Initially, web sites were a venue where information was displayed. You’d get a web developer (or even a designer), to create the code for your site, the content would be included and the site launched. It was a static environment, meaning the content was not changing. From time to time, a site would be redesigned and relaunched. In essence, these types of static sites were an online brochure. We can call them “static information sites”. They were appealing for a few reasons, among them:

1. They were cheaper than print media.
2. A large audience was reached.
3. Customized branding on the Internet, helped with marketing initiatives.

These static informational sites were coded in a way where the code and the content were combined. This made it more difficult to exchange data. To illustrate this, and how the webscape has changed, please see the video below:

As is evident in the video, things have changed quite a bit from the days of conventional (static) web sites. One almost profound issue was the separation of design and content. With dynamic web sites (where content is regularly added or changed), the content is commonly stored in a database. The coding of the site defines the structure and adds esthetic elements to each document. Then content is added to the document as it is requested from the database. This very much defines the functions of a blog – Sure a blog is still a web site, but it is dynamic! Dynamic web sites, such as blogs, appear to have greater flexibility and usability over the conventionally designed static web site, among them:

• Blog owners do not have to wait for someone to make content changes, they can do it themselves.
• Blog platforms (such as WordPress) have built in tools that are able to promote themselves.
• The big search engines find and return results for blog driven sites faster.
• Blog driven sites can be easily updated by the owner from any location that has an Internet connection – You can do it anywhere.
• Active blog driven sites tend to rank higher in search engine results (staleness scores, etc.).
• Dynamic sites (blogs) generally have easily installed plug ins (for end users / blog owners) that facilitate the sharing of content in online social media.
• Blogs are inherently better suited to facilitating a two-way communication between site visitors and content providers.
• Blogs are often more cost effective to have customized graphic branding and are certainly more cost effective to operate. Arguably the ROI may also be better than with conventional sites.
• Blogs can display dynamic content along with static pages that never change.

Side note: A better phrasing for blog could possibly be “a dynamic interactive web site”.

As may be evident, we could go on listing more points, however one issue is that many small business owners, are not Internet savvy and are only aware of the conventional web site style. They have no concept of how dynamic sites (such as blog) are more search engine and social media friendly, cheaper to operate and can provide a better return on investment.

Do I think conventional web sites are dead? I’m not too sure about that. A lot depends on the consumer – that is the web site owner. Those that have no concept of blogs or other types of dynamic sites are probably going to stay with the familiar conventional web site. I think this is a trend that will change, as those who grew up only knowing dynamic web site become the majority.

From my personal experience, many people who are not web savvy, stumble when they hear the word “blog”, it’s almost as if they think it’s something that is so different as to become difficult? Perhaps, but it’s the idea that they have to update content that may not appeal. The crucial issue here (I think) is that people need to become more informed, taking the time to understand how a dynamic site can help them spring ahead of their competition.

As we know, blogs are a great example of dynamic sites and in a prior post (Why Every Business Can Benefit From a Blog) we found that:

• 66% of businesses believe that blogs are becoming more influential as an information source.
• 58% of blog readers, read them to find news and information they can’t find elsewhere.
• 54% of blog visitors formulate their opinions about products and companies from blogs.

The above are growing trends, so it would seem that perhaps conventional web sites, while not dead, are on their way out.

Finally, why do I think conventional web sites are falling by the wayside? Some reasons include:

• Dynamic sites like blogs are content driven, the Internet is content driven. They are both web 2.0 and there’s already a move on to web 3.0
• Business owners I’m sure, prefer cost effective solutions that can provide faster results (such as search engine response, etc).
• The newer generations of consumer and business owner are more familiar with dynamic web sites.
• Because of the two-way communication in a dynamic site (such as blogging), business owners are going to learn a lot more about their clients and potential clients.
• Dynamic sites are simpler to integrate and more appealing (because of the communication) to social media sites and promotion.

What’s your opinion? What would you add in this post? Feel free to comment below.

So it seems when many of us move to blogging type sites, it’s sometimes hard to mentally leap the barrier of “static” to dynamic (dynamic meaning content that changes). Blogs are something that engages your readers, they (blogs) facilitate two way communication between you and your readers (who, for business operators, are potential clients). All to often I notice new blog owners place some content on the blog and then sit and wait for traffic. Invariably I often get a message or phone call asking what can be done as nothing’s happening. The conversation usually sounds something like this (below being an actual transcript):

BloggerSavvy: “Have you added in-demand, valuable content to your blog?”

New Blog Owner: “I did that a while back, but nobody visited the site.”

BloggerSavvy: “Have you added anything recently, content?”

New Blog Owner: “Well, no, not really, there’s not enough traffic and I don’t want to waste my time.”

BloggerSavvy:  “What things are you doing to draw traffic to your blog?”

New Blog Owner: “What do you mean? This is the Internet, won’t Google provide the traffic?”

BloggerSavvy: “Oh, I see, okay, what sites and online communities are you participating in, what activities are you doing to attract the attention of readers?”

New Blog Owner: “The blog is on the Internet, so shouldn’t I get some traffic because of that? There are millions of people all over the world on the Internet.”

BloggerSavvy: <Pausing…>

New Blog Owner: “I don’t really know what you mean or what I should do, can’t you do something? What now?”

As I’m sure we can appreciate, it seems that much of the issue is related not only to understanding the concept of a dynamic web site (blog), but also in appreciating that the off line, tangible world (where we make friends, connections, etc.) is mirrored in the online world! – The Internet. With this in mind, let’s think about that conversation…

In-demand, valuable content. That’s important, it provides original information that is demanded by readers. In other words, copying content from somewhere else (even with permission) is simply not going to garner any traffic or blog popularity. After all, if the blog uses duplicated content, what incentive is there to visit? Most readers would prefer (and will)  visit the source.

Post new content consistently. Business demands are very great on our time (myself included).  However, it’s important to always post regularly, the more often the better (as long as the content is of good quality – posting tons of low quality content will simply motivate readers to leave). When your blog is not busy, you should still post content! The thought process that it’s not worthwhile to post (since there are not many readers) is, in my opinion, a defeatist perspective. If I don’t post there are no readers – They will leave! If I’m low on readers, that’s when I must post regular content – It gives new readers some meat and potatoes… If the table is bare, it’s not very inviting – is it?

Be active in promoting your blog. You’ve got to get out there and participate, shake the trees, be active – Just like Baloo (Don’t know what that means? See the video below).

It’s a matter of gaining the experience of knowing were to participate, where to look for traffic, readers, connections – As Baloo puts it “the bare necessities”. Or… more to the point how to search. Just because your blog is accessible to Internet  subscribers, does not impart a degree of excessive traffic. This still begs the question, what now? What can new blog owners do to improve their visibility and increase readership.

To get noticed, you’ll have to make some noise. For all those new blog owners, here are some of the things I’ve done that have worked for me.

• Create a signature for your email and include and invitation to your URL. This will automatically be appended to every email you send out. eMail applications like Thunderbird, Evolution, Outlook Express, etc. all have the ability to do this.
• Join forums that appeal to your niche. When you answer questions (or ask them), most forums have the ability to include your tag line and/or signature. Again, include and invitation and a link to your URL. Do not spam forums (you’ll get banned). Instead, legitimately participate in them.
• Allow some of your content to be used on other sites only if the content links directly back to your blog.
• Participate in communities such as twitter, digg, etc. and those which appeal to your niche subject,  ensuring your profile in each of the communities you join all contain a URL to your blog.
• Comment on other blogs (do not spam – comment legitimately) with valuable content, insight, links, opinions, etc. – While making sure you include the URL of your blog in the appropriate area of the comment form you are completing.
• Always do your best to respond to readers who comment on your blog. Invite their opinions.
• Ensure your blog has the facility to allow commentors to be notified when someone responds to their comment – This invites return visits and further discussion.
• Offer to be a guest blogger on other blogs and invite your readers to be a guest on your blog.
• Make sure your blog has a “search” feature. Nothing could be more annoying than having to flip though page after page to try and find something. Make your blog user friendly.
• eMail readers and thank them for visiting.
• Get your best content seeded (included) in social bookmarking services like Stumbleupon and Delicious.

The above suggestions should help give new blog owners a good push in promoting their blog readership and traffic. Remember, don’t expect instant results, rather focus on community participation and providing quality content. If you do, your readership will grow all by itself.

What works for you that I’ve not mentioned? Have a success story you’d like to share? Feel free to add your comments below!

Before we get to the good stuff, it’s important to touch on some of the issues which negatively impact your SEO and resulting traffic. The following are issues I encounter almost all of the time (and mostly because the blog owner does not realize the following issues).

Negative SEO Issues:

• Make sure you retain the services of a professional web hosting provider. If the server hosting your account is often unavailable, that means Googlebot also cannot access it. The more often this occurs, the less traffic will be referred to you (because your blog will not be as prominent in search results, as it could be).

• Don’t participate in “keyword stuffing” when writing your content. Keyword stuffing is the action of adding keywords to your content, beyond what  in context, renders as reasonable. Excessive repetition of any particular word or phrasing via  content description, title tags, (any other) meta tags and the post content tends to raise a red flag with the search engines. Read what Google has to say about keyword stuffing and if you have suffered a negative as a result, you can resubmit your blog (after fixing the issues first) for consideration.

• Do not link to or exchange links with lower quality spam or splog sites. To be quite blunt, doing this associates (and places) your blog in a bad neighbourhood. Here is a direct quote from Google:

…Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links…

• Don’t duplicate your content or the content of another blog or web site. Distinctive and original, in demand content will serve you best. Copying content from another source, even with permission, is nothing more than a copy. The original site with the original copy will garner search engine traffic – Not the copied content.

Blogs Links and SEO:

In my opinion, an important aspect of improving your blog’s value (to Google as well as readers) is ensuring valuable (high ranking) inbound links point to your blog – and that you in turn link (outbound) to valuable, relevant content. Below are some of the aspects I’d commonly advise and blog (or site) owner.

• Allow your links to develop some age. The older a link is, generally, the more circulated it becomes. Old, well established links are ideal for your blog.

• The popularity of the inbound link also has a positive effect on your ranking. For example, a blog with a PR (Page Rank) of 6 provides more benefit that one that has a PR of 3. But don’t rule out the value of lower PR inbound links. I’d enjoy the value of one or two hundred inbound links from a PR3 blog anytime. So what I’m I suggesting? Consider the value of the inbound links by also examining their PR. One tool I use to accomplish this is a Firefox plugin called SEOQuake. It’s a simple tool that allows you to see the page rank of any site you wish. You get get the plugin directly from Mozilla’s SeoQuake SEO extension page.

