The Power of Blogging

Ever wonder if your small business should have a blog? Well, here's a great example that shows what a creative blog can do for your small business website.

The founder of Riverbank Consulting (and of Webs 4 Small Business), Aubrey Jones, manages a number of specialty blogs including a number dedicated to Golden Retrievers. Remember how we've talked about 'niche' blogs in previous posts?

One of those blogs was recently featured in a CNN.com story about pet blogs.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/21/dog.blog/index.html

In just the first 12 hours after the mention of the blog on CNN.com, the blog received over 12,000 page views and dozens of reader comments. The best part is that the blog had only been around a couple of months when it was first discovered by the article's writer.

Lot's of traffic is nice, but what does this mean to the business? It means everything!

1. Affiliate marketing opportunites. Ads for relevant products (dog products in this case) have now been delivered to thousands of targeted visitors (dog lovers)

2. Google AdSense sponsored link placement. The site incorporated 'inline' and sidebar sponsored links that have generated thousands of clickable links.

3. Traffic re-direction. By including links to other complementary sites, visitors were given easy access to other revenue generating sites. Check out the link to http://my-golden-retriever.com/. Lots of dog lovers took the time to click the link because they were already in the neighborhood. And guess what they did on the new site? That's right found great 'stuff' to buy online.

4. Relevant, quality, back links. Notwithstanding the direct links from CNN (what's their page rank), dozens of back links have now been created that link to the blog site. Those not only drive traffic from other sites (remember our advice to the mouse trap seller about Location, Location?) but will also likely increase the blog's importance in Google's index. That means higher rankings and even more of that 'free' organic traffic we all are seeking.

5. Expertise in a field established. If you were looking for a golden retriever 'expert' wouldn't someone featured on CNN.com be a great choice.

How did this blog make it to CNN.com? Quality Internet Marketing. Part of Aubrey's strategy was to make sure his blog was listed in every top 'social' venue including blog directories and social bookmarking sites. The plan was to get it in all the 'locations' that dog lovers might be hanging out. (If you haven't read the whole Selling Products Online Series I'd recommend taking the the time).

And of course, there was some luck involved. But as the Roman philosopher Seneca once said, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." Is your small business prepared to meet opportunity? Obviously, every blog is not going to be featured on CNN.com, but in this case, without the blog it never would have happened.

The great thing is that all the benefits seen here can be acheived for your small business even if on a smaller scale. If you don't have a blog, definitely expore the topic. If you've never blogged take a few minutes to watch our training video on using Wordpress. You can get started with a simple blog for free like we show you in the video or go with a much more flexible option with a small investment.


Or course, if you'd like help, we're available in what ever capacity you need. Whether you just need expert advice, help setting up your first blog, our want to let someone run your blog for your small buisness, we have the services to fit your needs.

Contact Webs 4 Small Business today to get started! You can reach us by phone at 877-468-6402 if you'd like to schdule a one-on-one consultation. The initial consultation is free so you've really got nothing to lose.