Our hosting provider created this clever video to explain the three basic types of web hosting and the differences between them. Watch this video and you’ll know more than 95% of business owners about web hosting services.

There’s a new group that was just formed called the Northwest Arkansas Bloggers Association. It looks like this is Acumen Holdings’ main man, Dr. John James brain-child. I think this is a great thing. With Acumen’s visibility and drive behind the group I think that it could build into something really special.

I might have preferred that it be called something more like NWA Content Marketing League or something with a little more bling, but I guess I should have formed it myself then shouldn’t I? Either way, interesting news.

The first meeting is July 11th at 11am where John will be talking about “10,000 visitors a day in 365 days using Google alone.” I’m sure it will draw a crowd.

To find out more about NWABA head over to NWABloggers.com and find our locations, times, and dates for upcoming events. Maybe I’ll see you there.

How much time do I have to commit? What do I need to learn? While there are no hard and fast rules about how often you should blog there are definitely some guidelines that will help you figure out your optimal posting frequency for your business blog.

Less is not always more where blogging is concerned.

In fact. More is usually more unless your content is crap. There are a few magic numbers when it comes to blogging frequency. Let’s break it down by class…

The occasional dabbler: If you post only occasionally… and measure your time between posts in weeks instead of days, I would say you are just wasting your time. Either get serious about your web presence or quit wasting everyone’s time.

The interested amateur: You get that blogging is a good idea for your business. You know its how you build a relationship, an opt-in list, a following, and how you become known as an expert in your field. You post anywhere between 2-4 times weekly or 8-16 posts a month. This is where blogging starts to become advantageous. If you really target your articles and put some work into each one you’ll start seeing the fruits of your labor. This is where most serious business bloggers start out. And while it will take some time to really see results, you will.

The serious business blogger: You and your company are all-in. You believe in content marketing and are fully committed with your time, money, or both. You post articles on your blog daily. That’s 7 days a week, 30ish days a month. This is where the magic starts happening. Daily is a great posting frequency for a lot of reasons… followers get more engaged with daily updates, search engines like daily updates better. You are producing more content more quickly and your traffic begins to build, especially if you have a strategic social media sharing strategy in place as well. This is probably what most serious business bloggers should aspire to do.

The hardcore elite: These guys are somewhere between the daily blogger and the multi-author news sites in terms of their posting frequency. If you can hit a magic number of 2 posts a day (and you can keep the quality of your content up) then you’ll be maximizing the time and effort you put into your content marketing. If you want to know which of these categories you could commit yourself to, you might consider that for newbies or when creating deeper, more content rich articles, the effort will probably cost you 1-2 hours per article. Once you get good at your process and know what you are doing you can divide that in half.

So which are you going to be?

• If you read this entire article and are having delusions of grandeur, I’d peg you as an interested amateur.
• If you scanned, it shared it with your social circles, then email me to inquire about a guest post… I’d bump you up to serious business blogger.
• If you thought, I could spin this article around for better SEO and more reader engagement, then slate it for part of my next ebook… your probably hardcore.
• If you still aren’t sure that blogging is worth much… just get off my site and check your @yahoo email address.

I hope this helps you with your content marketing and when planning your future content efforts but if it didn’t, maybe you had a little fun reading it. See you soon.

I don’t solicit a lot of business. Most of my clients come to me through the web or via referral. I do like to keep up with what’s happening around town though so when I’m out or at a new business in town I ask about their web presence. Putting aside the 4 in 10 businesses that don’t have a website at all (according to Neilson Online) , most people are happy to share their web address with me and even ask me what I think. These websites range from homemade Wix flash sites and templated Intuit sites to hosted WordPress theme sites & custom coded monsters. Some of these sites are appropriate for the business they’re marketing… most are not. It begs the question, “How Much Website Does Your Small Business Need?” Ask yourself these three questions and you’ll be much more informed when you are ready to invest in and profit from a well thought out website….

What is your website for?

Gosh, that one seems easy, it’s to get business right? Well sure. But what the heck does that mean? Make your answer to this question specific. You’re answer should be as complicated or as simple as you need your website to be…

For a fictional local ice cream parlour:

Our website showcases the fun & festive atmosphere at all three locations while serving up tasty ice cream facts and showcasing our flavor of the month. We also showcase our amazing custom ice cream cakes and have a form when you can place an order online to pick up in-store the next day. Our website integrates with our active Facebook fan page and our Twitter feed where we give out crazy daily ice cream facts, updates, and specials.

For a high-end retail clothing store:

Our site showcases our unique fashion forward, minimalistic style with lots of images and slideshows. We offer a wide-selection of our inventory for sale online, have an optimized customer service contact page, and a swanky photo blog that showcases trends and fashion tips.

Hopefully you get the idea. Just thinking about having a cool website isn’t enough. Figure out what you need for your business.

How custom does my site need to be?

Some small businesses can run with a $10 website in a box and be good to go while others will need a full custom site with an advanced content management system, mail integration, and much more. Most businesses fall somewhere in between… But everyone can benefit from a quality website that fits their needs. Everyone.

Let’s take the ice cream parlour above. They might be able to get away with a website in a box. But more likely, they want it to be easy to update. So it needs some sort of administrative back end, preferably one that’s easy to use. Then it also could use a nice slideshow system that would help them keep their customers up-to-date on the latest happenings by posting in-store events and parties, maybe even things the company is doing in the community. They could also greatly benefit from having a content marketing strategy and blog functionality build-in to increase their website traffic and get more cakes ordered.

If they purchased a $10 website in a box they would miss out on tens of thousands in sales a year… maybe more.

On the flip side… all of the above can be accomplished with a decent free WordPress template or something like SilverStripe. You might go up to $1,000 for a nice little customized template with some added functionality and recoup your investment 20 times over within two years.

But do you need the ability to design cakes online? Aggregate content about ice cream from around the web? Have the ability to change administrator roles and permissions? Probably not. But designers will certainly sell you on those ‘extras.’ Even if you may not need or benefit from them. You can quickly turn a $1,000 website into a $5,000 development nightmare that you didn’t want or need, just because you’re getting too fancy and getting more website than you can swallow.

What is right for my business?

There are some things to know about owning a website that can make this much easier…

• Build only what you need with the ability to expand – If you have a custom site made with no ‘backend’, no administrative access to make changes, you’re going to be coughing up the dough to do it again in 12-18 months when you are ready to go bigger. Make your site scalable both in content and in design. It should be easy to add a page if you want. Easy to change out an image or a paragraph. Easy to add a blog post or press release. Static, hard-coded sites are obsolete almost as soon as they are finished.
• Have a plan for your content. A website is nothing without content, and that isn’t just words. It’s photos, videos, forums, email distribution, and much more. Figure out how you want to communicate with your customers and how much time you can dedicate to it. Then stick to the plan, analyse your results, and tweak it as you go. You need a website that makes it easier to do rather than harder.
• Build yourself into it. If you are a small business owner, chances are you eat, sleep and breath your company. Your website needs to exude what it is to do business with you. What it’s like to walk in the door. If you put some effort into building your love your business into your site, it will pay handsome dividends. Customers are tired of corporate, tired of interruption marketing, tired of the same old thing. If your site is you, and you are your company, it will succeed.

Hopefully you have an idea of how much website you need now. Perhaps I’ve at least gotten you thinking. That’s really the point. Put some thought into it. Your website is the first thing that between 50-95% of your customers will see. Shouldn’t it be good?

Web Hosting is one of the more confusing aspects of the Internet and a thorn in any small business owner’s side. What features do I need? How much space? How much bandwidth? What’s the difference between business, reseller, VPS, and Dedicated hosting? Does it even matter? I’m going to boil it down to the essentials of what you NEED TO KNOW. Let’s look at some Small Business Web Hosting Fundamentals and find what’s right for you.

Small Business Web Hosting Options

When choosing web hosting you have to look at what you need. There are two fundamental questions I ask every client…

• What kind of traffic are you expecting?
• How secure does your site need to be?

