If you have a small business or even a business idea, have you considered doing a blog? If you are thinking a blog is something like an online diary that requires you to write reams of content and is a waste of time for your business, then you are highly mistaken. With about 6-8 hours a week, you could be getting 1000s of people to recognize your business. Is this something that might be of interest to you?

Starting a Blog
I started a blog in May of last year (www.myfivebest.com) and we currently get about 45,000 hits every month. That is 45,000 pages viewed on my web site every 30 days.  Could you imagine that number of people walking through your door? These are people interested in what I have to say. What do you have to say to people and will they listen to your ideas?

What Can A Blog Do For Me?
Blogs have changed so much from their original inception.  If you think they are an online diary, you’ve missed a lot of evolving.  A blog, today, can have drop down menus, you can sell products online, and promote your business to your local area or the world. What is more, you can also change the site anytime you like by adding a post, add audio, add videos, add pictures…the options are almost endless! What’s best is that once it is done, you can do all of this yourself.  A blog can be interchangeable with a web site.

What Can I Put Into A Blog?
You shouldn’t try to do a hard sell when writing in your blog. What you should do is write what people find interesting. This could be product reviews on what you sell, new products being introduced into your store, a list of items your customers might have something to comment on, or just what’s on your mind.  The key is to find a narrow topic to write about that your customers will love!

How Can A Blog Make Money For Me?
When it comes to putting time into anything, you want to make sure you are making some money on your investment. A blog is specifically designed to help you make money. It contains something called an RSS feed which helps to broadcast every post out to the internet.  Writing on a regular basis is the key. A good suggestion would be to write – at a minimum of – three times a week. This may seem like a lot of writing, but remember: Just like your business, if you want to get something out of it, you have to put some effort into it. 

Become Social
You can also promote your blog on social networking sites. This can be done automatically, or you can submit your posts by hand. Sites like LinkedIN, Twitter, and Digg can bring lots of people to your site. One of the sites I especially like is StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com).  To date, StumbleUpon has brought nearly 50,000 people to my blog alone. I never expected a site to work like this for me, and it is all free to use! When I write a blog, it takes me about 30 seconds to list the post on StumbleUpon. It’s been a boon to our business and I am sure it will be to yours, as well. There are all sorts of tricks to learn while becoming social and you can learn these as you go.

Blogs should be a very important part of your business plan.  Working on a blog, will allow you to get the word out to your customers about your business, allow you to communicate directly with them, and find new customers to keep your business growing.  Look into finding a blog for your business today!  If you’re interested in having us do a blog for you, feel free to contact us and have us give you a quote. 

Blogs don’t even have to look like a blog.  In fact, this web site IS a blog!