Graphic Design Greenville

Many businesses are starting blogs nowadays and you may be looking into creating a blog for your business. I am writing this blog entry, to give you some advantages and disadvantages of blogs so you can make the right decision on whether to start a blog or not. I’ll also give you advice on how to create a blog on the cheap and how to get traffic to it!

Note: There are quite a few blog software creators. My favorite is WordPress.org because of it’s ease of use, clean code and vast amount of FREE templates. Any reference to the blog interface is talking about wordpress.

Advantages of Business Blogs

• Naturally search engine friendly – Blogs help you create great site structure with tools like tags, categories, and links. The tools give you an excuse to add keywords all over your site as well as structure the site in a search engine friendly manner. For example, this page’s url, is graphicdesigngreenville.com/website-design/whats-all-the-fuss-about-blogs. You can see quite a few relevant keywords like “website design” and “blogs” as well as my domain which has “graphic design” and “greenville” in it. In my URL, “website-design” is the category. If you want to see all posts under this category just simply go to graphicdesigngreenville.com/website-design/. Google and other search engines like this structure.
• Gives your business a personal side – Blogs aren’t corporate and they shouldn’t be. It’s a chance to let some personality out! Your business website is professional, gives people facts, and sells to them. Your blog allows you to let customers know about your latest news in your business, give customers advice, and wish them a happy new year (or other holiday)! You have a chance to help  them out for FREE with your information and because of that they will have a positive memory in their mind about your company.
• Drives traffic to your business website - Your blog can drive traffic to your website, so when people are ready to buy, they can visit your site with more confidence in your products and your knowledge about them.
• You might become a blog star - If your blog catches fire, people can subscribe to your feed-that’s blog talk for you get lots more traffic to your blog and business website!
• You control the content – You can write freely, post images or videos and not have to pay someone to add it to the site. Once you complete your entry you just simply hit PUBLISH and it is live on the internet!
• Easy and Quick setup – If you need to get content up fast, you can purchase a domain name and hosting, install the blog, and have your first post up in 1 day!

Disadvantages of Business Blogs

• You control the content – Don’t get drunk on all that freedom! Keep your blog focused on a topic you decided on from the start. Keep the look consistent, your content relevant to your chosen topic and your posts spelling and grammar free.
• It needs your time and commitment – Are you ready to commit 1-3 hours a week to a blog. blogs that don’t get updated often are looked over quickly and forgotten (no rhyming intended)! If you start one, set an alarm in your calendar to write a quality post at least once a week.
• Popularity isn’t necessarily a good thing – Because blogs are great tools, many people have them and create them every day! (no one has an accurate number but technorani is tracking 133 million Blogs). The difference between you and them is you know how to use them to benefit your business!

My tips for a success blog

Create your blog on a separate domain from your business website that includes keywords you want people to find you with.  The main tip to keep in mind is to create content that viewers will read and make the content relevant to what you are selling. Also, strategically place your keywords into your blog by including them in your posts through tags and categories.

The cheapest way to start a blog is using blogger.com or wordpress.com (FREE). The only disadvantage is you will have their name in your domain name. For example, mine would be “graphicdesigngreenville.wordpress.com”.  An advantage of using these services is you can network with the other bloggers on those sites and drive traffic to your business website that way.

The thumbnail below is an example of a blog I set up for a real estate and business owner, Steven Sarkela who wanted to give people information on his Condo and Beach home rentals in Charleston, SC and the Folly Beach area. With a 10 minute conversation over the phone, he had his first blog entry up.  He picked out a theme, I modified it a little and had his site up in a day. Visit Steven Sarkela’s website at www.stevensarkela.com.

Steven Sarkela's Blog set up by Photo Graphics

Setting up a blog for you or your business can be more affordable than an actual website. Blogs are also a great addition to your marketing materials and existing website. Please contact me through my website www.pgraphics.biz, if you are interested in setting up a blog or need any of my design services.

HAPPY BLOGGING, Calvin

Tags: blog design, blog set up, blogging, blogs, business website, quick blog set up, Search engine friendly, SEO, small business blogs, steven sarkela, successful blog, website traffic