It seems that some business owners are reluctant to start business blogs for a variety of reasons. Some are afraid that they’ll burn out and lose followers after working hard to get them. Others are afraid that they won’t have anything to say. Still others are afraid that the time commitment will be too much to manage. If you’re one of these people, stop making excuses and start blogging! Here are 9 keys for successful business blogging.

1. Have a Conversation. The point of a blog is not to lecture, nor is it to push your products and services. Instead, the point of a blog is informal, informational communication in which your readers can learn more about you, your products, and all that your business has to offer them. By engaging potential customers in conversation, you give them the opportunity to learn to trust you, which increases the likelihood that they will purchase your products or services. You don’t have to be clever or cute, just honest and open.
   
2. Know Who’s Reading. What kinds of conversations will interest your readers? You need to have this information before you even write your first blog post. It’s hard to have a conversation with someone about whom you know nothing, so find out who’s reading and what interests them.
   
3. Regularly Publish. People will stop visiting your blog if you stop publishing. And even if you start back up again, chances are they won’t be following you anymore. So update your content regularly—once a week at the very least—and comment at least that often as well. You’ll do yourself a favor by publishing daily if you can hack it.
   
4. Let Them Know Who You Are. People will be more willing to share information about themselves if they know who you are, so include an “About Me” page on your blog. You don’t need to tell your whole life story, just a bit of personal background and a summary of your professional experiences.
   
5. Use Your Voice. Use the conversational style that’s most natural for you. If you’re naturally sarcastic and clever, throw a bit of that into your writing. But don’t force humor if it’s not natural for you. Readers want you to be transparent, and that means being true to yourself in your writing.
   
6. Engage Other Bloggers. Read other blogs and comment on them. This is a great way to keep up with what’s going on in your industry and to get fresh content.
   
7. Don’t Get Anyone in Trouble. While it’s important for your blog to be conversational in style, it’s also important for your blog to be professional. All of your posts should be professional and all of your comments should be professional. Never write something until you’ve thought through it first. Remember that you’re not only representing yourself, but also your entire company.
   
8. Write Well. You’re not in the running for the Nobel Prize for Literature, but you still want your writing to represent your company well within the blogosphere. Use correct grammar and spellcheck everything before you publish. Potential customers will never take you seriously if they perceive that you are unable to communicate in writing.
   
9. Follow Your Bliss. Don’t force yourself to regularly write about things that don’t interest you. Of course you’ll occasionally need to stretch yourself by writing about industry trends that may not interest you all that much, but try to stick with topics that get you fired up. You need to learn how to convince others to take interest in your industry, your company, and your product, and the best way to do that is to write with passion and integrity.

Stop trying to think of reasons not to blog and just do it. Following these 9 keys will get you off on the right foot.

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Internet marketing and SEO experts agree that one of the best ways to market your business is to write regular press releases. In fact, press releases may be some of the most important information you put down on paper. So take advantage of the content you’ve already written in the form of press releases, and turn those releases into blog articles. After all, the most important thing you can do to improve your inbound marketing is to write lots and lots of great content. Here are 7 steps to get you going.

1. Change the Headline. Press release headlines are usually pretty dry, offering only pertinent information about the content of the release. This is a throwback to the days when press releases came through a wire service and media employees simply scanned the headlines to learn the news. If you want to use a press release to create a blog article, change the headline to something witty or catchy. Your headline should compel readers to continue reading instead of clicking on to the next site.
   
2. Take Out the Promotion. There’s no better way to turn off potential customers than to turn your blog into one big sales pitch. People read your blog to learn more about you, not to get the hard sell on your products and services. Your blog should provide information about you and what you have to offer, not become a shameless promotion.
   
3. Choose Wisely. Some of your press releases just might not be very interesting if transformed into blog articles. Others that might work are releases outlining industry trends or survey data. No one is that interested in hearing that you just picked up your 150^th customer, but they would like to know about surveys and trends.
   
4. Beef it Up. The information in your press release might be interesting, but your readers will be even more engaged if you add your own insights and understandings. Sum up the press release with three or four bullets about why the information is important, or about what difference the information made for you and your business. This will also promote readers to comment, and the more engaged your readers are, the more likely they will be to come back.
   
5. Make It Prettier. In addition to tacking on your own insights and learnings, use multimedia as well. This is very expensive when working with press releases, but you can add images and videos to your blog for practically nothing. You’ll find that you’ll want to minimize the amount of multimedia you include in your press release, but that you can enhance the information a great deal when you turn it into a blog article.
   
6. Leave Out the Boilerplate. You most likely use a standard format for your press releases that includes contact information for your company at the bottom. Leave this out when you create a blog article from the press release.
   
7. Remove Quotes. Press releases typically include a quote or two from members of your company that enhance the information you’re sharing in the release. These detract from the casual, conversational tone that you want to achieve on your blog, so leave them out as well.

Internet marketing experts tell us time and time again that the most important way to beef up inbound marketing is to create and publish great content. Since you’re already creating great content every time you write a new press release, save yourself some time and energy by making your press releases into your next blog articles. You’ll share relevant and interesting information with your readers, and it’s not hard to turn a dry old press release into an engaging piece of writing that your readers will want to share with others. So work more efficiently by using the resources you already have to improve your business blog and increase your business.

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