Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Without Traffic Your Content Doesn't Get Read

How to drive traffic to your blog or web site is a hot, hot, hot topic. It goes without saying that if you don't have traffic, your content, no matter how great, is invisible so whether you want organic traffic from search engine results or you want traffic from social networks, you must actively work to get it and there are many tactics you can implement.

At the recent Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems workshop, I shared the stage with Willie Crawford and we did a session on tips and tricks for driving traffic. Willie is a master and shared how he repurposes his articles in numerous ways. 

Coincidentally, I am one of the featured speakers this week at the Ultimate Traffic Generation Telesummit hosted by Melissa Galt. Willie Crawford is also featured as are 12 other online marketing experts. And it's FREE! I'll be focusing specifically on how to drive quality traffic to your blog. 

While I was in Atlanta I had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with Melissa Galt at the gorgeous High Museum. I asked her to tell you about the Ultimate Traffic Generation Telesummit: [click here if you can't see the video]

I hope you'll join me this week at the Ultimate Traffic Generation Telesummit. When you implement just a few of the strategies and tactics you will learn, you will attract more traffic, more leads, more clients and more opportunities!

Related Posts:
21 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Blog

How to Get Your Blog Post Retweeted

Driving More Traffic to Your Blog

21 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Blog or Website

At the recent Niche Affiliate Marketing System event, I had the honor of sharing the stage with the amazing Willie Crawford, a legend in the Internet Marketing world. We did an informal presentation about how to drive more traffic to your sites.  While Willie was doing a presentation on list building, I made a quick list of 21 ways to drive traffic.

We used my list as a starting point and had a great discussion that went nearly 90 minutes (you can get the audio of this session and all the other awesome speakers for only $97). After the presentation, the audience asked for my list. Since it was scribbled on a couple of index cards I promised I would post the list and here it is...

21 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Blog and/or Website

1. Email - send an email to your list when you have a great blog post you want to share.
2. Include a subscription form on your blog - this is for people to subscribe to get blog updates so they return over and over when you publish new content.
3. Twitter - use a plug-in or an application like Twitterfeed.com to syndicate your new content to your twitter stream
4. Facebook - use the Notes application to pull your blog feed into your profile and/or Fan page
5. Video - Distribute your videos on all the video sharing platforms. Include a link back to your blog home page or specific blog posts that are relevant to the content in your video
6. Email courses - include a link to your blog in and invitations to subscribe in your autoresponders for ecourses.
7. Google profile - you MUST set up your profile on Google and include links to your blogs and web sites
8. Article marketing - include a link to your blog in your author resource box.
9. Pay attention to the headlines (blog post titles). Using numbers (see title of this blog post!) usually generates good traffic.
10. Media releases - post releases around the web and include a link to your blog or specific post.
11. Retweet button - include the retweet button from Tweetmeme so it's super simple for your reader to click and share.
12. Share buttons - there are many plug ins and addons to add buttons to share on twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Stumbleupon - find the style that suits you and add it to the footer of your blog posts
13. Guest posting - writing on other people's blogs can attract new traffic and readers to your blog.
14. Bookmarking - use sites like Stumbleupon, Digg and Delicious to share your content - when you have a particularly great post, ask your readers to stumble, digg, etc.
15. LinkedIn - make sure you blog posts are linked to your profile with the blog link application
16. Include a link in your email signature file. If you use web-based email, like Gmail, add Wisestamp so you can include your blog's RSS feed.
17. Comment on other blogs.
18. Submit your blog to directories.
19. Contests can generate a ton of new traffic (see example here)
20. Surveys and polls. People love to give their opinion. Use Polldaddy or SurveyMonkey to ask your readers what they want or their opinion.
21. Last and definitely not least...publish as frequently as possible. The more frequently you post, the more traffic you get because the search engines are indexing your content more frequently.

A lot of other tips and suggestions were discussed in the presentation. I'll be listening to the audio when it's available so I can cull the tips that were not on my list.

And, I would love to get your tips as well. Use the comments below to share your favorite, best tips for driving traffic to your blog or website.

Related:

Many of my Online Visibility Tips focus on how you attract people to your sites. Read. Watch. Implement.

14 Mistakes Many Business Bloggers Make

When I do one on one business blog reviews, I almost always find the same problems. On Sunday I'll be doing blogging hot seat reviews at the Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshop. Here's a list of a few things I'll be looking for when I do the reviews. Study the list and then take a look at your blog. Are you making these mistakes?

