Jeff Korhan isn’t just another social media “guru.” His website, New Media and Small Business Marketing recently ranked among the Top 100 Small Business blogs in the world by Technorati Media. He speaks and consults on the topics of social media and Internet marketing, relationship selling, and small business trends. Here he shares his nine steps for successfully starting a blog.
Despite the millions of blogs in the blogosphere, it is still a fact that the percentage of small business bloggers in any industry other than technology is less than 10%, and probably much closer to 1%.
Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges, some solutions for overcoming or working around them, and then a step-by-step process for how to start a blog.
Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges, some solutions for overcoming or working around them, and then a step-by-step process for how to start a blog.
Common Blogging Challenges
While the percentage of bloggers is small, it is not for lack of desire. What I hear most often is that “I know I should be doing this.” So, let’s focus first on what is holding everyone back.
I have prioritized according to frequency, those challenges that I hear most often when I am speaking to small businesses associations.
- I don’t have enough time
- I’m not a very good writer
- I don’t know what to blog about
- How often should I blog?
- How do I start a blog?
Every Challenge Has a Solution
There are solutions that will solve multiple challenges. For example, instead of writing, just posting an image or a short video with a small caption solves the challenge of time and writing skill. Because its simple, you can do it every day – which takes care of how often to blog.
The response I would like to give to how often you should blog is this: How good do you want to be? That said, just do what you can, but at least weekly. Consistency is more important than frequency. Nothing turns readers off more quickly than a blog that has evidently been abandoned. Use your mobile device to make updates on the fly if you have to.
What to blog about is not only a challenge for new bloggers, but for those of us that have been doing this for years. You should never stop asking yourself how you can best help the community you serve. What is it that they most want to know? That’s what you should be blogging about.
In this regard, that list of 5 challenges above are included on my list of topics to blog about. I have also blogged here about privacy issues and how to handle negative comments on the Web. Why? Because they are commons concerns small business owners have with social media marketing. There are basic needs with every community. The more you blog, the better you get at finding and addressing them from different perspectives – and thereby helping the largest possible audience.
Blogging takes patience. It takes time to build up an audience, unless you are already well known in your industry. That’s OK – keep blogging. Because Google and the other search engines are always “reading” your blog. Don’t worry, as you accumulate relevant content that gets indexed, it will eventually get read, and your readership will naturally grow.
Steps For Successfully Starting Your Blog
Step One - Define the community you blogging for? — You need to clearly define your readers. Have a mental picture of who they are, where they are located, how they will most likely prefer to consume your content (written, video, audio, etc.), and what they want to know.
These should ideally be your customers and clients, or those that associate with or influence them. “Anyone that is interested in my message” is not a valid answer. It’s a cop-out. You have to be clear on this before proceeding any further. The reason being that you cannot solve problems for your readers if you are not crystal clear about who they are.
Step Two – Know why are you blogging? — What action do you want your readers to take? Do you want them to subscribe to your feed, leave a comment, share your post with their Facebook friends, join your Facebook Page, sign up for your newsletter, or call you up to hire you?
It is subtle, but the desired call-to-action will affect the character of your blog, such as where you locate key elements. For example, if your goal is to get a phone call, you want your phone number located high and displayed prominently.
Step Three – What do you most want to write about? — In my mind, blogging is a lot like exercise. You have to enjoy it and be willing to do it consistently – so that you can continue enjoying it. So, notwithstanding what your readers want to know, you have to enjoy the process of delivering that content to them.
In other words – be passionate about your message and how you communicate it. In this blog, I cover a mix of what I want to write about AND what I believe think they want. Lists are not my favorite method for delivering content, but I know people love them – which is exactly why I’m delivering one right now!
Step Four – Determine what is not being done that is of value to your community — It helps to subscribe to other blogs and read the COMMENTS. That is where you will learn what is not being done. This can help you to develop a style that fills a need that isn’t being served by the established bloggers in your area of expertise.
Some ideas are to go narrower or deeper on a topic, present it in simpler language, distill it down to its key components, or just make it more interesting. At the very least, reading those comments will give you some ideas for your next blog post.
Step Five – Choose a Descriptive Title for Your Blog — This is something that challenges quite a few people. They wonder if the title should be more about them or the audience. That’s a good question. I believe it should be about the audience you are serving. However, if you are trying to build a persona, you will want to build your identity in there too.
The trick with blog titles is to create one that you know will resonate with those that you are writing for. You are taking a risk when you try to be cute, and also when you use “big” words that are not commonly searched for. Strategic is a good example. It’s a powerful word, but it’s not commonly used in searches. Don’t impress yourself with your title – use it to connect with your desired community.
To read the rest of “How to Start a Blog,” click here http://www.jeffkorhan.com/2010/08/how-to-start-a-blog.html#en – Posted with the permission of Jeff Korhan.
(Photo by owenwbrown)
It’s probably a good idea to challenge your audience, yes, but don’t give a title so obscure that they have to read it twice. As soon as they read it, they should be itching to click through and read the rest.
…and after all this has been done, it is time for the real fun. Creating regular content and building an audience by going to social media and other sites where your targeted visitor is. Good guide!