Blogging has soared in popularity, we often get asked ‘Why should I start a blog?’ here are just a few reasons why we think blogging is worth considering.

Blogs are websites that you can update yourself by writing your own articles. You write the articles and build up a collection that can be read and searched by site visitors. Visitors can post comments back and ask questions, so a blog is a truly interactive website. Blog articles also give you marketing opportunities to push out links to the blog from social networking and business networking websites. Regular blog posts give opportunities to keep in regular contact with customers and contacts as well as contributing to that organisation’s branding as experts in their field.

The software is free and it automatically archives past articles (or ‘posts’.) It functions like a content managed website so you can have real depth of content and amend your articles or add to them when you like. This can be really useful for companies with technical information or ranges of products to write about and can be used to publicise company news and events.

Blogs are great if you are an expert because you can build up a comprehensive collection of your knowledge online, share it with others and get feedback or share ideas with your readers. You may have picked up ideas, expertise and ways of working that you could share with others. They might be outside your company or they could be your employees, or they could be customers who want to know that you are an expert before they buy.

Blogs have several advantages over a traditional website but if you already have an HTML website you can have a blog that runs alongside your HTML website. This is done by installing the blogging software onto the web-server where the HTML website is hosted. The advantage of this method is that the blog will share the same domain as the website making it easier to promote the blog as part of the main website and making a more cohesive online presence.

This blogpost is an exerpt from the first Create Design Studio book on creating websites. If you would like to read more visit our website at: www.iwanttobeawebdesigner.com and download a chapter from the book FREE!

Create Design Studio provide graphic design and website services, we also set up blogs and make great PowerPoint presentations. If you’d like us to help you with your next project please call David on 01420 549637.

We often talk about how blogs can benefit your business and your website by building up an archive of interesting articles for your customers to read, helping search engine optimisation by providing fresh content on a regular basis and showing how you are an expert in your industry.

But what if you find it more of a chore than a pleasure?

If you are part of a team try opening up the blog so that other members can also contribute to it, by sharing the load you might find that the task becomes more manageable and inspiration returns to your own blogging efforts. Your blog will also benefit from having more articles written by a diverse set of people with different perspectives and expertise.

Do a ‘blog swap’ with contacts who work in businesses complimentary to your own. Provide them with articles in return for content for your blog from them. So long as their expertise compliments the content of your blog and the services of your business it should be interesting to your blog visitors and will provide an opportunity to promote your blog with its special ‘guest writer’.

Brainstorm some fresh subject areas to write about. It may help to review your last few posts to see what you usually write about to see if you have exhausted the subject and need to find a fresh angle on your industry. Try looking through magazines, industry journals and newspapers to find new aspects of existing subjects but also to see where differences of approach or opinion exist and write about these areas too.

Use a calendar to plan your next postings, give your self time not only to research the subject but also to write the article and review it before making it live. By giving yourself a structure and a timescale writing can be less rushed and you’ll be under less pressure to deliver at the last moment.

Try asking your readers what subjects, issues or problems they would like you to write about. After all, that way you know you are writingabout exactly what your readers are interested in!

Want your own blog? Create Design Studio can design and build it for you and give you training on how to use the WordPress software. Call 01962 737989.

Like this? Try these:
Top ten tips for blogs and social networking

If you are new to blogging here are some helpful hints

Why start a blog for your business?