What is a blog?
A blog (meaning web log) is a part of a website or a stand-alone site where individuals or businesses regularly upload commentaries on events, introduce products or display a portfolio of new work. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject whilst others are used as personal online diaries.
The majority of blogs are interactive, thus allowing visitors to leave comments on posts and sometimes to message each other via widgets. It is this interactivity that distinguishes them from static websites.
Business Blogs
Do you find that your website is not performing as well as you’d like? Ever thought of writing a blog to promote all things to do with your business?
Today blogs are an important tool that businesses use to promote their website and market their products. Having a blog as part of your business website gives you an opportunity to create fresh content on a weekly or monthly basis. This is a great way to promote your online shop and tell the world about any new products that you may have. It is also a great way to inform customers of new things that are happening with your business, or to offer tips and advice thus creating a stronger relationship with them, hopefully leading to more orders and further business.
Creating a business blog can attract a regular following of users interested in your skills and products. They are more likely to think of you when they need something therefore returning to your website instead of searching elsewhere. A blog will also keep your website or online shop fresh and at the top of the search results because of the new content being added regularly.
Personal and Special Interest Blogs
In general personal blogs are quite easy to set up initially, there are online services such as WordPress.com or Blogger that can help get you started. You may even decide to create your own self hosted blog which gives you more control over the features and customisations if you are more tech savvy. Personal blogs can be about anything you have the passion to write about, a hobby, your work, leisure time, photography, or just an online diary.
Sometimes as you get more involved in the process of creating your blog you may find that you become overwhelmed with the amount of things that can be added to it to improve the way it works. You may also find that not all widgets and plugins perform as you imagine. Quite often the code needs to be amended for it to work with your blog but you are not confident enough or don’t have the software to tackle it. There is usually plenty of help to be found online, but if you just need someone to help, we can help you with both advice or hands-on help.
Special interest blogs can be much more involved than a personal blog and the set up for this is sometimes as involved as a business blog, for example a photography website that allows members to share their photos and tips, or a cookery website where members can share recipes. If you wish to provide your visitors with an attractive blog that performs well and encourages new people to follow you then we can assist you with any part of the process and with continued support. It is worth bearing in mind that a well-visited blog can bring in revenue via attractive advertising, money to be used for your group or to be spent on yourself!
Our blog setup service
If you are interested in setting up a blog for yourself or your business but don’t know how to go about it, we can help. We can set a blog up as part of your current website, or as a stand-alone entity, and then show you how to add articles to it yourself. We then leave it in your capable hands with the option of support as you need it.
Your blog can be updated as frequently as you’d like, as often as you have time to write for it, but we would recommend at least once or twice a month so that you are adding fresh content to your website. The built in Search Engine Optimisation that comes with blogs will help drive people to the blog and then on to your business website, especially if you choose to write articles based on the keywords you would like to be found for.
A blog is a great tool for business marketing, creating content that can be included in newsletters but that will also be found in the search engines bringing traffic to your website. A personal blog is a great way to build your own identity online, or share your interests and thoughts with others online. Remember to always link your blog with your social media accounts.
