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Niche or Die – Define Your Business Blog Niche for Greater Success

niche business blogNiche is a hot buzz word these days, particularly as it relates to marketing and publishing.  In simplest terms, a niche is a very specific area of focus.  You can have a niche business or a niche blog, so why not join the two and have a powerful niche business blog?  It’s brilliant, and many businesses have found great success on the social Web by defining and exploiting their niches via their business blogs.  You can do it, too!

The Web is full of clutter, but you can stand out from the noise by establishing your niche and offering authoritative, reliable, and shareworthy content and conversations related to that niche on your business blog.

The first step is to define your niche by asking yourself the following questions:

1. Who is my target audience and what do they want from me?

Define your best audience, and then find out where they spend time online.  Listen to their conversations and join those conversations to learn about what they want from a niche blog like yours.  Then, create amazing content that meets those wants and needs. [Read more…] about Niche or Die – Define Your Business Blog Niche for Greater Success

5 Tips to Pick a Business Blog Domain Name

"domain name url"When you choose a domain name for your business blog, there are two primary factors you need to consider: search engine optimization and online brand identity.  In other words, you should try to choose a domain name that can help you attract organic search traffic and you should choose a domain name that represents your business’ brand promise.

Following are five easy tips to help you pick the best domain name for your business blog:

1. Understand extensions.

There are many Web address extensions available these days with .com, .net and .biz being the most popular options for business sites.  While .com is still the most popular, it’s perfectly acceptable to use a .net or .biz domain name, and doing so won’t detrimentally affect your site’s traffic.

2. Remember search engine optimization.

Do some keyword research using a keyword analysis tool like Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery or the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool.  Including keywords in your domain name that your target audience is likely to use in searches when they’re looking for sites and information like you provide on your business blog can provide a significant boost in search engine traffic. [Read more…] about 5 Tips to Pick a Business Blog Domain Name

Business Blogging and the 80-20 Rule – No One Cares about You

"80-20 Rule"One of the unwritten rules of the social Web is that content should not be overly self-promotional.  In fact, publishing content on the social Web that is entirely self-promotional is one of the quickest ways to ruin your blog and your online reputation.  If you want to have a chance at building a successful business blog and grow your audience in order to build your brand and business, then you need to dial back the sales pitch on the social Web.

The reason for this is simple.  No one cares about you.  Instead, they care about how you can help them or add value to their lives.  The key to social media marketing success is engagement and interaction.  No one will want to interact with you if all you ever do on the social Web (including on your business blog) is talk about yourself.

Think of it this way — if you were at a party talking to another person and that person spent the entire time talking about himself, it’s unlikely you’d want to continue talking to him.  In fact, you’d probably want to escape and stay away from that person for the rest of the night and in the future.  You don’t want the online audience to feel that way about you!  Therefore, your business blog content should be primarily non-promotional. [Read more…] about Business Blogging and the 80-20 Rule – No One Cares about You

5 Easy Ways to Get Sales and Leads from a Business Blog without Annoying Your Audience

"sale sign"Business blogs are amazing indirect marketing tools, but they also provide a medium for businesses to communicate specific marketing messages and generate both leads and sales.  While it’s absolutely true that your business blog content should not be overly self-promotional, it is acceptable to publish some self-promotional content in an effort to boost leads and sales as long as that self-promotional content adds value to the user experience on your business blog.

Following are five easy ways to get sales from a business blog without annoying your audience:

1. Offer exclusive discounts, coupons and sales.

Reward the people who visit your blog and spend time reading and sharing your content by offering them exclusive discounts, coupons and sales.  You can do this either by simply publishing discounts, etc. within blog posts or by emailing them directly to visitors who sign up to receive them (be sure to include a way to opt-out of future emails).  You can also create a private page of your business blog that is password protected where special discounts, etc. are published and provide that password and access to “members only”.  Not only does this method guarantee that people will visit your blog again, but you’ll also be able to collect email addresses for future offers while adding value to the user experience on your blog all at the same time. [Read more…] about 5 Easy Ways to Get Sales and Leads from a Business Blog without Annoying Your Audience

Employee Blogging Policies – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

employee social media policy blogging policyI’m often asked whether companies should let employees blog either for the company or personally.  My answer to both questions is always the same — absolutely!  Your employees are your most powerful brand advocates.  Let them spread the word about your business and brand freely!

However, that doesn’t mean you should let them blog without providing some guidelines.  Whether an employee is writing your business blog or writing his own blog but references himself as an employee of your company, you should give him some guidelines to follow so he can blog without fear of getting fired.  Employee blogging should be a positive form of word-of-mouth marketing for your business, not a ticket to the unemployment line.

With that in mind, what should your employee blogging and social media policies include?  Fortunately, there are some directories available online that gather links to blogging and social media policies that have been published online.  One of my favorites is the Online Database of Social Media Policies.  Take some time to read through some of those policies (I particularly like the simple policies of Razorfish and Headset Brothers) and create your own employee blogging and social media policy from those examples.

Most importantly, be sure to include the following in your employee blogging policy: [Read more…] about Employee Blogging Policies – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly