To blog or not to blog?

by Guy Levine - Tuesday, 20th May 2008 - (3) comments

Why do those techie types have to give things such silly names? The word "blog" is a shortened form of the words "web log" – a place where you can "log" what is going on in your life, business or chosen subject. Sure, it’s a bit "beam me up Scottie" – but if you have a website and don’t have a blog, you're at a severe disadvantage.

So, if you need a few tips on getting started, here's our Entrepreneurs' Guide to Blogging:

1. Start a blog for your business, but make sure it is attached to your website. Something like www.yourwebsite.com/blog . The industry standard and my favourite is Wordpress from wordpress.org. You may need a little help having it installed. It’s really expandable and easy to use.

2. Write on your blog regularly. At least once every three days in the beginning. This means when a search engine finds it, it will keep on coming back as there will be fresh content for it to read. Enter your site into http://blogsearch.google.com/ping to let Google know it exists.

3. Encourage people to leave comments on your blog. This is where the real discussion starts, and can be the ultimate source of research and development for your business. Ask people what they think of certain ideas or product development. Start building a community around the blog. You may well be amazed at the results!

And now for the real killer strategy:

4. There are two main purposes of a blog; to share content with people and to promote "search engine love". Most of the search engines now own their own blogging platforms. Google has blogger.com. Yahoo has Yahoo 360. MSN has Live Spaces. Whose blogs do you think the search engines index first, theirs or yours? Correct. Theirs.

5. For a killer blog strategy, have your main blog on your website, but also create multiple search engine-owned blogs. Then write excerpts from your main blog on these satellite blogs, linking back to your main blog. The search engines will love it!

6. Don’t make the writing of a blog a chore, use the time to crystallise your thoughts about key issues. Share them and develop a following.

Guy Levine is CEO of Web Marketing Advisor. For more tips, check out his SEO Blog

Picture source

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3 Comments

May 23, 2008 4:17pm
Jon Mather Says:

Thanks Guy for the advice on google blog ping - I often use ping-o-matic to ping all the servers when I update my blog.

May 22, 2008 1:42pm
Vanessa Cobb Says:

Very useful tips - and great timing. I've just uploaded a blog on wordpress and I agree completely. It's simple to manage and has a whole heap of tricks up its sleeves. It's also a good idea to keep your eyes open for ways to link back to your site as apparently search engines love that too.

May 20, 2008 9:59pm
Spencer Adams Says:

Thanks for the tip about the multiple blogs. We have had problems getting our blog indexed. I will try out your tip with google blog ping.