Are you making these mistakes on your business blog?

Content

1. Not posting frequently enough.
2. Content is not focused or optimized for the search engines.
3.  Articles are too long. (I know I said there are no rules, and you have to take online reader behavior into account)
4.  Not linking profusely to sources.
5.  Headlines are not optimized for search engines & status updates

Design

6.    No name of author on the blog home page.
7.    No author photo.
8.    No subscription form; no way to get blog updates through RSS or email.
9.    Readers can't leave comments or have too many hoops to jump through.
10.  Too many categories or none at all.

Marketing

11.    Blog isn't listed in blog directories.
12.    Blog posts are not being syndicated to social networking sites.
13.    There's no call to action to buy your product & services.
14.    No author contact information.

What other mistakes have you seen on the blogs you read? What's your biggest pet peeve on blogs? Mine is not finding the author's name or picture on the home page!

Related:

List of blogging articles if you're getting started or your blog is not performing.

Blogging Hot Seat - Submit Your Blog for A Quickie Blog Review

Want to sit on the blogging hot seat? I'm prepping for my business blogging presentation at the Niche Affiliate Marketing System event on Sunday. First I'm giving a presentation about blogging, then I'm conducting a one hour blogging hot seat where I will review 2-3 blogs (22 blogs were submitted for consideration by the participants!) and demonstrate how they can be improved and what makes an effective, optimized blog.

You'll be able to "watch" vicariously if you follow the #NAMS twitter stream 10 am - 1 pm ET.

Then I got an idea (actually it was inspired by a conversation with my colleague Rachna Jain) to offer Build a Better Blog readers a gift -- an opportunity to get a quickie blog review... I guarantee I can find 3-5 things on your blog that can be improved so you get better results.

Here's the deal.

If you would like to be considered for a quickie blogging hot seat review, post your blog URL in the comments section and tell me in 1-2 sentences why I should consider choosing your blog.

I can fit 2-3 blogs into my schedule.

I will do a 5-10 minute screencast video of the blog review.

One condition: You must agree to let me post the review on this blog and share it on video distribution sites so I can demonstrate for others how they can also improve their blogs. Without your permission to use the review in public, your blog will not be considered. I think think that's fair, don't you? After all, the investment for a one on one 75 minute blog review with me is $497 and I'm going to gift you real, usable feedback for free!

Plus, the blogs I review will get a lot more visibility which may give you a boost in traffic and the possibility of attracting new readers.

OK, wanna play? I will make my selection next week when I'm back in the office after my Atlanta trip. I'll notify the bloggers I select and confirm your agreement to let me share the blog review in public and then I'll schedule and let you know the next steps.

Submit your blog now!

[FYI - Comments are moderated so your submission will not show up immediately. Patience. :-) ]

5 Steps to Social Media Success - Video

I couldn't resist sharing this video on Social Media in 5 Steps by John Marshall Roberts. Thanks to my colleague Mike Jay for passing it along.

Really, it's very simple to be successful using social media for your business. Just watch, and you'll see how easy it is! ;-)

Anything missing? I think this video covers it all: monitor the conversation, build your platforms, be social 24/7, stay on top of it and track your results, repeat daily. What else is there???

Do You Have an Online Visibility Action Plan? This Sample Schedule Could Help You

In my daily conversations and email exchanges with clients and potential clients, the issue of time always crops up (as I've noted in many previous posts). I'll spare you the "make time!" rant. If you want to watch the video, it's here.

Creating visibility for your business requires consistent, constant effort. Whether it's you or a VA or a combination of both, you've got to be publishing content as frequently as possible and connecting with people in your community on a regular basis.

You need a Visibility Action Plan. A few months ago I put together a sample visibility schedule for students in a program I was teaching. I also share it with clients and new students as a guide to demonstrating how you can proactively build your online platform by focusing on frequency and consistency across sites to build your visibility.

If you're struggling with how to manage your time and build your online visibility, as my gift to you today, I'm giving you this sample visibility plan so you can get on the right track.

Download Sample Online Visibility Schedule (Right click on link to save to your computer.)

This schedule shows you what to do with a minimal time commitment of 1 hour a day or 5 hours per week, Monday through Friday. That's not a lot of time to devote to your online marketing. Keep in mind, more time invested is always better and will get you better results. However, this is a great start.

Do you have an online visibility plan? If so, what does it look like and what kind of results is it generating for you?

