Blogs are great.  They have the potential to help your business reach across the world, stand out from competition and develop a following for your brand.  Writing a blog can help establish you and your business as an authority in your industry.  They can help you communicate with a niche market, disseminate news quickly, and build community.

photo by Kristina B

There are considerable number of positives to business blogging.  Don’t get me wrong in this article – I think most companies should have a blog.  However, putting a blog on your site is not a quick fix; its not an automatic easy way guarantee that your traffic will boom and your website be a success.  Blogs take time, energy, and more time.  And because of this many blogs on business websites can actually hurt the business.  Few things worse looking on a professional site than a blog with one post, or a blog that hasn’t been updated in months or years.  So, take some time to think about if blogging is right for your business.  My suggestion?  Don’t start a new blog if:

You Aren’t Going to Update Consistently

Of huge importance to your blog is your consistency in posting.  I usually recommend clients try to be able to post 1 new article a week, twice a month at the least.  Even more critical though is the commitment to regular posting.  Its fine to even let your readers know how often you plan on posting to help them know when to come back for more.  Its not always easy (email me for my #1 tip on how to post consistently!), but it is important.

If you aren’t going to post consistently and just plan on updating your site with news about your business – don’t call it a blog!  Just have a Recent News section or something.

You Don’t Have Time

Image by TomStardust

As you might be starting to see, writing a blog is going to take some time.  Make sure you know that and plan for it.  If you see the potential for new business that your blog could bring you (many businesses main source of revenue stems from their blogs), plan to spend time on it just as you would other promotions.  You are planning out time for promoting your business, aren’t you?

You Don’t Know what a Blog is

This might seem silly, but many people think that by adding a blog or setting up a Twitter or Facebook account their company will automatically be inundated with orders from the internet.  Again, it has the potential for that, but it does not come easily.  If you don’t know much about blogs spend some time learning.  Read tops blogs in your industry, read blogs about your favorite hobby, read blogs by your friends.  Respond in their comment section and get involved in the site.  Spend time analyzing and seeing what works and what doesn’t in blogs.  Writing for the web is different than writing press releases or sending an email.  Expose yourself to the blogging world a bit before you dive in.

You Don’t Have a Target Audience

Promoting your business in any way begins with the knowledge of who your target market is.  Big businesses spend millions learning who will be most likely to buy their products and even more figuring out how to reach them.  You should always know who you are trying to get to in your marketing, and this is just as important with your blog (and your website in general).  The more niche a blog is, the better chance it has of standing out in an already hugely crowded market.  Also, knowing who you are writing to can really help you decide what to write about.

You Just Want to Sell Sell Sell

People don’t read blogs just to hear about how great your product or company is.  If you are expecting to draw in readers by just blogging about the latest promotion your store is running you probably have the wrong idea of what a blog is.  People read blogs to be informed of something they are interested in.  Continually tooting your own horn gets old quickly.  Make sure you are giving your readers quality content that benefits them.

You Don’t Want Feedback

The best blogs are a place for community to develop.  Authors may be the originators of the discussion, but responses comes from a huge variety of people and places.  New technologies like blogging are all about hearing from your customers and being able to engage them.  Lastly, don’t assume that all feedback on your blog will be positive (plenty of negative comments here), hearing people’s honest opinions can be tough, but its important to stay honest and transparent – something everyone can appreciate.

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Still have questions about blogging or if a blog is right for your business?  Go ahead and contact me for free consultation!