Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

5 Tips for Beefing Up a Short Blog Post

This is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com

In How to Be a Weekly Blogger, I remove the pressure of having to write a feature article for your blog every week.

Instead, I suggest that you aim to write one feature article per MONTH, and then in the weeks in between you can play off that topic with connective content.

Connective content combines your expertise and opinion with something that's already been created; whether that's a post on your own blog or someone else's, or a movie, book, website, product or story that relates to the topic of that month's feature article.

How to turn a blog post into an article

The funny thing about relieving pressure is that it can really open a channel for creativity. You may produce some wonderful content this way, and you may decide that it deserves a bigger audience - whether that's via an article directory or as a guest post on another blog.

Blogging Brings YOU into the Writing

This is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com

In academic writing or journalism, we're usually asked to chose whether we're going to write subjectively (an argumentative or persuasive essay, opinion piece or editorial) or objectively (an expository essay, investigative report, profile or news feature).

In blogging, we see a delightful mixture of all of these types of content, sometimes even within the same blog post. Here, you can bend the rules and choose both objective and subjective writing. You can bring more of yourself into everything you write, not just your personal posts.

For example, we may offer practical action steps about how to implement the ideas in a passionate thought piece, or we may introduce a "how to" post by telling a story. After all, people learn just as much from our experience as they do from our expertise.

When I visit a blog, I'm not just looking for information. I want to get to know the voice and personality of the business owner behind the blog.

You may have some concerns about using a more narrative style of writing, especially if you'd had lots of experience with more formal styles of writing. For example:

Shouldn't my blog posts be all about helping my reader, not about me?

How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog with Old Content [video]

Do you ever think about your older blog posts, wondering if you get any value from them after they've slipped out of sight, replaced by new content?

Do you ever check your analytics to see what kind of traffic you're getting to older content? 

I confess, I am sporadic at best, at taking a backward look at my content and seeing how I can squeeze more traffic out of it. Then, this video was brought to my attention by David Newby, a member of my LinkedIn group, Online Visibility Boost for Entrepreneurs (it's on open group, you're invited to join!). I was intrigued and watched the video by Jonathan at BloggingYourPassion.com.

 

A couple of things to note.

1. You need to have Google Analytics set up and linked to your blog.

2. Identify posts that do a good job of demonstrating your expertise, show how you serve your clients and have a strong call to action.

3. Use the tutorial in the video to re-optimize the posts for keywords prospects are really searching on.  

Use your time and energy to focus on your most powerful posts that will bring you the targeted readers you want and make sure your content compels to take action to subscribe, get your free report, register for a webinar, etc.

Do you re-optimize older posts? What kind of results have you seen when you do?

Need more tips on how to optimize your blog for your business?

 NEW on Kindle - only $.99

How to Make Your Blog the Centerpiece of Your Business

 In this ebook you will learn:

• Why a blog is an essential foundation for your online business
• 10 key steps you must take before you create your business blog
• How to create effective content that moves your readers to action
• How to boost your visibility and create a powerful online presence
• How to use social networking to drive more people back to your blog
• 14 Attention-Grabbing Tactics for Launching a New Business Blog

Click here now to get instant access on Kindle for only 99 cents!

The Style of Artful Repetition

This a guest post by Dawn Walnoha of Brandsplat.com

The Style of Artful Repetition

Knowing how and when to return to a previous topic is indeed an art, and it is one you would do well to master if you want to maintain a strong reader base for your blog.

People like consistency — and when I say "people," I mean "all people." Schedules, daily routines, favorite topics to discuss, hobbies that consume most of a person's free time — we humans like to cover ground we're familiar with, even if we are also fond of breaking new ground and learning new things.

There are a host of reasons for this, ranging from solidifying the learning process to simple instinctual desire for the safe and familiar, but for our purposes it's just important to know that people are going to search for the familiar and the understandable.

So, what exactly does this mean for the aspiring blogger? How can you take this desire and turn it to your advantage?

Simple: Create a series of posts.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Authors Should Blog

This is a guest post by Marcie Hill of The Write Design Company.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Authors Should Blog

If you are an author, then you should have a blog. Yes, this is more work for you because it does require even more writing, more time, and another project to manage. The benefits, however, are invaluable.

Following are the top 10 reasons why you should blog if you are an author.

1. To sell books
The ultimate goal of any author is to sell books. Outright selling on your site is not advised. However, you can “persuade” your audience to buy books by sharing content and making them “must read.”

2. Create and control your own media
Use your site as your personal media space. In addition to selling books, this is the second most important use of your blog. You can announce your next book signing, radio or TV appearance and anything else you’re doing to promote your book. Be sure to share links to your site with media professionals. 

