By posting unique, interesting, and helpful content on a regular and consistent basis you can build a faithful audience and develop a community quite quickly. Taking into account that other bloggers will typically make up a high percentage of blog readers themselves, there is enormous potential for you to have your quality blog posts re-published elsewhere in the blogosphere.

Blog Readers want quality content and they also want to know that you will be posting new good quality content for them on a regular and ongoing basis.

Here are a few tips to help you satisfy the demands of your blog readers:

Create a schedule:  If you simply cannot make time each day to create a new post, try and set aside some time each week, say one full afternoon when you will create multiple blog posts which can be scheduled for release over the coming week.   Blogs which have frequent posts tend to be the ones that have the most visitors.

Choose the right topics: This is key to attracting an audience and building a community.  Take the time to plan your topics for the week ahead so that they provide your readers with consistently good quality articles on a variety of topics associated with your business.  Encourage other members of your team to get involved especially those people in your organisation who have a passion for what they do.  Try and make your post appealing to a wide audience by selecting topics that have a broad range.  Excellent ways of choosing the right subject matter is to write about real life events or case studies relevant to your business, and also post about breaking news within your area of expertise.

Don’t try and sell through your blog: Like other social media platforms it’s important not to be seen to be selling your goods and services.  Internet users who frequent the social networking sites are rarely ‘shopping’ at the time.  They are looking for information and perhaps researching future purchases, so use your blog to reinforce your expertise and create backlinks to your website for those people reading your blog who are ready to buy.

Advertise and promote your blog:  If you have a website and your blog is not part of your website domain at least create a link to your blog from your main website navigation. Also, include a link to your blog on all of the online directories where you have a listing and also link to it from all your social media profiles Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, etc.  Also include the URL of your blog on your company stationery, business cards, compliments slips and van signage if appropriate.

In our view all businesses should have a blog. Yes, you will need to dedicate time and resources to it, but the benefits of engaging with your audience on a regular basis far outweigh any minor negatives.

Do you agree?  Please leave a comment below or visit WSI IMS – WSI Digital Marketing services for UK business.