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Looking for something new and inexpensive to jump start your marketing during this stalled economy? One thing you may want to consider, if you haven’t already, is starting a blog for your business.

Weblogs (or “blogs” as they are more commonly known) started popping up on the web in the 90’s. These early “blogs” were online personal journals featuring the author’s entries arranged in chronological order and comments left by blog visitors. Many people still maintain these types of personal blogs to stay in touch with friends or develop their inner writer. Some bloggers have also evolved into developing niche blogs about a hot topic which generate a large following and revenue for their authors through advertisers and subscribers. And now, blogging has also even exploded into the mainstream business and non-profit sectors as well.

When I first started hearing the buzz about business blogs, I didn’t feel that a small business owner like myself would benefit from one. A website seemed more than sufficient to me for most businesses or organizations to promote themselves on the web. However, over the last year or so, my thoughts on this have done a complete 180 and I now feel that the majority of small businesses (mine included) and many organizations could greatly benefit from adding a blog to their online presence. Here’s why:

1) A blog differs from a website in the way visitors experience it.
A website is generally an online brochure or storefront for a business. A blog provides more personal interaction with visitors because it is written by someone with information or an opinion to share as an individual. And, a blog also provides the opportunity for visitors to comment. Example: A client of mine is a nursery owner. His nursery’s website details the nursery’s hours, services, classes offered, etc. If he were to also add a blog to his site, he could then post gardening related topics there and his visitors could add comments or ask him questions. This interaction with the nursery owner (or another staff member) would help him better establish his staff’s expertise, communicate regularly with customers, and form a stronger sense of community, which will then, hopefully develop into a commitment to shopping at his nursery. (This is all assuming this nursery has an appropriate person to regularly contribute to the blog and can get people who enjoy following it.)

2) Blogs tend to attract different search engine traffic than websites do.
There are things search engines love about blogs and things they love about traditional websites. Therefore, done correctly, pairing these two web mediums can also help maximize your search engine results and direct more people to your business or organization.

3) Blogs are generally very easy to update.
While some Content Management Systems can also make websites pretty easy for anyone to update or customize, updating a blog with new content is typically not much more difficult than writing an e-mail. (In fact, some blogs have features that let you post your blog entry via your e-mail.) So this is a great way for small business owners to constantly be putting fresh new content out on the web to generate interest in their business.

4) Most blogs cost next to nothing, so they are an easy financial investment to make.
There are numerous blog services you can use to create your blog, and most are completely free. Personal bloggers tend to favor Blogger due to its super easy interface. However, the blog provider typically most highly regarded in most professional circles is, Wordpress. Wordpress is easily installed into most website hosting plans which would also allow you to have a blog address consistent with your main website domain name – no additional hosting fees required. Many people are able to set up their business blog themselves using free or inexpensive Wordpress templates (called “themes”) without a professional web developer’s help. However, even if you do need a little help to get it hosted, modify a theme to coordinate seamlessly with your main website, or make sure it is SEO friendly, your costs will likely be very minimal (depending on what you need done) and you definitely won’t need a web developer’s help to post your entries once it’s set up.

So now that you know some of the benefits you could be enjoying from adding a blog to your site, aren’t you kicking yourself for not already having yours going? Don’t feel too bad. I’ve been trying to start this blog and launch my new portfolio website for over a year… and here I am finally posting my first post. Even though my business IS marketing, I’m no different than most other small business owners in my inability to ever seem to find enough time to work on marketing. My own marketing has to take a backseat to paid work. Alas, better late than never.

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