Make your blog a destination worth visiting

March 29, 7:19 AMPhoenix Internet Business ExaminerCarma Spence-Pothitt

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Having a blog in your online business toolbox can make a big difference for your bottom line ... especially for a local business, because a blog can easily be "geo-centric." But before you go trying to get local traffic to your website, make sure that your website is someplace worth visiting and hanging out at.

Here are five practical ways to use your blog to promote your business and build a following of loyal prospects:

1. Tell Engaging Stories
Blogs are most effective when they attract a loyal readership. And the best way to do this is to entertain, inform and engage your audience. Write about things that are worth their time to read … be it on an emotional level or a professional level. Depending on your personality and your business goals, you might consider including events from your life and then move on to your marketing message.

2. Write Product Reviews
Are you in retail? This technique can be particularly effective when you want to promote specific products within your store. This is espcially good for specialty shops like, wine & spirit shops, art galleries, collectables stores and others. But be careful with this technique. You don’t want all your reviews to be all pros and no cons. Let your readers know the faults of the products you review. Try to be objective. And, be creative about turning those negatives into positives for the right customer! Remember, no product is right for everyone, but each product is right for someone.

3. Provide Excellent Customer Service
One of the unique properties of blogs is the ability to have comment boxes on posts and pages. This is where readers can leave their feedback regarding your posts. You can use this feature to gather questions, complaints or suggestions from your readership. Even better, you can post your answers as part of the comment thread!

4. Hold Contests
Want to challenge your readers to write the most moving testimonial for your products? Have them leave their submissions on your comment box. Want to hold a raffle? Have your readers leave their names in the same comment box. The possibilities for contests are limitless, and blogs make all of them possible. This gets your readers interacting with your business and builds the all important "know, like and trust" factor that makes them loyal customers.

5. Gather Valuable Feedback
Post surveys and polls on your blog. Encourage readers to post feedback in the comment box. The blogging platform truly gives you the power to gather instant and valuable feedback from your audience, and respond in a fairly quick manner.