Content Marketing Today

Writing a Blog? Don’t Forget Your Side Bars Are Content, Too.

I found a great, must-visit site, BetterBusinessBlogging.com.  It convinced me that I need to tweak my design so that it provides maximum value to readers.  And the sooner the better. A October 15 post details what you must have–and what you should probably consider for your blog sidebars.

The blogger, Mark White stresses:

The blog will have a business aim and we need to both maintain and direct our readers’ interest according to what our business aims are. The blog posts will do some of this but a lot of the activity will also go on in the sidebars and the header of a blog. Some of these will be to add additional life to the blog, others will help them navigate the posts of the pages of a blog and others will highlight certain aspects that we want to encourage them to look at.

Mark give a wonderfully comprehensive list of must includes or should consider including.  Here are my 3 favorites:

• RSS Subscription (RSS reader and email): you’ll want to encourage readers to sign up to receive your regular blog updates, so make it clearly visible and make sure that they can do so via email too!

• Newsletter Signup box: hopefully, you’ll be running a newsletter in conjunction with your blog so explain what it offers and then get the signup box clearly visible.
• RSS Feeds from other sites: bring in relevant industry news from other sites can be a good way to add specific information to your blog;

As an example of providing great content to drive visitors–and to make them customers, Mark has a wealth of relevant and free information, including an online blogging course.

Be sure to check it out: BetterBusinessBlogging.com