10 Commandments of Blogging

As an entrepreneur, the emergence of blogs was my burning bush. I didn’t understand it at first, but I’ve come to see that salvation (now known as content marketing) is within reach. If only we’re willing to believe. All joking aside, using a smart keyword strategy (hint: there’s research involved) and the right social media channels (for your business), you can refocus your marketing dollars into a content marketing strategy that’s both sustainable and cost-effective. Combine keywords with a strong on-site blogging platform and social media engagement and you’ve got the winning formula. Simple, right? Wrong. It’s simple but not easy. Understanding how to use content marketing is a lot like reading the catechism. Begin with the basics and then it’s practice, practice, practice. And the more you practice and memorize the “rules” the more you’ll understand some rules are made to broken – and others will land you in (Google) hell. I’ve been blogging since 2007. I’ve written more than 2,000 posts and contributed to national newspapers and magazines like the Boston Globe and Women’s Health. But I still look at what I do as a work in progress – we’re all still learning how to do this better. Feel free to steal my cheat sheet and use it to get to those pearly gates with a few less sins on your blogging dossier. Get Creative As a blogger, you are first and foremost a story-teller. Information isn’t merely doled out; it’s artfully told. The heart of giving good blog is how the information is presented. The details of the stories are where we find the magic. Blog with intention. Tell The Truth Facts and truth are not the same thing. Information can’t be made up, nor can the essential facts of a product or service. Using fictional scenarios and made-up quotes is against the rules and more than a little smarmy. Tell the truth, according to you. If you lie or stretch the truth, you’ll likely be called out for it and the road to redemption is all uphill from that point. Respect The Contract There’s an implicit contract between you (the blogger) and me (your reader). For my time as a reader, I understand and believe that your blog is going to give me something of value. Link to other relevant articles or purchasing information. Make your post the lighthouse that shines light on the information sources I need if I’d like to learn more. Get Personal A blog post is personal, not because it’s about yourself, but because it allows us inside your blogger head. We see your thought process. Unlike a responsible journalist or technical writer, you don’t remove yourself from the story. You’re a participant in it. You, the writer, are always there, indicating for us what you think about the subject at hand. Give To Get Your blog should vibrant and alive and full of opinions and engagement. People who write great blogs understand the value of sharing and of feedback. A blog is opinion-based and the true power of it lies in the comments that follow – and your response to them. FYI, if criticism scares you, developing a thick skin and a sense of humor should be your top priority before launching your blog. Engage Your Readers Every single comment posted on your blog deserves a response. Every single one. Your readers took the time to share their feelings and you owe it to them to acknowledge that gift with a response. Not responding to a comment is like not answering your customer service line. Doesn’t exactly extend a warm and cozy feeling, does it? Be Nice Not everyone is going to agree with you or even understand you. Some people will be critical and mean about your writing. Some may even call you names. My advice? Be nice. Don’t reduce yourself to a flame war on your own blog. Thank the haters for taking the time to visit and share their thoughts and then move onto the next comment. Share With Abundance Just because you write it doesn’t mean they will come. Using social media will help the search engines find you faster and bring more people to your site. It’s called content marketing – using keywords to signal to the search engines that you’re doing something over here that’s worth taking a look at. The downside is that if you use the wrong keywords, you may the wrong kind of traffic – or traffic that doesn’t convert. Elevate Other Bloggers Blogs are a powerful force because they intertwine and work together. Writing a blog without ever reading a blog is impossible – the system is built on reciprocity. What’s more, developing a unique voice on your blog takes time and practice and other bloggers can help with their valuable feedback. If you never visit another blog but expect other bloggers to visit you…enough said. Don’t Give Up I can hear my mother saying, “If it’s worth doing, it not going to be easy.” Sadly, she’s right. This stuff isn’t easy and it can hurt when you publish your brilliant post and no one (other than your mom) visits. Don’t give up. You can do this. How can I be so sure? You’re reading my blog post aren’t you? Cheat Sheet: Blogging Do’s and Don’ts Blogging Do’s: Use the first person Use lots of detail Go as deep as you can Show instead of tell Keep it tight Make a point Tell the truth Blogging Don’ts: Overstate your point Be afraid to get your hands dirty Water it down Make things up Rely too heavily on cuteness

Author:  Julia Rosien 

*Very good article so I wanted to share.  

To Blog or not to Blog?

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is DigitalFridayand I’m going to encourage you to think about blogging if you aren’t already.

Blogging requires a consistent time commitment and may not be right for ever brand. You have to create relevant content that resonates with your customers. Blogging for the sake of blogging isn’t going to add value if no one cares about the content or follows you. Here are my top 5 reasons to blog.

1) Continuously seeking new content keeps you on top of your game. Creating a blog and presenting it to your audience requires you to stay current and be an expert on your subject matter.

2) Blogging positions you as a content expert because people are following the blog and relyingon your information.

3) It creates an inbound marketing campaign. We’ve talked about the importance of thisin previous blogs. You are creating a presence on the internet and competing against other businesses that are also mounting inbound marketing campaigns. SEO loves blogs and the chance of customers discovering your work increase as you place more content online.

4) Blogs arevery useful tools in other ways as well. When I engage potential clients I often send them pertinent links from my own branding videos. The blogsbecome powerful salestool in my marketing tool kit.

5) You are able to engage your followers. They will comment, share likes and dislikes and you have the opportunity to respond and develop a relationship.

Blogging does create attention for your brand. The simple fact that you are reading this blog proves my point.

*This is an article from branding/marketing guy named Jim Glover but he really hits on the point of why you should be blogging.  

Role of Social Networking Websites in Blogging

MAY 17, 2013 BY BRIANNE WALTER 1 COMMENT

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Blogging is an easy way to express your views and reach out to the world. People usually connect with blogs and their content as they do not preach. The language of blogs is mostly in simple English and easy going which further helps people to connect with the blog content easily. Another form of social media is social networking websites. These websites help you to build social network, connect with new friends, keep in touch with old friends, build social relations among people, etc.

Nowadays social networking sites not only help you connect with other people but they also help in various other business and non-business related matters. These sites also have a role to play in blogging. So let’s learn how can social networking sites help you in blogging and what is the role of social networking sites in blogging.

1) Make your blog visible

As a new (or even experienced) blogger you would need to make people aware of your blog. You would need some way, route, or source to make people notice your blog. Social networking sites help you do just that. These sites make your blog visible to the web world.

2) Promote your blog content

Visibility or awareness of a blog’s existence is not sufficient always. It might not always get you the desired result and make your blog successful. You need to promote your blog to people. Social networking sites allow you to promote your blog. Some sites allow you to post blog entries by which your blog gets more exposure. You can also choose and promote to the desired public only.

3) Drive traffic to your blog

Your blog may not be very SEO friendly and you may not see much traffic directed to your blog through search engines. This is when social networking sites can help you drive traffic to your blog. You can build links in your networking profile which will direct traffic to your blog thus helping to increase traffic in your blog.

4) Increase your page rank in Search Engines

Social networking sites allow you to build quality links to your blog in their own site. These links can make your blog more SEO friendly and can help increase your page rank in search engines. This in turn increases traffic in your blog as traffic is directed through the search engines to your blog.

5) Reach out to your existing and potential followers

Social networking sites can help you reach out to people who have been following your blogs and have been interested and appreciative of your blogging. You can also get in touch with a big number of people who can turn into followers of your blog through these networking sites.

Social networking sites have become an important part of our lives as they help us to remain connected with people and events as well as many other things. Hence, these sites can have a major role to play in making your blog a success and turning you into a successful and popular blogger.

*This blog was written by me but by a woman who gets it.  I found it very interesting and wanted to share.  

Top 7 Tips To Increase Your Web Presence

April 15, 2013 by esalesdata | Leave a comment

In an interactive world led by Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Blogs, maintaining a strong web presence can seem overwhelming.

There is no exception to the fact that whoever is holding a website needs a better traffic. However, promoting your website or content on the social website would not be enough to generate high traffic. If your website presence is not up to the mark or updated then it might face the heat of low traffic.

If you built your website a few years ago it’s time for an update, if for no other reason than the fact that usage patterns have changed dramatically. It’ expected that within two-three years the mobile users will surpass desktop users.

That means your website is unlikely to be as effective a marketing tool as it once was, especially if your site doesn’t automatically resize and rearrange the content for all possible devices. In response to that, this blog will share 7 killer tips to increase web presence so as to achieve what you wish.

1. Go Mobile

The time has come when you need to shift your websites to mobile phones, especially, smart phones and tablets.  You need to reassemble your technology, so as to make a new graphic layout that works effortlessly both in mobile phones and desktop.

2. Update Your Content

Attracting your customers with valuable, compelling and updated content is a perfect way to indirectly promote your brand while illustrating your expertise. When done properly, you build a relationship with your prospects and you become an “expert” who they can rely on the future for advise, services, or products. If you capture their attention with some beneficial and updated information, your audience will be engaged and therefore they will increase the amount of time they spend on your site.

Most importantly, make sure to use a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy for you to make your own updates. The appropriate CMS will make managing content as swift as using a web browser.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization, is the process of increasing the visibility of your website through natural search results. By providing updated content on your website, using commonly searched items, and offering links to both your website and applicable external websites, the more frequently your site will show up in search results – thus increasing your web presence .