• One thing (you may have less control over) is the anchor text of the inbound link. Anchor text is the text used for the link itself and… the text immediately surrounding it. That text should be relevant to the content it is linking too. Anchor text of “Baking” pointing to a page about painting is just not going to work well.

• Again, remember that outbound links are important. According to Google’s official blog “Linking out: Often it’s just applying common sense“.

Your Blog and Your Domain:

Many are not aware that your domain name registration now appears to have an effect on your SEO.  To backtrack, in 2005, Google’s patent application specifically addressed this issue by saying:

“…Domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith…”

• So it is probably a good idea to register your domain name for a longer period (than just 1 or 2 years). Incidentally, you can read United States Patent Application #20050071741. The gist of the pertinent sections of that patent application allude to the following additional issues for domain SEO:

“…the age, or other information, regarding a name server associated with a domain may be used to predict the legitimacy of the domain. A “good” name server may have a mix of different domains from different registrars and have a history of hosting those domains, while a “bad” name server might host mainly pornography or doorway domains, domains with commercial words (a common indicator of spam), or primarily bulk domains from a single registrar, or might be brand new. The newness of a name server might not automatically be a negative factor in determining the legitimacy of the associated domain, but in combination with other factors, such as ones described herein, it could be…”

• This essentially suggests that Name Servers (DNS) hosting your domain record is better contaning  a mix of different domains from different registrars. It appears Google considers this “Good”.

Finally, further advice is to ensure that you keep your domain on focus. For example, if your domain name contains keywords such as trees, weddings, real estate, law, or some other topic; ensure that your content is specific to the subject matter that your domain name suggests. If for example, you plan on launching content that is not directly related to the subject of the domain, then it may be advisable to launch it under a domain name that is more suited to the subject matter.

Keywords:

One aspect I think most of us are aware of is the issue of keywords. Specifically that we should place appropriate keywords in our document Meta Tags. (What is a keyword meta tag? – You can find out by reading Phil Bradley’s  “Meta tags – what, where, when, why?“). However did you know that the Meta tags for keyword, description and so forth do not have the effect they once did? Quite frankly, in my opinion they are a waste of time, and only useful for smaller search engines or directories, etc. that still use them – Which is why I still use meta tags.

In my opinion the only valuable use of keywords is to place the within your content! The post from Search Engine Watch, “How To Use HTML Meta Tags” says it best with their quote “Meta tags are not a magic solution”.

If you produce valuable content, Google and other search engines will be able to gather all they keyword information without any coded directions (such as meta tags).

SEO Tools for Your Blog:

In order to facilitate better SEO, there are some blog tools (WordPress plugins) that I use (and which you may want to put to good use as well). Two of the best free ones (in my opinion are:

• All in One SEO Pack provides automated (SEO) out of the box. Specifically, it takes care of titles, descriptions, keywords and duplicate content.
• Google XML Sitemaps generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap for your blog. This helps googlebot better crawl your blog. It reduces the crawl time and improves speed.

In conclusion, I’d like to remind everyone who is new to SEO (and blogging). The focus should be to provide quality and in demand content. Having said this, don’t misunderstand me. Quality content is critical (that what readers are looking for) – But quality content isn’t the “key” to blog success. However, this is another topic for another day; which I have touched on in an earlier post Quality Content is Not “The” Key to a Blog Success.

Before I forget, there is one tool I really should mention, it’s the Canonical URL’s plugin. What this does is help resolve the issue of someone visiting your blog using a different URL. This is also common fro individuals who have registered more that one domain, but have them all pointing to one hosting account. Because they are different domains, this could suggest “Duplicate Content” – Not good. To learn a bit more, check out the Google video below:

What issues have you encountered with regards to Blog SEO? What do you do that I didn’t include here? Have a thought? A comment? Let us know below! – Cheers!

Well, there’s a hook to this story, some time ago I touched on the subject of disaster recovery with an earlier post about saving your data when disaster strikes. In that post we explored the issue of software and hardware solutions. In my case I invested in an affordable network storage unit. It’s a proactive solution because all my data is regularly duplicated (automatically – I don’t have to do anything) to the network accessible storage unit. After reinstalling a robust operating system (this was my last remaining Windows based PC, now every PC is Linux – Including this one), all I had to do was copy the data back off the storage unit. It even had all my email, email settings, folders, calender, etc. (I was using Thunderbird as the email client as I found I could do much more with it than with other email clients – But that’s simply my opinion).

The point of my post? Don’t negate the probability of a disaster, prepare for it now, to avoid pain later. In my case I was fortunate in that I’m a heavy user of social media to support my business, that and the contributers for some of my other blogs was an issue that kept further stress at bay. Additionally, all blogs (your’s included) should also have an automated backup system. In the case of blogging, your (self hosted) wordpress based blog can make good use of  the WP-DBManager plugin. It (as described by the developer):

“…Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database…”

In my case, the automatic backup feature is in use, in fact all databases of all my blogs are regularly emailed to a central (external) email account. Therefore, if the server itself goes down and the backups (on another server) also happen to go down as well, the database backups are still available. An additional note is that the backup unit I installed for my PC’s will also access the Internet (automatically) and download backup copies of my web sites. (Not bad for a little box!)

Don’t get me wrong, being without my main computer for a few days (because the operating system and applications needed to be installed) was inconvenient, I felt secure and stress free as the valuable data of my business and client blogs and/or web sites was safeguarded.

Again, not to belabour the issue, but to those reading this post (and to clients reading this post), please do seriously consider obtaining an automated, network attached data storage unit. When disaster decides to pay you a visit, you’ll be glad to took the proactive approach!

Have you had a disaster? What were some of the issues you faced? What types of solutions have you used (or are considering). Comment below and share in the discussion.

I’ve posted about this subject before in “How to Deter Scrapers and Hotlinkers“, which discusses a bit more of the hands-on and some web based tools you can use to help protect your content.

Many of us have may have read all sorts of articles and other blog posts that delve into the legalities, copyright laws, rights and so forth. That’s not something I’m going to discuss as I think there’s too much discussion (and not enough action). If not, just take a look on Google and you’ll find a plethora of posts on the subject. The fact of the matter remains that we can file as many DMCA notices, cease and desist letters, etc. as we want. Often the content thief (called a “scraper” or “splogger”) does not care. After all they already have your content and you can cry and stamp your feet as much as you want – Many of them will simply not budge, especially if they are out of your geographical area or jurisdiction.

A case in point, on one of my other (self hosted) wordpress blogs, several pages were regularly being lifted by a web site in China. The only recourse was that Google removed the stolen content from search results (the hosting provider, etc. did nothing) – Even though Google was removing their search results, that didn’t stop them from adding more (from my stolen content)! Locally (North/South America and Europe) however, that blog has had a 100% success record in take downs of stolen content found on blog sties such as wordpress.com (Automattic), blogspot.com (Google), etc. Providing I followed their DMCA procedures, all issues were resolved.

In my opinion, this approach is ineffective, costly (with long distance faxing) and quite frankly a waste of time (at one point I was filing about 15 DMCA’s a day for that blog). Why? We need to be proactive not reactive! A client of mine uses the tagline “Predictable is preventable” for his blog and security business. And he’s right! We need to deter, curtail and control such theft attacks against our blog content.

It’s difficult to stop such activity, until you can see it occurring, as such, I hope the following tools will help you:

Grab yourself a copy of Antileech. It’s a plugin that does not stop sploggers, rather (in the developers words) “…produces a fake set of content especially for them that includes links back to your site and sends it only to them. When they steal this content, it appears online just like normal, except now you’ve turned the tables on them and have provided them with useless content…” The benefits here are that sploggers seldom read all the content. They have an automatied system grabbing thousands of pages – And now they will have backlinks to your original content, inviting the reader of the splog (containing fake content) to visit your blog instead. That’s link love!

Another effective tool in your arsenal is ©Feed, which allows you to place a digital fingerprint and copyright notice in your content feed (RSS). For those not familiar, in most cases, your RSS is used to facilitate content theft. What’s RSS? Common Craft’s video below easily explains it:

In the words of the ©feed developers “…You can use html. You can add the IP of a feed reader and digital fingerprint for an explicit key. There can also be a domain name for a whitelist and this domains became not the message [sic]. The plugin search for this key at content theft [sic]. It is furthermore possible to add comments and related posts to the feed. For the related post feature it uses a database-search for the content. You can use the plugin “Simple Tagging” for related posts in a feed. The copyright notice can be added even when using entry excerpts…”

Needless to say, the above two tools are very robust and take a proactive approach.  There are some other resources I’ve bumped into over time, that provide good reading and further insight:

• Jamming the scraper signals
• How You Can Stop Dirty Feed Scrapers In 3 Easy Steps
• Benefiting from Blog Scrapers
• Google – Duplicate content due to scrapers

Hopefully the above helps you (especially those who emailed me asking)!

Do you have any good solutions? What tools do you use? Feel free to comment your thoughts below.

In my opinion, the best type of branding for home sales professionals is Personal Branding. Much in the same way we like a certain waitress, mechanic, etc. the same applies – We like them because of their branding. Branding that is service, quality, etc. Personally I have obtained services from another company when a person moved there – In other words, I retained the services of another company when the individual who’s personal brand I like moved to that company. Did this individual have a logo, colours, etc.? No, not in this case! But she did have my trust, I liked her and  everyone knew her (as she was a gregarious professional). In some ways her new employer benefited by having her high quality brand associated with their business (and therefore the logo along with it).

So it seems that personal branding as reflected on a blog needs to accomplish three things:

1. Build awareness.
2. Build trust.
3. Build popularity.

For those of us who are savvy web users, you’ve probably heard of the Duct Tape Marketing site, John Jantsch phrases it best in the following video:

As such, your blog graphics (like logos) again are for the most part only there to identify the brand – They are not “the” brand. However while we’re on the topic of logos, don’t misconstrue the importance they can have on your brand. If you’re known for high quality service and attention to detail, your logo must reflect this! A poor quality logo that lacks professionalism demonstrates low quality service and indifference – Quite the opposite to the brand it’s supposed to identify.

