Gateway Blogging

There is a problem with business blogging. You likely don’t know what that problem is… and that’s part of the problem. I wanted to address something really fundamental, and that is why we need Gateway Blogging. I think we need Gateway Blogging because it solves a problem and carries significant benefits. The problem is that traditionally, business blogging hasn’t really been all that focused on business. The benefits are many, but at the end of the day they result in greater long-term profitability.

When it comes time for the business person to learn about blogging, almost none of what she will find online is geared towards business. More specifically, information online is not designed to address how blogging can generate leads or increase conversion rates. Most advice is aimed at a general audience of bloggers who are not running a business (selling goods or services directly). Instead, this advice is aimed at bloggers who engage in content monetization efforts such as advertising, affiliate programs, and paid writing. Usually, the goal of this advice is to generally increase traffic and RSS subscribers. Even information that is declared to be for business blogs hardly distinguishes itself from conventional blogging advice.

Advice and information for business blogs should assist business bloggers in growing their business through their blogging activities in a deliberate manner, instead of as a by-product of traffic. Greg and I are, hopefully with your help, trying to create this “deliberate manner” for business blogging in a system called Gateway Blogging. We want Gateway Blogging to address the particular needs of business bloggers.

This is what Gateway Blogging needs to accomplish:

• Helps you determine the purpose of business blog and establish objectives
• Helps you focus on a particular, highly qualified audience
• Provides information and methods to help you frame and create content that appeals to the audience and that generate leads and sales (the gateway concept)
• Provides information and methods for creating content and managing a business blog so that customer relationships are strengthened

Business blog objectives are different than for other kinds of blogs. The definition of a highly qualified prospective customer is stricter. How you create content on a business blog that is useful and without overselling and overmarketing needs to be addressed.

For non-business blogs, there is nothing beyond the blog itself–no ecommerce pages, no services to purchase, no customer service. But for a business blog, the blog is essentially the gateway into a more trusting and involved relationship in which products or services will be purchased. When you understand that it’s a gateway, and you treat it like one, it changes how you do things. I can see the results of this at my business blog, Remarkablogger. Other freelancers and small business owners have expressed that the concept of Gateway Blogging resonates with them and that they have used some of its ideas successfully. This gives me hope that we are onto something, here.