So…you’ve got a blog. Great! Now what?
This is where 99% of “bloggers” fail. They hear everybody and their mama talking about “blogs” are the new “it” thing, and everybody, including mama, is right! Blogs are the new, and seriously hot, medium that companies are using to boost their following. This is true for several reasons. Blogs are personal and engaging. They’re more fun to look at than your average, stale, insanely boring, static, mundane corporate websites. They’re highly flexible and allow you to have a cheap Content Management System if you know what you’re doing. They tend to rank higher in search engine indexes than static websites.
…and that’s just the beginning!
Now you, as the business owner, says, “Swell! I gotta get me one of those bad boys!” You opt for one of the following three options. You go the cheap-o route and set up a Blogger/Wordpress.com blog, you man-up and foot the $50 bill for a WordPress.org blog with a ready-made theme you purchased from a company, or you go balls out and buy the VIP Champagne room package and get a completely customized WordPress.org blog website made for you. We can help you with all three, by the way. Whether you’re on a Hamburger Helper budget or you’re eating caviar with the finest.
Now you’re thinking, “Freaking sweet! My blog looks great! I’m ready to go!”
You…are…dead…wrong.
What about your content? You’re forgetting the reason why blogs are so powerful! It’s the content that matters, and not just throwing up homemade videos of your kids’ first steps. I’m talking about real, quality content that people will find useful. Although, that’s still not the entire solution either. That content has to be compelling enough to grab someone’s attention in the approximate 1-3 seconds you have before they back-button their way out of your blog and on to the next best thing.
Content applies to many things, including the look and feel of your blog. If you opted to have a Blogger/Wordpress.com blog, you’re SOL…@*)# out of luck! If you opted for option 2 (the $50 set-up we talked about a little further up) or option 3 (the “VIP” set-up with the completely custom design), then you may be okay. Actually, if you opted for package number 3, you’re well on your way to concentrating on other areas of your blog (i.e. posts, affiliate banners, etc.) For those who chose the $50 set-up, you better be careful. Having a professional look and feel on your site is of the utmost importance.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re blog needs to look like a copycat of some corporate website, but it does mean that you should have professionally designed logos and blog themes…not something that you threw together in Paint or your snot-nosed teenage kid made for you.
Imagine for a moment that you’ve landed yourself in the unbelievably lucky position of having a targeted customer land on your blog. In the 1-3 seconds they are there, would they look at your blog and think, “Ummm…I’m not buying from this mom and pop shop” or would they think you mean business?
We recommend two avenues that we’ve seen pay off time and time again. Obviously, if you can pay for the completely tailored and custom-made blog, then you should go for it. The bill shouldn’t be a problem for serious entrepreneurs and business owners, because they will see that their blog is an investment that will pay for itself 100 times over. For those who are a little wary of the bill or for those who are extremely brave with Photoshop, we recommend using the Thesis theme. For starters, this theme has a killer and extremely flexible framework that utilizes seriously efficient HTML, PHP, and CSS. On top of that, and here’s where it gets exciting, it has amazing SEO benefits that are easy-to-use. You can literally fine-tune your SEO efforts on every single page, post, whatever using their “easy as pie” controls. Want to talk about customization? This theme is highly-customizable…and you don’t need to know code to do it! Want a 3-column layout? Click of a button. Want a 2-column layout? Click of a button. Want to include a Feature Box? Click of a button. Want the framework to be full-width? Click of a button. In fact, because this theme is so easy to work with and so powerful, we use it for our fully customized package as well.
You can check out and/or purchase the Thesis theme here.
Moral of this long-winded story? Don’t look like a hack-job. If you’re serious about your business, spend some time and money on making your brand look like a professional one.
Yours in cutting through the B.S.,
Scott Jay Ringle
