Blogging is the latest boiler in online business and PR. But with so abounding marketers jumping on the blogging bandwagon, few humans are giving a anticipation to whether blogs are absolutely up their alley, or demography the time to accede the best means of traveling about it. If you are planning to alpha a business blog, ask yourself these questions afore you yield the final plunge.

1. Do you absolutely charge a blog?

Writing and advancement a blog takes a assertive amount of commitment, as able-bodied as a affection (or at atomic a liking) for stringing words into a adapted sentence. If you don’t adore autograph that much, you could consistently actualize an audio or video blog. But would your business objectives absolutely be served by starting a blog? Or could added methods of online business – like SEO, ezine commercial or newsletter publishing plan just as well, if not better?

2. Whom do you wish to ability with your blog?

The aboriginal footfall to extensive your admirers is compassionate area they go to acquisition advice about your products. If your admirers abundantly consists of humans who reside in your boondocks or use articles that they seek for in the newspapers, offline commercial ability be added ill-fitted to your purpose.

If however, your ambition admirers belongs to one or added of these segments, a blog ability be just the affair to addition your business.

- Internet users

Does your ambition admirers absolutely use the internet? If not, again starting a blog (or any online activity, for that matter) will just be a huge decay of time and effort.

- Blog readers

Does your ambition admirers apprehend blogs? Or do they adopt to get their advice in their inbox? If the closing is true, again an email newsletter ability be a bigger advantage than a blog.

- Seek engine users

A blog is an accomplished way to addition your seek engine rankings and get listed for a lot of your ambition keywords. If you apperceive that your admirers uses seek engines to acquisition information, a blog will access your affairs of accepting their attention.

- Amusing media users

A blog is an accomplished way to accommodate a focal point for your community. Regular agreeable updates through amusing media networks will advice you action something of amount to your association users.

3. What do you wish to accomplish with your blog?

There are a lot of things that a blog can do for your business. Blogs can advice you -

- Access your afterimage and seek engine rankings

- Brand yourself, your products, your services, your company

- Body a association and arrangement with humans who accept agnate interests

- Expand your ability to those alfresco your accepted apple of access – Establish your believability as an able or thought-leader in your field

- Put a animal face on your business

- Ability out to abeyant barter and stakeholders

Deciding absolutely what you wish to accomplish with your blog can advice you get focused, so that you can absorb your time and accomplishment in activities that help, not arrest your business objectives.

4. How abundant time can you absorb on your blog?

Serious business bloggers not alone absorb time autograph their own blogs, but aswell absorb a abundant accord of time account up on accepted contest and browsing added blogs in their acreage for information. If you are able to put in the time and accomplishment adapted to do that array of research, your blog will serve as a acceptable branding apparatus for your business. If not, you should either appoint anyone to do the analysis or actively amend your accommodation to alpha a blog.

5. What blogging belvedere will serve your needs best?

Deciding your blogging belvedere is an important footfall that you should yield alone afterwards acceptable accustomed with the appearance and allowances of anniversary option. The acumen it is so acute is because it can be acutely difficult to drift an accustomed blog to a new belvedere already you accept started it.

Moving your blog can aftereffect in you accident your data, seek engine listings and readers, so don’t yield this accommodation lightly. Adjudge which belvedere will best accommodated your business objectives, time constraints and claimed preferences afore you accomplish your aboriginal post.

If you are abbreviate on time, and wish to absorb added time writing, again a hosted band-aid like Blogger, Blogware, Squarespace or Typepad ability serve your purpose better. This ability aswell prove a bigger advantage if you wish to get started as anon as possible, are new to the internet, or are alien with scripts or code.

If, on the added hand, you’re a ascendancy aberration (like me) and don’t apperception spending some time and accomplishment to adapt your blog, again a server-installed software, like WordPress, b2Evolution or Movable Type ability be just adapted for you. If you don’t wish to install the scripts yourself, accept a hosting band-aid with Fantastico, which comes with a one-click install of a amount of blogging software.

6. How do you plan to beforehand your blog?

Why is it acceptable to apperceive this afore you alpha your blog? Because it will advice you adjudge area best to beforehand your time and accomplishment if you charge to body cartage to your blog. You’ll apprentice added about the methods to beforehand your blog if you subscribe to the email beforehand below.

Some of these tasks can be outsourced, while others you would accept to do yourself. Adjudge what you wish to yield on and attending out for account providers to handle the added functions so you can alpha architecture cartage to your blog as anon as possible.

