blogpoddrip.com

Is your blog creating leads for you while you sleep? It should if done properly.  In our past 2 installments we talked about making the blog accessible, we used our marketing wisdom to effectively jazz up our titles and first lines so that our blog was irresistible to readers.  The last thing I recommend, which is sometimes the hardest - is to make sure you give your reader a little bit of yourself in every blog. 

We read people’s blogs first because of the content, but we come back to some-one’s blog again and again because of what they bring to the content.  Give your opinion and ask your reader’s opinion so they feel compelled to write back.  How do you feel about the subject you are writing about? Your readers want to know. 

The beauty of a well written blog is that it is personal, and we trust personal opinions more than advertising.  This is the power of blog marketing it melds the two together.  Blog POWER!  So keep it easy to find; keep it smart, keep it honest and before long you’ll see your blog create tons of traffic.

Is your blog making you money yet? In Part I we talked about making the blog easy to get to by placing a large BLOG button on your website main page. Are you seeing more traffic already? Now it’s time to be smart about your blog titles and your opening lines.  I always try to make titles serve 2 purposes - 1) peak interest   2) include key words targeted toward the main demographic - For instance if your Blog is about making sure that realtors have their websites search enging optimized your blog might be titled   Internet Marketing Blunders Realtors Can’t Afford to Makehoping that a Realtor sees that and thinks - “I better read that!” and if some one googles Realtor and Internet Marketing - PING there you are!

Then I try to have a short and evocative first sentence  - Most major search engines will post the first sentence as description.  So if you had written the above mentioned blog and a prospective client did a google search for Realtor and Internet Marketing they would be offered a page of links to articles, yours included.  Your first sentence is the only thing you have to sway them to click on you.  It has to be good, it has to have a hook.  “Do you want to double the hits on your website in under 30 minutes?”  something they can’t bear to walk away from.  Take a look at the first line of this blog. Did I follow my own advice? Remember we aren’t just blogging, we are blog marketing. 

Don’t miss Part III where we spice it up your blog and make it memorable! Subscribe to the blog so you won’t miss it! 

Having trouble getting people to look at your blog?  It could be that people are having trouble finding it. The 1st lesson in blog marketing is making your blog easy to find.  And I mean EASY! 

If I don’t see a big button on your main page that says BLOG, chances are that I am not going find it.  Why spend thousands of dollars on a website and then invest the time to blog without making it incredibly easy to find? 

Give me a button.  It’s the easiest way for me to get to your blog.  It makes me happy.  And if I’m honest if I don’t see a button, I just assume that there isn’t a blog. Or I assume you don’t want me to read your blog.  End the controversy, give me a BLOG button, make it big, make it noticeable.  Then get ready for traffic!

 Stay tuned for more Blog Marketing Musts in Part II when we talk about Titles and opening lines!  Subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss it! 

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of the term “weblog,” which is describes web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information or more realistically a list of ongoing thoughts and stories.

A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites. Blogs can be used to share information or just comment on the world events. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as parenting, relationships, sports or politics. Some are more eclectic, presenting links to all types of other sites and just a place for someone to express themselves – their likes and dislikes in a web form media. Others are more like personal journals, presenting the author’s daily life and thoughts.

Blogs usually have a few things in common:

• A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top.
• Articles are often are organized into categories.
• An archive of older articles.
• A way for people to leave comments about the articles.
• A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a “blogroll”.
• One or more “feeds” like RSS, Atom or RDF files. 
• A calendar

What you choose to put on your blog is entirely up to you. You can use a blog offered free or you can design your own. What’s most important about a blog is that it is a reflection of you or your company.

 One of the questions we are frequently asked, is that doesn’t blogging open up a can of worms? Many companies fear the reports from the outside. If you are truly intersted in communicating with your clients, potential clients and the public, blogging is a great way to gather opinions, get new ideas and give your public a chance to respond.

One of the features allowed on most blogs is the option to moderate or check comments before they are posted. This allows you to weed out offensive, slanderour or just rude comments. Allowing people to know that as a company that you are interested in them and interested in making a better product can have outstanding results.

Even having a company specific blog that is only viewable to employees can be a great way to improve on your internal customer service.

So our advice to you? Blog! It does a company good!

I am a professional blogger.  That’s right, I blog for money.  Sometimes I blog for myself.  Sometimes I blog as myself on someone else’s website, as an expert.  But mostly I blog on other people’s websites as a ghost writer for the web site owner.  Why would anyone want their blog written by a ghost writer, you ask?  The real question is why wouldn’t they? 

Blogging is a necessary part of today’s marketing strategy.  It’s a daily opportunity to buzz the internet with very specific tag words designed to draw the inquisitive internet public directly to your website.  The more traffic your website garners, the higher your rating on the search engines and the higher your rating, the more traffic you will receive.  Imagine sending out a billboard to the universe everyday, reminding the world that you are in business.  That’s what daily blogging does for your business. 

Which begs the question - Why isn’t every savvy business person harnessing the power of the blog?  In most cases it comes down to time. Who has the time to sit down and write a blog everyday?  Really you don’t have to. Do you take the time to personally write all of your own advertising copy? No, you might choose to proofread it, but on the whole you have better things to do with your time than to write copy.  So do my clients.  That’s why they let me do the blogging for them. 

Sometimes my clients send me articles or ideas they would like me to cover, but they leaving the writing, posting, tagging and pinging to me.  I’m their blogging expert in the field.  And the world is none the wiser.  Take your website and your business to the next level, hire a professional blogger.