CT Biz Blogs

Darren Rowse, over at ProBlogger, has come up with a group writing project on blogging goals. I’m taking time out from my posts about blogging risks to write my own thoughts about blogging goals — it’s just too much fun to miss out on.

I’d like to address the small business owner who’s thinking about blogging as a way to connect with customers, share expertise, and build the business. So here are the goals for people thinking about blogging, or about to start blogging. If you’ve just started blogging, it’s not too late to retroactively think about how you did on these goals.

1. Do your research
2. Make your commitment
3. Make your plan
4. Go for it!

1. Do your research: There are several things you need to think about and understand before you decide if blogging is right for your business and for you. The goal here is to understand the benefits and the risks involved in blogging, and you need to do some work to reach that goal.
   • Read other blogs in your industry. Go to Technorati, or Feedster and browse through blogs, or type in some search terms to see blogs on your area of interest. Make sure to read the comments, too. When you find a blog you like, check out the sidebar for links to other blogs.
   • Comment on other blogs. This is an excellent way to get into the conversation. You don’t need to have a blog or even a website, to start commenting.
   • Read blogs about blogging, PR, marketing, and other small businesses that blog. Some good ones (besides this one, and ProBlogger, of course) are:
     • Successful Blog
     • Micro Persuasion
     • Creative Concepts blog
     • Signs Never Sleep
     • The Soap Blog
     • Aldo Coffee Company
   • Talk to bloggers or PR people who understand blogging. That might be (shameless plug here) me, or Valorie Luther, or any of quite a few people who are working in the blog world.
   • Read some books. A few I recommend are (no affiliate links, I just like the books):
     • Naked Conversations
     • Blog Marketing
     • Buzz Marketing With Blogs for Dummies
2. Make your decision. Once you’ve done the research, your next goal is to make a decision. Maybe blogging isn’t for you. But, if you’ve decided that blogging is a good idea for your business, make the commitment. Don’t just plunge in, write once in a blue moon, fail to respond to legitimate comments, fail to delete spam comments, or abandon the blog.

   And the best way to keep up the commitment is to:

3. Make a plan. This goal will help you strategize and organize your approach to blogging. This means deciding things like:
   • how often you will blog — weekly, daily, couple times a week, whatever. Start slowly, and build up. Don’t start with a bang and then fade out to a whimper.
   • who will write the posts — this doesn’t have to be you. You can ask an employee, or family member, or even hire someone (as long as it’s clear who’s talking).
   • what kind of blog platform and hosting you’ll have — if you’ve done your research, you’ll know about the pros and cons of a hosted blog vs. having your own, of the ins and outs of, say, WordPress vs. Expression Engine. There’s much more to be said about this, of course, but that’s a subject for another post.
   • what you’ll do about issues such as negative comments, blog maintenance (backup often, people!), spam, things like that. Be proactive about these issues.
4. Go for it! At some point, you’ve got to get off the fence and just do it, as the Nike adverts say. I highly recommend blogging — it will work for your business if you’ve done the work. And it’s quite a ride!