When impressing your brand upon your blog, it’s important to consider the exercise suggested by Mr. Jantsch in the video. Make sure you ask as many clients as possible (he suggests 20) to use one word – ONLY ONE – to describe your business. Ostensibly,  if most agree, that defines a pillar of your brand, that should be reflected and focused in every element of your blog. If there is little correlation in the words, then that’s a call to action to work further on defining your brand.

While we know what three primary accomplishments our branding must bring to fruition (on any blog); what things can be focus on (blog wise) so as to ensure effective blog branding? In my opinion, the following points are paramount:

Personality is one method to develop rapport with visitors (who are potential clients). By being personal, you are showing visitors who you are and demonstrating your positive branding. Don’t misunderstand personal in terms of photos and professional biographies. By personal, I’m referring to giving advice, helping others, demonstrating your positive personality in your writing style, developing trust and so forth.

Consistency demonstrates a genuine brand. Constantly changing focus makes it difficult to establish a trustful, personal rapport with clients; and over the long term can erode your blog branding (reduced popularity).  Don’t get me wrong here… Every blog changes to meet the needs of the people it serves, that’s normal. We change over time as well (as we get older, wiser, etc.) and that maturing process is naturally reflected in our brand. Every thing we post in our blogs reflects our brand, we can elevate it or bring it crashing down. Have you ever seen a business you like  being bought out and then see that business become unpopular as service or quality levels deteriorate? That’s the power of negative branding due to loss of consistency.

Trust is the way to garner improved branding awareness and business opportunities. If your blog constantly spews “blog-positive” type content, it’s going to look as fake as a spray-on tan.  From personal experience I generally only retain or prefer the services and products of businesses with whom I have a personal rapport and trust relationship; with one key person! Your blog must reflect this, be direct, explain what you do or do not provide. Provide content that shows successful and not so successful aspects of your business. For less than successful scenarios, show readers how you approach and help them resolve issues and how that helps their interests.

Leadership and expertise in your genre needs to be earned and in many respects, seized! Nobody is going to give you leadership, sure you can earn it, but unless you seize that owned leadership (and expertise), nobody is going to place that crown upon you. Demonstrate your expertise with helpful, in-demand, driven content to your readers. Always try to ensure that you show some original thought. Don’t hesitate to give useful information freely. Think away the box instead of thinking outside the box – Remember the old cliché: “A very pretty box with a bow but nothing inside.”

Finally, there are some important steps to consider prior to launching a “branded” blog.

• Write a plan on how you would like to be perceived by your visitors. How do they perceive you now? Did you do the exercise suggested in the video yet?
• Look at the blogs that you keep visiting regularly. Why do you return to read from them? What features of branding do they use that appeal to you and illicit a call to action?
• Develop your 2 second commercial (blog tagline). It might not be as easy as you expect as it will immediately focus your branding.
• Talk to your existing or potential visitors, find out what they want to see more of or less of. Get their input – I’ll remind us again that our blog readers are our potential and existing clients!
• Who is going to respond to blog reader questions? How is communication going to be effectively managed?

As a side note: I emailed Mr. Love a simple, singular question that asked:

“What do you want your visitors to do on your blog?”

The understanding (I hope being transmitted)  was “If you cannot answer this question, exactly and to the point, then how do you expect visitors to know what to do. If they don’t know what to do, then there’s an obvious negative impact to your personal brand.

What do you think of personal branding? How do you view it on your blog? How has branding improved your blogging? Feel free to provide your input it the comments. Do you know of any blogs that demonstrate great branding? Please do list them in your comments!

In my opinion, the lack of understanding the importance of social media is one of the biggest contributing factors to the lack in targeted web traffic, of any volume. All too often it seems, a web site or blog is launched and there’s almost not effective growth plan or activities that capitalize on the benefits of social media.  To be quite blunt, I’m not aware of any other low-cost effective blog promotional venues that has the capability and reach of social media.

For those not familiar, by social media venues, I’m referring to avenues such as Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Friendster, Facebook, and the like. Sites and services that are able to connect large communities of people in any given niche. Remembering of course that the better you can cater to a focused niche, the more pre-qualified your traffic is going to be.

With regards to social media marketing (or the lack thereof), I think each of us falls into one of four categories:

1. Fully aware and know how: Individuals who are fully aware of the value of social media and use it consistently to build their blog.
2. Aware and don’t know how: Individuals who are aware, but do not know how to effectively take advantage of it.
3. Unaware and don’t know how: Individuals who are unaware and do not understand how it works.
4. Don’t care and not interested: Individuals that simply avoid social media or don’t realize the value of it.

For those not familiar with social media or it’s impact, the following video illustrates the forces that shape it:

Regardless of which category of social media usage any of us fall into, it’s important at times, to be reminded of two primary inherent benefits social media offers bloggers. For those of us not familiar, the following may be an eye-opener!

Social media has a direct impact on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). How? It’s quite simple, social media builds (increasingly) the number of links back to our blogs. The more links back, the better the ranking. You might be thinking “Wait! I participate in paid link exchanges that can improve my ranking” . To be blunt, paid link exchanges that claim to improve SEO (in my opinion) are a worthless exercise and waste of financial resources. I’ve worked with numerous sites that have garnered no real benefits. In fact Matt Cutts of Google has often commented on this very issue: “Text links and PageRank” and “SEO Mistakes: link exchange emails“.

In my opinion, the most important issue with regards to social media based link building is that the links are not paid, they are permanent and of course obtained in a natural manner. By natural I’m referring to another site or blog linking to your blog as there is a genuine relationship or discourse between the two blogs. Such links are in essence a vote of trust and confidence in the value of your content. As such the more genuine links (or votes of trust) you garner from social media, the higher the authority of your blog.

I know from experience, the birth of a new blog with no traffic or social media buzz, has a difficult time to garner traffic and back links. One of the most effective ways to build them is to participate in the social media sphere! Join twitter, digg, technorati, linkedin, stumble, and so on… develop contacts, communicate, share. These are the activities that are going to help you grow your blog traffic and help you appeal to your target niche. From experience, here is one trick DO NOT ONLY POST LINKS TO YOUR CONTENT. Doing so is obvious to others in your social sphere; that you are only interested in self promotion.

Think of it this way. If you’re at a dinner party and the conversation from your side of the table always revolves around you, wouldn’t that make other guests think you’re self centered? Key issue: You’ve got to give if you want to get. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. That’s how it works. If you want others to help you, then you’ll need to freely help them. Therefore, when you’re twittering, stumbling or digging though the web, make sure you twitter, stumble and digg the content of blogs or sites you enjoy; other than your own.

Initial primary traffic encourages secondary traffic. What does this mean? Think of it this way, the more you socialize, the more contacts you make. They tell their friends, who tell their friends, and so on… Remember, social media is not about making money, it’s about making friends. Every blog, web site, business, group, organization, etc. needs friends, that’s what brings us the secondary traffic that can enable us to grow. Perry Belcher‘s video (blunt language and all) expresses this very clearly (for those interested, Mr. Belcher’s blog can be found at perrybelcher.com):

As I’m sure you’ll appreciate from the video your house is your blog. That’s the place where you invite your social media friends too. That’s where you focus on your content and on listening to your readers. If your social media mission is to make money and get traffic, that’s just not going to work. Think about it this way, if you go to a party, is your “mission” to have fun or to garner followers?

The crux of the issue is that most blogs (and the businesses associated with them) seek to grow, becoming more profitable. Social Media can collect a core group of supporters (along with their peers) who can effectively recommend your blog to others. As such, it’s often these others who help grow your sales (as they were referred) and who in turn refer others through their social media networks.

Finally for those who don’t care and are not interested in Social media, what you don’t know can’t hurt you, right? Wrong… as the video below will clearly explain:

In conclusion, the more social media friends you have, the faster word of mouth will spread (with regards to your blog). Social media networking is an extremely effective manner with which to invite people to your blog. Your traffic will grow in leaps and bounds when there are a group of readers ready to answer your call to action. Readers that you found via Social Media.

What are some of your thoughts, commentary? Do you agree or disagree with some of the ideas above? How do you approach the issue of social media and blogging? Feel free to include your comments below.

As I’m sure we can appreciate, humourous as the video may be, the end result is not the fault of the developer (or so we might initially think), rather the input of the clients. It’s one thing to provide valuable input (and we should), it’s quite another to assume command as if we are a graphic design or web development professional. Let’s elaborate on some of the issues in this video the majority of which have been mirrored in actual projects I’ve worked on:

• Over analyzing.
• Too many cooks in the kitchen.
• Unrealistic time line expectations.
• Changing the parameters mid-stream.
• Adding parameters that are not related to the targeted message.
• Too much information.
• Use of copyrighted or trademarked material.
• Obtaining the advice of people without knowledge and/or outside the target niche.
• Assumptions without supportive facts.
• Assuming personal ideas are paramount and effective.
• Providing conflicting information or directives.
• Impractical expectations.
• Assuming we’re in the drivers seat.
• Use of unresearched an unrealistic ideas.

Over analyzing, resulting in a loss of focus. When we are creating (or changing)  a logo for our business, keep it’s message to the point, clear, neat and understandable. Not all ideas are good, a professional, effective graphic designer will be up front and tell us if an idea is horrible – and why. We need to (really) listen to the professionals we’ve retained. Remember, from an experience perspective they work in the graphic and online industry day in and day out, we don’t.

Who’s in charge? Ensure that one team member in our group is in charge, and the liaison with our designer. Prior to flooding a designer with all our ideas, let’s weed them out amongst our team members. Remember the old adage, “garbage in, garbage out“. To many ideas are confusing and again facilitates the loss of focus. If there are too many cooks in our kitchen, we need to remove some of them.

An effective developer or designer can give us a realistic time line to project conclusion. Expecting a Valentines Day period launch, for example, should be considered four to six months earlier for most projects. The point here is that it’s up to us to ensure we provide enough time to allow our web contractors to complete a project on target.

Once a project is in development, it is not a good approach to change the parameters. This increases costs, lengthens development time and further confuses and loses the focus of our original message. Additionally, the inclusion of new, extra materials, ideas, etc. not only delay the completion of our project, they also further muddy the focus of the intended message. This would be a time to pause and consider that our “additions” should be part of a separate project.

It’s a good idea to provide our developers, designers, copywriters, etc. with as much relevant and pertinent information as we can. However, ensure that we do not overwhelm them with superfluous information. We should feed information that retains the focus of our project message.

