blog.wsiwebbasedmarketing.co.uk

So you want to get more authority in your industry and you’ve been advised that writing a good blog is the way to go (good advice by the way!).

Is your first thought “Me! Write an article! I haven’t written anything since I was at school. Or how could I write a blog post, nobody’s going to want to hear my ramblings, I just don’t have anything to say”.

For many people, the simple fear of sitting down and writing means many ideas remain behind closed minds.

So how easy is it for someone who’s never written down their thoughts to start writing a blog post or an article?

The secret is a system and it’s that system I want to share with you today.

• Firstly get the first couple of thoughts down on paper, this is the key. I carry a Dictaphone with me always and if I see something inspirational or hear something in a podcast or on the radio in the car I make a note on my Dictaphone.  You will probably have one of these on your phone already, use it.
• Write something, even if it’s just your name. Just pick away at your keyboard until the letters begin to form words. Before you know it, a story will begin to appear.
• It doesn’t matter if the grammar is rubbish, it doesn’t matter if the spelling is way off.
• Get the ideas down on paper. Then go back and tidy it up.
• A word of warning. You may have the idea, now you need to get some facts to reinforce it. Use the internet as a research tool. But don’t use it to plagiarise other people’s work.

But what will I write about I hear you cry? Back to the Dictaphone, or what about a story?

We all have stories in our head and one Saturday morning in a shopping centre I watched as a steady stream of people sat in front of a TV camera and recorded their stories.

They all felt the urge to talk about their interests, their passions, hobbies, favourite holidays and why they think the world is in danger, or the price of sausages, which has doubled over the past year apparently.

All of them had a story to tell. All of them could have written an article or a blog entry about what interests them.

Out of curiosity I went down to speak to some of them. Talk about niche marketing… this was as personal as it gets. There was a lady with the Morris Minor car that she’d driven for the past 20 years. The same car she passed her test in. A young lad who loved a particular series of horror books. A retired scientist who now writes sonnets. A beautician who also drives stock cars. A man who specialised in photographing the British Royal family. And an entertainer who has his own small cinema in a shed in the back garden.

All of them with a story to tell, but up until now probably thought it wasn’t worth telling.

So just remember, when doubts stop you from writing, somewhere in the world there are people just like you. People with the same interests and passions and who would love to hear from you.

• Make your blog personal and start a relationship with your readers.
• Make them want to follow your ups and downs, your experiences.

So what are you waiting for?

Start a love affair with your keyboard and start writing.

You can find out more about writing a blog here.

Good luck, and please let me know how you get on.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) blogging is a method of writing relevant and unique blog posts to help you reach high rankings on the search engines for specific keywords and long tail keyword phrases. It is focused on keywords in your blog posts that requires the linking of these keywords in the anchor text that links (deep linking) to the most relevant page on your website.

SEO blogging is a very good strategy to build up rankings if you are interested in a content marketing strategy. If your blog is on the same domain as your website, every new blog post that you publish counts as another page on your domain, giving you more visibility than only having a website.

Even though SEO blogging is excellent, there’s a couple of mistakes that you should avoid when you start with your SEO blogging journey.

SEO blogging mistakes

Don’t focus on every topic: Your blog should be narrowly focused around a central topic. This will establish relevance and also attracts the readers that are interested in what you write. A blog focused on wedding ideas will attract readership and consistent traffic. A blog that talks about wedding ideas, business help, internet marketing and news about investments is unfocused and fails to attract great rankings.

Not using keywords: When writing a new blog post, select one primary keyword phrase that you will center your blog post around. Two very common mistakes are either not focusing on any keywords or trying to focus on multiple keywords.

Not using keywords in the title: Always try to use the primary keyword or phrase in your blog post title. The search engines gives high importance to the words in a blog post title . When you write your blog post title, remember that you want to attract readers and satisfy the search engines.

Not using keywords in your content: Try to use your main keyword phrase at least 2-3 times in the content of your blog post.

