Increase Your Flow: Add a Blog to Your Website

 Every business constantly assesses the health of its cash flow. Just as scientists sample our rivers and their tributaries to ensure they're running cleanly and with the proper diversity of minerals and organic components, CEOs want to know that their proper tributaries are clear and flowing readily. One of the large tributaries to your business cash flow is your marketing strategy. It in turn has its own tributaries. This article focuses on blogs—one of the possible contributors to your marketing tributary.

Blogs are like springs, contributing fresh, nutrient-rich flow to your business by attracting people who share interests with your company. For instance, say you have a dry cleaning business. Initially readers may visit your blog post about clothing styles. While the post isn't an in-your-face advertisement for dry cleaning, it entices style-conscious readers to check out your website where they see evidence of the knowledgeable and skillful care you provide your customers.  In other words, blogs provide an avenue to create awareness of your business that is attractive and inviting.

Often businesses start out with basic websites, just to get their feet wet and have "something" out there. There is nothing wrong with this, but later they see that a blog would inject more life into their marketing strategy. New questions loom.

Can I add a blog to an existing website? Absolutely! Whether your site is a DIY project or you hired a web designer, you can add a blog.

Is adding a blog to my site difficult or expensive? There isn't one right answer for this question. If your site has a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress built into it, you could be a YouTube video away from adding a blog page to your site. If you had a professional web designer build your site for you, they may help you add the blog yourself or, depending on how they set up the site to start with, they may need to write some new code for you. You might want to discuss whether it would be more beneficial to add the blog to the existing site or do a major overhaul on the site. While the major overhaul can run into more money up front, Ryan Hilton of Global Web Design says that having a more up-to-date website will likely benefit your company in other ways besides having a blog to attract traffic. The initial cost of overhauling your site may be the most cost-effective boost to your over-all marketing strategy.

Where do I get content for my blog? One option is certainly to write your own text. If you enjoy writing and possess the skill and time, writing your own blogs gives readers the opportunity to know you better. A second option is to outsource to a professional writer. There are web-based companies that hire pools of writers to fill their subscribers' needs or there are free-lance writers you may hire directly. Hiring a free-lance writer is an attractive choice because you can build a relationship with the writer, who can then relate your style and voice to the readers in a personable manner much as you would if you were writing the articles yourself. Content companies are great if you don't have direct access to a writer, but they lack the personal touch since the writers are generally not allowed to communicate directly with the subscribers.

Mother Nature doesn't have the alternative to just add a spring to flow into an old, stagnating river, but you can choose to boost your internet traffic (and thus, cash flow) by adding a blog. If you're interested in directly hiring a writer, please email me at vickidbennett@hotmail.com.

Talking Leaves

These delicate sycamore leaves jumped up and waved to me along the bridge at Misssouri's Mule Shoe Conservation Area a few days ago. As I took pictures, I was reminded of Sequoyah and his "talking leaves," referring to pages of written language. What if these sycamores could talk? What stories would they tell?

There were a lot of leaves there, actually, and as a matter of fact, they were in a talkative mood that day. As many in the area have noted, it is dry this year. Hot and dry. And the Little Niangua River, flowing through here has provided cool refreshment for both wildlife and people for centuries. But as you may be able to see in the pictures, this talkative sycamore is young; its jabbering stories are limited to the traditions of its elders (sycamores as well as others) surrounding it.

There were stories of previous droughts when the river's flow slowed but never stopped, floods that rearranged the river, adventurous youth, foolishness of generations, and, like the underlying riverbed itself, wisdom.  

Well, it happens that one of the others on the bank of the little winding river was once the manager of the Mule Shoe Ranch, Robert Arnett, or "Bob" as a lot of folks know him. I know him as my hubby, and, as I knew he would if I waited long enough, he augmented some of the gibbering sycamore stories.

"A lot of water has passed under that bridge since then," he says motioning to the concrete slab lined with young saplings. "Of course that bridge wasn't here back then. It was just a gravel bar." Tales of the old days on the ranch began meandering through the evening, a river of words cutting through the dwindling sunlight and birdsong, carrying thoughts and memories, conjuring pictures in my mind of days before we met.

Horseback rides, hay hauling adventures, children exploring, work, farmers retrieving machinery after dark (Lucky he didn't get shot! He really should have called first.) 

I listened to the stories of the trees, the birds, the rocks, and my sweetheart as the sun fell to the horizon. Then, I gathered them up like precious gems and stored them away to look at and share another day.