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1. Invasion of the Blogs: Is a blog
right for your business

2. Lemmings are cute, but dumb. If you tell them to jump off
a cliff, they will. Just like the people who start blogs
because everyone is doing it. Guess what happens after a
little while? The blogs die.

3. In managing a list of many Web sites, most of which are
blogs, I deleted countless sites from the list because the
sites and blogs no longer existed. The people ran out of
steam or had no reason to start them in the first place.

4. How do you know when a blog is right for your business?
Learn why people start blogs, how they find their niche
and how blogging tools can be used for more than blogs.

5. Blog content is king

6. Some people like to read blogs, others like to read
newsletters, still others like to rely on feeds and some
read a few or all of them. No matter the method the
information is distributed, each medium has one thing in
common: content. Having a blog connects your newsletter
and your business with all of these readers and delivers
important content in a particular style.

7. I've been blogging since June 2000. If you review my early
blog entries in meryl's notes, you'll notice they're more
personal. When blogs first hit the scene in the late '90s,
they were personal diaries and journals. Like the blog
business, my blog has transformed from personal to
business speak, although I still add personal notes here
and there.

8. A few bloggers tend to talk about their work, their
products and their little world. That might work for
celebrities where fans want to know everything about
them, but it doesn't work for the average business person.
Other business people want information on how to
succeed and when a blog spends time hawking products
offering information of no value, few people will return.
The people whose products sell well are the ones who
provide valuable information. Readers already know what
kind of information they're getting, so they trust that
when they buy something, it will be of the same or better
quality. This value must be reflected in their blog. It's
much like people who only sign up for a newsletter after
first seeing an example.

9. Who should venture where one has not blogged before?

10. No one wants to be a lemming (I would hope). How do
you decide whether or not to set up a blog? The answer
isn't black or white (what did you expect?). Ask these
questions:

11. Can you regularly update it -- at least five times a week?

12. Do you have something to say other than just linking to
others?

13. Do you read other blogs or feeds?

14. Can you provide information of value to others not just to
yourself?

15. How large is your newsletter subscriber list?

16. How many unique visitors do you get on an average day,
week or month?

17. The big decider is whether or not you can write in the blog
almost daily. The people behind the high traffic blogs post
multiple times a day. Though resourceful, merely linking to
other sites doesn't give visitors much reason to make the
effort to come to yours. Reading other blogs or feeds is a
great way to learn how to carry a discussion. Find other
blogs covering topics similar to yours and check them out.
Disagree with their opinions? Write about it and explain
your reasons. Cross-blog discussions are common, and
that's where trackback comes in handy.

18. Trackback is a blog feature. If you decide to comment on
another blog posting in your blog instead of in that blog's
comments page, then you link to the conversation through
the trackback link. Trackback is similar to the permalink,
the permanent URL for the blog entry, but it has a
different URL for copying and pasting in your blog's
trackback box.

19. Aside from the technical aspects of operating a blog on a
daily basis, subscriber list size and Web site traffic are
good indicators of what kind of reaction you'll get when
opening a blog. Starting from scratch with little traffic
means you have a long road ahead and lots of work to do.
There is no magic formula anyone can sell you for $97 to
make your blog an overnight success. But with some
perseverance and ingenuity, your blog can engage many
prospects and clients.

20. Pick a niche

21. Considering there are numerous blogs out there, pick a
niche topic when starting a blog for a better shot at
attracting and keeping an audience. meryl's notes focuses
on three areas: webby, geeky and wordy. In reality, this is
too much. What I need to do for my readers is create three
separate blog entry points, so those interested in writing,
newsletters and Internet marketing get nothing but the
wordy entries. Those interested in Web design get the
webby stuff and the technophiles receive the geeky
content.

22. I also manage a personal blog separate from meryl's notes.
It's about cochlear implants and deafness. This could fall
under the geeky category, but it's a personal blog and
doesn't belong in meryl's notes. This blog is written for a
different audience.

23. The blogging tools for both of my blogs come with
syndication capabilities so those using feed readers or
aggregators can read the content through the software.
For an explanation of syndication and feed readers, refer
to What Is This RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom Business? When
sending a new issue of a newsletter, comment on it or link
to it in the blog, that way the blog and feed readers will
get the goods, so all three bases are covered.

24. Blogs in disguise use the same tools

25. Blogging tools aren't just for, well, blogging. Such tools are
an excellent way to help you update your Web site more
often than you otherwise would. I use it to manage the list
of tableless Web sites. Using blogging tools is much easier
than the way I managed it before, updating the HTML files
by hand. Though using a blog tool, it isn't a blog. In this
case, the blog tool has become a content management
system (CMS).

26. Small business owners don't have a need for the fancy and
pricey CMSes out there. They find it easier to use blogging
software to manage their sites or hire someone to adapt
the tool for their site.

27. Blogs have found a place in businesses and people are
finding creative ways to use them. Some companies have
a blog on the intranet for communicating project status,
jeopardies and metrics. They're used for knowledge
management. With information pouring in, blog tools
provide a way to share, organize and process the
information.

28. Being a follower can be good or bad. No one wants to
walk off a cliff with the lemmings, but everyone wants to
succeed. Best practices won't help, since the decision to
blog is based on the organization's mission, needs and
goals along with its target market's desires and needs. A
blog about lemmings? There is one, sort of. Or maybe
you'd like to start your own and talk about dumb business
moves.

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