In my last post I explained why you should get your business blogging.

“That’s great Sally. But what the hell am I supposed to write about?”

Trust me, you’d be amazed at the wealth of material available to you.

By blogging you are going to really help your search engine optimisation, customer communication, online reputation as an expert and really boost your web presence. So it is really worth digging deep to find some great topics to write about.

Look beyond your writers’ block

Everyone has something to write about:

• your businesses background
• top tips
• ‘how to’ articles
• customer case studies

In your daily work situation subjects are likely to crop up. Keep a pad next to you to jot down ideas as they come to you. That way you’ll begin to build a list of potential blog posts for future use.

I stumbled across a great post on Problogger tackling this subject. In his post, Mark Hayward gives 9 tips for creating more small business blogging ideas. Building these suggestions into your everyday working life will generate you a constant stream of ideas.

Therefore writers’ block and the excuse that you can’t think of anything to write about will be banished forever.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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If you are a regular reader to this blog, you’ll know I’m passionate about blogging for business.

I’ve been blogging for quite a while now and it has proven to be an excellent way to build my business. Plus it is a fabulous vehicle to help other people with tips and advice.

But, if it is new to you, it can be daunting. Where do you start?

I’ve put together 10 tips to help you get the most out of blogging for your business.

10 tips to get you blogging

1. What is your blog for?

Before you dive into blogging you need to be clear about why you are doing it. What is your aim?

• to build credibility?
• use it as a search marketing tool?
• will it be your main company site too?
• are you going to use it as a tool to communicate with your customers?

You may want to use it for all of these purposes. But it is essential to get this clear in your mind before you start.

2. Decide on your URL

If your blog is to be part of your main site, your URL will be incorporated into your main sites name e.g. www.companyname.com/blog. However if it is to be a separate site try to pick a URL that incorporates your keywords/topic name.

An example of this is this blog. I’m a freelance copywriter therefore the name of my blog is www.freelancecopywritersblog.com.

3. Software

The next stage is to decide on which platform you are going to blog. You can use a free blog such as through WordPress but if you do that you must remember that you will not get any benefit from inward links. All the links you get will be building WordPress’s site not yours. Therefore I would strongly recommend you get your own blog on your own URL.

4. Customise it

Create a blog that will perform as you want it to. Blogging platforms have various plug-ins you can use to enhance your posts. Through WordPress there are plug-ins such as All in One SEO, Google XML Sitemap and Tweet This to name but a few.

Your choice of plug-ins will be determined by your goals.

You can also customise templates to create an image that coordinates with your company.

5. Content

When starting out it is very important you decide what kind of topics you are going to blog about. Try and keep within your specific field. After all people will subscribe to your blog because they are interested in what you are talking about.

On this blog I discuss various copywriting and marketing subjects. People subscribe because they want to learn about those fields and know that each post will be relevant to them.

It is also a good idea to use your keywords as categories on your blog – that makes it easier for people to find information they are interested in.

6. Easy to share

If one person is interested in what you have to say, there is a good chance that other people will be too. Use a plug-in that makes it easy for your readers to share your post with others through social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Delicious.

7. Keep it social

Spread the word of your blog through RSS feeds into your Twitter account and Facebook. List your blog on directories and publish your URL.

8. Monitor

To keep up to date with what’s going and to find out what people are saying about you, your blog and your company use tools such as Google Alerts and Social Mention.

9. Blog regularly

The more often you blog the more people you will reach. Try to blog at least 3 times a week –if you can post daily.

10. Link

One of the most powerful benefits of blogging is that it creates back links to your main site. In every post make sure you add in textual hyperlinks to your main site utilising your main keywords.

I hope those 10 tips will help you set on the right foot. Blogging really is a powerful tool that every business should utilise. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, blogging can and will help you reach a wider audience.

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Last week I was asked to make a presentation on Social Media Marketing and how it can help your online business.

Amongst the various issues I talked about, one stood out as far as my audience was concerned – the power of blogging.

I’ve been blogging for quite a while now, normally on the subject of copywriting and marketing. The effect this has had on my business as a freelance copywriter and Google rankings is phenomenal.

Are you sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin

I started out with a homemade website that didn’t really feature on Google. To get my name out there and in front of the right people I used the power of social media marketing – online networking, profile sites, directories etc.

Work began to arrive and I started blogging. I invested in a new website and started getting serious about SEO and driving traffic to my site. Initially my blog was a free one on WordPress. That was all well and good but I realised I wasn’t getting any benefit from the people linking to me. All their link juice (see fig. 1) was being poured into WordPress and not my site.

