Now that you have your handsome new Blogsite set up and ready to go, what should you blog about? The answer to that depends on what type of business you have and who your target audience is. Remember, before you write your first post, ask yourself who you’re writing for, and know your audience. This will ensure that your Blogsite stays focused, organized, and consistent.

Here are a few suggestions to help you fight blog writer’s block. We’ve broken the topics down by industry, so feel free to skip right to the one that applies to you.

Real Estate Blogs

• Your listings and market reports
• Feature a client of yours
• Open houses and special events
• Home staging and decorating tips
• Projects that add value to a property
• Your local area, ie. parks, beaches, lakes, mountains, downtown, etc.
• Local events like concerts, farmers’ markets, plays and shows, fairs, etc.
• Personal interest stories that your readers can relate to
• Your marketing techniques and new technology

Online Merchant Blogs

• You - tell the story of your business and yourself
• Your products and services
• Specials, promotions, and sales
• What sets you apart
• Industry stories and news
• Tell stories of how others have used your products
• Post interviews with satisfied customers or industry professionals
• The changing nature of the Internet and business
• Lessons you’ve learned along the way
• Industry observations and opinions

Business Blogs

• New technology and how it applies to your business
• Marketing online and offline
• Social networking and social media
• Your story and the story of your business
• Lesson of the week
• Post interviews with clients and other professionals
• Ask a question or post a poll
• Current events and how they apply to your business
• What is most important to you and your business
• The role of the Internet in marketing and communicating

These are just a few ideas based on general business models, but the possibilities are truly endless! Put your personality into your blog posts and always write for your target audience. Do you have some more ideas to share? Would you like to see more suggestions on a specific industry? Just leave a comment and let us know!

The Wordpress default settings of having your latest posts show on your homepage is great for a true blog-style site. However, if you would like to use WordPress as your website with typical website behaviors (i.e. Home, Posts, About, Contact, etc.), a static homepage is the way to go. So, without further ado, here are step-by-step instructions for accomplishing the task:

1. First things first - Create a new page that you would like to use for your Home page. In this example, I will name my new page “Home”.
2. If you want a a static “Posts” page, you’ll also want to create new page for your “Posts” page. I will name this new page “Posts”.
3. Once your “Home” and “Posts” pages are created and published, click “Settings” (upper right of Dashboard).
4. Click “Reading”.
5. You will now be on the “Reading Settings” page. The first option you will notice is the Front page displays option. By default, “Your latest posts” is selected.
6. Click the “A static page (select below)” option
7. Now, click the Front Page drop down box and select the appropriate page (i.e. Home)
8. Do the same for the Posts Page drop down
9. Click Save Changes

You can see the results by clicking the “Visit Site” link (upper left). You will notice that you will not see your posts as you did before (don’t worry, they were not deleted). In the right panel, you’ll see links for Home and Posts.

You can then edit your “home” page as you see fit!

After creating what you feel is the perfect blog post, and adding what you feel are the perfect complimentary images to it, and giving it what you feel is the perfect title… you just want to publish it, right? Hold it right there! Before you hit that enticing little “Publish” button, make sure you hit the little button first! Your perfect blog post will not be so perfect if it has spelling errors.

Checking the spelling on your blog post might seem to be an unnecessary step to you. After all, you’re an educated person and know how to spell quite well. Besides, what’s the big deal if you misspell a word or two? Well, first of all, we’re all human, and whether we like to admit it or not, we make mistakes. So even if you think you are the spelling master, you’re bound to make a mistake at some point.

If your blog post contains spelling or grammatical errors, the people reading it will be less likely to take you seriously, especially if you blog for your business. On the other hand, if you have an impeccably spelled blog post, it will make you look good! Is it really worth skipping the spell check just to save 30 seconds, when it could tarnish your reputation or raise questions about your intelligence? I think we all know the answer to that one.

1. From your admin area, click on the “Manage” link at the top of the page. Then click on the “Categories” sub-link.

2. When adding categories, you need to consider all of the components; Category Name, Category Slug, Category Parent, and Category Description. Let’s go into a bit more detail for each of these.

• Category Name - This is what will lead your visitors to find the posts they’re looking for. All category names must be unique, even if they have different parent categories (this means you cannot have two categories with the same name). When deciding on a category name, consider the way search engines will see it, but do not let this outweigh your consideration for how your visitors will see it. Make sure your categories are appropriately titled for the posts that are assigned to it.

• Category Slug - This is optional, and may be left blank. If you customize your permalinks to display categories, then the category slug is what will display in that portion of the URL.

• Category Parent - This helps establish hierarchy among your categories and keeps things organized. It will look something like this: Tutorials > Blogging > SEO. It is optional to assign category parents, but it is a helpful tool for keeping your posts organized and easy for your visitors to find.

• Category Description - Here you have the option to enter a description for your category. Depending on your Blogsite theme, your category descriptions may or may not appear on your site. You may however, find this useful for your own reference.

3. Click on the “Add Category” button at the bottom, and you’ve done it!

Now, whenever you create a post for your Blogsite, you’ll be able to easily assign it to as many categories as you wish. This will help organize your Blogsite and allow visitors to easily navigate around your pages and posts (which they’ll surely be thankful for!).

For more detailed WordPress category help, visit http://codex.wordpress.org/Manage_Categories_SubPanel.

Before we begin, make sure you’ve read the post on How to Set Up Blog Categories. Okay, now let’s begin.

A simplistic category structure just will not do. Think simple, but not simplistic; detailed, but not complicated. You want visitors to be able to find what they need quickly and easily, otherwise they will get frustrated and move on to the next site. If your categories are too generic and few, visitors will have to search through post after post after post to find what they’re looking for (not good). If your categories are not organized, visitors will attempt to visit many different areas of your site, get lost, get frustrated, and then leave (also, not good). The moral? Build your categories up strong from the start and make sure they make sense to the visitor; think, plan, organize.

Think about your Blogsite from the visitor’s perspective. Name your categories the way a visitor would search for things, not the way search engines would search for things. Search engine optimization definitely has it’s place, but foregoing the usability of your site for a little SEO juice is not going to encourage visitors to return or refer others. If you find a clever way to name your categories in such a way that they will be search engine friendly and visitor friendly, then you’ve found the jackpot. BUT, remember that you can always use tags and titles for an SEO boost, without compromising the user experience one bit.

One last note on categories. Remember that you can place each and every post in as many categories as you want. This actually gives your visitors easy access to many different topics and allows them to find what they need from several different paths. Also note that your categories stay invisible to visitors until you’ve posted to them, so there should be no hesitation to build them up strong from the start.

Best of luck, and feel free to post any questions here!

Here’s a quick break-down:

1. Write, Manage, Design, and Comments - When you log in to your admin area, you are directed to your Dashboard, which is the control center of your Blogsite. Note the first four panels on the left in the screen shot below.

• Write - Create a new page, post, or link.
• Manage - Change or edit existing elements of your blogsite.
• Design - Manage the way your site looks. (Note: Market One Stop does not support custom changes to your blogsite. See our policy on design changes.)
• Comments - Moderate blog comment preferences.

2. Settings, Plugins, Users - The next (and final) three panels on your Dashboard allow you to manage more technical settings for your Blogsite. Note the three panels on the right in the screenshot below.

• Settings - These settings apply to your Blogsite as a whole, and determine how it “behaves”.
• Plugins - Additional elements that you may wish to add to your blog. Take a look at the plugins that Market One Stop has installed for you already.
• Users - Setup and manage users for your site.

We know, that’s quite a bit of information to digest, so take it slow! Use this post as a reference and come back often to get more details and information.