No, we cannot use copyrighted or trademarked information, etc. unless there is written authorization from the legal owners to do so.

When inviting input from third parties, ensure that we’re asking the right people. Namely, the very people who are our intended niche and whom our message is targeted towards.

The old adage “When you assume, you make…” is applicable here. Remember, and idea we think might be good is exactly that… “might be”. Find out, do our research, gather the facts. Listen to the individuals we have retained to service our needs.  They can very quickly provide us with feedback, in great part because they have broader exposure. Remember, just because we like something does not mean it’s going to be effective, also, it does not mean that our target market is going to like it as well.

When we provide conflicting directives and information, that should be a clear sign that we’ve lost focus of the message and it’s objective. Stop, stand back, organize and then return. Remember, an effective contractor is one who works with us, not for us.

Remember, common sense and practicality are effective approaches. Expecting impractical fixes or changes, things that work opposite to their intended or standard fashions, etc. are often impractical, silly, add extra cost and frustration to us and our target market and provide no other function than to move focus to bear upon these inconvenient “things”. Again, we really should listen to the advice of the professionals we’ve retained.

Key point, when we retain the services of  a graphic designer, web developer, copywriter, etc., we are not the boss. They are. Our job is to provide them with the tools they need. It is their job to lead the project and bring it to successful fruition! They are the experts in their fields and should not be fettered. We rely on their expertise – That’s why we hired them, as such, we should not be trying to do their job (by constantly telling them what to do and/or how to do it). Instead we should be providing feedback based upon our own research.

Granted, we’ve discussed a fair bit of what we can do to ensure our focus remains effective and targeted, but as depicted in the video above, I noticed several failings of the developer among them are the following four:

1. He never indicated or further clarified conflicting information.
2. The designer didn’t seem to communicate that the initial message was becoming lost in the graphic flotsam being added.
3. Frustration seemed to be increasing for the designer and he should have approached the client to discuss and avoid the issues that were creating frustration (he should have said something).
4. Above all, the designer should have alerted the client that their ideas are obscuring their initial focused, targeted message and that it is putting the final success of the project in jeopardy.

Conclusion? Prior to even considering a project, we should already have documented our plan and fully researched it. We should have an action plan in place (much like writing a business plan) and be able to effectively communicate and answer the questions from the professional we retain. On a personal note, the best client I ever had was one who had a web site plan developed . She gave it to me to read (and it read almost like a business plan). It listed all the information and answers to questions. It was well organized, very focused. It was designed in a way that clearly outline the objective, goals and needs, while providing the freedom for me to complete the site in a professional manner, as I needed (so as to meet the objectives).

What’s your take on this? Agree? Disagree? What would you add, remove or suggest? Feel free to comment your input below.

“Is wordpress better? and if it is can you explain why? Trying to feel my way around the blogging world!”

To answer, I think the best approach is to look at the pros and cons of self hosted (stand alone) versus site hosted (community) blogs. Personally I am biased towards a self hosted WordPress platform as it allows for greater control and customization. Again, having said this, the real issue is how you are going to drive your content, do you require full control or are you going to hand off your blog’s control to a third party?

As most blogging platforms offer more or less similar tools; for those interested in the nitty gritty (comparing platforms) WeblogMatrix has a nice tool to help you compare actual platforms. Another nice link that Google returned was “Blog software comparison chart“.

In my (humble) opinion self hosted blogs are the best (and most professional) way to go. However, without further delay, here’s my take on the pros and cons…

Self Hosted Blogs

The good:

• Using open source software (such as WordPress) results in an affordable installation (it’s free). There’s no payment for the downloaded code or licensing. Also, templates are free as well, unless you’re looking for a higher end professional branded look (requiring the time for a designer and/or developer to code). If you are able to design your own template, all the more cost effective for you.
• Better ability to offer or include specific interactive features. Most blogs are well supported by developers, who also provide valuable plugins, which you can install as needed. For example every feature of this blog is provided for free by other developers. Additionally, if you have the budget, a self hosted blog can be more adaptable as you can hire a developer to code a custom plugin and have it installed on your blog. WordPress (as an example) has a huge repository of plugins that handle everything from Adsense to ZenCart (ZenCart is an ecommerce platform).
• Complete (full) control, is the best benefit (in my opinion). Nothing speaks louder and looks more professional than the ability to stand out from the crowd. Additionally the professionalism is also further enhanced by facilitating the use of your own registered domain name. In my opinion (and I’ll probably annoy some people by saying this) using a URL that contains yourname.blogger.com or yourname.wordpress.com is akin to using a hotmail or yahoo email address on your business card – It looks tacky and unprofessional.
• You can always backup the blog content automatically by having the hosting company configure the server to do this for you.

The bad:

• To properly host your own blog, you’ll need to obtain the services of a reliable web hosting company (that can provide support when you need it!). In my case I run my own business that hosts my blogs and those of my clients. Hosting will cost extra money. Also, the registration of your own branded domain name will cost a little bit extra.
• Sometimes the installation of the blog software can be complicated, but if you have a good rapport with your hosting company, they might set up the database for you and install the code – Then all you’ll need to do is configure the blog the way you’d like it.
• Updating blog packages can also be tricky. Most of them update their code regularly, if you are technically savvy, you’ll be okay. If not, you’ll need to retain the services of a developer to do this. The same can be said for plugin updates (however WordPress is super cool and easy to update plugins in).
• Security can be an issue if you are not familiar with Internet systems and technology, however a reliable hosting company should minimize issues for you. Side note: ALWAYS have a backup of your blog current files and current database in your possession.
• These types of blogs depend on templates and it is easy for popular templates to appear on more than one blog. Remember, you need to stand out and be seen!

Site Hosted Blogs

The good:

• Usually the cost is free. All you need to do is sign up and provide the required details to start blogging.
• Software is updated regularly (as are any plugins), you don’t have to know how to do this.
• These blogs are easy to operate, there is a low learning curve.

The bad:

• Because the URL is not your domain, you’ll lack the professional (and easy-to-remember) URL. In my opinion, to some degree, your promoting the site that is hosting your blog with your content.
• Lack of control is an issue, remember, this type of blog is under another domain’s banner and your blog would be subject to it’s rules (not yours).
• Limited options are also an issue in that you cannot install plugins or other software solutions that are not already included in the package offering. As such, you have a reduced ability to adapt and customize features, etc.
• Speaking of customization, these types of blogs also are dependent on the default templates that come with them. Inevitably is can be difficult to distinguish your blog from the others (as I’ve often observed how similar they appear). In any event there will always be the branding of the “promoting site” on your blog.

While I’m sure that we could spend excessive hours (and pages) extolling the virtues for and against various platforms and the associated pros or cons, I think one pertinent point remains as a call to action:

If you are seriously considering a professional blog then you should (seriously) pursue the self hosted avenue (using WordPress).

If you want to experience installed blog versions without installing them yourself, then you can visit the “blog” section of OpenSource CMS. I have been using this site for several years to see working versions of packages before I download and install them. Also, I quick Google search also returned the post “Choosing a Blog Platform” which should help further clarify not only my opinions but also reinforce some of the issues raised in my post above.

What are your thoughts? Any pros or cons I should have included? What’s your take on this? Comment below and let us know.

The #1 strategy to garnering more traffic to your blog is:

“Write good quality, in-demand content“. (Remember you are writing too people, not at them).

And of course some of the activities I successfully use are:

• Use social networking tools such as: StumbleUpon. Run an advertising campaign via StumbleUpon. Use twitter. Ensure you provide tweets of value and customize your twitter page to match the branding of your blog. Never complain needlessly on twitter (do you want to spend your day with a whining sour-puss?) Invite people to follow you on twitter.  You may find my earlier post “Common Blog Traffic Sources?” to be of interest – Hint… Google is NOT my biggest traffic source .
• Include information about your blog in the signature of every email you send (including the URL).
• Use subscription systems on your blog. Plugins such as Comment Approved Notifier and Subscribe2 can help you accomplish this. More useful plugins can be found in the post “25 Most Beneficial WordPress Plugins“.
• Enhance your update services. When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the site update services you configured. Here is a robust list of 145 Update Services for Blogs.
• Use your blog information and URL in forum signatures.
• Comment on other blogs. However, don’t comment just for the sake of obtaining a link, doing so is often very obvious, instead, provide valuable feedback, thoughts and ideas.
• eMail readers and thank them for visiting.
• Post new, quality content regularly. Doing so keeps readers interested and momentum going. Additionally, ensure you provide valuable links to external resources as well as those within your blog.
• Trust your readers. Often it is very annoying (and a bit of a turn off) to wait for comment approval every single time, when they participate (comment) on your blog. Instead, it may be better to “lift the embargo” for those who have provided valuable comments before. If a comment from those individuals is inappropriate, you can always edit or remove it later.
• Use lists on your blog. Lists are attractive as they are scannable,  easy to use and link to; and easy to add to later.

I’ve been following a fair bit of the happenings in the blogsphere (and for me some of them are new). Of note is the changing landscape where word of mouth seems to be successful whereas viral marketing appears to be waning.

Most importantly, we’d like to know what some of the new strategies are, that you use or recommend. How do you approach them? What do you do or recommend? What’s your perspective in new blog promotion strategies? Comment below. Also, for a bit of link love, comments added to this post will have the no-follow tag removed as I move them into the post with your credit. So… don’t be shy.

Today I received another link (from the same group), the video is below (“A Vision of Students Today”). The specific topic deals with the characteristics of students today. While this may not be directly related to blogging, some of the comments and suggestions within this video are not only moving but also provocative in that (I think) bloggers, such as myself, need to stand back from time to time and put ourselves in someone else’s shoes (such as our readers). Doing so perhaps can empower us to provide content that is more meaningful and useful (among other things). A case in point from the video, “18% of my teachers know my name”.

About the only intelligent response to the video that immediately comes to mind is: What are we doing?!

Given some of the statements such as: “I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web page…” in my opinion implies (to me at least) that bloggers need to maintain a higher quality of content and ethics.

Again, while this video may not be directly related to blogging, I thought it provided a message that we all need to stand back and listen to, in many ways it was also moving.

I think we need to put things in perspective.

Remember, if your packaging (blog design) looks unorganized, ugly, “busy”, disorganized, etc. then that’s the message your sending to potential users. In other words your design is telling visitors a fair bit about your blog, before they even read the content. If the blog looks terrible or is not functional, you’ll probably lose that visitor. A blog with horrible typography (fonts), positioning or navigation is a clear message to readers saying “I don’t have attention to detail, I don’t care about quality, I am not professional“. After all, would you go to a wedding with dirty worn-out jeans and a soccer tee-shirt? Of course not!

