Relationship Marketing 101: Blogging and Inbound Marketing
05 2010 Monday
24
By John Zajaros in Blogs & Podcasts
One of the most effective inbound marketing strategies available for businesses, online and offline, both in terms of cost of implementation and in overall return on investment (ROI), is blogging. Why has business blogging become so important as an inbound marketing strategy? There are a variety of reasons. Blogging is conversation, it’s personable, and it’s informative. Blogging is attractive for both online and offline (i.e., brick and mortar) businesses because consumers (i.e., customers, clients, and patients) feel they are being told a story rather than sold a product or service; and, no one wants to be “sold!”
Significantly, clients and prospective clients become part of the conversation by reading the blog posts and leaving their thoughts and feelings in the form of comments.
Who doesn’t like being asked their opinion?
And, what business owner wouldn’t pay big money to know what his target audience is thinking, as well as what they react to and why?
A blog is a great way to show the world your expertise, thus establishing authority and demonstrating your competence in the marketplace and to your target market. People like to do business with business people they know, like, and trust. Prospective clients are drawn to businesses and business people who are experts in their field. Demonstrating competence enhances your image and makes the prospective client feel confident about their decision to purchase from you…you, as the expert in your field.
When properly constructed and implemented, an effective business blogging strategy is an incredibly valuable asset. Blogging for business is crucial, whether the business is entirely online or a combination of both, as is the case with most brick and mortar businesses today.
When organized and well written, a blog conveys the ultimate Internet image, an image that announces:
“This business is well run, this is a business I can do business with!”
A well thought out, well constructed blog, combined with an effective overall inbound marketing strategy, conveys a message, an image if you will, that this business owner is knowledgeable and cares enough to seek feedback about products and/or services offered from his or her clients and prospective clients.
A wise business owner values feedback, realizing there is always room for improvement, both in sales and service. Why not ask for feedback from the very people who use the product or service day in and day out? A blog can accomplish this for a business, creating a link both valuable and, ultimately, profitable. The feedback a blog offers is an often over-looked advantage; and yet, it is an incredibly powerful resource.
Significantly, the proper blogging strategy will provide a window into the thinking of your client-base and create a vehicle you may then use to improve your products and/or service.
The feedback from your business blog will also provide ideas and strategies for new products and services. Interestingly, you may even be able to gain a competitive advantage by learning what your clients and prospective clients like and dislike about your competitors, their products and services. Perhaps it’s a product or service you don’t provide but should? Perhaps it’s something to do with price? The blog provides the vehicle, the opportunities are there; and, it is up to the individual business owner to take advantage of them. A well constructed inbound marketing strategy, one that has at its center a well-thought-out and appropriately implemented blogging strategy, will put your business on track to accomplish all of the above and more.
One last word about inbound marketing, blogs, and blogging for business: photographs, audio recordings, and short videos are worth their weight in gold. If you aren’t the greatest writer, and don’t have the money in the budget to hire a good copywriter, also worth their weight in gold, a photograph or short video can help you tell your business’ story. With today’s technology, a photograph, audio, and/or video is easy to create and it’s often the first item to catch the attention of a visitor to your blog.
It’s worth taking some time each day to blog. Think of it as going out to talk to the man on the street. Think of it as time well spent. You will find it to be a great investment in time and effort, the ultimate in ROI.
What is The Ultimate Internet Image? The ultimate online presence entails merging Internet “inbound” marketing with traditional “outbound” marketing. In doing so UII has created a revolutionary approach to marketing. UII is the next-step, establishing your business as a force in your competitive niche, as well as in your community, online or offline. John Zajaros The Ultimate Internet ImageHow to Get the Maximum Number of Links to Your Blog
05 2010 Wednesday
19
By Debbie Everson in Blogs & Podcasts
It is every blogger’s dream: to be read by as many people as possible. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Several things have to fall into place to capture that wide audience.
First is to get the word out that your blog exists, second is to hold visitors’ interest in what they are reading, third is to make them return for more, and fourth is for them to start referring you to others.
That is why when SEO marketers sit down with blog owners to talk about increasing audience viewership, one of the strategies they instantly recommend is to build as many links to the site as possible.
Just how does link building equate to a wide captive audience?
The equation goes something like this: links to your blog from other sites generate referral traffic and increase your blogs’s Google page ranking.
The former is possible when users go to another site and click on the link from that site to your blog. The second is when Google’s search algorithms consider the links to your site as a vote of referral from the other sites, taking that to mean that you are a site of substance, thereby elevating your page rank. The higher the page rank of your blog means that when users search via Google, your blog will be one of the first ten sites listed on the first page.
Sources of Blog Links
When you commit to link building, there are many sources where you can get these links. Below are a few of them:
- Common-niche blogs, websites, forums, and communities. Visit these sites and drop a comment or two in forum messages and posts. Be helpful by answering questions or offering information. Sign your posts on these sites with a link to your blog site. As your presence in these sites is established, so will your blog site generate more traffic.
- Social networking sites. StumbleUpon and Digg have proven track records in generating traffic to sites, so take advantage of this. Consider other sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well.
- Directory submissions. This technique is still good for link building, but you have to be careful to submit your site to quality directory sites only, because there are many directories out there that turn out to be mere link farms.
More Tools and Tips for Link Building
Link sources may be there for the taking, but the key to success is in actually keeping in mind the following rule-of-thumb:
- Link building takes time. Many sites require webmaster’s approval for links to be established. And with Google suspicious of a sudden increase in links, a slow but sure approach gets the links in the long run.
- Link building means never having to give up. Not all link-building efforts strike gold – moderators and webmasters may disapprove of your posts, or remove your link signatures, or worse, consider you spam. Continue your link-building and don’t get discouraged.
- Link to quality sites. Although they are more discriminating in whom to give their links, links from quality sites are worth more than low-ranked sites.
- Create quality content. Interesting and useful content gives your link requests a higher chance of being accepted and your blog linked to by other sites.
Successful link-building for your blog generates referral traffic and increases your blogs’s Google page ranking. The result? A bigger blog readership than ever before.
Debbie A. Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, experienced SEO Consultants and Search Engine Optimization Agency to over 2,000 small businesses. Read my SEO Blog for hints and tips. Follow me on Twitter @searchmar. Call 1.866.885.6263 to speak to one of our SEO Consultants and receive your free consultation.How To Automatically Install WordPress Plugins
05 2010 Tuesday
18
By Philip Light in Blogs & Podcasts
WordPress plugins give you an amazing ability to extend the power of WordPress. You can easily install and start using any of the thousands of plugins to bring a wide assortment of functionality to your website. There are plugins for e-commerce, SEO, banner ads, Analytics, managing your users, integrating with email lists, showing galleries of images, embedding audio or video, and on and on and on.
Check out the repository of free WordPress Plugins at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/. There are also a number of premium (paid-for) plugins that you can by searching Google for “WordPress plugin” plus a keyword describing what you are looking for.
But they don’t do you any good if you aren’t using them! The good news is that finding and installing WordPress Plugins couldn’t be easier. In this How-To article, we’re going to take a step-by-step look at how you can find and automatically install plugins directly from within WordPress. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Log Into WordPress
Go to your WordPress Admin Center just like you would if you were going to add a new page or post and login as an administrator.
Step 2: Go To the Plugins Tab
This will bring up a list of all the plugins that are already installed. You may find a couple in there called ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘Askimet’ even if you never downloaded a plugin before, those come pre-installed with WordPress. At the top of this page you will find a “Add New” button that you can click to start searching for the plugin you want to include.
Step 3: Find Your Plugin
If you are looking for a specific plugin, then you can just search for the name of the plugin. You can also search more general terms to try to find a plugin for a particular need you have on your site. For example, let’s look at the Exclude Pages plugin. This simple, but endless useful, plugin lets you create pages that do not appear in your typical navigation. This is great for creating pages such as a Thank You page (for after someone submits a contact form for instance) where it doesn’t make sense to have visitors navigating directly to. To find this plugin, just search for “Exlude Pages” and you it should be at the top of the list.
Step 4: Install the Plugin – Automatically!
Under the “Actions” column you will find a link called “Install”. Click that link to see more information about that plugin and to install it. You’ll want to make sure that the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress, though plugins will generally work fine for later versions as well. You’ll also want to check that the Average Rating is pretty decent, that the plugin has been downloaded a significant amount of times, and that they plugin author updates the plugin somewhat regularly. These are all good signs that the plugin is still actively maintained and should work without any problems.
When you are ready to install the plugin simply click the Install Update Now button. This will automatically start the process of downloading and installing the plugin into your WordPress. You just need to click the “Activate Plugin” link to start using the plugin.
