I helped a friend to setting up a blog for his online business it was good we had a great time sketching its design and building it, after that I got engaged with my works and he got up with his leaving the blog in it’s launch state, it was then i realized I should teach him a little more on how to manage them, so he can keep it upto date.
It’s a big task to run the business and manage the blog, but if a little effort can bring good results. I had typed a lot in email conversation with him regarding this and here are the few items I thought can help you too.
The number of blogs that appear every single day is much higher than you may think. No matter the niche that you operate in, when you own a blog, it is a certainty that you will have to work hard in order to boost traffic and profits.
Promoting the blog always starts with generating buzz. You want your blog to be associated with the industry in a positive way. It is important that you learn how to create a high quality blog with resources like Start A Blog 123 and then focus on various posting techniques that would be effective in your case.
The problem is normally that the quality of the blog posts is not as high as it should be. Contrary to what you may think, it is difficult to create great content. That is especially the case when referring to highly niched content as with blogs associated with on line stores. In this particular case the owners focus on top content management systemsand create a wonderful system but end up with an improper content marketing strategy.
Write about your Business
It’s common for an on-line business to get a few quires from customers. I am pretty sure you are the best person to give a detailed explanation, It’s done via email or any other medium, that serves one customer or two. So why not make the frequent questions as a blog so your customer can find it without any hazel.
This unique & valuable content can make a perfect blog post helping your business and bring valuable content to your on-line presence.
Do not use a link to blog post as reply to customer queries, give then a custom reply or just use the same text as in the blog and add link to the text if necessary, but never use link as an answer.
Write About Controversial or Current Issues
Although this is something that many blog owners already know, it is often forgotten. You want to know the news in your industry and watch the issues/events that are of high interest for the readers the blog has. As soon as you find something suitable, you can create a posts series or a single post that would talk about the subject. It is possible to aggregate blog posts, sum up different opinion articles, state the opinion of the author or just present news.
As you are running a blog, it is important not to be afraid to talk about something that is controversial. Blog readers want to see personality. This automatically means that they will appreciate it when the blogger expresses an opinion. Do be critical when you want to be. The best blogs in any industry will not avoid confrontation. However, it is important not to start controversy just because you can.
Blog posts that talk about current issues or controversial issues will be appreciated. They will be shared on social networks, in user groups and in industry forums. You can even see them being often shared on message boards like Reddit. By simply offering such high quality posts you can be faced with an increase in the traffic that the blog receives.
It has to be mentioned that there are many blog owners that will share posts on forums/message boards/social media pages. That is normal since you want to promote your site. However, when you do this, you want to be sure that you do not seem like a spammer or a blogger that simply tries to sell a service or a product. Focus on the post that was written since this is what should make the sell. Do identify yourself and your association with the company since you want to always be honest with this but never be too aggressive.
Consider Guest Blogging
In the event that you have problems in creating high quality content for the blog, you can always use guest blogging. This means that you allow people that have high industry authority to write on your blog. Such high quality blog posts will be written by prominent bloggers, influential people or industry experts. That automatically means that you manage to take advantage of the network they already have and establish your blog as a higher authority resource.
Image source Cole Patrick
If your authority as a blogger is high in the industry, you want to consider offering a guest post exchange. In this case you write a blog post for a blog and the blogger associated with that blog will write one for you. This is something that is really popular at the moment as it offers a new potential audience for each site involved in the trade.
We have to add that you can get higher exposure even if you are not well-known. If you manage to write high quality content, there will be some opportunities you can use.
Using Photos
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is something we keep hearing but we often forget. When referring to blog posts, those that include images and videos are always much more engaging than those that do not.
Most blogs are text-heavy. This means that they have a boring appearance. Even when the writing is incredibly good, people will have problems reading articles. Adding graphics will spice up the content and will increase blog entry interest. Readers will respond better to the blogs that use images in an appropriate way.
The only problem is that you can easily overdo it with images. You need to find a proper balance between the text and the graphics that you add. Once you find a formula that works well with the audience you have, stick to it!
Gather Ideas
This is something that few blog owners do and it is a shame since it can be incredibly effective. One of the huge problems that bloggers have is running out of blog post topic ideas. What can be easier than asking your employees, business contacts, friends, readers or other bloggers for ideas that you can write about?
The idea is to find out what people want to read or learn more about. Once you know this, it is so easy to offer exactly what would increase traffic in an organic way. An added advantage is that your content will be shared by people that initially made the suggestion. This jump starts the potential viral effect that social media can have.
As an extra related idea, why not ask your friends, family members, employees and customers to promote the blog? You will be surprised to notice the fact that this is something that is quite effective. The only thing that is important is to be 100% sure that the quality of the content offered is as high as possible.