The answers to the two questions above will determine where you need to be. Fortunately, most small businesses have about the same fundamental needs:

• You need web hosting that can handle between several thousand visitors a month to several thousand visitors a day.
• You need a hosting environment that is separated enough from other sites, to not be affected by the activities of other hosting clients.

Shared Hosting

This type of hosting comes in many names and flavors but it comes down to this. It’s cheap, it’s for low traffic sites, and it shares resources with dozens, even hundreds of other hosting clients. I rarely recommend a shared hosting environment to small business owners. You have a limited ability to customize your options and even minor traffic spikes can see major site latency and outage. Shared hosting is usually less than $15 per month.

Virtual Private Servers

VPS or Virtual Private Servers is a very scalable form of hosting and, for individual business owners, much less expensive than a Dedicated Server. A VPS environment strings several physical servers together through software to create a large scalable environment that can be tightly controlled. This is the form of hosting I recommend for most of my small business clients because if affords you the ability to have a scalable, secure site with highly customizable server options. It is technically equivalent to a Dedicated Server but with the added bonus of being much more scalable than a single Dedicated Server. If you start to run out of resources in your VPS environment, you simply add a node or have the hosting company increase your allotted resources, and you are good to go. The only potential downfall in a VPS system that resources can be shared with up to 10 other hosting clients. Technically this is never supposed to be a problem. I’ve had a VPS account in some form or fashion as long as the technology has been around and have never had a problem of any kind. VPS service ranges from about $30 per month upwards of $250 per month depending on your host and the options and hardware you get. If you have questions about it. Please feel free to contact me anytime.

Dedicated Servers

A Dedicated Server is a dedicated physical server box that is for your use alone. It is usually as customizable as you want it to be but depends on the data-center where it is housed. Dedicated servers are the most secure option because your hosting environment is isolated from all others. You may install as many websites on your dedicated server as resources will allow. I don’t usually recommend this to small business clients for two reasons:

• It’s expensive. Most dedicated servers are $200 a month or more for basic options.
• It’s overkill. Unless you have specific needs that cannot be filled either by Shared hosting or high-end VPS hosting, you don’t need a dedicated server.

Who Should I Host With?

I’ll give you three options. All of which I currently use.

Salty Dog Interactive

Yes. I provide hosting as a ‘reseller’ for Inmotion Hosting. The advantage of going with me over Inmotion itself is that I’ll take care of everything for you and everything is within my own hosting environment configured specifically for small businesses. My pricing is very simple.

Small Business Elite Hosting – $39 per month. No setup fee. I provide complete migration and start-up services for new or existing domains. You get unlimited add-on domains, unlimited parked domains, and unlimited email addresses, SSH, FTP, Cpanel, and (a bonus over InMotion Hosting by itself) Fantastico automated scripting installation with over 50 Scripts including one click installation of WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and much more. You also get one free IP address. Additional IPs are $2 a month. Separate Cpanels for individuals sites can be purchased for and additional $5 per month. That’s a heck of a deal if you want to have several websites on different hosting accounts. Keep in mind, this first one is a fully managed hosting solution. The price difference you would pay versus the other two options is for the support I personally provide. All of my web design clients are generally required to host with me for a number of reasons. Ready to get started? I can get your hosting account up and rolling in 24-48 hours. Contact me to get going. You can also view more about my web hosting on my web hosting services page.

Inmotion Hosting

I love these guys. They’ve got 24 hour US based support via ticket, phone, or chat, great hardware, smart engineers and a great reputation. They are also big enough and stable enough to be around a long, long time without feeling like you’ll get lost in the crowd. Every issue I or my clients have ever had has been resolved within 24 hours… but usually within 2 hours. They are more expensive than your average hosting provider but their service more than makes up for the price difference. They provide basic shared hosting (which they call Business Class Hosting), VPS, and Dedicated servers. If you decide to check them out… please use my affiliate link.

HostGator

I like Hostgator. They’re a good company with pretty good support and lots of options and features. They are generally cheaper than the two options above but not always. I just wanted to give you a third option if you did not like Inmotion for whatever reason. Hostgator hosts over 4.9 Million domains. They are a huge provider and have a huge client base. I sometimes feel like I get lost in the shuffle there but they have a very good system of support for just about any need. They are definitely worth your consideration.

