Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Blogging for Business Results: Get Your Keyboard Dirty

You can't win the lottery without buying a ticket. You can't get new clients and grow your business with a blog unless you do it right.

This doesn't mean good blog posts: you have to have great blog posts. You have to avoid the bland factor.

But that's not all. Here's a 4-step CODA formula for business blogging success:

1. Great Content- provocative posts optimized with keywords
2. Great Outreaching to others- blogger relationships
3. Great blog Design- the right widgets in the right places
4. Great calls to Action - involve your readers and get results

This is your invitation to join The Blog Squad - Denise and I - in a personal group coaching workshop where we take your blog and improve it for business results. Special offer expires tomorrow, so get some more information here and see if this is something you can use: take your blog to the next level.

Career Coach's Blog Gets a Blog Squad Makeover on Video

"The most important thing I got from the critique was to make my blog posts more personal: to let myself shine through and engage my readers...I've now written some posts that are more authentic and I can already feel the difference."

Career Coach's Blog Gets a Blog Squad Makeover on Video

(San Diego, CA) July 19, 2007 - Joan Schramm is a career coach who helps people find better jobs. Her blog, however, wasn't doing its job of finding new clients for her business.

So she called in The Blog Squad for a blog critique. The Blog Squad is a team of blogging experts in California, Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D. They delivered their blogging advice via screen cast video and Ms. Schramm watched and learned on her computer in Maryland.

Small business bloggers are being scrutinized by the expert eyes of The Blog Squad with their blog rescue services. Ms. Schramm called The Blog Squad when she felt her blog wasn't getting enough traffic: "I wanted a blog critique because I had a sense that I just wasn't 'getting' it with my blog and I didn't know why."

Jory Des Jardins of BlogHer - Video

I've made an effort to get a few video interviews while at BlogHer07 (usually I forget to use my camera). First is with Jory Des Jardins, one of the founders of BlogHer. The others can be found in a BlogHer07 playlist on YouTube.

Back Scratching, Bloggy Style

Whenever The Blog Squad gets an email from a happy client, we smile and high-five virtually. It tickles us pink to think that clients follow our suggestions, and then go get great results. Here's what Henri shared with us:

Denise and Patsi:

I just got a ringing endorsement from Bud Bilanich on his blog – a whole post about my blog from him today!  Check it out at www.CommonSenseGuy.com. I had commented on his blog and written a post on mine endorsing his new book.

As far as I can see, Bud is well respected and getting this kind of virtual ink from him is really valuable.  All this due to your coaching, I might add – connecting to other relevant business blogs indeed builds momentum for my blog.

Henri Schauffler, CEOCoachBlog

 

What are you doing about commenting on other blogs in your field? Has this tactic paid off for you? If so, hit the comment link and let us know.

Blog to Book and Back Again

Greetings from Chicago.  I'm anxiously awaiting the start of BlogHer07 on Friday morning. Just attended a session for speakers and am running off to the speakers' cocktail party shortly. There are nearly 800 people registered for the conference! This promises to be an amazing two days of info and learning.

On Saturday morning I'm moderating a session called Blog to Book and Back Again. For bloggers interested in how to start using your blog to write and market a book, we have a free blog to book 7 step mini e-course to get you started.

While you're here, we invite you to also take our poll to let us know your biggest blogging challenges.

Blog on!

Denise

Blog Content: When Good Isn't Good Enough

I've been pondering this big question: how do you get more bang for your blog?

Obviously, at least from my perspective, it's all about writing great posts. You've got to write relevant, useful, interesting blog posts or your readers won't consistently return or become subscribers. Little traffic means little chance of converting them to clients.

But even good content isn't enough. Lately, with Denise, The Blog Squad has been privileged to critique some blogs for our clients. Most of them have good, relevant, and useful content. And most of them suffer from not enough traffic.

What's missing? Buzz, jazz, pizazz - whatever you want to call it. These blogs, while worthy, are too safe.

Here's what Jim Logan says in his blog post, "Give your prospects and customers something to talk about:"

UK Psychologist Gets Blog Makeover

"Through the blog critique I've learnt to focus the blog on a specific audience to make it more meaningful. I've made a number of improvements - adding pictures, having a more personal page about me, adding my name in full; writing articles focused on my views rather than simply reporting what I read elsewhere, and encouraging comments."

UK Psychologist Gets Blog Makeover on Video from California Blog Squad

(San Diego, CA) July 20, 2007 - Denise Taylor is a UK psychologist who helps people find better jobs. Her blog, however, wasn't doing its job of finding new clients for her business.

So she called in The Blog Squad for a blog critique. The Blog Squad is a team of blogging experts in California, Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D. They delivered their blogging advice via screen cast video and Ms. Taylor watched and learned on her computer in the UK.

Better Business Blogging: 4 Key Areas to Consider

You may wonder, is blogging for my business worth it, or a big fat waste of time?

After the initial blog buzz has faded, if you’re not seeing immediate results, you may find yourself forgetting to post.

Denise and I get really sad when we see a good blog being neglected. And we know it’s frustrating to spend all that time writing on your blog and not see some action.

Sometimes, you can revive your blog with just a few tweaks.

There are four areas you need to pay attention to if you don't want your blog to fail:

Content - You need to write frequent posts with valuable information your targeted audience needs and wants. It's all about strategic use of keywords.

Outreach - The blogosphere is the community of all the blogs and blog readers. If you reach out to bloggers in your niche, you become part of a larger community and connect with more people.

Design - Your blog needs to be easy to use for visitors. Too many widgets, or the wrong kinds of things in your sidebars can confuse readers and distract them. Optimize your blog for its purpose.

Action - At a minimum, you should be asking your readers' for feedback, ideas and comments. Get readers involved.

Content, Outreach, Design and Action:

This is our proprietary 4-point CODA system to take your blog to the next level. When you pay attention to critical elements in each of these areas, you will see improved traffic and improved results.

We don't want you to fail at blogging -- or let your blog fade away. To us, it's like pets being neglected and not getting fed! Well, not quite, but you get the picture.

To learn more about getting business results from your blog, investigate this exclusive teleseminar at www.theblogsquad.net/BBB.

Blog Poll: What's Your Blog Challenge?

What are your two biggest challenges when it comes to your business blog? You probably know by now that business blogging is great, but it's not without its challenges - what marketing tool isn't?

Where do you struggle? The Blog Squad want to know! Use the comments to address issues we may not have covered here.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

San Francisco Chiropractor Boosts Business with Back and Wrist Pain Blog

"We are ¾ of the way done with the blog makeover, and my blog looks 100% better than before, I am posting almost every day, and my blog traffic has increased 500%. It is currently my #1 source of new patients," states Dr. Davis.

San Francisco Chiropractor Boosts Business with Back and Wrist Pain Blog

(San Diego, CA) July 19, 2007 - San Francisco chiropractor Dr. Eben Davis is using a blog to attract clients to his back and wrist pain clinic. His blog, http://www.sfbackpaindoctor.com,  is his number one source of new patients.

He recently engaged the services of The Blog Squad to do an "extreme blog makeover" to improve the blog and help educate potential patients. He now gets five times more traffic to the blog.

Dr. Davis adds, "More importantly, the patients that come from the blog are better educated and seem to get better results. It's a lot of work, but well worth it."