Recipe for a Blog -8 Key Ingredients of a Good Business Blog : Categories that are Clever, Clear and Compelling

When The Blog Squadtm hears professionals asking why their blog isn't working for their business, we can usually spot a missing ingredient or two. We list 8 key ingredients that are essential to a good business blog.

Blogs that work well for attracting new clients have these key elements:

1. A great blog name
2. A tag line or blog purpose statement
3. An easy way to get automatic blog updates
4. A list of categories
5. A list of recent posts and recent comments
6. Links to useful websites, products and services
7. Frequent posts with links relevant to the blog's purpose
8. An easy way for readers to have a conversation with the author

Let's look at ingredient number four in our recipe for a successful business blog: a list of categories on your blog. Categories are a key feature of blogs and are what makes them excellent content management systems.

Ingredient #4: Categories

The same 'rules' for naming your blog and blog posts apply to naming categories: the names should be clever, clear, and compelling.

When you set up your blog, you will create names for your post categories. Your blogging platform may provide some default categories for you, such as Politics and Current Affairs. Delete the inappropriate ones, and rename the ones you keep.

Categories like "Music" or "Films" are generic and boring. Since you can name your categories however you want, why not get creative and use topic titles that are intriguing, or tie in with your brand?

Before you set up your blog, make a list of 5-7 subtopics you'll be writing about. It's good to start with just a few categories, because you'll think of others down the road. Starting with fewer will keep your categories in a manageable range. Too many categories (15+) equals too many choices for readers; they'll click away rather than make a choice.

Ideally, when someone lands on your blog, they want to be able to �size you up' by reviewing your list of categories to see if they are interesting and relevant to their needs. Too many choices confuses readers, and boring, generic category titles do nothing to make them want to stay and read.

Another way to organize categories is as if they are book chapters. This is especially relevant for people using a blog as a platform for writing a book.

You can also use the category features to develop the content for a speech. Pull up everything you've written in the relevant category, and voila, instant speech.

Categories are what make blogs excellent content management tools; it's easy to search your posts in a give sub-topic and turn them into information products (speech, ebook, e-course, special report, white paper, etc.)

For more leading edge Internet Marketing tips subscribe to The Blog Squad's ezine Savvy eBiz Tips at www.savvyebiztips.com . To learn about using social media tools like blogs, go to www.buildabetterblog.com . Denise Wakeman & Patsi Krakoff are The Blog Squad and can be found online at www.blogsquad.biz


Patsi Krakoff | Valuable Content.com