B L O G G I N G F O RS M A L L B U S I N E S S E S

Kelly Driver • Fall 2016

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IntroductionWhat is a Blog?HistoryStatistics

Blogging for Small BusinessesThe WhatWhy?What to post?SEOHow Often?

Creating a Blog WordPress

C O N T E N TO U T L I N E

I N T R O D U C T I O N

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A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries or "posts.”

W H A T I SA B L O G ?

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H I S T O R Y05

1994: The first weblog was created by Justin Hall, a college student

1998: Term “weblog” was shortened to “blog” by programmer Peter Merholz

1999: The platform “Blogger” was started by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan - Blogger is largely responsible for bringing blogging to the mainstream

2000’s - Present: Blogs are at an alltime high

S T A T I S T I C S06

● Marketers that use blogs get 67 %more leads than those who don’t.

● 81 % of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.

● Companies that blog have 97 % more inbound links.

● 61 % of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on

recommendations from a blog.

● 60 % of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading

custom content on its site.

B L O G G I N G F O RS M A L L B U S I N E S S E S

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T H EW H A T :

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● A small business blog is a marketing tool

● Marketing meaning how you position your

product, find your customers, and decide how

you’re going to reach them

● Use your blog as a place where you find your

customers, feed them information, and position

your value and to build an online audience that is

engaged with your brand

1. Market Research - you can tell what articles are the most engaging2. Search Engine Optimization or “S.E.O.”3. Customer Engagement4. Communicating Your Mission5. Communicating with Customers6. Offer Promotional Material7. Show Your Human Side8. Become a Source of Value9. Networking

10. Building Credibility

W H Y S H O U L D Y O U B L O G ?09

W H A T S H O U L D Y O U B L O G ?10

● Provide helpful how-to’s

● Solve a problem

● Promote products/services

● Share industry-related news

● Entertain

● S.E.O. aka “Search Engine Optimization” is how to make your website appear higher in the search engines

● Search engines are smart. Shortly after you start a blog, the search engine robots (or just bots for short) put your written content through their algorithms. Your blog receives a higher grade if you use proper grammar and spelling, and if website visitors like, share, or comment about your articles.

● So before you start a blog, you should be mentally searching for the intersection of what your potential customers want to know, and any specific words or phrases that they might search for in order to find it.

● My best advice is, focus on offering relevant information that is well-written and engaging. You can sprinkle in keywords and popular search engine topics later, but if your content isn’t good, it won't matter how well you appeal to search engines

B L O G G I N G F O R S E O ?11

● Don’t stress yourself out over it, just start somewhere

● Once a month is better than not doing it at all

● Weekly is better than monthly, and daily is better than weekly. Just do what you can do.

T O B L O G ?

H O W O F T E N12

C R E A T I N G

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A B L O G

1. Go to “Start a blog”

2. Select topic

3. Decide Homepage setup

H O W T O S T A R T Y O U R B L O G

Wordpress.com

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H O W T O S T A R T Y O U R B L O G

Wordpress.com

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4. Choose theme

5. Select Plan

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Wordpress.com

● Free:○ Lots of free themes with basic customization features, Jetpack essential features,

Community support, 3 GB storage space, Wordpress “blog” domain

(sitename.wordpress.com)

● Personal ($2.99 / month):○ Custom domain name, Email & live chat support, Remove wordpress.com Ads

● Premium ($2.99 / month):○ Advanced Design Customization, 13 GB storage, Allow advertisements (make money),

VideoPress support

● Business ($2.99 / month): ○ Unlimited Premium themes, Advanced design customization, Unlimited storage space,

Attend live courses, SEO tools, Google analytics integration, Remove wordpress.com

branding

O P T I O N S ?17

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Wordpress.com

6. Create your account

Q U E S T I O N S ?

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