Blogging to Fame!

In the previous post I was talking about asking yourself a few questions before starting Blogging. Here I will explain to you what I meant and how you should proceed with it.

a) With what objective you are starting business blogging?

You should have a clear perspective of what you want your blog to do. Is it just a communication tool where you want to develop relationship with your prospects or customers, or do you want to sell silently to your readers by recommending products, lets take it as a selling aid to your business, or lets combine both and call it a marketing set-up. Be visionary and focus on your aim. Do not try to do everything at one time. The more focused your blogging is the more successful it is likely to be.

b) Who is your target audience for your Business Blog?

Your blogging cannot please everybody in the market, so you have to be very careful about choosing your target audience. It is not possible to connect to everyone- so it is very important to decide to whom you should write to. Focus on your audience, write what they are looking for and in a style that would warm them. Blogging is primarily a communication tool so it is essential take up a style that they can connect to. If you have lots of different audiences that you wish to appeal to then you might like to consider setting up separate blogs to cater for each area.

c) What results are you looking to achieve through blogging?

You must have set some goals to achieve from your blogging.Plan according to your goals but how are you going to measure them? You are going to spend time and effort is going to be involved and you need to show results at the end of it - therefore, from the start, you should know what results you are looking for. So you should be clear on your working style and your direction of working. You also should know how to measure the results and test them from time to time to know what improvements you need to make.

d) How will it integrate with your other marketing activities?

Blogging could easily enhance your marketing strategies. However it cannot be all you have to do. Combine it with your other customer service activities and business development programs to achieve success. Though it cannot cure all your problem areas but Blogging is still an excellent and the easiest marketing tool available and it is for free after all.

e) What Blogging software to choose?

There are many blogging platforms available, each with their own key benefits – depending upon the requirement of your business and how much customization you need. Among the most basic need is whether you want to blog on the service provider server, you want to FTP your blog to your server, or you can have whole blogging software installed on your own server. The best option would be is to choose one which will grow and develop with you as well as fitting with your current business and technical requirements. Free hosted software such as Blogger are good in their own as it allow you to FTP the blogs on your own server, but still less customizable, so for more control options look at Wordpress (full version) or Typepad as good starter points.

f) What name should you choose for your Business Blog?

Your blog name should clearly reflect you business niche. It should help in making direct contact with your prospects in terms of branding, image building. Use your keywords and your company name(to make it popular and familiar with your readers) in naming your blog . The name of your blog is very important as in most softwares the name of your blog is used by default as "Title tag", which is very important in search engine optimization.

g) Where are you hosting it?

You can either host it on your server or blog on the free versions like blogger and still be effective. But having your blog hosted on your server which is integrated with your own main website has its own benefits like for Search Engine Optimization purposes. Or still you can have both type of Blogs and design your web network using proper linking strategies.

h) What domain name or subdirectory name to use?

Have something descriptive as this will also help in on site optimization. If you are using a separate domain, then choose a domain name which either reflects the branding you wish to achieve or contains your main keyword (or preferably both!). If you are having subdirectory then describe it using anchor text for your main keyword will be serving such as “Blogging Tutorials” for example.


i) How should your Blog look and feel?

If you are having your blog as part of your website, then integrate the look and feel of your website.. There’s no need for your readers to know that they are on a blog - remember it’s the benefits that blogs offer that is important, not the technology. If it is on a separate domain, then design your Business Blog with the image you want to portray on your readers. Use the default template only after customization for your branding purposes and for differentiation.

With all of these elements in place then you are starting off on the right track and should have the foundations in place to create a successful Business Blog. Now you will have better information that will save you a lot of time and will help you to start blogging much more effectively and achieve what you wish to achieve.

Divya Uttam
Happy Blogging