16
www.homebusinessnetwork.co.uk Issue 2July 2009
FEATURE :: BLOGGING
WHEN you first start
out, you may be able to
search terms it would like to rank
do all the work yourself.
highly for “if a search marketing
However, as your business
fairy granted three wishes… You
grows, it’s likely that you
need to categorise and tag your
will need to employ others
posts with relevant terms.”
to assist you.
The best small business blogs
Anyone employing
are those that provide interesting
staff must comply with
content for their readers. That
employment legislation
may sound obvious, but many
that protects employees’
small business blogs fall at the
rights. Major pieces of
first hurdle, which is the choice
legislation that you must
of content. Many small business
be aware of include:
blogs are too introspective (i.e.
The National Minimum
all about the business, and no
Wage Act; The Working
consideration of the reader), or
Time Regulations; The
they are simply not relevant to
Employment Rights
the target audience.
Act; The Disability
Chris lake advises small
NEED TO KNOW
Discrimination Act; The
businesses to “build a blog around
Work and Families Act.
your chosen outcome and write
For your own peace of
unique posts about that subject,”
mind, it’s important to
adding that his main blogging tips
understand or seek advice
were to be original, to have a real
on employment legislation
voice, and to be opinionated.
and how to apply it when
However, it seems that time could
you’re running your
be the Achilles heel of many would-
business, as mistakes can
be business bloggers. A recent
be very expensive and
survey of small businesses by web
time consuming.
writing firm Write My site found
that, while blogs were certainly
Ceri Henfrey
Running a business blog
increasing in popularity, they were
Alliance & Leicester
often quickly abandoned.
Commercial Bank
Although 62% of respondents
reported they had established a
By Emily Hill the blog. They can also take pages – for example, Home, About
blog as part of their sEo strategy,
part in discussions by adding Us - or even to submit a website to
only 29% of this group said they
“Do NoT give credit
Blogs are no longer the comments. Finally, visitors can directories in order to gain back-
managed to populate their blogs
terms- ensure the client
exclusive domain of the angst- share the content on social links. For most small businesses,
between one and three times
knows that payment is
ridden teenager. The humble networking sites such as Twitter adding regular content is the key to
each month, with the remaining
required on completion,
web-log (to use its original name) and Facebook, and thus bring the ranking well in google.
71% admitting they had let their
even better get part or
has outgrown its role as an
blogs fall by the wayside.
full payment up front. This
online diary and is fast becoming
Nevertheless, those who do
is becoming more and
a staple of the small business ❝
Blogs are a cost-effective way to build
manage to keep their blogs up-
more commonplace now.”
marketing strategy. a targeted community of followers.
❞
to-date are in no doubt about the
so, what exactly is a blog?
benefits of blogging. Christophe Simon Dolan
Essentially, a blog offers a business business to the attention of new This can be achieved in ways
langlois runs Visible-Banking.
MD of Easy Accountancy
the opportunity to turn its website potential customers. other than a blog, of course, but
com, the leading independent
TOP TIP
into a dynamic (as opposed to There are two main reasons a blog offers additional search
blog focused on social media in
static) entity, by adding fresh why blogs are popular with small engine optimisation (sEo) benefits
banking and financial services.
“Double the cash you
content on a regular basis. businesses: one is that blogs are in the forms of categories and
He credits the blog with his
think you will need and
Blogging software such as a cost-effective way to build a tags. Every time a post is written
increased industry profile. During
treble the time you think
Wordpress or Typepad can be targeted community of followers; it can be filed into a blog category
a questions and answers session
built into a website and the user the other is that google looks and the post can then be “tagged”
it will take.”
at the Econsultancy Future of
can log-in and post articles as kindly on websites that add with the relevant keywords.
Digital Marketing conference last
often as they like. Visitors to regular content. Chris lake, editor-in-chief
month, he told the audience he
Kevin Galtrey,
the website can subscribe to the It is no longer enough to optimise at Econsultancy, advises small
“wouldn’t be sitting here today on Peony Accessories
content via Rss, or bookmark keywords in the static “high level” businesses to think of which
this panel” were it not for his blog.
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