Blogging for your Business

Over the last few days I've been spending some time reading Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business by DL Byron and Steve Broback. Now that the year is coming to a close and I finally have some breathing room (whew!), it seems appropriate to start looking at all the different ways I promote myself and the studio online, and blogging has inadvertantly become a huge part of that.

I started blogging in about 2000-2001; it was mostly a personal blog on LiveJournal, more a collection of daily rants and musings than anything else; I didn't really think much of it other than the fact that I enjoyed being able to put my thoughts "out there" and not only be able to connect with real-life friends I don't get to see often, but potentially make new friends from all over the place. But I never really thought about who I was writing for or what I was writing about; it was all what I was thinking at the time.

When I first started thinking about starting a blog for the zen kitchen, a whole new set of considerations opened up for me. With this blog, I have so much more to consider—who I'm writing for, who I want to be writing for, what I'm writing and why, and where the blog should be hosted—Blogger or WordPress, etc. It's been an interesting challenge, and I'm still working to perfect the process. If you're looking to start a blog for your business, Publish & Prosper gives a good basic rundown of your options and a very common-sense how-to, from how often you should post (3-6 times a day if you want really intense traffic—yikes!) to how to choose the right tool for your needs. It's a quick read as well — just 185 pages or so, and packed with good information.

Over the next month or so, in between finishing up a couple of projects, heading down to Florida with my boyfriend for the holidays, and dealing with the whole Christmas thing, I'm going to be taking a serious look at revamping the tzk site as well as this and my other blog, A Woman's Issues, and I'll be transforming the recipe section of the tzk site (because yes, part of the reason I called my studio the zen kitchen is because I love to cook more than is perhaps reasonable) into a full-fledged food blog, which will not only showcase the recipes I come up with in my cooking adventures, but also talk a bit about my favorite ingredients, the things I love about food, and other foodie-geek trivia. 2007 is going to be a VERY interesting year.