What is a Blog?

Steve Bunyan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:35:07 +0000

What is a Blog? is a post from: Small Business Marketing

“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.

Related Websites

Email Marketing 101: The Basics

Steve Bunyan — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:19:45 +0000

Email Marketing 101: The Basics is a post from: Small Business Marketing

To reach 10687 people, just hit send!

Email marketing is a great way to reach large numbers of existing and potential customers easily and at very low cost.

Unlike traditional direct mail, there are no production costs for the mail shots themselves, no envelopes to buy, no tedious envelope stuffing and no postage costs.

Next, consider that delivery is virtually instant, response data is automatic, statistical analysis is simple and most of your list maintenance is done by the subscribers themselves and you’ll soon realise that email marketing is a brilliant tool for small business.

So here’s how to set up your own email marketing system.

You’ll need:

A reason why people should subscribe to your list.
A method for collecting and storing email addresses.
A tool for writing your emails.
A system for delivering those emails.
A tracking tool to collect data about how many were opened, read, acted upon, etc.
To make sure that your email campaigns are ethical and legal.

Why People Should Subscribe to Your Mailing List

There are so many email newsletters out there now that you really need a good reason for people to subscribe to yours. Anyone who has spent any time on the internet at all knows that it’s easy to subscribe to a few email newsletters and before you know it, have an inbox full of junk. For that reason it’s not enough to just ask people to subscribe; you need to give them a really compelling reason to subscribe. The way to do this is to offer them something free, just for subscribing. Something they can download instantly is best – perhaps an eBook or an MP3 file, but be careful. Whatever your freebie is it needs to be of great value to your subscriber. It’s no good offering them some lame 4 page eBook that is really designed to get them to sign up for your expensive online course. The freebie needs to be of great value to them in itself. The best way to do this is to make sure that it is packed full of really useful information, tips, tricks and time saving advice. Yes, some of it could be about other goods and services that you offer, but most of it should be genuinely useful, free advice. As a general rule I would say it needs to be at least 20 pages.

Simplicity

Items 2 to 5 are simple. They are all provided within one system – an email marketing system. A good email marketing systems will collect and store email addresses, automatically deliver your free download, provide you with a tool for writing and delivering email campaigns and a system for collecting and anaylsing data after delivery.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of email marketing systems available, some good, some not so good, and some terrible. I have personally tried about 20 of them. Here are the best ones I have found to date.

Email Plug-Ins for WordPress Users

Newsletter (WordPress Plug-In) – This is brilliant! The main system is totally free. There is a small charge for the upgrade which include statistics.
G-Lock EasyMail (WordPress Plug-In) – Buy once and it’s yours to use without further costs.

Email Marketing for Everyone

AWeber – Monthly subscriptions, externally hosted, very comprehensive system, set up multiple lists.
GetResponse – similar to AWeber above.

Once you’ve chosen your email marketing system, set it up and put a subscription form on your site. Offer a free and valuable giveaway to subscribers and start collecting email addresses.

Next, write your promotional emails. Include special offers, discounts, promotions, latest news, tips, tricks, trade secrets and anything else that will make reading your emails worthwhile to subscribers.

How often should you send out newsletters? Think about your own experiences. Would you want to get a newsletter every day, week or month? My personal view is that quality beats quantity every time, but decide for yourself.

Finally, remember to check the statistical data regularly – it will help you to fine tune your future email campaigns.

Double Opt-In and SPAM

Like me, you are probably tired of getting unsolicited emails every day, i.e. SPAM. The latest one I got was from what appears to be a respectable business who looked my website up on a directory, then filled in my contact form with details of their latest offer. SPAM laws vary from country to country, but because you cannot know where your subscribers come from, you should always work to the strictest interpretations of what constitutes SPAM. Always remember, you cannot annoy someone into buying anything! To avoid annoying people, getting blacklisted and possibly even prosecuted, use a double opt-in mailing system like those above. For more information read wikipedia’s definition of SPAM.