I was asked a great question in the comment of my last post (Thanks Kathryn!) about how can you make your blog stand out in a crowd of, according to Technorati, millions of other blogs out there each day. It was not such an easy question to answer. There is a lot of background information I would need to advise someone on a specific blog. I had responded to the comment with ten of the questions I ask clients during a blog assessment, and I decided to list them in this post. To help develop any strategy to promote and differentiate a blog, you need be crystal clear on what your blog’s purpose is and what you are intending to be the outcome of your blog.
In my next post I will go into some of the strategies to best differentiate your blog and will include some great examples of blogs that are achieving these, including some special guest appearance posts from these bloggers. Here is the list and let me know your thoughts:
1. What is the purpose of your blog? (Business? Personal? To give you a voice?)
2. Who is blogging? (Several businesses use a team approach to blogging and share the writing, while other companies such as ours are set up where we each have our own individual blogs. See them at www.sterlingcrossgroup.com/company/the-team/)
3. How often will you update the blog?
4. Who is the audience? (Is this communication to an internal audience of team members or employees? Or is this to an external audience (customers, prospects, target demographic, etc)?
5. How will you promote this blog?
6. What other items will be on this blog (links, resources, widgets, etc)?
7. Will you try to or do you desire to monetize this blog?
8. Will this blog include multimedia (videos, audio, pictures, etc.)?
9. Where will this blog reside (on your own website, on a tool such as wordpress or blogger)?
10. What other initiatives is this blog tied to?
