Just like a real blood test tells you which blood type
you have
or whether you have a disease or not, this article
will help you
test which type of blog you are writing and what you
can do to
improve it.
Are you contributing to one of the estimated 36.1
million (and
growing) blogs online? Or are you thinking of entering
the fray
and starting to publish a blog for your small or home
business?
Make sure you are publishing the right type of blog
for your kind
of business, or all that writing time will have been
for naught.
The Blog Blood Test
Just as there are different types of blood, there are
many
different types of blogs, and each serves its own
purpose. Giving
your blog a blood test will help you determine which
type of blog
is best for your business and what may be wrong with
the one
youâ?Tve got now.
Blog Blood Type 1: Customer Relations â?" Blogging is
one of the
best ways to put a face and personality on your
business,
especially if you operate entirely in cyberspace.
Those that best
employ their blog in strengthening relationships with
their
customers spend a lot of time interacting with
customers,
answering questions, providing useful tips, and
keeping them
informed of business happenings. These blogs focus
less on the
companyâ?Ts products and more on the companyâ?Ts
culture and outlook.
The goal of this type of blog is to engender customer
loyalty and
establish a consistent flow of interested website
visitors.
Blog Blood Type 2: Sales â?" As you can imagine, most
businesses
that blog do so because of the perceived benefit to
their bottom
line. While very little quantitative research has been
done with
regards to the actual monetary impact of blogging on
overall
sales, the ubiquity of sales-oriented blogs indicates
some kind
of return-on-investment. Sales blogs focus on product
developments and benefits to the customer. There is
less online
interaction with customers via the blog as the goal is
to move
readers off of the blog and onto the product pages.
The goal of a
sales blog is to encourage visitors to purchase a
product,
service, or information that the company is offering.
Blog Blood Type 3: Personal Web Journals â?" These
blogs make up
the bulk of the 36.1 million web logs online. The
majority are
personal accounts written without regard to size of
readership or
monetary value. Many have heralded free blogs as the
Internetâ?Ts
greatest achievement, allowing virtually anyone with
an internet
connection to publish literally whatever they want,
and all in a
matter of a few minutes. There are as many purposes
for personal
blogs as there are bloggers. Perhaps the most common
theme is the
chance to be heard.
Iâ?Tve Taken the Blog Blood Testâ?¦Now What?
Which category did your blog best fit in? Did you find
that
youâ?Tre writing one type of blog but desiring the
benefits of
another? If you havenâ?Tt already started your blog,
which type do
you believe would best match your writing abilities
and desired
outcome? Simply put, if youâ?Tre not writing the best
type of blog
for the benefits you want, youâ?Tll never get them â?"
and youâ?Tll
waste a lot of time in the process.
If your current blog is doing exactly what you want it
to, leave
it alone. If you find that some changes are necessary,
consider
the following questions:
â?˘ Do I think I can drive actual sales from the blog?
â?˘ Would I rather spend my writing time interacting
with customers
(both positive and negative) or writing about my
product?
(Remember the blood test)
â?˘ Am I the best person to author my blog, or is
there someone
else who could do a better job?
â?˘ Do I want to stage the blog as a company-sponsored
communication tool or would I rather it appear as a
kind of
third-party, objective review?
â?˘ How much time am I willing to spend writing?
â?˘ How free do I want to be with regards to frequency
of posting
and responding to customer comments?
Millions of others are already blogging, but donâ?Tt
let that stop
you from starting. Give your business the blog blood
test and see
which type works best for you.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Nick Smith
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