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	<title>Better Business Blogging &#187; Corporate Blogs</title>
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	<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com</link>
	<description>Advice, coaching and FREE email course to show you how to use your Business Blog to develop your reputation online and market your business</description>
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		<title>Treat your Blog as your online home</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/treat-your-blog-as-your-online-home/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/treat-your-blog-as-your-online-home/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:40:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging for Small Businesses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Media Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog center social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/treat-your-blog-as-your-online-home/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[	There have been a number of comments over recent weeks (and indeed months) about the imminent death of blogging, to be generally replaced it seems with newer tools such as Twitter and lifestreaming.

	For a small minority, it&#8217;s possible that this may well be on the cards &#8211; however, for the vast majority, and particularly those [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-news/predictions-for-2007/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Predictions for 2007'>Predictions for 2007</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/online-media-guidelines-from-an-unexpected-source/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Online media guidelines from an unexpected source'>Online media guidelines from an unexpected source</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/history-of-personal-blogging/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: History of (Personal) Blogging'>History of (Personal) Blogging</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fcorporate-blogging%2Ftreat-your-blog-as-your-online-home%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fcorporate-blogging%2Ftreat-your-blog-as-your-online-home%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p>There have been a number of comments over recent weeks (and indeed months) about the imminent death of blogging, to be generally replaced it seems with newer tools such as Twitter and lifestreaming.</p>

	<p>For a small minority, it&#8217;s possible that this may well be on the cards &#8211; however, for the vast majority, and particularly those using these tools for primarily business purposes, I would say that this prediction is premature in the extreme.</p>

	<p>Indeed, with the growing presence of social media as a marketing and comms tool in its own right, are we going to be seeing a decline in the role of blogging as one part of that? My answer is a resounding no and I&#8217;ll explain why.</p>

	<p><h5>Blogs will play a central role</h5><br />
It is true that there are major changes afoot &#8211; the industry is currently developing quickly ahead of an undoubted period of consolidation. As a result, I am constantly looking at the variety of social media which now exist, of which a business blog is certainly one. In the future, while the number of potential avenues for social media continues to expand, I still see a blog playing the <strong>central role</strong> for companies wanting to engage with customers and prospects using social media and general online methods.</p>

	<p>For instance, if we take some of the more popular social media tools as examples:<br />
<ul></p>
	<p><li>Microblogging in the current guise of Twitter is great but a little restrictive &#8211; it&#8217;s difficult to save evrything in 140 characters, so is often used to make people aware of other sources of information or to initiate connections;</li><br />
<li>Social networks are proliferating in many different forms from the monsters such as Facebook to the niche forums on systems like Ning &#8211; they come and go (some quicker than others obviously) but each time a new one takes hold you need to establish a whole new infrastructure and set of contacts;</li><br />
<li>Podcasts and video have their own key sites like YouTube or iTunes but in most cases, businesses fail to achieve an independent identity or forum with them alone, although cases such as &#8220;Will it Blend?&#8221; from Blendtech prove that it is possible.</li><br />
</ul></p>
	<p>A blog, however, allows a business to bring all of these other elements together, creates a focal point for a community of customers, provides the company with its own social network hub whatever else goes on in the market and allows it to expand on the information disseminated on Twitter, YouTube or iTunes.</p>

	<p><center><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/bloghome.jpg" alt="Business BLog as your online home"/></center><br />
<h5>A personal analogy</h5><br />
To put it another way, if I make a personal analogy, if I meet friends in a bar or a coffee shop, then they will get a certain picture of me through a number of different factors: what I am wearing, what I look like, where we are meeting, what I&#8217;m drinking, who I am talking to and about what etc. All of these things give a certain picture of me as a person but it is still a superficial one.</p>

	<p>However, if you come and have dinner at my home then you have a much more complete view of me. You see where I live, the type of house, the d&#233;cor, the books and music I&#8217;m interested in, the decoration and style of fixtures and furniture, what I cook and what I serve for drinks etc etc. In short, you get a much more complete sense of me when you visit my home because it is much more multifaceted.</p>

	<p>To my mind, social networking sites, discussion forums, Twitter etc are all types of coffee houses where you can a first image of me. My blog, however, offers much more of an insight and is essentially the online equivalent of my home.<br />
<h5>You need a place to invite people to online</h5><br />
Don&#8217;t take this as putting down the other social media tools or indeed other general online marketing tactics &#8211; it is just the opposite. All the other elements are great when used in line with a business&#8217; commercial aims, but you still then need to have somewhere to &#8220;invite&#8221; friends back to online rather than always meet in proverbial bars / coffee houses. That&#8217;s where a blog comes to the fore, bringing all the other elements together as well as contributing in its own right.</p>

	<p>Think also that as you engage with other bloggers on their own blogs, there is only so much that you can convey when you leave comments, no matter how erudite and pertinent they are. What you need to have in conjunction is a place to develop your ideas further. A place to continue that conversation that you have started &#8211; once again, a role that your own blog would ideally fulfil.</p>

	<p>Effectively, as you look at the world of social media and the innumerable opportunities that it brings with it, to me it is clear that a blog sits solidly at the core of this activity. Personally, I see it as driving and conducting the online activity that a company undertakes and as the place to develop a community of readers that links from other social media will help grow and promote.</p>
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<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-news/predictions-for-2007/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Predictions for 2007'>Predictions for 2007</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/online-media-guidelines-from-an-unexpected-source/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Online media guidelines from an unexpected source'>Online media guidelines from an unexpected source</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/history-of-personal-blogging/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: History of (Personal) Blogging'>History of (Personal) Blogging</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>14 ways to help increase your RSS subscribers</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/14-ways-to-help-increase-your-rss-subscribers/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/14-ways-to-help-increase-your-rss-subscribers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:59:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RSS Information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aweber]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Company Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feedblitz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feedburner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS Directories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS Feeds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS Subscribers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/14-ways-to-help-increase-your-rss-subscribers/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[	We&#8217;ve seen how beneficial RSS can be to both publishers and readers alike earlier in this series so, with that in mind, it&#8217;s going to be important to encourage as many people as possible to subscribe to your feed so that they receive your latest posts automatically.

