The Blog Look

Creating the company blog with the same look and feel as the business website is important to continue the continuity for the end user. If your customer has arrived at your blog and they follow a link through to the rest of the site, they should not feel that they have come to a different website. The visitor has already made themselves feel comfortable with your blog and they have decided to look further. Changing the look and feel on your visitor means that they will have to start again; getting comfortable with your site. This look and feel comfortableness will apply in both directions if your user is going from your blog to our site or vise versa.

Who are you

Making sure that your blog tells your visitor about you is important. The word blog is derived from the words web log. It is an online diary and contains thoughts and impressions of the writer or the team with in the company who are contributing to the blog. It is important to help establish the writer’s credibility and an about us page helps the reader to connect with the person who’s insight they are reading.

Spread the word

Using the social media that blogs take advantage of such as blogcatalog, technorati, digg, feedburner and others is also needed. These services have huge numbers of online users that can be directed to your blog if you use their services correctly and frequently. Using their services may mean distributing your blog content or creating a social network of people who you can use to help promote your blog site to even more online users.

Blogs have become an important component of the internets everyday activities and business usage of blogs is constantly increasing. If you don’t have a business blog as yet it is probably time to start thinking about how you can incorporate one into your companies current online architecture.

Vox allows the ability to combine words, audio and videos into your post easily. There is also a privacy level, giving you the ability to only allow certain people to view what you post. This allows a lot more security and the creation of more intimate online social circles. It however does have a large enough database of online users to give your blog some quick promotion if it is your intention to let the world read what you want to say.

Theme design is something that they believe (the vox crew) they have done well. They allow a number of designs and the easy ability to change template skins with a few clicks.

After taking their on line tour I thought I would give it a go. Sign up was easy with an email verification code. I had to select the skin in preview as the apply design button did not work but I did eventually get my two click design.

They have a number of groups which are in better condition then yahoo or google groups. A lot less traffic unfortunately, but you may get your group seen by those who are using vox.

All in all it seems like a nice easy to use blogging solution for a quick hassle free, free blog.

Why the name of the blog is important

The name of your blog is important because it sets the tone for the blog and it is the first line of marketing for your desired visitors. If a business names their blog ‘Jim’s Blog’ or ‘Jane’s Blog’, it isn’t descriptive enough for people at a first glance to decide if they even want to visit your blog.

Another important result of how you name your business blog, is that most blogging software will put the name of the blog in the title of the browser. Many search engines will list the title of a web page in their results page. If your blog name isn’t very descriptive and accurate, you will risk losing potential customers or prospects coming to your site if they stumble upon your blog from a search engine results page.

Research the keywords for your blog:

This is an important step because you will want to include some keywords in your business blog name to get maximum results. In order to determin which keywords you should use in the name of your blog, you will need to research the viable keywords for your industry. There are many free and paid tools that you can use that will tell you what keyword phrases are being used in searches. This information will tell you what phrases your target market uses to find businesses in your industry.

While performing your research, you will find many results for keyword phrases. The ones you should be most interested in are the keyword phrases that don’t have too many words (no more than 4), as we will be adding more to the name if possible. You will also want to pick the keyword phrases that have a relatively high number of total searches for the month (10,000 or more).

Once you have decided upon a few keyword phrases, experiment with some different arrangements of the words to create the beginnings of a compelling business blog name.

Pick a clear benefit of your services to use in your blog name:

You are in business to fill a need or pain for your target market. If you aren’t doing that, you won’t be in business for long. Pick a clear and concise solution to a problem that your business provides for your target market, and try to incorporate that benefit into the name of your blog. You should end up with a name that will include relevant keywords and also contain a benefit for your clients or customers. Following these steps will give the title of your business blog a more relevant and enticing name.

How to put all the elements together for the name of your business blog:

How do you put together a keyword phrase and a clear benefit to create a powerful blog name? Let us go over an example for the travel industry. We will use a hypothetical company that provides travel insurance to travelers. A common problem for travelers that need travel insurance is to replace lost property and luggage. The benefit of this particular travel insurance business is that it provides coverage that is over and above what the other travel companies provide, or provides a service that makes it quicker and easier to process claims.

Our keyword research for this industry finds that ‘travel insurance online’ has just over 10,000 total keyword searches for the month (total of all 3 of the major search engines). So in creating the name for the blog, we could call it ‘Quick Claims in Online Travel Insurance’ or ‘More Than You Expect From Online Travel Insurance’. We have included a benefit, and the keyword phrase in one short sentence, and we did not make the name too long to make it look awkward.

As you have seen, the name of your business blog serves a couple of functions. The biggest one is that it can be used to help drive targeted visitors to your website, but the name also plays a role in search engine optimization for your business blog. When choosing a name of your business blog, don’t leave out the fact that it should also fit into the branding strategy of your business. Choose wisely and do your research well and you could reap the benefits and rewards for your business.

Copyright 2006 B Hopkins

Do you want to know more about business blogging but don’t know where to start? Go to http://www.allwebcontent.com/articles/Category/Blogs/4 to read more articles about blogging. You can also learn more about making money with your blogs here: http://www.allwebcontent.com/businessblog (A http://drivetraffictomywebsite.com creation)

The comparison between these two approaches is something like comparing apples and oranges. They are both fruit, but that’s about the sum total of their similarities.

B-Blogs

A b-blog is designed to allow you a controlling interest in a conversation between you and your customers and guests. Your guests can provide feedback, but they can’t post.

B-blogs allow you great flexibility in timely release of company information in an informal and nonthreatening way.

Forums

A forum is offered as a means of allowing member interaction and conversation. Generally speaking a forum will be member-directed and in most cases a moderator or administrator will simply act as referee when needed. They may also answer a few questions along the way.

B-blog Benefits

As the owner of a b-blog you have the capability of keeping an informal line of communication with your customers and prospects. You can keep your clients updated on a variety of aspects related to your business. There is very little work that needs to be done with a b-blog to keep it maintained.

Forum Benefits

When you develop a forum for your business you are welcoming individuals with an interest in your products or services to network with other likeminded consumers. In a best-case scenario a forum will allow customers to discuss your product or service, provide tips to other users and develop friendships with other customers based on mutual interests.

Since this approach is consumer-centric it may seem a less than ideal means of online marketing. The truth is, a forum is less about active marketing and more about learning customer trends and preferences. If you pay close enough attention to what your customers are saying to each other you will learn more effective ways to connect with them.

It is a bit surprising, but a forum board somehow allows openness in communication that you won’t likely find in face-to-face conversations.

Combining Benefits

By combining these two truly unique online marketing principles you maximize your effectiveness in reaching your customers while allowing them the opportunity to provide honest feedback. Sure, they may not realize that’s what they’re doing, but an astute netrepreneur will take the information clients voluntarily share with each other and maximize customer satisfaction whenever possible.