Six Ways To Build Up A Great Blog

We often get asked about whether or not to start a blog. Is a blog passé at this point, or is it the mother of necessity when it comes to running your business? So many people are confused about what a blog is supposed to do for your business and what the purpose is for writing really great content to your audience. Here are our Hyperchat Social six ways to build up a great blog.

• Begin With The End In Mind- When I started yoursmartmoneymoves.com for oXYGen Financial, I set out with a goal of being one of the 20 best personal finance blogs on the internet. To this day, I never thought I was a really great writer. However, the stories I wrote to my audience were personal and from the heart. I knew I wasn't building a blog to monetize it and make money, but more to provide value to the thousands of existing clients who did business with oXYGen Financial. What you need to figure out is what is your purpose for writing the blog.

• Get A Really Great Title And Domain Name- You won't realize this when you start your blog, but building up a name that people can remember is going to be really, really important. In hindsight, I never loved the name Your Smart Money Moves. Once you write enough content and Google recognizes you and your work, it's difficult to change the name on the fly. So, think long and hard about the name of your blog and buy yourself multiple domains that can connect to your blog.

• Learn To Become Part Of Your Blogging Community- Believe it or not, there are many people in your genre that are trying to do the same thing you are doing. What amazed me in the financial community is how many other financial bloggers were willing to help and share ideas with each other. You would think that there would be more competition, but there is actually a lot of competition amongst bloggers. This means you may be able to write a guest article, get a backlink, or make their favorite bloggers roll.

• Make The Website Look Good- More than ever, it is really easy to get a website set up through something like WordPress without a ton of cost. Choosing a theme for the website that your audience will love and looks clean is going to be important when you start your blog. More and more, readers want something that is easy to navigate and scroll through articles. If you look at blogs like The Skim and The Cut, you'll get a feel for some very popular looks for blogs.

• Ask Everyone To Join- The quicker you create an audience, the quicker you can get yourself up the ranks of top bloggers. Whether you ask people on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or even through e-mail, you should be prominently displaying your website everywhere you can. You never know where a good blog post is going to get picked up or when you will make a list of top bloggers, so keep on asking people to become part of your audience. Make sure you have something to offer them on the blog using a welcome mat and something of value for FREE that they can get when they join. Whether you use an ongoing system like MailChimp or some other systems, make sure you have content going out to your subscribers beyond the basic posts on the blog.

• Don't Give Up- I quit being a blogger many a weekend when I had writer's block, or I just didn't think anybody was really reading my stuff until I started to get media offers like going on CNN and writing for the Wall Street Journal. When you have the itch, write as many articles as you can so you can fill the void time when you just don't feel like writing.

Ultimately, if you have a small business and you can't figure this out (or you just don't want to), then turn to www.tryhyperchat.com and see how we can help you turn social into sales™ and start a blog of your own.