Did you know that women make up just over 50% of bloggers (depending on which list you look at!). Are you one of them? If not, why not? Many women in business view blogs as too hard and too much work. But if you haven’t investigated the positives of blogs for your business, you could be missing out on an avenue to easily and affordably interact with your customers.

 Here are some advantages:

• Blogs can create ‘evangelists’: blogs humanise your business and give customers a reason to follow you and tell others about you.
• Blogs facilitate ‘buzz’: informative and thought-provoking posts tend to be shared and spread, thereby creating communication with customers and potential customers you otherwise would never have.
• Blogs can showcase your industry knowledge: helpful tips, personal perspectives on a topic that you are passionate about, sharing new innovations, and so on, can establish you as a leader in your industry.

Blogs should not be an exercise in marketing or branding. No-one is going to visit your blog (or subscribe to it) if you simply promote yourself and try to ‘sell’ your latest product or service. You need to post a variety of content: humour, customer stories, latest research and so on.

So should you write your blog posts yourself? There are those who say emphatically YES, to ensure that it’s your ‘voice’ coming through clearly. But there are some great copywriters who, once you establish rapport, will have the ability to capture what you’re trying to achieve.

Best of all, blogs are generally free. You can set up a blog via Wordpress or Blogger in a few minutes and be posting your first article today!

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

Is everyone around you talking about blogging? Are you wondering whether you should be doing it too? The term is actually “weblogs” which boomed in 1999 when some easy to use blogging software was released. Since 1999, the number of blogs on the Internet has gone from a few thousand to over 100 million. Here are some advantages of blogging:

• If you don’t yet have a website, blogging is a low-cost alternative.
• Blog software is easy to use. Some common (free) blogging tools are: WordPress and Blogger.com
• Business blogs give you the opportunity to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience.
• Blogging can result in worldwide exposure
• It’s possible to make money via a blog (via advertising, affiliate programs, and so on)
• There can be satisfaction that comes with inspiring, educating or helping others And here are some downsides:
• Blogging does not provide the functionality of a website and has limited e-commerce capacity (i.e. if you want to sell online)
• If you do not have the time to dedicate to making frequent posts, your blog could go undetected on the Internet. When you decide to start a blog, it’s important to work out why you are blogging. That is, do you want to make money from it? Simply write about what you love? Provide expert opinion? Showcase your work? Get people to take action? Answering those questions will make it much easier to work out what you should write about. It’s also highly advisable to subscribe to some successful blogs before you start, so that you can better understand how it all works. One of Australia’s most popular blogs is Problogger (http://www.problogger.net/blog/). You can also find a list of the Top 100 Australia blogs at: http://blogpond.com.au/top-100-australian-blogs-index/ And in the words of Brian Clark: “Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender