Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Writing on your blog - what's the best frequency?

How often should I post on my blog?

How long should my blog posts be?

These are questions I get every time I do an interview or teleseminar about business blogging.

While it would be easy for me to say "it depends" -- and it does -- I know that's not what you want to hear.

To answer the first question, how often should I post, I'll say: the more often the better. Yet, I know that freaks some people out so I typically advise posting on your blog a minimum of two to three times per week. Remember, it's all about getting found by the search engines and the more keyword-rich content you have, the better chance you have of your blog posts coming up in the search results for the keywords you're using.

It's been proven time and time again, that the more you post, the more traffic you get.

Yet, there's a caveat. You need to know what your readers want too. If you're posting everyday and you see subscribers dropping off, then you know it's too much. And remember...you can always do a survey or poll to see what the majority of your readers want.

I read a good post called Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? and the first two mistakes made me laugh: 

Mistake #1: You don't post enough.

Mistake #2: You post too much.

And the author is right. You have find the sweet spot for both you and your audience. Since I write on multiple blogs, I tend to get in about 3 posts a week on each one. Though sometimes it's more and sometimes less, depending on my schedule.

Then comes the question of how long your posts should be. First, get rid of "should." Again, it depends.

Some say the trend is going towards shorter posts, yet I read several blogs that regularly publish long article-type posts. If your content is good, people will read it.

I advise mixing it up. If you're posting 4-5 times a week, write a few posts that are 200-300 words and then add a long post that does deep into your subject. And throw in some audio and video to keep your audience entertained and engaged on different levels. 

I often say there are no rules. Best practices, yes, but no rules. You've got to do what's right for you and your audience AND gets you the results you're looking for.

Recommended Reading

Top Ten Easy Steps to Starting a Business Blog

7 Tips for Better Blog Posts

Drive Quality Traffic to Your Blog - Audio Program Going Out of Circulation

Heads up! My popular free program, How to Drive Quality Traffic to Your Blog, is being taken out of circulation. I’m going to be adding new content and then repackaging the product for sale. 

After nearly 2,000 downloads in the last couple of months, it’s disappearing at midnight on Sunday, November 29. If you haven’t claimed your complimentary copy of this program, you better do it now. Blog on!

11 Business Blogging Books - Recommended Reading

Among the many questions I get about business blogging, one thing many people want to know is what books I recommend to learn more about blogging. Out of curiosity, I did a search on Amazon for "blogging" and got 50 results! The top 4 are also on my bookshelf and on my list:

1. Problogger: Secrets to Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by my colleagues Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

2. Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner (3rd Edition coming out in February 2010)

3. The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging (I'm quoted in this book!)

4. Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business

5. Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies

6. Naked Conversations I believe this was one of the very first books about blogging

7. Blogging for Business

8. Clear Blogging

9. BlogWild! by my pal Andy Wibbels - another early book in the blogging genre

10. The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

11. What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere (The Blog Squad has two chapters in this book!)

Well, until I started pulling books off the shelf, I didn't realize I had so many books on blogging!

What's on your blogging book list? I have an extra copy of What No One Every Tells Your About Blogging and will give it away to someone who posts their favorite blogging book in the comments. I will use random.org to choose the winner.

Blog on!

Locally based businesses need to be on the Web too

I've been interviewed twice in the last week for articles in trade magazines - one for restaurants and the other for optical professionals in Canada - about using online marketing and social media for locally based businesses (bricks and mortar stores).

I tell them if their ideal client/customer/diner/patient cannot find them on the web, it's like they don't exist. If you're like me, and millions are, you use the Web to find information for just about everything, including local businesses. How many times have you done a search to find a restaurant in your own neighborhood or one you're visiting? Or how about to find a chiropractor or dentist or optician or spa or...?

You've got to have a robust online presence in order to compete and be found by your ideal client.

And the best place to start?

You guessed it! A blog for your business, of course!

When you create keyword-rich content on a blog, it gets indexed by the search engines and you can be found by your customers when they do an online search for the problem(s) they have and you solve. Everyday I hear from professionals and business owners who have not yet started a blog. If that's you, here's an article on Ten Easy Steps for Starting a Business Blog.

Naturally there's a lot that goes into creating and maintaining an effective business blog that gets results. The first step, though, is to take action, make a decision and do it, or get help doing it.

Remember, even local businesses need to be visible on the Web.

(Click here to learn how you can boost your online visibility.)

Business Blogging Tip - Niche Your Blogs (Video)

I'm often asked by new business bloggers if it's OK to write about multiple subjects on one blog. Mostly these are entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants who wear many hats and serve clients in multiple arenas. I can understand that the thought of more than one blog can feel overwhelming, especially when just starting out. Here's my response to that question... (Click here if you cannot see the video in your reader.) 

What's your opinion on this approach? One catch-all blog for all your business niches, or multiple niche blogs for your business interests? As a reader, what do you prefer?

Get more business blogging tips with my free video course on How to Get the Best Out of Your Blog.

Six Apart Launches TypePad Micro

I've been hearing hints and murmurs about something new coming from TypePad for quite some time. Finally I got a sneak peak yesterday...TypePad Micro which launches today at noon Pacific Time.

TypePad Micro, according to Chris Alden, CEO of Six Apart is...

...a new, completely free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see this new form of blogging emerging -- living between the short status updates of Facebook and Twitter and the full-length posts of classic blogs -- and we want to make that easy and fun with TypePad Micro.  

TypePad Micro is free, and comes with...

