Successful Blog

Here is a good place for a call to action.

Head Smacking Realities: Why Blogging Isn’t Doing a Thing for Your Business

by

By Tracy Vides

“Have a blog and you’ll start getting inbound leads.

“Blogging helps you gain traction and develop a community.

Companies that have blogs make more sales than those that don’’t have one.

If you did hear one (or all) of those statements but are often wondering why nothing seems to be happening, you aren’t alone. There are millions of blogs that do nothing but exist.

Corporate or business blogging is even more difficult as it’’s like asking businesses to set aside resources to make it happen (compared to individual bloggers who are intrinsically motivated). Nothing happens without a reason and there are plenty of reasons why your blogging efforts aren’’t doing anything to meet your goals yet. Here are some of them:

No plans, no gains

Remember those days when everyone used to carry around business cards? You’d get yourself a set of cards too. Then, everyone and their neighbor got themselves a website and a bunch of social accounts and followed suit. Blogging, more or less, seems to have been bitten by the same bug. You blog because blogging apparently is the ““baby steps” of inbound marketing.

Starting to do something is good, and I won’’t bite you for that. Not having a plan in the sense of not knowing why you blog for your business in the first place is a sore wound.

Do you blog purely to drive sales? Or do you blog to become a thought leader? Do you blog to proliferate your brand name or do you engage in all-out blogging efforts? (Hope you end up getting inspired by How Jon Morrow Writes, as narrated by Demian Farnworth of Copyblogger.)

Figure out why you think you have to blog in the first place. What’’s all this trouble for? Write it down and think about it over a cup of coffee.

You pay attention to worthless stuff

Driven by the incredible amount of information available on digital marketing (most of it is farce, unjustifiable, or maybe just hype), your mind starts to nibble at things that don’’t matter at all: all the drive for ““SEO domination”” lets you believe that keywords should guide your content creation.

The truth is that keywords won’’t matter because the bots don’t buy; people do. All that time spent on social media takes your time away from creating awesome posts. Your blogs are way too short or perhaps way too long. Instead of thinking about your readers, you worry about Meta information, alt text, and backlinks.

There are many of those little gears that have to click in place to make your inbound marketing strategy work, starting with your blog.

Are you doing it right?

It’s not about words, links, or technobabble; it’’s about people.

Bloggers often forget that they are writing for people. Companies are even quicker when it comes to forgetting that blogging is an effort to promote brands, establish credibility, engage with potential and current customers.

David Silverman, author of Typo, and professor of business writing at Harvard, gives this test to his students:

Can you rewrite this bunch of babble into a word or two?

“It is the opinion of the group assembled for the purpose of determining a probability of the likelihood of the meteorological-related results and outcome for the period encompassing the next working day that the odds of precipitation in the near-term are positive and reasonably expected.

Businesses just worry about tools used, platforms that blogs should be based on, and the kind of voice, words, or personality that they expect blog posts to express. Of course, all this counts; individuality does matter, and these are what make blogs different from academic articles. Yet, you shouldn’’t forget that you are writing for people. Relationships still matter. You’ll need to get off the screen and meet actual people. You should be able to sell at a flea market before you can sell online.

Self-centered content strategy

First, your content strategy is self-centered. All that you blog about is how great that vacation has been, how life changing your moving to paradise was, how Venture Capitalists are now trying to break down the doors just so that they can invest, and how you grew your blog from 0 to 67,987 subscribers in 3 months.

What are some of the best examples of narcissistic and self-centered blogs, you ask? Go pick any of those nomadic vagabonds who try to sell you location independence and travel while working. It’s not to say that there’’s no value from such blogs. But more often than not, there’’s the ““me syndrome” creeping in with ““Where I Was Last Week”” and ““Exotic Destinations I’’ve Been To.”

Stand back for a moment. No one cares about you. Your customers — you know, the ones reading your blog — wouldn’t care if you just signed up a million dollar deal, bought another company, merged with a bigger one, or if you now float on $4 billion of excess cash balance in the bank.

