The parts of a website or blog that you see are like the showroom of a brick and mortar business. There is plenty of activity that goes on in the office and storeroom of a traditional business that you never see. Blogging for business requires that you stay on top of many functional disciplines that are your storeroom and office.
Functional disciplines.
Maintenance – At a brick and mortar business, someone has to keep the place clean and make sure the toilets don’t plug up. The same is true of your blog or website. Ignore the basic maintenance functions and your site will eventually take itself down or be taken down by hackers. The two most important maintenance activities are backing up regularly and keeping blogging software up-to-date.
Inventory control – When a brick and mortar business runs out of hot selling items, it cuts into sales and profits. When a blog runs out of blog posts people eventually stop coming and site traffic takes a hit. Recently I went from having eight days of inventory down to one day. I got busy and that’s OK because I had safety stock. Now, my job is to build up the buffer again so I can enjoy my upcoming vacation.
Advertising – A traditional business normally does some kind of advertising and/or promotion. Sure you could write and post on your blog and then hope for traffic to show up. Eventually some would via search engines, but there are other ways. Promote your posts on social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Accounting – For most of us this causes an “ugh!” to escape our vocal cords. Whether it is made of brick and mortar or online, any business that ignores this discipline will eventually fail. In the online world, analytics and keyword research can’t be ignored forever. By understanding who comes to your site and why, you can better tailor the content and or change the content to get the right audience.
That’s just a few of the activities that go on behind the scenes of a successful blog or website. What would you add to the list?