• A blog with our new Chroma theme
• Easy cross-posting of new posts to Twitter and Facebook
• Friends can comment with their TypePad, Twitter, Facebook or any OpenID-enabled account
• Simple reblogging for readers
• Easy tools for posting to your blog, including post-by-email, a one-click magic bookmarklet and our iPhone application

Having been a TypePad user for over 5 years, I was curious to see how it's different from the original platform. In fact it's the same platform, just a simplified template designed for quick, easy set up. I quickly set up a new Micro blog (Online Visibility Tips) and found that it's not as customizable as I'm used to. But then again for someone just starting out, that can be a good thing. Streamlined options means you can get your micro blog up and running fast.

The new Chroma theme "suggests" a color palette for you based on the colors in the image you select for your banner. That's pretty cool. And hey, it's free (it's included with my Pro account) and the goal is to make it a no-brainer for new bloggers or bloggers who want an simple way to post stuff that may not fit on their primary blog.

Here's more of what Chris Alden has to say about TypePad Micro:

TypePad Micro is the culmination of a huge year of investment in TypePad, in which we’ve put in place many of the building blocks of social blogging, such as:

• Writer and reader profiles
• Following and a follow widget
• A dashboard with activity streams of the people you follow
• Sign-in and cross posting to Facebook and Twitter
• Easy posting by email and a snazzy bookmarklet
• Favoriting and a favorite button for post footers

We even released an entirely new open source application, TypePad Motion, for building custom microblog communities tapping into the power of TypePad. And now with TypePad Micro we're making it easy for anyone to get started with TypePad. No other blog platform combines these great microblogging capabilities – easy posting, profiles, following, an activity dashboard, etc. – with the full capabilities of a world class, full-featured blogging platform.

Considering it's free, I can't see any reason why you wouldn't want to check out the new TypePad Micro. And if you don't have a blog yet, this is a GREAT way to start. Really, super simple to set up and start blogging immediately. When you're ready to add more bells and whistles to your blog, it's will be a snap to upgrade for a few dollars and get access to dozens of designs and all the tools TypePad provides.

Thanks to Andy Wibbels and Ginevra Kirkland for keeping me in the loop on the big launch.

Business Blogging Workshop - What do you want to learn?

I'm delighted to let you know I have been invited to be on the faculty for the next Niche Affiliate Marketing System (NAMS) in January. By all accounts this is a top-notch learning event with a stellar faculty (Jeff Herring, Kathleen Gage, Ellen Britt, Willy Crawford, Lynn Terry, Nicole Dean, and many more). This is the third iteration and I heard rave reviews by many colleagues about the previous event in August.

So I was honored to be invited by the organizer David Perdew, to do several presentations on blogging. The difference with this event is that it is a 3 day workshop - no pitching - where the goal is to teach real, actionable content. There are three marketing tracks: beginner, intermediate and advanced - so there's something for every level of attendee.

I was talking to David Perdew about the blogging track. I'll be doing 3 presentations: an overview of blogging for business, a workshop on getting traffic to your blog and a third workshop. I couldn't make up my mind about what to teach so I figure I'll throw it open to you...

If you were attending a hands-on business blogging workshop, what would you want to learn? Here are the two options David and I are discussing:

1) a hot seat for 3-4 people where I will review and offer feedback and suggestions to help improve and  optimize the blog.

2) a workshop to create an editorial calendar, identify several types of blog posts appropriate for your blog and create a schedule you can implement as soon as you're back in the office.

Whether or not you plan on attending NAMS in January, I'm curious to know which workshop you would prefer so you can boost the results you get from your blog.  Please vote here:

If you do plan on attending NAMS, be sure to register before December 1. The investment goes up $100 on 12/1.  And, as a faculty member, I have $100 discount coupons to give away so it's an even better deal if you sign up ASAP. Use coupon code: 100NAMS3 and you'll be able to register for the dirt cheap fee of $297!

See you at NAMS and thanks for your feedback!

Unscientific Poll Reveals 70% prefer text over video

Reading the stats about online video you would think that consumption of video has totally overtaken text as the preferred way we all want our information.

Not so, according to my informal and unscientific poll. Inspired by a post by Cindy King, I wanted to find out how people really liked to get their content: text, audio, video or other.

As of time of writing this post 81 people took the poll.

Here's how it breaks down by preference:

• Text - 70%
• Video - 19%
• Audio - 5%
• Other (not real clear what other is) - 6%

And there are caveats. Many excellent comments were submitted and the bottom line is that while text is preferred it must be short, easy to read and skimmable.

Some like audio because they can multi-task by listening to content while they do other stuff.

Video ranks well for tutorials and short tips.

The lesson? Text based content is not dead.

Keep on writing. And it's good to mix in other media for diversity.

Keep it short and to the point.

Make it fast and easy to read (highlight the key point, use bullet points and pictures).

Online Visibility Tip - Comment on Blogs in Your Industry (Video)

Online Visibility Tip: While I was working on an article for Social Media Examiner, I was exploring the concept of outreach, or reaching out to others in your industry (aka commenting) to set the groundwork for more opportunities. This also applies to creating visibility for you and your business.

While it may seem obvious and you've heard it many times before, most business bloggers do not spend enough time on blog outreach. The video includes three sources to find related blogs in your niche. [Click here if you cannot see the video in your blog reader.)

I'm curious to know how often you comment on other blogs? I know I could put more time and effort into this tactic because I know it works!

Learn more about boosting your visibility online...

Related Posts:

Online Visibility Tip: Ping.fm Helps You Automate (lots of great comments!)

Usernamecheck.com Protects You

Posterous Can Help You Extend Your Online Visibility

Business Bloggers Twitter List

Thanks to all the business bloggers who contributed their own twitter link and those of others to my Business Bloggers twitter list. If you're looking for smart, savvy professionals to follow on twitter, this is a great place to start.

Lots of different industries are represented and you're sure to find a few cool new people to engage with...you never know what kind of opportunities will emerge!