Blogging to Promote Your Business Online
Recently I wrote about the top ten ways to promote your online business. The top ten online marketing methods include social media, video, blogging, guest blogging, content marketing, public speaking, SEO, PPC, social advertising, and email marketing. Blogging to promote your business on your own website is one of the fastest and easiest things you can do. When done well blogging gives readers interesting and useful content. With careful research and planning, it can help your search engine optimization campaigns, and it helps to establish you as an expert in your field.
I am assuming you already have a website setup. If you do not I recommended a low cost web hosting plan which will run you about $5 per month. For easy maintenance, use a prewritten content management system. I use WordPress for all of my blogs.
To begin blogging identify a topic you understand well, break it down into bits and begin writing as if you are teaching a class or talking to a friend. For example, a good friend of mine is a very skilled recreational photographer, so he writes about it, but breaks it down into sections like camera lenses, lighting, backgrounds, etc… I return to his website for tips on what lenses to buy or tips on lighting design.
Blogging makes your business or ecommerce website a resource rather than just a store. Your blog become a source of information. It is okay to link to products for sale, as long as it is not the focus of the blog post. My friend the photographer has tons of great photography and video tips, but he also sells some online courses too!
Blog as often as you can. The more you can write, the faster your website will be built out. If you are writing for SEO efforts, then try to add at least two blog posts a week. After writing a blog post, do not assume readers will just flock to your website to read it. Be sure to promote your new blog post on social media, in an email blast, or with a press release.
