Archive for Blogs
Using Your Blog to Get More Business
Posted by: | Comments
How can you use your blog to get more clients, more customers? Start building a list!
One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when driving traffic to their blog, is focusing on just that – how much traffic is going to their blog. Instead you want to focus on website conversions, how many people are you getting to take some sort of action once they visit your blog. Most often, this action is signing up for something.
You want to get people on your list. You should have 3 levels you funnel your website visitors through.
- Level 1 – get on your list
- Level 2 – convert into customers
- Level 3 – repeat business
So offer some sort of free gift, to get people to give you their email address.
Now let’s focus on how to get people to your blog, so you can offer your free gift to them. Here’s some simple ways you can increase traffic to your blog.
- Write a blog post a minimum of once a week, preferably 2-3.
- Every time you write a blog post, submit it to bookmarking sites.
- Also, you can post your blog posts on groups you belong to, if the post is applicable to their subject. Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups as news articles, Yahoo groups, etc.
- Make sure your blog is integrated into Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. They all have applications that will automatically import your blog into these social media sites.
- Comment on other blogs. Say something meaningful that adds to the post. Not just “nice post”
- Register your blog with blog directories.
- Make sure you have an RSS feed set up on your blog, where people can subscribe to your blog posts. They don’t have to visit your blog everyday to see if you have a new post, they’ll actually get notified that a new post is on your blog.
- Optimize every post. Each blog post gets a separate web page on the blog; therefore you should treat each blog post as a separate web page and optimize it as a single web page. Insert your keywords, make sure you use your categories and tags for each post.
- Turn each blog post (or combine some with same topics) into an article and submit to article directories.
Start increasing traffic to your blog, get your visitors to give your their contact information, and then follow up with something of value to turn prospects into customers.
Using Guest Bloggers As A Way To Get More Website Traffic
Posted by: | Comments
I’ve been talking a lot about blogs this month, and in one of my earlier posts I touched on using guest bloggers as a way to promote more traffic. Well, in that post I told you to look out for some more posts on guest blogging. I have to admit I completely forgot about it until this weekend, but still better late than never.
So, you’ve decided you want to use the guest blogger strategy. You want to get a different voice/opinion on your blog, you want to expose your blog to a new group of people, or maybe you just want to get a break from having to write your own post day after day. Whatever the reason, here are some ways you can find guest bloggers to help you increase your blog’s visibility.
1. Check out your comments. This is a great place to find potential guest bloggers. First of all, these people obviously know about your website. They’re interested in what you’re talking about on your blog. They’ve taken the time to interact with you through their comment. So look for those people who leave multiple comments, or have something worthwhile to say, they expanded on your post or added something new. Send them an email, all they can say is yes or no.
2. Look for newer bloggers who are blogging about something similar to your blog or something that complements your subject. Newer bloggers can benefit by increasing their blog to your readers, and also getting more practice writing blog posts.
3. Ask people in your community. They don’t even have to be online. For example, I know of one realtor who interviews local businesses in the neighborhoods she sells real estate in. It gets the businesses exposure to her readers and offers another resource to bring more visitors to her website. Get creative, and think of who you can offer the opportunity for free publicity.
4. Your online network. As you develop relationships on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, etc., be open to potential opportunities. If you like what one of your connections is saying in their status updates, tweets, blog posts they write, that might be a great guest blogger.
5. The big hitters. Don’t be afraid to ask those people who are huge in your particular field. You never know. They just might say yes. If you attend a teleseminar or take one of their classes or connect with them in some way, just ask. If you can get someone who is an expert in your niche as a guest blogger, that will also promote you as an expert and your blog as the place to go for some great information.
So now go out there and get some guest bloggers. And if you use guest bloggers on your site, what other ways do you find them?
Have a great day!
3 Natural Ways to Use Twitter to Promote Your Blog
Posted by: | CommentsTwitter is more than a trendy way to chit-chat with people from around the world; it’s a powerful promotional tool that can be very effective if you want to promote your WordPress blog easily and quickly.
There are hundreds of sites and programs that tell you how to make money with Twitter. But if you believe in being genuine, ideally posting and replying to Tweets in real time, then anything that promises to fully automate the process, bring in a huge number of followers within minutes (quantity vs quality), or resorts to sneaky tricks, should be avoided.
Is it possible to use Twitter successful as a promotional tool in a natural way? Yes, if you know how to use it properly. When used properly you can attract new customers and meet like-minded people who can help you to improve your business whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned marketer.
3 Natural Ways to Use Twitter to Make Money with WordPress Blogs
1. Research Your Blog’s Niche
By entering what you want to research in the Search feature in Twitter you can see what people are talking about in the niche you’re targeting. This can help with ideas for blog posts, articles, products or at the very least deliver interesting content to your Twitter followers if you simply retweet what you find.