Step 5: Use the Plugin
Different plugins are controlled in different ways. Most of them will create a new option under Tools or Settings to control the plugin options, others will create their own tab in the Admin Center, and some just add a new option somewhere within the Admin Center. In our example using the Exclude Pages plugin, we can navigate to a page via Posts > Edit (or Add New) and see the new Panel called ‘Exclude Pages’ where you can click the checkbox to either include or exclude that page from the general navigation. Simple!
It’s that easy. You can now search through the thousands of available plugins to add all kinds of functionality to your WordPress site. Did in and have fun!
Philip Light is the founder of the WordPress WebKit. We’re here when you need help with WordPress. Learn from our WordPress Video Tutorials, Guides and Resources or use our Professional Services when you need a helping hand from a WordPress Professional.
WordPress Features
04 2010 Friday
30
By Anton Pearce in Blogs & Podcasts
The online world is constantly shifting and changing, from the introduction to blogging software like WordPress to the advent of social media marketing. Our entire way of interacting with each other as people is changing as a result of the Internet and its ever changing software platforms.
The Evolution of WordPress
As blogging has become more and more popular, new, web-based, free software like WordPress has appeared on the scene. The WordPress code is accessible by any developer who wants to build a product that works with WordPress. The original platform b2\cafelog has evolved well past the simple blogging functions that it originally encompassed. Since all of the code is open source it has evolved even more quickly than it would otherwise have.
WordPress has turned into a content management, CMS, system, which is software that makes, manages and edits content for a website. The website can be a blog, or it can be any type of website, and WordPress can power the site. One of the great things about using WordPress to update your site content is that you do not need any special programming skills like HTML or PHP. It is the ultimate system of templates, and it is highly customizable.
The website owner can rearrange the site at will, and can easily add pages, logos, shopping carts and most importantly content. It is easy to build entire, functional websites using WordPress at the core. The website owner can easily update copy and add function to their page without redoing the entire site.
WordPress Highlights and Features
The underlying base of WordPress is a system of themes that makes it incredibly easy to build a site whether it is a blog or a retail site. The site creator can update the look and feel of the website as frequently as the wish quickly and easily. It also offers link management, article indexing, blogging, text formatting filters and multiple author support for blogs. It works with services from other blog sites, and it supports Pingback and Trackback. You can also import your content from another blog.
It also offers security like spam checkers and blacklist for user registration and visitor comments, and it also offers password protection for some of the posts. Not only does it offer a wide variety of basic functions, but you can add on literally hundreds of plug-ins that are compatible with the software.
WordPress Goes Professional
Even though WordPress began as an individual communication tool, it has demonstrated that it also has a lot to offer the business world. Because it is simple to use, and it makes content management so easy, a business has lower overhead with less time being spent on the maintenance and creation of a company website. WordPress’ roots are in blogging and this feature gives businesses a way to engage their customers.
Blogging also lets companies hear from their customers, and feedback can be worth its weight in gold. By being able to keep content fresh with easy blogging capability, WordPress lets companies keep their search engine rankings high because the website is always being updated with fresh content.
So if you have an idea of a website that you would like to launch on the internet, but you do not have any technical skills, you may want to consider starting your own WordPress blog. It is easy to use, easy to install, and easy to customize for anything that you want to publish on the web.
For a free, no-obligation consultation, contact Anton Pearce via www.antonpearce.com Set aside just 30 minutes and discover how you can use online marketing to get all the clients you need to fill your practice. Anton is an online marketing consultant who specializes in helping health and wellness professionals to market their services online.
Most Common Blogging Mistakes You Need to Avoid
04 2010 Thursday
29
By Luie De Von in Blogs & Podcasts
Promoting an online business can be easy if you know the tools and techniques to use. One effective way used by internet marketers is blogging. How can you make your online marketing through blogs more effective? Below are ten blogging mistakes you should know to help you avoid committing them:
1) Not being committed
If blogging is just your past time, then you can get away with blogging whenever you feel like it. But if you’re blogging is part of your online marketing technique, commitment is important. See to it that you give time to blogging on a regular basis.
2) Not getting any help
If you’re maintaining a blog for marketing online, consider getting some assistance. Trying to update and optimize your blog alone can a difficult job especially if you have other tasks to attend to. Have another person, or better yet, a team to help you attend to your blogging tasks.