Having said this, let’s pause for a moment and consider that design is not just about the graphics on your blog but more importantly, design is about planning and functionality. And in my opinion, graphics take a back seat to the functionality of your design. If the blog is poorly planned and has poor functionality, no manner of quality graphics is going to improve it. (If I cannot easily access what I need from the blog, then why would I return to visit again?).

To fix or change such issues, we’ll need to take a hard critical look at our blogs. We need to pay special attention to any sidebar widgets, our navigation and where elements are placed on our blogs.

Look at your blog (do it right now) and ask yourself:

1. Do I really need all these buttons and widgets in my sidebar?
2. Which things can I move out of my sidebar and place in my blog’s footer, header or navigation?
3. What home page (or sidebar) elements can I move to a separate blog page?
4. Which plugins can I find that will combine the jobs of two or more existing ones?
5. Does my sidebar really need all these links? (Am I really receiving as much beneficial traffic from them as anticipated?)
6. What things in my blog layout (including sidebar elements, widgets, etc.) is distracting my readers?
7. Do my “link exchange” links really do anything for me?
8. Is my navigation simple and intuitive?

While many of us will feel a bit of trepidation about removing or moving something from our blog design (I always do), there are some simple factors we can take into account – and make the hard choices. Much in the same way we need to prune our plants to make them grow nicely (and it’s hard to do), we need to do the same with out blogs.

One aspect that needs particular attention is linking and link exchanges. The Link Exchange web site explains some of the Bad Link Exchange Practices and SEO Mistakes that we all can make at times.

Another helpful online tool from Bad Neighborhood provides a text link tool to help you eliminate questionable links. Why is this an important thing to consider? From their site:

“…Text links are an important factor in today’s search engine optimization, and exchanging links with other websites is a good way to get them. However, doing a link exchange with a website that is penalized can have some detrimental results…”

In other words, if you’re linking to “bad” sites, your SEO may be penalized. Why am I mentioning linking and link exchanges? Because a list of links just adds clutter and in my experience… Most people don’t use them as they don’t provide any added value! If you want to link to a site, or exchange links, it’s more effective to write a blog post (or page) that also highlights some of the benefits of the link. A list of links does not do that, as such is not very useful.

Widgets and buttons? I found out from my other blog that many of them are not worthwhile and simply clutter your blog up with visual noise. Remember what your focus is (the niche your blog caters to) and keep this focus in mind. Evaluate your traffic statistics, if a widget is not serving you the traffic you expected and provides no “real” value to readers – then remove the widget! Also, if a button is not related to your blog, why post it on the blog?

For example placing buttons that show your blog’s traffic statistics to readers makes no sense. Why? They are there to read about your products, services, etc. not about how many people visited you. As such, that would simply be another piece of clutter. Another example, if I’m a photographer who has uploaded my work to Flickr, a Flickr widget might make sense, but not a “Who has visited my blog” widget (again, readers are interested in your photography work, they are not interested in what strangers are doing).

One resource you may find helpful is Smashing Magazine’s post: 7 Ingredients of Good Corporate Design. It provides some valuable insight into design, typography and branding among other aspects. When you’re reading this, one question you should keep in mind is how you could redesign your blog for the future.

One final issue of cleaning up our design I’d like to address is sound. That’s right, you’re blog could be turning people away because of noise. Some examples of “sound clutter” on blogs:

• Noises or beeps every time someone clicks a link. After a while it get’s annoying and effectively can become a deterrent for many people.
• Videos automatically starting to play. This can be an issue if there are more than one video streams on a post, let the reader click to play when they are ready.
• Music automatically playing when a page or post is visited. Keep in mind that we don’t all have the same musical tastes. Also, this can become a deterrent when people visit your site, they may be researching your services or products but will leave when the music starts playing, as they do not want co-workers or management to assume they are playing with the computer on company time.
• Talking avatars in our blog’s sidebar – And I’m going to go out on a limb here and say those talking avatars make a blog look cheap, unprofessional and provide no real concrete value, they are, in my opinion, tacky.

In conclusion, if I could some the above into one phrase, perhaps it would go something like this:

“Prune your blog’s design. Remove features that have not provided expected results. Keep your graphics clean and simple“.

To help you with this excersise, look at what some of the successful blogs are doing, this will provide you with ideas and visual examples of how to accomplish the “clean up” tasks above. Blow is a list of blogs that I think have good design, in varying degrees:

TechCrunch

ReadWriteWeb

techdirt

Gizmodo

So… before moving on to the other posts in this series, let’s get our design cleaned up!

What would you suggest? What have I missed? What’s your input? Share your comments below and help everyone out (don’t forget to include a link to your blog!)

It seems that launching a blog for some new and inexperienced blog owners is a huge exercise (and for some a steeper learning curve than for others). I’ve often observed clients who have launched their blogs, fail to garner traffic, further excitement and buzz, or for that matter, reach any of their goals and blogging aspirations. After a time they become discouraged as they feel let down by their blog.

One of the biggest barriers I’ve observed (among others) is that often people just don’t do anything, mainly because some don’t quite know what to do (or how) and others just need more motivation.

Some launch their blog and expect the Internet horde to rush over and visit. To be blunt, the days of “Build it and they will come”, are long over. A blog is akin to your business tools, if you don’t use it, it will become rusty. Defining some of the barriers to improving a blog is well and good, but what can we do about it?

As many of you know, I’ve recently recovered from a disaster, which prevented me from posting for a few days. As such, this has provided me further motivation to provide more valuable content; content that I’m sure you’ll all find valuable.

This post is the beginning of a series exploring hands on activities we can complete, after which you’ll have improved your blog. We’ll be completing activities such as linking, using social media, cleaning up our blog design, developing and examining our SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), creating sticky posts, improving SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and much more!

Personally, I urge you to please do three things:

1. Diligently participate in each activity.
2. Provide feedback in your comments as it’s helpful to everyone.  Learning not only about successes but also suggestions and alternatives.
3. Provide ideas or suggestions if you think I’ve missed something.

1) Create an Action Plan

Much in the same way we create business plans, we should also do the same for successful blog launches. Among the more obvious, some things you’ll need to pay extra attention to are:

Domain name. Is it easy to remember. Does it describe the blog?

Measurable goals. Does your plan include tangible goals that you can measure and evaluate? Does it include contingencies.

Budgeting. Have you evaluated and included all foreseeable expenses? What about a financial buffer – What happens when an unexpected expense occurs?

2) Use Reliable Hosting

Make sure your blog is hosted on a server that you have control over. I can’t stress this point enough. Why is this important? Not only does this effect us directly (if visitors cannot access the site properly) one related aspect it seems is an SEO effect. In March of 2005 Google was issued a patent (Information retrieval based on historical data ) of interesting note is the nameservers (DNS) handling the server on which your blog is hosted. One statement of Google’s treatment of nameserver information is:

“…the age, or other information, regarding a name server associated with a domain may be used to predict the legitimacy of the domain. A “good” name server may have a mix of different domains from different registrars and have a history of hosting those domains, while a “bad” name server might host mainly pornography or doorway domains, domains with commercial words (a common indicator of spam), or primarily bulk domains from a single registrar, or might be brand new. The newness of a name server might not automatically be a negative factor in determining the legitimacy of the associated domain, but in combination with other factors, such as ones described herein, it could be…”

If you control your server, you are able to ensure that your nameserver is not “bad”. In a shared hosting environment you will not be able to ensure this (and other aspects) don’t come back to bite you in the future. While a dedicated server is the best option, it’s not always within each budget. At the very least, I’d suggest using a Virtual Private Server (VPS).

I should also note here, register a domain name that you will use for your blog. Ensure you include the following points in the choice of domain name:

• Make it easy to remember. That way people are more likely to visit you as they don’t have to try to find you.
• Keep it short. Excessively long domain names are such a pain to try and remember, then type into the address bar of a browser. (Who is going to remember a very long name).
• Make it easy to spell (and difficult to spell incorrectly). Easy to spell, equals simple access to your blog.
• Try to ensure it describes your blog, business, product or you (the primary blogger) in some way. This helps with SEO and also gives people some clue as to your blog’s purpose.
• Don’t use hyphens or numbers in the domain name. Is that “2″, “to”, “too”, “two” or “tu”? Is that “4″, “for”, “fore” or “four”? A lot of people forget to type in the hyphen if there is one, I always do and end up at some other site. (I think you get the point).
• If possible, try to obtain a .com name. (.com refers to commercial, .net refers to a network, .org refers to organizations and so on)

3) Include Informative Pages (Such as “About Us”, “Contact”, etc.)

Ensure you have a well written “About Us” page. As ProBlogger points out about such pages “…There’s nothing more of a turn off for a blog that doesn’t go to the effort of making sure all it’s menu items lead to useful information…”. In general, make sure you answer the following questions where applicable:

• How to contact you.
• Who you and/or your blog are.
• What you do and how you do it.
• What are the benefits to readers.
• How readers can join in and contribute.

4) Obtain the Blog Software Platform and Applications

In my opinion, the best platform currently available is WordPress and you can download WordPress the files (for installation to your server) from their site. You will also want to ensure that you’ve obtained the most helpful and productive plugins, which are featured in another post called: 25 Most Beneficial WordPress Plugins.

Additionally, try to budget for a small computer (it can easily be an older second hand PC) and use that exclusively for working on your blog. The next question may revolve around which applications to install on your blogging PC? If so, my post about the Top 15 Software Applications for Windows Bloggers might just be the resource to get you going productively.

Side Note: If you are looking for a robust list of applications my post Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications (found on my other blog) will give you a VERY good round-up.

5) Create Initial Content

Before launching your blog ensure you have between 5 to 10 posts of great content which you can post. This gives visitors to your new blog something to read and determine if your blog is worthwhile to revisit. It also give search engines a bit of meat and potatoes with which to crawl and index your blog. And of course, provides initial content that you can promote to social sites.

Make sure the content is of high quality. Reposted articles or content (with permission) is just not going to cut it. Why? Well… Why should I read copied (reposted) content on your blog when I can go to the original writer’s blog (or site) to read it?