If you want to conduct searches that are more comprehensive and automated than what Twitter offers out-of-the-box, you can use one of the many free or paid services that give you more options. Twitter search services analyze information on Twitter based on the keywords you specify, e-mailing you the results daily or weekly.
2. Network
Twitter allows you to network with people in your niche(s) from around the world.
It’s worthwhile to be friendly and chatty with fellow Tweeters, to trade tips and techniques or simply use Twitter for entertainment at times, but if you are serious about making money with your Wordpress blog and growing your business, it’s wise to use Twitter to find people who can help.
To learn more about anyone you meet on Twitter be sure to:
- read a few pages worth of their tweets
- read a good number of their retweets
- see how they interact with other Twitter users via replies. Do they reply to other Twitter users or do they just churn out pitches/tweet their own horn for the most part? Are they a real person tweeting in real time, or possibly just a bot or someone a marketer hired to tweet on their behalf?
- visit the website they list in their profile and find out more about them in the About section (hopefully they have one).
- look at who they follow. Do they seem to be doing reciprocal follows (the number of followers they have is close to the number of people they follow) or are they more selective about who they follow? (much smaller number of follows than followers). If it’s the latter, you can get a sense of what and who they value by looking at the profiles of the people they follow.
Tip: Send out personal, relevant replies to other people’s Tweets, not spammy Direct Messages, to introduce yourself. It’s also smart to occasionally retweet other people’s tweets if the information is suitable for your followers. Retweeting is an easy, fast, non-invasive way to show interest in and respect for other members of the Twitter community.
3. Promote your blog and products
I save this for last because you should do it, absolutely, but it’s one of the most misused and abused things on Twitter. If you’re in online marketing, and even if you aren’t, at some point you will get a spammy follower who direct messages (DMs) you with an offer that is neither personal nor useful and just wastes your time. Some marketers tweet offer after offer, often nothing more than an affiliate link, to try to sucker people into buying yet another get-rich- quick system, etc.
Ideally you should promote your blog in a variety of ways on Twitter, not only by posting links to products for sale. Provide value and interesting content, not just offers. Post links to articles on your blog that also promote your products and services, or your views, etc. and share your thoughts about other products and services, even free ones, that your followers might find helpful.
Yes, there are many sites and articles that are devoted to how to use Twitter to make money, but if you care about delivering value to your customers and potential customers and form solid business relationships, then using Twitter in a more natural way, in my view, is the better way to go.
Lillea Woodlyns, an active member of Australian marketer James Schramko’s private coaching forum, offers tips and reviews of the best tools and techniques to make money with WordPress blogs To sign up for her FREE series, ‘WordPress for Success’ visit: http://www.speedonlinewealth.com/blog/about-lillea/
5 Ways to Get More Visitors to Your Blog
Posted by: | Comments
We’re going to continue on with the blog theme. I’m kind of liking it. If you have any questions you’d like answered or your own thoughts about blogs that you’d like to share, please leave your comments. If you have a really good question, maybe I’ll feature it in a future post.
So today we’re going to talk about some ways to drive more traffic, more visitors to your blog. If you don’t care if anyone but your mom or your dog reads your blog, well then move along, nothing to see here. But if you’re writing your blog because you actually want people to read it, you might get some use out of this post.
1) Register your blog on the blog catalogs. Go to sites like Technorati, BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, just to name a few. You can submit your blog, pick a topic and keywords that describe your blog. Now when people go to these blog catalog sites, if they’re looking for a subject that your blog fits, up comes your blog on the list.
2) Network with other bloggers. You can do this in a few ways. Comment on other bloggers’ posts. Remember that you want to contribute something to the conversation, and become part of the community. So please, please don’t just go around putting “Nice post” or “Great idea” on a bunch of different blogs. That’s not going to do you any good, I promise you. Another big tip – don’t try to sell something in your comments!
Another way, which I talked about in an earlier post, is to use these new connections with other bloggers to find guest posters for your blog or to find guest poster opportunities for yourself on other blogs.
3) Focus on one topic. Don’t be all over the place. Get specific on one topic, and cover that topic well. That way people will know what to expect from you, and will see it’s consistent. If you’re trying to attract a certain kind of person or company, be sure the topic you pick is something that is of interest to them. And keep it relevant to your company’s products or services, if your blog is business related. If you sell dog toys, blogging about cat food isn’t going to help your traffic. (No idea why someone would blog about cat food, but you get the idea.)
Focusing on one topic also helps you with your SEO. The more relevant information you have for what someone’s searching for, the more likely your website will come up in the search.
4) Link to others. When you link to other blogs or websites, it gives your blog credibility. If you’re offering information, and not afraid to send your readers off to other websites, you will become known as a great resource for your readers. And don’t worry, if you’re writing relevant and interesting content, they’ll come back after they go check out that neat site you just told them about. Just like with a lot of online marketing, it’s about giving information. There’s so much on the internet, that if you give your readers a little help with directing them to good information they can actually use, it will only increase the number of people who come back to your site. So don’t be afraid of a little “link love.”
5) Write interesting blog posts. No matter how much you follow the first 4 ways, if you’re posts are boring or don’t help your readers in some way, they won’t be back. Be yourself, inject your personality, and be consistent. Make sure you know the audience you want to attract and what they want to read about. Then write it, and if you need to get some help, then get someone to help you write. Just make it so good that people can’t wait for your next blog post (no pressure here, huh?).
Ok, that’s 5 ways you can get more visitors and keep them coming back. Have a great day and I’ll see you soon.
5 Steps to Using Your Blog to Get Noticed Online
Posted by: | Comments
By now, everyone who’s marketing online knows they need a blog, and you probably have one. But are you getting the most exposure you can out of that blog? You’re putting the time in to write your posts, of course you want to get the biggest “bang for your buck.” It’s all about getting the most use out of something you only had to write once, maximizing the impact with the least amount of time. So here’s 5 steps you can take to increase the exposure of your blog online, and get noticed by more of your target audience.
Step 1. The first step is of course that you have to have a blog. This is one of the main ways you’re going to get your personality and your expertise out there. Some people put off starting a blog, because they worry they won’t have anything to say or they don’t like to write. But remember, you don’t have to write the blog yourself . I recommend you do, of course – but you can also hire a writer. Go to Elance and you’ll find tons of writers you can hire this job out to for very minimal money. Another way you can have a blog without ever writing a thing – go to an article directory (such as ezinearticles.com) and use any of the hundreds of articles there. (Just be sure to follow the rules and leave in the writer’s contact information or whatever is required to use those articles.)
Step 2. If you’re writing your own material, put your posts up as articles on those same article directories I just mentioned. If you are writing your own work, get it out there to work FOR you. Post all of your blogs and articles onto ezinearticles.com or some of the many other directories available– you’ll get a couple of benefits from this. Other people will use your articles on their blogs/newsletters, etc., increasing your exposure to whole new audiences you would never have gotten your information in front of. Second, those articles will come up in search engines, leading people who read them back to your website, yet again increasing your exposure.
Step 3. TWEET your blogs! I’m not talking about posting you have a new blog. You should have a system in place that automatically does that for you. I’m talking about taking actual small pieces of ideas and advice from your blog and tweeting them on Twitter. And of course, be sure to put a condensed link to your blog, your website, your product on SOME of them – to wherever you’re trying to direct people to go.etc.
Step 4. Send your blog or article out to your mailing list as an ezine. Here’s a great way to get people to act on that ezine. Post only a portion of the article. Then, add a link that says, “Click here to read the rest of this article.” This is a GREAT way to drive traffic to your blog, website, etc.
Step 5. Finally, don’t just “have” a blog that nobody knows about or no one can find. FEATURE your blog! Make sure it’s featured on your Linkedin Profile and your Facebook Profile – as well as anywhere else you can think of. On Facebook, I have my blog imported through the NetworkedBlogs application. If you use this app, you can invite up to 20 contacts to follow the blog every single day. How would it feel to have 200 followers after ten days? Then you can add the widget to your blog that actually shows how many followers you have through NetworkedBlogs.
By taking the above steps with the majority of your blog posts, you’ll be maximizing your effort, your expertise, and your online branded recognition.
The Benefits of Using a Guest Blogger
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday I posted about 5 ways to come up with blog post ideas. In a discussion on LinkedIn, one of the comments reminded of the idea of using guest bloggers. Not all the time, but as a nice change and a different view on your blog. Our blogs are our voices, and sometimes it’s nice to hear someone else’s voice in your space.
So, what are the benefits of a guest blogger? And as the person who commented asked, what is a guest blogger? How does this work and how does it benefit your blog and your readers?
So, I’m going to basically copy my LinkedIn response. (That whole repurposing thing I love to do so much.)
“Ok, let’s say I know another blogger who writes a lot about time management. She’s probably going to be targeting a lot of the same market I am – this part’s important or it doesn’t really work. So I ask her to write a post for my blog about time management. This is a post that’s not on her site, only on mine. Now she can put a post on her blog about “hey, check out my guest appearance on this blog.” This will benefit both of us.
Of course, her guest post which is now on my blog will have a link back to her own website, so her info is now introduced to all my readers. And her post to my blog is directing all of her readers to my site. So we will both gain new readers, possibly new subscribers through our cross-promotion. And now I also don’t have to come up with a blog post, so I benefit in that way too. That’s one way you can use a guest blogger.
You can also have someone come in who is in the same niche as you, so I could have someone else who writes about social media or online marketing come and do a blog post. Then my readers get to read about something they’re obviously interested in (that’s why they’ve come to my site) but in a different way.”
In a nutshell, that’s guest blogging.
Stay tuned, because over the next couple of posts I’ll talk about ways you can find guest bloggers and how you can be a guest blogger for other blogs. Both are great ways to expand your audience, get more visitors to your website, and increase your “know, like, trust” factor with your target market.
Have a great day!
5 Ways to Generate New Blog Post Ideas
Posted by: | Comments
I’m sitting here this morning, struggling with finding a good topic to write about. I know I’m not the only one, so it comes to me – why not talk about some things you can use to generate ideas for your blog posts.
Ok, so when you’re sitting in front of your computer with absolutely no idea what to write about, what can you do?
1) Set up google alerts for some of your top keywords. Every day you will receive emails with links to other blog posts, news, articles that you can use as inspiration for your own posts. Just remember to actually look at these alerts, otherwise they tend to pile up in your email inbox, and can cause you to feel a little overwhelmed.
2) Subscribe to blogs that provide information that you think readers of your blog would be interested in. Devote a blog post to commenting on one of their posts and link back to the original post. Be sure to give the original blogger the acknowledgement that this is their post – we’re not talking about taking credit for someone else’s creativity. You can add any points you think were missed, explain why you agree or disagree with their post, or just say “Hey, this is a great idea, check it out. I think it gives some great information.”
3) Use your social media networks to generate ideas. Take note of what your connections are talking about that relates to your area of expertise. Ask what people want to learn more about, what questions they have on a particular topic. Conduct a survey. Just paying attention to what people are discussing can be a great way to get your creative thoughts flowing.
4) Use your keywords. Take your keyword list, and see what topics you can work with incorporating those keywords. If you don’t have any keywords, then do some keyword research – just doing the research will start to give you some great ideas on topics to tackle.
5) Repurpose your other materials. If you wrote an article, break it out into 2 or 3 blog posts. If you conducted a teleseminar, turn it into a series of posts. If you made a video, add it as a blog post. If you have an ebook, take some of it and turn it into a post. You get the idea. Make the most of your time, and get as much use out of each creation as you can.
This isn’t really a way to generate a new idea, but it will make your blog posting much easier. Think of it as a bonus:
Plan ahead. Instead of staring at a blank “Add New Post” screen, plan out your posts ahead of time. Obviously, I haven’t made it to this point yet for 2010, but it’s in my schedule of things to do. By picking out topics before hand and having a loose schedule of when you’re going to write about what, you avoid that “Oh my gosh, what am I going to write about today,” feeling that can tend to just freeze up any creativity from happening. Create a list of all the topics that you want to discuss for the entire week or for the whole month, making sure they’re all related to your blog’s theme and they are all interesting to your readers.
How do you come up with new blog post ideas? Please share any unique or interesting ways you get those creative thoughts flowing. I’d love to hear them!
Have a great day!
The Quick Way to Start Your Blog
Posted by: | CommentsNew bloggers spent a lot of time and energy getting things started.
When first starting out with your new blog, a great deal of effort is required to get it “off the ground.”
Think about some of the steps a typical blogger would take during the first few months of creating a new blog:
- Choosing a topic (big one).
- Choosing a platform and design.
- Choosing a name/domain.
- Writing/creating a hundred posts (assuming an average of four posts a week).
- Registering with digg, stumbleupon, twitter, etc.
- Participating in forums.
- Leaving comments/backlinks on other blogs.
- Writing guest posts for other bloggers.
- Registering with directories (such as blogcatalog, mybloglog).
- Spreading the word on social networks (facebook, linkedin, etc).
- Developing a core of followers.
- Setting up a newsletter.
- Printing business cards with your blog address.
- Telling your friends about your new blog.
- Finding appropriate affiliate programs.
These are just a few steps that come to mind. When you think about the cumulative effort, it’s a lot of work.
Maybe this is one reason some blogs never make it very far—some bloggers just don’t realize the initial effort that’s required on the “front end.”
So think about delegating out as many of those initial steps as you can. Obviously, you’ll have to do some of the steps yourself. Like coming up with the topic, choosing the look/feel of the blog, coming up with most of the content. But just think how much time you could save by using a virtual assistant to deal with all of the many other tasks that come along with setting up and promoting your blog. And think of how much time you can free up to work on other activities that will bring more customers and more clients to your business.
Just another idea on what a virtual assistant can do for you!
Have a great day!
