I often run blogging workshops and it's great to educate new bloggers or re-enthuse flagging ones!
You can't all come along of course, so here are the 23 key things you need to bear in mind for a great blogging experience!
1. You need to align your business goals with the activity i.e. what do you want your blog to deliver?
3. You should publish your blog on the same domain as your website - otherwise the improved SEO is not applied to your business website. Your blog should be bait for your website.
4. Don't bang on about you, your products, your services and how great you are. This should be educational and thought provoking content so perhaps how to do's, what's new, best practices and so forth
5. You must post on a consistently regular basis
6. Don't confuse your readers by constantly going off topic and publishing things that are not central to your business - but do include things that give some insight to you as a person.
7. Why not vary your content? Blogs do not only support the written word - think about video, (I love Animoto for this - check out my toe-tapping postcard gallery!) audio, infographics, cartoons, etc
8. Your blog should not be a one way street. Think "telephone" not "megaphone"
9. Don't forget to identify your keywords in terms of topic, titles and content
10. It's great if your blog looks pretty but it also has to drive people in terms of your business objectives - getting more people to request your newsletter perhaps? (you can sign up for mine and get a free social media etiquette book here!) Don't forget those all important calls to action.
11. Make sure your blog load time is not too slow, we are an impatient bunch these days.
12. Please don't rush your post titles, in copywriting terms headlines are the most important part of the job. A good title will be the difference between a lot of visitors and very few.
13. Back your headline up with a great image - it's an "attention economy" out there.
14. You don't need to think up content all by yourself - ask trusted experts to provide a guest post; talk to your sales and marketing teams about whether they have any suggestions, take a lead from readers'comments, look at trending topics on Twitter and industry news.
15. Your blog is the hub of your social media activity so use other social networks to drive people to your latest posts and don't forget to make it easy for readers to promote you by adding social media share buttons to your blog site
16. Don't forget to mention your blog off line - on your business cards, your marketing literature, within your e-mail signature etc.
17. Follow other bloggers both in your sector and those who are blogging/social media experts. They will keep you up to speed with new plug ins, new ideas and things to avoid.
18. Please please make sure you proof read your posts before you press "Publish"
19. Why not get in touch with your followers proactively via an e-mail or e-newsletter? There's no point generating leads if you're going to do nothing with them...
20. Respond to comments quickly and fully and thank your contributors
2. You need a clear vision of your target audience - what are their passions and their challenges. Remember WIIFM - what's in it for me? (In terms of your clients and potential clients)
3. You should publish your blog on the same domain as your website - otherwise the improved SEO is not applied to your business website. Your blog should be bait for your website.
4. Don't bang on about you, your products, your services and how great you are. This should be educational and thought provoking content so perhaps how to do's, what's new, best practices and so forth
5. You must post on a consistently regular basis
6. Don't confuse your readers by constantly going off topic and publishing things that are not central to your business - but do include things that give some insight to you as a person.
7. Why not vary your content? Blogs do not only support the written word - think about video, (I love Animoto for this - check out my toe-tapping postcard gallery!) audio, infographics, cartoons, etc
8. Your blog should not be a one way street. Think "telephone" not "megaphone"
9. Don't forget to identify your keywords in terms of topic, titles and content
10. It's great if your blog looks pretty but it also has to drive people in terms of your business objectives - getting more people to request your newsletter perhaps? (you can sign up for mine and get a free social media etiquette book here!) Don't forget those all important calls to action.
11. Make sure your blog load time is not too slow, we are an impatient bunch these days.
12. Please don't rush your post titles, in copywriting terms headlines are the most important part of the job. A good title will be the difference between a lot of visitors and very few.
13. Back your headline up with a great image - it's an "attention economy" out there.
14. You don't need to think up content all by yourself - ask trusted experts to provide a guest post; talk to your sales and marketing teams about whether they have any suggestions, take a lead from readers'comments, look at trending topics on Twitter and industry news.
15. Your blog is the hub of your social media activity so use other social networks to drive people to your latest posts and don't forget to make it easy for readers to promote you by adding social media share buttons to your blog site
16. Don't forget to mention your blog off line - on your business cards, your marketing literature, within your e-mail signature etc.
17. Follow other bloggers both in your sector and those who are blogging/social media experts. They will keep you up to speed with new plug ins, new ideas and things to avoid.
18. Please please make sure you proof read your posts before you press "Publish"
19. Why not get in touch with your followers proactively via an e-mail or e-newsletter? There's no point generating leads if you're going to do nothing with them...
20. Respond to comments quickly and fully and thank your contributors
21. Make it easy for your readers to navigate to popular posts and older valuable content. Do this by tagging and cross referencing your complementary posts in terms of links
22. Remember to analyse what's happening on your blog. Which posts worked and which didn't in terms of attracting visitors. Did a particular end sentence encourage comments? Are you getting sign ups for your newsletter or new customers?
23. Don't expect overnight success - like all things marketing this requires sustained and focused effort. (sorry about that!)
It's your turn: Can you help me make it 24 things? Have you done anything in particular which drove your blogging success? Have you any tips you could share with novice bloggers? Which blogging experts do you keep an eye on?
If you're into blogging you might also enjoy How to write a blog post which engages
22. Remember to analyse what's happening on your blog. Which posts worked and which didn't in terms of attracting visitors. Did a particular end sentence encourage comments? Are you getting sign ups for your newsletter or new customers?
23. Don't expect overnight success - like all things marketing this requires sustained and focused effort. (sorry about that!)
It's your turn: Can you help me make it 24 things? Have you done anything in particular which drove your blogging success? Have you any tips you could share with novice bloggers? Which blogging experts do you keep an eye on?
If you're into blogging you might also enjoy How to write a blog post which engages
Thanks to futureshape on Flickr for the image!
I must say your points to maintain blog is really outstanding and helpful. This is something I was looking for since I am into this business. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome!
Delete