So, I got my own domain name and set up the blog you are now reading. Low and behold within about 5 or 6 months I was listed by oDesk as one of the top 100 freelance blogs and other listings soon followed.

But because this was now my blog on my domain, I got the benefit of the link juice which was fed directly to my website:

Fig.1 The link juice concept

People linked to my blog – my blog links to my website – the result is greatly improved Google rankings!

It was this simplified explanation of how blogging can positively effect your Google rankings that saw so many jaws drop in the room.

Most of the people present had some idea that blogging would help their rankings but didn’t really understand how.

It’s not all about rankings

By starting up your own blog you will be promoting yourself as a real expert in your field. Giving great information in your posts will help you build relationships with perspective clients. They will grow to trust you and see you as an authority in your field.

So you see, blogging can help any business. If you are not already doing it, give it a go – you will be surprised at the results.

But if you are going to blog make sure you do it regularly.

Good luck with it.

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Now there’s a question for you.

Undoubtedly blogging is one of the most valuable marketing tools available to today’s online marketers.

Why?

Because it gives you a platform on which to market your products and services under the radar of your reader. What that means is that you can blog about your services without overtly trying to sell them to the reader. You can write ‘How to’ articles or give out top tips.

Basically, blogging allows you to:

• raise awareness of your product/service
• build relationships of trust with your readers
• raise your profile as an expert in your particular field
• build back links to your website
• drive targeted traffic to your website

Blogging does all that?

Of course it does. Take this blog for example. If you look back through the archives you’ll find posts covering just about every aspect of copywriting and marketing you can think of (although I bet you’ll all be rushing now to tell me that I’ve missed something out). Therefore readers of my blog know what type of information they will find.

Displaying my knowledge shows that I am an expert in my field. It shows that I know what I’m talking about so when they are looking for a freelance copywriter, they know I can do what I say I can do – get them results.

When writing my posts I use anchor text, such as copywriting services, to link back to my website building good back links that Google loves.

And because my posts are all related to copywriting, the visitors I get are looking for copywriting information which means I am generating targeted traffic.

DIY vs. out sourcing

I am often asked by small businesses whether I’ll blog for them. My answer is normally no.

OK, it looks as though I’m shooting myself in the foot with that but if you think about it for a moment you’ll see my reasoning.

As I’ve already mentioned, when you blog you are building a relationship with your readers. If you are a small business (1-5 staff) your clients will probably deal with you directly. Therefore if they read your blog posts they’ll assume it is your voice they are ‘hearing’. The more they read the more they’ll think they are building a relationship with you. So what happens when they meet you? If you don’t write your own posts it will be like meeting someone else.

Apart from the odd guest blog, I write all my own posts. I enjoy engaging with my readers and when they meet me, they know it is my expertise that I have been passing on rather than someone else’s.

But if you are a large company outsourcing could be ideal for you. In this case, there isn’t necessarily a single voice that needs to be heard. You’ll have your own brand image, tone and voice so as long as they are adhered to, outsourcing is perfectly acceptable.

Of course, you may have staff members that blog for you which is great. They are at the forefront of your business and can react quickly to customer needs. The important thing to remember is that they must comply to your company’s image.

So there you have it. Blogging is a fantastic way of raising your profile, building your reputation and driving traffic to your main ‘money’ site. What’s more, it’s a relatively cheap way of marketing.

If you aren’t already blogging give it a try – you won’t get results immediately but, but stick with it and you may be surprised at what happens.

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Copywriting is the key to a successful blog. Stale, insipid and repetitive content will kill business. Fresh, insightful, path-breaking and paradigm defining content will attract traffic to a blog like nothing else. Fortunately there are enough high quality freelance content creators whose services can be utilized.

Blogs are critical tools used by websites. These can be written on a regular and consistent basis to help promote a business or a personal message. Blogging in fact is the most important SEO tool. The addition of fresh original content indicates to the search engines that a site is contemporary and evolving. Sites that lag on this front are relegated to the back of the queue.

The importance of SEO to the process of content creation is crucial, especially for new sites because this is the only way that search engines get to know about the thrust of the site till the time there are enough back-links in place. Using the services of a good copywriter is the best way to have your site filled with SEO content, that not only provides for a good search position, but also satisfiers the visitor compelling him or her to go for the product or service being promoted by the site.

The demand for copywriting is tremendous and there is not a better way than blogging to propagate one’s cause. A blog can help one showcase one’s content creation ability on a regular basis and have direct interaction with one’s clients. Typically a copywriter will write on what he or she is most conversant with. But it is good to focus on a few core areas, so that the blogging establishes the person’s credentials in those particular areas.

