Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Probloggers Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse Will Be Featured Blog Interview on June 4

Save the date! I've been in email conversation with my colleague Chris Garrett and have confirmed that he and Darren Rowse, co-authors of Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (2nd Ed., aff), will be my featured blog guests on Friday, June 4.

I'll be posting their answers to your questions (and mine) about business blogging, how to make money by blogging, and anything else you want to know about blogging.

Post your questions for Darren and Chris in the comments of this post by Monday, May 31. I'll review them and select the best of the best for them to answer.

You're also welcome to post your questions on the interview post on June 4 since either or both Darren and Chris will be checking in through the day to answer your live questions.

Related Interview:
TypePad for Dummies: Interview and Q&A with Authors

Social Marketing Success - Slides and Resources

Last week I had the honor and privilege to co-host a live 3 day event with four amazing colleagues: Janis Pettit (the mastermind behind the event), Kathleen Gage, Ellen Britt and Marnie Pehrson. The Radiant Success Event was a smash hit as you can see if you check out the pictures and comments on Facebook.

I spoke about Social Marketing Success which was a mash up of how to get the most leverage out of your blog by writing compelling content, repurposing content, syndicating your content to multiple platforms and then giving your audience the tools to amplify your message beyond your own reach.

So many people asked for the slides and links to the resources I talked about that I decided to post them here. The slides may not make much sense without the me giving the context, but you'll get the idea.

Leverage Your Blog Posts to Drive More Traffic Back to Your Blog

How many ways are you leveraging your business blog posts? Most people write a post and that's the end of it. Of course they're probably syndicating their feed to the usual places: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, at the very least. And that's a good thing.

Yet there are other ways to get more mileage out of your content. My colleague Dr. Rachna Jain wrote about this in a guest blog post on the basics of content syndication. She wrote about repurposing your content into audio, slides and video. Each format is useful and fairly simple to do, and does require an investment of some time.

Another option for leveraging your blog content is to turn your posts into articles and submit them to document sharing sites. This works best for longer form posts or a collection of posts on one topic. I've started doing this with some long form posts I'm writing about the basics of blogging. The articles are first published on Social Media Examiner. They get a two week exclusive. Then, I post them on this blog. Next, I'm recording audio versions which I add to the post and to my Online Visibility Tips podcast.

Then, I copy the post into a word doc, add a short author bio and a call to action (either link back to my blog or to a landing page so people opt in to my free 5-part video course), convert to pdf and submit to five document sharing sites (see below).

Blog or Squeeze Page - where do you send prospects?

Recently I got a great question from an Online Visibility Secrets student. She was watching the Business Blog Mastery videos and wondered about my comment that your business blog should be the hub, or home base, for your online presence. If you've been reading this blog or attended a teleseminar or event where I've spoken about blogging, then you've heard this many times before. However, Linda had a good question related to this:

Maybe this will be cleared up once I go through the OVS program but I was just listening to the Business blog Mastery (video 1) where you spoke about the blog being the hub. My question is there has been a lot taught about sending people to your squeeze page so they can either sign up or not vs as you indicated sending them to your blog. Can you share a few thoughts.

My first response is: it depends (don't you hate that?!).

And it does. What are the goals and objectives of your content? Many prospects will not give you their email address on the first contact. Unless what you're offering is so compelling and valuable, many are wary of getting more email and marketing messages.

Are you invisible on the business blogs you read?

In this era of social networks, I'm continually surprised when someone posts a comment on one of my blogs and there's no avatar (picture) associated with their message.

An important tactic to implement is to literally be visible when you comment. That means your picture (avatar) shows up when you submit a comment. An image (remember use a good, professional headshot that you use on all your social networking profiles) helps people connect with you, makes you recognizable and memorable.  I find most people who comment on my blogs do not have profiles set up so a generic image is posted next to their comment instead of their face and a link to a detailed profile where I can learn more about them.

On blogs, this has never been easier to implement, though you do have to have accounts at key sites in order to be visible when you comment.

Take a look at the comments on this post to see what I mean.

Which comments stand out?

Most blogging platforms have this option built in. From the stand point of creating visibility there are two actions you need to take:

1.  Make sure your own blog has the appropriate plugin or widget installed so the images of you and the people who comment show up in the comment threads. On Wordpress, install Gravatar and Disqus. On TypePad, in the Comment settings, select "show userpics."

2. This is important! Make sure you have accounts (profiles) set up on Gravatar and Disqus so your photo gets pulled into the comments you post on other blogs. AND, whether or not you use TypePad, set up a profile (another opportunity for visibility to millions of TypePad bloggers) so when you comment on a blog hosted on TypePad (like mine!), your image and link to your profile is included.

Gravatar - http://en.gravatar.com/

Disqus - http://disqus.com/

TypePad profile - http://www.typepad.com/profiles

Help people "see" you and get to know you better. You never know where your next client or JV partner or media inquiry will come from and adding your picture can make a huge positive difference in how others connect with you.

How do you create visibility for yourself on the blogs you read? Do you think it helps or not, to have your profile picture associated with your comments?

This post is an excerpt from Lesson #16 of Online Visibility Secrets. Learn more about how you can boost your visibility on the Web...