6) Promote Your Blog Via Social Sites

Ensure to promote (also refered to as “seed” or “seeding”) your best quality content on social sites. Doing so will greatly help in building traffic to your blog. One key is to ensure you are using the best tags (when posting to social sites).

Firefox has a plugin called Kgen, helps you see which keywords are strong each post (or page). Then it becomes a simple matter to use them to help determine relevant tags for social sites.

Of course you’ll want to select the appropriate social sites that have more traffic and less spam. The following are the ones I have used:

Digg has huge traffic and a variety of readers. It used to be technically heavy, but that no longer appears to be the case. However, technical and design subjects and gadgets still have a huge following at Digg. If I’m looking for solutions or blog topics to discuss and bloggers to link to, I may look here.

Reddit has a lower traffic flow and a wide range of subjects, but appears to be mainly political.

StumbleUpon, again has medium traffic and an even more diverse range of interests. You can find some pretty strange things on StumbleUpon.

Delicious has high traffic and appears to have a large technical and design following (like Digg). Again, like Digg, if I’m looking for solutions or blog topics to discuss and blogs to link to, I might look here.

Furl is a lower traffic site, but it’s good because it has a wide range of subjects and visitors. It won’t give me a lot of traffic, but it does not hurt to use Furl in your “mix”.

Newsvine appears primarily polictial in disposition, also providing news related subject. Lower volume.

Sphinn is a lower traffic site appearing to focus on marketing and SEO related subject. Again, it does include other subject matter and appers to have a wide range of visitors.

The bottom of this post has other social networking icons you can use to promote your blog, take a look at them as you may find others of interest.

Also, you may find the post How to Find Readers for Your Blog, will help with some other aspects of building readership.

I should note that there are some other social sites you may want to explore, among them are:

MySpace

Facebook

Twitter (You can follow me on twitter @BloggerSavvy)

7) Submit Your Blog to Directories

Increasing the number of inbound links improves the indexing of your blog (and other SEO related values). Additionally, this increases search engine crawling to your blog.

Three directories that you can use to establish links from trusted sites are:

1. DMOZ Open Directory Project provides free directory listing that is edited by human operators.
2. Aviva Directory is a paid listing service.
3. Yahoo DIrectory is a paid listing. However, they do have a free Yahoo Search Submission.

I’m not suggesting that your path to a successful launch should include the above directories, I’m instead suggesting that they may help. Remember, if your blog has great content and is properly promoted, it will be successful regardless of which directories you list in.

Other directories, search submissions and Feed (RSS) resources that may be of help if you ensure your blog is listed in ones best suited for your subject matter, include:

• FeedBees
• Best Directory
• Blogotion
• ReadBurner
• Blogged
• Best of the Web Blogs
• Bloggernity
• Bloggapedia

Obviously a bit of searching on Google will provide even more results, but these (above) will at least get you going.

8) Provide Valuable Outbound Links

This actually is a way of encouraging traffic to your blog. I think we are all aware of the value inbound links place on building traffic, so much so, that I suspect many of use negate the effects including useful outbound links to resources. Blog readers (and search engines) like outbound links to tools, information and other resources that are related to the content you are writing. Not to mention the blog your site is linking to, would probably be thankful – Remember this is the “Web”, links are good. Outbound links are a way of offering your readers more valuable content.

In the same frame of thought (sort of)… if possible include free tool on your blog. Try including free trials, free software, etc. Quality is important here! DO NOT offer tacky, useless freebies as they will make your blog look unprofessional. Only offer QUALITY freebies, or none at all.

9) Share Your Comments on Other Blogs and Sites

One particularly good strategy to help boost a successful blog launch is to provide valuable input (comments) on other blogs that are related to or support your blog content in some fashion. Comments are one way of standing out and getting noticed. But let’s step back for a moment…

From time to time a get waves of email messages from blog owners introducing themselves and suggesting (in one manner or another) post collaboration, cross-linking, etc. My honest opinion is that this rarely works. Most of these “things” are accomplished via twittering, instant messaging (IM) , video chats, etc. In my opinion tweeting, IM, etc. are more effective ways of connecting with those in your niche and those who can support it. For email introductions to be more effective, you’d be better prepared if your blog is well established and well known.

10) Communicate and Develop Relationships

I have always found it amusing when people launch their web site or blog and fail to realize that the way they conduct business and client relations online is the same as offline. It seems that so many of us expect that the rules have changed and we’re trying to discover them all over again. STOP! Nothing much has changed. We still need to develop relationships with PEOPLE, just like we do in the physical world. Build relationships with other bloggers in your niche (and blogs that support it).

How do we introduce ourselves? The fastest way I have found is asking for advice or help or providing them with some valuable insight. Make sure you are familiar with their blogs! In other words this is called “Networking”, sound familiar? I thought so. <Smiling here>

11) Be “Lock and Load” Ready

When you notice a sudden surge in traffic levels to your blog, that is the time to post high quality, in demand, well written content. Always have a “draft” ready and waiting to take advantage of such opportunities. I’ve found from experience that you generally have three days or less to take advantage of such a windfall. When one of your posts attract attention (even go viral) that’s when all eyes are on you. That’s when other’s in your community are also giving you their attention. If you provide even more (quality, in demand) content, that provides more motivation for them to visit your blog again and even perhaps link to it.

12) Advertise in Signatures

Never forget the little things, over time they have a big impact. You can further support your blog by ensuring your email, forum post, etc. all include a linkl to your blog. Additionally, include a line or two telling the reader what the blog is about, or how they can benefit by visiting your blog.

13) Be a Gracious Guest

Do you provide high quality content? Is there another blog that you particularly desire traffic from? Then, put your writing skills to good work, be a guest blogger. Submit your (free) quality post to the blog for consideration after you have developed a good relationship or when the blog is asking for article/post submissions. Ensure your professional bio is well written and has a link back to your post. Bio’s are commonly included at the bottom of your post, but I’ve seen some blogs position them above posts.

One caveat… DO NOT submit the same post to other blogs. Each submission must be unique. If you’re considering guest blogging, you’ll gain more insight by reading ProBlogger’s: How to be a Good Guest Blogger.

14) Obtain Effective Feedback

Before actually launching your blog (for that matter even while the blog is live) ask the people around you (other web developers, web designers, bloggers, copywriters, etc.) for feedback. Offer them a sneak peak asking them to provide constructive critisism and pinpoint areas you could improve before launching. Doing so will garner you respect and help build relationships before your blog has even launched.

When you ask people for help, even your blog readers, you’re imparting a sense of ownership to them, in turn that encourages them to help when you need it (and you will). As such they are more likely to refer your blog to others they thing may find it useful or enjoyable, and more likely to provide backlinks to your blog.

All of the above will provide you with a strong, successful launch if you take the time and put in the hard work to complete. Typically a blog launch takes me anywhere from one month to six months depending on the size and scope of the project.

The rewards are well worth the effort – Always!

1) Ask for Comments.

I can’t make the statement any simpler. I’ll say it again, if you want something, ask for it. In my opinion, the best place to ask is right at the end of you post. If your visitor has read this far (if the content is good quality, they will), you’re more likely to garner a response. Most importantly, indicate that you respect their opinions, make sure you respond. This is commonly referred to as a “Call to Action“. Once you’re blog post is finished, empower your readers to add to or improve the content. Empower them to ask questions. Also, enable them to easily follow up by using the Subscribe To Comments WordPress plugin. This plugin allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.

2) Remove the Barriers.

Nothing is more annoying then spending extra time writing a quality comment, and then finding out you have to register! Most people will not do that (in my opinion). Remove features such as forced registration, login first, etc. As a blog owner you have the ability to moderate messages before they appear live on your site. There are also anti comment-spam plugins (such as Akismet). The point is to make commenting easy.

3) Add some Controversy.

This is dependent on the content you’re writing, as such, it’s not always easy to do. In a sense it’s akin to link baiting – That is providing some sort of motivational thought to illicit a reaction. In this case you may have comments contrary to your post and other comments agreeable to it, the point being that there are comments.

4) Respond to Comments.

Providing a quality response, when necessary is a good way to encourage comments. Additionally, one tool you can use may be a WordPress plugin like Show Top Commentors which you can use to display your top commentors in the sidebar (display a link to their web site or blog etc). Blog about a comment. That’s one method I have used on this blog and on others. It promotes discussion and… more comments.

5) Provide Recognition.

Visitors who comment on your blog, enjoy recognition (like the “Show Top Commentors” plugin I mentioned above). If you want more visitors to comment, you’ll need to show them what’s in it for them. Show the benefits. I’ve even seen some blogs run  a contest wherein the best comment wins a prize. You can reward commentors in other ways by emailing to thank them, sending them a free ePublication, etc.

6) Participate in the Community.

A good way of garnering comments is to make them! Both on your blog and on others. Keep in mind that when commenting on other blogs, simple comments don’t garner nearly as much traffic and comments on your blog as quality, thoughtful comments do.

As I’m sure you realize, these activities are not difficult to complete. One thing I’d like to point out, if your blog is relatively new, don’t expect an excessive burst of comment growth – Remember, you need to grow blog traffic first. But, keep in mind to have these tools and ideas in place before you grow your blog traffic.

Did I miss anything? What do you do to encourage comments? Are there better plugins than the ones I listed? We’d all be interested in learning what you have to say in the comments below.

Before I go into the details below, I’d just like to point out a caveat. Most new blogs struggle to gain exposure, they need to be found by readers. Subsequently the issue of long term, sustained growth versus sudden spurts of short term growth (as new reader communities discover a blog), becomes the fulcrum (so to speak). In my opinion, the best approach is long term growth. This means your earning a few new readers each day, each post, each comment, etc. This really is where your focus should be (and most blogs do seem to fall into this category). When communities do discover you, through Digg, Slashdot, etc. that’s the cherries, the desert. Enjoy it, but remember that not all of them return. Normally there’s a sharp, sudden increase in traffic and a sharp drop. But each time you should be able to retain a few more readers. Your long term growth, that’s the meat and potatoes! That’s one thing which will make you big and strong.

One of the mistakes I made (initially) was to try and garner traffic from everywhere. I had the thought that the whole Internet was my audience. That’s just not true. Someone interested in knitting had no interest whatsoever in my earlier blog. If they visited at all, it was a one-time only visit. To better prepare myself (for long term growth), I should have mapped out what type of reader I wanted my blog to interest. In essence, I should have written down a profile and then only marketed to that niche. You’ll get much better traffic and faster growth if your activities are geared to target and attract a specific readership. Think of it this way, do you want pre-qualified traffic or just traffic.

Search engine optimization (SEO) was another area I could have tweaked a bit more. Not so much in terms of page rank, Google indexing etc., but in terms of content accuracy. What I mean by this is to ensure that I did take the time to provide individualized keywords, descriptions, etc. for every single post! At that time I was a bit lazy and let WordPress do all the work. In hindsight, I’d suggest using a plugin called All in One SEO Pack. It allows you to customize the keywords, descriptions, etc. for every single post, as you write or you can go back later and edit those things. Make sure you use it. One thing though, in my opinion search engine page rank, et al are NOT the holy grail. They should NEVER be your focus or your primary strategy. I remember getting caught up in the hype only to find out that some of my posts were ranking highly, not because of any SEO, instead, as a result of quality content and other blogs linking to it (among other factors).
As I alluded to earlier, there can be sudden bursts of traffic from sites (such as Digg). Frankly when this happened, I’d revel about it. I even remember phoning friends, telling them about the incredible traffic or how the post was on Diggs front page – It was party time! However, not once did I consider how to retain a larger share of those potential readers. I found out the traffic would have a sharp and steady decline over the next five days, but never consider looking at the long term incline. I was focusing on the wrong numbers! I should have been looking at maximizing the number of repeat visitors. For example, features to retain some of these new readers should have included:

• Cross linking to relevant posts within my content as well as a short list of the most relevant content (to the post being read). Incidentally, there is a plugin that will assist you in doing so, and it’s called Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, which helps visitors find related content of additional interest to them.
• Ensure I’m using a cache on the blog, so when a sudden surge of traffic appears, the site will remain available (not returning error messages).
• Allow for reader interaction (like comments), and make sure you respond. Provide a poll, you can even email them direct and thank them for visiting (I kid you not, common courtesy is always nice and professional), use your imagination, there are lots of interactive features you could use.
• Invite them to follow you on twitter, subscribe to your blog RSS, new post notifications, newsletters, and so on

Side note: For those looking for some useful and productive plugins, you can find more via 25 Most Beneficial WordPress Plugins an of course a shameless plug to contact me on twitter @BloggerSavvy

Finally, one important aspect I wish I used in the early stages of that blog was to go out and shake the trees. I spent almost all my time tweaking WordPress code, tweaking plugins, creating posts, researching blog technologies and content, responding to visitors, etc. Not once did it occur to me that one of the strongest factors to increasing my traffic was to involve myself in the very community I was writing quality content for! Visit their blogs, ask questions, provide comments and input, extend invitations and so forth. Think about it this way, if I want to get people to visit for a barbeque I have to phone them right? Well… it’s the same on the Internet. Don’t be afraid to ask, get involved, be happy and enjoy what you’re doing. Remember you are writing for people, not at them!

To come back to the original question, “About how long does it take for traffic to start picking up?”, it’s really up to you and your niche (community). The more involved you get the faster the growth may be. If you are very serious about blogging, are not afraid of the work and are committed. You’ll find that your traffic will reach your targeted level – Don’t worry about that, don’t focus on that. Just make sure you focus on your blog’s goals and ensuring your community is given the content and tools they need and want from you. If you focus on these things, the traffic will take care of itself.

As an afterthought, before I go, I’d like to highlight three traffic related activities you should never do:

1. Never spam users. If in launching a new service, you’ve added some of the people in your contacts, and they ask to be removed from your list. Do so immediately and with a smile!
2. I’ve received a lot of links lately where I’m promised all sorts of traffic to my blog if I buy their software or services. DON’T DO IT! Why? Your URL is entered into software by you or them. Then it connects to a huge list of proxy servers. The program is run by them (or you) for a several hours. Upon review of your web traffic statistics, it appears that lots of people visit your site (because those logs show visitors from thousands of different IP addresses). What’s really happening is that your blog is only being pinged by the proxy or pages are being requested, no one really actually reads your blog. Don’t waste your money on this.
3. Don’t use other blog/web site generators and similar Internet tricks. Such “Black Hat” methods work temporarily at best. Your blog is best grown by setting up and planning for the long term.

Firstly, successful blog owners have a positive attitude, they try to be constructive, cooperative and well informed. They work with the community, not for the community. They understand that the benefits a blog can offer are bestowed by the community, as they are earned. Again, it’s about good attitude. If you’re going to burst on the blog scene all wild eyed, posting reams of comments on every forum or blog in sight – regardless of the subject matter, all tough and authoritative, posting low quality content on your own blog whilst sucking honey out of a bees arse… You’re not going to get far. You need to find the golden middle way.

Don’t get me wrong, in my younger blog endeavours I did do much of what’s listed below, so I’m posting the following to help. Have a comment or suggestion? Add it below.

1) Use the default design template (theme) that came with your blog package.

There’s nothing better than advertising your blog as not important enough to spend time obtaining an esthetically pleasing and inviting interface; with simple to use (and intuitive) navigation.

Remember, readers like looking at crappy designs and they love to spend time treasure hunting for your content.

It’s nice to know that your blog looks the same as all the other soulless blogs.

2) Never ever respond to comments.

Remember that this is your blog. You don’t have time to respond to visitors, your time is valuable, so they will have to wait for someone else to provide an answer. Remember, you’re providing free information and tools so visitors will just have to wait for a convenient time. They don’t mind that you’re not really interested in providing valuable input.

3) Never comment on other blogs, forums or web sites.

Don’t waste your time helping other blogs with your valuable input, after all, your blog that is the priority. Quite frankly, if you have anything of value to say, people should read about it only on your blog. Don’t worry that less exposure makes you harder to find.

4) Post new content whenever the need arises.

That’s right, you’re very busy, you’re a mover and shaker. Post content whenever you get around to it, that way your readers will have to keep checking if new content is posted.

Visitors will always wait for quality content, it’s free and they have nothing better to do. Besides they appreciate that your blog does not address current issues.

5) Repost content you find elsewhere.

Readers like reposted content, that way they don’t have to go to the original web site to find it. Readers enjoy seeing the same Creative Content licensed articles shared over and over again on different sites – Why should you be any different.

If you want to be particularly saucy and daring, try copying copyrighted material. Readers love to find it as it gives them a reason to notify the original author. So what if the author takes legal action – You can blog about it and your readers have something to talk about.

Reposted content clearly shows that you are focused on current subjects but lack the genuine skills to develop original, valuable content.

6) You are the master of your subject.

You know your products, services or subject matter intimately. You don’t need to field information from someone else. Similarly, you should never spend time reading other blogs as that is not worthwhile. Your content is better than any one else and your traffic will prove as much (once your blog gets busy).

You don’t mind that failing to read content can in the long run demonstrate how uninformed you are.

7) Don’t waste time developing quality content.

The content on your blog is free, don’t waste extra time making it worthwhile to read, helpful or informative. Everyone else is talking about the same information, so what’s the point of focusing on quality? These day’s readers want just a line or two of explanation and a few links, they don’t have time to sit and read.  Keeping posts short and curt can show people how low your blog priority is.

8) Smother them with ads and calls to action.

Readers love splogs (spam blogs). They enjoy three lines of content and 500 lines of irrelevant and unrelated advertising. They will return time and again to see if anything has changed. Of course they will enjoy clicking all the ads that have no relation to the information they are looking for.

9) Always lead your readers on.

Make all sorts up promises to your readers. Always tell them what you think they want to hear and read. That way they will be sure to return, time and again. Professionalism and integrity are negatively impacted by empty promises.

10) Never listen to professional advice.

When a professional web developer, designer, blogger, etc. gives you advice, never listen to it. After all, you’ve read all there is to read about the subject. You even attended seminars where the opposite was suggested. You asked someone else and they agreed with you.

Professionals… meh! What do they know about my business? (They just know about web stuff). This clearly demonstrates to readers that you are foolish. Particularly when a blog feature is considered useless or “bloat” or not the best web solution for your industry.

11) Use the cheapest web hosting package you can find.

Nothing is more fun that trying to access a blog and receiving error messages in your web browser. Visitors will keep trying until the problem finally gets fixed.

No harm is done, after all the content is free, so visitors will wait for the site to become available again. You can actually save money by using cheap hosting. For that matter, you can save more money than you may have earned had your blog been available to potential clients. This clearly shows users that your business is cheap and unreliable.

12) Never, I repeat, NEVER participate in social networks.

You read that social networks like StumbleUpon, twitter, etc. are big time wasters. You’re a professional and are wise to that. Social networks don’t provide enough traffic as they are only for hip, savvy web users. Therefore, you don’t mind your blog being less visible.

Google page rank is where the action is, if I could just spend a little more money on advertising, to get a higher ranking.

In my opinion, not participating and enjoying the benefits of social media is probably the biggest factor limiting blog growth! (Or for that matter any type of site). I get the impression that many people don’t realize that the Internet is just as social as the brick and mortar world. In fact, Internet based social media enables blog owners to interact with a larger visitor (and potential client) base than physically possible.

I chose my Linux (Ubuntu) based blog, selecting the statistics for a full year (July 17, 2007 to July 17, 2008 – Since it I didn’t start promoting it until July) and was rather surprised by a couple things. I assumed that Google would still be the prime traffic source. I also assumed that all the links from other (non-blog, “traditional” sites) sites would rank high. I was surprised in both cases. I personally found it interesting to note that you get a good statistical perspective on a day-to-day basis, but you’ll get a more accurate view if you stand back and look at the big picture over a longer time period. Here are the results below:

As you can see above, Social Media sites took the lead (just a tich ahead of Google). I also found it significant that inbound traffic from other blogs had a clear lead over inbound traffic from “traditional” (static) web sites. Equally surprising was how I saw that Google outperformed inbound search engine traffic by a massive lead.

The specific driving force within the Social Media (36.41% traffic), without question was StumbleUpon, which championed a massive lead of social media based traffic at 85.56%. Just look at the Social Media results breakdown below:

One thing I found interesting to note is some users of StumbleUpon shared some of the post links they saw in Reddit and Digg. So… while some posts that went viral, Digg and Reddit produced traffic spikes, they were only significant for a short time period. Instead, social media sites  (primarily StumbleUpon) saved those “traffic spiked” posts and subsequently that blog enjoyed long term, year round traffic.

What did I learn from our discussion and an examination of the blog statistics? Among several things, below are some of the points that were more predominant.

• There’s a lot of discussion about to benefits or lack thereof, with regards to using sites that can provide instant massive traffic volume (such as Digg). While sites such as Digg may provide short term spikes (for the average blog). Visitors to sites such can and will share your post link with others. As such, don’t discount the power of sites such as Digg. Short term effect, but a long term social effect.
• Google still loves me. Humour aside, SEO or the lack thereof can have a large effect on traffic form search engines – I think we know that. More to the point however, I noticed that the posts that are heavily shared on social sites have a much higher page rank than those which don’t, appearing higher in search results. It seems to me therefore, to continue providing quality content that is of value to the “community”.
• Continue to participate in blogging and other dynamic platforms. Convert the remainder of my old-fashioned static site to dynamic packages (blogging, CMS, etc.)  Why? When you post a blog, it pings site update services (such as pingomatic). Static (“traditional”) sites don’t do that. Each time a post is published RSS readers obtain the updates, automatically. These are things that help drive repeat visits (subscribers). Many of which might be adding your posts to various social sites.

While I’m fairly sure many blog sites may follow the general pattern I’ve seen with my traffic sources. I don’t think they will all follow the pattern established in the social media site rankings. This is mainly an issue of blog character, readership, blogsphere area and so forth. Not all blogs are in the same neighbourhood and have the same types of readers. For example a blog that focuses on internet marketing, I would assume might have more traffic from Sphinn, for example.

All too often, I find business owners (and site owners) oblivious to the power that dynamic sites can bring them, and how they are better able to make use of social media sites. In other cases, business owners simply don’t believe what they are being told as they appear not to have a good grasp of how the Internet really works and how their potential market really uses it.  My previous post “Why Every Business Can Benefit Form a Blog” for example, shows that a UK survey indicates “…66% of businesses believe that blogs are becoming more influential as an information source…” While this number is UK based, I assume it may be similar in other geographic regions and , more importantly, will to grow!

It will be interesting to see how the trends change over time. Perhaps one of the upcomming issues that search engines will need to address even further than they are now, is the inherent appeal of sites (such as blogs) that are better equipped to address the needs of site visitors. What new tools will be available to blogs desiring visibility in a growing webscape? As the video in my prior post (link at the top) suggested, we’ll need to rethink ourselves.

Given the lure of increasing traffic to your web site and the inherent increase in revenue that traffic can bring, it’s no wonder how this seems the priority focus when attempting to increase traffic (and revenue leads). SEO is but one aspect that can benefit any business, there are incredible tools to this effect, one of the most beneficial is to use a blog.

Side note: Don’t know what a blog is? Then, you might be interested in my earlier post “What is Blogging? What’s a Blog“. That post also has a short video showing how a blog performs.

In another earlier post on this blog (Quality Content is Not “the” Key to a Blog Success), I suggested focusing on the intangible elements to help further increase traffic. It may logically follow therefore, that one of the biggest benefits blogging can provide business owners is the opportunity to develop a personal rapport with blog visitors. Like any business relationship, purchasers like to get to know their suppliers or providers a bit before investing in products and services. People are more likely to spend if the garner an inside peek – it’s a personal exchange. It builds confidence and trust among other things. Think about it for a moment… A web site, in essence is like a multi-page brochure. While that’s good to describe services or products, it does relatively little in terms of interaction, rapport building, social networking, and so forth. There’s really no Call to Action as each visit shows the same old content. Blogs on the other hand, encourage interactivity, communication and repeat visits as content is added on a regular basis.

A web site is one way communication. A blog is two way (actually it’s multiway communication). The blog owner (that’s the business) can talk to the visitor, who can respond AND visitors can communicate with each other as well.

For business owners, that content can include product or service updates, notifications, announcements, videos, personal introductions, podcasting, contests, guest writers, and the list goes on. Think of the scenario this way:

A potential client enters your business, you give them a brochure, they say nothing and leave. They may or may not return. That’s a web site.

No let’s look at the same scenario, from a blogging framework:

A potential client enters your business, you provide them the specific content they require. If they need content you don’t have, it’s a snap to add. The client communicates with you, and you respond. Both of you respond to another client, who replies. That sounds much more like the way things are supposed to be. Dynamic, interactive.

Over the years, I’ve seen time and again how blogs are able to better garner the traffic business owners are looking for. Why? That’s what they were designed for over the years – to be a social platform that allows people or businesses to communicate and build their connections. It’s one thing to read a book (or web site), but much more beneficial to communicate with the authors and visa versa.

To use an example, about a year ago one of my clients launched a web site and a blog a few weeks apart. To this day the blog is obtaining almost double the traffic of the web site. Statistically that seems to be supported in my opinion, when observing all of my clients sites and blogs. All of the blogs are at the top of the list traffic wise, with the sites trailing behind.

Obviously, due to privacy, I cannot divulge specific statistics of clients, I did take a look for some stats, to see if some of these observations are mirrored elsewhere. I found some pretty interesting results. Expansion+ (an Internet Marketing PR site) reported on a Business Blogging Survey. Did you know that “…Almost 89 percent of U.S. respondents and nearly 83 percent of U.K. respondents believe blogs are an important digital communication…”?

Also from their site:

“Ultimately, what this survey revealed was a need for communication professionals in both countries to step up to the plate and start integrating blogging practices into their strategic approach,” said Jacki Vause, managing director of Peppercom’s London office”.

While the survey they were discussing was specifically about “Business Blogging Survey Reveals Corporate Attitude to Social Media” and was intended to “…compare and contrast blogging communication practices in the U.S. and the U.K. and identify best practices…”, I couldn’t help but note some of the prevalent points.

I also looked at another site, which was more targeted to the subject of this blog post. Neville Hobson’s post “Blogs drive business opportunities: UK survey” where some of the key findings he noted included:

• 50% of companies undertake some form of blogging, either having a blog, or encouraging employees to comment on blogs.
• 80% of blog users visit blogs within work hours. Most blog users visit blogs at lunchtime (31%), or first thing in the morning (29%).
• 66% of businesses believe that blogs are becoming more influential as an information source.

Visit the link to his post (above) to see all his other noted findings (as they’re a good indicator of how business owners seem to deal with blogging).

Statistics aside, blogging is a great way for any business to increase traffic. It’s an interesting point to note, that when I conduct training seminars, a fair number of people seemed to have visited both my blogs, already garnering some feel for my business and my professional background – And it makes communication much more effective when I meet with them!

For business owners (actually for anyone) considering launching a blog, I’ve mentioned in other posts, but it’s apt here – Make sure you focus your blog towards a specific niche and target audience (within that niche). Obviously conent from my other blog (a Linux blog) would not work in this blog as it’s not of interest. Therefore, by using a blog, you’re able to provide an added benefit by targeting very specific audiences and therefore garnereing traffic that in many mays could be considered as “qualified leads“, since they may already be looking for what you’ve got.

What do these blog visitors want? I also found (via Google) the results of a German study about corporate blogging. For those who do not speak German, some of the key findings were:

• 95 % of respondents found it important that the blog they read be updated regularly.
• 91% of blog readers expect a fast, relevant/appropriate reply to their questions and comments.
• 90% of readers thought it was important to indicate a difference between commercial and private content.
• 58% of readers, read them to find news and information they can’t find elsewhere.
• 57% of respondents were interested in the personal opinions of the authors.
• 54% of blog visitors formulate their opinions about products and companies from blogs.
• 51% of readers visit product and/or corporate sites as a results of reading blogs.
• 43% of visitors were interested in the blog discussions.

Those are some eye opening numbers, that show how important blogs are to business owners. For example, would you like visitors to find out more about your business, it’s products and services elsewhere or from your blog directly? – A blog that can help them formulate an opinion about your business and it’s offerings.

I should note that one point not addressed in the site I reviewed was ROI. All business owners should be aware that the cost of operating a blog is drastically less that a traditional web site. You don’t have to spend the time to learn web coding or invest in designers and developers to update your site content. Using WordPress, it quite easy after the engine is installed. It’s very much like typing your content in an online editor and then clicking publish – Easy!

In conclusion, given the above, it appears that blogging provides the following key benefits to business owners.

• Targeted audience.
• improved PR (public relations).
• Enhanced pre-sales.
• Increased traffic due to social interaction.
• Community building.
• Cost effective ROI.
• Improved brand awareness.

In my opinion, businesses that want to compete for attention and traffic in today’s online arena could best leverage the value of their investment by using a blog.

After all, do you want to be communicating with interested people and building your business or would you rather be standing on the corner handing brochures out. In my opinion, the choice is a no-brainer. ;)

I received a few email messages from friends this morning, after I told them about a new blog launch. To answer such a question, I could dive into the technical aspects (I’m a certified Network Engineer MCSE among others), as much as the practical aspects (that would perhaps, make more sense to the business owner).

While googling does provide a lot of definitions, I’m not really sure that they grasp the meat and potatoes of blogging. To define a blog in its simplest terms:

A blog empowers a business to reach a wider audience and continue a conversation with them, by providing readers with in demand, quality, syndicated content. Blogs are beneficial in that they allow business owners to add content to their blogs as needed, without requiring the services of a web site developer or designer (to update the content). Therefore two evident benefits, are that blogs save business owners money and help market products or services.

Blogs are a way to continue a conversation with the audience. This is accomplished by the use of features, just some such of which include:

• Readers providing comments and feedback.
• Surveys and Polls.
• Content written by and submitted for posting by guest writers from the audience.

In terms of features, many of them are beneficial. For example, blogs provide RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. What’s an RSS feed and why is it beneficial? Wikipedia has a great blurb.

From wikipedia:

…Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content quickly and automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based or desktop-based…

In other words, when we update the content in our blog, subscribers (of our RSS feed) are instantly notified!

One (initially) less visible benefit of blogging comes into play as the volume of quality content grows. The greater the amount of quality content available, the greater the amount of traffic (visitors) to the blog. Therefore, over time, a blog can become an increasingly powerful tool for the business owner!

To further clarify, I visited YouTube and searched for “What is a blog”. The first and best result returned was a great video from “CommonCraft”, titled “Blogs in Plain English”:

I should add that they also have a great video explaining RSS in Plain English.

Another video describing different types of blogs may also further explain some of the diversity in blogging:

In conclusion, it’s not a far stretch to realize that maintaining a conversation with your audience is the best way not only to grow traffic to your quality, in demand content, but also an incredibly effective way to promote products, services, charities, hobbies… in fact an endless list!