing. A Directory of Wonderful Things, an award-winning blog ranked most popular by Technorati.
• The Huffington Post. This popular site contains a blog by Ariana Huffington but also includes blogs by many other contributors. The title promotes the author and builds her brand and credibility.
• Gawker. The title of this New York-based gossip site brings to mind passersby gawking at something strange or awful, which describes the contents pretty well. If you want to scan some of the most successful blogs and view titles in a convenient list, go to the Popular Blogs page on the Technorati site (http://technorati.com/pop/blogs).

Identifying Who You Want to Reach

When you have a clear idea of the kinds of readers you want to attract to your blog, you’ll have a better idea of what to say every time you sit down at your keyboard. Are you trying to attract new customers, or to give existing buyers a reason to visit your Web site to find out about new products or services? The people who tend to flock to blogs tend to be:

• Young
• In a hurry
• In need of quick information
• Looking for insights they can’t get elsewhere

Once you decide who you want to reach you can tailor your content to fit the audience. But the hardest part of blogging isn’t actually setting up the blog in the first place, but keeping it going. Consider building your blog activities into your regular daily schedule so it becomes a matter of routine and you can keep up with it. And remember to stay ‘‘on topic’’ so you don’t drive away the audience you already have.

Happy blogging!

R.