Not using links: Use the keywords you have selected in the anchor text of your links that points to the most relevant page on your website. Doing it this way is a very powerful SEO blogging strategy.

Posting duplicate content: Every blog post that you publish should be unique and original. Try to avoid re posting the same content on your blog as this is seen as duplicate content.  Even though you can get away with not being slapped by Google through the usage of canonical URL’s, you won’t rank for duplicate content.

Not posting interesting content: If you post interesting and original content on your blog, you will attract links from other bloggers and this can make your postings more powerful and helps your content to travel.

Francois is a certified Digital Marketing consultant living in South Africa. He is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant and enjoys training people in social media, anywhere in the world.

1. Create Great Content

Obvious, yes. Hard, yes. Need inspiration?  See my guide to getting inspiration for your blog posts. But really, good content is not enough. Create and publish great content so your blog becomes an authority for your chosen topic. Doing original research is a great place to start. It’s hard but the rewards can be great and your audience will appreciate it.

2. Format your content well

Use H1, H2, H3, quotes, bold, italics and colours for formatting, add graphics and make your post easy to read and attractive to the eye. To see all your formatting options make sure your “kitchen sink” option is selected, it’s the icon to the left of the TV icon. The shortcut is Alt+Shift+Z

3. Social Media

If you’ve not already got a Facebook profile, Twitter profile and a LinkedIn profile setup then do so ASAP. You can then add feeds into all these to automatically add your post (or with Twitter send a tweet to say there’s a new post with a link) to your profiles when you create a new post. This saves time and the requirement to remember to do this for every post. This is then put in front of all your connections.

Also include your social media icons on your WordPress blog.

4. Add The ShareThis Widget

ShareThis is a free, all-in-one widget which can be added to the end of every post, allowing users to share your content across a wide variety of social platforms. Get the ShareThis widet here.

5. Install All-In-One SEO

We install this plug-in on every blog we deliver and it helps the client define the components of the page that deliver strong SEO results such as Title, Description, Keywords and more.

6. Keyword optimisation

This is just as important for a blog as it is for your web site.  Remember each post is a web page so make sure your keyword research is done before posting and that your post is optimised for those keywords. Not sure how? Just go to Google’s Keyword Tool and it’s easier than you think.

7. Guest Blogging

Create an original and completely unique blog post and do a search for “Write a blog post for us” and you’ll find a lot of free and paid opportunities to get your work published with backlinks. Make sure your post is as good as possible as thi swill reflect on your reputation.

8. Get your personal details on the site

We like to see who we are following so make sure a photo is included and it appears on your posts and make this clickable back to your WordPress bio if possible. Create your Bio at USERS > EDIT. Keep the bio brief.  I have a link to my LinkedIn profile in case user want to connect worth me and see more about me.

9. Put your blog URL in your email signature.

This might seem obvious but it’s something far too few people do.  Here’s my email signature IMAGE HERE. Are there really that many social media platforms! Is social media getting unmanageable? That’s for another post. Encourage people to follow your blog by telling them how.  Many people just don’t know. I did an excellent blog post about how to follow a blog, read it here.

10. Get your site onto blog consolidation sites

In SETTINGS > WRITING go to the bottom and add this URL into the update services box http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ There are many more PING based services, here’s a list from the WordPress site:
http://rpc.twingly.com
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.feedsubmitter.com
http://blo.gs/ping.php
http://www.pingerati.net
http://www.pingmyblog.com
http://geourl.org/ping
http://ipings.com
http://www.weblogalot.com/ping

11. Submit your address to blog search sites and directories

People look for blog content on sites like Technorati every day, are you on their list? You should be. Technorati will email you a token like this one YFTGFJDAXPF7 that you need to add to a feed to get authorised.

12. Be an active commenter, get involved

BLOG COMMENTING – Try and add comments to blogs in your field, make the interesting and if possible incisive and include a link back to your blog or web site. When people read this they will be inclined to have a look if the think your comment is interesting. Being hte first to comment is best but make hte comment incisive and / or interesting, not just “great post”. Also use Gravatar (http://www.gravatar.com/ ) to create an image associated with your email address. An image offers more credibility and it’s good for people to see who they are talking to.

FORUMS – Find forums in your businesses area and become a member, they are almost always free. When you become a member setup a good signature explaining what you do and how to get in touch. Never spam, always add value.

One of the biggest hurdles that my customers or anyone creating new site content face, is getting the job done.  It’s a daunting task with areas like readability, SEO friendliness, attractive layout, interesting and informative content, all being very important.

Here’s my simple step by step advice for anyone struggling in this area.

Keep it short

You know you never read all a web page if any of it. You want what you want as quickly as possible so…

• Get to the point, fast.
• Don’t use a sentence when a few words will do.
• Keep you words simple and easy to read unless you’re in a niche area that requires greater depth.
• Avoid long sentences and paragraphs.
• Use numbers not words e.g. 5000 not five thousand, it’s easier to skim.
• Consider using a readability tool to check your page.  Try the readability Test Tool here.
• Make sure there are NO spelling mistakes, it’s unforgivable.

Split up your page logically

• Use headings (h1, h2, h3, h4) to split up your paragraphs, it helps SEO and skim reading, a win win.
• Try and think in blocks on the page as you are writing and use heading to define blocks.
• Keep headings simple.

Help your readers scan the page, they are going to anyway

• When people scan a page they read the headings, bold text, numbers, and a few words at the beginning of a line.  Make all these count.
• Put the important stuff at the top.
• Use text formatting to highlight points that are important.
• Remember not everyone has great eyesight so don’t fix the size of your text, use a % value so it can be zoomed more easily.
• Use white space, specifically around images and text blocks like “quotes”. It makes the page feel more open and easier to read.
• You are an expert in the subject matter, remember most of the users aren’t, so keep it high level.
• If you want to get into more detail create a separate page for more educated users. Also great for SEO!

Linking your content

You might have other pages that drill down on a subject in more detail so you’ll want to link to these from your page text.

• Don’t use “click here” as your link text.  Use the text itself and make sure your site design makes it clear this is a link, by using colour or underlining. Some designers hate this but from a usability point of view an underline means a link.
• Use the “title” field for the link reference so when it’s hovered over a “tooltip” appears with your chosen information. Also good for SEO.
• Where possible avoid opening a link in a new window.  They can always use the back button and your site navigation should be good enough to allow them to find their way back.

Using images

• Unless the image is relevant to the content don’t use it. It’s been proven that we just ignore stock images and they are taking up valuable space.
• An image does tell a thousand words to make it relevant.
• Use actual images of your company and products if you can. If your staff are happy to be featured (always ask first) then it’s a great way to personalise the site and make a better connection with the user. We all like to see who we are talking to.
• Use diagrams to depict your point if possible. You’ve probably got a few in PowerPoint presentations kicking around already.  If your stuck try using Microsoft Smart Shapes in Office, they make even the most boring data look much more interesting.
• Always put an ALT tag on the image so if images are turned off in the users browser they can see what it is. For example a chart of sales growth in a niche market should be labelled as exactly that. If they are then interested they can download images.

Keywords and phrases

This isn’t really a content point but needs to be mentioned.

• research your keywords and phrases BEFORE creating your content.
• Try to keep the number of keywords to 5.
• Make sure they are in your page content and especially your page title and headings. Give them a mention in the first and last 25 words.
• If you can get them in your URL as well as the page content then all the better.
• Don’t force them in, human readability is more important than search engines.

There’s a lot of common sense involved in writing content and if you think about how you read web pages you could do a lot worse than designing it for yourself to read. Don’t forget to design from the outside in, looking at your pages as a user would, not how you would with all your insider knowledge.

It’s not hard once you’ve got stuck in, like many things the idea is harder than actually doing it so what are you waiting for, go and create some compelling content!

