By Kenneth Waldman
One of the ways you can raise awareness about your business is to create a website for it, but the trouble is, there are only so many pages on it you can create before it gets cluttered, and even then, there is the issue of how often will you be able to update them.
That’s where having a business blog comes in. It will help your company improve its online footprint and drive traffic to your website, increase its presence on social media and make it more likely to pop up on the first pages of search engines.
Business Blogging Tips
Let’s get into more details on what you can do to enjoy the benefits of effective business blogging, along with some invaluable resources and tools that will help you create content, generate traffic, and leads.
Figure What Your Niche is Going to Be
Instead of blogging about what’s already hugely popular and facing some stiff competition, focus on that one segment of the market which hasn’t been done to death yet, but which is still within your area of expertise. The only thing you need to think about is whether or not people will want to read about it on a regular basis.
Avoid Turning Your Blog into an Infomercial
If you are being too blunt when offering your service or product, readers will lose interest and leave your blog permanently. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t advertise your services, but there are more subtle ways of doing it. For instance, if you are selling smartphone apps, write useful posts discussing how they can improve their phone’s security, optimize its performance, or save battery.
Appearances are Important
Your blog is the face of your business online, so you need to make it look as good as it can be. We are not just talking about having some sumptuous graphics and images, but also about the quality of the writing that’s within your posts. Polish it perfection, cut down on grammar and spelling mistakes, and work on your writing skills.
Make Your Headlines Clickable
It’s the titles that pull the readers in, and the content that keeps them around. You need to keep in mind that there are plenty of content skimmers out there, which quickly gloss over the content looking for something to catch their eye, and if they don’t find anything, they leave.
Be Persistent
Regardless of how good your content is, it is going to take some time before you build up a loyal audience. The important thing to remember is to keep at it, even if it takes months, and the results will come.
11 Online Business Blogging Tools
In order to help you implement these tips, we have also compiled a list of online tools, which you can use for the job:
- Buzzsumo – Keep an eye on trending topics and research your specific niche with this useful online tool. Buzzsumo will help you find key influencers and the most shared content, so you can better cater your material to your target audience.
- Hemingway – This app is perfect for online proofreading. Writing for the web requires short and to the point sentences. The Hemingway app edits your work accordingly, and highlights problems like over use of adverbs and run-on sentences. It also scores text’s readability, making it a great online copy editor.
- Essaymama – This professional writing service is made up of professional writers who can assist you with any area of concern, from topic ideas and research, to structure and proofreading, there is help for any writing query.
- Plagtracker – You should never be publishing someone else’s work and you should always double check that you have cited references correctly. Plagtracker uses a unique checking algorithm to assure users their work is always 100% original.
- Canva – Create eye-popping infographics, images, Facebook covers, presentations and posters for your blog with the Canva tool. It’s user-friendly with free features, and makes creating custom graphics for your site seamless and easy.
- Pixabay – This site offers over 500,000 free, high-quality photographs, graphics, illustrations and videos you can use or publish however you choose. Don’t use another sites photography before checking if it’s copyright free. Avoid the problem by skimming through the high-quality options of Pixabay.
- Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress – This powerful, free plugin enables users to make content SEO-friendly and to create social media posts directly from Wordpress. If you already use Wordpress, you should be using the Yoast plug-in as an essential tool.
- Impact’s Blog Title Generator – If you are running out of ideas for catchy blog post titles, check out this free tool. It’s simple, easy to use and extremely helpful for writer’s block or the tough creative days.
- CoSchedule Headline Analyzer – Make sure your titles are as effective as possible with this online resource. It does not generate headlines for you, however the tool does offer you insight into how effective your title or headline will be with your target audience.
- Keyword WordStream – This keyword analyzing tool is free to use and is great for any type of content. Users get the first 10 searches free, and then one free search per day after that. The tool also allows users to export results to stay on top of proper keyword density.
- Draft – This tool’s tagline is simply “write better,” and that’s exactly what it helps users do. The distraction free word processer’s features and design are equally as minimal as it’s mantra. It allows writers to save drafts and view them in the same screen to better analyze structure and provides adequate proofreading as well.
Now that you know how having a great blog can improve your business, and equipped with all the necessary tools, you can go out and create informative and impactful blog posts that will make your audience keep coming back for more, week after week.