All that your customers care about is what you can do for them. How many of your blog posts talk about your customers really? Can you actually count the number of blog posts that share something that doesn’t have anything to do with you, your business, the brand, the products or services?

Crappy content

Your content qualifies as crappy if there’’s no value given to your readers by the end of the post. There’s nothing it for them to ruminate, chew dry bread on, or ponder about. Your blog posts have nothing new to say.

I will repeat that. Your content is dry, sounds like a term paper, and makes readers scroll faster than ever. They won’’t read most of it they’’ll just scroll through and escape. And you’’ll never see them again!

Stop wasting time with blogs that don’’t make an impact. Stop hiding behind words. Show up with some guts and talk to your customers like they were your best friends. Be afraid to own up, accept your mistakes, speak your heart, and get bolder.

Great companies go to the extent of admitting their faux pas. Online marketing firm SEER Interactive admitted screwing up in their link building methods. AirBnB’’s Brian Chesky wrote up a self-deprecating post to own up the apparent horror that a customer had to face.

Doing this takes guts. Can you do it too?

Blogging needs you to post awesomeness regularly. It requires you to show up and be real. It demands that you use the fact that you are human to get other humans to buy from you, believe you, or accept your point of view. It requires you to multi-task. Blogging requires your belief to be brought to fruition by your determination and will.

As long as you produce blog posts because you should, your customers or readers will make it a point to leave because they can.

Author’s Bio: Tracy Vides is a content creator and marketer, who loves to blog about subjects as diverse as fashion, technology, and finance. She’s always raring to have a discussion on startups and entrepreneurship. Say “Hi” to her on Twitter @TracyVides. You can also find her on G+ at gplus.to/TracyVides.

Good People, Good Ideas

by

“Good people, good ideas.”

That’s how Liz summed up the community here at Successful Blog the last time we chatted.

sky with clouds and bubbles

It rings true for me.

Every time I encounter someone who has attended a SOBCon event, is part of this blog community, or resonates with Liz’s message, I am impressed by their intelligence, their generosity, and their spirit of curiosity.

Those traits make you excellent sharers.

With that in mind, we are actively seeking community members who would like to apply to be a weekly columnist on the site.

Successful Blog is a community for people who are serious about building a business and want practical, usable advice to get things done.

We’re for the “doers,” not the readers.

Columnist Requirements

  • Ability to produce one original, exclusive, well written article per week.
  • Long-term commitment (at least 6 months, preferably one year).
  • A passion for, and expertise in, your subject area.

Applicants will go through an interview process.

Benefits To You

  • Grow your online visibility with a huge audience.
  • Hone your writing voice and exercise your writing muscles.
  • Share your expertise.
  • Make lifelong connections with the Successful Blog community.

If you would like to be considered, please email Rosemary O’Neill (rosemary.oneill@gmail.com) and include the following:

  • Links to published writing examples (or your blog if you have one)
  • Social media profile links
  • Desired topic/category (major categories we cover include Content, Design, Leadership, Marketing, and Personal Development – check out our subcategories here in the sidebar)
  • 5 article ideas within that category

We look forward to adding your voice to Successful Blog!

Photo Credit: Nina Matthews Photography via Compfight cc

Three Blogging Tricks That Will Save Your Sanity

by

Bloggers are always “on deadline.”

No matter what the posting schedule is like (daily, weekly, monthly), there is always another deadline looming. It can feel like one of those hamster wheels where you can’t get off.

With several years of blogging under my belt, I have accumulated some tricks that keep me from losing my mind.

Keep These Blogging Tricks Up Your Sleeve

Rainy Day Posts

The next time you’re feeling especially productive and the words are flowing easily, sock away an extra post that can be “evergreen.” Even better if you have 2-3 extras. Put them in a special folder or Evernote notebook. Break glass in case of emergency.

rainy day blog posts

Writing “Stubs”

Many bloggers keep a running list of topic ideas, which is very useful. However, I like to take it a step further and flesh out the ideas as I have time. Whenever you have a spare moment, add to your “stubs,” without paying too much attention to grammar, structure, etc. Just jot down the bones of the post in a free-flowing way.