There are hundreds of other reputable hosting providers from Blue Host to more specific WordPress Hosting providers. Most will work fine for small business owners and your web hosting needs. The three above are recommended as personal opinion based on my experience. Make sure you read as many reviews as you can on whoever you choose so you know what you are getting into. I do not post reviews of my personal web hosting but you can see lots of Inmotion Hosting reviews on their testimonials page.

Please, if you have any questions concerning web hosting, how it works or what the best option for you might be… please give me a call or email me and I’ll be happy to provide you with some no nonsenses advice.

Spend your time wisely. It’s a mantra that all successful small business owners live by. If you are going to invest some of your precious time blogging for business, you want it to count. Here are 10 fundamental rules to get the most out of your blogging efforts for your small business. If you like this introduction you should definitely find out more about ranking factors at SEOmoz.org. I would highly recommend subscribing to their blog updates.

1. Titles do the heavy lifting

You have to know what keywords you are targeting in a specific article. It’s fine to write articles that don’t have a specific purpose but most of your content should. Figure out your keyword or keywords and include them in the title of your article or page, preferably as close to the front as possible. Just make sure they’re there. Period. A good trick for this is to write a compelling title then optimize the title tag using a plug-in like All in One SEO to modify the title tag. Many newer themes come with this ability built in.

2. Make a great first impression by optimizing your meta description

Great small business SEO is not just about getting a good ranking. It’s about presenting your content in an attractive way. Even if you have managed to rank in the top 10 results for a certain keyword term, no one is going to click to your website if they don’t come across a more compelling reason than ‘the title matches my search criteria.’

The meta description is what shows up under the title in search engines. It’s almost always 165 characters or less. Your meta description will default to the first 165 characters of your article copy or you can modify it from within the post page in some themes or using All in One SEO again.

Put your targeted keywords in the first sentence of your meta description and summarize the page so that the searcher will be satisfied that what you have is what they are searching for.

3. Content still reins supreme

Your article should be unique. Yes, you can borrow ideas and inspiration from other sources but copying or changing a few words to have something on your site is an utter waste of time. Write your article. Period. In terms of small business SEO, you need to make sure your article is focused and centered on the subject matter of the keywords you are targeting.

While you can have a very short article show well in search engines that is the exception to the rule. Keep articles above 300 words for search engines to see your content as substantial and worthy of quality placement. More is not always better but 1,000 word plus articles can show up better than shorter articles. Format your content logically with eyerests, sub-headings, and bullets as well. It helps readability and may help ranking.

4. Be aware of keyword frequency

Business owners who are new to blogging for business or who have read outdated techniques tend to “stuff” articles with their chosen keywords and call it SEO.

Here’s my rule of thumb and it’s served me well… put your keyword(s) in the first paragraph and anytime they should LOGICALLY APPEAR in the body of your article. If you want to throw them in a bulleted list or a sub-heading, that’s probably good too. It’s kind of like playing golf – if you think about it too much you’ll screw it up for sure.

5. Linking is living

If you are providing quality content for PEOPLE links will come naturally over time. There is more to links than getting them from other people though. Here are the rules of thumb…

• Link to relevant articles and videos, sooner than later
• Link to interior pages of your site where appropriate. This is a form of ‘deep linking’ and provides a better site experience and enhanced SEO.
• Link to articles with relevant anchor text. This one is one you hope the people linking TO your site and articles will do. Start by practicing the golden rule.
• Link throughout long articles. A 1,000 word article should have 4 or 5 links it it if relevant.

6. Cononical URLs

WordPress does this automatically but make sure you know what it is and that it works. What this means is that there is only one version of your site and subsequently, your pages. Instead of having a www and a non www versions, one redirects to the other automatically. This is done through a quick modification of a file on your server. You can test it by typing in both versions of a URL and seeing if it defaults to one or the other. It doesn’t really matter which one, only that both aren’t being indexed.

