Does My Business Need A Blog?

I’m hearing more and more clients asking if they need to have a blog on their business website.  The majority of competitive businesses in 2010 are trying to find better ways to optimize their website in search engines (SEO), and blogging is becoming a must for online marketing.  For the majority, customers and clients are on the Internet all the time.  Search engines cater to websites that have fresh content like blogs, twitter and facebook updates.  If you’re providing valuable information on a regular basis, your website visitors will make a point to keep you in their regular rotation.  Not to mention, blogs are easier to build everyday.  In fact, building a blog is easy.  Coming up with unique content appears to take the most effort.  With that said, you can decide: Does your business need a blog?

Here are a few quick tips to getting started blogging in less than an hour.  These are in order from easiest to most difficult.

There are a few different options for blogs that require little to no knowledge of web development.  Have you set up a facebook profile?  If not, maybe you should do that first.  If the answer is yes, then you have nothing to worry about.

• Quick and Easy to set up
• Owned by Google, so you know it’s user-friendly
• Drag and Drop elements such as Twitter Feed, Flickr Photo Album, etc.
• Easily choose from a variety of different page templates
• Example: Coffee Talk with Baxter, our dog blog, was built in Blogger
• To set up an account, visit www.blogger.com

• Ning is a website where you can set up your own social network for an organization, group or business.
• Simple to set up.
• Easily edit the look/feel of your page
• Comes equipped with a blog and encourages user participation
• Example: visit www.ning.com and you’ll find a variety of different social networks to use as a reference
• If you want to use a custom domain name, there’s an additional charge for the service

• WordPress is the most sophisticated and flexible of the blogging software options, but it also requires the most knowledge of website development
• Plugins and widgets allow you to do just about anything without possessing the knowledge of a professional programmer including Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, Google Cart Setup, Contact Forms, etc.
• Thousands of customizable templates to choose from; search “WordPress Themes” online
• Many websites use WordPress for their entire website, not just their blog
• It helps to know a little html and/or php coding
• Updating website pages is as easy as sending an email
• Example: This website was built with WordPress, www.JavaSocialNetworking.com

I hope this is helpful.  Feel free to contact me if you’re looking for help with your blog setup and design: angela.denby@jsncafe.com

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