I was on an internet forum last night (yes they still exist in our new social media age). I’m a long term motorcycling fan and rider since a very early age (can’t say how early in case we’re being monitored).  I was checking out the Ducati Multistrada forum to get opinions on a bracket for a satnav and I stumbled across the most appalling thread that within 1 page (10 posts) had become a slanging match for absolutely no discernible reason.

Guess what, the people making the running in the rudeness stakes were signed in anonymously.  I have always felt that anonymity on the internet was a bad thing and  a recent study has shown my suspicions to be correct.  How individuals act when they believe there are no consequences or repercussions defines them as people, on and off line.

When responding to anything on or off line, decide how you would respond in person, face to face, but the best advice is to think what your Grandmother would say!  See the full article here http://www.news.com.au/technology/anonymous-alcoholics-study-finds-web-trolls-get-a-feeling-of-abandon-similar-to-drunks-and-dictators/story-e6frfro0-1226080815072

I know I keep banging on about blogging as a great way to develop your web site content and SEO rankings, as well as develop an interested following, but it’s true, IT WORKS!  The most common fear among my customers when talking about creating a blog finding something interesting to say on a regular basis.

So I’m going to tell you what I do to get inspiration.

The biggest area I get inspiration from is, you’ve guessed it, social media.  There are of course others to here are my top 12 ways to get ideas for blog posts:

1)     LinkedIn – You should already have a profile, if not do it now (link to LinkedIn). Log in and do a search for groups in your industry.  To do this use the search box in LinkedIn, drop the menu on the left down and select GROUPS.  Type in your business area such as HOTELS or SOLICITORS and see what comes up.  If there’s no group covering your business area think about setting one up yourself, there’s no better way to be perceived as an expert.  Join relevant groups and they will send you emails when new posts are made.  Lots of good blog ideas there. Use the newly launched LinkedIn TODAY news service (link to my blog article).

2)     Twitter – Use the HASH tag (#) which defines a subject, to keep an eye on what’s new.  I use TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/) to do this, it’s free, but there are many free and paid for tools that will achieve this.  TweetDeck also monitors my Facebook and LinkedIn feeds.  So for example in TweetDeck I select “Add” which adds a column and then I simply place my hash tag in the search box.  TweetDeck then searches for all relevant tweets and the appear in real time in that column.  For example “#golf hotels” or “#law Edinburgh”. Remember you are looking for inspiration so scan and see if there’s anything interesting happening that you can follow up on for a blog post idea.

3)     Facebook – Search Facebook for people or companies in your market place.  Start to follow them, including your competitors.  You’ll be amazed at what comes up.

4)     Google Groups – This is similar to LinkedIn.  You need a Google account, set one up here https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount if you’ve not got one. Find the Groups link in your account page and search for the areas you are interested in.  Again if there’s no activity think about setting up your own group.

5)     Yahoo Groups – Basically the same as Google Groups.

6)     Google Alerts – Log into your Google account and find the Alerts link on your accounts page. You can then set up Google to alert you when it finds stuff you are interested in.  At a minimum you should have an alert set up for your company name.  You will need to fine tune these for a week or two but they run without any ongoing effort on your behalf emailing you when Google finds something interesting that you’ve previously set an alert for.

7)     This is a biggie for me, Podcasts – If you have a smart phone, an iPod, any MP3 player, any tablet, you can listen to these in the car or when you have downtime.  I use iTunes and my iPhone so I can stay up to date with my industry leaders and innovators. In my car I have a cheap Dictaphone and if something gets said that sparks my interest I make a note and follow up when I’m at my computer.  This is my biggest source of inspiration and it’s great to get other takes on your own business. Do a search for podcast index if you’re not on iTunes and you’ll get lots of podcast listings to search through.

8)     Video Podcasts or Videocasts – As above but you need to be able to watch a screen so driving isn’t ideal!

