A Business Blog Is a Long-Term Commitment

I have a business colleague who liked my blog and wanted to start one himself. I said OK, and gave him a few tips. He started one at Google’s Blogger (against my recommendation) and began working on it. About two months later, we were talking on the phone and he was lamenting the fact that no one ever commented on his blog and that it had no traffic. I took a look and in two months time he had only made 5 entries! And his most recent one was several weeks old.

The first thing to consider about starting a business blog (and this is probably the most overlooked point) is that it’s a long term commitment. And if you want to use it as part of your marketing toolbox, the blog should work in concert with other components of your home business. Clearly he was thinking along the lines of “if I build it, they will come right away” and it just doesn’t work that way.

Another thing about a good business blog is frequency. In most cases (especially for someone starting out) it’s not good enough to blog a few times per month. Most bloggers recommend 3 to 4 blog entries per week – more if you can manage it.

And you don’t have to stress out about the length. There are no hard and fast rules about the length, but professional bloggers generally recommend each post be between 250 and 400 words. 250 words come out to only about 3 paragraphs so it’s not as bad as it might sound. And if you find you have something that is more than 400 words, consider splitting it into two blog posts.

A blog can be an effective part of your overall marketing strategy for your home based business. But be prepared to view it as a long term commitment.

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