It wasn’t that long ago when ninety-nine percent of blogging was nothing more than people keeping their personal journal online. However, in a short amount of time, blogging has evolved from people talking about their cats into a very effective communication tool for businesses of all sizes. Considering that even large corporations are taking advantage of blogging, it’s time for you to find out what blogging can do for your small business.

When it comes to blogging, it’s important to understand that it is not some kind of magical secret that will instantly triple the revenue of your small business. However, when done properly, blogging can be a very useful tool in helping you harness the power of the Internet to attract new customers.

So, how do you get started with blogging for your small business? The first step is creating a blog. You should already have a website for your business (if you don’t, before you think about blogging, get a website set up), so you can add a blog directly to your website. You will have to discuss your options with your webmaster, but one of the most popular free blogging platforms is WordPress, which your webmaster should be able to add to your website.

Once you have created a blog, it is time to start writing. When it comes to blogging, there are no set rules about how you should write or what you should write about. However, there are some general guidelines that will help you move in the right direction. The most important thing you can do when you are writing posts for your blog is to be honest and real. While sales copy on websites does not necessarily have to be personalized, your blogging style should show your personality. The whole point of small business blogging is to create a one-on-one relationship with your customers and potential customers, so if your writing is dry and hides your personality, it is going to be much harder to accomplish that goal.

In terms of what you should write about, there are once again no concrete rules, but you should always focus on creating content that will appeal to your target audience. This can take time to figure out, but the more comfortable you get writing for your audience, the easier it will be to come up with content that they enjoy.

In addition to writing your own posts, you should start reading and commenting on other blogs within your industry. Participating in this kind of activity is the easiest way to attract new readers for your own blog. When you leave an interesting comment on a relevant blogger, visitors will take notice of you, and follow the link attached to the comment to your own blog. Additionally, when you come across a good post from a relevant blog, don’t be afraid to link to it from one of your future posts.

By blogging for your small business and participating on relevant blogs, you will begin to build a community which will continue to grow over time.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a file format based on XML that is popular for broadcasting and publishing web site content. You’ve probably seen the signature orange RSS icon on many blogs and web sites every day. With an RSS feed, a user can subscribe to a site’s content using one of nearly a dozen news aggregation programs available online. These programs will then periodically check the RSS feeds for new content and if any is available notify the user. RSS is an easy way to keep up to date on your favorite websites all in one place.

As a web designer, RSS feeds can be seen as a two-way street. You can, and should, produce RSS feeds for your own web site content. At the same time, you also have the ability to take the RSS feeds of other and insert their content into your own web sites. This is a great way to keep your site and web design constantly fresh with new and auto-updating content.
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