3 steps to successful blogging for business
Posted by DavidM in Online Business | 28 November 2007
I was at a friend's birthday meal last weekend and was sat next to Lisa Lam who runs U-Handbags. We discovered we shared an interest in blogging and discussed how blogs can help online businesses.
From her website you can buy everything you need to make and repair handbags and it's a hit on the crafts scene. You can get everything from handles to frames to chains to zips. She promotes the site in the usual ways including, I noticed, Google search marketing.
She also writes U-handblog (which I have to admit sounds slightly rude to me) giving tutorials on different aspects of handbag crafts, reviews of patterns and craft books and general comment on the craft scene.
And as if that wasn't enough work for one person, she writes on Craft Boom, one of the biggest crafts-oriented blogs in the US.
Apart from making me feel like I don't do enough, talking to her made me think of three key ways you can use blogging effectively for your business.
1. Have a blog on your website. Google loves regular new content yet most business websites don't change their content very often. A frequently-written blog on your site will improve your search-engine rankings. Don't just talk about your products but discuss the broader issues with your service - such as Lisa posting tutorials.
2. Use the blog to have conversations with the community. Invite your customers to send in feedback and pictures, comment on and link to other websites that cover the same subject. Again, Google loves links into and out of your website plus the more you link to other websites, the more they are likely to link back to you making your site a hub for discussion.
3. If you can, get a gig writing on one of the top blogs for your subject. This does several things including getting you natural exposure and giving you access to a wider audience. In addition, it will improve your Google standing if you can link back to your blog. Not only does Google look at how many links come into your site it looks at the quality and if you can get a big, well-regarded site linking to you regularly, Google's going to consder your site to be of higher quality.
From talking to Lisa this wasn't a conscious plan of hers - she's just really into her handbag business. But it demonstrates good practice and is a simple approach to using blogging to help your online business.
Comments
Hiya Dave,
Thanks heaps for the mention.
It was really nice meeting you and getting geeky about one of my fave subjects with a fellow blogger.
I'll be sure to link back :)