Tip 1 – Images are becoming used in blogs more today. If you want to use images, you need to make sure they are of the best quality possible. No one wants to look at a blurred image and with today’s technology they should not have to. The images you use should be ones you find that are not copyright protected. If a photographer lets you use their photo, credit should be given.

Tip 2 – Always spell check your content before publishing. Mistakes do not make a blog post look very well put together. People may think if your blog contains misspelled words, incorrect punctuation and other grammatical errors that you probably run your business this way as well.

Tip 3 – Keep slang, abbreviations and the like as sparse as possible. There may be many people reading your blog that have no idea what you are saying because of the use of words that may as well be a foreign language. By using simple language you will appeal to a wider audience. In addition, you will still be able to increase your readership. People who do not understand what you are trying to convey will not come back.

Tip 4 – Never give out personal information in your blog. It is easy to inadvertently do this, but in order to stay safe, you need to be careful with the information you share. Just to be on the safe side, keep your personal and business life separate and use personal blogs for personal posts. This way you can password protect your blog and only those you allow to see it will have access.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. If you want to use images, you need to make sure they are of the best quality possible.
2. Always spell check your content before publishing.
3. People who do not understand what you are trying to convey will not come back.
4. Never give out personal information in your blog.

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Tip 1 – Before you start blogging, make yourself aware of some of the unwritten rules of blogging. This will save you time later. There are certain copyright laws that you need to know about and they should be researched before you start blogging about anything.

Tip 2 – Remember anything you say on a business blog could end up on Google, so choose your words wisely. If you don’t want it showing up here, then you shouldn’t say it. You cannot password protect a business blog because that would be counterproductive so think about it before you say it.

Tip 3 – Another thing bloggers may not think about is the responsibility they have to make sure the sources they use are cited. The links should be there which is one way of protecting yourself from a lawsuit. Cover your back and you will not have to worry about this or negative publicity or fines.

Tip 4 – Answer the questions and comments of readers. This will show them you are listening and reading what they are posting. A business is often portrayed as being impersonal and by answering questions and comments you can show them your business is interested in what they have to say. It will also keep them from feeling as though they are being ignored.

Tip 5 – Not only will you benefit from showing the Internet community that you business is not an impersonal one, but some of the best ideas and solutions have come form the consumer who is purchasing the service or product your business blog represents. Many times businesses have gotten great ideas from the very people that buy their product.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. Before you start blogging, make yourself aware of some of the unwritten rules of blogging.
2. Remember anything you say on a business blog could end up on Google, so choose your words wisely.
3. Another thing bloggers may not think about is the responsibility they have to make sure the sources they use are cited.
4. Answer the questions and comments of readers.

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Tip 1 – When using a blog for your business, the best advice is do not sell in the blog. This is not what the purpose of the blog is for and you will have links for this. The blog is to inform. Tell people the advantages and disadvantages. They will be so pleased that you were honest that they will link to your products to browse.

Tip 2 – Use your blog to educate prospective customers – not to overrun them with marketing. The average person today wants to know the what, why and how of any service or product they plan to use. They do not want to know that you think it is the most terrific product ever. They want to know why you think this.

Tip 3 – If you are a small business owner, a blog is going to be one of the best ways of getting your name out where it is seen. Instead of paying a web designer and going through all the uploading and coding, you can have a blog up and running in no time. The faster you are on the Internet and start grabbing attention, the faster your business will prosper.

Tip 4 – A consultant is an excellent example of a business that would benefit from a blog. There are so many things that they can write about that will show potential customers that they know what they’re doing. Think about what your blog is going to do and what you want it to promote and you will find the things you can write about are unlimited.

Tip 5 – Are you wondering if a blog is even something you need? It definitely is because not only does it make your presence known with the use of keywords for the search engines, but word of mouth, which is probably the biggest advertiser will be a direct result once people start reading your blogs. They are also very important for fostering customer loyal.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. Use your blog to educate prospective customers – not to overrun them with marketing.
2. If you are a small business owner, a blog is going to be one of the best ways of getting your name out where it is seen.
3. A consultant is an excellent example of a business that would benefit from a blog.

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Tip 1 – Do not backdate your content. Date and time stamps are normally put on content by the software you are using as it is published. If you are considering backdating the blog to make it appear to have been written earlier, you should know this could backfire. This is easily checked and being dishonest about when you posted something will not speak well for your business.

