|
Sail your way to better blogging
1. Don't swim out too far. Your blog topics should be relevant to your
business and industry. If you're having difficulty coming up with ideas, there are many resources available: keyword research tools, Google's auto-suggestions, Yahoo answers, Twitter trends and ezine articles can all spawn ideas. Review your website analytics to identify terms used by your visitors. Once you identify topics of interest, set up email alerts to keep a flow of fresh ideas to your in-box.
2. Bring something different to the picnic. Pretend you are at a neighborhood get-together. Express your personality; be engaging, informal, direct and articulate. Don't be afraid to be bold or to take a stand on an issue; have something interesting to say. If you need a break from blogging, seek out guest bloggers who can offer a fresh viewpoint.
3. Hook your catch. Start with a catchy post title to encourage readers to click the link to your blog. Include a hook in your introductory paragraph to inform, educate, or entertain your readers. Use a powerful quote, solve a problem, provide tips, lists, or how-to's. Or, offer a little-known piece of information to demonstrate that you have valuable information to share.
4. Play ball. Your post is more than likely part of a larger conversation on the web. Share your knowledge but also interact with and respect the opinions of those in your niche. Link to related posts by credible sources and comment on their posts. Also link to relevant content on your website and to your own related past posts. Encourage reader comments and respond to each thoughtfully and promptly.
5. Make a splash. Readers scan content. Use formatting tools such as font styles, bullets, and layouts to improve the user experience. Take advantage of interesting (and relevant) visuals including videos, photos, infographics, charts and tables. The look and feel of your blog template should echo your website and be consistent with your brand.
6. Ride a tandem bike. Integrate your blog with your website, either as a page on your s ite (yoursite.com/blog) or as a subdomain (blog.yoursite.com). Consider including a blog feed on your home page, to gain visibility for your blog. Set up your blog landing page to include teaser content to your current and recent posts, and include a blog signup on the landing page. Provide ways for users to search archived posts by date, category, tag or topic.
7. Play tags. Most blogging software includes plug-ins to automatically append one of your tags if a post contains that specific word. Manage your tags: add new tags for related keywords and avoid creation of duplicate keywords with the same root word. Don't forget to also use blog categories, which are more general than tags.
8. Ride the waves. Establish and maintain a blogging cadence. Use an editorial calendar to schedule some topics in advance. Also include opportunities to reference seasonal events and newsworthy items. Create several evergreen posts that can be used when the unforeseen happens and you don't have time to create a new post as scheduled. If you can't commit to blogging every week or two, consider use of an email newsletter instead.
9. Reel 'em in. You're blogging to get visibility for your business, but consider your deeper goals -- Do you want more email newsletter signups? Workshop attendees? Social media followers or blog comments? Is there a product that you are specifically promoting? Include a call to action that is relevant to the content of the post. If your goal is to increase readership, ask readers what other topics are of interest.
10. Water the garden. Use the power of the web to get visibility for your blog post. Add widgets and social sharing icons to enable readers to easily share your post; use software apps to distribute your posts to search engines and to automatically publish each new post on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. And don't rely strictly on automated sharing: post to LinkedIn Groups and Answers, add to your profile on sites like Squidoo and Merchant Circle, and share it in relevant communities, forums, and discussions online.
|
