Why should I blog?
The biggest reason to blog is to re-index your web site and have your site more searchable “friendly”. New text= new indexing. The next is to write, research and share with clients (and others) who will benefit from your marketing advice and may eventually hire you because of something you wrote. There are many other reasons to blog and most experienced bloggers actually make money at it. For small businesses starting out the first two reasons make the most sense.

I don’t like to write what should I do?
There are professional bloggers you can hire. But expect to pay between $50-100 per article of 250 words. You can also look up what other bloggers are saying and get ideas for titles. Just do not copy word for word another’s work, or the search engines will penalize you for it and your rankings will actually go down.

How often should I blog?
I’ve been told once a day. I do it once a week, others do it once a month. It depends on your style, your goals and your time.

How should I go about it?
Well, it’s as easy as adding a new page to your web site i.e.: www.abc.com/blog or you can use a variety of other free blogs out there. The Google blog is the obvious free choice if you do not have a web site to address it to. Then you can choose a blog operating format. I think the Word Press is the easiest and most manageable, but there are many others to choose from depending on what results you would like to see and what functionality you would like your blog to have.

What else do you need to know?
I certainly am not a blog expert, I know enough to post a weekly article, tag it with searchable words and publish it. So you need to know that the tags are very important. What are people typing in to look for your services? The links are important within your blog to drive them to the next step in your relationship. I always put my web site link as a signature to each blog post. I also like to include colleague links to refer others or to point to other interesting potential ideas for readers. If you’d like more information on publishing with Word Press I have found this WOW business to be the industry leader. http://www.worldofwebpublishing.com/ . Blogging is really is all about THEM. What can THEY (your customer) gain from this publication? How will it help THEM? Build it and they will subscribe!

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC