This is a quick follow-up to my last post about why your website needs a blog. There are a lot of tips I could write about blogging. Here are some of the most basic, and valuable, tips I share with business owners who ask me about blogging.
If you are planing to add a blog, or even if you have a blog already, keep these tips in mind:
1. Allow and encourage commenting. It’s the best way to get to know your readers. Remember, they may very well be potential customers or future partners. I highly recommend a comment management system called Disqus.
2. Treat comments like a conversation. Don’t let comments sit unanswered. Thank people for commenting and give them feedback. After all, they’ve taken time out of their day to write something for you to read.
3. Pay attention to your META data. Just like you already do on the rest of your website, be sure to use your most valuable keywords in each post URL.
4. Get on a regular content schedule. The worst mistake you can make is start a blog and then ignore it. Start off small, maybe by posting once a week, and expand as much as time allows.
5. Be social. Make sure you give your readers a way to follow your blog through an RSS feed (Feedburner is great). Also, give them a simple way to virally spread your post via sites like Twitter, Facebook or Digg.
I hope these tips are helpful. Good luck with your blog!
