Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

How to Choose the Best Business Blog Categories

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© goir - Fotolia.com
© goir – Fotolia.com

Your business blog categories are a vital part of your content marketing strategy. When someone visits your website and finds your list of blog categories displayed in the sidebar, they get an instant snapshot of the range of your expertise, and how you can help your customers.

Your blog categories are a natural extension of your brand, revealing what’s important to you and what you stand for in your business. Blog category links also help guide your readers to the information that will help them the most.

Blog categories help you plan

Planning your blog categories before you write helps you organize your writing and stay on track, so you can achieve the consistency that will attract long-term readers and grow those relationships into sales.

By being strategic about your blog categories, you can more easily produce a balanced number of posts in each topic area. That way, visitors can see proof of your expertise no matter which category name they click.

This post will explain:

  • How to choose topics for your business blog categories
  • How to choose names for your business blog categories
  • How to maintain your business blog categories
  • How to clean up your business blog categories

How to choose topics for your business blog categories

When considering your categories, identify the most pressing problems of your prospective clients. In the Four-Step Business Blogging Plan, I encourage you to consider topics that are broad enough to give you some variety and options, but specific enough that they’ll be relevant to your perfect customers.

Ideally you want to find the intersection between your audience’s interests and your own. You or someone on your team needs to have the interest, knowledge and ideas to keep writing about each category.

When choosing blog categories, think about the body of work you want to build over time. Is there a book in your future? Your blog categories could very well be your book’s chapters. An online course? Your categories might be lessons or segments of that course. White papers and presentations can also be created one blog at a time.

Aim to have 5-7 blog categories that you find interesting and manageable to write about, which also address the concerns of your ideal customers.

How to choose names for your business blog categories

Avoid jargon or industry-specific terms when naming your categories. Remember that your business blog visitors may have varying levels of knowledge and experience with your subject matter.

Also consider doing keyword research, as Doug Kessler explains:

If you use the same language your ideal customers are using, you’re more likely to show up in search engine results when they type in those terms.

Categories and tags can both be helpful for organizing your content and displaying your knowledge base. What can get messy, though, is mixing them up. Be clear about the difference between categories and tags, and have a specific plan for how you will use each on your site.

Use categories for broader topic areas and themes, such as you’d find in a book’s Table of Contents. Think of tags, on the other hand, like the index at the back of the book. Here you can get much more specific with single words and sub-ideas.

You can also use tags to group together related posts, such as all posts in a series.

How to maintain your business blog categories

Once you’ve settled on a list of category names, commit to publishing in each category regularly. When you’re feeling creative, outline a few ideas all at once so you’ll never have to start from scratch.

Charlie Gilkey’s Blog Post Planner and Calendar are helpful for seeing your categories at a glance and making sure you’re achieving an ideal balance.

Your categories don’t have to be set in stone, but please think twice before you add a new category. Ask yourself:

  1. Do you already have a category that’s very similar to this one? For example, Business Tips versus Small Business Tips.
  2. Is this too specific to be a category, and would it be better as a tag?
  3. Will you have other posts to write about this topic in the future, and is it something you know is relevant for your readers? Watch that you’re not using a business blog as a diary to explore your own interests.
  4. Are you using the same capitalization style as your other categories? I recommend title case for categories (capitalizing all major words, along with the first and last word) and lower case for tags.

Above all, ensure every post is assigned a category. Describing a blog post as uncategorized makes your blog seem disorganized.

How to clean up your business blog categories

If you started blogging without a clear plan for topics and categories, you can always make a fresh start with a category clean up. First, take an honest look and answer these questions:

  • Do any of your categories make you cringe because the topics or language are outdated, or because you haven’t posted anything new about the subject in a long time?
  • Have you been adding more and more categories until they’ve become unwieldy, overwhelming, or even meaningless, both for you and your readers?
  • Do your category names accurately reflect the content on your blog? Will the words or phrases mean the same thing to your readers as they do to you?
  • Are your categories tags in disguise? Have you been using categories and tags to serve the same purpose?

Now decide which categories you want to keep, and which of those need more attention. Also decide if there are categories you want to retire, in which case you would re-assign those posts to other categories and remove the category name from your sidebar.

In some cases you may want to change the name of an existing category. Be sure to research how your permanent links will be affected. Is the category name part of the permalink? If so, will links to older posts still work? Consider also whether you’ve ever linked to your category archive page from other posts or pages on your blog.

Check with your website developer to avoid any problems with broken links. If you’re using the self-hosted version of WordPress, you can also try a plugin called Term Management Tools, recommended by WP Beginner.

If you’re about to start or re-start a business blog, download the free Four-Step Business Blogging Plan for help with goals, categories, topics, types of posts, time management, and creating an editorial calendar.

Three Keys to Effective Business Blogging – Lessons from the Top Business Blogs of 2014

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© nanuvision - Fotolia.com
© nanuvision – Fotolia.com

In early October, Social Fresh published their list of the top business blogs of 2014. If you’re looking to start or improve your own business blog in 2015, take the time to visit each of these blogs to learn from their examples.

