“What is a blog?” is a question I hear a lot from small business owners.
My answer is in five parts as follows:
Description of a Blog
A blog is an online journal; a place to write your thoughts, feelings, ideas, comments and viewpoints on any subject you choose. It is like having your own online newspaper column, where you can talk about anything you like. Each article your write is like an article in your own online newspaper column. Over time, these articles grow into a collection of your thoughts, feeling, ideas and so on.
The Difference Between Personal Blogs and Business Blogs
In terms of subject matter, a personal blog can be about anything you like and so doesn’t necessarily need to follow a theme. By contrast, a business blog is usually about subjects which are relevant to your business and as such they normally follow a theme – for example, this blog is all about marketing a small business.
Why a Blog is Useful to Small Businesses
A blog is a great tool for small business for several reasons:
- Search engines (especially Google) love regular, new and unique content: A blog gives them exactly that
- Blogs are often linked to by other websites and blogs: this can bring you more visitors and better listings in the search engines
- If you write regularly about a particular subject, people will begin to see you as an authority in your field
- A blog article is a great way to give something back to your customers; tips, insider knowledge, latest news, reviews and so on
- A small business blog is a great way to promote what you do to potential customers in an indirect way
- A blog is a great way to increase your email marketing list by simply adding a sign up to our newsletter form on your pages (perhaps with a free giveaway for signing up)
How a Business Blog Differs from a Business Website
A business website is usually a collection of pages about the products and services you offer. Individual pages are usually accessed by a menu of some sort. It is a one-way communication from you to the reader.
A business blog is a collection of articles around a central theme. They can be accessed from the blog’s home page (example: Small Business Marketing Blog), and also from categories and tags. This makes finding related articles very simple for the reader. A business blog is also about giving away information freely, it is not usually about selling anything (although it can be through links to affiliate programmes and the like). Unlike a website, a blog gives the reader the opportunity to communicate directly with the author by leaving comments about the articles. This can create really interesting discussions and feedback; it is a two-way communication and the author can choose whether to publish the comments or not.
Different Ways of Starting Your Own Blog
There are lots of ways to start your own blog. Many of them are free, but it is worth noting that free or ‘hosted’ blogs often come with strict restrictions about advertising, affiliate programmes and selling. Free (hosted) blogging platforms included:
If you want to use your blog for commercial purposes it is usually much better to use paid hosting, your own domain and free blogging software. The blogging software of choice for many small businesses is open source and available free, from WordPress.org. It is the number one blogging software because it is so versatile with literally thousands of free themes and plug-ins to help you.
For more help and advice about starting your own small business blog, just leave a reply below, or fill in the Contact Us form.
