Faith and Business 101: Finding Affordable Advertising (pt. 3)

So far we have discussed the benefits of promoting your business through free social media outlets, namely Facebook and Twitter. Today I’d like to discuss the benefits of blogging for your business. Even if you’re not a great writer you can use a blog to help promote yourself and your business. The two main blogging platforms are Blogger and WordPress. Both of these can be used effectively. If you’re totally new to the blogging world Blogger is a great, free, and user friendly option. You can get a Blogger blog up and running in very little time. Now Blogger also offers a bunch of cute, customizable layouts so that you can get a professional blog look without forking out all the money.

For someone who is a little more serious about blogging or wants more options for customization, WordPress is a great option. You can find all kinds of tutorials, and Blogger vs WordPress articles all over the web.

Once you get your blog up and running the next thing you need is *good content*. There is a saying in the blogging world and that is that “content is key”. This is so very true. Just like we talked about with Twitter and Facebook, if all you post is continual sales, specials, and self promotion you will not have many, if any, readers. There are many good ways to fill your blog with content. A key is to update it on a regular basis, at least one post a week, if not more, or your readers will forget to come and check for new content. If you are a direct sales rep you can blog about useful information relating to your product. For example if you sell candles you would want to blog about using them in decorating, the benefits of your type of candles vs others, how to make attractive candle gifts, etc. If you sell makeup then tutorials on the latest styles or how to apply makeup are wonderful ideas, if you sell bake-ware list cooking tips and recipes.

If you get stuck for content find another mom who blogs and is in business and see if she will do a guest blog for you. Giveaways and reviews of your own products are wonderful ways to drive traffic to your blog and increase your readership.

So, dust off your writing skills and happy blogging!

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