I recently read and commented on a business blogging case study by Thom Singer over at ProBlogger. In that post Thom shared about his growth and experience blogging for his business over the last year. He’s been using Blogger up till now, and he mentioned three things in particular that I knew would be valuable for me to address in depth here for other business owners who are trying to market with business blogs.

The three points related to marketing with blogs:

1. Blogging with YOUR business in mind
2. Feeling “stuck” with Blogger
3. Getting hung up on “regular readers” defined as RSS subscribers

I gave Thom a few tips in my original comments on both these points, but let’s get you some expanded business blog coaching here with specifics.

1. Effective marketing though your blog

First of all, since Thom is primarily focused on promoting himself and his business by educating his target audience, he’s got the right mindset. It’s great to see another business owner using blogs the right way — to promote THEIR OWN products/services!

This may seem obvious to some who are new to advanced business blogging, but we see far too many business owners get confused and taken off course with the advice/consulting of professional/full-time bloggers who make money of traffic monetization (AdSense, etc.). So don’t let any self appointed ‘experts’ make you feel bad by slamming you with some ‘rules’ of the blogosphere that you shouldn’t promote yourself, your products, or your services.

No! You should not be blatantly marketing or using any type of ‘hard’ sales techniques on your blog. That’s not the place for that type of copy, audios, or commercials.

Yes! You should be educating people about your niche and/or industry.

Yes! You should be differentiating yourself from your competitors. Not by attacking them openly. But rather, by sharing your opinions, your strategic approaches to problems, and offering creative solutions that highlight your passions and expertise.

2. “Stuck” blogging for your business over at Blogger?

Thom triggered what I see as a great opportunity to address publicly a question/concern we often get from business owners who started blogging over at Blogger and now feel ’stuck.’ Here’s his comments that served as a catalyst:

“I used Blogger.com as my platform solely because that was what the panelist had recommended (and because it was free). SEO to my blog and my web site went through the roof because I post 4-6 times a week. That has been a huge perk. Search engines like fresh content and regular posting is the key.”

Now, if you’re like Thom and you’re happy with what you’ve achieved so far on Blogger — you haven’t seen anything yet as far as SEO (Search Engine Optimization)! From the results we’ve seen with hundreds of business owners, I can say confidently that you’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to motivating people (in your target audience) to take action.

The right tool helps when blogging for your business

Although successfully marketing with business blogs is not necessarily dependent on a particular blogging software, having the right tools can be a big help. The WordPress community has developed more business/marketing friendly plugin modules than you can shake a stick at.( You can check out some of the best WordPress plugins for business blogging here.)

Fact is, when you see how much easier WordPress makes reaching all your marketing goals, you’ll be amazed. When it comes to capability to carry the weight of the results you want in your business, blogging with Blogger is like using a Ford pickup. Business blogging with WordPress like using a Caterpillar earth mover!

Moving from Blogger to WordPress

Moving from Blogger to WordPress is easier than most people think. You can do it yourself if you’re good with code and MySQL. Justin over at JustInsomnia gives a great overview of the steps you’ll need to take.

Or to make things really easy, all you need to do is post a project over at http://www.scriptlance.com or http://www.rentacoder.com. Title the project “Moving Blogger database to self hosted WordPress install” and you’ll find someone to do it for you in less than 48-hours. We’ve had coaching clients find out source agents who moved their Blogger database and comments to WordPress for less than $150.

Once you have a WordPress business blog on your own domain there is an incredible amount of traffic tracking, data mining, and SEO optimization that you can do. All of which makes getting more traffic, higher rankings, and more subscribers much easier.

3. Measuring success by RSS subscribers instead of real numbers

This is another dangerous misnomer for business owners that’s floating around the blogosphere thanks to “blogging purists” and traffic monetizers. The idea that you should focus any significant energy on how many RSS subscribers you have. Thom had this to say about his regular readers as measured by RSS subscriptions:

“Traffic is hard to get. But with over 100 regular readers, I feel okay about my blog. If there are tricks to jumping to the next level, I am still looking for them.”

I’m not sure, but it sounds like Thom is not jumping for joy at those results. Yet elsewhere in his business blogging case study he mentions direct sales of his book and new partnerships that have come directly from his blog. Those are the measurements that really count for business owners!

Don’t get hung up on how many RSS subscribers you may have. Unless you’re in a “techie” niche, your target market is like the majority of the public. That is, they use the internet to find information when the urge hits them. Then, when they’re doing a web-based search and come across your content — most people don’t even know that they’ve landed at a blog. Recent studies show that only 4% of internet surfers use RSS, and just a little more than that really understand blogs. So expecting the number of RSS subscribers to give you any type of meaningful feedback is ridiculous.

Marketing with business blogs is not, and should not be, primarily focused on building a RSS subscriber base. Leave that to the full-time bloggers who make money purely off traffic and some percentage of that traffic clicking on ads on their blog.

You’re a business owner with your own products and services. So building your prospect list, making more sales, and creating more lifetime clients is what you should be focused on!

You should be monitoring traffic and tracking results that measure:

• The number of people who grabbed a special offer you’re offering and joined your online or off-line prospect list
• The number of sales you’ve made (entry level products or top-level) that can be traced back to your business blog
• Up sells to and re-purchases by existing clients that come from articles, podcasts, or videos on your blog (tracked by coded deep links and cookies)

Keep these measurement goals at the forefront of your focus. When you do you’ll make it easier to build YOUR business, and harder to get sidetracked by ‘full time’ bloggers who monetize traffic. With that, blogging for your business will become a lot more effective, and a lot more fun!

Copyright © RPM Success Group Inc. 2002-2006. Other bloggers and journalists are allowed to excerpt and link to posts (as is common with bloggers,) as full credit/attribution is given to AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com and RPM Success Group Inc.

Learn how to unleash the maximum marketing power of business blogs, podcasts, and RSS (in any industry, profession, or niche) with Marketing With Business Blogs™.

John-Paul is a published author and weekly columnist for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. As a Click-and-Mortar Business Coach he helps small business owners integrate offline and online influence strategies for rapid, reliable business growth. You can reach J.P. directly via [communicationcommando@gmail.com].