The Two Best Places to Host Your Blog

If you are thinking about establishing a blog as a part of your digital marketing strategy, (and for those who aren’t, you need to read my post here) one of the key decisions you will need to make is exactly where these blog entries are going to be posted.

While Tumblr is growing as a micro-blogging application, your best chances of reaching potential new clients and followers lie in blogging through Google blogging applications such as Blogger or Blogspot, or blogging via your own website.  Each has its own benefits.

Google Blogs

If you blog with a Google-based application that is linked to your Google Account, there are excellent SEO benefits. Google rates its own content highly, so a post on Blogspot will definitely rate above other web-based blogging sites – including the legendary Wordpress which is both more user-friendly and visually appealing.

Web-hosted blogs are a great option for those you don’t have a website, conducting most of their business through social media pages, or for those who are unable or unwilling to add a blogging page to their existing site.

Adding a Blog To Your Existing Website

If you have a busy website, or a website that needs to be busier, a blog is a necessity.

Each post acts as a new page on your website – and the bigger your website is, the easier it is to be found my search engines. And while Google remains at the top of all search engines, let’s not forget those who use Bing and Yahoo too.

Having your content on your site draws people to that site.  A blog posted on social media takes the reader straight to your site where all your marketing information is.  If they visit one page and like what they see, there is a good chance they will look at another.  We are not risk-takers when it comes to making online purchases.  We are researchers. The more you have on your site, the more a potential customer can research you and find confidence in what you have to offer.   

Both blogging options give you plenty of opportunity to share content on social media and reach out to consumers.  I wouldn’t be without the blog page on my website, but I also reproduce my material on Blogger to take advantage of Google doing some positive page-ranking for me.

If you want to add a blog to your current strategy, have a look at my recent post on who can blog for you.  If you do want to engage a professional blogger/content marketer, mypersonalblogger offers free trial packages so you try our services risk-free.

Working on my #blog schedule for the upcoming weeks... This is a great time to pose any questions you have about #blogging! If you want to suggest the topic for a post, hit #comment below! #blogger #mypersonalblogger #bloglife #shakespearewouldhaveblogged

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Jp06sR

Who Should Blog For You?

When you are setting up a small business, it can be difficult to do all the things you should be doing.  You have a product or service to promote, a website to build, clients to source and maintain – it’s an exhausting but thoroughly exciting time.

If you’ve been reading my blogs for some time now, hopefully I have you convinced as to how a blog can help promote your brand, product and message. You might know all about the SEO benefits, and how it helps create a social media presence and so on… if not, check out my post here.

So we know that blogging is marketing gold – but who can take on the responsibility for blogging for your business?

The first and most obvious choice is your CEO – the person with the vision.  Your customers would love to hear your origin story and all the reasons why you got into the field you are in.  Did you want to do things differently?  Was there nothing on the market that met your needs?  This is all fascinating reading that will speak directly to your followers and customers.  But what if you don’t have the time – or the desire – to sit down each week and craft that blog post?

Why not ask some of your employees to take turns blogging.  Make it a team effort.  You can blog about behind-the-scenes moments in the workplace, upcoming events, new products, happy customers and so on.  Followers love to see what goes into making that magic happen!

Finally, you might consider a professional blogger.  With a little research, this person can do all of the above and more.  They will be experienced in writing content that connects and using key words that help with SEO.  We sometimes see the opportunities you don’t – the things that seem everyday to you, but we know will appeal to the general public.  At mypersonalblogger, we often undertake sample blogs so that new clients can see the sort of content a professional blogger can create for you.  It’s free to try and you can stop at any point.  Give us a try today!

Some of us learn the hard way about naming out #blog. It should be something memorable - but also easy to spell! Think of all the traffic you miss from having a strange blog name! What's your blog called?

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1ImO5VS

Should You Ignore the 80/20 Rule on Social Media?

If you have a business page on social media, you have no doubt heard of the 80/20 Rule.  This is a quick rule of thumb which serves as a guideline as to how much on your social media time you should spent promoting your brand or product.  And sorry no – the 80% is not for product promotion.  According to this rule, we should only spend 20% of our time on social media on this.

This may seem to many like a missed opportunity.  If only one in five of your posts promotes your business, what are you doing for the rest of the time?

Like all rules, I believe this one too was meant to be broken… although not entirely. 

The 80/20 Rule reminds us of the true purpose of social media – being social.  You can’t simply put out content that promotes your brand without doing any of the other things we would naturally do on our personal social media pages.

Here are some other things you should ensure you are doing on social media:

Engage in Conversations

Ask questions to your clients and followers.  The questions can – and perhaps should – be relevant to your field.  A skincare brand could ask about favourite tricks to beat dry skin in winter, or what percentage of the time women really clean their skin before bed.  A hardware store might ask what tool is missing from followers’ sheds.  Not only is this good market research, if you gets customers to engage with you, half the marketing battle is won.

Make sure you respond to posts and comments on your page as well.  As a social media manager, much of my time is spent doing this.  I ensure all queries have timely answers, and I acknowledge nice comments that are made about the brands I work for.   If someone has gone out of their way to say how good your product is, acknowledge it.  Even ask them for more feedback – “I’m so glad you loved the product!  What did you like best about it?”

Post Content that People Want to Read

The “big sell” often doesn’t work for car salesman, so why would it always work for you? 

If you post content that is useful, content that answers questions or is funny and engaging, people will share it, and in doing so, they share YOU. 

You will notice many company blogs don’t exclusively talk about their products and services – but they do talk about their field.  I wont always try and sell you my services (even if I think they are pretty good and will really help you build your business!), but I do try to share information about blogs and social media that is relevant to the kinds of people who might be interested in this kind of service.

