How To Use Your WordPress Blog To Grow Your Online Business
Personal websites in the form of blogs are being widely used not only by a myriad of internet marketers, but by small business owners and home based businesses as well. Blogs are websites where the owner of the blog, known as the blogger, creates posts discussing topics that both pertain to their business and also are helpful and interesting to potential customers. People see interesting headlines and read the articles and then post comments in reply. Here are some reasons why blogs, and WordPress blogs in particular, are so important, and such a good fit, for anyone trying to get their online business off the ground.
Blogs Are Interactive
First, blogs are interactive. Blogs are one of the few tools online that allow people to come together and discuss a particular thing in such a lasting, conversational manner. Other types of social sites do promote conversation, but not in any long-term fashion; blog entries can be sorted, categorized, and do not disappear after an hour or a day like Facebook posts or tweets on Twitter. Blogs differ from static websites in that static websites do not allow readers to communicate with you, the expert and owner of you business.
Get To Know Your Customers
Second, blogs have the ability to provide you with feedback. Business owners who maintain blogs are able to learn a lot from the comments they receive. You will begin to learn whether people are liking your products or services. And, if not, you can find out what problems people are having. It a great, and free, way for you to learn what your visitors think about your business and what you're offering. You can even get a feel for whether or not you have been too forceful in selling. This feedback will help you improve the quality of your blogs and your business overall. WordPress makes it really easy to manage your blog, allowing your customers to post comments. You can then read and reply to those comments. WordPress even has plugins available to help keep spam out of your blog.
Blogs Keep Your Site Fresh
Third, blogs are can be constantly updated. You don't have to post every day. You can post once per week and your blog will still generate a good deal of conversation because of the comments. People are interested in you and want to keep up to date on what you are doing. If you are going to be presenting somewhere, let people know. After you get back from a conference, write up a review of your thoughts on the experience. Ask your readers what they think. Asking questions is a great way to encourage people to leave comments and start a conversation.
Search Engines Love Blogs
Blogs are loved by the search engines. Search engines love blogs because they are constantly updated with fresh information which keeps your website current and interesting to people. Your blog posts should be thoughtful, helpful and interesting. Search engines love nothing more than great quality content. Even the most professionally put together WordPress blog will not rank highly if the content is subpar, infrequent, or boring.
Build A Community of Experts With Your Blog
Fifth, blogs can attract experts. Experts in your industry, maybe even in your business, might visit your blog and make a comment or two. This gives you a channel of communication with them. You could even make an interesting collaboration with them in the future.
Blogs help you meet interesting people and find out where they spend time online. When someone makes a comment on your blog, the door has been opened for you to make a comment on their blog. Just as their website URL will appear on your blog, your website URL will appear on theirs, which means greater exposure for you. As a result of this shared traffic, you see increased activity on your blog.
Show That Your An Expert
Blogs can identify you as an expert. If you blog constantly, your followers are left with the impression that you have so much information to share, that you must blog frequently, since you have so many things to write about. Additionally, when they see other industry experts writing on your blog, your credibility improves, too. This is a tremendous boost to your business.
Blogs Bring Targeted Traffic To Your Website
Eighth, blogs attract targeted traffic. The visitors to your blog will only be people who have an interest in the subject matter of your blog. This means you are generating good quality traffic, all of whom have an interest in your product – or at least the topic of what your business does. It is easier to convert these warm leads into customers, than it is to attempt to convert brand new leads who have never heard of you before.
Blogs provide content that can be repurposed in multiple different ways. After you have been posting to your blog for some time, you will have a good amount of rich content at some point. All of this good information can be used in various ways. One of the ways is to use that content to make an eBook which you can use for further promotion.
[bctt tweet=”Blogs provide content that can be repurposed in multiple different ways – YouTube video, Facebook posts, Tweets, Podcasts, and eBooks. ” username=”leehblue”]
Monetize Your Blog
Finally, blogs can earn passive income. You can monetize your blog by using WordPress tools to sell your own products, as well as linking to affiliate websites where you can earn a commission by referring customers who buy products from other people's websites. For example, if you help people with Search Engine Marketing, you might link to a site like DoubleStack where people can get a great WordPress website. That way once the customer has a website, then you can help them with optimizing their site for search engines.