7. How will you appraise the success of your blog?

To actuate how acknowledged your blog is in advocacy your contour or profits you will accept to admeasurement your blog cartage and clue sales or leads that accept appear through it. Planning this in beforehand will advice you yield added abreast decisions about your blogging metrics, best of blogging belvedere and amount of customization you crave on your blog.

Understand that blogging is not for everyone. It’s just addition anatomy of communication. Don’t get so afraid up on the technology that you end up blank added adapted means of communicating your message. Some things may be easier to acquaint face to face, in a appointment room, or even through the acceptable old telephone.

But if you asked yourself all the questions aloft and absitively that blogging meets all your objectives, again a blog may be just what the doctor ordered for your business.

Deciding on a acceptable blog appellation and selecting a area accept to be based on ambition keyword placement. With both Area and a Acceptable Blog Appellation you wish to cover at atomic one ambition keyword, but what is the ambition keyword?

Well that will depend on your Alcove and there is a rather ample annual of options. But that will depend on you to adjudge on the niche, finer something you adulation doing. Again artlessly anticipate of the One Chat that will best call your blog. And again you aswell accept to authorize the seek aggregate and akin of antagonism for that keyword. Because any blog appellation accept to accommodate keywords with a top seek aggregate and low to average competition.

Therefore it is of absolute accent you actualize a chargeless Google annual and be able to use the Google Keyword Planner tool. Which is a chargeless apparatus central Google Ad-Words but you accept to actuate the Ad-Words annual by allotment it. No charge to abode any adds just yet because you alone charge admission to the armory of tools. After on your blogging adventure you will use abounding accoutrement alone attainable through your Google account. Like the Google Seek Console and Google My Business, but that is a affair for addition article.

The appellation accept to abridge the agreeable which will abatement the animation amount of your visitors. It anon tells the company absolutely what the blog is about. And it is aswell simple to bethink with no exclusion to your area name. It should not beat 60 characters and accept to be as abbreviate and absolute as possible. This is important for both appellation and blog column affectation window in Seek Results.

Place that one ambition keyword with a top seek aggregate as the aboriginal chat in both blog appellation and area name. That way if seek engines clamber your blog the ambition keyword is clear. And they can categorise your blog added targeted.

But it accept to consistently be aural context. Just abstraction a agglomeration of keywords calm is how Not to rank in seek engines. The appellation of your blog is your adventitious to allure seek engine visits or spider crawls. The blog appellation is mentioned aboriginal in the website map to any blog.

Try to abstain stop words like (the, and) but this may assume added arduous than is generally anticipated. Although it is added of a aphorism if it comes to the URL bang of a Blog Post. Just a claimed alternative and SEO tactic I’m currently testing. So no, it will not access your blog SEO. Providing stop words are not present in column URL slugs or the Primary Blog Domain.

With a acceptable appellation aswell comes the tagline which accept to be appropriately abbreviate and objective. A tag band is not a website description which is why it is alleged a “Tag” line. Therefore it is usually no added than three words. Consistently bethink that after with SEO you are traveling to charge amplitude for your Blog Column Title. A seek aftereffect commonly appearance the following;

Blog Homepage – (Blog Appellation / Tagline)

Blog Page – (Page Appellation / Blog Title)

Blog Column – (Post Appellation / Blog Title)

A acceptable appellation is your adventitious to not alone allure added visitors. But added chiefly accepting them wish to break on your blog. This is area the superior of your agreeable plays its allotment because a acceptable blog column accept to accept abundant content.

When your company reads the appellation they accept to anon apperceive this is what they accept been searching for. Which is why forth with your blog appellation aswell comes the Aboriginal Impression. Base that on your own aboriginal consequence by seeing your blog through the eyes of your visitor.

There are abounding means to body your account and bedfellow blogging is one of the best ways. You can allure added humans to your blog which can advance to added subscribers. I am abiding that there a lot of accepted blogs in your alcove that accept bags of traffic. Since these readers are in your niche, they would be absorbed in what you address about, your autoresponder and advertisement letters and of advance your offers. Remember the articles can either be your own articles or associate offers.

Do You Apperceive How To Acquisition Bedfellow Blogging Opportunities?

Your next catechism is probably, so area do I acquisition these opportunities? The aboriginal abode to alpha is with blogs that you already chase in your niche. In adjustment to acquisition out if a blog is popular, attending for blogs that get at atomic 5 comments per post. Accepted blogs about get a lot of acknowledgment from its readership. You can aswell attending at the Alexa ranking.