Share Content in Your Field

There is a lot of amazing content out there, and part of demonstrating your knowledge in the field is to share it.

Sharing – and better yet, showing appreciation for – good content makes you look knowledgeable and friendly.  You know what is and isn’t good in your field.  Twitter is a particularly good platform for this – see how much content I share on my twitter account that isn’t from me – but from other terrific thinkers in social media (check me out @blogsource).

In short, I don’t know how I feel about this 80/20 rule.  But I do know it provides some food for thought. If the focus is on being social, you can’t just sell yourself.  You have to engage and be engaging.  Try implementing some of the ideas above for the next fortnight and let me know what changes your experience on your social media pages.  Looking forward to your comments below!

You might know #blogging would help your #business or #professional profile... But perhaps you can't find the #time or #energy to get it done. Here's a #snapshot of my morning, happily writing away. Perhaps I could be writing for you? #mypersonalblogger http://ift.tt/1R3HwX0

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1I0rxnF

Check out my latest #blog entry on #socialmedia time savers! http://bit.ly/1M3tOUU #blogger #facebook #hootsuite

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1RD21zz

The #face behind the #words! #mypersonalblogger

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1KTtqZQ

Snapped a great shot outside #Southbank #Melbourne last night! #picoftheday #blogger #followme #followers

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1HcNrV5

So... What is a Blog?

The origin of the ‘blog’, although not officially coined until 1997, is traced back

to 1994.  Short for weblog, early bloggers used the internet to create a form of online diary, outlining their personal lives. Suddenly, we had a way of sharing our innermost thoughts and feelings with the whole world. Soon, it took off.  As the years passed, blogging became much more common and new understandings of how they could be used emerged. 

People began to use blogs to discuss important issues, or to chart their interests.  One of my initial blogs – and one that I still keep today – tracks my response to every book I read.  Eventually, people began to see blogs as a professional tool and businesses, clubs, and aspiring artists and professionals everywhere embraced the blog as a tool for marketing and promotion.

Today – blogging is a big business.  Perez Hilton gets millions of visitors a day to his gossip blog and every major company from Coca-Cola to Apple have blogs available for their many fans.

Why are blogs so successful for businesses, organisations and people in the spotlight? That’s easy – blogs help you create and maintain a personality for your brand.  They make you more relatable to clients and help you demonstrate what makes you unique. For example, the Coca-Cola blogs often outlines all their charity work.  Who knew this huge conglomerate gave so much back to poor and underdeveloped communities? Readers of their blog of course! 

Blogs give customers and followers a reason to keep returning to your website, hungry for fresh new weekly content. The Apple blog is one of the first places they announce the release of new products – you can imagine the excitement these posts cause! And when they have finished looking at your blog, they might just stay on line looking at your other products and services too.

There are also benefits in terms of being visible on the net.  Each blog post is its own web page – and websites with lots of web pages are more visible to search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This means blogs are important to ensure you are visible to the people who are looking for you!

Blogs make great reading because they are often in a chatty and informal style.  Your audience can hit the subscribe button and receive an email each time you post a new entry.  They can then peruse this at their leisure.

Many big companies have professional bloggers and social media managers on-staff to ensure their blogs remain relevant and up-to-date, but smaller businesses and individuals have to maintain their own blogs, unless they hire a freelance blogger such as myself to assist with the workload.  This is a great way to ensure that blogs are at a professional level for publishing.

A #blog creates great #content for your #website. It helps you generate more #traffic and more #followers. Contact me at mypersonalblogger.com.au to find out more!

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1M6TU7t

Why a Good Editor in an Invaluable Investment for Your Internet Content

I’m old enough to remember our first internet-enabled computer.  How amazing it was to be able to use a search engine to find information – and to be able to download music from other people’s computers (the days of Napster!). 

The internet has certainly changed our lives – and in continuing to grow and expand, no doubt there are even more changes on the way.

No business, organisation or professional can afford to ignore the need for an online presence.  And this means – writing internet content.  Blogs, eBooks, social media posts, web copy: you name it, the internet has been as important a development for reading and writing as the printing press was.

This means that many of us who never imagined ourselves as writers, will find ourselves publishing our words on the net.  And those who can use words well, have the greatest chance of success in this new age.

But every writer needs a great partner in crime – an editor.  Even popular authors like Stephen King, who has written over 50 novels, still have to work with an editor. Why?  Because it is really hard to edit your own writing. 

As a writer myself I can tell you all the pitfalls of trying to edit your own work.  Quite often, in trying to proofread, I will read over what I have actually written on the page and replace it with what I INTENDED to write on the page. This is the same reason why it can be difficult to determine where structural and expression errors may be.

A good editor works in partnership with the author, to protect and enhance the author’s work.  We work as a team – one looking after the creative side of the equation, and the other polishing the work to ensure the intended message gets across.

A good editor will assist the author with:

• Grammar and spelling checks
• Proofreading for expression errors
• Structure and flow of ideas
• Maintenance of desired tone and message

All this makes a good piece of writing great – and a great piece of writing outstanding.

The best editors are avid readers and writers themselves.  They have a passion for language and a firm knowledge of the audience and purpose of the piece you give them.

You don’t have to just engage an editor after a draft of your piece has been written.  An editor can be a valuable part of the process of working on a longer piece, helping the author stay on track with the project.  It can be refreshing to exchange ideas with someone who has no agenda for the piece other than to help you make it as wonderful as possible.

As an editor, I specialise in articles, blogs and eBooks. It's just another way mypersonalblogger helps you maintain quality content.

Getting #inspiration at one of my favourite places in #Berwick - #Nomadic! What a cool place to grab a coffee or a tasty meal. The #pizza is to die for. Right now, I'm sitting with a lovely #coffee, filled with ideas! Love the #atmosphere!

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1R6xyJL