Blog Checklist - 13 Things to Review Before You Hit Publish

Do you ever hit the "publish" button for your new post then cringe because you see a mistake or missing word, or realize your forgot to add an image?

During recent consults with clients who are launching new blogs, the question popped up about how to make sure their blog posts were "correct" before they went live. While I don't think there are hard and fast rules, there are a few things you can review to make sure your best work is going out to the world. Following are 13 things I look for before hitting the "publish" button...

Use this checklist to ask yourself a few questions as you are reading through your blog post for typos and grammar:

__ Is the topic clear to someone who only reads the headline?

__ Does the lead paragraph tell who and what the story is about and why the reader should care about it?

__ Is the angle you've used likely to seem newsworthy?

Be a Deep Character - Using Literary Techniques to Develop a Blogging 'Persona'

This is a guest post by Enzo F. Cesario of Brandsplat.

Be a Deep Character: Using Literary Techniques to Develop a Blogging 'Persona'

When people speak of writing, they tend to be talking about fiction. "I'm a writer," usually is synonymous with "I'm a novelist," or something like that. We have script writers, television writers and so forth. Yet at the end of the day, nonfiction far eclipses fiction writing. Walk into any bookstore in the world, and you'll see the nonfiction sections dwarf the literature.

Why exactly is this, and what does it have to do with blogging?

The main reason for the disproportionate pre-eminance of fiction is that characters captivate us. Gregory House, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Dresden, Holden Caulfield — these are "people" who have depths and complexities that reveal something interesting about themselves, about the world and about us.

Where this all ties into blogging is in the way that some of the best bloggers in the world resemble the deepest, roundest characters of literary fiction.

How Clear Writing Makes You More Visible

This is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com

How Clear Writing Makes You More Visible

Imagine that your ideal client was searching online for a solution to her problem, and found a link to one of your blog posts on that topic. It matched what she was looking for, so she clicked through to your blog.

While it was loading, though, she checked her watch. Ooops! She only has a few more minutes to spend on the computer.

She skims through the article, searching for key points, but only finds large blocks of text, one after the other. She dives in, but finds herself stumbling through long, run-on sentences that lose the point they started to make.

After a few minutes, she gives up, feeling disheartened to be no farther ahead with a solution. She shuts down her web browser and goes on with her day. 

It's as if she never saw you.

Write clearly, stay visible

Use these three writing tips to improve your visibility online: 

1. Keep it brief. Aim for shorter sentences by eliminating any unnecessary words. Use shorter paragraphs to create more white space on the page.

2. Stay focused. Make one clear point and back it up with supporting information. 

3. Sound it out. Get in the habit of reading your work out loud before you publish it. This one simple step can highlight any confusing language or other errors. 

There are so many things competing for your ideal client's attention, including plenty of other online information. People simply do not have time to figure out what you're trying to say. If you don't write clearly, they won't stick around long enough to cultivate a relationship with you. 

Clear writing ensures that your message gets across. Your readers find the solutions they need, and you make an impression as someone with valuable information to share. 

P.S. Don't stop there! Also be clear about how your readers can stay in touch with you. Denise has great info about opt-in forms for your blog, as well as list building tips and opt-in gift ideas.

About the author:

Linda Dessau, CPCC, is the author of Write Your Way to More Clients Online and the founder of ContentMasteryGuide.com. If you want better results from your online writing, visit www.ContentMasteryGift.com to discover Linda's content marketing secrets.

Got a question, comment or idea you'd like to share about how to keep your writing and topics focused? Post it in the comments below!

Learn how to get the best out of your business blog - Click Here to Get 5 free videos!

Writing Blog Posts That Captivate and Convert

Did you catch the interview I did with copywriting and SEO expert Karon Thackston? We chatted for 20 minutes about how to create captivating blog posts. 

We covered a lot of ground, including four things Karon does when writing blog posts and 9 ways to optimize your posts for the search engines. While the interview has lots of great tips, you can get a lot more in Karon Thackston's ebook on writing captivating blog posts.

Karon send me a direct message on twiter letting me know that her ebook, Writing Blog Posts that Captivate and Convert is about to go up in price. Right now it is a low, low investment of $9. On September 1, the price doubles and goes to $19. Now's the time to grab your copy and save $10. 

And, if you're looking for some straight forward instruction on how to research keywords [almost everyone I know struggles with this], you can get Karon's ebook "Demystifying Keyword Research" for free.

 

You Know You're a Blogger When...

Just for fun, awhile back I posted the open-ended statement in the subject on my Facebook wall. There were many great responses so in case you missed it, here they are...

You know you're a blogger when...

And there's more...