What I found even more instructive about the Social Fresh post were the three criteria the judges used to rate each of the finalists. We can all apply these to assess and plan our own blogging efforts for 2015 and beyond.

As I was writing this post, I also came across a business model based on a three-legged stool. I found helpful synergies between those concepts and these three blogging standards from the Social Fresh post:

  1. Calls to action

Is the blog actively trying to convert a user in some way? This might be an email signup, a white paper download link, or even a simple CTA to watch, share or comment. Is there a clear business strategy being executed?

I love that this was first. It really speaks to the marketing part of content marketing. If each and every blog post isn’t trying to advance your relationship with the reader, then why bother?

Note the last sentence: Is there a clear business strategy being executed? Why are you blogging in the first place? What business goals is your blog serving? How will you know you’ve reached them?

The first leg of the business stool is money – there needs to be a clear path between reading your content and becoming a customer – even if that journey takes a long time and involves several steps.

For example, asking someone to sign up for your newsletter can create an opportunity to build a trusting relationship that leads to a later sale or referral.

Action: Make it clear and easy for your reader to follow through with an action that will lead them closer to doing business with you. Your call to action may appear at the end of the post, somewhere else in the post, and/or as part of the site design of each page.

  1. Content quality/consistency

Is the blog actually providing value? Is the content good and appealing to readers? Is the company regularly producing content?

Quality content is the purpose of the Content Mastery Guide blog and all of my work. While I personally strive for a weekly publication schedule, I would rather leave a hole in my calendar (and that definitely happens!) than post something that feels rushed, incomplete or sub-standard.

The second leg of the business stool is infrastructure – in this case whatever you do to consistently produce high-quality content on your business blog. This may include using an editorial calendar, managing your blogging time, and editing your work before you publish.

Action: Define a clear plan for your blogging success and revisit often to stay on track. Commit to whatever you need to start doing, stop doing, or keep doing in order to blog well and blog often.

  1. Audience engagement

Are there any comments? Are there a lot of social shares? Are people online talking about the content? Is there an audience engaged with the content?

I’ve never used comments as a measure of business blogging success (after all, would you rather get blog comments or calls from customers?). Today there are so many other powerful ways to interact with you and your content.

The third leg of the business stool is people – if a blog post publishes in an empty forest, does anyone read? Your blog needs a community of readers who see, reply to, like, comment and share your posts.

You may also find that you need different people to take on the many tasks involved in business blogging, whether that’s assigning a team member to coordinate and edit submissions, or outsourcing the whole process to a business blog writing service.

Action: Use social sharing buttons that make it easy for readers to promote your post to their networks. Share the posts widely across your different social media platforms. Reply graciously to all feedback and mentions. Build a blogging team to support your efforts.

To learn from 2014’s top business blogs, ask yourself whether your blog has the business strategy, consistency and quality, and audience involvement it needs to succeed in 2015. Start with these simple actions and let me know how it goes!

Two Business Blogging Power Tools You Need to Be Using

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Do you feel like your business blogging is hit-or-miss, with more misses than hits? In my latest post for SteamFeed, I introduce two systems that work beautifully together to hone your blogging efforts and produce better results.

The editorial calendar puts a structure around how blogging will achieve your business’s marketing goals, by plotting out exactly how and when you’ll produce relevant content for your audience.

Once that structure is in place, your mind is free to look for real-life examples, questions, stories and topics to fill out your calendar. Idea catchers help you quickly and efficiently capture those ideas so you never have to start blogging from a blank screen again.

© xalanx - Fotolia.com
© xalanx – Fotolia.com

Business Blogging Power Tools: Editorial Calendars and Idea Catchers

http://www.steamfeed.com/business-blogging-power-tools-editorial-calendars-idea-catchers/

Start Blogging, Keep Blogging, Attract the Right Customers

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If you want to receive all of my latest posts by email, click here to subscribe to the weekly Blogging Tips newsletter.

How to Create a Business Blogging Plan

blogging plan
© Petr Ciz – Fotolia.com

Whether you’re starting from scratch or planning ahead for the quarter or year, these six steps break down the blog planning process to include every essential element. Put them together and you’ll have a comprehensive plan that sets up your business blog for maximum success.

This is my first guest post for Social Media Examiner.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/business-blogging-plan/

5 Ways to Avoid the Dreaded Blog Fade

Abandoned blog sends wrong message about business
© Pitamaha – Fotolia.com

Blogging is an effective way to show prospective customers how your company’s expertise can help them, but it only works if you do it consistently. These five these tips will help keep up your momentum long enough to see some results.

http://www.steamfeed.com/5-ways-avoid-dreaded-blog-fade/

Blog of Attraction: How blogging helps you attract your best clients and filter out the wrong clients

blogging is a magnet to attract customers

When we’re attracted to someone, we tend to value and trust what they say. We like who they are and may want to become our own version of that. Plus we like the results we’ve gotten when we’ve applied their advice and suggestions, or learned from their experiences.

When you achieve that level of attraction with your readers, they will want more of you. That’s the power of blogging.

