Business blogging has become the most important marketing strategy to emerge in the last decade, because it allows people the opportunity to get to know you, like you, and trust you before any dollars are on the table. In a very real way, it pre-qualifies interested prospects, setting the table to sell to them. Doing this well, however, is not as simple as starting a business blog and writing a couple of posts a week. Or three or four or five. More of bad is not better. Here's the 17-point checklist I've developed over six years of business blogging and utilize for every post.

1. THE 17-POINT CHECKLIST
FOR WRITING A GREAT
BUSINESS BLOG
By Bill Zipp, President
Leadership Link, Inc.

2. © 2014 Bill Zipp. All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, emailing, posting online or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
For more information contact:
Bill Zipp
Leadership Link, Inc.
5060 SW Philomath Blvd #373
Corvallis, Oregon 97333
541-752-5323
bill@billzipp.com
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 2

3. Introduction
Blogging, once the exclusive domain of hobbyists and technophiles, has become the
most important marketing strategy to emerge in the last decade.
Here's why.
It allows people the opportunity to get to know you, like you, and trust you before any
dollars are on the table. In a very real way, it pre-qualifies interested prospects,
setting the table to sell to them.
Business blogging has become a proven means for lead generation and the creation of
loyal online communities, two critically important marketing strategies for building
business today in the face of traditional advertising's (insert interruption here) demise.
Doing this well, however, is not as simple as starting a business blog and writing a
couple of posts a week. Or three or four or five. More of bad is not better.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 3

4. Blogging is a specific genre of communication that has its own keys to success. You must
master them for blogging to work for you.
I've written a business blog for six years--over 200 posts and counting--and have, as a
result, experienced real commercial success through it. The same can be true for you
and your business.
Here's the 17-point checklist I utilize for every post.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 4

5. 1. Write a powerful first sentence
Other than the title, which I address later in #9, the first sentence is the most important
part of any blog post. You've got to grab people's attention right away. Make a claim, give
a promise, quote a statistic, tell a story, read their mind. In short, engage your readers'
emotions immediately.
And forget what you were taught in English 101, let that first sentence stand on its own as
your post's first paragraph.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 5
2. Write an engaging second paragraph
Once you've written a great first sentence, follow it up with a great second paragraph.
Back up the claim, promise, statistic, or story with some cold hard facts, capturing both
the heart (your first sentence) and the mind (your second paragraph) at the very start.
I write and re-write this part of any blog post until it’s perfect. It's that important.

6. 3. Keep each post less than 1000 words long
Business leaders are crazy busy and will not read long rambling articles. Keep it less
than 1000 words. The average length of my top five most read blog posts is 888
words. Got more to say than that? Turn it into two or more posts.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 6
4. Utilize 2-3 sentence paragraphs
This is an important nuance of business blogging: no paragraph should extend for
more than seven lines. If it does, the post appears too dense and people's eyes will
glaze over in their head. Leave lots of white space that contain short, pithy paragraphs.
Remember, your readers are crazy busy. Make it easy for them to access your content.
5. Make it personal
Blogging is a personal, conversational form of communication. It's this authenticity that
makes it so powerful. Yes, you can go way over the top here, but the more real your
business blog is the more you'll connect with your readers. One of the ways I do this
is being honest about my failures as well as my successes.

7. 6. Talk to Trish
This is something I learned from Sonia Simone in her brilliant content marketing e-class:
write to one person. That means knowing your core customer and speaking directly
to him or her. Even those people who aren't your core customer will be drawn into the
dialogue because, again, it's real and authentic. Trish is the very real person I write to,
and filter every post through her profile.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 7
7. Use numbered lists
A numbered list, like the one you're reading now, is a great way for busy readers to
consume content. Most people scan a blog article to see if anything's in it for them.
A numbered list grabs the attention of these scanners and pulls them into the post.
8. Break up your text with sub-headings
If a numbered list isn't appropriate for the particular post you're writing, allow scanning
readers to access your content with sub-headings. Every 2-3 paragraphs summarize a
salient point in a memorable way and use it to break up the text.

8. 9. Create a compelling title for your post
This is the most important strategy of writing a successful blog post.
Yes, you've got to have good content, but no one, and I mean no one, will consume that
content unless you have a compelling, attention-getting title.
And it’s the biggest mistake I've made in blogging, assuming that my content alone would
attract readers. It won’t. The day I learned to write compelling titles was the day my blog
readership took off.
If this is so important, why isn't it at the top of the list? When I first write a post, I
don't know what title to use. It takes time, thought, and multiple versions to pick the
perfect title for a post. It’s the headline of the story, so you’ve got to get it right.
Here, too, is what I’ve learned about blog post titles over the years: clear is better than
clever. These are the titles of some of the most read posts that I’ve written in the last six
years. What do you see?
13 Warning Signs that What You've Delegated Won't Get Done
Five Leadership Styles: What Style Are You?
My Teenage Daughter, Migrant Farm Workers, and the Real Power of Personal
Productivity
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 8

9. 10. Give attribution
Generosity is the spirit of the blogging world. If an idea isn't original with you, that's okay.
Share it and tell your readers where you got it from, like I do in #6 and #14.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 9
11. Set internal and external links
Here's another way of giving attribution, create an external link to the place where an
idea originates. While you're doing this, direct readers to other places where you
address the topic under discussion with internal links. Any decent blogging software
makes this super easy to do. A side benefit is this: Google loves links and they'll
improve your blog’s search engine rankings.
12. Pose a question for discussion
The very best part of business blogging is interacting with your readers in the comments
section of each post. This is where community is truly built. Get comments by posing
direct, even provocative, questions that your readers feel compelled to answer.

