10 Dos and Don’ts of Blogging for Your Business

Successful and effective blogging does not happen overnight or by luck. In fact, seasoned bloggers work hard and constantly learn more about the craft. These basic Dos and Don’ts are a stepping stone for making a successful business blog.

Do spread the word offline about your blog. If you want a successful blog, you must make it a priority. Don’t be ashamed of what you’re doing online. Spread the word around the office, to customers and to your family.

Don’t have music automatically playing in the background. While this may have been cool in the early days of the Internet, it’s simply a hassle now. Music playing in the background will simply distract, and possibly aggravate, your visitors.

Do post regularly. Make a posting schedule and stick to it. Your blog needs consistent fresh content. When visitors know you post often, they are more likely to visit again and again.

Don’t fill your website with ads. You are a business. The goal of your website is to drive people to your business, not to advertise other products and services. Focus your energy on great content, not generating money from third-party advertisements.

Do create a relationship with other blogs in your niche. As a business blog, connect with other businesses in your area. You can start building this business relationship through commenting on other business blogs. Not only does it help build relationships, but it also helps your blog because it gets you name out there even more.

Don’t post irrelevant, fluffy material. When you spend time creating a blog post, make it count. Posting for the sake of posting does not help your readership, and doesn’t help you either. If you can’t come up with three quality posts a week, that’s okay. Only post once a week. Make every post count.

Do share your blog through your social media websites. It’s okay if you do not have a social media plan for your business. But if nothing else, you should have a personal account. If you do, make sure to share links to your blog through social media. Encourage your family, friends and co-workers to do the same. The more people that share, the greater chances you have of more visitors.

Don’t use spammy, questionable methods to get visitors. There are plenty of black hat marketing methods that you may come across during your study of successful business blogging. However, steer far away from these methods. You may get more visitors at first, but the end result could give your business a bad name and even get you banned from search engines.

Do build a relationship with your readers. Engage with your readers through the comments section. If someone comments with a question, promptly respond. This is all a part of customer service and public relations. Work hard and keep visitors and customers happy.

Don’t get discouraged. You may not see overnight success from your business blog, but keep at it. With a bit of hard work, you can make this tool a huge asset for your business.

Chelsei Henderson enjoys blogging about and helping others with website building when not building websites herself. Check out Webeden to learn how build your own website and become successful online.