You've taken the time to finally build a blog, and now it is online.
You get all excited about the whole thing.
Months go by.
Maybe you get a few visitors now and again.
Maybe you land on the search engines.
Mostly though, it just sits there.
Is the blog you paid for pulling its weight? A blog is a tool and can be of significant help to promote you or your business.
It can cut a lot of time you put into giving information to readers or customers.
It can answer questions and perform tasks for you.
Most blogs fail to have a clear objective of what it is suppose to do.
Some blogs try to do way too much at once, or worse, they have no definable purpose.
Many provide no clear objective.
A blog can do more than look good and flashy and have your contact information.
Blogs can be informational, storing content and articles based on a topic.
Blogs can run eCommerce solutions that help you with your sales process.
It can also generate leads, asking customers to fill out forms with their information and interests.
It can also be a hybrid blog, with mixed purposes, like offering a free ebook or free access to information in return for contact information (lead generation).
Defining the purpose of your blog gives a clear direction to your readers and customers.
Where should your readers and customers arrive when they find your blog? Where do you want them to end up? Using a clear path and clear objectives, you can lead them through your blog.
Maybe you prefer just getting to know your readers or customer a bit more, and being able to forward marketing materials, so a lead generation type of blog might be more suitable.
Assign a secondary objective.
Maybe after visitors sign up for free access, or an ebook, they are encourage to ask more by contacting you.
Use a clear call to action.
"Email for more information.
" "Clíck here to sign up.
" Tell visitors where to go.
So setting up a clear objective for your blog is an important factor you need to consider if you don't want your blog to just sit up there and looking flashy and pretty 6 months down the road.