Guidelines for Writing a Successful Business Blog

by guest author Rob Chant, of db design.

This is by no means intended to be a definitive list of points on how to succeed with your blog. It’s more of a stream of consciousness of ideas and ruminations. It’ll be updated frequently.

The points are in no particular order, but they’re all important. Not all of them may be relevant for your business, but of those that are, don’t pick and choose. Follow them all.

Please note that these points are about writing your blog, not marketing it (although we do touch on that subject). You need to have a good quality blog before you can begin to publicise it heavily, but of course, good quality writing will have an impact on your blog’s popularity by itself.

Anyway, here it goes:

1. Find and develop a voice

People reading your blog will want to feel that they know you and that they can trust you. They want to feel as if they’re being spoken to by a real person, not an anonymous organisation or a glossy PR professional. You’ll need to develop a personal voice (or voices, depending on how many of you are posting). You’ll need to be real, be a person, be opinionated and unafraid to say what you think.

2. Speak to one person

You’re not speaking to everyone out there, you’re speaking to one person. As you write your blog, conjure someone up in your head (someone real, someone you know, someone made up) and imagine sitting talking to that person over coffee or a beer. Talk to that person as you write your blog.

3. Write plain and correct language

It’ll read better and won’t give anyone any excuses to dismiss your post. Check the spelling, grammar and punctuation thoroughly and don’t rely on your word processor’s spelling checker. Have your posts proof read if you can.

4. Blog every day

Even weekends, if you can. Posts can be short, and you can even prepare them in advance. If you can’t blog every day, than at least keep your blogging very regular, so your regular readers know when to expect new content.

5. Keep most posts short and sweet

Most people don’t have the time of patience to read through long articles, and that’s especially true on the web (you’re probably getting impatient reading this even now). Keep most posts down to two or three paragraphs, and throw in the odd longer, more detailed article every now and then (once a fortnight or so).

6. Keep product announcements to a bare minimum

Don’t use your blog to advertise your own products, services or events on a regular basis. When you do do so, be absolutely explicit that this is your own product that you are promoting, keep the post very short and link straight to the product page on your main web site instead of writing about it in detail.

7. Read and comment on other people’s blogs

This is the most important part of any successful blogging endeavour and the one most overlooked. It could not be more important or have its importance overstressed. It is the main way you’ll drive traffic to your blog and develop a brand in the blogosphere. Pick a handful of blogs very relevant to your field and make sure that you regularly read and comment on their posts. The Morning Coffee extension for Firefox is a great way to make sure you’re doing your regular reading and commenting.

8. Don’t stick to a set format

Don’t try to fit all your blog posts into a set format (e.g. picture at the top or in-line with the text, etcetera). It’ll make your blog boring and you’ll almost certainly find yourself struggling to fit all your posts into the format. Instead, ring the changes. Include pictures, graphs and lists of bullet points, but not all the time.

9. Don’t stick to your core business

Don’t feel as if you always have to write about your own core business. Don’t feel as if you even always have to write about business at all.

10. Write about what interests you

The main question most writers ask themselves is how to keep people interested in their writing. The answer is very simple – write about whatever interests you.

11. Reference previous blog posts

Whenever appropriate, link to previous posts from you blog in the main text of new posts. This works well for SEO purposes and keeps readers on your blog for longer. Don’t overdo it though.

12. Create lists

Lists are relatively simple to create and always go down well on social book-marking and media sites such as Digg or del.icio.us. Examples could be top ten tips for successful property investment or five things for which to look when buying a new car. Again, don’t overdo it.

13. Go back and update

Just because a given post is no longer on the front page of your blog doesn’t mean that people aren’t still reading it. Go back over your old posts regularly and improve them as you see fit. If you want to re-hash or develop an idea from a previous post further, write a new post and link back to the old one.

14. You don’t need to be original

Not every post needs to be blazingly original thinking. Don’t be afraid to use ideas or content that you’ve read about in other blogs or other sources. However, never copy and paste other people content (re-write it in your own words) and always link back to the source of the content. Not only is this ethical, it’ll also increase the traffic to your blog. Even better than re-hashing content you’ve read elsewhere is giving your own opinion on it, either agreeing or disagreeing. Other people’s blogs may often be the main source of inspiration for your own.

15. Get involved in your own comment threads

Read and reply to what other people are saying in response to your posts. Again, it’ll help to give you a voice and stop your readers feeling as if they’re talking to a machine. Plus nothing will be more frustrating for your readers than trying to have a discussion with someone who never replies!

16. Correct your errors immediately

If someone points out a factual error in one of your posts, don’t ignore it. Check it and correct it immediately if appropriate. Thank the person who corrected you in the amended post.

17. Give traffic away

Being a successful blogger is about being a part of a community. That means sending your readers to other blogs and not being worried about whether they’ll come back or not (they probably will if your blog’s good enough).

18. Share your content

If you’ve come up with a great post or a great piece of information, encourage other bloggers in your network to use it (and link back to you of course). Again, it’s about community. There’s no such thing as an exclusive in the blogosphere.

19. Use news with a pinch of salt

If you can genuinely break news, then great. Otherwise avoid it, unless you’ve got something particularly interesting to say about a given topic. People can get the new anywhere (in fact, most people can hardly avoid it). Your readers are reading your blog for your opinion and voice, not to read the news.

20. Take your blogging seriously or not at all

If you’re going to blog successfully, you’re going to have to make it a serious project and put proper time into it. Making a half hearted attempt is worse than not doing it at all. A infrequently updated or poorly written blog will reflect badly on your business.

21. Have fun with it

It may seem obvious, but it’s worth saying. If you’re not having fun with your blog, your readers won’t be either. And if they’re not having fun, they can very easily leave!

22. And most importantly…

Offer your readers real value. Write posts that you feel will genuinely help people. If you can forget the knock on positive effect that successful blogging is going to have on your business, it’ll come all the faster.

That's it folks! Any comments or questions, just get in touch on either of the links above. Thanks for reading.