Business blogging can be exceptionally rewarding. When done correctly, a successful blog can bring attention to your business, can attract new customers, and can turn your current customer base into the type of fans that companies like Apple, Netflix, and Ben and Jerry’s have: people who will not only buy your product or service, but evangelize it to their peers. Of course, like anything, there is a right way to go about starting a business blog and a wrong way.

1. Writing for search engines before humans – You can always tell when a blogger discovers Search Engine Optimization for the first time. Suddenly titles don’t make sense, keywords appear in posts for no real reason, links to other pages on the blog that are irrelevant to the post keep being used. Learn SEO – but keep your readers as your #1 priority.

2. Putting off starting a blog – When it comes to blogging, I firmly believe in a shotgun approach. Instead of worrying too much on finding the right moment, it’s better to take action straight away, and plan later.

3. Not reaching out to new readers – Successful blogging involves time, effort, and reaching out to fellow bloggers / publishers / authors (whatever you prefer). Intead of waiting for readers to find you, reach out to them by guest posting, writing comment on other blogs, participate in forum discussion and so on.

4. Having a domain name owned by a weblog service – Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a nave beginner who shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

5. Neglecting your article headlines – No matter how good your articles are, if you have terrible headlines, the chances are, your article won’t be read. Why? Because that’s the first thing that catches the readers attention.

6. Not posting regularly – Think about the blogs you read on a regular basis – how many of them publish only sporadically? Most successful blogs put out new content at least a couple of times per week and try to stick to a regular schedule. Consistently putting out quality content will keep readers returning and over time it will help you build a community and turn your customers into fans.

7. Assuming it’s easy – Blogging takes real effort and man-hours into organizing thoughts and even coming up with schedules as to what you’re writing and when you’ll publish the posts. Taking into account the networking, reading, and commenting on other blogs takes time, it’s not something you should do half-heartedly.

New bloggers are bound to make mistakes, one way or another. Although theoretically speaking, it’s best to learn from other people’s mistakes, but reality is always harsher. The best thing you can do is to avoid as many mistakes as possible, and don’t be harsh on yourself when you make one.

Nik Imran is the writer of I Make A Blog, a blog that provides guide on How To Make Blog. Besides providing steps on setting up blog, the blog also provides blogging tips.

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