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Blog for Business Success

August 11, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

A Blog is a really useful tool for any type of business, whether you sell a product or service. As a Business Consultant, I see blogging not being done by enough businesses, or I see the blogging being done with out any real commitment or passion. In this post I will review the reasons to blog, and how to do it well. Hopefully after reading this post you will see the merit of having a blog on your website or renew your commitment to your blog.

Why Blog?

Ø  Blogging Sets You Up as An Expert: Expert status will get you talked about on the web and bring you another level of customer.

Ø  Blogging Increases Web Traffic: Your blog subjects will bring in targeted web visitors who over time will become customers, or refer your blog and company.

Ø  Blogging Helps Your SEO and Ranking: Search Engines love fresh, new, relevant content. It helps tremendously in getting your website consistently spidered and well placed in the search engine results.

Ø  Blogging Tracks Prospects: If web visitors find your blog interesting, they will subscribe to your RSS Feed. Now you have an email to track and communicate with potential customers.

Ø  Blogging is Fun: Give it a chance and you will find it is a rewarding experience.

Ø  Blogging Brings You Customers: Some customers take time to become comfortable and buy. A blog is a great way to stay connected with them until they are ready. Blogging creates lots of real time opportunities to gain customers. Blog posts get spidered quickly by the search engines so you can pick up immediate customers.

Ø  Blogging Helps People: If you give it away, you will experience a return 10+ fold. People appreciate great information and will refer you.

Ø  Blogging Gives You Competitive Edge: If a prospect is comparing companies and websites, the one who has a good, fresh blog will stand out. It is a great way to show your expertise.

Ø  Blogging is Viral: Through the social networks and other bloggers, your good blog posts will be passed around again and again. The viral aspect really increases your customer reach.

How to Blog Well and Get Results

Ø  Blog on What You Know: Stick to your expertise areas and content areas you need better search engine ranking.

Ø  Blog 3 – 5 Times a Week: If you can, blog once or twice per day for the best results.

Ø  Submit Your RSS Feed: Submit to RSS directories so you gain a web presence.

Ø  Make Your RSS Feed Available: Make sure blog visitors see your Subscribe to RSS Feed prominently on your blog.

Ø  Set Up Automatic Pings: Set up your blog so that every time you publish a blog post it automatically pings the major search engines and blog directories. I ping 40 search engines and directories every time I post, all done on automatic. This gets the blog post in the search results instantly.

Ø  Use the Social Networks: Post your blog snippet and URL to Social Media to get exponential coverage and quickly spidered by the search engines. Increases the viral nature of your posts as well.

Ø  Choose Your Title and First Paragraph Well: This is what the search engines and web visitor will read first. Be sure it is optimized for your keyword and reflects the content of your post.

Ø  Keep Your Blog Well Organized: Make sure you pick good categories that reflect your keyword areas so search engines and visitors can quickly find the relevant content. Each blog post should be placed in a category reflecting its content.

Ø  Give Your Newsletter Prominence: If someone likes your blog, more likely than not, they will sign up for your Newsletter. Another great way to stay in contact with prospects and customers.

Ø  Ask for Comments and Feedback: Blog visitor engagement is what converts prospects into customers and gets your blog post talked about.

Ø  Add Video: To really connect with the visual blog reader, have a short video synopsis of your blog post. Add the videos to You Tube as another way for visitors to find your blog. Video will help you to personally connect with your blog visitors.

Ø  Keep Your Blog Posts Short: Long posts will often lose the reader. Keep them short with valuable information.

Ø  Use Bold and Headings on Your Posts: Just writing a bunch of paragraphs will not be as well read as short paragraphs or sentences with Bold Headings. This way a visitor can quickly scan the blog post and get the information they want and need. They can always come back to read the entire post. This organization also helps with the search engine spiders.

Ø  Use Keyword Tags: Lets the search engines know what your blog contains and prompts spidering. Helps in your positioning for keyword searches.

Ø  Optimize Your Images: Gets spidered quickly. Use Alt Tags.

Do it Today!

I hope there is enough here to convince you that Blogging needs to be part of your Business Plan and Marketing Plan. You can set up a blog for Free with Word Press. No excuses! Good luck!

Today’s Video is on How Blogging is Relevant and Effective


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