Should My Home Business Have a Blog?
It's fair to say that blogging has taken the Internet by storm
over recent years. And it's no surprise that today there are
hundreds of thousands of new blogs being launched every day.
But as a home-based business owner, should I have a blog?
To put it bluntly, if you conduct any part of your business over
the internet, then Yes, you should have a blog.
So what is a blog?
Wikepedia describe a blog as ..... a weblog (usually shortened
to blog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of
periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order).
Although most early weblogs were manually updated, tools to
automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a
much larger population, and the use of some sort of
browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging".
You might be thinking that to set up a blog is far too advanced
for me, but that is furtherest from the truth. Blogger.com is a
Google-owned hosted blogging platform that is 100% free to use
and literally takes only minutes to set up and start posting.
Secondly, you might be thinking it's going to cost too much.
Wrong! The only cost is your normal web hosting. You don't even
have to purchase a new domain for your blog. It can be easily
attached as a sub-domain to your current business website eg:
http://blog.MyBusiness.com or as a directory:
www.MyBusiness.com/blog/.
So why should your home-based business have a blog? Will it
benefit me?
The truth is, a blog is just one part of your marketing
strategy, although it can quite easily end up being the most
valuable and cost-effective way of marketing your business to
new and existing clients.
Come to see your blog as a means of getting closer to your
intended market.
With a blog, you are giving your home business a personality.
You are chatting informally with your market and building that
much sought after long-term relationship and trust.
With credibility and trust being what separates successful home
business to those that fail, a well-delivered blog can help
build a strong rapport with your customers, via you offering
insights into your business and your industry. In a low-pressure
setting (ie: there should be no hard selling at all), you are
networking with your customers in a way that humanizes your
business.
So how can a blog work for my home business?
Let's take an example. Your business (which by the way, you run
from home) sells PDA add-ons.
By including a blog as an addition to your e-commerce site you
could deliver news, facts, figures, views ... in fact, anything
to do with your industry.
You can have your rant and raves on topics close to you. You
could offer inside tips on using PDA's. You could provide links
to other sites of interest that your customers would appreciate.
Your market will love you for your openness and willingness to
chat informally, and in time you become perceived as an expert
in your field.
But a word of warning. Don't start up a blog just to push sales,
offering little but mere "buy from me now" posts. This is a
sure-fire way of actually losing credibility.
If you view a blog as a way of communicating better with your
customers (ie: talking 'with them' rather than 'to them') then
you are well on your way to blogging success and more
importantly ... business success.