While there's a lot of hoopla about the need to have a blog to grow your business, do you really need one?  Here's a checklist to help you consider the opportunities before you start.

1.  Determine the overall objectives of your blog

Starting a blog just because "everyone is doing it" can put you in a field of land mines when it comes time to commit the resources and discipline necessary to create an effective blog.

Determining your goals is key to stay focused and on target.  

So what's your goal for a blog?   You can have more than one, but usually they will surround these basic three:

1. communicate and get feedback from your customers or prospects
2. increase qualified traffic from search engines (this can often be done more effectively with a blog than more static pages on your regular site, due to the shear volume and frequency of your postings, proper titling of your blog entries, and the power of many of the blog publishing software (content management systems).
3. get the attention of the media.  If your blog is the first to take on a topic in your niche, or has a unique angle or quality, it is possible to get significant attention from the business press.

2.  Identify your target audience.

Much like all of your marketing efforts, to be the most effective, your blog must have a target audience.   You will want to pinpoint a specific audience so that you can achieve your blogging goals.  The target audience will dictate what you write about (content that is specifically interesting and useful to them), the level of language and terminology you use, and the style or "voice" you project.  For example, if the target audience of your blog is CEO's of software companies, your content and style might be a bit different than if the target audience was software programmers.

3.  Who is going to be the "blogger?"

If you are a solo-entrepreneur, then it's likely you.  But if you have several employees, who is the best one to write the blog?   Who is the person on staff that has the most expertise on the subject matter of interest to your target audience?  Are they able to write and relate to the blog readers?

4.  How often are you going to post?

Stagnant content is the death warrant to a blog.   It's suggested that you write at least once a week -- two to three times a week is even better.   And remember, it's not all about frequency. Each post must offer value to your audience, or your blog will lose it's effectiveness to attract and keep readers.

5.  How are you going to handle feedback/comments?

One of the key features of a blog is to be able to solicit and accept feedback and comments from customers and prospects.  You'll need to determine in advance how you are going to handle those.  If you're blog gets a lot of traffic, you may need to  respond to comments once or several times a day.   What will you do if you get a negative comment?  Do you ignore it, delete it, or respond to it?  Thinking in advance of how you will handle them is wise.

6.  What blogging publishing tools and technology will you use?

Most blogging tools are easy to use, even if you aren't a technical geek.

First, you'll need to choose blogging software, and whether you want it hosted by someone else, or yourself.  Generally, most small businesses opt for a hosted blogging application, so that they can focus more on writing their blog, rather than getting bogged down into technical aspects.   For the hosted option, the fees for both hosting and using the blog software can be as little as $5/month  (and in some cases, free). 

Below is a lost of some of the most popular blogging platforms and software:

TypePad (our personal preference if you select hosted blogging software)

WordPress (an open-source platform, with lots of bells and whistles, but takes a bit more technical expertise to implement yourself)

Blogger - owned by Google.  They have a free version, also.

7.  Will you use RSS, podcasting or other technology?

RSS

Another key technology tool in blogging is RSS (Really Simple Syndication).  In a nut shell, RSS is a way to attract readers back to your blog again, without using email.  Essentially, you can publish and distribute news and updates from your site to individuals (and other sites) who subscribe to your RSS syndication feed.   Most popular blogging software have RSS "plug-ins" for you to use.  While RSS hasn't yet been fully adopted by most Internet users, it is an important tool to include in your blog, and the adoption rate is growing. 

Podcasting 

Business podcasting is a way in which you can provide audio content in an MP3 format (such as an interview with a guru in your industry, or virtually another radio-show type format of content), post it to your blog, and have it also delivered via RSS to individuals and other sites (as well as online podcast directories).   "Listeners" of your podcasts can download the podcast and either listen it to it from their computer, or transport it to a portable device (like an MP3 player) to listen to at a more convenient time.

Besides the creative opportunities podcasting lends for your blog, the portability of the content allows you more flexibility in reaching customers and prospects.

8.  How will you measure if your blog is effective? 

One of the big debates among marketers is the "ROI" (return on investment) a blog has to a business-to-business company. 

Unlike direct marketing (ie., search engine marketing, email marketing, direct mail, telemarketing, etc.), it is very difficult to measure the true ROI of a blog.  However, many companies report returns in other ways for their business.

So how can you measure if your blog is effective?

There are several metrics you might consider, including:

• number of site visitors
• number of comments or inquires on blog posts
• quantitative or qualitative value of ideas and feedback you get from customers and prospects about your service
• amount of "trackbacks" you get from other blogs
• amount of media publicity you get