Starting a WordPress blog is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to promote your business. A WordPress blog carries with it the dual benefits of access to an internal social network of bloggers and a listing of your blog posts on Google’s search engine.
It’s not enough to simply establish your blog and write a few posts every now and then. To run a successful business oriented blog on WordPress, you’ll need to keep a few important principles in mind.
Give your blog a clear focus
Generally speaking, there are two kinds of blogs: the personal and the professional. A personal blog doesn’t have to have a specific focus. Often, it plays the role of an online journal, a place to record everyday happenings and interesting developments in one’s life.
A professional blog, however, must have a clear focus. If your blog is business oriented, you must naturally focus on what you’re selling. You don’t have to merely pitch your own product or service, though – in fact, it’s far better to “post around” your product or service by writing posts about subjects that touch upon them. For example, if you own an antique bookstore, write some interesting posts about old book making processes or brief reviews of classic novels that are sitting in your stock. If you’re pitching your roofing service, write in general terms about different roofing options and their pros and cons. By doing so, you’ll be able to pick up a wider range of readers who are interested in the content that you are providing.
Own your own domain name
While this may seem like a basic step, the process of setting up a domain name for a new blog is often overlooked. Not only does a free domain name such as myblog.wordpress.com look unprofessional to your website visitors, it shows that you are not willing to invest in your blog. A .com.au domain names are now available from as low as $12.45 per year so it is well worth lifting the image of your blog and investing in a domain name.
Engage with other WordPress users
Even if you’ve been posting intensely interesting and focused articles on your blog, you still might not be seeing any readers. The best way to build up your readership is to directly engage with other bloggers. Search for bloggers whose interests relate to the products or services your business provides and comment on their blog posts. Often, you’ll find that you will receive hits from other bloggers and visitors to those blogs through your linked comments.
Tag your posts
Using appropriate tags is also a must when posting on WordPress. If you’re an online coin dealer and you’ve written an article about a new coin you’ve just placed into your stock, be sure to tag your post with the term “coins”, along with any related terms that might apply such as “silver” or “gold”. If you’ve done so, visitors reading the “coin” article will then be prompted to read other posts relating to coins, silver and gold. This will encourage visitors to spend more time on your blog and therefore read more of your articles. Tagging is a quick and easy way to boost your traffic and attract followers and, potentially, customers and clients.
Post actively and often
As a general rule, your blog’s readership will increase with every post. In a similar way, your blog’s active readership will slowly drop off over time if you neglect it for a long enough period. But if you post on a daily or, at the very least, a weekly basis, you should see a gradual increase in the number of followers you receive.
Luckily, the tools provided by WordPress make it simple to track your readership. On a regular basis, you should check the Stats tab in your WordPress control panel. The Stats page records every hit you receive, where you receive it from (for example, Google Image Search or a link posted by someone else on a different blog) and the countries your viewers live in.
Connect your blog with your other social media accounts
This one is a no brainer. If your business has a Facebook page and a Twitter account (and it should) then your WordPress blog should be linked to both of them. Posting updates on your Twitter feed and your Facebook wall will create important links between your various social media and blog accounts that you’ll need to gain an even larger readership and customer base.
If you follow these general guidelines, you should be able to build an effective WordPress blog that will boost your business.
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