Naturally, it can be challenging to write valuable content for your website especially when writing has nothing to do with your business. I talk with business owners daily that have specialized skills or professional services that they provide. They know they need good websites and they know that their exposure online is directly related to how well they can put good content out there.

It is clear that building a blog for your business website is a very good addition since it increases visitors and traffic. So let’s address the main questions when it comes to building content and finding topics for your blog.

How often should I blog?

Probably the best case scenario would be every day. But, for many folks in the skilled or professional services industry, once a week would help to generate traffic and increase interest in your business online and offline.

I think the last thing you want to do is let your blog go dormant for months. You might catch the attention of a potential client or customer with a great post and they decide to follow you to know more. If there is no further activity, they will eventually forget about you.

Adding a great blog post once per week is a solid strategy and will do wonders for your website over time.

What do I write about?

If you are just starting out with your blog a good strategy for choosing topics would be to blog about your industry FAQs. What are the frequently asked questions in your industry? Go ahead and brainstorm. List out 10 commonly asked questions right now!

Take each question and write a good article or blog post that answers it thoroughly. Don’t try to sell anything. Just convey great information that contributes value to your industry. When your potential customer is searching online for your services, they have questions. Many are not just going to call you up and throw their credit card information at you. So… answer their questions like an expert through informative blog posts.

If you come up with 10 frequently asked questions and write 10 great posts, you have yourself covered for 10 weeks! That is a great foundation to begin your business blog.

Important: If you find this information helpful share it with others!

If you would like to contribute, leave a comment below.

I am sure you are familiar with blogging.  If you know what blogging is than you most likely know about WordPress.

What makes WordPress so Wonderful?

It isn’t just for blogging anymore.

WordPress is being used more often as a content management system (CMS) for Internet businesses.

Here are some of the things it can be used for:

• Integrating squeeze pages
• Building up a review website
• Creating sales letters with an SEO edge
• Designing a static website with regular content
• Establishing a membership site for passive revenue
• Making a site capable of running your very own affiliate program for products that you created.

There are plenty of content management systems to choose from; Drupal, Joomla, and a number of premium CMS providers.  (Side note:  premium means “pretty penny”!)

A content management system is really the best way to go for building your website.  The biggest reason is the ease of use.

I can build a website for you and would be happy to take on the webmaster roll.  Sometimes, that is even the best solution for you and your business.  Your time is often better spent on other things.  The time involved with building your website, managing, and updating it could be used to create new revenue streams for your Internet business.

Perhaps you prefer to manage updates and add new content after a web designer or webmaster gets you all set up.  The beauty of WordPress is that it allows you to do just that.  There are plenty of tutorials out there that will show you just how to manage your Wordress website.

Maybe you are the “do it yourself” type.  That’s great!  I highly recommend building your website using WordPress.

The big positive about the popularity of WordPress is that someone somewhere is always working on something that will make it do another really neat thing.  Those “somethings” are plug-ins.

Another plus for being popular is that many 3^rd party services such as email auto-responders, shopping carts, and the social networks strive to find ways to play nicely with WordPress.  It really  is in their best interest to do so.

What’s the reason someone would not want to jump on using WordPress for their website?

I think it is the same reason why many people end up choosing MACs over Windows.  Security.  When more people use something it becomes a bigger and easier target for those people that write malicious code.

Fortunately though, if you or your webmaster keeps up with the updates of your WordPress website, you can avoid security problems.  It is similar to using Windows based PC’s.  If you keep up with the security updates and educate yourself on what common threats look like, you can stay safe.

After you settle on a domain name it is time to choose a good hosting company.  Many places will provide hosting right along with the domain name you purchase.  They might even provide web design too!  That works for some people.  It doesn’t work for me though.  I look for different things in those areas and need the most flexibility.  The one-stop-shops always seem to have a drawback somewhere.

There are many hosting companies to choose from.  Everyone has their favorites.  I have tried out a few and learned that one with fast and responsive customer service is best.  The customer service must carry over into their ability to provide great technical support as well.

