Business Logs

Helping companies communicate better

5 Essential Business Blogging Guidelines You Need to Follow

When you recruit an employee or hire a professional blogger to write your business blog for your company, you have to give up some control of the content that is published. Let’s face it — there is no point in having someone else write your business blog posts for you if you’re still going to take the time to rewrite them in your own words. With that in mind, you should create a set of written blogger guidelines that provide the important rules you expect your business blogger to follow while writing for you.

Following are 5 commonly used business blogging guidelines to get you started in creating your own list: [Read more…] about 5 Essential Business Blogging Guidelines You Need to Follow

5 Easy Ways to Get Your Business Blog Banned by Google

SEOAs your business blog grows, you’re likely to find that a lot of visitors find their way to your blog through search engines, particularly Google.  While it’s very important do keyword research and use search engine optimization techniques in an effort to increase that search engine traffic (stay tuned to BusinessLogs for search engine optimization tips coming later this week), there are some things that you must avoid, no matter how tempting, else you run the risk of having your business blog banned by Google.

In simplest terms, Google uses a proprietary search algorithm as well as human analysis to detect sites that use search engine optimization techniques which artificially inflate the results Google returns for keyword searches.  If your business blog is caught doing any of the things listed below, your blog will be flagged as spam and may very well be banned from all Google search results going forward.

In other words, don’t do the things listed below if you want to get traffic from Google: [Read more…] about 5 Easy Ways to Get Your Business Blog Banned by Google

5 Types of Blog Comment Spam You Need to Delete

As your business blog grows, you’ll start to receive more comments on your blog posts.  That’s a huge milestone that you should celebrate because it means your content is interesting enough that readers want to actively engage with you.  However, not all comments are good comments, and I’m not talking about comments that offer differing opinions and often in unpleasant ways (and you’ll get a lot of those).  I’m talking about the dreaded comment spam!

Comment spam is bad.  It’s that simple.  Not only does it detract from the conversation happening on your blog, but it also makes it seem like you don’t really care about your business blog, audience or conversations because you can’t even take the time to identify and delete those spam comments.  People who spend a lot of time on blogs can identify spam comments faster than blogging novices, so it’s important that you educate yourself to identify, flag and delete spam comments.

If you use a spam filter or tool like Akismet on your business blog (and you should) then you need to understand that taking the time to flag comments as spam is important because doing so “teaches” the spam filter how to identify future spam.  Simply deleting a spam comment works, but you’ll help yourself in the long run if you flag spam comments that your spam filter or tool doesn’t catch. [Read more…] about 5 Types of Blog Comment Spam You Need to Delete

No One Wants a Stale Business Blog – Keep Yours Fresh

No one wants to read a business blog that is outdated.  The key to your business blog’s success is keeping it fresh with interesting, useful and meaningful content.  That means not only do your business blog posts have to add value to the user experience, but they also need to be published frequently.

There is no single recipe for success when it comes to posting frequency.  Instead, the time and energy you invest in publishing new content on your blog depends on your goals for your business and your blog.  For example, if you’re 100% committed to growing your business through social media and content marketing efforts as soon as possible, then you need to publish content frequently.

Remember, posting frequency is only part of the success equation.  You have to publish interesting, shareworthy content to benefit from the GPS Effect of Blogging for Business.  If you publish content that no one cares about, then it doesn’t matter how often you publish that sub-standard content.  You’ll only be able to grow your blog’s audience to a small extent before your traffic caps out.

With those considerations in mind, following are suggestions for how often you should publish content on your business blog to ensure it stays fresh: [Read more…] about No One Wants a Stale Business Blog – Keep Yours Fresh

WordPress Plugins for Business Blogs – Related Posts

I’m starting a new series here on BusinessLogs where I’ll write about WordPress plugins that are useful to business blogs.  The first WordPress plugin in the WordPress Plugins for Business Blogs series is the Related Posts plugin.

The Related Posts plugin can help boost the amount of time a visitor spends on your business blog and increase page views on your business blog.  It works very simply by adding a list of posts that are deemed to be related to all of the blog posts that you publish on your blog.  The list of related posts is created automatically and is based primarily on keywords, so the list isn’t always perfect.  However, it definitely works to increase page views. [Read more…] about WordPress Plugins for Business Blogs – Related Posts

Blogging All-in-One for Dummies Teaches Everything about Blogging

If you’re new to business blogging, then you might like to have a book by your side to use as a resource.  My new book, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies, is now available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all other online and offline sellers, and it’s a very comprehensive reference tool for any blogger who is still trying to learn his or her way around the blogosphere and social Web.

Blogging All-in-One for Dummies is over 700 pages and is made up of 8 minibooks that teach anything and everything that beginners need to know to become active bloggers who are welcome members of the blogging community.  When you read this book, you’ll learn how to choose a blogging application, start a blog, publish content, make money from your blog, and grow your blog’s audience.

Business bloggers will be particularly interested in the minibook about business and corporate blogging as well as the minibook about niche blogging, which is essential for businesses who need to raise brand awareness through their blogs, position their brands effectively, and find their target audiences across the social Web in order to deliver their brand messages.  Since I’m a marketer by profession, much of Blogging All-in-One for Dummies touches on business-related subjects.  I can’t help myself!

While a book shouldn’t replace your ongoing online learning, they are a great supplemental tool to help learn the basics of blogging.  My hope is that Blogging All-in-One for Dummies not only teaches the basics of blogging but also teaches bloggers how to set up and maintain successful blogs that enable them to meet their unique blogging goals.

Following is an overview of Blogging All-in-One for Dummies from the back cover: [Read more…] about Blogging All-in-One for Dummies Teaches Everything about Blogging