7. Pretty permalinks

Having a keyword in the root of your domain (ex. Keyword.com) is golden. Obviously, that isn’t possible for more than one or two keywords so the next best thing is to make sure your keywords are in the URL somewhere. That’s where pretty permalinks come in. Again, WordPress can do this but you have to change your url structure. Any website design you purchase from SDI with a Wordpress CMS are inherently built with this function. It is also something you can optimize with a plug in that cleans up slugs(another name for url’s). Copyblogger does this extremely well as you might expect.

8. Image Alt Tags

If you forget these, don’t beat yourself up but since it’s so easy to do (especially in WordPress) then do it. They should relate to (see LSI) or be the same as your targeted keywords.

9. Syndicate your content

Post your articles and links to your articles everywhere that you have time to. Here is a list in order of diminishing importance (my opinion):

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Industry/local blogs, forums, and resources
• Reddit
• Digg
• Stumbleupon
• Delicious
• Linkedin
• Other social networks
• Other blogs owned by you

You can also submit articles to blog carnivals, with which I have had great success in getting some very high quality backlinks to my sites.

10. Guest Posting

One of the best ways to build traffic, domain authority, and links to your website is to write quality guest posts for industry related blogs. If you are a design professional write a guest post for Vandelay or PSDtuts.com. If you own a pet store guest post on prominent pet blogs. Few blog owners turn away quality content, even from unproven writers. Start getting on several ‘big sites’ posting schedules and write up some killer content. It will do wonders for your site traffic and your business. Take a look at what others guests have posted to get a feel for the subject matter and quality of content.

There are lots of other great ways to boost SEO but I would start with number one and work my way down.

FYI, I drink my own cool-aid and this post is written with all of the above fundamentals in mind. Just in case you need a case study.

Google Alerts is probably one if the simplest and most useful tools on the Internet. Basically, it’s your watchdog for topics of internet online. Anytime googlebot crawls a page, tweet, update, video, or anything that is related to the alert you’ve set up, it sends you an email or rss update which allows you to know anytime someone or something has mentioned your name, your company, or a topic of your choice online. Awesome right? I have about 50 Google Alerts set up for myself, my Salty Dog brand, and some topics I like to keep an eye on. Doing this by myself would literally take hours out of my week but Alerts automates all of it. Here’s 3 quick and easy steps to allow you to track what people are saying about you and your business online…

1. Go to Google.com/alerts

If you’ve got a Google account go ahead and login. If you don’t, get one. Google has hundreds of free services that you can access with one username and password. You don’t even have to get an email account.

2. Put in the keywords you would like to track

Figure out what you would like to be alerted for. At minimum, I would go with your business name, your website address, along with your name and the names of your employees, investors, etc. There’s no limit to the number of alerts you can have so go crazy. Just realize that the more broad or common your search terms, the more alerts you’ll have to sift through.

Make sure to choose your preferences for what type of content you want alerts on, how often you want to get them, the actual volume of results, and how you’d like to get them. You can tweak all these settings later if you don’t want to figure it all out now.

3. Manage your alerts

You can get alerts in your inbox, which is fine. To make it more efficient I would create a rule in outlook or your online mail program to move all alerts to a certain folder. That way they are in one spot and much easier to keep track of.

BONUS IDEA:

Another option you probably haven’t thought about is to have them delivered via an RSS feed. If you use a feed reeder (and you totally should if you keep up with anything at all online) then you can have your alerts delivered there. I put all my alerts in a folder in my reader and can view them on my iPhone using a cool app called Newsrack but there are lots of apps for every persuasion of smartphone or you can always look at your reader online. Run over to Google.com/reader (another free service from Google) and get started.

That’s it. The whole process will take about the same amount of time it took to read this article. Good luck with it. I’ll have some follow up to this article with some suggestions on what to DO when someone mentions you online.

