Blogging Basics
How do you get started in blogging, exactly?
Blogging is part of the landscape of the Internet, with an estimated 60 million bloggers worldwide. 60 million! With all those voices, how is it possible to even be heard? When you start posting, it tends to be one of the first questions you ask yourself: why would anyone want to listen to me?
Before we get into all that, a blog is a great tool for refreshing content on a website and generate traffic. That's one of the great side effects, and a blog can also inspire ideas, stimulate conversation and help to connect with the outside world in unforeseen ways. So how do we write a good blog?
Firstly, stop worrying about how many hits to your blog you can generate. It's nice to get a large amount of interest of course, however when starting out this thinking will probably lead to stage fright. When writing a blog for your business, there is a temptation to make every entry product or service based. This makes absolute sense, of course; you have a ready made subject to write about, but it doesn't need to be all you write about.
Continue to look at other websites, have a look at other blogs, look for things of interest to you that you might want to link to, such as YouTube. Yes, I am telling you that YouTube is perfectly acceptable research! You can even take a camera on a day out and snap a few pictures.
While not everything may be completely relevant to your business, a little bit of the personal touch is what makes the difference. This is a chance to put across a little extra personality to your website, and to the identity of your company.
Another hurdle to face is a concern about the technical side of writing. If you're not used to writing, and you're starting a blog, this can be nerve wracking. “What will people think? What if my grammar's not up to scratch?” Don't worry about all that. Here's a few tips that may help:
- Work in short bullet points - this is a great way of sending a clear message in a concise way
- In fact, it's a good idea for anyone writing e-mails and notes
- Bullet points help to keep everything in a logical order for the reader and the writer
- Keep sentences short if you can.
- Get someone to proof read before posting
Another tip is try not to think of your blog as another task of your working day. This can be hard when it's connected to your business, but try to think of it as a bit of a wind down. You don't even need to write an awful lot. There are no set rules – just write what you feel is comfortable.
Here's a few examples of retailers blogs that approach their posts in different ways to suit their store and their customers:
Rocky Horrors' Gothic Blog features news about new products in store, but also general information that might appeal to customers.
Similarly, the blog from Saswa has features on the lines in store, but also has handy cleaning and care tips.
Adopting a different perspective, Absolute Pets' own cocker spaniel keeps customers, and potential customers up to date with Blue's Blog
So why would people listen to you?
If you have advice, or you've made an observation, or perhaps you just want to get something off your chest, there's bound to be someone else out there that is living it too. And this is the point of blogging – to put across your ideas and perhaps give a little bit of information to someone who needs it. Chances are you'll come across a blog that can help you in the same way.
Play around with your blog, and have fun!