How to Get Your Blog Post Retweeted

It goes without saying that in order for your blog to be successful...convert readers to clients...you need consistent, constant, compelling content. And, you need traffic.

If you're following my Online Visibility Secrets program or have attended any of my teleseminars or programs, then you know I adamantly insist that you connect your blog to your twitter stream so your posts are auto-tweeted when you publish.

On twitter, one goal of many entrepreneurs and marketers is to get their tweets retweeted (like forwarding an email). A great tweet can quickly go viral, reaching a much wider audience than you may currently have. This can generate new followers, clicks through to your website/blog, new leads and new prospects.

A great goal then is to get the tweets with links to your blog posts retweeted.

Poll - Do you moderate blog comments?

For nearly six years I have resisted comment moderation on my blogs. My feeling is that when you add moderation you are putting up a barrier between you and your readers. The reader has taken time to comment and then there is no immediate gratification to seeing the comment live on your blog. They have to wait until you get around to reading and approving it.

Yet, I am sooooooooo sick of spam comments. You know the ones I'm talking about. Where the bot or low paid commenter uses a name like "London SEO" or "Directory Submission" or "ecommerce856" and writes something like: great post i learning lots from blog keep up blogging. 

I'm seriously considering going to moderated comments because I'm getting 5-10 of these types of comments every day on both blogs. I'm seriously tired of them showing up on my blogs until I have time to delete them and mark as spam. Hear that? I mark these types of comments as spam and block the ISPs. A lot of spam comments never get through due to pretty good spam filters, but enough do get through to ruin the experience for me and readers who get NO value from comments like these.

What do you do? Here's a quickie poll. I'd love to know how you handle these types of comments and how you feel about comment moderation, both as a publisher and a blog reader.

Tip:If you don't want your comment deleted, use your real name and add real value to your comment. You may get a response and the ensuing discussion will be more relevant and interesting.

End rant. Thanks for taking the poll and sharing your thoughts about comment moderation.

Are You Crushing It with a Blog?

Do you have a blog for your business? I'm frequently surprised by the number of people I meet who do not yet have a business blog, even though it's one of the most powerful online marketing tools you can use. Even Gary Vaynerchuk says so in his book Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion. [aff link]

Ok, I admit I'm a little late to this party. I only just recently read Gary's book. Having heard and seen Gary speak, I definitely wanted to get his take on how to make a living doing what you love. While much of the book is devoted to passion and DNA and success mindset, it's the "how to" that caught my attention.

Gary Vee (as he's known online) is a loud proponent of using the web to build your personal brand and monetize your passion. Through out he pounds it in to the reader (and I swear I could hear his voice as I was reading) that all you need once you've identified your passion, is a domain name, a blog, a Facebook fan page, a twitter account, an inexpensive video camera (I recommend the Flip [aff link]) and be willing to create a ton of content.

I can't argue with that. But why do you need a blog? Why not a website? As Gary says,

Think of it this way: your website is for communicating logistics and facilitating sales; your blog is for communicating the essence of your brand.

I like that..."communicating the essence of your brand." And the vehicle for communicating your essence is through text, video (Gary's medium of choice - check out his wildly popular wine blog, Wine Library.tv) and audio. You need a home base for your content and your blog is it. A blog also increases your findability factor exponentially over a static website (search engines love the fresh content blogs provide) and they're easier and cheaper to set up and maintain.

Gary gives you a simple, inexpensive starting point. Once you get comfortable with the tools, you can begin to leverage your blog and myriad opportunities for building your personal brand on the web and boosting your online visibility beyond Facebook and twitter.

If you're looking for a blast of motivation and quick steps to get started, you'll enjoy Gary's passion and enthusiasm for business, the Web and playing big.

Related:

Start here if you're new to blogging...

How to Get the Best Out of Your Blog

5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success

Business Blogging Tip: There Are No Rules for Blog Posts

In this business blogging tip video, I address one of the most frequent questions I get about blogging: how long should my blog posts be? As you can see by the title of this post, I propose there are no rules, but there are best practices and share a couple of tips in the video. [Click here if you cannot see the video.]

Ready to learn more insider tips to boost your online business? Check out my 26 week Online Visibility Secrets program. It's a self-study course delivered to you each week by email with one lesson and an easy action step. By implementing simple steps every week you'll boost your online visibility and start generating more traffic, more leads, more clients and more opportunities for your business.

Blog on!

Related Post:

How to Find Content for Your Business Blog