The first category is the corporate news blog that shows news items and press releases about your company, and may also include some interesting tidbits about new developments in the industry. These blogs are good for keeping your content up-to-date, and showing your customers that you are still doing business as normal during tough economic times. This is comforting to customers who are becoming accustomed to reaching disconnected numbers of prior service providers who have closed up shop. This blog should be integrated into your website so that customers can read recent news items on the homepage, and when they go to the articles page, they don't feel as though they are being redirected to another website.
Authority Blogs. The second type of blog, and in my opinion the more effective type, is the authority blog. An authority blog is one in which the author is an expert in his field who is freely sharing his hard-earned knowledge to benefit the public. This author could be an expert in anything that people may want to read about. When customers read your articles with your name and picture by them, it makes them feel like they know you a little better and actually builds trust. This type of blog should probably be separate from your company website, though it links back to it, and should have its own look and feel with its own domain name. If you can gain enough of a following on this site, you may even be able to sell advertising.
Authority Blogs. The second type of blog, and in my opinion the more effective type, is the authority blog. An authority blog is one in which the author is an expert in his field who is freely sharing his hard-earned knowledge to benefit the public. This author could be an expert in anything that people may want to read about. When customers read your articles with your name and picture by them, it makes them feel like they know you a little better and actually builds trust. This type of blog should probably be separate from your company website, though it links back to it, and should have its own look and feel with its own domain name. If you can gain enough of a following on this site, you may even be able to sell advertising.
I recently convinced a client of mine to start blogging with a very simple blog that you can see at baripatch.com, and she quickly started making sales on an underperforming website that hadn't gotten a single order in the whole year since it had been built. Blogging has become so popular because it works. It helps you stay connected with your customers and business associates, and it introduces you to new business leads and opportunities.
