Great post. I’m finding with my research on small business blogging that it certainly comes in handy to have your list in mind. We are learning that drawing traffic can be like watching water boil. There is only so much you can do to speed up the process!

Hopefully with enough effort it will pay off for our company in the long run.

“To what degree does your business blog make the kind of difference you want it to make to your target audience? Answer that and you’ll know how successful the blog is.”

That’s a good point and to get there, metrics of engagement must be in place. Goal setting not only for the company’s benefit but also for meeting the needs of the readers are very important.

Another consideration I regrettably did not include is that goals for the blog will change and the company needs to adjust editorial and strategy accordingly.

For example, a blog starting out might be focused on generating thought leadership. Once momentum is gained in that area and there’s a significant amount of relevant traffic, the blog might also either start leaning towards lead generation or capitalizing on traffic with advertising.

“I often wonder how much abandonment is frustration that it works, but then they find they can’t grow with it because of limiting decisions on the front end that they didn’t know would be limiters.”

A lot of this can be avoided with proper planning and insight from someone who has done it many times before. As a consultant offering blog strategy services to companies, I am obviously biased, but that bias comes from the experience.

It’s awful to see so many business blogs merely look different instead of making a difference. Why spend time and energy just to have a business blog if you don’t use it to achieve specific goals for your business? Why bother if there is a better way to connect with customers, communicate corporate progress, address problems or establish online visibility?

Thanks for that bullet point list, Lee. Each company or entrepreneur needs to identify several key metrics of success and then form goals based on those metrics. There has to be a clear vision of what “success” is for each business blog.

Very few from inability to grow.

It may be the loss of commitment by the author, with no one else willing to step up; the lack of involvement from the mar/com staff to encourage and champion the effort; or even the lack of support from an influential IT director (sounds odd, but I have seen this happen.)

But your point about planning is valid and I think it reinforces what Lee is saying about ’strategic support of the company’s business goals’. If it is planned well, and successfully supports the business…then it should have an ongoing commitment that will give it a long and healthy life.

I often wonder how much abandonment is frustration that it works, but then they find they can’t grow with it because of limiting decisions on the front end that they didn’t know would be limiters.

Hey Patrick, were you at the MIMA Summit yesterday?

It’s the one two punch of content and distribution that breeds results more so than creating good content alone.