We advise the entrepreneurs we work with to “build their business on their own ground” not “rented ground.” What is “rented ground”? Facebook or other social media platforms are ground you don’t own. If Facebook went away today and that is where you’re focusing your marketing efforts what would you do?
If you’re like other business owners who have used Facebook’s free platform, you’d be in a panic, right? It’s great to share your content on social media sites, but you always want to own your content and the best way to do that is to have it originate on your website and blog.
If you’re new to blogging, here are 3 steps you can take to achieve success.
3 Steps To Business Blogging Success
Choose your niche. If you’re an entrepreneur, you have your niche but you need to also choose a blogging niche. Will you blog about your business in terms of how-to? In terms of how you help others? Will you offer do-it-yourself tips? Know how you will share the informatio, claim your niche and work it through your blog content.
Choose a platform. There are many sites upon which you can build your blog/website. Wordpress, Squarespace, Blogger are a few of the names you can find. Look at the sites, what they offer and determine what you need in your site and how much you’re willing to pay. There are free hosted sites, but you will have to deal with ads and with a scroll on the bottom of the site that says, for example, “this site powered by Squarespace.” If you want to be taken seriously, pay for a site that you can brand as your own. If you choose a platform, but need help building your site, reach out to us, we can help.
Choose your blogging schedule. If you are going to blog once a week — great — make sure you do that. If you’re going to blog three times a week — even better, but can you keep up with that schedule? Don’t commit to a schedule you can’t adhere to. Readers to your site will stop coming if you stop putting up content. Consistency is king.
This is a very short list of what you need to do to blog for your business, but as the year winds down this is a great jumping off point if you’re going to start blogging in the new year.