Giving Waters Ministries is a start-up church located in River Falls WI.  Their goals were to reach the community through an easy to use website that also delivered beautiful design.  By choosing New Creation Design they were able to put their brand out on the web, continue to edit and update their site with the easy to use CMS tool and communicate to their church and the community around them.

Check out the live site HERE

When we talk to small businesses, we often find they're not too interested in "blogging." But, if we ask them about posting articles or news stories on their site, they are generally very interested in that. The truth is that blogging is nothing more than consistently posting articles on your site. Perhaps the term "blogging" has acquired some connotations that aren't appealing to small businesses. Nonetheless, blogging, or whatever you want to call it, is something that all businesses should consider.

Impressive benefits

Blogging can help you get results from your company website by doing the following:

1. Establishing you and your business as an authority in your areas of expertise.

2. Encouraging your site visitors to return often because of your regularly updated content.

3. Building a dedicated readership for your content through RSS syndication.

4. Making search engines pay attention to your regularly updated, keyword-rich content.

5. Giving you a more personal voice through which to speak to your clients and customers.

6. Encouraging your customers to talk back and interact with your website by leaving comments.

These are just a few of the key benefits of blogging on your company site. So, what does it take to make it work?

Slow and steady wins the race

Content is key. If you want to be successful blogging, you have to commit to generating new content regularly. My recommendation is that you post one new article per week to start. Even if you think you can post more, hold yourself back to one per week and see how it goes. You'll discover that it's harder than you think to generate new content every single week, but if you can do it, it well worth the time invested. A consistent, steady stream of quality content is all it takes to be successful blogging.

What should I write about?

You can post anything you want to share with the world. Here are a few ideas:

1. News about your company

2. Official company announcements

3. "Get to know you" articles about employees

4. Opinions on events or happenings in your industry

5. Commentary on articles that others have written

6. "How to" articles to help your clients and customers

7. Posts featuring pictures of your company activities or employees

8. Posts soliciting feedback from your customers, encouraging them to speak back to you in the comments.

9. Information about giveaway and other special promotions

How do I get started?

You need do-it-yourself content tools in order to blog successfully. Your website needs to be running on a platform that has blogging built right in. With a weekly flow of new content, you need the ability to post articles yourself. If your site is already running on one of New Creation Design's content management systems, you're all set. If not, or if you need help getting started, just let us know and we'll be happy to talk with you more.

Author Dale Swanson