If you get bored with one of the “stubs,” move on to another one that’s more inspiring in that moment. No pressure to complete it, add URLs, etc., just get the ideas out of your brain and into the “stub” bucket.

Over time, you’ll have a fertile ground for picking up “stub” posts and completing them when you’re not feeling able to punch out an entire post from scratch. No more blank page staring at you.

Set up a Series

Establishing a series on your blog is one of the best ways to “have an ace in the hole.” If you establish a certain day of the week that is focused on a specific subject, then you aren’t grappling with that aspect of writing.

This also helps your guest bloggers. It’s much easier to find someone to write on a specific topic than to just say “write anything.”

The best part of running a series is that your audience will return to see the next post in the series too. It’s a great way to build audience attention over time, once they become invested in the subject.

What do you do to keep from losing your blogging mind?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney via Compfight cc

5 Reasons Why your Business Needs a Blog

by

By Teddy Hunt

Blogging might have come to prominence in the late ’90s, but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated. Social media might have become the focus for many businesses, but they’re missing out on a valuable marketing opportunity. Read on to discover why your business needs a blog now.

A Blog Helps the Public Relate To Your Business

A blog can turn your company from a faceless corporation to a much more human firm. It’s the place where businesses can show their personality and act a little more light-hearted than they do in other professional avenues.

It may seem daunting to loosen your tie, but it’ll do your brand some good. The friendly voice of a blog can help you cultivate long-term relationships with your customers and increase their brand loyalty. Eighty-two percent of customers say they enjoy reading relevant blog content from brands, and three in five say they feel a company’s positivity through their blog.

Potential employees also read company blogs to help them decide on the best employer for them as they generally create a better sense of what a business is about than a stiff corporate site.

Through your blog, you may find you’re attracting more appropriate candidates for available positions.

A Blog Gains Consumer Confidence

A steady stream of relevant blog posts shows readers you are dedicated to your industry and a good source of information. As your business blogs on a regular basis, you’ll start to establish yourself as experts in your field. Studies show that 81 percent of readers trust the advice they receive from blogs.

The key to gaining this trust is using the blog for more than self-promotion. Share your knowledge about your field, such as your insights about trends and your commentary on local affairs. Posts that are packed with insider information presented in a clear, accessible way are powerful marketing tools that are likely to be shared through email and social networking channels.

A Blog Improves Your Position on the Web

Your social media presence will drive visitors to your website and increase brand awareness, but it doesn’t improve your position on the web the way that blogging does. Every time you update your blog, you add new content to your site, and search engines take notice. Remaining current is one of the best ways to stay on top of internet search engine rankings.

Ranking well is a complex science, but the most important factor Google considers is the number of inbound links. So it’s worth noting that companies that blog have 97 percent more inbound links than businesses that don’t.

Search engines also consider the number of indexed web pages when calculating your ranking. Websites with blogs perform so well because they typically have 434 percent more indexed pages than their competitors.

Web position is so important because three-quarters of browsers never scroll past the first page of Internet searches. A blog can help your business stay in pole position and more than double its website views.

A Blog Increases Sales

As you might expect, a blog doesn’t just drive readers to your business website. It also encourages customers to spend up. Roughly three in five consumers say they’ve made at least one purchase based on the information they’ve read on a blog post.

There’s even evidence to suggest blog posts may be even more important than traditional advertising, with 70 percent of consumers insisting they learn about businesses through articles rather than ads. This may be because customers can mentally switch off when they feel like they’re being marketed to. Blog posts are a much more subtle form of advertising, so they can capture the interest of these customers that don’t warm up to commercials.

A Blog Can Become Part of Your Social Media Strategy

Coming up with all those pithy status updates for your Facebook and Twitter pages can be taxing, but your blog can help you out. It’s easy to blast every new blog post into your social networking feeds (just be sure to tweak the update to suit each social network, and engage with those who share it).

This means you can spend less time social networking yet still give your connections fresh, new material. Integrating your blog with Facebook and Twitter will also drive traffic back to your blog and company website, which gets customers one step closer to making purchases.

So what are you waiting for? There’s no better time for your business to get blogging!

