7 Reasons Your Business Needs A Blog

I have been blogging since 2004 and over the last 6 years more and more businesses have added blogs to their website. When I started blogging there weren’t a lot of people doing it. However, now the tides have turned. Not only are a lot of people blogging, a lot of businesses have blogs. The truth of the matter is that EVERY business needs a blog.

Here are the top 7 reasons that every business should have a blog:

1. Traffic
Blogs give the Search Engines fresh new content on a regular basis, and that’s exactly what they love to see. Search engines reward most blogs by sending them more traffic. Now you do have to know a little about SEO, but even people who don’t have clue about SEO sometimes get great traffic from the Search Engines when they blog.

2. You Become Known As The Expert
When you write about your profession on a regular basis people start noticing you. Also, new people that come to your site will read your blog and instantly be able to tell that you know what you are talking about. Regular blogging about your profession makes you stand out as an expert in people’s minds.

For instance by having a blog and having it ranked high in the Search Engines, my wife Jill was able to get an interview with Cristy Yamaguchi. Why would they chose Jill? Because her blogging has helped her to become known as an expert on the Winter Olympics. In some ways, she is an expert on the Winter Olympics, but it’s not something she would have ever been if it weren’t for her blogging.

Becoming known as an expert increases the likelihood that people will buy your products and/or services. In fact, being known as an expert goes hand in hand with…

3. Trust
When people read your blog posts and interact with your by commenting your posts you build a level of trust with them that’s just not possible without a blog. Having a blog helps build trust, which is one of the biggest hurdles you have to get past to get people to buy from you.

4. Networking
Blogging is a great way to network both with your potential clients and with other people in your industry. I have made many great business contacts because of my blogs. Blogging and interacting with other people’s blogs is a great way to form relationships with potential clients and potential partners.

5. Branding
Blogging gives your brand a personal face. By writing about your business and providing helpful tips to both your customers and potential customers you are branding yourself not just as an expert, but as someone who cares about the people you are helping. For this to really work, you do have to care. It will show in the way you interact with your readers and it will build your personal brand. You have something unique to bring to the table that no other person in your profession has…

YOU!

By writing on a blog or putting out videos on a blog you are showing a side of yourself that makes it easier for your customers to relate to you. Which builds your unique personal brand along with the brand of your business.

6. Makes it easy to update content
Blogs make it very easy for you to add unique content to your site. This is very important to the Search engines and is one of several reasons that they rank so well in Search engines.

7. Makes Your Site Sticky
When you blog you are putting out new content on your site on a regular basis. People who like what they read on your blog will want to come back and read your frequently which makes your site “sticky” ie. a site that people want to come back to time and time again and a site that once they are there people want to stay and read more.

When all is said and done…

In summary, blogs are something every business needs if they want to maximize their profits through the web. So if you own a business and aren’t blogging… what are you waiting for? Get started now! You will be glad you did.

P.S. If you need help getting your blog set up, make sure to give us a call.

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We are finishing up writing an ebook on Twitter and I wanted to know what your biggest question was about Twitter so that we can be sure to answer it in our book. Go to our facebook fan page and let us know the answer:

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We just finished the re-design of our Summer Olympics Blog. We wanted it to use the same colors as the old blog, but have a more modern look. Click the picture to check it out live.

Contact us if you need your website or blog re-designed and find out what we can do for you.