Seth Godin just created another ponderable post about what we accomplished this year. It made me start wondering what I accomplished. Here’s my shipping list for 2010:

• Launched TheExitPro.com, a niche training site for Exit Realty agents
• Moved to a high quality new hosting service, In Motion Hosting, for all my freelance activities
• Built a web design and consulting freelancing business and launched SaltyDogInteractive.com
• Sold a house
• Started a new career at SamsClub.com
• Launched a site redesign for ShopMasons.com
• Launched 8 new real estate agent websites
• Built my first eCommerce site for MozarkGranola.com
• Launched a top-end Real Estate Training membership site, ListingSchool.com
• Wrote over 300 blog articles and content pages for clients
• Created a personal finance budget and plan and have stuck to it
• Built relationships with at least 100 quality people that have and will lead to business dealings for many years

While not something I ‘launched’ I was able to spend lots of good quality time with my wife and 2 year old while working an average of 70+ hours a week. Definitely not as much as I would have liked, but I can’t spend 100% of my time with my family and get and work done (but that would be my idea of perfection).

That’s just what I came up with in 10 minutes. I’m sure I accomplished other things. What did you launch this year? Like me, I’m sure you’ll be surprised at how much you accomplished in your personal and professional lives. Sit down for a few minutes and make a list. Make one for 2011 like it was already done. Now go do it.

Email has become a powerful tool of the modern marketer for businesses big and small.  Even with the advent of tools like Google’s priority inbox, great resources like the ones below have helped thousands of email marketers engage their customers and grow their lists. 2011 will be full of more of the same. More informed consumers, more scarcity and exclusivity, and less tolerance for bad content. Enjoy the best email marketing advice of the year from the best marketing minds of 2010.

• 10 Words That Will Make People Open Your Email [Freelance Copywriters]
• 30 Beautiful Email Newsletters Design For your Inspiration [Tripwire]
• Welcome Emails: Best Practice vs. Common Practice [Direct Mag]
• 3 Good Welcome Email Examples [Aweber]
• Get a Higher Open & Click Rate with Pre-Header Links [Vertical Response]

• The 5 Rules of Writing Email Marketing Subject Lines [Directory Journal]
• Three Questions Your Email Should Answer In Eight Seconds Or Less [Email Insider]
• Research: Spammy Email Design Mistakes [MailChimp]
• Beautiful Email Newsletters For Your Inspiration [Hongkiat]
• The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines [Copyblogger]

• 5 tips for effective email copywriting [Social Email Marketing]
• 7 Tips for Writing Better Email Subject Lines [SitePoint]
• The Fine Art of Persuasion via Email [Web Worker Daily]
• Five Ideas for Email Subject Line Testing [Blue Sky Factory]
• Master The 3 A’s of Calls to Action [Aweber]

• Engage Subscribers: 6 Fun Email Ideas [Aweber]
• What’s your most profitable subject line? [Blue Sky Factory]
• How to Add Video to Your Emails [Gloria Rand]
• How to Get More Subscribers for Your Email List [CopyBlogger]
• False idols: four beliefs that can hurt your email marketing [Email Marketing Reports]

• Email Newsletter Design: Guidelines And Examples [Smashing Magazine]
• 6 email marketing design tips for recognition, trust and engagement [Email Guide]
• 20 Holiday Subject Lines that Light Up the Inbox [Vertical Response]
• How to Build Your List Using Facebook [Quick Online Tips]
• Adding Email Opt-In To Your Facebook Page [Blue Sky Factory]

This list was expertly compiled by Who’s Blogging What? Happen to see any other great resources out there? Link to them in a comment!

WordPress is great for small business owners. You don’t have a ton of time so you need something simple. You don’t have a lot of money (kudos to you if you do) so you need something inexpensive (the software is free). You need a system that is flexible and customizable for your business. Yep. WordPress is all those things and more. Here’s 40 reasons small business owners should use WordPress.

I just gave you three huge reasons in the introduction. Here’s the other 37 as seen by a smarter man than I, Joe Pulizzi:

