Review: Your Blog, Your Business
Your Blog, Your Business: Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s nearly three decades of experience as founder and manager of her own chain of stores, a stint as a New York publicist, and as a retail consultant and journalist have laid the groundwork for her award-winning, How To Do It Frugally Series; as well as this gem of a study guide, Your Blog, Your Business.
No matter whether you are an independent entrepreneur working out of a store or a writer managing your own website, social networking and blogging can leave your competitors in the dust.
We are no longer depending on money exchanging hand-by-hand; and even big business is now participating in networking, which is one of the most effective means of communicating with large numbers of eager customers.
Besides tips on retailing and getting and keeping customers, Carolyn hits on spicy bits about Google’s free blog, Blogger. Like people, Blogger has as many voices as there are brands of commodities needing to be sold and bought. But, if you’re new to blogging and worried about writer’s block, don’t be. Blogging is just like journaling. Journaling is like talking without being interrupted. If you can journal, you can blog. If you blog, you are a writer. You don’t have to carry the conversation all by yourself. Try some of the ideas below:
- Use guest bloggers with a similar focus
- Get partners for your blog, try out permission gadgets on Blogger to let others post at their convenience
- Recycle old articles, bits, and pieces, into new docs
- Use the carnival concept – of providing live links for your readers to visit (Only get the best with the same focus as yours!)
- Outsource your blogging – trade-off with other bloggers
- Suggest readers subscribe, teasing them with whitepapers and regular gratuities
It helps businesses large or small, online or off, to set up a blog, integrate it with their other social networks like your own website, Twitter, and/or Facebook. I think her most important lesson is to keep your focus on what you can do for others. Offer incentives for subscribing like white papers or eBooks, present or old.
Recycle the past into the present and give your readers a taste of what it is your selling. Even though it is human nature to want free stuff, it is important to remember, free is the gift that keeps giving back. I highly recommend this book for store retailers, beginning or experienced bloggers, and anyone interested in becoming their own boss.