	To help start this process, here are 14 ways [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/business-blog-design/browsers-searchers-subscribers-business-blog/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Who&#8217;s visiting your Blog? Browsers, Searchers and Subscribers'>Who&#8217;s visiting your Blog? Browsers, Searchers and Subscribers</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/business-benefits-of-rss-to-subscribers-and-readers/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business benefits of RSS to subscribers and readers'>Business benefits of RSS to subscribers and readers</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blog-directories-and-search/52-of-the-best-ways-to-promote-your-blog-and-your-business/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 52 of the Best Ways to Promote your Blog and your Business'>52 of the Best Ways to Promote your Blog and your Business</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Frss-information%2F14-ways-to-help-increase-your-rss-subscribers%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Frss-information%2F14-ways-to-help-increase-your-rss-subscribers%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/category/rss-information/"><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/rssseries.jpg" align="right" alt="RSS Series from Better Business Blogging"/></a>We&#8217;ve seen how beneficial <span class="caps">RSS</span> can be to both <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/rss-benefits-for-businesses-bloggers-and-publishers/">publishers</a> and <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/business-benefits-of-rss-to-subscribers-and-readers/">readers</a> alike earlier in this series so, with that in mind, it&#8217;s going to be important to encourage as many people as possible to subscribe to your feed so that they receive your latest posts automatically.</p>

	<p>To help start this process, here are 14 ways which will give the best chance of encouraging subscribers and help you to promote all of the information that you&#8217;re providing at the same time:</p>

	<p><h5>1. Promote your feed prominently on your blog</h5><br />
It&#8217;s important to make sure that the <span class="caps">RSS</span> icon / feed link is displayed in a prominent position at the top of your blog &#8211; as with anything, the placement on the page is very important and, in general, the higher up the page you place it, the more attention and clicks it will attract. What some blogs do is have the feed link appearing down in the footer of the page &#8211; don&#8217;t make that mistake yourselves!</p>

	<p><h5>2. Offer an email option to receive <span class="caps">RSS</span></h5><br />
While we can talk about how useful <span class="caps">RSS</span> is (and it is!), that will not overcome the fact that a lot of people remain much more comfortable with email and slightly hesitant in the face of technology they&#8217;re not totally familiar with. So give them what they want. Offer the option to receive your blog updates automatically via email (ssshh &#8211; it&#8217;s still using <span class="caps">RSS</span> really) &#8211; <a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank">Feedburner</a>, <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com" target="_blank">Feedblitz</a> and <a href="http://www.aweber.com" target="_blank">Aweber</a> all have systems to help you to do this.</p>

	<p><h5>3. Remind them after each post</h5><br />
They&#8217;ve read your post &#8211; they&#8217;ve loved what you&#8217;ve written &#8211; so what better time to remind them that they can get all your articles delivered to them automatically than by adding a link to your feed at the bottom of each post together with a (Attention: marketing term!) <em>call to action</em>. They need never miss a thing you write again.</p>

	<p><h5>4. Sign up reminder in your email</h5><br />
Most of us have a &#8220;signature&#8221; at the bottom of every email we send &#8211; usually it contains our contact details and perhaps a short tagline for the business. Well, what better place to get your <span class="caps">RSS</span> feed information out to people you&#8217;re in contact with. You can do this either as a link or, if you use Feedburner, then you can use their &#8220;headline animator&#8221; and have the titles of your last 5 posts appear to help encourage people along.</p>

	<p><h5>5. Tell people about it offline</h5><br />
In business, we are in contact with potential customers on a constant basis, whether that&#8217;s when we give presentations, run seminars, participate in exhibitions etc. Here&#8217;s a great opportunity to help them get all your latest news and really get to know what you&#8217;re all about by making sure they are clear where to find your feed and what to do with it.</p>

	<p><h5>6. Make people aware what <span class="caps">RSS</span> is and how useful it can be</h5><br />
As I mentioned above, there are still many people who remain unclear of what <span class="caps">RSS</span> is and the benefits that it can offer them. Help them to find out. Put together a page which gives details of what <span class="caps">RSS</span> is and how they can use it to keep up with all the information they look at on a daily basis. To make it easy, if you&#8217;d like to use the <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/so-what-is-rss-all-about-then/">introduction to <span class="caps">RSS</span></a> page I put together then please do &#8211; and if you could mention where you found it then that would be even better.</p>

	<p><h5>7. Full Feeds or Partial Feeds</h5><br />
Not all feeds are created equal. You can send out the complete post (full feed) or just an excerpt of it (partial feed) in your <span class="caps">RSS </span>- the general consensus seems to indicate that you are more likely to keep the subscribers if you offer them a full feed. The downside is that it does make it easier for scrapers to reproduce your content. I still say, &#8220;Go for full feed!&#8221;.</p>

	<p><h5>8. Give them an incentive to subscribe</h5><br />
You can always give an incentive (reward, giveaway, thank you &#8230; call it what you want) for people to sign up &#8211; something like an ebook focusing on a subject of particular relevance to your readers would probably work well. The easiest way to achieve this is to create a special link within your <span class="caps">RSS</span> feed which appears at the bottom of each post and takes subscribers through to a page where the download can be accessed.</p>

	<p><h5>9. Use other online marketing methods</h5><br />
Don&#8217;t forget to use the other online marketing methods to promote your feed as well &#8211; email marketing, online PR, <span class="caps">SEO</span>, social networks even Pay Per Click all have their place to encourage new subscribers to follow you, should you decide that they are relevant.</p>

	<p><h5>10. Feeds to feed directories</h5><br />
Alongside general web directories and the blog directories, there are also <span class="caps">RSS</span> directories where you can submit your feed. Make the most of them and submit your feed to all the relevant ones you can find &#8211; making it visible to as many people as possible through them is only going to be of benefit and may encourage further syndication of your content.</p>

	<p><h5>11. Network elsewhere? Promote the feed there too</h5><br />
The likelihood is that you network on certain sites and also participate in forums where there are people who would be interested in the information your feed contains. Make sure that if your profile offers the chance to promote your feed that you use it and, perhaps more importantly, include it in your signature on posts or comments you make.</p>

	<p><h5>12. Encourage people to recommend your feed </h5><br />
This might be done simply through basic referral marketing by asking current subscribers to pass on details of your feed to colleagues and friends &#8211; if you want to help them to do this, then include an email a friend option or encourage social bookmarking if you feel that would be appropriate.</p>

	<p><h5>13. Include on key documents you distribute</h5><br />
Mention your feed as part of the information that you send out with ebooks, white papers etc. In my own case, there is a pdf which forms part of each section of my <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/free-business-blogging-course/">Business Blogging eCourse</a>. This includes a link through to this blog&#8217;s <span class="caps">RSS</span> feed so that people taking the course can also keep up on new posts at the same time.</p>

	<p><h5>14. In your Newsletters</h5><br />
Newsletters and blogs work really well together &#8211; very complementary! So make sure that you promote your <span class="caps">RSS</span> feed in your own newsletter and readers will be able to follow your blog inbetween the newsletters. You can then return the compliment and promote your newsletter via blog posts, distributed automatically by your feed.</p>

	<p>What about you &#8211; do you have any ways that you recommend to increase your <span class="caps">RSS</span> subscribers that you&#8217;d like to share?</p>

	<p>......................................</p>

	<p><span class="caps">RSS </span>Series:<br />
1. <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/so-what-is-rss-all-about-then/"><span class="caps">RSS </span>- An Introduction: So, what is <span class="caps">RSS</span> all about then?</a><br />
2. <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/rss-benefits-for-businesses-bloggers-and-publishers/"><span class="caps">RSS </span>Benefits for businesses, bloggers and publishers</a><br />
3. <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/business-benefits-of-rss-to-subscribers-and-readers/">Business benefits of <span class="caps">RSS</span> to subscribers &#38; readers</a><br />
<strong>4. Ways to increase your <span class="caps">RSS</span> subscribers</strong></p>
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<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/business-blog-design/browsers-searchers-subscribers-business-blog/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Who&#8217;s visiting your Blog? Browsers, Searchers and Subscribers'>Who&#8217;s visiting your Blog? Browsers, Searchers and Subscribers</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/rss-information/business-benefits-of-rss-to-subscribers-and-readers/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business benefits of RSS to subscribers and readers'>Business benefits of RSS to subscribers and readers</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blog-directories-and-search/52-of-the-best-ways-to-promote-your-blog-and-your-business/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 52 of the Best Ways to Promote your Blog and your Business'>52 of the Best Ways to Promote your Blog and your Business</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
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		<title>Remember business blogs are still business communications</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/remember-business-blogs-are-still-business-communications/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/remember-business-blogs-are-still-business-communications/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:46:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Communications]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/remember-business-blogs-are-still-business-communications/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[	In case you aren&#8217;t familiar with the name, Matt Cutts is the public face of Google when it comes to the world of search engine optimisation and writes a well followed blog which focusses on these and other associated areas.

	Earlier this week, he wrote a post where he offered 3 so called &#8220;rules of thumb&#8221; [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/internal-communications/internal-communications-information-sharing-and-internal-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs'>Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/email-course-8-hdi/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: eCourse Part 8: Key Points to remember and Mistakes to avoid when running a successful Business Blog'>eCourse Part 8: Key Points to remember and Mistakes to avoid when running a successful Business Blog</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/business-blog-content-and-business-via-collaboration/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business blog content (and business) via collaboration'>Business blog content (and business) via collaboration</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fblogging-basics%2Fremember-business-blogs-are-still-business-communications%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fblogging-basics%2Fremember-business-blogs-are-still-business-communications%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/commonsense.jpg" align="right" alt="Business Blogging common sense"/>In case you aren&#8217;t familiar with the name, Matt Cutts is the public face of Google when it comes to the world of search engine optimisation and writes a well followed blog which focusses on these and other associated areas.</p>

	<p>Earlier this week, he wrote a post where he offered 3 so called &#8220;rules of thumb&#8221; for company bloggers and which might be considered relevant for all business blogs. The ones he highlighted were:</p>

	<p>1. Don&#8217;t make hard promises about the future<br />
2. Don&#8217;t trash talk a competitor<br />
3. Don&#8217;t post when you&#8217;re angry</p>

	<p>(You can see the <a href="http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/three-tips-for-startup-bloggers/" target="_blank">full post here</a>.)</p>

	<p>While I can&#8217;t disagree that these are three sound pieces of advice, I don&#8217;t know whether I&#8217;d view them as the three key points with regard to company blogs &#8211; however, they are most certainly relevant.</p>

	<p>So why mention them here? Well, primarily because they show something which I believe to be very important when you write a business blog &#8211; you shouldn&#8217;t suddenly ignore all of the common sense and good advice you have learned about business communications over the years, just because you are writing on a &#8220;blog&#8221;. A blog is an extension of that, with some extra rules thrown in, I grant you.</p>

	<p>So advice such as &#8220;don&#8217;t rubbish your competition&#8221; makes sound business sense whether you are giving a presentation, emailing information to prospects or talking to other people in your industry. It should a no brainer to then apply that same logic when you are writing in your blog, particularly when you take into account the potential size of your readership and the fact that, for good or for bad, the internet has a long memory so getting rid of inappropriate comments you later regret is going to be problematic.</p>

	<p>So, just because you are writing on a blog, don&#8217;t suddenly bin all of your business communications knowhow that you&#8217;ve accumulated &#8211; use all of that and then adapt the rules to allow you to play to the strengths that your blog can offer.</p>
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<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/internal-communications/internal-communications-information-sharing-and-internal-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs'>Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/email-course-8-hdi/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: eCourse Part 8: Key Points to remember and Mistakes to avoid when running a successful Business Blog'>eCourse Part 8: Key Points to remember and Mistakes to avoid when running a successful Business Blog</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/business-blog-content-and-business-via-collaboration/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business blog content (and business) via collaboration'>Business blog content (and business) via collaboration</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Helping your ecommerce site using blogs</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/helping-your-ecommerce-site-using-blogs/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/helping-your-ecommerce-site-using-blogs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:53:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging for Small Businesses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Uses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing with Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Product Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogs with ecommerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Online Shops]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/helping-your-ecommerce-site-using-blogs/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[	I guess that I consider myself to be a relatively typical shopper, albeit probably a little bit more comfortable online than most. My own tendency, particularly when Im buying anything out of the ordinary, is to turn to the internet to first check out and research whats available and then to compare pricing.

	It seems that [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/internal-communications/internal-communications-information-sharing-and-internal-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs'>Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/reputation-and-credibility/blogs-peer-review-and-the-retail-market/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs, Peer Review and the Retail market'>Blogs, Peer Review and the Retail market</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/consultants/which-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?'>Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fmarketing-with-blogs%2Fhelping-your-ecommerce-site-using-blogs%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fmarketing-with-blogs%2Fhelping-your-ecommerce-site-using-blogs%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/shoppingbag.jpg" align="right" alt="Blogs in ecommerce sites"/>I guess that I consider myself to be a relatively typical shopper, albeit probably a little bit more comfortable online than most. My own tendency, particularly when Im buying anything out of the ordinary, is to turn to the internet to first check out and research whats available and then to compare pricing.</p>

	<p>It seems that I am not unusual in this. A recent survey carried out by <a href="http://www.nielsen-online.com/" target="_blank">Nielsen online</a> (followed up by <a href="http://nielsen-online.com/blog/2008/06/09/measuring-the-offline-impact-of-an-online-visit/" target="_blank">this post</a> by Nielsen&#8217;s Ken Cassar) and reported by <a href="http://www.emarketer.com" target="_blank">eMarketer</a>, has added additional credence to the idea that whether we ultimately buy online or in the shops, we (as consumers) routinely carry out research online before we do so. Indeed, 8 out of 10 respondents who had purchased a product in store said they had visited the store&#8217;s website first.</p>

	<p>Perhaps even more telling is that the survey, which focused on consumer electronics purchases, reported that <strong>more than half</strong> said they ultimately bought from the retailer on whose <em>website they had spent the most time</em>.</p>

	<p>What does this tell us? Well, clearly that we, as consumers, are becoming more and more web savvy which is re-assuring. But from an online retailers perspective, it also shows us that the stickiness of our site is going to be a crucial factor in not only keeping shoppers there but encouraging them to buy. This is going to be the case whether we are running a small online store with a few items or a full ecommerce setup.</p>

	<p>Enter blogs. I feel a full post on the subject of blogs and online retail or ecommerce is in order, but for now Ill restrict myself to a few key benefits of getting a blog on your site alongside your online store.</p>

	<p><ul><li><strong>More Information</strong>: the more information you give about your product or service (not just description but also how people have used it etc.), the more confident your readers are likely to be that it is right for them and the more comfortable they&#8217;ll feel about purchasing it. Just as critical, as the survey shows, the longer they stay on your site the more likely it is they will buy from you; </li><br />
<li><strong>Answer their Questions</strong>: giving people the opportunity to ask questions and re-assure themselves that their choice is correct will help develop trust not only in the product but also in you as the vendor;</li><br />
<li><strong>Customer Reviews</strong>: the importance we place in other peoples experiences and feedback with products has been proven time and time again. Using a blogs ability for people to leave their own comments will allow you to use the same techniques to improve your own sales that sites like Amazon, ebay and Hotels.com rely on;</li><br />
<li><strong>Search Engine Ranking</strong>: you&#8217;ll always want your products to be as visible as possible. Giving the Search Engines more to get their proverbial teeth into with a specific post about an individual product (linked back to its page in your online shop) will give you a search engine friendly page you can optimise for it and so the chance to appear more highly;</li><br />
<li><strong>Distribution</strong>: whether you have new products, special offers or just extra information on products, remember that a blog also <em>distributes this information automatically</em> through <span class="caps">RSS</span> and pinging, so it gives a proactive as well as passive side to your marketing.</li></ul></p>

	<p>Whether you employ just one aspect that a blog can offer or you build it in as an integral part of your online store will largely depend on time and resources, I guess. However, do remember to think outside of the standard blog format and try to use the functionality in specific business ways, such as incorporating customer reviews. That&#8217;s when blogs can really start to work for you.</p>
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<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/internal-communications/internal-communications-information-sharing-and-internal-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs'>Internal Communications, Information Sharing and Internal Blogs</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/reputation-and-credibility/blogs-peer-review-and-the-retail-market/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs, Peer Review and the Retail market'>Blogs, Peer Review and the Retail market</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/consultants/which-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?'>Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Why on earth do you link to your blog?</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-for-small-businesses/why-on-earth-do-you-link-to-your-blog/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-for-small-businesses/why-on-earth-do-you-link-to-your-blog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging for Small Businesses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning your blog]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[	No, I really do mean it, why do you link to your blog?

	I&#8217;m thinking here of the people on business or social networking sites who insist on blindly linking to their blog (as well as their website) from their profile because they have been given a space to do so. Great if you have a [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/its-good-to-link/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: It&#8217;s good to link &#8230;'>It&#8217;s good to link &#8230;</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blog-directories-and-search/52-of-the-best-ways-to-promote-your-blog-and-your-business/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 52 of the Best Ways to Promote your Blog and your Business'>52 of the Best Ways to Promote your Blog and your Business</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/business-blog-content-and-business-via-collaboration/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business blog content (and business) via collaboration'>Business blog content (and business) via collaboration</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fblogging-for-small-businesses%2Fwhy-on-earth-do-you-link-to-your-blog%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fblogging-for-small-businesses%2Fwhy-on-earth-do-you-link-to-your-blog%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/nonono.jpg" align="right"/>No, I really do mean it, why do you link to your blog?</p>

	<p>I&#8217;m thinking here of the people on business or social networking sites who insist on blindly linking to their blog (as well as their website) from their profile because they have been given a space to do so. Great if you have a blog which you keep updated but why do it when it hasnt been touched for several months? For me thats like proudly linking to your website, encouraging me to visit and then all I find is a big Under Construction sign or the hosting companys holding page. It looks bad and its bad for business.</p>

	<p>The whole point of having a business blog that it tells the reader more about you, markets what you do and opens up a conversation or connection, all of which is likely to reflect positively on you and your business. But a blog where the most recent entry is from the previous year not only doesnt add anything positive to peoples perception of you and your business, it can be distinctly negative.</p>

	<p>So why do people still do it  is it that they think it&#8217;s still worth maintaining a link just in case it helps with Google? Maybe they just added it and forgot about it as part of a frenzied attempt to sign up with as many social networking sites and forums as possible. Bad move. Every profile you create adds to the pool of information about you on the internet  its best to treat them with respect and keep track. The internet has a long memory, for good or for bad.</p>

	<p>From a professional perspective, its particularly disappointing because many of the profiles I read are in fact small business owners who are highly specialised in what they do and clearly have much to offer. Ideal candidates for a successful and focused business blog. More than that, by actively participating in networking sites theyve already shown a real understanding that building trust and confidence online can add so much to their business, leading to referrals and generating real partnership opportunities. All things which running a business blog can also offer in bucket loads.</p>

	<p>But not if its left to die. So even if its just once a week, keep your blog live and then make sure that you do link to it! If not, then please delete that link until you do  seriously, its a lot better for your business that way.</p>
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		<title>No blog is an island</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/no-blog-is-an-island/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/corporate-blogging/no-blog-is-an-island/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:09:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Market Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Product Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Setting up a Business Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Service Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning your blog]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[	I&#8217;d love to be able to describe a blog as an all powerful &#8220;magic wand&#8221; which will single-handedly solve all your marketing woes. Unfortunately, in spite of what some over eager blogging enthusiasts might have us believe, its simply not the case. What blogs are, however, are excellent tools which sit perfectly at the centre [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/business-blog-content-and-business-via-collaboration/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business blog content (and business) via collaboration'>Business blog content (and business) via collaboration</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/building-network-community/blogs-for-market-research-and-focus-groups/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs for Market Research and Focus Groups'>Blogs for Market Research and Focus Groups</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/consultants/which-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?'>Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fcorporate-blogging%2Fno-blog-is-an-island%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fcorporate-blogging%2Fno-blog-is-an-island%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/island.jpg" align="right" hspace="5"/>I&#8217;d love to be able to describe a blog as an all powerful &#8220;magic wand&#8221; which will single-handedly solve all your marketing woes. Unfortunately, in spite of what some over eager blogging enthusiasts might have us believe, its simply not the case. What blogs are, however, are excellent tools which sit perfectly at the centre of your online marketing activity and which you can use to drive your business development efforts. Now  thats not too shabby, is it?</p>

	<p>The problem is that that, all too often, a business blog is set up and run in isolation within the company rather than treated as part of a larger set of activities. No matter how successful you make your blog, it is still important to consider it as part of the overall mix &#8211; any company thinking of running one in splendid isolation is just guilty of actively stopping it from fulfilling its full potential. Running it in conjunction with other activities will prove to be far more effective both for the blog and your company.</p>

	<p>If, as is often the case, the blog is designed to help market the company and its offerings or enhance its branding efforts, then treat it as a part of the overall marketing mix. Make sure to link it with the other activities you are using or even use it as a hub to coordinate them online and gather the responses they generate.</p>

	<p><center><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/interaction.jpg"/></center></p>

	<p>Ideally this coordination should happen at the planning stage so that the main interlinking set out in advance and all of the marketing strands can work in tandem. If not, then you will find that a blog is flexible enough to be able to adapt to a change in focus and direction later on if required. Employing this approach will give results which go far beyond those you could achieve using any of the activities on their own, boosting your blog and the overall campaign. The diagram above, while clearly only giving examples of the many online, offline and social media marketing methods available, tries to show the type of integrated approach that will produce the best results.</p>

	<p>Likewise, if you are using the blog for Customer Service or Product Development reasons, then again make sure that it is part of the overall process, integrated with your Call Centre, your Developers or your Product Marketing team and not stuck out on a limb under the control of a separate department. Use the information that your customers provide through it and share it with others. Treat it as the tool that it is, rather than a solution to all ills, and you will be able to tap into a collective resource that your readers and staff can jointly add to &#8211; you can then in turn make that available to all those who visit and use the blog, both internally to your company as well as externally.</p>

	<p>So, whatever the job you have in mind for your blog, make sure that from the planning phase onwards you run it in conjunction with the other activities you have in the same area. A blog can be a real hub for your customers, prospects and staff alike so dont isolate it  connect to it and through it!</p>
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<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/business-blog-content-and-business-via-collaboration/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business blog content (and business) via collaboration'>Business blog content (and business) via collaboration</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/building-network-community/blogs-for-market-research-and-focus-groups/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs for Market Research and Focus Groups'>Blogs for Market Research and Focus Groups</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/consultants/which-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?'>Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Which companies can particularly benefit from blogs?</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/consultants/which-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/consultants/which-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:36:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging for Small Businesses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Consultants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CEO Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Consultant Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exhibition Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Expert Blogs]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[	While there is a growing recognition of the pivotal role that social media can play in business marketing and the key role of a business blogs at the very centre of that activity, I still get the feeling that some companies often wonder whether they could also benefit from this or if it&#8217;s just for [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/public-face-with-blogging/companies-benefit-business-blog/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: 8 types of companies that can really benefit from a Business Blog'>8 types of companies that can really benefit from a Business Blog</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/consultants-benefit-from-business-blogs/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Consultants really benefit from Business Blogs'>Consultants really benefit from Business Blogs</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/better-client-relationships/are-companies-afraid-of-creating-a-business-blog/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Are companies afraid of creating a Business Blog?'>Are companies afraid of creating a Business Blog?</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fconsultants%2Fwhich-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fconsultants%2Fwhich-companies-can-particularly-benefit-from-blogs%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/success.jpg" align="right"/>While there is a growing recognition of the pivotal role that social media can play in business marketing and the key role of a business blogs at the very centre of that activity, I still get the feeling that some companies often wonder whether they could also benefit from this or if it&#8217;s just for others.</p>

	<p>Personally, I feel that there are very few cases where businesses cannot gain enormously from using a blog in the key area of interaction with their customers. Clearly they need to focus (and perhaps plan &#8211; heaven forbid!) to deliver real results and that, as always, is key. This applies whether they are using the blog as part of their marketing and business development activities, their customer support, their product development or as another key touchpoint. The benefit would then feed back into all parts of the business.</p>

	<p>There are also certain &#8220;company types&#8221; which would particularly benefit from elements that a blog could give them; a few examples include:</p>

	<p><strong>Companies needing to differentiate themselves</strong>: on occasions, professional services organisations have been accused of all having a rather &#8220;grey&#8221; image, causing them to blend into the background. By using blogs to help break down these preconceptions, companies can really differentiate themselves as well as reveal some of the personalities carrying out the work together with their  expertise &#8211; this can only help in developing greater trust with your potential clients in a generally very competitive and customer focused environment.</p>

	<p><strong>Companies which rely on their specialist knowledge to attract clients</strong>: consistently demonstrating expertise in a chosen field can quickly help to build a positive reputation and encourage potential clients to contact you. Client case studies go part of the way, but displaying both your general and specialised knowledge over a period of time and giving the opportunity to interact helps develop this more than a sanitised case study can ever do. Think of it as multiple case studies on steroids if you like. This is particularly relevant for independent consultants and specialist consultancies.</p>

	<p><strong>Companies which have progressed beyond the hard sell approach</strong>: direct advertising and the hard sell has become less and less successful as a business development approach. We tend to be put off by &#8220;interruption marketing&#8221; nowadays rather than be attracted by it. However, an educational marketing (or relationship marketing) approach, where you provide potential clients with information on which to make their own informed decision on their purchase, has gone from strength to strength. Help your customers decide they want to buy from you rather than go all out to sell to them.</p>

	<p><strong>Companies wanting to become more of a partner than a supplier</strong>: engaging with potential clients through your Business Blog helps develop trust and a relationship which can position you as a partner rather than a simple supplier. People prefer to work with and buy from people and companies that they trust &#8211; a blog will allow you to achieve this.</p>

	<p><strong>Companies wishing to be <span class="caps">THE</span> information resource for their market niche</strong>: most of the information that your prospective clients are looking for is available somewhere on the web. It&#8217;s just a case of finding it! So rather than let potential clients wander round the web looking for it and perhaps finding it on a competitors site, provide it yourself or provide links to it on your Blog. Become the preferred place to go for this type of information and let this attract anyone interested in your niche to your blog.</p>

	<p><strong>Companies organising conferences, seminars and exhibitions</strong>: blogs are the ideal focal point for collating and distributing information to attendees pre-Conference and for gathering feedback from them during and after the Event. You can update the conference details and add new information yourself, and you automatically develop a powerful online Search Engine marketing tool as well.</p>

	<p><strong>Companies looking to develop a network or community around themselves</strong>: as a networking tool, a business blog can help in many different ways but one of its most powerful is when it allows the creation of a network of like minded people interested in a particular area. It is particularly positive for the company setting this up and running it because they find themselves at the centre of this network and therefore in a high profile position.</p>

	<p><strong>Companies developing new products or services</strong>: customer feedback and input is essential in the product development process. By taking the step to allow this feedback to take place on a Blog, you are allowing discussions and generating ideas which can be invaluable to the process. Added to this, you have a group of people who have contributed to the product and so are likely to be its strongest evangelists and advocates.</p>

	<p>Ah, so many options! What other types of companies would you consider to be ideal candidates to consider using blogs</p>
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		<title>Optimizing your Blog for Search Engines</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/optimising-your-blog-for-search-engines/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/optimising-your-blog-for-search-engines/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 May 2008 22:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging for Small Businesses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing with Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing your Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Promoting a Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO in Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog Optimisation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog Optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog SEO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Online Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Optimise Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wordpress Blogs]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[	Warning &#8211; Long Post (even for me!)

Remember that when it comes to &#8220;Optimising your blog&#8221;, looking at the factors which will be picked up by the Search Engines is only one part of the equation. You also need to consider optimising the blog for your readers and optimising for your business objectives &#8211; creating a [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/seo-in-blogs/blogs-search-engines-love-affair/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?'>Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/optimizing-your-blog-for-your-business/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Optimizing your Blog for your Business'>Optimizing your Blog for your Business</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blog-directories-and-search/keyword-selection-and-search-engines-a-cautionary-tale/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Keyword selection and Search Engines: a cautionary tale'>Keyword selection and Search Engines: a cautionary tale</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fmarketing-with-blogs%2Foptimising-your-blog-for-search-engines%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fmarketing-with-blogs%2Foptimising-your-blog-for-search-engines%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/optimise2.jpg" align="right" hspace="5" alt="Optimising your Blog for Search Engines"/><strong><font color="#ff0000">Warning &#8211; Long Post (even for me!)</font></strong><br />
<br />
Remember that when it comes to &#8220;Optimising your blog&#8221;, looking at the factors which will be picked up by the Search Engines is only one part of the equation. You also need to consider <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/business-blog-design/optimising-your-blog-for-your-readers/">optimising the blog for your readers</a> and <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/optimizing-your-blog-for-your-business/">optimising for your business objectives</a> &#8211; creating a blog which happens to rank highly for certain relevant key word phrases is going to be of zero value to you if you can&#8217;t back that up with things that your readers are interested in. (We looked at <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/business-blog-design/optimising-your-blog-for-your-readers/">Optimising for your Readers</a> in part 1 and optimising for your business comes in part 3).</p>

	<p>Most of the elements mention here can be applied to all full blown blogs &#8211; however, hosted blogs (particularly free ones) are unlikely to offer the flexibility to allow you to change all of these elements. So, if you are looking to really benefit from a fully optimised blog then I recommend you check out what&#8217;s on offer before you begin. For me, the <a href="http://www.wordpress.org" target="_blank">full Wordpress system</a>, particularly because of the wealth of specialist plugins, is extremely powerful in <span class="caps">SEO</span> terms (and my first choice of blogging system), and so I will be referencing suitable sources from the Wordpress community where possible.</p>

	<p>While we will be looking at individual <span class="caps">SEO</span> elements, you have to remember that there are very few factors which will cause a major shift change to a post or page ranking <strong>on their own</strong>. Rather, it is the cumulative effect that has real value  a prime example of &#8220;the sum of the parts being greater than the whole&#8221;. So on each page, decide on the specific keyword phrases you wish to target and make sure that all of the individual elements come together to support them. Although vitally important, I won&#8217;t be looking at inbound links here, but rather concentrating on elements on the blog itself.</p>

	<p><h5>1. Title Tag</h5><br />
Generally considered to be the <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f3" target="_blank">most important individual item</a> so well worth spending the time and getting right. While opinions vary, general consensus is that you have about 8 words to play with, with greater relevance awarded to those at the start of the tag  to gain most benefit from this, ensure that as a default format, the title tag displays your &#8220;Blog post title&#8221; followed by &#8220;Blog name&#8221; so that the keywords in your post title are highlighted at the start of the tag.</p>

	<p>However, whenever possible, you should take the opportunity to write a custom Title Tag &#8211; with Wordpress you can use the plugins such as Stephan Spencers <a href="http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin/" target="_blank"><span class="caps">SEO </span>Title Tag</a> or <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/" target="_blank">All in One <span class="caps">SEO</span></a> which will allow you to do this easily. What to write? Well, remember where the Title Tags appear  youll find it at the top of your browser window and, more importantly, as the clickable link on the Search Engine Results page. So while you should look to include your keywords to appeal to the Search Engines, you also need to write something which will inspire your readers to click on that link!</p>

	<p><h5>2. Post Text</h5><br />
The old adage of content is king still holds true and perhaps is even more compelling in blogs as the writing is intended to be more &#8220;personal&#8221; than the normal text penned by a corporate website scribe. In any case, what you write about and then the actual words that you write is clearly crucial  in all good business blogs, there should be a clear focus or direction for the blog overall, and it is likely that the content in each post is going to be focused on a certain subject matter as well. This will naturally lend itself to a keyword targeted post but  and it is a big &#8220;BUT&#8221;  it must be written in a way which will attract and then appeal to your readers. They must be your primary concern and focus!<br />
<span id="more-318"></span><br />
<h5>3. H1 tag</h5><br />
The H1 tag is usually the formatting tag used for the title (or heading, hence the &#8220;H&#8221;) of a page  or, in this case, for your post. If the title of your post contains your keywords then youll benefit from using the tag, so make sure you use it &#8211; though only use it once on each page though. There are also H2, H3 etc etc tags which can be used as subheadings throughout your post  these are also likely to naturally encourage the use of keywords, so make best use of them.</p>

	<p>As a word of advice  in most Wordpress themes, the H1 tag is often set up as the title of the overall blog, up in the header image. It would, however, be much better to use the H1 tag for the individual post title &#8211; this will therefore allow you to benefit from a different, and specific, keyword focus on each page and therefore support the other <span class="caps">SEO</span> elements for each post. Its a small element, but every little helps!</p>

	<p><h5>4. Meta Tags</h5><br />
There are two metatags which people generally still talk about from an <span class="caps">SEO</span> perspective, the <strong>Description</strong> and <strong>Keywords metatags</strong>. In reality, the keywords metatag does very little (if anything) from a search engine perspective, mainly due to excessive spamming in the early years  for me, still put them in but use them primarily as a reference for yourself.</p>

	<p>The Description metatag does, however, have a certain value, although I prefer to use it for a specific purpose. There are still some Search Engines (including Google in certain circumstances) which use the description metatag as the text under the clickable link on their Results pages. Therefore I suggest writing it as a call to action to help you to get people onto your pages as well as for any residual <span class="caps">SEO</span> value. For Wordpress users, the <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/" target="_blank">All in One <span class="caps">SEO</span></a> plugin will help you to do the job again.</p>

	<p><h5>5. Friendly Permalinks and <span class="caps">URL</span> structure</h5><br />
Make sure that you have activated the friendly permalinks for your blog so that the individual posts are supported by having words in the <span class="caps">URL</span> rather than the ?id=20 type of format. Not only are these much more helpful to your readers in identifying posts, but the use of keywords in the <span class="caps">URL</span> has an influence on the Search Engines, in the same way as top level domain names do, though of course with less impact. In Wordpress, you can modify the permalink structure by going to Settings >> Permalinks in the admin section.</p>

	<p>What is the best permalink structure? I have always recommended using the format of <em>www.domain.com/category name/posttitle/</em> because I liked to include the additional keywords that the category names can offer. However, I have found that this format can be restrictive if you want to make structural changes to your blog at a later date, so a more traditional <em>www.domain.com/year/month/posttitle/</em> will serve almost as well and give you more flexibility in modifying categories if required.</p>

	<p><h5>6. Link Text / Anchor Text</h5><br />
Blogs are full of links and, although sometimes overlooked, the majority are likely to be internal links of one type or another, whether they actually appear as categories, post titles, tags, in your blog posts or anything else. Since these links connect to different pages on your blog, they therefore all add something, not only to the page that they are on (as keyword text) but also to the pages that they point to, particularly if you make sure that the anchor text they use is relevant to the target page. Very important!</p>

	<p>In case you are unsure, the anchor text refers to the words which actually make up the link that people click on and have a very positive effect on the page that they link to. So think about your links, whatever form they take, and when you are tempted to just put &#8220;click here&#8221;, stop, give yourself a good talking to and then put in something useful instead.</p>

	<p><h5>7. Category Names</h5><br />
Categories within a blog are designed as a way of indexing your posts according to topic and act as an ideal navigation tool for your readers looking to explore specific subject areas that you cover on your blog. However, from an <span class="caps">SEO</span> perspective, the category names will also appear as text links on every page in your blog which, as we have discovered, is good news all round.</p>

	<p>In addition, blogs create category pages which bring together all your posts with similar content together on one page  great news for search engines looking for targeted content to deliver to their searchers. To help them further, create an introduction to these category pages which gives a summary of the topic &#8211; of course, using relevant keyword terms. You will find that the &#8220;sticky&#8221; function in blogs like Typepad or a suitable <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-sticky/" target="_blank">Sticky plugin</a> for Wordpress will do the job nicely if you prefer not to hardcode it. In any case, do make sure that the category names contain your keywords because they are going to appear extensively across your blog  and automatically at that!</p>

	<p><h5>8. Footer Text</h5><br />
While the post text is the area that most people focus on, and rightly so, when they consider the message they want the Search Engines to see, there are other sections of the page which can also be used to highlight text without compromising your focus on your readers. The sidebar is one such are but another, lesser used one, is the bottom of the page. Here, text used as part of the footer  or indeed below the footer  can be used to help support the keywords which have been used elsewhere, or indeed add additional scope to them.</p>

	<p>Take the example of a local company looking to promote their wares in the local area. They can and should write posts which focus on the local area and this of course will feature in the body of the text. However, you can re-inforce this in the footer by including, for example, geographic references ( ie. Norwich, Norfolk, East Anglia, East of England etc.) to complement the other keywords in the text. You might also consider adding misspellings of key words which, used elsewhere, would spoil peoples views of the site itself. In an ideal world, consider making these specific to individual pages &#8211; however, even as a single site wide footer, there is certainly value to be had.</p>

	<p><h5>9. Blog Tags</h5><br />
In addition to all of the tags that are routinely mentioned with regard to <span class="caps">SEO</span>, there are other types of tags which are specific to blogs from generic &#8220;markers&#8221; through to tags used for specific search engines such as Technorati. They allow the author to suggest additional categories or foci for their own posts and hence effectively highlight keywords that best describe the content or help put it in context. Tags are useful in a number of ways, particularly within Wordpress, acting as a type of subcategory &#8211; but importantly, they allow you to add additional specific keyword phrases which appear alongside your post and highly visible to Search Engines without prejudicing your readers.</p>

	<p><h5>10. Image Alt Tags</h5><br />
I believe that blogs benefit from having graphics included in the posts  its a good way to break up the blog post or support a point being made in the text. However, since Search Engines effectively cannot &#8220;see&#8221; them, then make sure that you include some &#8220;alternative&#8221; or &#8220;alt&#8221; text  partly because its good practice, but also because the text will be picked up by search engines and can help add to the other elements on the page. No keyword stuffing though! Ideally it should describe the image it is applied to but adding a relevant keyword as well can only benefit you.</p>

	<p><h5>11. Index only the important parts</h5><br />
A blog creates and updates a number of different pages each time you make a post, from the blogs homepage to the individual blog page and then those covering the categories and tags associated with it as well as the monthly archive page! Phew! In many respects, I think that this is highly beneficial (lots of new and updated pages to be indexed) but there have been some worries expressed about duplicated content on a single blog.</p>

	<p>In response to this, some people go as far as to block everything from Search Engines except the homepage and individual post pages, often using the robots.txt file &#8211; I am, however, against that. Block the monthly archive pages if you like but I feel that the Category pages and the tags pages bring together lots of useful and similar content, therefore providing focused content, useful for both readers and Search Engines. There&#8217;s a good article at <a href="http://www.utheguru.com/seo_wordpress-wordpress-seo-plugin" target="_blank">U the Guru</a> on this and for those WP users looking for help on this, there is a handy <a href="http://www.joostdevalk.nl/wordpress/meta-robots-wordpress-plugin/" target="_blank">Robots plugin</a> which allows you to choose noindex for individual posts or categories etc.</p>

	<p><h5>12. Getting Indexed quickly</h5><br />
Normally, you are at the mercy of the Search Engines as to how long it takes them to index new pages or changes to existing pages though you can use tools such as sitemaps which will help. With blogs, you have another tool up your sleeve which is called pinging and while this isnt strictly an <span class="caps">SEO</span> element, you cannot start to work on the ranking of a page until it is indexed and so I think that its relevant to include.</p>

	<p>In Wordpress and Typepad, the area you want to look for is called Update Services (Options >> Writing in Wordpress or Settings >> Writing in 2.5) and you need to include a specific address for the sites which you want to inform that you have added a new post  pinging is rather like tapping the search engines on the shoulder and beckoning them over to your blog to index it. Anywhere, there&#8217;s a list of <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/pinging-services-to-help-you-post-and-ping">sites to ping</a> here. You might as well use the <span class="caps">XML</span> sitemap in addition, particularly if it can be done automatically for you  there are a number of plugins for Wordpress users to do this such as <a href="http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/" target="_blank">this one</a>.</p>

	<p><h5>13. Social Bookmarking</h5><br />
We will look at the main use of social bookmarks in the 3rd part of the series &#8211; but bear in mind that when you use them, ensure that the social bookmarking images have the alt tag automatically included which includes the post title hence enhancing the keywords it contains. If there are text links as well then include the Title attribute but, to save the pagerank for your own blog, make these links &#8220;no follow&#8221;.</p>

	<p>Well, congratulations if you have made it through all of these and even more so if you already have them implemented on your blog. Blogs may be inherently attractive to Search Engines because of their structure and being regularly updated, but there are still many things that you can do to help develop their ranking further and I hope you will find the major ones mentioned here. Happy optimising!</p>
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<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/seo-in-blogs/blogs-search-engines-love-affair/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?'>Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/optimizing-your-blog-for-your-business/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Optimizing your Blog for your Business'>Optimizing your Blog for your Business</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blog-directories-and-search/keyword-selection-and-search-engines-a-cautionary-tale/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Keyword selection and Search Engines: a cautionary tale'>Keyword selection and Search Engines: a cautionary tale</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>It&#8217;s good to link &#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/its-good-to-link/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/its-good-to-link/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 May 2008 20:03:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging FAQs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing your Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogosphere]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Linking Blogs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/uncategorized/its-good-to-link/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[	Linking is part and parcel of blogging  and its an important part of it as well. The blogosphere thrives on links &#38; connections and those blogs which create those outbound links will tend to thrive with it.

	Put simply, linking out is good  good for your blog and good for your business.