3) Not targeting an audience
Niche blogging is surely the way to go. If your blog is not targeted to a particular niche or audience, it would be too difficult to get the traffic you want.
4) The lack of passion
In reality, if your main purpose for blogging is just to sell your ads, then this won’t take you very far. People will instantly see right through you if your blogs are all about commercials. An Adsense ads on your blog without quality content cannot give you a more positive result.
5) Not being original
Some bloggers rely solely on news feeds from other sources. However, if people can read the same content in your blog that they can find from other places, they will not be convinced to subscribe to your blog. They may not even bother to re-visit you.
6) Not analyzing your website traffic statistics
Your web stats can tell you a lot of information. It can tell you which page of your site most readers like, it can tell you which days you receive more visits, where you hits are coming from, what type of readers go to your site and other important details.
7) Not making the needed changes
Don’t be contented with just the same layout, the same content, and the same structure on your blog. If something’s not working, then have the initiative to make some changes. The adage “there’s always room for improvement” also applies to blogging.
Not editing your posts
If you don’t have time to do the editing or you don’t have the editing skills, it is best to hire an editor to do it for you. The role of an editor is to make sure that your posts are free from grammatical errors, typos and punctuation mistakes. It will make your blog more credible and professional.
9) Not using RSS feeds
RSS feeds allow people to get updates from your blog. There are many free feeds on the web that you can use. Make sure that your blog has RSS feeds buttons that your readers can simply click on.
10) Not using keywords on your title tags
Without keywords on your titles, it would be more difficult for search engines to find you. On the other hand, keywords on your title tags allow search engine spiders to crawl on your page and categorize your content easily.
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through Postcard Advertising, Marketing Postcard and Business Post Card.5 Blog Post Styles to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
04 2010 Thursday
8
By Clare Swindlehurst in Blogs & Podcasts
Keeping your blog interesting and fresh isn’t just a case of posting regularly, you also need to mix things up and use different styles of posts to keep your readers engaged. Here are five different styles you can try out to make your blog more interesting.
1. The inspection post
One of the easiest ways to make money with your blog is to review products that then pay you a commission for any sales that you make. The inspection post is one where you take a closer look at a product and review it for your readers.
An effective inspection post will cover the positives as well as the negatives. People want to know what’s good and bad about a product before they buy it and the more honest you are the more likely they are to buy the product through your affiliate link.
2. The insights post
Offering insights to your readers is a great way to write an engaging and interesting post. Sometimes you might have a great tip to share that doesn’t warrant a whole article but would make a great short post. Say you blog about cake baking, a useful insights post could be as simple as instructions on how to grease a muffin pan so that the muffins turn out easily. You can add even more interest by making a short video to show your readers how it’s done.
3. The index post
Readers love lists. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 15 Great Ways to Build Traffic to Your Website or the Top 10 Kitchen Utensils Every Baker Needs. Whatever niche you are in you will be able to compile a useful index post. These resource lists are popular because they are easy to scan and can help people find the information they need quickly and easily.
The other great thing about index posts is that they have the potential to go viral. People love to share index posts with their friends via Facebook, Twitter or the other social networking sites, compile a useful list and before you know it you will have a whole new set of visitors.
4. The interview post
Interviews are a great source of interesting and engaging content for your blog. You could offer to interview an expert in your niche, or the author of a useful book. It will take some work to set up the interview as you will need to contact prospective interviewees to ask them to take part. Once they’re on board you simply need to compile an interesting list of questions and ask them to complete the answers by email for publication on your blog.
5. The instruction post
People turn to the Internet when they want to know how to do something. So instruction posts can be really useful. Spend some time in the forums and see what problems people have and then create a blog post walking them through the solution step-by-step. Including screenshots or images can help to get your message across, and videos are even better.
Finally, don’t forget that traffic is the life blood of any online business. To discover 26 ways you can drive targeted traffic to your website without spending a penny visit http://ultimatetrafficmaster.com/ today.c
Podcasting Questions and Answers
03 2010 Sunday
28
By Sharon Housley in Blogs & Podcasts
Podcasting is an up-and-coming and increasingly popular medium for communication. The following are common questions about podcasting, perfect for those just getting started in podcasting as a communication channel…
What Format Should I Record To?
While other formats are supported, MP3 is by far the most common format used for audio podcasts. Unless there is a specific and compelling reason to use a different format, you should stick with MP3 files for audio podcasts.