4. Don’t Overload the Information

Overloading the information would never give you the true response. Your site visitors need to be guided down a path and that becomes insanely hard to do, if you provide them with a large number of starting points. Remember, that when visitors are coming to your website, you can’t let them go just after viewing your landing page.

Obviously, you expect them to go deeper and browse your website. Don’t think that your users are illiterate or they have no knowledge about their wants. Visitors already know what they are looking for; and instead of providing numerous and unwanted information, try to focus on your particular product and service so as to make them more comfortable.

5. Review Your Site

Find some time to write up reviews for your company on major review networks. For example, you run a hospital; there are several sites that review best hospital in the country or world. Or else, you can also ask other review sites to write a review about your site. Just know that once your review is up, you will start see people visiting your site through this on a consistent basis.

6. Implement Analytics

Measuring the success of your website is really important to enhance your web presence. That is why you need to use some kind of analytics software that gives you an insight into your efforts. Using analytics, you can track the following things:

• The number of visitors to your site
• The time spend by the visitors
• Which page they follow the most
• From where they are coming

7. Be the Controller

If you want to hire freelancer for your layout design and development service, then make sure you choose a CMS that you can understand and update yourself. Like that you can have full control over the content, even, when there will be any conflict with the freelancer.

Today in the era of internet, your web presence defines you in front of your clients. Hence, making your web presence is an important tool to display profoundly. And for that you need to follow the above 7 tips to bolster your internet presence.

PS:  Very interesting article written by Linda.  

Why being at the top of the search engines could be killing your business!

Top of Google and top domain name but still no calls?

Posted by Alan on April 9, 2013 in Search Engine Optimization | 0 comments

Seems the Midas touch is true when it comes to Internet marketing in Bangkok as it is anywhere.

So you have the top keyword domain name for your business and you are top of Google but you feel cheated because the phones not ringing! Be careful what you wish for.

Most businesses, when asked what they want from Internet marketing, they ask to be Number one on Google, yet what they should be asking for is:

To be branded as a leader and a go to person

Well if you are top of Google now and you are not getting calls seems you paid a SEO company to fiddle with your keywords and now you have been manipulated to the top of the Google search pages and didn’t you feel good for a while! Then after ringing a few friends and a visit to an obscure Internet café to check that their PC’s have the same search engine results as yours, you cannot understand why you are not inundated with leads.

Here’s probably why:

Clever manipulative SEO people can trick search engines and use pay per click can get a really dull website to the top of search engines quickly, all we online marketing people have to do is make sure the keywords in the code align with the keywords in the body, description and title and pick a low competition keyword and Robert is your Father’s brother. The Internet population click and leave your website as fast as they arrived because:

You have no real content!

Search engines can now read and they even can see overuse of any keyword they even go as far as looking for synonyms to your main keyword. Search engines can also see how many people have shared it on social media sites. They can also see how many links back from authority sites and sites that have subject matter not a million miles away from your own.

Point is and I have been screaming about this for years now.

Stop worrying about search engine robots and worry about people, give them what they want, which is information, Blog away once twice a week, people love consistency and they love that you are not always in the face selling, you are helping them to find what it is they were looking for. By doing this people will love you and digital marketing is all about giving.

Blog like you just don’t care,  well you shouldn’t care about search engines because search engine robots haven’t got any money!!  if you write with passion the right keywords are splashed across the page naturally, and people will share great information on social media, keep at it and forget about a ROI and KPI’s you will see it soon enough, just don’t quit! It takes around 30 blogs spread over two years to start branding yourself and becoming a leader in your field.

Tell people in your blogs how you do stuff, and how what you do is different from everyone else, share your knowledge, write about indirect stuff that and show your character,r after all people buy people and you can establish a great rapport. This is branding!

I receive around 4-8 leads a month direct to Social media or my email direct because I blog and have been doing so every week since 2007. My phone bill is less than $20 a month!

What would 4-8 extra leads a month mean to your business? to find out how to do this for yourself contact Netmediathailand

PS:  This article was written by Alan Johnston who's an online marketing trainer and has done work for Yahoo and other big businesses but I wanted to share because it is very powerful.  

Why aren't more people calling me when I'm ranking on the first page of Google! Here's one big reason why.

"The internet is just not for me and my business!  Plain and simple.  I spent all this money to get on the first page of Google and I'm not getting any meaningful business.  Whoever came up with this idea that you have to be at the top of the search engines is just nuts!"  

