The document discusses the benefits of blogging for creative businesses. It notes that blogs allow for easy updating and searching of content, and enable reader interaction through comments. It also explains that blogs can help drive traffic to a site from search engines by providing fresh, relevant content on a regular basis. Blogs also benefit from links from other influential blogs, and allow bloggers to network and establish themselves as authorities in their industry. The document recommends that business blogs be focused, original, generous, useful, and entertaining in order to be successful.

1. Blogging for Creative A talk for Create KX
(www.createkx.org.uk)
Businesses at the British Library
Business & IP Centre
(www.bl.uk/bipc)
8.5.07
Mark McGuinness
www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/blog

2. statcounter here

4. What is a blog?
• A website with entries (posts) displayed with
(usually) the most recent at the top
• Easy to update
• Easy to search - runs on a database
• Readers can interact via comments + links
• Readers can subscribe to receive latest posts

5. So what is a blog?

7. interface

8. Good
News

9. Ken McCarthy’s Formula
Traffic
Online
= +
Success
Conversion
www.kenmccarthy.com

10. Main Sources of Traffic
• Search engines
• Links from other sites

11. Google
loves blogs

12. The best £8.57 I ever spent
on marketing

13. Why Google loves blogs
• Fresh content (regular updates)
• Relevant (keywords)
• Authoritative (links)

14. Bloggers love links
• Bloggers link generously
• A link from a top blog will help your search
engine rankings
• It will also send you quality traffic - people
who are interested in your topic
• You gain status from having an influential
referrer

15. Conversion
Visitors to your blog can:
• Subscribe - via RSS or E-mail
• Leave a comment
• Refer other readers (word of mouth)
• Link to you (digital word of mouth)
• Buy! (maybe, eventually)

16. More
Good
News

17. Raise Your Profile
• Establish yourself as an authority
• Let people get to know you
• Build trust
• Develop your network
• Learn from readers, bloggers, customers,
prospects and competitors

18. Networking on Steroids
• Networking is key to success in the creative
industries
• Blogging connects you with many more
people than you would normally meet
• Combine online and offline networking

19. It’s Cheap!
• Most blogging software free or low cost
• Lots of free blog templates available
• Start out low-cost - upgrade when the blog
is earning its keep

20. A Window of Opportunity
• Small proportion of UK businesses blogging
• Lots of niches up for grabs

21. Fun!

22. Bad
News

23. A blog is for life
not just for
Christmas

24. Criticism
• People WILL criticize you
• You are expected to engage
with them
• Sometimes it gets personal

25. Technical Knowledge
• It’s a lot easier than building a
website
• It’s a bit harder than using Word

26. The Legal Minefield
• Blogs have same legal status as
magazines and other
publications
• Libel and defamation
• Copyright, trademarks

27. A blog is
not enough

28. Good
Blogs

29. Be Yourself

30. Don’t Sell

31. Be Patient

32. Good Business Blogs
• Focused
• Original
• Generous
• Useful / Educational
• Entertaining

33. www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/kx
• All the links from this talk
• Information about blogging
software and other tools
• An explanation of RSS!

34. www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/blog
• More about creativity and
creative business
• Free updates via E-mail or RSS

35. Mark McGuinness
I’m a poet and a business coach specialising in work with creative
professionals and their managers.
My blog about coaching, creativity and business is at
www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/blog
and this is my poetry blog - www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/poetry
E-mail: wish@wishfulthinking.co.uk
Web: www.wishfulthinking.co.uk