Photo Credit: Studio Y? ^[1]

In part one of the blog well series, I asked and answered the question, Should small businesses blog? – Hell yes! ^[2] Today I want to take a look at the things you need to think about before you start your business blog. At the end of this post, you’ll find a link to download the blog plan – print it up, work through it, I promise, once you have a firm idea of where you are going it will be a lot easier to get there.

Stuff to think about:

• Once you have your plan on paper, keep it close, you can refer to it, modify it, and expand on it – it is your game plan.

• Google’s Search Evangelist Adam Lasnik ^[3], recommends allowing comments on your site to start a conversation with your visitors: “They love to ask questions and get feedback, particularly from people that are important to them – and you guys are” ( Adam’s Interview ^[4]). This enabling of conversation has a natural side effect – it strengthens community.

• Make sure you don’t make basic mistakes; read Remarkablogger’s: 25 Reasons why Your Business Blog Sucks! ^[5]

• Matt Mullenweg ^[6], founding developer of WordPress recommends: “Get to know what others in your field are doing by reading other blogs and news; you’ll know soon enough whether you have anything useful to contribute to the blogosphere” ( Chat with Matt ^[7]). If you don’t know where to start, go to Technorati ^[8] (blog search engine) and type in your keywords. You sell tea? Type tea and its variants in.

• Avoid putting flashy and obtrusive advertisements on your blog.

• Once you have a plan, don’t get complacent. Invite comments and participate in the conversation, and be flexible enough to modify the plan if change is required.

Blogs encourage communication, help establish your online presence, promote information sharing, and are contributing to the growth of the semantic (meaningful) Web.

As a result, the planning of your site’s content, design, and navigation structure is crucial to your success.

The blog plan is one of the essential elements most people miss out on when they start blogging – don’t be one of them.

Download The Blog Plan ^[9] now. (PDF)

This is the second in a series on how to blog well called the Blog Well Files.  If you’ve missed the others, you can find them here:

• Blog Well Files – Part 1: Should small business blog – Hell Yes! ^[10]
• Blog Well Files – Part 3: Choosing a Blogging Platform ^[11]
• Blog Well Files – Part 4: Creating a Blog Strategy ^[12]

If you found this post useful, please consider subscribing to my feed ^[13].