Why Blogging Makes Good Business Sense

As the story often goes, it all happened mostly by accident. 20 yrs ago Jorn Barger coined a term “weblog” as he was writing his Robot Wisdom articles and then logging them on the web.  It was a “web log.”   A couple years later, as more of a joke, Peter Merholz broke the word into “we blog” in reference to the articles he was writing and posting.   That kick-started the word “blog” and the rest is history.  In fact, if you still have doubts blogging has any traction….Check this out –  Daily Blog Worldmeter

In fact – if you want even more statistics and ideas on how to get started with blogging – check out this article: 227 Powerful Blogging Statistics to help grow your blog

Are you blogging?

The Aspire Business Blog is having its 10th birthday this year!  On average there has been one new blog added every week over the last decade.  That is a lot of content.   We literally have built a library of articles, covering a multitude of issues business owner’s encounter.   You can go to our blog page and scan the categories  listed under “Read more on” to get an idea of the variety of topics covered.  Check out a couple of posts and let us know what you think!

Why blog?

If you google that question you’ll literally find hundreds of reasons why you should blog.  So there is no shortage of incentives to get started.  If you wanted to narrow it down to a handful that would make the top reasons for business owners specifically, they would include the following.

  • It drives traffic to your website. When you start writing a blog, it’s important to set it up as a page on your website (as opposed to a 3rd party space like wordpress.com).  Then, feed it out to all your social media outlets from there.  Every time someone reads it on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google Plus, etc. they will end up back on your website.
  • It builds credibility for you and your business. People want to do business with people they know, like, and most importantly trust.   Writing short articles that educate your audience on issues and subjects that directly tie back into the product or service your business provides is a great way to not only help people, but it establishes and affirms you are someone who knows what they are talking about, that you are an expert in your field.
  • It may be the best SEO tool there is. It’s definitely one of the best free ones!   Google likes websites with fresh content.  If you are consistently posting new material on your blog page, Google will reward you for it and you will rank higher.   Be sure to use keywords in your blog that tie to your industry.    Include topics and categories you want your business to be associated with.
  • It builds your brand. We have a client that recently started blogging consistently (once/week).   They already had a large database of past clients and prospective clients.   Now that they are sending out their weekly blog, thousands of people are seeing their logo and company name each week.  Since the content being posted is educational, it’s likely that the blog articles are being shared with others outside their current customer base.  Which means it is expanding their footprint as well.

As mentioned initially, there are probably hundreds of reasons on why you should be blogging.  The four listed above should speak to all business owners.  At Aspire, we know our library of past blogs gets used because we’ve had clients and other business associates share that they use it as a reference source when searching for information on a specific topic.  That comment alone affirms basically all four or the reasons listed above.

One other by-product of regular blogging is that it will force you to stay on top of things in your industry and that should be good for your business. And while you’re doing that, you’ll be building up a lot of good will – as long as you are committed to doing it regularly and you are truly helping your audience with the information you are sharing.

What about you?  Does your company blog regularly?   If so, what has been your experience?  Do you have a favorite weekly blog that you follow?   As always we value any comments in the space below.

Chris Steinlage Kansas City Business Coach