Are you finding the traffic building a bit tiring? Not getting the amount of traffic to your blog that you’d wished for when you started?

Increasing your readership needn’t be tiring or stressful, it can be FUN! If you just have the right mindset when doing it you can benefit immensely and have fun at the same time.

1. Social Networking. This can be too much fun if you don’t watch out.  If you aren’t already on twitter or Facebook I suggest you get on there as soon as possible! Have fund and promote your blog at the same time. Use a service such as Bit.ly to shorten your URL’s and tweet about older posts as well as new. Remember to interact with other tweeters and not only tweet your own content.  Same thing goes for Facebook, reply to statuses of your friends and contacts and make new connections whenever possible. Don’t collect friends for the sake of having friends, only connect with those you really have some kind of relationship to.
2. Join a forum related to your topic. If you write about gardening it make sense to talk to those interested in gardening and not weight loss. Have something in common; you never know what connections you can make on forums. Don’t see it as time wasting, instead as a unique opportunity to meet new interesting people.
3. Comment on other blogs. This is probably one of the most given advice around when it comes to blogging but it works! Making thoughtful comments that show you are actually commenting because you have something to say and not for link building can make a huge difference for your blog.
4. Learn some basic SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is important for any blogger who wants more readers.  Don’t worry if it seems complicated, it really isn’t and you only need to know some basics.  A good idea is to check out Dan Thies’ free eBook SEO Fast Start. Learn how to use keywords in your titles and posts.
5. Write unique content. Show your personality in your posts; don’t be afraid to show a bit of who you are in your blog.  That is what makes your blog so special. Another tip is to write “Ever Green Content”. The term “Ever Green Content” refers to writing content that can be read today, tomorrow and months from now and it will still be relevant.

Actually you could probably put these tips in any order, they are all very effective. What you do with it is up to you. Blogging is supposed to be fun, so make the most out of your blog and have fun with it!

Need to set up some more strategies for your blog to get it going? Sign up for some Blog Coaching with Linda to see what you can improve on your blog!

Why Your Business Needs a Blog

As small business owner you might ask yourself  “Why should my business invest in a blog?” A very good question indeed, but let’s turn it around and ask:

• “How can a blog help my business?“
• “What are the benefits of having a business blog?”
  and most importantly
• “How can a blog help my business grow and make me money?”

The real answer is that as a small business owner you need all the help you can get to spread the word about you and your business. Blogging is one way of promoting your business, and by now you should have grasped that you get what you pay for.

3 benefits of having a business blog

A blog offers businesses three very important benefits.

1. It will increase the awareness of your brand and make it easier for potential customers to find you.
Do a search for your company or the services you sell and see how easily you can be found. If  the result isn’t very good, a blog or website can help change that.  Self-hosted WordPress is pretty search engine friendly out of the box, and when you add on a plug-in specifically designed to help with SEO, your blog can become a powerful tool to help you rank better in the search engines.

2. It will help you build credibility.
It will help your potential customers to trust you.  The more you write, the more they trust you – if you give them the right information. Use your blog to inform and educate your customers so they understand what you offer. It is a fantastic opportunity to show what you have to offer without being too “pushy”.

3. It will help you with your marketing efforts.
A Blog is a viral marketing tool: it will make it easy for people to talk about you and your services. A blog makes it easy for others to link to you and to talk about what you’ve written. This will result in more sales opportunities. The time you spend on your blog can be substituted for various other marketing efforts you are doing and still give you a better result.

Visitors know if you are investing in your blog

When you are in business you quite quickly start to understand that you get what you pay for and the best is often worth paying for. Here at Berries and Cream, we like to use free and low cost services whenever possible, but when it comes to making the investment in a website or blog we tell it to you straight: Having your own domain name and paying for hosting is a must if you are serious about your business and about your blog.

Too many times have we seen, and still see daily, small business owners starting a blog on a free platform service without a custom domain and then complaining that their blog is not giving them the results they had hoped for. This goes together with the credibility point above: make your customers trust you by showing them you are a serious business owner.

Using a free blogging platform without a custom domain name (like myblog.blogspot.com or myblog.wordpress.com) often creates a first impression of unprofessionalism. A custom domain name, on the other hand, lets people know that you are serious enough about your blog to invest in it.

Our Recommendations

Hosting: We recommend and use BlueHost and HostGator. Very easy and reliable and to work with. Have your site hosted for a small monthly fee.

Self-hosted WordPress: WordPress is easy and very flexible to use; all of the available add-ons (plugins) make it a great Content Management  System.

A custom design: Make your blog or website unique and memorable. Having a custom design made for you will help enhance your brand and make it easy for your visitors to remember you.

Have questions?

Now let’s go back to the question: “How can a blog help my business?” If you need help to figure that out, sign up for a consultation on how a blog can help your business.

If you have not yet have a blog, it is about time to get one. Need help? Ask us and we will guide you in the right drection!