10. 13. Proofread, proofread, proofread
Yes, typos happen. There's probably one in this eBook. But unlike publishing a book, a
blog typo is easily corrected.
Even so, I proofread every post I write three times: once in my word processing program,
then in MarsEdit, a desktop blog editing software I use that uploads to WordPress, then
again in WordPress before it goes live.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 10
14. Assign categories
Categories are the topics your business blog addresses, and they should be few in
number.
Before I read Platform by Michael Hyatt (a must read for anyone with a business blog), I
had 16 different blog categories. Yikes! Now I have five: leadership, strategy, sales,
personal productivity, and employee engagement.
Exercise the discipline to write within your categories or no one will really know what your
blog is about, including you!

11. 15. Optimize for keywords
Here's another mistake I made for years in writing my business blog. I didn't optimize
for keywords.
Again, I figured that people would read my blog because the content was good. But if
they can't find that content, how will they read it?
Keywords are specific words or phrases people use to search for information
online. You must know what those terms are for your products and services and blog
about them on a regular basis in a natural way. When you do, you'll appear in searches
for these terms and, in turn, people will read your blog. It's as simple (and as challenging)
as that.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 11
16. Place image(s)
The Internet is a visual medium so your blog should be visual as well. Take pictures,
buy pictures, draw diagrams, create process visuals. Put them in your blog posts and
give attribution where appropriate.

12. 17. Include a clear call to action
Unlike a personal blog, a business blog is part of a larger marketing strategy. And with
marketing, there's always a next step you're asking people to take.
Rarely, however, is the next step buying anything.
An appropriate next step usually involves downloading a whitepaper, signing up for a
newsletter, attending a webinar, or joining an online community.
Here’s my call to action to you: Visit my web site and sign up to receive the seven-part
article series I provide there, Seven Business Growth Accelerators.
See how simple that was? Now do it: www.billzipp.com
Include an appropriate call to action at the end of every post and track which posts
produce the most responses for your business. Then write more like them.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 12

13. 17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 13

14. Frequently Asked Questions
There are two schools of thought about blog posting frequency, each represented
by two insanely popular bloggers.
Michael Hyatt insists that you should post 4-5 times a week and has done so himself for
years now. Seth Godin, blogging's most revered practitioner, posts every single day.
On the other side of this spectrum is Chris Guillebeau. Chris posts on his blog only once
a week and writes long, in-depth articles on his world travels. Chris Garrett, one of the
blogging world's superstars, posts even less than that, but each article is intensely
researched and packed with incredible content.
Okay, how often should you post on your blog?
First, it depends on your audience. I've decided that busy business leaders--my target
audience--aren't reading blogs everyday and that my best posting frequency is 1-2 times
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 14
1. How often should I post on my blog?

15. a month. Secondly, however, it depends on your business model. Other than public
speaking, blogging is my primary marketing activity. So I put lots of time into each post
and need a certain frequency for this methodology to work for me.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 15
2. Should I have an email newsletter as well as a blog?
Absolutely! In fact, that was a mistake I made early in my business blogging career.
Email newsletters are a direct marketing tool that land in a person’s inbox, as
opposed to sitting passively on the Internet. Additionally, RSS readers have not taken
hold in the marketplace as technologists had hoped, so providing an RSS feed alone
won't get your blog read by as many people as possible.
There's no need, however, to come up with completely different content. Just have
your blog automatically become an email newsletter. Google Feedburner has a free tool
that does this, and AWeber's $19 a month subscription service does it as well. I use
AWeber because it allows me to customize a newsletter template and add appropriate
calls to action for my list that’s now over 1,200 opt-in subscribers.

16. And the best part?
You build a list of super-fans that you get to talk to again and again and again. Make sure
to offer a meaningful incentive to sign up for your email newsletter. I provide a high-
quality, seven-part series on business growth that took hours and hours to develop, but
it's worth it to me to get people on my list.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 16
3. What about social media?
Social media was made for blogging. Once a post goes live you can tell the world about it
on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and dozens of other social sties.
Whenever a new blog article is up, I hit the social media trail; and it consistently builds my
readership and adds subscribers to my list. If you're really brave, you can even use these
mediums to pre-announce that an important post is coming.

17. Here are some warnings, however.
First, you could easily spend hours and hours on social media with no direct impact on
business. Pick only those social sites your core customer is active on and only
those that get measurable results.
Secondly, don't post blindly. There are software services available that will automatically
place your blog article, or a link to it, on a social site. The problem is, you don’t know how
that placement will look, and, often, it’ll also be placed with links to the software service
and not just your blog. This makes you look lame (very lame).
When using social media, take the time to customize your communication. Also,
remember to respond to comments that appear both on your blog and in your social
stream.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 17

18. 17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 18

19. About the Author
Bill Zipp helps executive leaders accelerate the growth of
their business by expanding the leadership capacity of
their firm and increasing sales performance.
Popular speaker and award-wining author, Bill has spent
thousands of hours working with hundreds of business
leaders worldwide, from Fortune 500 companies like
Automatic Data Processing, Cisco Systems, and Agrium,
Inc., to mid-size firms like Concur Technologies, Extra
Mile Media, and Tunnel Radio of America.
17-Point Checklist for Writing a Great Business Blog 19
You can contact Bill Zipp at:
EMAIL: bill@billzipp.com
WEB: www.billzipp.com
LINKEDIN: www.linkedin.com/in/billzipp