Tip 2 – Having a comment space is essential. Implementing a comment policy is essential as well. This does not mean not allowing comments to be left if they are not positive in nature, because you cannot please everyone all of the time. Lending to your credibility and showing that you are trustworthy will be advantageous to your business by allowing opinions – whether you like them or not.

Tip 3 – Implement a comment policy – not monitoring approval or disapproval – but comments that are not relevant, sexually explicit or offensive to certain groups should not be allowed. Spam, of course should not be allowed and self promotion is not acceptable either. The comments need to be monitored so that none appear that should not.

Tip 4 – For many who live in areas where there are seasons of bad weather which could become major problems, a good idea is to have a plan to put in place for a crisis. You may never have to use it , but it is still a good idea to have one and have designated people whether it is you or whomever you choose to be in charge of posting pertinent information.

Tip 5 – Do not forget to link to this plan from your home page so people can find it. Managing the problem from the beginning to the end will let people know you are dependable and this speaks very well of your blog.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. Do not backdate your content.
2. Having a comment space is essential.
3. Implement a comment policy.
4. Do not forget to link to this plan from your home page so people can find it.

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Tip 1 – It is important for your blog to have categories. This will allow you to organize the content and people will be able to find what they are looking for more easily. If they want to go back and see a blog that was written 6 months ago, it is a simple matter of going to the archives and finding the month they want.

Tip 2 – Don’t forget tags. They are important to finding the information you want within a blog. In fact, they are like mini hyperlinks to other posts where the same tag was used. Suppose you write a blog and use a tag that people do not really know the meaning of. By clicking to another post that uses the same tag, they can learn what you mean.

Tip 3 – If you are going to use your blog for business, you will want everyone to know about it. Many people use press releases to announce their new blog. When doing this, make certain the content you have on your blog is up to par because people will be going to read it.

Tip 4 – Quantity does not always mean a good blog. If what you have to say is quality, the size of the blog should not matter. Rambling on and on just to take up space is not what is going to help your blog do what you intend for it to do.

Tip 5 – When you first start your blog, rather than announcing it to the world, you may want to soft launch it. This will allow you to launch in stages and update until you get ready to go full speed ahead.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. It is important for your blog to have categories.
2. Don’t forget tags.
3. If you are going to use your blog for business, you will want everyone to know about it.
4. Quantity does not always mean a good blog.

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Tip 1 – If all else fails and you do not think you can keep up a blog every day or even every other day, there is good news. You can hire someone to blog for you. A freelance writer can churn out a blog in no time and you can purchase them and put them on your website. The great thing is they will write about anything you want.

Tip 2 – Whether you write your own blog or have someone write it for you, use simple language. Using big, complicated words will do nothing but confuse the people who are coming to read your blog and the end result is they will not come back. Why? – Because they did not understand what you were trying to say.

Tip 3 – If you have a website that you want to link your blog to, use the blog as a sub domain. If you do not know how to add links to your blog from your main website, find someone who does so they will be consistent from a visual point.

Tip 4 – Ensure that your blog has subscription tools, different groupings or categories, an archive for past blogs and “about you” information for visitors.

Tip 5 – Make sure your business blog has a theme that will fit your business. A one-size-fits-all is not what you need here. You should either design or have a custom-designed theme that will be entirely your own. In the future, this will pay off as traffic to your blog will recognize your theme. Recognition is one of the most important tools to ensuring that people return to your blog over and over.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. You can hire someone to blog for you.
2. Whether you write your own blog or have someone write it for you, use simple language.
3. If you have a website that you want to link your blog to, use the blog as a sub domain
4. Make sure your business blog has a theme that will fit your business

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Tip 1 – If you are interested in starting a blog, but inexperienced as far as exactly what to do and all the aspects of how a blog can work for you, do some research and find out. You will be amazed to find out everything a blog can do for your business. It is like a website but much easier. Find out what you do not know about blogs before you start one.

Tip 2 – When you are going to use your blog to link to your website or to an affiliate, using keywords is essential. Using them while blogging is much simpler than using them for website content. When you write your blog, you will be describing something or voicing your opinion. Work the keywords in naturally just as if you were speaking to someone and your information will be accessible when the keywords are searched. Make it as interesting as possible and the keywords will be ranked higher.

