Blogging For Business: Answers To Some Of Your Questions!

For some reason it seems that almost every live and email business conversation I’ve had in the last two weeks has been about blogging and the most common questions that people ask me include:

• Why bother with a business blog – doesn’t it just take up a lot of time?
• How will I know if anyone reads my business blog?
• If  I do start a business blog how can I get it found in the search engines?

Advance notice of HubSite Builder’s webinar series on blogging for business

Because I’ve become aware of the huge number of business owners in the Baby Boomer age group who are struggling with both the reasons for and the practicalities of establishing a business blog,  I’m preparing a 3 session webinar series that is designed to answer the steady stream of questions I receive on a regular basis. (Non Baby Boomers are welcome, of course!)

I’ll let you know in the next week or so about the final dates for those events.

In the meantime, here are some words of wisdom from some of my favourite business bloggers that may help to answer some of your questions...

Business Blogging: Why Bother?

Watch this short video (1 min 38 sec) to see why two of the worlds great marketers and business leaders recommend that you become a business blogger.

Video – Seth Godin & Tom Peters identify the pros of business blogging:

Godin shared these 4 advantages of blogging for business:

1. It’s free.
2. Blogging helps you to become more humble.
3. The blogging process forces you to think about how to explain yourself to others.
4. It forces you to become part of the conversation in your field.

Blogging Is The Best Marketing Tool Tom Peters Has Ever Had!

I’m a big supporter of blogging as a strategy to grow your business, but even I was shocked to hear Tom Peters say that no single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important than blogging.

Peters declared that business blogging has changed his:

• Business life
• Perspective
• Intellectual outlook
• Emotional outlook

In fact Peters says that business blogging in the “best damn marketing tool I’ve ever had!”

How Will I Know If Anyone Reads My Business Blog?

Ruslan Kogan reminds us that we must get scientific about improving our websites / blogs, and we need to start by using a free tool like Google Analytics to identify all the details of traffic to our blogs and webpages.

Kogan says ” Your website is the single most important communication channel to potential customers, even if your business does not transact online. You need to understand your online visitors and what they want. Don’t make this based on guesswork, gut feel or emotion.”

Kogan recommends that you test everything and shares what their testing revealed about what fields to include in their registration forms and where to put your navigation links to make it easy for visitors to find what they want on your site.

Read Ruslan Kogan’s full article here…

Business Blogs: How To Get Yours Found In Google

Of course it’s one thing to start a business blog and another to have it rank well in the search engines and actually be helpful to your website visitors. Derek Halpern reminds us that one of the most frequently visited pages on your blog is your About page, (check yours in your Google Analytics account), so as a business owner you want to give your About page lots of TLC…

How to Create An Amazing Blog About Page by Derek Halpern

In this very practical article Halpern identifies 5 things you must have on your About Page. He also gives a great reminder about the importance of email sign up forms and where to position them.

Read Derek Halpern’s full article here…

Business Blogging: Is It A Waste Of Time?

Derek Halpern also answers this question in  his blog post The One Big Mistake Bloggers Make (Hint: It’s Regarding Where They Spend Time). He describes a concept he calls “spendability.”

Halpern explains that there are two ways, to encourage “spendability”:

1. traffic and
2. interaction

and while it may seem so simple, it’s the truth.

He belives that the single best way to build interaction is by building a high quality email list. As big as Twitter and Facebook get, email still has more than triple the users!

Read Derek Halpern’s full article on spendability here…

Business Blogs That Get Found In Search Engines

Getting traffic to your business blog is the first step to achieving “spendability” therefore your blog needs to rank highly in the search engines. The titles of your blog posts are key factors in getting high ranking and one of my favourite business bloggers, Ana Hoffman from www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com shares some really useful resources for writing great titles for your business blog.

Blog Titles: How to Write Winners Even if You Suck at It

Read Ana Hoffman’s full article on how to write winning blog titles here…

Here’s To Getting your Business Found Online,
Karyn Clarke

Organic SEO that gets your business found in Google

I know you’re really busy running your business so I’ll keep this short …
I also know that if you’re like most business owners you’re struggling to get your business found in Google, so I put together a FREE, short course in  a very visual  format on Facebook for you.

This quick overview outlines what you want to do to get YOUR business ranked high in the search engine results pages.

Please remember to click the LIKE button on my Facebook page while you’re there, and I’d love you to share your thoughts about the short course.

Here’s To Getting YOUR Business Found In Google,
Karyn Clarke

PS
Remember to click the LIKE button

Coach Deb predicted social media trends ten years ago!

My clients, especially those “of a certain age” often express frustration about using social media (social networking), and ask “Why bother?” so when I met up with Coach Deb, a globally recognised authority on the subject, in Sydney recently, I was absolutely delighted when she generously answered that question in this exclusive video interview.

Video (3 min 12 sec) Coach Deb answers: why bother with social media?

Here’s some of what Coach Deb revealed:

• 80% of people who buy online belong to a certain group
• That same group of people use social media to share their recommendations with each other
• Business owners who use social media will capture the attention of that group while their competitors flounder

Coach Deb co-created the software we use to build our clients’ websites!

I know that Coach Deb knows what she’s talking about, because four years ago I started using the software that she developed, to build my own website. It gained high search engine ranking so rapidly that my business coaching clients started asking me to build websites for them, and so HubSite Builder was born!

The proprietary software boasts integrated organic search engine optimization, and several automated methods of integrating your website and your social media profiles, saving you over 40 hours per month when compared to other systems.

Give our office a call to find out how HubSite Builder’s system can save you 40 hours each month while you boost your social media presence – (02) 9686 4257.

Here’s To Getting YOUR Business Found In Google!
Karyn Clarke