A blog is an online journal hosted by a third party. Unlike like a website, a micro-entrepreneurial business can create a blog more easily and with less cost. With a blog, you can establish your brand and credibility, market your product and services, and create a landing spot for prospective customers to find you online.
Decide on a purpose for your micro-entrepreneurial blog
Before you create a blog for your business, spend some time figuring out what you will do with it. Ask yourself these questions:
What am I interested in?
What am I an expert in?
Would my occupation be an interesting subject?
What is currently missing online?
Do I have a goal that I’m trying to achieve that I can document online?
Will I be able to blog about the subject matter consistently over a long period of time?
How many other blogs exist on the subject matter I’m interested in? Do I have a fresh take to stand out from the rest?
Check out successful blogs at Technorati and Webby Awards list of blogging nominees.
If you’re a part-time blogger and work at a regular full-time job, think twice before mentioning anything about your employer, other employees, customers, vendors, and so on because whatever you write can haunt (and hurt) you.
Figure out your micro-entrepreneurial blog’s set-up
Because a blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally write your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and practically anything that you want people to read, you may want to decide what form your thoughts will take.
A written blog: Folks read your posts (the updates and articles you write) online.
An audio blog: Also referred to as podcasting or audio blogging, these may be distributed via email or made available online at your website, iTunes or similar sites, or through social media.
You need a good quality digital audio recorder and a venue to upload your audio files. Visit PodBean for advice on how to create an audio blog.
A video blog: For video, all you need to get started is a good video recorder and a hosting venue such as YouTube.
A mix of audio, video, and written blogging is a good idea because many people who visit your blog can enjoy the mix and may be more receptive to your offerings.
After you decide what type of blog you want, check out these top places to go to get your blog started:
Blog features to use in your micro-entrepreneurial blog
Besides doing a journal with regular posts, you can place links to your products or services, or those of your affiliates. Affiliate links are links that go to an affiliate offer that you make money from. In other words, having affiliate links to gardening products when you’re writing posts on the topic of gardening in your gardening blog is smart.
Your blog can also give you the ability to:
Do advertising: You can add advertising to your blog and gain revenue from it.
Add Amazon: You can gain revenue by adding Amazon products to your blog and gain revenue when visitors click and buy from Amazon.
Make permanent links: Every article you post can have a permanent link that you can share with others.
Allow comments: You can create more interest in your posts when readers are able to add their comments.
Create a mailing list: Your blog can help you create an email list or distribution list so you can reach customers with an email that announces something or promotes a product or service you’re offering or an affiliate link.
Take care that you don’t run afoul of the law (especially when you blog about sensitive or controversial topics). Check resources such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation for help. In addition, understand your rights and responsibilities with issues tied to copyright laws. Find out more at the Copyright Office and Creative Commons.
Market your micro-entrepreneurial blog
After you launch your blog, you need to build awareness and readership. Here is a brief list of marketing approaches for your blog:
Check out blog directories. You can post your blog to blog directories such as Technorati. People go to directories to seek out blogs on a given subject matter.
Ping. Pinging is just the process of blasting your blog’s identity into the blogosphere to inform folks that you are there. You may say that pinging is to blogs what search engines are to websites.
Google. Add your blog to the Google search world.
Remind your readers that if they like a recent post or your blog in general, they can share it. These sites are excellent venues for folks to share content and links with their contacts.
Comment. Be a regular commenter on other active blogs and make sure you have a signature when you comment so that you can link back to your blog. A signature is when you end your comment with your name and a reference to your site (or a specific page at your site such as a landing page).
Spread the word. Tell your family and friends about your blog. Use the social media world with tools like Twitter and Facebook.