A lot of small business owners are interested in blogging, but they afraid of starting a blog for fear of not knowing what to write about.
Often, when we’re consulting with a client on their blog we create a “recommended reading list.” It’s usually a combination of blogs from the client’s industry, similar industries, and a “usual suspects” list of blogs on blogging, like Business Blog Consulting (or my own blog, dammit!)
Well, I think I’ll be adding Pajama Market to my usual suspects. It’s a combination of “Small Business Blogs of the Day” and interviews with those small business bloggers. And yes, the “Web site of the Day” concept is sooo 1997, but for small business owners interested in blogging, this is a valuable resource.
Recent featured blogs include Green Cine Daily, featuring movie reviews from a DVD rental company, Wool Winders, a knitting blog from a knitting store, and The Tap Room, a blog from a London pub. How’s that for variety?
If I have one complaint (and apparently I do) it’s the dearth of categories. Currently there are only four: Blogging Info, Personal, Small Business Blog Interview and Small Business Blog of the Day. It would be great if there were some categories that covered the type of businesses, such as “Retail”, “Service Industry”, and so on. As small businesses fall of the home page they tend to disappear.
Still, if you’re a small business owner and you think there’s nothing for you to blog about, be sure to check out Pajama Market first.
If you are already blogging your small business, well maybe you should submit your blog for consideration!
Rich — I like Pajama Market. Glad you mentioned it. As a bit of inspiration for small business owners, point them here… a discussion between HP’s Eric Kintz and Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch:
Should Small Businesses Care About Web 2.0 Marketing?
http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/kintz/archive/2006/05/05/1013.html
Comment by Ann Handley — May 24, 2006 @ 10:57 pm
Just to be a touch on the pedantic side – The Tap Room isn’t the blog of a London pub, but a Lancashire pub.
I don’t want anybody thinking you get those lovely idyllic views over Pendle Hill ‘dahn sarf’.
Comment by Paul Woodhouse — May 31, 2006 @ 7:20 am
I agree with your point about small business and blogging. Not every small business has the confidence to write articles. I suggest that they forget about the idea of an article, which can be perceived as needing to being quite lengthy, and just think about writing a succinct paragraph. A paragraph doesn’t seem a big undertaking and is more likely to happen.
Comment by Steven A Harold — July 20, 2006 @ 6:15 am
Thanks for mentioning Pajama Market, great idea. I think a lot of small business owners need to be shown what the ROI can be on a blog…and they’d really get cooking with it.
Comment by Life Coach Business — July 20, 2008 @ 8:55 pm