When I first started out in this business I thought it would be great to be a “one stop shop” for all of your web design needs.  I had to learn firsthand why that was a bad approach.  Yes, we all make mistakes or bad choices from time to time but the important thing is that we make it right ALL of the time!

A long time ago I was the customer of “one stop shop” and chose to host my website with a provider that was simply a reseller of web hosting.  They did not provide the in-house technical support that is pretty critical when it comes to hosting.  They decided to switch providers themselves which meant that they had to move all of their customer accounts to another server.

Long story short… the switch-over was a disaster.  My websites were down for days!  I was livid!  To top it all off, when everything was back up and running, they offered no apology or explanations for this MAJOR interruption in service.  My websites were not even functioning again 100%.

I moved ALL of my websites back to my current provider.  As a matter of fact, my MAIN money maker site was moved to my current provider before the old provider even resolved the issues.  I had no time to wait for those shenanigans to play out.

When people invest a ton of blood, sweat, and tears into their Internet business website they want it to have that 99.99% uptime.  Time is money right?  Anything can go wrong.

Sometimes, your site can be attacked by a virus.   I had a virus scare once too.  My chosen hosting company was there to help at a moments notice.

One little line of code could get messed up on your server and take your site down.  I was integrating a script into a website and something small caused a big problem in a database.   Again, my hosting company found the problem and had me back up and running within 30 minutes.

A good hosting provider will be accessible at the drop of a hat to get in there and help resolve your problem quickly.

It is hard to be all things to everyone.  When a company focuses on ONE thing then they can be the BEST at that one thing for everyone that needs it.

I highly recommend using Hostgator. Check them out and see for yourself.  Please be aware though that if you click through my link and set up an account through Hostgator, I might receive a referral commission for that.  I just put that in there to stay in line with the FTC guidelines.

Hostgator didn’t give me anything to tell you about them.  I have used them in the past and left thinking there was a better company.  I went back to them and I am now, once again, a HUGE fan of Hostgator.

What are you going to “sell”?  Many people only have a great service to sell.

Probably one of the most lucrative services to offer that some folks are really good at is coaching or consulting.  Notice I did not say “selling”.  Most coaches and consultants are not sales people.

Coaching or consulting is great because you are obviously doing something you are passionate about.  You have taken a lifetime of learning and experience and turned it into a structured program that essentially “gives back” to others in need.  You are helping other people to reach their full potential whether it be in business or life in general.  But, how do you get more clients?  Better yet, how do you get more quality clients?

I guess that is where the “selling” comes in.  But, most people don’t like to sell.  Personally, I prefer providing the information for my prospects making sure I include all of the key points outlining the value I can provide.  Most people choose my services because they have gotten to know me, like me, and trust me.  I never sold them a thing.  They decided to buy or invest in what I have to offer.

FEBRUARY 24th, 2010 UPDATE: The call has passed but the Ali’s program has not begun yet.  So, there is still time to learn about it and sign up.

There is this great Teleseminar coming up on Feb. 23, 2010 that will help explain many details on how to design, sell, and run a profitable coaching program.  I will be listening in and I am pretty excited about it.  No, I don’t run a coaching program myself but I prefer to work with life coaches and consultants on my web design projects.

Listening in on this call benefits me in a few ways:

• One, I can better understand how to put together a really effective website for consultants that are about to take their coaching Internet business to an elite level.
• Two, life coaches and consultants do a lot of good things for people and if I can support those end results than I feel like I am doing some good as well.
• Three, I take away something every time that I can apply to my life, business structure, and “selling” skills.  I soak up everything these profitable consultants have to offer.   Every free call, teleseminar, webinar, and free report offer some extremely valuable nuggets of wisdom.

What valuable nugget of wisdom will I pick up next?   I guess I should mention that the call is hosted by Ali Brown.  She is incredibly successful at what she does.  Her free Teleseminar on How to Design, Sell, and Run Profitable & Successful Coaching Programs should leave all who listen in with valuable knowledge that can be put into action right away.