If you feel like you are completely lost when it comes to blogs, here is a great post on the basics of blogging from VR Marketing blog.

Here are some key takeaways and a few of my own thoughts:

• Be sure to link back to your corporate site, this is especially important if your blog has its own url. (One major reason to start a blog is because it can increase your search engine ranking)
• Tag each post with categories. This will help your readers find what they are looking for and help boost your search engine ranking as well.
• Blogs are a great medium for customer feedback. Write a post that gets your customers talking (and commenting) or put a poll on the blog to survey readers on a specific topic.
• Always moderate your comments. There is a lot of SPAM out there and you want the comments section to be a true dialog that is not interrupted by SPAM. It is ok if someone disagrees with you, do not block that comment because it can get people talking. Comments are boring if everyone agrees and there are no new ideas.
• Avoid “shameless self promotion.” Blogs with interesting, relevant, and up-to-date content will gain a loyal following. Don’t try to trick your readers and sneak in a sales pitch. Be transparent or risk loosing readers.
• Be sure to include keywords in titles and within relevant content for search engines.
• Your blog can be a great supporter for your PR efforts. Post an excerpt from a press release on the blog or reuse blog content for PR ideas.
• Don’t just put your blog out there and expect readers to come. Be sure to leverage your database of customers to let them know about it.
• Make sure your posts are up-to-date. They recommend twice a month but I would say at least twice a week. In a world of instant gratification, we are used to getting what we want when we want it. If your most recent post is two weeks old, I probably won’t be checking in again anytime soon.