How to Start a Business Blog in 4 Easy Steps

A blog could be good for your business, right? You’re ready to make the step into marketing your business with a blog… so what’s stopping you? You know it’s a great idea but then you remember you HATE writing.

No worries! Everyone goes through a bit of doubt and hesitation when they first start into the blogging world. It’s okay, I promise you. I had the same fears running through my head when I started.

Fears in my head:

• I doubt anyone would want to read what I have to say.
• My grammar is good but is it REALLY good?
• What should I blog about?

Before you start a blog you need to get rid of those fears. If you have the fears that I mentioned then your blog will suck. Sorry I have to tell you the truth. Find your voice and roll with it. You’re running a business and you have an awesome product or service to offer so you shouldn’t let these fears get in your way.

If you believe in your product or service, it will show in your blogging efforts.

Okay enough of the pep talk. Let’s get started!

1. Platform

Where do you start your blog? Hopefully you have a website and you can use one of your pages for the blog. If you haven’t yet started your website, then I highly recommend WordPress. Now there’s a lot of back and forth talk about WordPress.com and WordPress.org, which one is best but it really all depends on what you plan to do with your website. When it comes down to it for me personally, if you are looking to sell product from your website then you should use WordPress.org. Here are more details about the differences for your own decision-making,

2. Ideas

What do you think you should be blogging about? I’d like to say about your pet dog and how gorgeous he looks BUT that might not be great content for your tree trimming business. Let’s be real. Your blog is about your customers.

• What are the fears and issues THEY face?
• How does your product or service help THEM?

Let’s stick with the tree trimming business scenario.

Not too many people know about tree trimming and the process of removing trees. Use this information to educate your customers.

The dangers of danglers and widow makers… [Wow! See I have some trees that need to be removed from a recent storm and that is the only reason I even know about these terms.] They are real dangers to families who live with trees in their yard. Boom! Here’s an idea. It’s business related and it directly impacts the customer.

Blog about how your business can help your customers and their families. Check out what the blogging experts have to say.

When you specialize in a service, you can educate on professional phrases and lingo. I had no idea what a dangler was however I’ve been educated and I know now to watch out for hanging tree limbs that could fall at any time.

Brainstorm on how your business comes across customer needs. What are they calling you for? Are you getting the same kind of questions?

Capture the ideas – write them down in a notebook, on a Google doc, or Evernote. I highly suggest you gather your thoughts in the cloud that way you can always access them if you have internet access.

Calendar out the ideas into an editorial calendar. You can create one yourself in Google calendar or there is a WordPress plugin. If you have a WordPress.org site, you can add a variety of plugins that will save you lots of time for your blog. Check out this resource of plugins.

Whichever way you choose, an editorial calendar will bring your ideas to life when you have them noted into dates and how you’d like to post to social media.

3. The Write-Up

Blogging is great because it’s not business writing. You don’t have to have perfect grammar. You can write like you speak. I always use Word to get my creative juices flowing. Then when I’m done, I copy and paste it into my blog space.

I get it all cleaned up and make sure all the links open to new windows.

4. Image Time

Once you have your blog in position, you’ll need an image to catch the attention of your audience to read the post. If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll know that I’m a Canva Customizer but recently found a new term thanks to Guy Kawasaki, “Canva Evangelist”. I don’t really like to use evangelist since I know the term as a Christian term to be the voice of Christ [which I am a Christ follower] however there are “technology evangelists”. Sorry I digress.

Canva is where to go to create a beautiful image for all your blog posts. I’ve written about it many times and you can learn more at the most popular post, How to Use Canva Like a Pro in 10 Minutes.

Take my tips to heart from my Canva Like a Pro post, which will help you find the photos you’ll want to use and jazz them up specifically for your blog post.

Are you REALLY a blogger?

If you find that blogging is just too much for you to handle, you can always hire a virtual assistant with blogging experience or choose another avenue to market your business as I discuss in my post, How to Use 3 Top Marketing Tools for Business – podcast, blog, & video blog. Some people find blogging to be a hindrance but maybe it would be easier to speak and use your voice for podcasting. Perhaps you like to create presentations and video blogging might be best. The key is to find what suits you and your business needs. No need to make it difficult.

Will you start to blog for your business now?

Do you plan to hire someone to blog for you?

If you’re still unsure about blogging, check out my latest post on 3 Top Reasons to Blog for Business. It’s full of resources that can help you get started.

Tell me about your blog experience and what you plan to do.

Take care,

Lillian