Blogging today is easily amongst the most powerful media today. It can reach out to one’s target audiences in ways not possible with conventional media. It can establish a blogger as an industry authority or thought leader and have traffic queuing up to the site. The most important part of a blog is how unique and original it can be. It has to be distinct and distinguishable from the others.

Moreover search engines have an affinity to blogs. This is because of the freshness and large size of the content; the fact that there are regular additions and feedback often accompanied by links to their favorite post on your blog. The advantages of hiring professional copywriters are many. One can have amazing content up on one’s site without ever having to write a word. Professional blog writers understand the world of blogs and are up to date with latest styles and trends. What they provide is complete blog management, rather than plain blog writing.

Moreover blog copywriters do thorough research on every blog post, so as to come up with content of the top drawer. There is a degree of consistency in their writing, and there is no possibility of a slip up by them, and therefore one will never have an adverse impact on one’s blog. Blog copywriters have the advantage of being able to come up with high quality writing on a range of subjects. To top it all blog copywriters have a strategy and their writing is always focused and target audience oriented.

If the intention of any business enterprise is to send targeted traffic to one’s website, so as to showcase its industry website, get the search engines interested and have excited customers queuing up for its products or services, it makes eminent sense to hire professional copywriters or content creators. Any company which is not blogging in this day and age does not belong in this day and age. Blogs are a tremendous medium for establishing one’s credentials, informing the customers about the latest product or service offerings, sharing tips, and old fashioned bonding with people to let them know what an authority one is in a particular field. All in all a win win situation for everyone concerned.

This is a guest post written by the webmaster of the freelance blog www.freelancer-online.com

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If you follow me on Twitter you may already have seen this information. But if you’ve not seen it grab a pen, you’ll want to make a note of what is about to follow.

Websites you should know about

The first website is http://gethuman.com/numbers/uk.

This one is fab for those of you who’ve experienced the frustration of trying to get through to a real person on a customer service line.

The site lists short cuts to a human voice for a number of UK companies. It will save a lot of time and frustration.

The second site is www.saynoto0870.com. Many companies use 0870, 0500 etc premium rate numbers which we pay through the nose for. This site allows you to search for the geographical equivalent number saving you £££££s!

So there you go – my handy hints for the day

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Hands up everyone who understands why you should have a blog?

Good – now hands up those of you who actually blog?

I thought so. Just about everyone understands the power of a blog when it comes to driving traffic to your main business website. It acts as a tool for building links and as a way to elevate yourself to expert status in your chosen field. Your clients and readers will love you because you are providing them with excellent and valuable information – you are giving them something for nothing.

So, if you understand all of that, why aren’t you blogging?

Yes it takes time, results aren’t immediate and you have to have a degree of creativity to produce a post that someone is going to want to read, but surely the benefits far out weight that?

If you are humming and harring about setting up a blog, or you have one but have let it slide, have a read of this fantastic post by Coppyblogger about the 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging and push those hurdles out of the way and get blogging.

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OK, how many of you realise the potential a blog could have for your business?

Out of those who put your hand up, how many of you actually blog to help generate traffic to your main website and raise your profile?

I thought as much. Blogging is one of those things that most of us know we should be doing. Most of us realise that it is one of the best ways to generate traffic and links to your business site. But few of us actually take time out to create one and make it work.

I guess the biggest barriers to blogging regularly and well are time and energy. When you throw into the mix the fact that results are slow and only become apparent over time, people give up before they’ve even got started.

Blogging well takes time and patience, but it is well worth it.

If you have a blog but don’t think it’s working for you take a look at this recent post on Copyblogger and make sure you’re not committing any of the 7 deadly sins to blogging.

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As you’ve probably guessed by now I am a great fan of Copyblogger. This is a post I came across on the site a short while ago which proved to be very relevant.

Blogging is a huge thing for me and my business and often when I try to extol its virtues I’m met with the usual response – ‘I wouldn’t know what to write about’.

As Brian Clark explains below you have to think about what buyers of your product are interested in and then write about that. By linking your posts back to your main sales site, you will be generating a supply of targeted traffic to your website which should equate to more sales.

Anyway, that’s enought from me. Brian, take it away…

The Golden Rule of Online Marketing

You’re familiar with the Golden Rule, right?

Roughly translated across cultures, it boils down to:

Treat Others as You Wish to Be Treated.

Those are words to live by, even online. But the truth is, when it comes to online marketing, you’ve got to treat people better than you wish to be treated.

