{"id":356,"date":"2016-05-07T12:38:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T04:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterbentzen.com\/blog\/?p=356"},"modified":"2016-05-07T12:39:38","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T04:39:38","slug":"how-to-blog-marketing-for-small-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/peterbentzen.com\/blog\/how-to-blog-marketing-for-small-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"How To – Blog Marketing For Small Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog Marketing For Small Businesses<\/h1>\n

Blog Marketing is not that complicated even for anyone that has never even blogged before.\"blog<\/a>
\nIf you are considering getting into a small business online, then You Will want to consider blog marketing, it is almost essential these days.<\/p>\n

Small business blog marketing consists of planning your approach, setting up your blog with WordPress, Blogger or one of several others.
\nWordPress is the most common by far, and I highly recommend that you use this platform, because of the\u00a0huge variety of themes and plugins available.
\nWhilst you can easily set it up completely free on WordPress.com, you will be far better off,
\nsetting it up on your own domain, in your own hosting. For businesses, this is considered far
\nmore professional.<\/p>\n

Blog Marketing for your business, should be maintained specific to the niche that your
\nbusiness is about, and all your content posted on the blog should be relevant to that niche.<\/p>\n

If you are marketing in different niches, consider a separate blog for each niche.<\/p>\n

It definitely is a great tool to get your business out there and known to others, and to\u00a0drive targeted traffic to your blog and subsequently to your optin pages, sales pages and products.<\/p>\n

It should be\u00a0mainly about getting your brand known, and to set yourself up as an authority in your chosen niche.<\/p>\n

Small business blog marketing is something that anyone can do.
\nThere is nothing hard about setting up your blog and keeping it up to date with the latest information about your niche.
\nBut, blogging requires dedication and patience. You have to update your blog with fresh content on a\u00a0regular and consistent basis in order to keep your readers coming back.
\nYou need to have a well thought out plan and stick to it!<\/p>\n

Your plan should include such things as the type of content you want, the frequency of posting, and how you are going to get traffic to your blog.<\/p>\n

If your content is worthwhile and current, people will follow your blog, and more importantly, they will share your content\u00a0through their Social Media accounts. This ‘engagement’ by your visitors should be your main goal.<\/p>\n

Always ensure that you make it easy for them to engage, by commenting on your posts, and include share buttons\u00a0for them to easily spread the word for you!<\/p>\n

Make sure you ask them to comment and to share, unless you have remarkably great content, they won’t do it unless you remind them.<\/p>\n

You must always respond to their comments, and encourage them to return as well.<\/p>\n

Once you have set up your blog, and are happy with the look and feel, you need to add initial content.
\nThis should consist of at least 10 posts, and is better to include a variety of text, images and videos.
\nYou will need to choose relevant keywords that you want to aim for, and write your posts to include the keywords,\u00a0without making the posts unreadable.<\/p>\n

You will also want to become familiar with SEO which is Search Engine Optimization. SEO will help\u00a0you to optimize your blog to get a better ranking with the search engines, and more free traffic.
\nThere are some great plugins for WordPress available free, which make this very easy, once you understand the basics.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned above, there is nothing hard about business blogging, but you will need to be patient because it’s a long process,\u00a0and it will require much of your time, particularly initially.<\/p>\n

Just because you build a blog does not mean that interested people will find it and read it.
\nYou will have to make it known out there!<\/p>\n

Make sure you link to your blog from any of your related sites, and vice-versa.<\/p>\n

Also make sure that your blog includes an Optin Form to build your list.
\nMany business blogs are actually set up specifically for that purpose, and making any sales is just a bonus.<\/p>\n

Having said that, I recommend that you do monetise your blog from day one, with a few ads to related affiliate products, and even some CPA ads.
\nBut don’t over do it, don’t loose focus on promoting your own products and list building!<\/p>\n

Remember why you started your blog!<\/p>\n

Plan your traffic generation methods and get started driving visitors.
\nYou will need to choose and plan to get traffic from several different sources.<\/p>\n

Some of the most common ways to promote your blog are:<\/strong><\/p>\n