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 Lemmings are cute, but dumb.
If you tell them to jump off a cliff, they will.
Just like the people who start blogs because
everyone is doing it. Guess what happens after a
little while? The blogs die.
In managing a list of many Web sites, most of which
are blogs, I deleted countless sites from the list
because the sites and blogs no longer existed. The
people ran out of steam or had no reason to start
them in the first place.
How do you know when a blog is right for your
business? Learn why people start blogs, how they
find their niche and how blogging tools can be used
for more than blogs.
Blog content is king
Some people like to read blogs, others like to read
newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and
some read a few or all of them. No matter the method
the information is distributed, each medium has one
thing in common: content. Having a blog connects
your newsletter and your business with all of these
readers and delivers important content in a
particular style.
I've been blogging since June 2000. If you review my
early blog entries in meryl's notes, you'll notice
they're more personal. When blogs first hit the
scene in the late '90s, they were personal diaries
and journals. Like the blog business, my blog has
transformed from personal to business speak,
although I still add personal notes here and there.
A few bloggers tend to talk about their work, their
products and their little world. That might work for
celebrities where fans want to know everything about
them, but it doesn't work for the average business
person. Other business people want information on
how to succeed and when a blog spends time hawking
products offering information of no value, few
people will return. The people whose products sell
well are the ones who provide valuable information.
Readers already know what kind of information
they're getting, so they trust that when they buy
something, it will be of the same or better quality.
This value must be reflected in their blog. It's
much like people who only sign up for a newsletter
after first seeing an example.
Who should venture where one has not blogged
before?
No one wants to be a lemming (I would hope). How do
you decide whether or not to set up a blog? The
answer isn't black or white (what did you expect?).
Ask these questions:
* Can you regularly update it -- at least five times
a week?
* Do you have something to say other than just
linking to others?
* Do you read other blogs or feeds?
* Can you provide information of value to others not
just to yourself? * How large is your newsletter
subscriber list?</li>
* How many unique visitors do you get on an average
day, week or month?
The big decider is whether or not you can write in
the blog almost daily. The people behind the high
traffic blogs post multiple times a day. Though
resourceful, merely linking to other sites doesn't
give visitors much reason to make the effort to come
to yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a great
way to learn how to carry a discussion. Find other
blogs covering topics similar to yours and check
them out. Disagree with their opinions? Write about
it and explain your reasons. Cross-blog discussions
are common, and that's where trackback comes in
handy.
Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to
comment on another blog posting in your blog instead
of in that blog's comments page, then you link to
the conversation through the trackback link.
Trackback is similar to the permalink, the permanent
URL for the blog entry, but it has a different URL
for copying and pasting in your blog's trackback
box.
Aside from the technical aspects of operating a blog
on a daily basis, subscriber list size and Web site
traffic are good indicators of what kind of reaction
you'll get when opening a blog. Starting from
scratch with little traffic means you have a long
road ahead and lots of work to do. There is no magic
formula anyone can sell you for $97 to make your
blog an overnight success. But with some
perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can engage
many prospects and clients.
Pick a niche
Considering there are numerous blogs out there, pick
a niche topic when starting a blog for a better shot
at attracting and keeping an audience. meryl's notes
focuses on three areas: webby, geeky and wordy. In
reality, this is too much. What I need to do for my
readers is create three separate blog entry points,
so those interested in writing, newsletters and
Internet marketing get nothing but the wordy
entries. Those interested in Web design get the
webby stuff and the technophiles receive the geeky
content.
I also manage a personal blog separate from meryl's
notes. It's about cochlear implants and deafness.
This could fall under the geeky category, but it's a
personal blog and doesn't belong in meryl's notes.
This blog is written for a different audience.
The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with
syndication capabilities so those using feed readers
or aggregators can read the content through the
software. For an explanation of syndication and feed
readers, refer to What Is This RSS, XML, RDF, and
Atom Business? When sending a new issue of a
newsletter, comment on it or link to it in the blog,
that way the blog and feed readers will get the
goods, so all three bases are covered.
Blogs in disguise use the same tools
Blogging tools aren't just for, well, blogging. Such
tools are an excellent way to help you update your
Web site more often than you otherwise would. I use
it to manage the list of table less Web sites. Using
blogging tools is much easier than the way I managed
it before, updating the HTML files by hand. Though
using a blog tool, it isn't a blog. In this case,
the blog tool has become a content management system
(CMS).
Small business owners don't have a need for the
fancy and pricey CMS's out there. They find it
easier to use blogging software to manage their
sites or hire someone to adapt the tool for their
site. Women's Spirituality is one such site. Karen
Casey may not use the blog, but she does have
discussions surrounding the articles she writes.
Blogs have found a place in businesses and people
are finding creative ways to use them. Some
companies have a blog on the intranet for
communicating project status, jeopardizes and
metrics. They're used for knowledge management. With
information pouring in, blog tools provide a way to
share, organize and process the information.
Being a follower can be good or bad. No one wants to
walk off a cliff with the lemmings, but everyone
wants to succeed. Best practices won't help, since
the decision to blog is based on the organization's
mission, needs and goals along with its target
market's desires and needs. A blog about lemmings?
There is one, sort of. Or maybe you'd like to start
your own and talk about dumb business moves.
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