Tip 3 – A business blog will help you to do what you have gone into business for in the first place – making money. Examine the reason you want to start a business blog and focus on that reason. A business blog will have to meet the needs of the customer you are trying to target or it will fail. This is true of any type of business from a one-man operation to a company with thousands of employees.

Tip 4 – If you are considering starting a business blog, you can do the blogs all by yourself or invite members of the business to post as well. The variety of more than one person’s ideas and opinions may be a good start for the interest it could generate for your blog.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. When you are going to use your blog to link to your website or to an affiliate, using keywords is essential.
2. A business blog will help you to do what you have gone into business for in the first place – making money.
3. If you are considering starting a business blog, you can do the blogs all by yourself or invite members of the business to post as well.

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Tip 1 – A web feed format is extremely important. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) will allow you to reach a larger number of people and will help to increase your link popularity. The use of RSS will allow readers to receive information from your blog as it is updated.

Tip 2 – Use the tools of the trade to your advantage. Widgets can help and so can plug-ins. They make sharing your information with other online sites far easier and this will result in more traffic. If you will look around, you will see many social media sites that are using a large amount of content from blogs.

Tip 3 – Your blog, using track back and comments, can create a user community that will read everything you post and want more. Those who feel as strongly as you do about something can help to get your information out to social networking sites that are used by a large percentage of people on the web today. So, voice your opinion and stir some interest.

Tip 4 – Use lists on your blog. People love to skim through lists and they will link to them quicker than long drawn out paragraphs. They will remember them, talk about them and even share them if they are lists with good information.

Tip 5 – Use instructional posts to your advantage. People like to know how to do things. If you use instructions and post them over several days, you can have them coming back for more. This will help them develop a habit of logging into your blog.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. A web feed format is extremely important.
2. Use the tools of the trade to your advantage.
3. Use instructional posts to your advantage.

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Tip 1 – There are a variety of new blogging tools that are constantly being used by those who blog. Do not be afraid to try these even if it is something you have never heard of. You may end up with something that works extremely well for your blog. One of the ways people generate an interest in their blogs is by holding blog contests. Everybody loves a contest and you can get a lot of traffic by implementing this blog tool.

Tip 2 – If you are going to use blogging tools that does not mean you have to go overboard either. You do not have to try every blogging tool you see. Choose carefully from the ones that will benefit your blog. Using the tools that will help you to accomplish what you want to with your blog will keep your blog interesting without being overwhelming.

Tip 3 – Even after you have been blogging for a while, you may still need help with something. Do not be afraid to ask for this help. The Internet is ever-changing and that includes the world of blogs. If there is something that you do not understand, get help from someone who does know.

Insights and Action Steps….

1. There are a variety of new blogging tools that are constantly being used by those who blog.
2. If you are going to use blogging tools that does not mean you have to go overboard either.
3. Even after you have been blogging for a while, you may still need help with something.

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Tip 1 – Find a free blog site to promote your business. There are several that you can use to have a blog up and running in a matter of minutes.

Tip 2 – A blog needs fresh content. Write something everyday. If you have a hard time thinking of something to write about, look around at what some of your fellow bloggers are commenting on. Don’t write about exactly the same thing, but if it is something that has been in the news lately, you can express your opinion.

Tip 3 – Make sure the blogging service you use provides a search engine friendly URL. This will allow the search engines to locate your posts much easier. A search engine friendly uniform resource locator (URL) is essential to get your blog into the eye of the public.

Tip 4 – Considered an online journal, blogs are one way you may post entries about your interests, your views and personal experiences. By sharing in an interesting and informative way, you can generate an interest in what you have to say about many things and keep people wanting to hear more.

Tip 5 – A great blog can be a review of an item that has just been released. Don’t forget to give the good aspects as well as the not so great aspects. For instance, if you are reviewing a video game, the suitability for certain age groups is another thing people are interested in knowing.

Tip 6 – Include updates on your blog. If your blog contained a review of a product or service, and something new comes along that is linked to this product or service, make sure and update your information.

Insights and Actions Steps….

1. Find a free blog site to promote your business.
2. A blog needs fresh content.
3. Make sure the blogging service you use provides a search engine friendly URL.
4. Include updates on your blog.

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