Hello World.
Hello out there. Welcome! This blog is for start ups, small businesses, and anyone who might need a little bit of marketing know-how.
I've created marketing strategies and campaigns at big and small companies and have picked up a skill or two here and there over the years. I hope you will find some of this useful. If not, tell me so I can improve things here for future readers, if so, then definitely tell me - otherwise I'll have no idea. Also, please feel free to let me know what else you might like to hear about. I'm all ears!! Thanks for tuning in...
And on to business...
For a small business or start up today, 'To blog or not to blog' is not really the question. 'How to blog or not to blog' is also not of much importance either. The important thing is to just blog.
There are a ton of tools out there including Wordpress, Tumblr, and hundreds of others where you can quickly set up shop and blog away. There are also companies that host your site and allow you a lot of flexibility in blogging like Weebly. Weebly has super easy-to-use tools. You might be worried about which to choose and the long term impact of your decision. Quite honestly, you can't go wrong with most of them - especially when you are just starting out. So my advice would be - stop procrastinating and just go ahead and start blogging.
Why blog?
Blogging can really help your business. Whether you are a start up or a small business, blogging is a great way for you to get your story out to the masses. It's more than what's on the website - it shows why you do the things you do, what you care about, how you view the world, and so on. You can express yourself through a means other than your 'official website' and your product materials in a blog. A lot of times a blog is a way to draw in people who might not be ready to purchase your service. You can build trust and credibility with them and throughout your industry or neighborhood. Ideally, it's also a way to build up a community of like-minded individuals who can learn from you and one another. That said, don't expect your blog to drive customers to your business on day one. Over time, though, if you are providing valuable information, your blog could help you spread the good word about your products and services to actual customers.
What should you blog about?
Most small businesses and start ups have it easy in this department. Blog about your stuff - whatever you sell, why you sell it, how you got to where you are, what you are working on right now, your favorite customer and why. It's that simple and there are 5 blog ideas that you can craft pretty quickly. So what are you waiting for? Once you get the basics down and build a base, you can start to expand. If you are a community store, blog about what's going on in the neighborhood. Poll your followers to see what they want to read about.
Final Thoughts
Still here? If so, you may be asking how I went about it. For me, Weebly offers me the most flexibility. You can quickly create a site and start blogging right away. Uploading images and adding links is super simple, and they have good functionality in terms of helping you categorize your blogs - which is my least favorite task, by the way. In addition, it allows me flexibility to expand should I want to provide affiliate-based links, etc. in the future or expand into a full blown out site.
Wordpress is one of the most used blogging sites. It's super user friendly and you are linked into thousands of other blogs. Plus there's a great feature where you can add links from other blogs into your blog as 'related reads'.
Tumblr is also very easy to use - especially if you think most of your blogs are going to be about a tangible place or product you are selling because of the image heavy posts. If you don't want to spend a lot of time tapping away on your computer but you do want to share your product/pictures/etc. with the world Tumblr could be the way to go.
But heck, you have product to build and a business to run - so crank out a blog quick so you can get back to work. Start blogging now!
If you are still confused about which blogging platform to use, here's a great roundup of most of the big ones.
Share what blogging platform you are considering in the comments section below. Thanks for stopping by!
I've created marketing strategies and campaigns at big and small companies and have picked up a skill or two here and there over the years. I hope you will find some of this useful. If not, tell me so I can improve things here for future readers, if so, then definitely tell me - otherwise I'll have no idea. Also, please feel free to let me know what else you might like to hear about. I'm all ears!! Thanks for tuning in...
And on to business...
For a small business or start up today, 'To blog or not to blog' is not really the question. 'How to blog or not to blog' is also not of much importance either. The important thing is to just blog.
There are a ton of tools out there including Wordpress, Tumblr, and hundreds of others where you can quickly set up shop and blog away. There are also companies that host your site and allow you a lot of flexibility in blogging like Weebly. Weebly has super easy-to-use tools. You might be worried about which to choose and the long term impact of your decision. Quite honestly, you can't go wrong with most of them - especially when you are just starting out. So my advice would be - stop procrastinating and just go ahead and start blogging.
Why blog?
Blogging can really help your business. Whether you are a start up or a small business, blogging is a great way for you to get your story out to the masses. It's more than what's on the website - it shows why you do the things you do, what you care about, how you view the world, and so on. You can express yourself through a means other than your 'official website' and your product materials in a blog. A lot of times a blog is a way to draw in people who might not be ready to purchase your service. You can build trust and credibility with them and throughout your industry or neighborhood. Ideally, it's also a way to build up a community of like-minded individuals who can learn from you and one another. That said, don't expect your blog to drive customers to your business on day one. Over time, though, if you are providing valuable information, your blog could help you spread the good word about your products and services to actual customers.
What should you blog about?
Most small businesses and start ups have it easy in this department. Blog about your stuff - whatever you sell, why you sell it, how you got to where you are, what you are working on right now, your favorite customer and why. It's that simple and there are 5 blog ideas that you can craft pretty quickly. So what are you waiting for? Once you get the basics down and build a base, you can start to expand. If you are a community store, blog about what's going on in the neighborhood. Poll your followers to see what they want to read about.
Final Thoughts
Still here? If so, you may be asking how I went about it. For me, Weebly offers me the most flexibility. You can quickly create a site and start blogging right away. Uploading images and adding links is super simple, and they have good functionality in terms of helping you categorize your blogs - which is my least favorite task, by the way. In addition, it allows me flexibility to expand should I want to provide affiliate-based links, etc. in the future or expand into a full blown out site.
Wordpress is one of the most used blogging sites. It's super user friendly and you are linked into thousands of other blogs. Plus there's a great feature where you can add links from other blogs into your blog as 'related reads'.
Tumblr is also very easy to use - especially if you think most of your blogs are going to be about a tangible place or product you are selling because of the image heavy posts. If you don't want to spend a lot of time tapping away on your computer but you do want to share your product/pictures/etc. with the world Tumblr could be the way to go.
But heck, you have product to build and a business to run - so crank out a blog quick so you can get back to work. Start blogging now!
If you are still confused about which blogging platform to use, here's a great roundup of most of the big ones.
Share what blogging platform you are considering in the comments section below. Thanks for stopping by!
RSS Feed