Tourism Internet Marketing U

Blogs and Wikis: Avoid Classic Blog Mistakes

While blogs can be an easy way to communicate with your target audience, there are still many common mistakes that people make when taking on such an endeavor.

Underestimating the Time Commitment

One of the biggest mistakes people make when deciding to start a blog is under estimating the time commitment. While it’s convenient to know that blogs can be updated from anywhere, it is more important to know that they have to be updated.

Blogs should be updated at least three times per week, and you need to have the discipline to keep it current. That means at least three times per week you have to research your topic or put your thoughts into words in a way that is interesting to read and post them online.

Overestimating the Market Impact

The second biggest mistake people make when deciding to start a blog is overestimating the marketing impact. It takes time and effort to build an audience for a blog - again, when was the last time you bookmarked a blog and went back to it on a regular basis? And if you did - did it influence you to make a purchase?

Irregular or Infrequent Updating

Users must be able to anticipate when and how often updates to your blog will occur. People are busy and they do not have the time to keep checking your blog to see if it has been updated - always provide an RSS feed.

Your readers need to know that every day, or every two days or what ever the case may be, there is going to be a new post that they can read. Otherwise you will lose many of your readers. Pick a posting schedule and stick to it - a blog that isn’t updated regularly will simply be ignored.

Writing for the Search Engines and Not for the Blog

There is a growing tendency by many bloggers to write for the search engines rather than focusing on the needs of their “human” readers. Putting search engines first rather than putting your readers first will almost certainly lead to bad decisions that will make your blog less usable, even if it is optimized for search spiders.

While blogs can be a great way to speak to your target market and keep them up-to-date on all the latest news in your travel and tourism business products and services, you must determine if there is a more effective, time efficient way to communicate.

Still not sure of what to do when it comes to blogs? Why not pick up a copy of my book, 101 Ways to Promote Your Tourism Business Web Site? I know you’ll love it!

-Written by Susan Sweeney