Two added means to acquisition blogs are the Google Blog Seek Engine and Technorati. The Google Blog Seek Engine allows you to ascribe your capital keywords. Blogs and blog posts will be alternate in the seek results. Technorati is a agenda of blogs area you can seek for posts or blogs based on your seek criteria.

Use any of these methods to acquisition 10 accepted blogs this week. Don’t delay to get started.

Approaching the Blog Owner

Once you acquisition these blogs, you may be tempted to email the buyer and ask if you can do a bedfellow blog post. What you should do is absorb time account these blogs and autograph accessible and accordant comments a few times a week. If you do this, the buyer will in fact alpha to admit you. It is bigger for them to access you again the added way around.

Now, you charge to address a abundant bedfellow blog post. Once you complete the post, email it to the blog owner. Accomplish abiding it is accurately formatted so all they accept to do is archetype and adhesive it. You wish to accomplish it as simple as accessible for the owner.

Follow Up, Chase Up, Chase Up

Your plan is not done afterwards your bedfellow column goes live. Once you see that your blog column is live, cheep about it, acknowledgment it on Facebook, and bookmark it on amusing sites like Delicious and Digg. You can aswell let your account apperceive about your bedfellow blog list. Doing these things will actualize added absorption and cartage for both you and the blog owner.

The added cartage and absorption your bedfellow column gets, the added cartage and absorption your own blog will get. Also, the blog buyer will apprehension your efforts of announcement the post. All of this will absolutely absolutely affect the cartage to the owner’s site. Your affairs of getting arrive aback for added bedfellow blogging will access if you do your best at in fact announcement your post.

All allowance agencies and brokers should blog, showcasing their ability with aboriginal content. Blogs advice website stickiness, accommodate agreeable for amusing media business and advice advance allowance seek engine optimization. Here are six simple accomplish to actualize added able allowance bureau blogs:

Make the banderole blunt – 5 to 10 words: Long blog account impede formatting, administration and efficacy. Spend a little added time to accumulate allowance bureau blog headlines. Remember, they don’t charge to be a book – they can be a affair or a phrase.

Offer an absorbing bend or ability nugget: Just as a bi-weekly anchorman or contributor would seek an bend to angle their article, so should agents, brokers and bureau marketers. Why is this blog of absorption to the ambition readers? What will they learn? What is interesting, acute or educational about the blog?

Add an image: Images are absorbing and blog readership metrics appearance that blogs with images allure added views. Images can advance formatting, professionalism and branding. They can advice bound back what the blog, and/or your bureau wishes to convey. For example, if the blog is about new OSHA regulations apropos to restaurant insurance, an angel pertaining to OSHA, food, aliment accumulator or conceivably a restaurant exoteric can advance the blog.

Use bullets or subheadings: It’s faster and easier to digest advice in bulleted or subheading formats. Abounding acclaim that emails to admiral use bullets to bound back important information. Blogs should be almost abbreviate as acclaimed in Step #5, and bullets and subheadings advice accumulate advice blunt and bigger organized.

Accumulate the agreeable abbreviate (200 to 500 words): There are abounding perspectives on blog length. I tend to anticipate beneath blogs can be bigger blogs. Lengthy capacity generally plan bigger with a blog addition and a hotlink to added advice on an allowance bureau website such as a white paper, recorded webinar, video or a web page with accordant content. Blogs can be actual short, even a brace of sentences can answer if the blog is redirecting to added agreeable as ahead mentioned. In the instances of video administration aural a blog (for archetype – watch this white lath video on accumulation captives and ample deductible plans), these are generally referred to as vlogs as against to blogs.

Publish consistently and allotment your blogs: For a blog to be effective, it needs to be consistent. Visitors who appearance a blog and acquisition the a lot of contempo access is a few months old are traveling to be angry off. They will apperceive that the allowance bureau is not paying abundant absorption to the blog, and catechism relevancy. Blogs charge to be accepted and should be shared. Blog agreeable advice agencies with allowance amusing media marketing, accouterment something accepted and accordant to allotment with their ambition market. Agents should ensure they accept amusing media administration chiclets associated with anniversary blog, so their readers can allotment them too.

Insurance agents and brokers can and should blog about allowance topics, such as allowances and compliance, PPACA, PLI, and accumulation captives admitting they can aswell bestrew blogs on business, travel, book reviews and added items that ability be of accepted interest. Agencies defective the time or assets to address constant blogs (at atomic already per week), can use a accomplished allowance business bureau to augment their efforts.