If you wear skinny jeans, suspenders for reasons other than to hold your pants up, are under the age of 25, and respond positively to the term “hipster” then you have a blog. Blogs these days are a dime a dozen. Wherever you go, be it the coffee shop, bookstore, or a cocktail party, undoubtedly someone will say these fateful words: “Hey, you should really check out my blog!”
Blogs have been sort of through a revolution over the past few years. What was once considered a medium for ranting and raving about a subject or writing an online diary entry has blossomed into a tool for businesses to share information and make money.
Still the question remains; Will your business benefit from having a blog? I’m not talking about the online diary hipsters use these days. I’m talking about
The answer is not the same for everyone. Some will, some won’t.
To help in your decision making process ask yourself why you want to start a blog. Is it to make money? That can be done. Is it for other purposes? There are reasons to create a blog for your company from which you won’t earn any money.
A blog that is for internal uses only can be beneficial to a business. It provides an outlet for upper management or the CEO to connect with the other employees at the company. Typically messages are to spread information quickly. Posts can be about the direction the company is heading in the next quarter, open positions within the company, inspirational messages meant to motivate employees and to give all employees that feeling of connection with senior management. None of these posts will make the company money directly. But they may go further than that and provide a positive environment of which employees are excited to work at. And just like the old Mastercard commercials say, that kind of feeling is “Priceless.”
Most businesses though want to start a blog because they’ve heard you can make money with them. This is true. Blogs have become another avenue through which profit flows. The trick is doing it right. Done the wrong way and you’ll find yourself devoting time, energy and other resources towards an activity that won’t even make enough money to cover its expenses.
Done the right way, blogs will make you money and cultivate a better relationship between your business and your customers. To do this correctly you have to publish the right kind of content. Customers want to know you care, that you’re not just another nameless corporation looking to make a profit by any means necessary. Blog about how your product solved a customer’s problem. Or about why you donated money to a cause that’s dear to your heart. Or about why you got into this business in the first place. All of these stories are meant to provide that much needed connection between your business and your customers.
Blog posts are also a way to demonstrate your knowledge about your field and industry. Write stories that teach your audience and establish you as an expert. This is a particularly good strategy for consultant and freelancers who want to stand out from the crowd. For example a realtor might blog about why home prices in one city are higher than surrounding cities. This kind of post demonstrates his knowledge of the area, helps establish credibility for himself and gives the reader some knowledge about their own community. Or a freelance writer might blog about how to write a good headline. This post demonstrates his knowledge and teaches the reader a new skill.
Blogs are also a great way for small businesses to compete with big corporations for search engine ranking. It takes a lot of money and effort to get your website on the first page of a major search engine query. If you’re not on the first page, you might as well be in the millionth ranking spot for all the good it will do you. Blogs and a bit of search engine optimization (SEO) efforts offer an affordable solution for small businesses. Blogs for businesses are able to get on the first page of results by major search engines because of the regular content and links among other factors. The more content you publish the more search engines will index your site which creates more chances for your site to be ranked highly.
If you’ve been paying attention you’ll notice that none of the methods I’ve mentioned above will make your business any money directly. Content is important and will lead to increased profits, but not right away. It takes time to build up a reputation and get noticed. If you’re looking for ways to make money now, then I won’t torture you any longer.
First off, you need to have something to sell. A blog will only make you money if you have a product or service to sell to customers. From there you can make money selling your products/services in three ways. Try putting short written ads directly in your blog. Put one ad towards the beginning of your post and one at the end. Make sure to clearly mark them as ads so that you don’t confuse readers. Drawing a box around the ad or writing the word ADVERTISEMENT above and below the ad text and link will suffice.
You can also allow others to place ads along the sides of your blog, in the white space. The right hand column of any blog is usually kept separate so external third parties can place ads there. This will only happen if you have decent traffic to your site. Look into Google Adwords to try this out. You’ll get to blog and make money.
Additionally you can craft blog posts having to do with a particular product/service you want to promote. Write a blog post about a problem that your particular product/service can solve. At the end of the post include a link to the sales page of your product/service. For example if you have a product that helps business owners with SEO, write a post about how SEO efforts can improve a customer’s page rank and increase traffic. Then link to the sales page that details all the customer would get if they bought your SEO services. This is a great selling technique, the caveat is that you can’t only write these kinds of posts or customers will stop reading your blog. You’ve got to mix in content and knowledge that people want to learn in with these kinds of posts.
Blogs are a great tool for small businesses looking to establish themselves in highly competitive markets. A blog doesn’t always have to make money to be considered beneficial for a company. They can improve the trust level with your customers, and provide potential customers with another chance to research you before buying.
The great thing is that they can do all that as well as make you money. Ad sales for blogs have risen consistently over the past few years. You can make money off your own products as well as external ad partners.
Good luck with your blogging!