How many of you have heard this?  Better yet.  How many of you have said this?  Could it be true?  Well, Ron, everyone has told me that where people go for information is on the internet.  The Yellow Pages are a thing of the past.  We know that.  I don't want to spend a fortune on radio, tv or a billboard.  So if that's the case and the internet is where everyone goes why am I not getting more inquiries for my products/services?  This has become a popular question and a very good one that deserves a good answer.

Now I could on and on with all the technical reasons why you're not getting results (bad website, poor content, etc.) but when all is said and done there is one simple answer that can make all the difference in the world.   2 words.  MOBILE WEBSITE.

What do you mean, Ron?  People can still find me searching through their phones.  I still show up on page one of Google.  Oh really.  You mean that website with microscopic print that even with a magnifying glass you can't read?  Is that the site you want me to browse around on?  And let's say for argument sake I do.  I can't navigate through the site because every time I try to go to another page the darn link is so small I press something else on the site.  Darn it!  This is just too frustrating. I'm outta here!

Folks you think I'm kidding but for those of you who have smartphones don't tell me you've never experienced that.  And in this day and age with so many options to choose from I'm not going to waste a lot of time on a site I can't navigate around on.  Let's face it.  People are impatient and we want simple!  How many of you have actually paid more for a product through a mobile device even though you knew there was another site where you could buy that same product from and for cheaper but it just wasn't convenient?  Folks, it happens.  And with the experts forecasting that in the next few years over 80% of all goods/services are going to be purchased through mobile devices you better get on board or you're going to be left behind!

10 Ways to use Twitter to Market your business

Note:  This is a blog I read but it's so good I wanted to share on my website.

Twitter is an excellent internet marketing tool when used correctly. These 10 ways to use Twitter will help you get the results you are looking for. It will take some time to build up your followers so don’t look at Twitter as a quick fix.

1. The best way to gain followers on Twitter is by sharing information that is valuable and/or entertaining. If you send your followers to crappy articles they will unfollow you or just ignore your posts altogether.  Either way you lose.  

2. Another way to use Twitter is by using hashtags to get your tweets seen by more people. I need to do a better job of this. But you also have the other extreme of an entire tweet being nothing but hashtags.

See how the most popular people you follow use hashtags.

3. Twitter can be great way to get traffic to your blog or website. I share links to my blog everyday. The key is you just can’t send tweets that always send people to your blog or website.

Mix it up. Send readers to articles on other sites and blogs.

Find things to tweet about other than just your niche every now and then.

4. Reply to as many tweets of people that follow you as you can. If they ask you a question be sure to follow up. Reply to the tweets of popular Twitter users. If you reply with something interesting and others read it you can pick up additional followers.

5. Some business people connect their Twitter account to their LinkedIn account. I have not personally done that. I like to keep my stuff separate.

I don’t want everything I put Twitter to show up on LinkedIn or vice versa. Just me being such a private person. I don’t connect Twitter to Facebook either for the same reason. You have to decide how you want to do this.

6. I touched on this a little bit earlier but always respond to anyone that responds to your messages. I check the connect tab to see if anyone has responded to my tweets at least once a day.

I am also looking to see who retweeted my tweets. I try to send a thank you to as many as I can. That way hopefully they will retweet some more of my stuff. Having your tweets retweeted is a great way to gain a few followers.

7. You want to make it clear to everyone that you are a real person. You can do this by following up and retweeting. Also you can use Twitter to let people know about seminars and workshops that are happening online and offline.

8. Don’t always be about business on Twitter. Check Google News to see if there are some interesting things to let your followers know about. Quotes are always good. Everyone likes quotes.

I do book reviews on my blog and I will take interesting quotes from the books and use them on Twitter.

9. Don’t go crazy tweeting. I will unfollow someone in a heartbeat that sends out 10 tweets in a minute or two. Usually these are promoting 10 different products. It’s crazy, don’t do that.

I can’t give you the correct number to send out each day because there is not one. But 10 tweets in a minute is not the way to do it.

For one thing you want as many people as possible to see your tweets. The best way to do this is to space your tweets out. People are using Twitter at different times of the day.

10. One last tool to that I have started using lately is Just Retweet. There is a free and paid version JustRetweet. Doesn’t matter which one you use. You can get people to retweet your tweets based on a points system. You can get points by retweeting other people’s tweets or you can buy points.

Just go check it out. I have picked up lots of new followers since I started using it. But don’t retweet crazy stuff just to get points.

There are probably many other ways to use Twitter that I have missed. There are a ton of paid tools you can use. I have about 15,000 followers and I got most of them the old fashioned way, one at a time.

Following others… Putting out good tweets…Getting them to follow me from my blog…retweeting other tweets… getting other people to retweet me, etc.

Good luck!