Blogging for Dollars

Michael Martine of Remarkablogger defines a business blog as one that supports the sales and marketing efforts of your company; and if it's going to be successful, he says, your business blog needs to include elements like these:

Basic information about your company. Tell your readers about your business, what you do, about your customers and where you're located. "This goes into the smack-your-forehead-no-duh category, but I see business blogs all the time that haven't managed to communicate the most basic of business information to people," says Martine. This info can be included in a blog must-have: the About Us page.

Highly visible and functional contact forms. "You need to make it ridiculously easy for your potential customers to contact you," he says. And, lead-generation aside, there's another reason for making contact as simple as possible—it doesn't look right if you're hard to reach, and customers might think twice about giving you their money.

Highly visible products/services pages. "What do you sell?" asks Martine. "Please tell me. Don't make me guess, because I won't—I'm already gone." As with your About Us page, he suggests hiring professional copywriters to create appealing pages for the products or services you sell, with the assurance that you'll see plenty of ROI on the investment.

The Po!nt: "You can do these … steps," says Martine. "They're not that difficult. They will help immensely. Remember: you're not in business to lose money, but to make it. Hand over fist is preferable."

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