What Microphones Are Best For Podcasting?
It depends on the type of recording you intend to do. There is a big difference between portable and fixed microphones. If all of your recording will occur in a studio, you can use a fixed microphone and equipment suited to that environment. If you are taking your show on the road, consider whether you want to use a portable directional microphone, or a microphone that will pick up area background sounds.
What Options Exist For Hosting A Podcast?
First, you need to decide whether you intend to host the podcast on your own server, or whether you wish to use a third-party for your hosting needs. If you an opt for a third-party hosting service, you are giving up some control over the podcast file. While you will likely save in hosting costs with a third-party hosting service, you are also at the host’s mercy if they make changes or decide to close their doors.
How Do I Remove Dead Spots From A Podcast?
There are a variety of editing tools available, such as RecordForAll (http://www.recordforall.com ), that allow you to easily edit audio files and remove any unwanted audio segments. Such editing tools usually also include a variety of other handy and helpful editing features such as fading in, fading out, noise reduction, etc.Where Can I Get Sound Effects For My Podcast?
There is a wide array of sound effect portals that contain royalty-free sound effects that are suitable for incorporating into your podcast. Here are just a couple of sources… Digital Sound Effects – http://www.digital-sound-effects.com More on Sound Effects -http://www.powerpoint-resources.com/sound-effects.htm
Where Can I Get Music For My Podcast?
There are also a variety of portals that contain royalty-free PodSafe music, allowing you to incorporate music into your show without having to pay royalties each time the podcast is played. more on
PodSafe Music -
http://www.podcasting-tools.com/where-to-locate-podsafe-music.htmHow Do You Make Your Podcast Ready For Inclusion In Apple’s iTunes Directory?
First, you must modify your podcast so that it includes some special tags that are specific to iTunes. You can use software to create an iTunes-compatible podcast, and the software will automatically encode the podcast feed for you. One such product is FeedForAll, available in both Windows and Mac versions, which can be found at http://www.feedforall.com .
There is also a tutorial that will walk you through the process of setting up an iTunes-compatible podcast – http://www.feedforall.com/itunes-tutorials.htm
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.Blogging Tips for Your Business
03 2010 Tuesday
23
By Anton Pearce in Blogs & Podcasts
Want to be seen as an expert in your field? Starting a blog will help you do just that. Use your blog to build a reputation and reach customers at the same time.
As you begin to blog, start simple since you do not want to announce that all of this is new to you. By simply beginning your blog and adding to it daily, you are creating the foundation for a great, online marketing tool. As you are writing for your blog, remember to keep your content interesting, professional and on point.
If you become frustrated building your blog, keep it to yourself. You do not want to get in the habit of ranting on your blog, nor do you want to be talking sales on your blog. Instead, you want to talk about important developments in your field or niche. So even if you only have one follower, write like the whole world is reading your blog.
Look at other blogs in your field to gain ideas. Then take a look at your site, and see where you need to make improvements. Look at things like your graphics, layout, presentation, content and the actual writing. Is your site interesting, or is it just taking up space? Good content is the key to gaining a blog readership.
Get Creative with your Business Blogging Tips
You can find ready-made templates and hire a writer to give to give your blog a professional polish. So take the time to develop your own look and feel. If you find a blog that you like, do not simply clone it. Look at what other blogs offer, and take the best parts of the design to use on your own blog. Always be on the lookout for things that you can use to improve your blog, and then you will create a blog that is better than any of the ones that you used for inspiration.
If you simply cannot come up with your own idea, then you can start with someone else’s idea and customize the heck out of it. Try to find a customizable theme so you can give your blog its own identity. Change the colors, the proportions and even the font to get it to be as unique as possible. You want your blog to look professional and individual, so you can save time starting with a free theme template, but then make it unique.
Whenever you start a blog, no one will be looking. You can start letting people know about your blog, and in time you will build a readership. It is probably not a good idea to post stats on your site until you actually have at least a few hundred followers. Keep adding content. There more content you have, the bigger your readership will be. There will come a day when you have created a huge body of work, and you will probably also notice that you have developed quite a readership as well.
Changing your stats on your own will hurt your reputation. Let them develop naturally. If you want to build up your numbers and comments more quickly, simply join a couple of forums on your topic, and invite readers to review your blog and leave comments. Offer to do the same for them. This way you may even get some good feedback on ways that you can improve your blog as well. As you begin to get comments, make sure to respond to them where applicable, because you will frequently start a conversation that will keep that reader coming back to check in on you.
