As you get ready to work on your blog, before jumping with both feet, take some time to plan ahead. Be sure to think of your blog as a part of your marketing plan. Every effective marketing effort requires some detailed planning before the official launch. Take some time to plan out the following things so assure that your blogging effort will be fruitful.
Look and Feel
Before you jump online and get completely overwhelmed by the number of blog templates that are available write down several ideas for what your blog will look like. Do you want it to look just like your website? If so, make sure to choose a blog program that can easily integrate with your site. You can also choose to have a blog that has a different look and feel. Decide on the color scheme and tone of the site first. Do you want your blog to be light-hearted and funny or is your blog more informational and 'newsy'? After you have some ideas formulated you can look at templates with purpose.
Who Will Write and How Often?
You let your employees write emails to your clients...so why not let them help you blog? It can get overwhelming being the sole person contributing to your company's blog. Whatever blogging schedule you decide on whether it is one blog per week or one per day, it is helpful to have a small team of writers who are assigned to handle certain blogs or topics. As you make your blog topic schedule think of people within your organization and what topics may be excellent ones for others to contribute their knowledge and expertise to, and assign those people to write. All blogs can, of course go through you first, and as you get comfortable with writing styles over time you can allow your writers to post and publish the blogs themselves.
Blogging Topics
There is nothing more frustrating that sitting down at your computer and staring at the screen wondering what to write about. The best way to make the blogging process a smooth one is to plan your blog posts and topics in advance. At the end of each month, take half an hour and write out the topics for the next month's blogs. As you look to the internet for ideas and resources, site references that can be used later in the month when the blog posts are being written.
Having a plan for the look and feel of your blog, who is writing and how often to post along with what topics to write about will make the blogging process enjoyable for everyone involved. From there it is just a matter of setting up the blog and sticking with your plan.
Learn From The Pro's
A great way to get ideas of what to write about is to keep up with other people's blogs. There are so many people on the internet today who are using blogs to build their businesses and are a great resource for new bloggers. Below is CNN's List of the Top 10 Blogs of 2009 that you can look to for ideas and inspiration. In addition, I encourage you to look for blogs written by your competitors and see what they are writing about as well as blogs written about your industry in general. Glean as much as you can from people who are already blogging regularly.
