I admit it. I’m addicted to blogging. I must have a secret need to be a writer. Actually, I used to write for cartoon shows some years back. They were Japanese cartoons that were being dubbed into English. Remember Digimon? Unfortunately, writing for dubbing can make you want to tear your hair out.
I discovered blogging about 2 years ago and started a free Blogger.com blog to give out beauty tips. I was working for a cosmetics company at the time. Since then, I have probably had about 10 or so blogs. I graduated to a self hosted WordPress.org blog fairly soon after that, and now I’m hooked. I have 5 active blogs as of this writing.
The wonderful thing about blogging is that you can create an amazing website, in just a few hours, that gets you traffic, and establishes you as an expert. It costs next to nothing, and you have complete control over the content. I recommend a self hosted blog as opposed to a free blog, because there is no danger of a company, such as Google, dumping your blog.
I was recently looking at the websites of some of the local business owners I know. They spent some money putting them up, but, unfortunately, the sites are minimal at best. It’s not enough to have a static website anymore. Why not get your customers into a conversation with you, on your blog, using social media plugins to shout out news and valuable information? Make your blog the hub of all your social media activity.
A Word Press blog is interactive and can be made to look like an expensive website. This particular blog uses a premium theme called Studio Press Lifestyle Child Theme. The advantage to a premium theme, as opposed to a free one, is the support you get via tutorials and forums. Studio Press offers a variety of themes and many look like online magazines.
I admit that not everyone enjoys writing or hanging out on the Internet. If that is the case, it may pay to have a young person, or someone who enjoys social media, to update your blog on a regular basis.
If content is important to your customers, it is worth it to spend a few minutes, a couple times a week, to write short articles that will drive traffic to your site AND your place of business.
The other important aspect of a blog is building a list of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. You can either send out a weekly newsletter, or set up a blog broadcast each time you write a post. This is a fairly new feature on aweber.com Aweber, is an email and auto responder service, used by most serious Internet marketers. The difference between a blog broadcast and an RSS feed is that you can personalize your post updates with your contact info, your logo, and send it out like a newsletter.
Once your blog is set up, it is fairly simple to keep up. If you have no techie skills, what so ever, get someone to initially design your blog and then all you need to do is post regularly. You will want to start out with approximately 15 pages of information before you announce your blog, and then post at least once per week.
Networked blogs, via Facebook, is an excellent way to syndicate your blog. Each time you post, your blog feed goes straight into your Facebook profile or page.
In fact, I am looking for more faces to follow this blog. Can you add yours right now? Look at the widget on the bottom of my home page. Thanks in advance for your help. Don’t forget to give it 5 stars! LOL
About Rebecca Olkowski
I'm a 30 + year voice over actor, blogger, WordPress Blog Consultant and a gal who loves to have fun. I'm on a mission to travel the world in style. Can you give me a lift?
