Four Things Your Business Blog Should Have (minimum)!

Yesterday I was presenting in the Friday Markets over at SBRN and I gave the following advice:

There are four things that your business blog should have.

1. It should have an RSS subscribe button either in the top right hand corner of your blog or top left hand corner of your blog so that folks who use RSS service such as Google Reader can have a way to add your site to their reader. It should be above the fold and easy to find. For those who are new to internet terminology the fold is the area above the scroll.
2. You should have contact information readily visible or easy to find. You need to have your name, address, email and phone number so that people who come to your site can get a hold of you while they are still on your page or site. If your phone number is there and you just happen to be near the phone when someone calls to inquire about your services then that also provides a way for you to increase their time on your site while they are looking through it and talking to you about your goods or services.Of course the email information also helps then they can email you while still having your page or site open thus still providing another chance to keep them on your site longer while they have to switch back and forth between email client to your site. By having your mailing address present that further solidifies your business as a real entity. Even if your in an MLM and use their company generated software.
3. If you run a blog and write consistent postings about your business happenings and ups and downs as well as informational articles related to your industry then you need a social bookmarking button at the foot of each post so they have one touch access to easily spread the word about your business across the social networks. You can see here at the bottom of my posts I have a Stumble This button and a Socialmarker.com button in the side bar that enables people to click and submit.
   
4. Last but not least you should have picture of yourself on your site so folks can have a way to identify you with your site. This should preferably be with your contact info, or on your about us area.
   

As you can see with my blog here I have my RSS subscribe in the top right hand corner of my right side bar along with an email subscribe area. Below that I have my contact info with my picture and I have my social networking submission buttons at the footer of each post. Now if you are not a technical person on installing code please contact me and I can help you get the basics installed so you can get on with the business of running your business. I can help you get set up on Feedburner, install the code for it on your blog, and get your social networking buttons installed.