Archive for About Blogs – Page 3

10 Great Things for 2014:
My Business Blog Gratitude List

thank youYou may have heard me say it before – my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.  It’ a fairly big holiday in the U.S., and a great way to celebrate gratitude. This year, I updated my gratitude list, and perhaps you can relate and it will inspire you to make up your own list.

I’m grateful for (in no particular order):

  1. Business blogs that make it easy to stay informed and connect with others
  2. LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook that make it easy AND fun to build communities!
  3. Shopping cart systems like Kick Start Cart that make it easy to build a database list that’s easy to segment, broadcast messages, and seamlessly process registrations and purchases
  4. Google that makes it easy to do research and locate information and people
  5. SEO tools like Scribe, that make it easier to optimize blog posts for better search engine results
  6. Smart Internet marketers who by their clever ideas light the way and show us what’s possible
  7. Stupid Internet marketers who show us what not to do
  8. The 2.8 billion people connected to the Internet world-wide, some of whom participate and contribute
  9. All the geeks behind the scenes who continue to develop software and hardware for the rest of us
  10. All of our clients who have invested their confidence and time with us to learn better online marketing. Thanks so much for reading. Thanks for subscribing. Thanks for the occasional comments, tweets and re-tweets. You make my life so much more interesting. It’s a privilege to write here for you. You keep me on my toes, reading, learning, writing.

I wish you the best for Thanksgiving and for the end-of-the-year festivities in your own countries!

 

Top 5 Content Marketing Blog Aggregators

5 Best BlogsHave you created a list of your top 10 blogs?  If not, you’re missing out on opportunity to improve your search rankings.  It’s easy, smart and can help your business blog get inbound links.

I’ve talked about creating your own Top 10 lists before, and it still makes sense, even more so given the way SEO works today. Besides providing valuable, relevant information for your readers, you also: Read More→

Scannable Blog Posts:
Is Your Web Content Worthy of a Once Over?

Business-Blogging-Content-MarketingIs your web content worthy of a once over? Do your readers find it attractive – that is, easily scannable and interesting? If not, you are missing opportunities to connect with your readers and make a lasting impression.

Last week I posted that quality web content is short, sweet, smart and funny. Here is a great example that I found over on toprankblog.com, and I want to share it with you: Read More→

Blogging Tips: Unique Ideas to Boost Your Blog

Ideas to Boost Your BlogI feel like we hear a lot of the same blogging tips over and over again. While it is definitely useful to know your blogging basics and how to boost readership, how about we change it up a little and offer some ideas on how to boost your blog in ways that you’ve maybe not thought about before?

Here are a few ways that you can get new (and old) eyes on your blog and keep them engaged. Read More→

Great Blog Content: What Makes You Mad?

DrivenIf you want to write great blog content, tap into what makes you mad. Or, what makes your readers mad? Either way, we don’t get mad about things we don’t care about.

Great blog content is always about what your readers care so much about it keeps them up at night. It makes them angry. Blood-boiling, foot-stamping, screaming mad! Read More→

The ABC’s of Great Blogging:
Be Original and Offer Insight

Image of young pretty woman changing realityWhen it comes to content marketing and great blogging, insight and originality rules.

According to the authors of Content Rules:

“Produce great stuff, and your customers will come to you. Produce really great stuff, and your customers will share and disseminate your message for you. More than ever before, content is king! Content rules!” ~ Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars and More that Engage Customers and Ignite Your business (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011).

This works, but it’s a lot of work. If you’re a coach, consultant, or service professional, say a doctor, therapist, lawyer, financial adviser, or health expert, you need to create content that will help your clients. You need to become a trusted resource for insights, and a go-to curator of tips and information to be helpful to people who are interested.

And you need to create strong feelings around your published content so that people will take action and keep coming back. You need them to subscribe, to sign up, to download, to ask you questions and engage with you so they become clients when they are ready. Read More→

Content Marketing: How do you know if it’s working?

different people on 3d abstract stairsHow do you know if your content is working for you? Everybody says they want more traffic, but quite frankly, traffic stats leave me scratching my head and saying “Okay, that’s nice…and so what?”

Maybe it’s because I’m not an analytical type, I prefer big picture thinking and gut feelings and intuition. But if I had a metric I could look at and be able to tell if my content is working, i.e. having an impact on readers, then maybe I’d become more analytical.

You know how those yearly physical exams give you a print out of your lab test and tell you if you’re in the “normal” range or not? Why can’t we have a report for our blogs? Or for e-newsletters? Or for overall Web content marketing?

On Monday mornings, for example, you log into your “Content Marketing Impact” account and get a free print out of how well your content has impacted readers:

  • Blog…82%
  • E-newsletter …75%
  • Articles…56%
  • Landing pages…
  • White Paper…
  • Free Report… etc. etc.

Read More→

5 Goals for Your Blog & Website…
and One Big Challenge

A venn diagram showing dreams overlapping with reality to illustWhat goals have you identified for your blog and website? What do you want your blog to do for your business? No really, it’s not as obvious a question as it might at first appear.

I’ve been working with executive coaches and consultants for well over fourteen years now, helping them improve how they show up on the Web. In that time, I’ve seen a number of changes to the way websites look and function. It doesn’t matter if you use a traditional website, or a blog, or a blog as a website, the principles are the same.

Yet many professionals aren’t clear about their content marketing goals; their website and blog goals and expectations are vague. I made some notes for one client and thought I’d share them with you here.  I came up with 5 goals your site should strive to accomplish in the first minute or two. One of them is a big challenge… Read More→

Simplify Your Blog Writing:
Shortcuts to Publishing a Leadership Blog

mazeHow’s your blog writing going? Snap, crackle and publish? Or are you a little blocked, maybe even constipated?

Do you feel dread and overwhelm when it’s time to post on your blog?

You may offer great solutions and services for your clients, but if you don’t simplify your blog writing tasks and publish frequent, compelling content, you won’t get great content marketing results.

In a blog post last week I shared that the two most common statements I hear about blogging are: Read More→

Content Marketing by Blogging: Consistency is the Name of the Game

Woman playing tennis on court outdoors with racket in her hand

Content marketing through blogging is like playing tennis. You get results through consistency, practice and persistence.

Is your blog like my tennis, a hit or a miss? Are you writing posts that are clear winners for your readers? Are you serving quality, relevant content within the lines of your readers’ needs?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently returned from tennis camp in Texas. It was great: I played good tennis, and all the players that were there were good. As my playing improved through the week, I thought of how it applies to content marketing– specifically, blogging.

Persistence and control is the name of the game. My weak spot can be impatience: if I get impatient in a rally, my energy turns to aggression, and I’ll end the point with a whopping drive… clear out of the court.

I know people who blog like that. They write 600-900 words every few weeks, then wonder why they aren’t getting search traffic.

Blogging for your business doesn’t work that way. Steady as you go, writing at least twice a week, at least 350 words, focusing on the keywords that drive results for your business, mixing information with stories, always keeping the reader in mind. Read More→