Small business blogging – a taste of freedom

Guest post from Jon Buscall in Sweden on the freedom blogging brings to small businesses.

I’m re-publishing this guest post from Jon Buscall to bring it to a wider audience. Blogging, communicating, writing is so important and has such valuable impacts, on the audience, and on the writer. Be free to express yourself. Over to Jon.


Ten years ago if you were a small business or sole trader the communication channels open to you were pretty limited. Sure, you could run an ad in your local paper. Cobble a bit of cash together to put your details in the Yellow Pages. But TV and radio ads – the BIG channels – were probably out of your reach.

Fast forward to 2010 and the Net has become one of the main channels through which businesses talk with potential customers. In a relatively short period of time this very sophisticated communication channel has emerged, enabling us to get our message across at a fraction of the cost of traditional communication channels.

Thanks to software developers in the open source community products like WordPress have come along that allow businesses to get online and communicate for the cost of a domain name and hosting package. In real terms, it’s probably more expensive to go to the cinema once a month than run a small business blog.

The freedom to participate

Software like WordPress has given you the freedom to participate. And you really should participate.

By blogging about your services and skills, the things you’re working on, and what comes across your desk, you’ll find –given time and commitment- that there’s an audience out there.

Of course, you do have to think about how to attract your audience and write with them in mind. But Google (and other search engines) rewards successful blogs by ranking them higher up in search engine results which in turn brings more readers.

In real terms, blogging can give you a shot at getting your message across just as much as Really Big Corporation Inc.

The freedom to engage

Given the tools and the ease with which you can reach out to your audience nowadays, you don’t have any excuse not to participate in online conversations.

One of the wonderful things about living in 2009 is that a small business or sole trader like you can write something and hit “publish” very easily. Perhaps too easily.

But by engaging with people, exchanging ideas, telling stories, and connecting you can build relationships that can make a difference.

The rewards of freedom

Personally speaking, without blogging I probably wouldn’t have translated Pål Christiansen’s Scoundrel Days of Hobo Highbrow into English. I wouldn’t have developed contact with Annette Schwindt, who I recently got to help me with a project for a client. And a good handful of people would never have bought my novel College.com

As such, the freedom of blogging has taken me down paths I never ever imagined. I’m excited to see where blogging takes me next.

Where to get started

Why not check out Mr ProBlogging’s useful blogging tips for beginners.

Jon Buscall juggles various jobs as a freelance hack-writer and translator from his desk in Sweden. He blogs at www.jonbuscall.com

Photo credit: Thorsten Becker

If you’d like to share or tweet Jon’s article, the short URL is: http://kilobox.net/1170

2 comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Previous Article

Showing off

Next Article

User experience as a core function of design (getting it wrong)

Related Posts
Apples and oranges
Read more

Align your internal and external communications

Marketing communications may seem wholly separate to internal communications, and in turn the marketing team may feel worlds apart from the internal communications team. Yet marketing campaigns are stronger and more authentic when employees are involved. Don’t be ‘that company’ where the staff know less about your news than industry experts.