You can view a PDF version of my article in choice, the magazine of professional coaching, by following this link to my LinkedIn profile:

http://lnkd.in/dHH96i2

Blogging for Business – 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions

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Business woman with questions about blogging
© Syda Productions – Fotolia.com

As a business blog writer and consultant, I hear many questions, starting with, “Can you actually make a living doing that?” With customers heading straight to the web to find solutions to their problems, online marketing is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. And that makes what I do a necessity as well.

Here are 10 answers that will help any business owner market more effectively and connect with your customers online. I’ve grouped them into the three themes of blog planning, blog writing, and blog promotion.

Blog planning

1. What is a blog? A blog is a special section of a website that you update frequently with articles, news, and stories. The newest updates appear at the top of the page, with the older ones below. Posts are also organized by category. Example: Ask the Real Estate Team (Barrie, ON).

2. Should I blog/Why should I blog? No one HAS to blog, and you shouldn’t start unless you’re committed to blogging regularly for at least six months to give it a chance to produce results for your business. Reasons TO blog:

  • Stay visible to your audience so they think of you when they need your product or service. Example: Rooted Naturopathic Medicine Clinic (Barrie, ON).
  • Demonstrate your expertise about topics related to your business. Example: Rhonda Sherwood, Wealth Advisor for Scotia McLeod (Vancouver, BC).
  • Produce original content you can share on social media, to accomplish the first two goals in a variety of settings. Example: Summit Insight (Alexandria, VA)
  • Follow up with new contacts and prospective customers with links to information you’ve already written about questions they had.

3. Where should I blog? Recommended: Integrated into your own business website (Sample: Litchfield Builders, Hamden, CT). Next best thing: A separate site with the same branding, your own domain name, and clear links back and forth from the main site (Sample: Chilis). Not recommended: Blogging on “borrowed land,” like Blogger/Blogspot, WordPress.com, or Tumblr.

4. What should I blog about? A business should blog about things that will be interesting, relevant and helpful to your ideal customers. Start with a list of categories or themes you’ll write about. This helps you stay organized, and it also helps your readers find the answers they’re looking for.

Blog writing

5. How long and how often? While we’re hearing more now about the effectiveness of 1,000+-word blog posts, I still suggest that new business bloggers aim for 500 words for their feature articles. That being said, if you have more to say, and the additional words are purposeful and well-written, you no longer need to cut off your writing or arbitrarily divide it into multiple posts (for example, I’ll definitely need more than 500 words to answer these 10 questions!) For different types of posts (see the next answer for examples), 250-300 words is plenty.

6. Where do I find the time to blog? Blog posts don’t always have to be text-heavy or 100% original content, and these alternate types of posts can be quicker to write. For example, you can interview an expert about a topic that’s relevant to your customers, introduce or summarize a video or audio (your own or someone else’s), or review a book. (Here are some other blogging time management tips inspired by my greyhound Patch.)

7. Is it okay to copy someone’s article if I give them credit? No. Giving credit does not equal permission. You can quote one or two lines, but any more than that and you need explicit permission from the author. It’s better to just write some original commentary about why you like or recommend the content, then provide a link. (More suggestions about business blogging etiquette.)

Blog promotion

8. How do I get people to see my new blog posts?

  • Copy your post’s permalink (permanent link) from your web browser’s address bar (here is a video about how to find the permalink).
  • Paste the link into a status update box on a social media site, and then…
  • Add a brief teaser that tells the reader why they should read your post and how it will benefit them. Be consistent with the culture and norms of each network (e.g., you’re limited to 140 characters on Twitter, so don’t automatically copy the same message you’ve written for Facebook or it will be cut off and won’t make a good impression on your Twitter followers). Some titles, like this one by Debbie Ouellet (Barrie, ON), are compelling enough to use on their own (note that it already includes a question)! Your brand is a country. What’s it like to live there?
  • Email the link to someone directly if it’s a topic you discussed or you think they would enjoy/benefit from. (WiseStamp is an email signature tool that can automatically pull in the title and link of your latest blog post.)

9. How can I make my posts stand out on social media? Even with a catchy teaser, you still need to get people to notice that amidst everything else that’s constantly flowing into their social media streams. A colourful, attention-grabbing photo is the key to getting people to read even that short text, let alone click the link to read the whole post. Tip: On Facebook and Google+, upload a photo first, before you type your teaser and paste in your permalink. That way readers will see a full-sized photo rather than a thumbnail. [Update: July 17, 2015 – As of November 2014, Facebook is giving more visibility to posts that contain links with thumbnail images, versus those with uploaded photos.]

10. Where can I find photos to use legally? Just as you can’t reprint other people’s text, you also can’t automatically use other people’s photos without permission. To find photos you can share, I recommend Stock Exchange (free) – http://www.sxc.hu/, Photopin (free) – photopin.com and Fotolia (fee-based) – fotolia.com.

Thanks to the organizers and attendees of Small Business Connect in Barrie, Ontario, where I presented this information (with some technical difficulties). I’m glad to be able to deliver all the links and examples I promised!

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