Your friends, family, and colleagues have the best intentions when they say, “You should just start a blog” but they may not fully understand what it takes to create a successful blog. Small business owners need to understand that starting a blog is a lot like planting a garden, it requires a lot of work and can take months or even years to reap the benefits.
With that said, one of the great things about blogging is that it can be a lot of fun and an effective way to promote your small business. Before you dive into widgets, feeds, and SEO strategies remember, blog success is guaranteed if you consistently produce niche content.
1. Consistency
Consistency is critical when it comes to blogs. Whether you write an article once a week or twice a day, people have natural expectations for consistency. Think about your favorite TV show. What if it was aired one week at 2PM, the next at 2AM and then didn’t air for a month? You probably wouldn’t watch it, no matter how good the content. Consistency is actually the most difficult aspect of blogging.
2. Niche Content
The more specific your content the better. There are already “market leaders” in the blogosphere. You may know that Elliott is a guest author for Mashable, which is an industry leading blog covering all things social media. We started the Referral Key blog nearly two years ago and at times it has been tempting to talk about networking in all of its forms just like Mashable does; but we’ve been able to provide a different kind of value by strictly focusing on referral marketing.
Let’s say you’re a Realtor looking to start a blog. It wouldn’t be wise to talk about all things real estate because you’d be competing with other well established blogs. By consistently writing about something more specific, such as Realtor referrals; you can differentiate yourself, become much more relevant to your readers, and eventually be recognized as an authority on the subject.
Consistently writing about a niche subject can be very challenging but stick with it! While some bloggers are writing about current events like the Super Bowl, the Election or other trendy topics; you need to stick to your niche. The majority of small business blogs never receive much attention beyond the author’s close circle of friends because they aren’t providing value.
Most successful bloggers will agree that if you consistently post niche content you will eventually gain a following.
Christopher Ott runs the day to day operations and is a staff writer for the Referral Key small business blog. Christopher spends his time helping small business owners generate new business by exchanging referrals through Referral Key.
