Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

13 Mistakes Authors Make on Their Blogs

I'm prepping for a presentation to about 100 authors at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference later this week. As I was looking at author blogs, I noticed quite a few were missing key elements that would make them a lot more effective so I put together an article for the group about some mistakes authors make on their blogs...

Are you getting results from your book blog? Is it getting harder for you to spend time on your blog because you're just not seeing how it is going to pay off? If so, you're not alone. Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good book blog going.

Make no mistake, blogs are a great tool for building community, interacting with readers, and marketing your book. And, it's not enough to set one up and post occasionally. You have to use it effectively to drive traffic and attract readers.

I've discovered several common mistakes authors make with their blogs. Most aren't using features available with blogging software. Many authors' eyes glaze over with the mention of RSS, pinging, trackbacks and permalinks. Does this describe how you feel? You may be ignoring these things, hoping you don't really need to know.  But you do if you want great results from you book blog.

Here's a list of what I found on a recent trip around the author blogosphere:

Content:

1. Not posting frequently enough.
2. Content is not focused or optimized for the search engines.
3. Articles are too long.
4. Not linking profusely to sources. Links are the currency of the blogosphere.

5 Tactics for Small Business Blog Success - Video Replay

Last week I had the privilege of presenting on TypePad's Small Business Webinar series. My friend and colleague Andy Wibbels hosts the series and I believe there are three more in the series. They are free to attend.

The video replay of Top 5 Tactics for a Successful Small Business Blog is now posted along with a pdf of the slides. I cover five important elements for successful blogging: content, time, traffic, listen, and participate.

I'd love to get your feedback, comments, and questions about small business blogging. Post them here or on the replay page.

Blog on!

How to Use Your Blog To Develop Your Online Brand

Had a great conversation with Barbara Roemer who hosts Success Mastery Radio on Blog Talk Radio. Our topic was how to use your blog to develop (and manage) your online brand.

I discussed why I believe Visibility = Opportunity and why you, as a professional, need to create a brand, or personae, to differentiate yourself from your competitors. We talked about how to monitor your online brand, how to extend your visibility online (what do you think my suggestion was???), and 5+ tactics you can use to create massive visibility online.

Related Posts:

Secret to Filling Your Coaching Groups Audio Replay

How to Dominate the Search Results for Your Name
Online Marketing Needs to Be Consistent and Constant

Online Marketing Needs to Be Consistent and Constant

A recurring theme in my blogging, teleseminars and interviews during the past few weeks is that you've got to be consistent and constant with your online marketing efforts.

Coaches, consultants and other service professionals frequently contact me asking how they can get more people into their programs: group coaching, mentoring and teleseminars.

When we talk, I usually find that it comes down to a few issues. 

1. their marketing is sporadic at best and
2. they have no consistent message

Watch the video to learn the solution to this problem...

I hope you'll join me and WendyY Bailey in our premier program Fill Your Coaching Groups which begins on July 28. Check out the details and the special bonuses we have for you. If you have questions about the program, post them here in the comments or post at my help desk.

Related Posts:

Secret to Filling Your Coaching Groups Audio Replay
How to Dominate the Search Results for Your Name
What's Your Biggest Challenge Around Creating an Online Presence?

Blogging Programs - Recordings from Last Week's Events

This past week I taught three business blogging / social media related classes and did one online radio show.

One program was a private gig and the others were open to the public. Links are available now for two of the programs:

The Secrets to Filling Your Coaching Groups with WendyY Bailey (65 minutes)

This a content-packed preview call for our 4 week program on Filling Your Coaching Groups which begins on July 28. Right now, we're offering a $100 discount on the registration fee until July 24.

Interview with Dr. Marlene Siersema on Amazing Women, Brains, Beauty & Style

Marlene and I talked non-stop (except for commercial breaks) about social media and blogging fits into the picture.

The webinar recording for the program I did for TypePad and their Small Business series should be ready in a couple of days. Andy Wibbels and I talked about the Top 5 Tactics for Business Blogging Success. I'll post the link as soon as I have it.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Top 5 Tactics for a Successful Small Business Blog

I'm teaching a class for TypePad on Wednesday, part of their business blogging webinar series...

"Top 5 Tactics for a Successful Small Business Blog"

Hosted by Andy Wibbels and TypePad.com
Wednesday, July 15, 11 am Pacific Time

Worried where you'll find the time to blog or how make yourself heard online? Andy Wibbels and Denise Wakeman of The Blog Squad will take you through the 5 key points that will power your blog, and your business, to the next level.

No charge!

Register => http://budurl.com/BlogSucess

Visiblity is the First Step to Getting Clients, Customers, and an Audience

My friend and colleague Dave Lakhani says, "You've got to be seen to sell." And if you read this blog or Biz Tips Blog, you know I write a lot about creating online visibility. If people don't know about you, how can you expect to get new clients, fill your coaching or mentoring groups, sell your products or have an audience for your radio show?

Recently I was having an email conversation via LinkedIn with Bonnie, who participated in the Social Media Success Summit. She said:

My biggest challenge with social media this moment is to drive traffic to my BlogTalkRadio show...Even though I ask guests to Tweet the show and my show is auto-Tweeted via BTR, listenership remains low. Any ideas on key word strategies or other social networking tips to bring the show onto more folks' radar screens?

You can substitute "group coaching program" or "online TV show" or "info product" for "radio show."

Are You a Fan of The Blog Squad?

As you know from my last post about blogs vs. Facebook, my strong belief and advice to anyone in business is to use your blog as your hub site, your home base. However, that does not mean I advocate ignoring social networking sites and if you've followed me for more than a day, you know I'm quite active on Facebook and twitter and LinkedIn (a little bit less).

In my view you need to be where your audience is and then drive them back home (blog).

In case you don't know, I do have a fan page set up on Facebook. If you prefer to hang out on Facebook, then I want to be there with blogging info for you.

The Blog Squad on Facebook

One of the things I'm doing for people who join The Blog Squad Fan Club is make special fan-ONLY offers once in awhile and on the last day of the month will offer a substantial discount to a product or service. You've got to be a fan to find out and get notifications of special deals. 

There is also a discussion forum and I'll answer your questions about business blogging and social marketing. I hope you'll join me on Facebook!

By the way, if you have a Fan page on Facebook, post the link in the comments so I, and other readers, can check it out and join your community too!

Why Blog When You've Got Facebook?

I got a really good question last week via twitter/email and after yesterday's twitter problems, it's appropriate to address this now. Here's what I was asked:

From your perspective on blogging, what's the advantage of actually doing a blog, over having a well-developed page on Facebook--where you not only share regularly updated status reports, but can also post Notes (where I imagine what would have been posted to a blog would be posted on Facebook), can easily share media, engage people in conversation and relationships, and organically have your updates propagated to other friends' pages, etc.?

It's an excellent question and one that does come up in some form when I speak and teach.

First, let's look at what happened on Twitter. Yesterday, with no explanation for nearly 4 hours, hundreds of thousands of legitimate twitter accounts were suspended citing "suspicious activity." People on Facebook, FriendFeed and blogs went nuts.

OMG! We can't communicate with our followers!