You have probably heard about blogs in the
news, you may have even read a few blogs,
but you may not know that blogs are becoming
a very useful business resource. First, we
need a definition: a blog (short for weblog) is
just an easily updated web site where entries
are typically displayed in reverse chronological
order. There are blogs about every conceivable
topic you can imagine; reportedly
there are more than 70 million blogs in existence,
and some of these can be very useful
for your business.
I try and read blogs every day. I subscribe
to about 30 business blogs that I consider
a major part of my ongoing business education.
Of course, I don’t read every word they
all publish, and when I am busy I might only
get a few minutes to peruse the headlines.
But I try and make it a habit every morning
to spend some time checking out the latest
business news from the blogosphere.
Now, I know most of you are in small businesses.
So this article will profile five blogs
that are most helpful for small business.
These are the blogs that I read first, the blogs
I consider the most beneficial for the small
business person. This article will also mention
some industry specific blogs and how to
research them, and finally I will explain the
best ways to organize your blog reading.
Seth Godin is one of the great business
thinkers of our time. He has written 10
books on business and marketing includ-
The quarterly newsletter from Lightning Labels, the leaders in digital label printing
ing the best-sellers, Permission Marketing,
Unleashing the IdeaVirus and Purple Cow. I
consider Seth to be the Peter Drucker of the
21st century – he has the ability to dissect
complex business topics, and not only explain
them, but tell you how they should be
applied to your business. If you could only
choose one blog to read, I think this should
be the one. Spend a couple of minutes every
day reading Seth’s blog and you will learn
more practical information than you get in
most business schools.
John Jantsch is the author of this very popular
small business marketing blog (with
around 66,000 subscribers). The focus here
is on practical marketing tips, and Jantsch
introduces new business tools and ideas on
a regular basis. We all know the business
world is changing fast, particularly when it
comes to marketing and technology, and
Jantsch will help you navigate this new
world by separating the really useful tools
from the gimmicks.
This blog is part of the USA Today newspaper’s
collection of blogs. It is authored by
one of their small business reporters, Jim
Hopkins, and he comments on news from
a small business perspective. He is quick to
report on any Census Bureau data on small
business and reports on all kinds of surveys and studies. This is a very useful blog for
anyone running a small business or considering
doing so.
Anita Campbell is the author of this popular
small business blog with almost 50,000
readers. As you can imagine, this blog is
focused on exploring the trends that are
impacting small business. Campbell often
interviews industry experts including such
heavy hitters as the head of the Small Business
Administration. But most posts discuss
trends that impact the day-to-day running
of a small business.
This blog is from Erick Schonfeld, the editor
of Business 2.0 magazine and its tag line is
“the latest ideas in business, technology and
creative capitalism.” Again the focus here is
on how business is being conducted differently
today with an emphasis on new technology.
What I like most about this blog is
that it keeps me up to date with the rapidly
changing world of technology. But it is not
just about technology, it is about how it impacts
the running of your business.
Specialty Business Blogs
Whatever niche your business occupies,
there are probably numerous blogs that you
can read to help keep you up to date. You
might find a vendor or a competitor’s blog,
or a blog from an industry expert. To find
blogs within your industry just go to Google
and type in your industry and then blog,
such as “candle making blog”. Alternatively
you could use the blog search engine, Technorati. I was able to
find blogs within these very different industries
with just a few minutes research:
Candle and Soap Making
Wine Making
Promotional Products
Blog Readers
Rather than visit all these blogs individually
to check out the latest content, you can
gather all your favorite blogs in the one place
in what is called an RSS Reader. There are
several free readers available, including one
that comes with the latest version of Microsoft
Outlook. Also Internet Explorer 7 and
Firefox 2.0 both have free readers.
I used to use Bloglines and I still think that is a good free product.
Today, I use Google’s RSS Reader mainly because
I have a customized Google homepage
(called iGoogle) and the RSS Reader interfaces
nicely there. When I go to my Google
homepage, I see a summary
of the latest blog entries.
So how do you subscribe to a
blog? It is actually quite simple.
The key is to look for this orange
symbol. If you see this
symbol it means that you can subscribe to
this page through an RSS Reader. By clicking
on it you can follow the instructions to
bring the feed into your reader. You might
also see buttons on a blog that say “+ Add
to Google”, “+ My Yahoo”, or “+ Bloglines”.
These allow you to subscribe in one easy
step. But you can always subscribe to any
blog by clicking on the orange symbol.
One last point I want to make about blogs is
that they are not a one way medium. Most
blogs provide the ability to post comments.
With a popular blog, whole conversations
can be created from one posting. It is also a
great way to get your name out there, possibly
even generating new business.
Now, there is one blog I haven’t mentioned,
and I hope you will allow this shameless
self-promotion, the Lightning Labels Blog. It is the
longest running blog in the label industry
– I have been updating it once or twice a
week since early 2006. It is aimed at people
like you – buyers of custom labels and stickers
– covering a range of topics such as label
design, digital printing and personalization,
color and the basics of label printing.
There is a small subsection of the blogosphere
that is completely focused on business.
I encourage you to read some of the
blogs I have mentioned here or find some
blogs more relevant to you that you enjoy
reading. And if you ever have any questions
about blogs please let me know and I will be
happy to help you. Enjoy exploring this new
21st century medium.