9)     Here’s another biggie for me, Blogs – Follow other peoples blogs.  There will be many people blogging in your business areas.  If you have a smart phone or tablet you can easily read blogs on the move, alternatively at your desktop.  If you’re not sure how to do this I’ve covered this with a “How to” guide in a previous blog post here http://blog.wsiwebbasedmarketing.co.uk/2011/02/23/how-do-i-follow-someone-elses-blog-or-how-do-they-follow-mine/ Don’t be afraid to put your own spin on someone else’s comments or ideas, discussion and debate are healthy and fun!

10)  Industry Journals – Subscribe to journals that are about your business or industry.  They are mostly free and can spark some excellent ideas for you to expand into a blog post. Read industry magazines.

11)  This is my last biggie, Webinars – A webinar is like a seminar but over the web.  You log in and listen/view.  You can often ask questions and interact with the presenter.  They are usually 30-60 minutes and in a lot of cases they get archived so you can watch them when it suits you. Of course if they are archived you can’t ask the presenter questions.  Do a search for “webinars about hotels” or “webinars about law” and you’ll be amazed at what you can find for free.

12)  And finally make a note – When a thought pops into your head or comes up in conversation don’t dismiss it thinking you’ll be able to recall it later, you won’t.  Make a note immediately.  I use Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/ ) on my iPhone which syncs in the cloud with my PC and tablet, but anything from a pen and notepad to a Dictaphone can be used, just use something.  Don’t let it pass, it’s unlikely you’ll come back to it.

Well I hope that’s been of some use.  Like everything that’s worthwhile blogging takes effort but the more you do it the easier it gets.

See you in the blogosphere soon!

It’s a question that I get asked all the time so I thought I’d do a quick blog post on how to keep updated with blogs you are interested in.

As an Internet Marketing Consultant I’m very keen for my clients to utilise blogs, but how does a consumer get notified when you put up a new blog post? Good question. Personally I follow and read 7-10 blogs I’m interested in however I don’t have time to go to each one and check out if there is a new post every time I have a few moments.

I follow all these blogs using Google’s Reader service. If you don’t already have a Google Reader account then to set one up just go to http://www.google.com/reader, if you have a Google account already set it up under your current login. Google Reader is incredibly simple to use and although you’ll probably set it up on your computer it feeds other services such as Apps on phones and tablets of every flavour.

To follow the blogs I’m interested in use my smartphone (iPhone) and my tablet (iPad) as they allow me to read new posts when I have some spare time. To enable this I use a free App on my phone (Reeder, but there are a fair few to choose from, including Flipboard as of Dec 2011) and a free App on my  tablet (Flipboard, brilliant) to synchronise to my Google Reader account. For Android devices try gReader. This sounds hard but it’s incredibly easy, and completely free. Install the App, fire it up, enter your Google login details and your  selected blogs will just appear, yes really!

To add blogs go onto Google Reader, then open another tab in your browser and navigate to the blog you want to follow. On the blogs home page copy the URL from the address bar, e.g. blog.wsiwebbasedmarketing.co.uk,  go back to Google reader, hit the “add a subscription” button in the top left and paste the URL into the box, click the “add” button and it’s done. This is a onetime task and you can add (and remove) as many blogs as you wish.

Current blog posts and any new entries will be consolidated into Google Reader for you to read when you wish. You can of course just use Google Reader on your computer to keep in touch with these blogs but I find when I have spare time I’m not usually in front of a computer so I use my smartphone or tablet.

So that’s it, simple, you can now use Google reader on your PC or Mac or on your smartphone, but either way you will always have access to the latest blogs from the people that you find of most interest.  Why not add my blog to try it out and see how it works. Just add http://blog.wsiwebbasedmarketing.co.uk into the Google reader box and you will get my latest updates delivered directly to you.

In addition to this you can syndicate your blog posts out to Facebook profiles, LinkedIn profiles and Twitter automatically which will then notify anyone following or connected to you (assuming their settings allow it) that a new post has been published.

Enjoy!