How Can Blogging Be Profitable for Small Businesses and Solopreneurs?
When done correctly, blogging can be profitable for small business owners and solopreneurs? Why? because it can get your website/online presence noticed. But only when done right. And that depends on several factors including Ranking of your website.
Unfortunately for many bloggers, with all the Google Penguin updates, ranking is getting more difficult because of the sites that have up to now, tried to “trick” or manipulate the search engines in order to get placed higher in search results. Which lead to Google disavowing so many websites. In fact, no one even knows for sure the number of sites that took a hit.
Which means that today more than even ranking is dependent on quality in the eyes of the visitor, which means the relevance of the content in relation to the key words used, the number of times that page has been linked and viewed, the authority it displays on the content-matter being shared (that goes for both products and services).
There are basic steps to follow that for all intents and purposes should help you get better rankings. And the steps are fairly easy to follow. In fact, when these factors are carefully noted and looked into, the rankings of your website can increase considerably.
One very important step is to get your website linked through various other pages. The more relevant the pages are to the subject matter that contain your links and the higher the rank of the site you wish to get a link from, the better ranking they will receive. The second aspect to be kept in mind is how often you update the content on your website. Once resource to check ranking is www.Alexa.com. In addition to the place the site ranks in comparison to the other millions of site, it also tells how many times a site is visited a day, the amount of time someone stays on the site and other pertinent details. Alexa is a free tool so the information is limited but it is a good starting point.
Frequently edited and updated sites receive higher ranking in search engines than those that have not been update or changed for ages. And simple editing of site content , while good is less effective than adding new, fresh content. Which is why blogs are so effective. In addition to fresh content, blog posts can delve deeper into a subject than a simple web page. You can do a series of posts on the same subject and really hone in on the material.
A Blog can also function a forum for people to come and discuss the themes that concern your website.
It will create a platform, as well as become a journal whereby you can also post updates about your operations and your website. The advantage is that the content on such Blogs will not be restricted only to text, you can also share videos, photos and other graphically relevant elements to draw people in.
The simple steps below will take you through the creation of your own blog and as well as the things you must look out for:
- Cost can never be a problem because free blogging services are quite popular all over the world. If you choose sites like Blogger or LiveJournal, you are sure to get exactly the kind of platform you are looking for. They are absolutely free.
- If you are not very comfortable with web designing techniques, you need not worry. Creating your blog is not as complicated as designing template for a website. These blogging services provide a wide range of templates from which you can choose the one most suited to your tastes.
- You must also use your discretion while blogging. Especially if you are incorporating your blog within your website, or creating a blog to increase awareness of your product, you need to keep in mind that this is an open forum which is read by all. You do not want to say anything that may end up angering your clients. Politics and religion are the two most controversial themes, and therefore anything about those must be carefully blogged about.
- Anything that is particularly reader friendly and does not anger too many people is considered ‘safe’. If your aim is indeed to increase the ranking of your site, you will have to make sure many people read it. You can do this by making your content user friendly.
- Also keep an eye on what other people write or say on their blogs. This can give you a general idea of what kind of responses those articles receive, and you can get valuable tips from them.
In my next article I will talk more about why you should be blogging.
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