1. A blog is just a tool, but it is the easiest, most effective publishing tool to share information with customers and prospects.
2. A blog can be the center of your content marketing strategy. As you widen your net to attract prospects and customers through social media, your blog is the place you point them to. It’s your magnet.
3. You don’t need a publishing degree to start a blog. There are no technology barriers. WordPress first, then Typepad are two places to look. For larger corporations, Compendium is an interesting platform.
4. Thinking about writing a book? Then start the blog first. This blog was started on the idea that it would serve as the basis for our book, Get Content Get Customers. It did just that. Blog with the idea of chapters of your book in mind.
5. You can’t be taken seriously in social media unless you have a robust, consistent blog. That’s the truth. Deal with it.
6. Blogging may be the best way to showcase your employees. Check out Indium. How much more powerful is this brand with their employees consistently communicating helpful information? How much greater is the employee morale because Indium is embracing social media and conversations with customers? You have employees who are rock stars. Give them the platform to help you in the process.
7. A blog is search engine candy. Google loves blogs and Google is hungry. Feed the beast.
8. A blog is an industry game changer. When the buying decision comes down to three or four companies, the company website with consistent, relevant content is 60% more likely to win (Custom Content Council stats).
9. A blog is a great way to learn to stop talking about yourself and start focusing on what your customers need to hear.
10. Can you really be an industry thought leader without a blog? Think about that.
11. How can you be successful with Twitter, Facebook and other social media without generating consistently relevant content through a blog? Remember, content strategy comes before social media. That content strategy can be executed through the blog.
12. The blog is a great way for us to communicate with our customers on a regular basis without having to constantly pitch them on our products.
13. A blog can serve as the content hub for your enewsletter, print newsletter and company magazine.
14. Your customers want and need to be inspired. Is there a better way to inspire customers that than through consistent content gifts through a blog.
15. A solid blog will lead to speaking events. I’ve been invited to more than 30 speaking events specifically because they found me on the blog. No kidding. Five of those were international speaking events.
16. Since most websites suck, a blog is a great way to differentiate yourself from the rest of the online corporate brochures.
17. A blog is one of the best ways to share your point of view. You’re take on the industry and customers is unique (or at least should be). Tell your story.
18. If you can’t figure out how to tell a unique story, a blog is a great testing ground for you to find your corporate voice. Find your compelling story.
19. A blog removes corporate shackles. By opening yourself up to imperfection and transparency through a blog, you are actually moving closer to perfection.
20. Having a blog forces you to ask questions about your industry and your customers all day long and while you sleep. Having a blog forces you to become a journalist and think like a publisher. That forces you to become a more innovative business.
21. Your competition may be able to duplicate your product, but it’s very hard, if not impossible, for the competition to duplicate your story. A blog will help tell your story.
22. You will meet more influential people and gain more contacts through a blog than almost anything else you do.
23. Listening and commenting is extremely important to any social media program. Without a blog, a listening program is more like eavesdropping. It just seems wrong.
24. A good blog will lead to blog guest posts on other sites and other free public relations efforts.
25. What other tool can enable you to have real conversations with customers, prospects and influencers?
26. Although a blog can work for any organization, it’s simply the most cost-effective way to promote and market your business.
27. Blogging is fun. Who thought you could write about interesting things that affect your business and have it positively affect you and so many of your customers?
28. Your brand is what your people read and talk about online.
29. A blog forces you to keep abreast of what’s going on with your customers and your industry. Remember, you are the industry expert. Act like one.
30. A blog promotes customer loyalty. Customers will look to you for expert insight to help them with their pain points. When they are ready to buy, they’ll buy from the expert.
31. The blog can be the core of your search engine optimization strategy.
32. If you don’t have anything interesting to say, why would anyone have a reason to talk about you or your company?
33. A blog can be your personal therapist. It’s saved me thousands.
34. Traditional journalists love to interview bloggers. They know they’ll get the information they need because they already see the proof.
35. A blog is a credibility machine. Any thought leader in the space needs two things – a blog and a book. One without the other is like Laverne without Shirley or Cafe without Mocha.
36. Everyone is an expert in something. Figure out the intersection between your expertise and your target audiences’ needs and find your secret sauce.
37. Repackaging of blog posts will fuel white papers, ebooks, in-person events and just about all the other educational content you’ll need for your marketing. A blog, can literally, do it all for your content marketing program.

BONUS: Yep, #41 – WordPress doesn’t have to be used as a blog at all! It can be a completely static website platform that allows you to easily login and manage your website pages, make changes, add pictures, create landing pages, and do about 1,000 other things. I would be remiss if I didn’t suggest you blog, it works.