Resource Center » Market Your Company's Blog Right
Adding a company blog to any business is a quick and easy way to achieve a web presence that can bring more traffic to your company door and trade show booth. A blog can offer information on products, tutorials, a company bio, and bring information to the table that your potential clients can look up and read for themselves.
One benefit of setting up a company blog is that it’s like having a salesperson available 24 hours per day, ready to give information, pricing, and other pertinent details of your products or services. A blog can act as a billboard by keeping your company name in front of customers.
There are several required steps you must take in order to correctly set up your company blog. First, you’ll want to set up the blog as an addition to your web site or online store. If you don’t have either of these, then you’ll need to start from the beginning by purchasing your domain name and setting up the blog directly on your website.
If you have chosen a WordPress blog (which is currently the most popular choice), there is an entire online world of tutorials, free themes, banner designs, and plug-ins to optimize your company blog. Other choices for blog platforms include Blogger and Moveable Type.
Tutorials
If you are unfamiliar with setting up a company blog, be sure to take advantage of a free tutorial instead of striking out blindly in the dark. Problogger has an excellent free video tutorial that will guide you through the basic blog set up and Dough Roller offers a step-by-step tutorial that you can read through before starting.
Why Blogging?
Unlike web sites, blogs are Google-friendly and are indexed by the search engines more quickly. Generally, your posts will be indexed within a week and you will see almost immediate results if you add links that direct traffic to your store or to your products.
Extras
Plug-ins are extras that can add just about any feature to your company blog. If you use Google AdSense to generate more income, try downloading one of the free and easy plug-ins. There are also plug-ins that will give statistics on visits to your company web site and plug-ins that help with keywords and search engine optimization. Uprinting.com has an excellent article on the top 15 business plug-ins for WordPress blogs.
- All in one SEO Pack – An excellent WordPress plug-in that makes search engine optimization and adding keywords easy.
- Adsense Deluxe Plug-in – Manage your Google AdSense ads, decide where to put them, and keep track of stats with this WordPress plug-in.
- WordPress Database Backup – This plug-in is a complete lifesaver. Just make sure you back up your blog!
- Mint Blogger offers a listing of top plug-ins for Blogger users.
Free Themes
A theme is a template of the basic layout of your company blog. There are plenty of sites that offer high quality free themes, but be aware that most free themes are created by individuals so it’s best to look for themes that aren’t brand-new. It usually takes a few months from the first release of the theme for all of the bugs to be fixed. Also, try to choose a theme that is supported with a web site tutorial or a forum. This will help with any questions you may have later!
- Smashing Magazine keeps updates of new and popular WordPress themes. They provide feedback on the ones that are more popular and easier to use as well.
- Best WordPress Themes has an entire section dedicated to small business themes and lists a few favorites.
- Pingable has a nice listing of WordPress magazine-type themes for the blogger that wants to include plenty of photos and information on his or her site.
- Free Best Quality Template is a site dedicated to free Blogger templates.
- B-Themes offers free Blogger templates, SEO tips, and widget information.
Keep your company blog design clean and simple. It is also important to create your blog with your company website in mind in order to have a consistent design. Also remember that blogging takes commitment. Along with offering and explaining products, blog sites are generally rich with informative articles, industry trend information, and even personal opinions of the owner of the site. Keep your blog engaging, intelligent, and write with the same passion that you feel toward your business and you will do well.
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