Blogging Advice

You could turn off blog comments on your business blog but I agree with Chuck Crawford. Having blog comments is a good idea. He gives at least two reasons why.

First, comments give you free content. This is good from a search engine standpoint, because the keywords on the comments may help you rank for more search terms.

Second, comments allow your blog to turn into a community instead of just you speaking on your soapbox. Community can’t happen unless people are allowed to speak. And community is what many people are looking for on the web.

I’d like to add two more reasons.

As your blog increases in traffic, your comments will increase. This will improve the perceived value of your site and you’ll gain repeat visitors. Social proof is a powerful force. People will think, “Hm. Many people are commenting. It must be a good blog.” But you need to allow comments for this to happen.

Finally, you can get great feedback in the comment section. This feedback is valuable to improving your site, products, and services.

If you’re worried about comment spam, there are programs that can help. For example, Akismet works really well for WordPress blogs.

And if you don’t want certain types of comments (like hateful or off-topic ones), you can add a comment policy. Just make sure your readers know about the policy. I would place a link to it near the comment text box.

One of the upcoming trends that’s definitely worth looking into is video.  Video is (or has been, depending on who you talk to) taking the internet by storm.  Many of the mainstream sites now have a lot of video.  The big 3 TV networks are putting full episodes online of some of their shows.  And I’m sure you’ve heard of YouTube, one of the top 5 visited sites in the whole world.

Yet is it worth it to use video regularly on your business blog?  I think the answer is yes.   Here are 5 reasons why.

1. Video increases the perceived value of your site.

Think about the average price of a book and a DVD.  Which costs more?

2. Many people don’t like to read.

We live in an increasingly visual culture.  People today are reading less than they use to.  They would rather watch TV or check out the latest YouTube video than read a book or a website filled with text.

3. Video sharing sites get a lot of traffic.

This is important because you can get a lot of indirect traffic and branding by not only putting your video on your blog but also on the video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo.  And there are a lot of sites like these.  They get a lot of traffic because video sharing sites are popular destinations.  Also, Google often ranks videos from these sites in the top 10 of their search results.

4. Video increases conversion rates.

Studies have shown that adding video on a page can increase the percentage of people that do the call of action – whether that’s buying a product, joining an email newsletter, or subscribing to an RSS feed.

A reason of the higher conversion rates is that video allows your business to be more personable.  Visitors of your blog can hear your voice and see your face.  This personal touch builds trust, which leads to higher conversion rates.

5. Video allows you to differentiate your site.

With the commercial sector of the web getting more and more crowded with new sites, you need to figure out a way to stand out from the crowd.  While video is very popular, many small business sites are still not using it.  This provides the savvy entrepreneur with a great opportunity.

I’m willing to bet that your industry doesn’t have many sites using video.  Imagine if you started regularly producing videos and adding them to your blog.  Do you think your industry would notice?  I think so.  Anytime someone does something different from the norm, that’s usually a newsworthy event that people notice and start talking about.

How to Get Started With Video

If I’ve peaked your interest for trying out video on your blog, make sure to subscribe for free to our RSS feed.  In the next post, I’ll be looking at video equipment that will get you started in producing great videos.

If you’re going to add a blog to your site, make sure to match the blog’s design with the rest of your site. This is a good usability practice. Plus, a matching blog design builds the brand of your business. People will relate your awesome blog content to the rest of your site. On the other hand, if your blog design doesn’t match the rest of your site, your site visitors will be confused.

Here are screenshots of a good example and a bad example of blog design.

Good Example

This is the home page of Prosper.com, a peer to peer lending site.

And here is their blog.

As you can see, the blog layout is very similar to the home page. The colors and the header are the same. Even the font and font size of the main body text is the same. No one would be confused about whether or not the blog is part of the site.

Bad Example

Now, consider this wedding site (link not given to protect the guilty).

I am not a designer but the site looks pretty good. The orange color scheme looks nice and the home page is not too cluttered.

However, when you go to the blog, you’ll see this.

It seems like you’re on a totally different site, right? The colors are different. The header is different. Even the font and font size of the main copy text are different. There is nothing on the blog design to remind you of the home page.

Our Blog Design Services

If you’re looking for a design or redesign of your blog, feel free to contact us. We have a great team of designers that can design your blog to fit the rest of your site.

Your business blog should be part of your site. However, Krishna De writes that many businesses have opted to create their blog on third-party sites like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and Typepad.com.

She gives two reasons why it’s so much better to place your blog on your own domain.

First, you want the links of your blog to benefit your site. She writes:

If you are going to invest in business blogging, be good to yourself… don’t have all those wonderful incoming links to your great content go to a blog that is not hosted by you.

Links are the most important factor in achieving higher search traffic. If your blog is on your site, all the links pointing to your blog will raise the search traffic of your whole site including the home page and product pages.

Second, Krishna writes that a blog on your site “makes you makes you look like you take business blogging seriously as part of your online marketing strategy.”

More Reasons

To add to Krishna’s points, here are two more reasons to blog on your own domain.

It’s more professional.

The vast majority of blogs on these third-party sites are not commercially-oriented. Instead of associating your blog with these sites, associate your blog with your business.

Of course, you don’t want to alienate non-commercial bloggers. These bloggers will often be great sources of traffic. But you do want to make it clear that your blog is part of a business.

Finally, if you use a third-party site, they have control over your blog.

I’ve heard of horror stories about third-party sites deleting blogs because of terms of service violations. The bloggers didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. They tried to get their blogs restored but to no avail.

How to Switch Over

If you have your blog hosted by a third-party but want to move it to your site, here is my recommendation.

Write a blog post pointing your readers to the new URL. Also, remind them to update their RSS subscription to your new feed.

Mark McGuinness writes in Innovate or Die: Why Creativity Is Economic Priority Number One:

Economic advantage and professional success no longer come from the logical, analytical skills of knowledge workers but from creative, conceptual, and relationship skills.

No matter what business you are in, adding a small (or big) dose of creativity to your business can help it increase sales.

With more and more businesses going online, the internet is becoming overcrowded. There are only 10 spots on Google’s first page. If you’re in a competitive niche, you’ll need a way to stand out from the crowd and gain the attention of internet users so they keep coming back to your site.

By harnessing your creativity and producing something unique, you can capture the attention of prospective customers.

Creativity definitely applies to business bloggers. It’s not enough to create content. You need to create compelling content.

Think like a magazine publisher. Your blog is the magazine, but instead of selling ads, you advertise your own product or service. So ask yourself:

• What will my readers find interesting?
• What kind of content will entertain my readers?

Blogs are not college textbooks. While your posts may inform and educate, make sure to also add some flair to your posts. Check out some popular magazines in your industry. Copy their headline templates because those are the creative words that hook readers to pick up a copy. Also, find out which topics are being covered and see how those topics are being covered in a creative way.

This type of research can help you write less boring, more interesting posts.