	As you link [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/outbound-linking-beneficial-not-negative/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Linking out isn&#8217;t negative, it&#8217;s essential!'>Linking out isn&#8217;t negative, it&#8217;s essential!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-for-small-businesses/why-on-earth-do-you-link-to-your-blog/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why on earth do you link to your blog?'>Why on earth do you link to your blog?</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/seo-in-blogs/blogs-search-engines-love-affair/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?'>Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Funcategorized%2Fits-good-to-link%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Funcategorized%2Fits-good-to-link%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.theblogcoach.co.uk/img/padlock.jpg" align="right" hspace="5" alt="Linking Business Blogs and Corporate Blogs"/>Linking is part and parcel of blogging  and its an important part of it as well. The blogosphere thrives on links &#38; connections and those blogs which create those outbound links will tend to thrive with it.</p>

	<p>Put simply, <strong>linking out is good  good for your blog and good for your business</strong>.</p>

	<p>As you link to others, you strengthen your own position. Partly because you are validating and supporting the content of your posts but also because you are developing a repository of information which will benefit the readers who are attracted to your blog.</p>

	<p>In fact, there are lots of positive reasons for linking to other blogs and sites which I tend to categorise as follows:</p>

	<p><ul><h5>Informing your readers and Supporting your posts</h5><br />
Links are probably the sincerest way of recommending other blogs as valuable sources of information &#8211; you are effectively giving them a big thumbs up. Equally, they are an important way of providing reference sources to support and corroborate the arguments or assertions you are making in your own posts.</p>

	<p><h5>Business &#38; Blog Promotion</h5><br />
By linking out, you will also be spreading the word about your own blog. If you use trackbacks to the sites you link to, then youll appear in the comments section of the post you&#8217;re referring to, giving more people the chance to find your blog. Owners of blogs are also generally interested in who&#8217;s referencing them, so you&#8217;ll often get a visit from them, and hopefully they&#8217;ll like what they find!</p>

	<p><h5>Developing Reputation and Creating Value</h5><br />
You will get more readers using your blog as the start point for their research, primarily because they trust the information and the links that you provide  effectively, in your area of specialism, you act as their online directory and general resource. For them, you become <span class="caps">THE</span> person to go to.</p>

	<p><h5>Creating Community &#38; Networking</h5><br />
By linking to other sources, you are creating a mini resource in your area of expertise  this in turn can start to generate a community or network of readers using it with you and your blog at its centre. The links you provide help your readers to learn more about the subject and direct them to discussions going on elsewhere. Essentially your blog becomes the place where your readers know they can get up to date information on issues that they consider to be important.</ul></p>

	<p>So next time you worry about linking to other sites, blogs or resources of any type, try to think instead of the business benefits instead &#8211; not just to your readers but to you as well.</p>
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<p>Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/marketing-with-blogs/outbound-linking-beneficial-not-negative/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Linking out isn&#8217;t negative, it&#8217;s essential!'>Linking out isn&#8217;t negative, it&#8217;s essential!</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-for-small-businesses/why-on-earth-do-you-link-to-your-blog/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Why on earth do you link to your blog?'>Why on earth do you link to your blog?</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/seo-in-blogs/blogs-search-engines-love-affair/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?'>Blogs and Search Engines &#8211; is the love affair over?</a></li></ol></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Separate blog or blog on my own website?</title>
		<link>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/separate-blog-or-blog-on-my-own-website/</link>
		<comments>http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/separate-blog-or-blog-on-my-own-website/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark White, Blog Consultant</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEO in Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Setting up a Business Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Starting a Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing your Business Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog on website]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Separate blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Setting up a]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Where to run a blog]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[	Judging by the search terms that people use to find Better Business Blogging, a topic which seems to be a constant issue for people looking at setting up their own business blog is how and where to locate their blog. Primarily, should it be as part of their own website or should it be on [...]


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/business-blog-separate-domain-or-on-your-website/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Business Blog: separate domain or on your website'>Business Blog: separate domain or on your website</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/integrating-a-blog-on-your-own-website/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Integrating a blog on your own website'>Integrating a blog on your own website</a></li><li><a href='http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/business-blog-design/remember-to-integrate-your-website-navigation/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Remember to integrate your website navigation'>Remember to integrate your website navigation</a></li></ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fblogging-basics%2Fseparate-blog-or-blog-on-my-own-website%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.betterbusinessblogging.com%2Fblogging-basics%2Fseparate-blog-or-blog-on-my-own-website%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div>	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/thumbs.jpg" align="right" alt="Blog on website or on own site?"/>Judging by the search terms that people use to find Better Business Blogging, a topic which seems to be a constant issue for people looking at setting up their own business blog is how and where to locate their blog. Primarily, should it be as part of their own website or should it be on a new domain?</p>

	<p>I considered this previously in two posts which looked at the question of <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/business-blog-separate-domain-or-on-your-website/">where to run your business blog</a> and <a href="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/blogging-basics/integrating-a-blog-on-your-own-website/">how to integrate a blog on your site</a>, but I think that it is worth bringing together my thoughts and opinions on this again and developing them further.</p>

	<p>Although it can depend on what your intentions are in terms of branding, specific aim and focus, target audience, domain name and general marketing requirements, my take on this would boil down to:</p>

	<p><center><em><strong>If it complements the content and focus of your site and appeals to your readers<br />
then always have it on your own website in a subdirectory.<br />
If it clashes with your site in these respects,<br />
then run it as a separate site on a separate domain.</strong></em></center></p>

	<p>While there are other elements which could have an impact on your decision making, that should be the key aspect on which you make your decision.</p>

	<p><strong>But &#8211; what about the Inbound Links!!</strong></p>

	<p>The other reason often put forward for preferring an external blog is the benefit of inbound links that you can create back to your main site &#8211; &#8220;I&#8217;ve got a blog at mynewblog.wordpress.com and I&#8217;m using it to create lots of links through to my main site at www.mymainsite.com which will help me get to no.1 in Google&#8221;.</p>

	<p>In short, no. A more complete response, no, no, no!</p>

	<p>Google is many things but blind in Search Engine terms isn&#8217;t one of them. Multiple links from one individual site through to another suffer from what is best described as &#8220;diminishing returns&#8221;. To explain: the first link you create from the blog you have set up as a separate domain is great and registers a, let&#8217;s say, resounding &#8220;1&#8221; on the Google link scale. The second from that blog (and hence that domain) through to your site is seen as less valuable as you have already &#8220;recommended&#8221; the site with a link. In this case, it&#8217;s given, let&#8217;s say, half the value &#8211; the next, half again and so on for all of the other links from that blog domain to your main site. Result, as you add more links from your new blog back to your main site, the additional ones quickly become worthless.</p>

	<p><img src="http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/img/blog-positioning.jpg" align="middle" alt="blog on own site or separate domain"/></p>

	<p>Compare that to holding the blog on your own site, taking the time to write content that people consider worth linking to and working to attract links from a number of different sites &#8211; as shown on the right above. Each of these will be fully valued and counted, as they are external links into your blog from different domains &#8211; in a very short space of time, having your blog as part of your own site and domain will have benefited your overall site more than an external blog ever would, no matter how many links with great anchor text you use. (I&#8217;m even ignoring the benefit of higher page rank here, which established blogs linking to you would have but your newly established blog would not!)</p>

	<p>So, when faced with the decision of where to run your blog from, if it is relevant to your site and to your visitors then integrate it as part of your own website. But, if you are setting it up to primarily boost your search engine possibilities then &#8230; <strong>definitely</strong> integrate it as part of your website!</p>
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