So the Golden Rule of Online Marketing is:

Give Something Valuable Away in Order to Sell Something Related.

Simple enough, but what does it really mean?

The Media is the Marketing

After giving it a lot of thought, I’m afraid the phrase “social media marketing” is a tragic mistake. It gives people the wrong idea.

Some people see social media as an opportunity to shove a business card in your hand with nary a “hello” first. It’s like getting bent over at a Tupperware party without a hint of verbal foreplay.

Such a waste.

The amazing thing about social media is the ability to own true media assets. To reach niche audiences on your own terms, for your own ultimate benefit.

As long as you provide the audience a benefit first, that is.

In traditional media, content producers give people something they want in the form of entertainment or information. Then they sell access to those people to advertisers who want to sell something to those people.

In social media, smart content producers understand that they play both roles. They provide people something they want and sell something… but in this case, what they sell is something extremely relevant to the content, and therefore, to the audience.

Being a new media content producer naturally creates awareness for your products or services. That’s what marketing is supposed to do, and that’s how it’s done effectively online.

An Example: How Daniel Can Sell More Art

Daniel Edlen sells really cool portraits of rock stars hand-painted in white acrylic on an actual vinyl recording from that artist. I got to know Daniel on Twitter, and now own renditions of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain portrayed on classic albums from each.

Along the way, Daniel asked me how he could sell more of his stuff.

I get this question a lot.

Daniel has an interesting marketing problem. He creates unique stuff (like he’s supposed to), but suffers from this one simple fact:

No one knows they want his stuff until they do.

No one likely searches for rock stars painted on vinyl. I certainly didn’t.

He needs an effective media vehicle to drive his sales to a whole new level. One where he converts a large number of followers into a smaller but vibrant group of customers who begin to market for him.

So the Golden Rule of Online Marketing is especially pertinent here. What can Daniel give away that has value and also stimulates desire for his art?

Daniel blogs, and I personally like reading his stuff. But it won’t work the way he wants.

Here’s what I’d do.

What do people who buy this type of art really want? What drives the desire to hang this art on one’s wall?

I’d say it’s mostly nostalgia and identification. An opportunity to gaze upon a vivid memory from the past, and to place yourself within the sphere of that sensation.

So what kind of content puts that person in the mood?

Rock trivia.

I know it sounds simple, and that’s a good thing. People want what they want, and our desire as marketers for complex answers is an insecurity, not a virtue.

Rock trivia is something huge amounts of people will opt-in to receive daily. There’s a demonstrated desire for this type of content, so you’re not forcing anything.

You now have their attention, which is critical, but there’s a lot more to it.

Facts and little-known details about rock stars and the lives they lead put people in a certain mood. If nostalgia and identification are what you’re really selling (as Daniel is), then you’ve got to put a bunch of people in the mood within one click of your solution.

This is how Daniel could sell a lot more art. It may not be the only way, but I’m betting this way works.

What Are You Really Selling?

The day you make a breakthrough is the day you understand what you’re really selling. What’s the ultimate benefit people get from you?

When you understand that, you can make media that works as marketing. Without it, you’re likely just pissing people off.

And please… until you get it, stay away from me at Tupperware parties. Yikes.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

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If there is one method guaranteed to get your articles and blogs read, then it would have to be to fill them with emotive content.

Before you say thanks for the tip, sit down at your desk as usual and start to write – STOP.

Emotive content doesn’t come from calm, well thought out writing. Emotion comes from within you – something has to stir you up and get you riled before it will come out in your writing.

The best time to write is when you are feeling:

• happy
• sad
• so angry you could punch the next person that looks at you

How do you get to feel like that? Read or talk to people.

Start your day reading a few blogs, even working through your email inbox can do the trick. How many times have you read something and thought what the **** are they going on about! Well when it happens write about how it makes you feel.

When our beliefs are challenged or questioned we become so wound up we need an outlet – let articles or blogging be yours.

Write about whatever has got your blood boiling – forget structure for now and just let it flow. I’ll guarantee that when you’re done, not only will you feel a whole lot better but you will also have one of your best articles in front of you.

I am willing to bet that if you had tried to sit down and write about the same subject from cold you would never have come up with an article that was so damn good.

This is because you are letting your emotion do your talking – you are holding a conversation so your writing is more relaxed and therefore more accessible to your reader.

So next time you see red, start typing or pick up a pen. Let it all pour out and before long you’ll have a stack of fantastic blogs and articles which will spark new debates, articles and blogs…

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