Another great way to increase the comments left for your blog is for you to leave various comments on other people’s blogs. Using links will get people to visit your blog. More often than not the owner of the blog will be curious enough to check out your blog, for many of the same reasons that you are visiting their blog. This is a process rather than a one-click solution, however it is very effective. As you are leaving comments, just know that once they are posted they are permanent, so always be professional with your comments
Once your audience is established, you can cut back on your comments, but you should still continue to interact with your blogging community, because it is a synergistic system.
A few simple rules can help you with blogging:
- NEVER alter stats. It is dishonest.
- Showcase your achievements.
- Always be positive and professional with your posts and comments.
- Always respond to reader feedback and thank them for it. Then invite further comment by asking a question.
- Building a blog is a slow process so keep going even when it seems like nothing is happening.
- Keep making regular posts. Even if you do not get comments, eventually you will build an impressive body of work, and visitors will find you.
Blogging is a great way to connect with your customers and readers. It starts out pretty slowly, but if you follow these business blogging tips, in time you will have a full community of followers who look forward to your regular posts.
Anton Pearce specializes in helping you to use internet marketing to get all the clients you need for your practice. Sign up for his highly acclaimed and miraculously free ezine and find out how to turn your website into an automated new client or patient referral generating machine.Hitting Your Stride: Four Keys to Timing Your Blog
03 2010 Thursday
4
By Enzo F. Cesario in Blogs & Podcasts
There are a number of important factors that go into the production of a first-class blog. Quality of content, the layout of the page, how best to integrate video, formal versus informal tone, each of these is a decision that must be made during the creation of the project. That all comes before more esoteric concerns, which include the integration of meta tags, link building, traffic generation, and keyword/SEO implementation.
Yet underlying these important issues is one that many people wrestle with: How often should the thing be updated? Innocuous as it sounds, post frequency is actually vital to the success of any content project, and especially to blogs. Equally, it is a surprisingly complex decision that can involve numerous factors. Time, place, and availability of content all have parts to play in determining just how often you need to update your blog.
Finding the Right Frequency
Blogging is an extension of the principles of marketing. You want to get your content the exposure you feel it deserves, so you market it as best you can to cultivate an audience. This involves doing the legwork and research necessary to act on good information, and testing your ideas while allowing room for adjustment as you work and grow. Chances are you will not hit the right rate of posting immediately, and that is all right as long as you’re prepared to adjust when it’s required.
No single article can cover every eventuality of course, but we can break down a few core principles to get you thinking in the right direction. The key is to consider these ideas and extrapolate from them, using the other lessons you’ve learned, to build a solid, whole-picture approach.
1 – Make content king.
More than almost any other community, web users are keenly attuned to fluff pieces that don’t really say much. This isn’t true for 100% of the community of course, but those who can pick out an airy, pointless piece will almost invariably be sure to point it out, leading to some word of mouth you probably didn’t want. Don’t pick an update schedule that can’t live up to the content you have available. Stick to a schedule that you know you can provide a quality post for, every single time you sign on.
This has a twofold effect. One, it keeps the ‘pressure to post’ at a minimum. Content drives the posting, and you aren’t struggling every third day to come up with more information, or worse to rehash the information you’ve already posted. Secondly, it shows you have respect for the community, and keeps them interested and coming back.
2 – Set the time and day.
Even though the web never sleeps, a great part of the world still functions on a Monday to Friday, 9-5 schedule of sorts. Taking these rhythms into account can help you build the ideal web traffic for your project. For example, a blog focusing on home and family concerns and selling books related to it might not find as much of an audience during traditional business hours as during the time when people are at-home with their families. Granted this is only a rule of thumb, as many people surf the web for their favorite blogs during lunch breaks.
Another part of this element is the Monday-Wednesday-Friday cycle. Many business blogs and publications settle on a three-a-week update schedule, and the MWF routine works out very well for this. They’re all business days, and the schedule covers the start, middle, and end stretches of a workweek.
Of course since this ends up being something of the default, it means that Tuesdays and Thursdays end up with comparatively little content for people to peruse. Sundays suffer a lack of content as well, for the obvious related reasons. If you find yourself preferring less frequent, longer posts, consider a T-Th routine to take advantage of the ‘gap’ between other updates.