Author’s Bio: Teddy Hunt is a freelance content writer with a focus on technology. When not behind a computer, Teddy spends the majority of his free time outdoors and resides in Tampa, Florida.

Photography Secrets for Bloggers

by

You’re already aware of the shift toward image-centric content, and I’m sure you’ve already started amping up the graphics in your blog posts, right?

The latest development is that even the Creative Commons licensed and free photography you’ve been using is not 100% reliable.

The safest thing to do by far is to take your own photographs. (Professional photographers, please stop reading here…)

Chances are, you’re carrying around a pretty decent camera already, inside your smartphone. If you invest a little bit of time in learning some composition and editing skills, you can stop worrying about stock photos and image licenses forever. And you have unique photos on your site to boot! You may even find a new hobby, and decide to purchase a standalone camera to take it to the next level.

photography for bloggers

Top Photography Secrets for Bloggers

  • Keep a visual mindset all the time. See that coil of rope? Could it illustrate a post about pathways? How about those birds lined up on the shore? Make it a habit to look around you for imagery wherever you go.
  • Horizontal is good for blog posts. Don’t just reflexively hold your phone vertically all the time. Horizontal orientation works better most of the time for blogs, and for sliders and other graphics as well.
  • Go as high resolution as you can. You’ll be glad later when you want to zoom in to a specific part of the picture.
  • Use online editing tools like Picmonkey to make nice text overlays for social sharing or to add your site URL or copyright.
  • Take a TON of photos. Think about the pros and how their shutters are snapping a hundred times during a photo session. If you want to capture that one great picture, take 10x the snaps.
  • Make a spot to organize them (Evernote, digital albums, Dropbox folders). Create a dedicated place to upload your blog photos after you take them, and name them with descriptive names that will make them easy to pull into the right posts. Consider organizing into categories like Nature, Office, Architecture, or whatever suits your niche.
  • Keep a backup. Be sure you keep a backup of your photo files, and don’t rely on your computer/laptop. Use the free services that are available, like Google Drive or Dropbox to keep them secure.
  • Think micro. For casual photography, we often look at the big picture, or the family group, or the huge vista. For blog posts, you might want to think about the way a shadow hits the sidewalk, or the ladybug sitting on a leaf. Get small.
  • Consider buying some pro tools. To get the lighting perfect on small objects, you can buy inexpensive, portable studios like a Modahaus. There are also inexpensive lighting kits like the Kick.
  • Pay attention to tips from the pros, like these excellent photo ideas from National Geographic, or these great composition tips from Digital Photography School.

Have you tried your hand at digital photography? As a blogger, it can be a very useful skill-set!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

How to Make Your Blog Stand Out in the Crowd

by

By Tracy Vides

To err on the side of diplomacy has always been a safer bet than being blunt. Diplomacy is everywhere. Being nice is an all-pervasive disease. To be boring, just like diplomacy, works for a lot of people.

As long as you don’t stand out, you don’t ask for trouble. To stay out of trouble is a global requirement.

People start blogs just as they start political parties, form governments, and start businesses. Since most people try to stay safe, their blogs will reflect that ‘safe’ vibe. As a result, the content is usually trite.

Rehashed, over-used, and boring blog posts are the staple of the blogosphere, as this slide deck from Velocity Partners makes painfully clear. It’s tiring to see just another blog out there.

We agree that there’s only so much information that can be shared on a topic. But who said that you’d have to keep it bland?

Popular blogs share the same content, but they do it differently.

Only a few bloggers stand out. They are different. Their voice is powerful. Their content is engaging. How do they manage to do that? What’s the secret sauce?

They are bold. They are beautiful. They write what they want to.

Here are some ways to make your own blog stand out from the rest:

Stick to Your Opinion, Don’t Waffle

Pick up a few facts, put your brain to this data, and craft your own opinion (rolled into a blog post). While you use your own voice, personality, and writing style to express your justified opinion, take a vow (in writing, if you can) that once the blog post goes live, you won’t budge from your opinion. Even if the string of virulent comments might want to make you think about your initial stand, don’t bother updating your blog post with the new school of thought.

