Should my blog site be separate from my corporate website?

[deeze6]

Hello again,

I currently have a website for my business that is your typical, clean-cut, professional looking corporate website.

I want to create a blog to start branding myself and to draw people to my corporate website. The problem is that the topic of my blog is not really related to my business. Also I want my blog to be fun and easy going and not stuffy like a typical corporate blog. Also I’m worried some of the things I say in my blog may be edgy and offend the typical stuffy corporate folks I do business with.

Should I therefore keep my blog site separate from my corporate website? If so, how do I get the traffic that I draw to my blog to go to my corporate website (which is where I make the money).
Thanks,
Nick

[tobiasfransson]

Hi Nick,

Questions For You

First off... From what I can gather your corporate website differs
greatly from what or how you would like to blog. Normally I would
say that if your Corporate website is inside of the same niche that
you are going to blog about then go ahead to have the blog
on the same site.

However from what you are telling me your main corporate site
would differ from what you blog about then I agree that there
is a need to have a seperate website or otherwise host the blog
elsewhere.

I would also like you to think about the following:

Since your blog would be written for another target audience, as in
not the stuffy corporate folks like you put it. Could that damage your
convertion rates at your Corporate website?

Meaning that even though you might get traffic from your blog to your
corporate site they won't bite since you are trying to sell potatoes to
hard core suit people that loves apples?

Secondly Could You

Tell us a bit more about the concept of how you are making money with
your Corporate Website?

Could you do the same for your intended blog and what your
ultimate goal is for your blog?

Sincerly

-Tobias Fransson

[stephen todd]

Originally Posted by deeze6

Should I therefore keep my blog site separate from my corporate website? If so, how do I get the traffic that I draw to my blog to go to my corporate website (which is where I make the money).
Nick

Keep your personal blog separate from you business site

It's good practice to have a page on your business site with your photo and a bit about your career and interests - to show you're a real and likeable person

No point in sending people from your personal blog to your business site if the things you're writing about on your personal blog are not related to the business services you provide

[deeze6]

@Tobias - thanks for the tip. My personal blog will be to provide IT training, my business provides IT consulting services to businesses.

While both are IT related, the training blog will be more geared to individuals rather than to business.

Do you think it still makes sense to keep the two separate?

@Stephen - thanks for the tip as well.

[tobiasfransson]

deeze6, interesting angle. There are several ways you can
develope and monetize a personal blog in order to provide IT training.

If both operates inside of a company you own vs a company you
work for I think your good to go. Just add alink to your personal
blog saying something like...

"IT Training for Individuals" or something to show people
it's for "non businesses.

I will do my best to give a quick overview of some of the
options I see for your personal blog.

To Get The Traffic:

Offer free content articles/blog posts with generic information
that is readily available all over the web in a easy fashion.
(Don't copy and paste obviously) Make sure the content is
yours and has your "voice".

This is so you can get the traffic coming and so the
"suspects" can bite your hook.

To Monetize:

Then you can offer two products:

One cheaper educational package or service and one
a little bit more expensive depending on your target market.

Last but not least you could also include a residual type
product for "monthly" membership styled training. By using
various plugins for wordpress you can create a sequential
order for your content so that everyone starts at the
beginning then automatically get access to new material
on whatever time intervalls you choose.

Those are the main overview concepts you could be doing
and it can also be applied to, digital products, books,
video (Online, dvd's, cd's) audios, teleseminar,
webinar, and so on.

Could you share with me what type of IT training you would
like to conduct as the niche is very broad and you might
find a challenge in becoming an Authority blog
in the whole IT Training field.

I'm not saying it's impossible if your up for a long haul challenge =D.

[rjleaman]

Heh, looks like Tobias just said much of what I was going to say (only, he probably said it more clearly!):

Normally I would say that if your Corporate website is inside of the same niche that you are going to blog about then go ahead to have the blog on the same site.

However from what you are telling me your main corporate site would differ from what you blog about then I agree that there is a need to have a seperate website or otherwise host the blog elsewhere.

He's gone on to look at the options for your personal blog, and that directions sounds sensible... but I would urge you not to give up on the idea of a blog that's integrated with your corporate site. "Business blogging" is a great way to help differentiate yourself from the competition, to personalize your brand, and to connect and communicate with your customers in a very direct way.

(I don't know if you're familiar with Michael Martine? His gig is advising businesses on how to use blogs to boost business -- even for lawyers! His main website is Remarkablogger.com - you might want to take a couple minutes to browse around there.)