3 – Have a conversation.
One of the most interesting contributions to modern marketing is the blog comments section. Every blogging software out there has some feature for allowing or disallowing comments. As we’ve discussed before, consumer input can have an incredible effect on any brand, and blogs are no exception.
Taking advantage of this resource requires a certain amount of patience. Conversations develop in the comments section as people discuss, dispute, and debate the merits of what you’ve posted. In short, you need to not just let this happen, but cultivate the effect. Allow reasonable discussions to grow, and comment yourself on the more relevant points. Let the consumer know their input is being seen, and that you care enough to respond to it. Posting new blog posts too frequently overruns this tendency, and could rob you of vital feedback.
4 – Be nimble.
As we’ve mentioned, you are not likely to get it right just out of the gate. You may bite off too much to chew, or update too infrequently for people to care. Evaluate the data, ask your consumers questions, and be prepared to change as needed. Flexibility is the ultimate survival tool on the web, and your blog will benefit if you approach the affair with an open mind and a willingness to try several approaches. Pick an update schedule, observe it, and then experiment with others until you have the one that best fits your needs.
Enzo F. Cesario is an online brand specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/7 Ways to Encourage More Blog Commenting
03 2010 Monday
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By Bill Wynne in Blogs & Podcasts
Interactive blogs are the most successful and plenty of quality comments is a good indication that your blog is healthy and that it will be successful. There are many reasons why people may not make comments on your blog posts and we will cover a number of ways to make it easier or more attractive for people to leave comments on your blog. Of course this is assuming that you do have a steady flow of traffic to your blog and perhaps even a following of people that appreciate the valuable content that you share. Let’s get started on the 7 ways to get people to leave comments on your blog.
1. Ask for blog comments – Sounds too easy but a lot of bloggers don’t ask for comments and people are not sure they should comment, no one wants to be the first to comment or there is no value in commenting. We will talk more about making commenting valuable for people more in the following points. The end of your post include text or a blog comment icon to stimulate blog commenting or something else that will indicate the desire for leaving comments.
2. Attract numerous people with request – The way you request people to leave a comment will encourage or discourage people from leaving a comment. For example, people love to be a pro and let people know they have something to share because of their ego. Give them the opportunity, ask them to share and let them know when they do share that you appreciate their comments. You can try to leave text like, “What do you think?”, “Do you agree?” or “Are you for or against?” can encourage people to leave comments.
3. Dofollow blog comments – Not all links on the Internet are equal. There are “nofollow” and “dofollow” links. Dofollow links have more value to webmasters because dofollow links are backlinks that search engines will count as popularity to your site and will increase your page rank. On your blog you can change the code so that the links in the comments box are set to “dofollow”. This will attract people to leave comments to get the backlink. This will also attract spammers but if you have something like Askimet or other spam blocker you should not have any problems. The blog software will also allow you to set the criteria on comments so they will only be approved by keywords or other criteria.
4. Get the ball rolling – If you have a friend that follows your posts you can ask them to “get the ball rolling” by making the first comment on your blog post. Once people see the blog post comments they are more likely to leave more comments. Many people don’t want to be the first to leave comments on blogs.
5. Incomplete post - If you are so thorough to cover everything with your post then there really is nothing to share except to say, “Good job” or “Thanks for the post”. Leave something for someone to fill in. Develop the desire to share information and experience. Consider your post subjects as well. Some topics are not the kind that people have opinions about. Choose some hot potatoes in your niche to write about to get people commenting.
6. Blog comments hidden – Is your comments box obvious or do you have to hunt to find it. The layout of some blogs is counter-productive in this aspect and should be corrected.
7. Register to leave comments - If you force registration in order for people to leave a comment you may not get comments. People like to be free to comment and not comment to a registration. With so much spamming online people are hesitant to comment if they have to register.
Implement some or all of these ideas to increase commenting on your blog. Visitors really like to socialize and interact with each other and this will help. I wish you success.
Read more great articles at Bill Wynne’s blog. Get useful ebooks and other gifts for free. Bill has been a successful internet marketer for over a decade. Read articles on Add Comments to Blog and Read more great articles at Bill Wynne’s blog. Get useful ebooks and other gifts for free. Bill has been a successful internet marketer for over a decade. Read articles on Add Comments to Blog and Online Article Marketing
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