Blogs get their mojo from opinionated writing. There’s no place for you to waffle here. No changing shoes once you wear them.

One caveat here:

One danger, when you’re writing lots of quick, opinionated blog items about the latest developments, is that you never get around to stating fully, in one place, what you think about a particular topic.

– Mickey Kaus

Write for the Emotion Connect, Not the Spider’s Web

Google is powerful. Bloggers all over the world love a continuous, incoming stream of traffic from search listings. Yet, you have to let go of the obsession to rank in search. I’m not knocking down SEO or SEM, do what you have to do. Just don’t assume that your blog promotions or marketing for your blog depends wholly and completely on Google.

Stop writing for search engines, because that makes your blogs read like school textbooks or poorly maintained journals of manipulative keyword-stuffing maniacs. Or worse, like The Dullest Blog in the
World.

If you ever have to create a blog post, do it for the reader. Google search takes care of itself. Your readers will thank you for it.

Bring in the Fun

Whether it’s a blog post or the copy (long-form or short-form), you need to use interesting and engaging content to market your products or services. Work hard to bring in the fun in your writing.

Your ultimate goal: bring that smile on your readers’ face, convince and convert.

While your blog post should have facts and opinion rolled together, your sales copy would have to be brief. Yet, make sure you bring in the humor when you are writing.

Stop being a bore.

Plant the ‘Feel’

Marketers now need to don the role of publishers through blogging. All marketers must work to ‘plant the feel.’

What do I mean by that? By making customers ‘feel,’ you bring a string of emotions, desires, needs and wants to the fore. Your customers almost visualize what you are writing about. The ‘feel’ factor can do wonders to your blogging efforts whether you are a physics teacher blogging about quantum mechanics or a tiny mom & pop e-commerce store that sells handcrafts online.

Stay Consistent

Add blogging into your lifetime to-do list. Blogging ought to happen every single day (or whatever frequency you like to blog with). While you might think that this was probably the first lesson you learnt about blogging, it’s one of those things that will help you stand out from millions of other blogs.

Why?

Most other blogs are dead. Most bloggers don’t update regularly. Some lose steam, while others just aren’t blessed with the commitment it takes to see a blog through success.

By blogging regularly, you are already in the top percentile of bloggers who are real, professional and serious.

Hook Up with Readers Personally, the Human Way

Forget about building relationships through your blog the usual way. If it’s usual, then everyone does it. You’d still have to build relationships with your regular readers, but how do you make a difference? It’s called ‘The insane reach out plan.’

The Insane Reach out Plan for the time-starved reader (that’s you):

  • Got a comment? Go hunt that commenter down and then follow his or her blog. Leave comments to reciprocate.
  • Find out who your readers are and then connect with them on social media to continue the =93small talk=94 that forms the bridge between your relationships.
  • Find opportunities to highlight some of your readers. There’s a reason why widgets that show ‘recent comments’ or ‘top comments’ or ‘most active contributors’ are downloaded by the thousands.
  • Sit down and send out emails to some of your regular users. Most popular bloggers tend to get high volumes of emails from readers, most of which end up unanswered. Turn this practice upside down. Actively send out emails instead.
  • Whenever possible, call or meet your readers.

Hard work? Yes.

Payoffs? That’ll require another blog post.

Necessary? No. But mandatory.

The only blogs that’ll work today are those that continuously produce content that gives something to readers that they can think about. Your blog is like a public kitchen giving food for thought to your readers.

That’s a grim challenge, yes, but others are doing it already!

It’s useless to worry about word counts, SEO, the size of your social media network, the platform you use for blogging, and the hosting account your blog depends on.

Worry about value. Lose sleep over how to make your content better. Brainstorm ways you can make your blog engaging.

Write with your heart, not your fingers.

Author’s Bio: Tracy Vides is a content creator and marketer, who loves to blog about subjects as diverse as fashion, technology, and finance. She’s always raring to have a discussion on startups and entrepreneurship. Say “Hi” to her on Twitter @TracyVides. You can also find her on G+ at gplus.to/TracyVides.