You've Started A Blog, Now What?

You've heard over and over again how blogging can bring traffic to your website, increase your brand image, establish you as an expert in your field, create relationships with current and potential clients/customers & bring you money so you decided to start a blog. You've taken the first step toward increasing your business and online image by creating a blog.... But Now What Do You Do?

Now it's time to decide what to blog about and how to do your blogging. The answer to this question should be as simple as consulting your social media specific marketing plan, but if you haven't got one of those yet, then you're going to have to spend a bit of time brainstorming. The first thing you want to do is consider just who it is you are trying to reach with your blog. Who is your customer or potential customer and what are their interests? Focus on your target audience and put yourself in their shoes. What is it that they want or need and how can you provide that for them? Your posts should be things that are totally and completely relevant to your customer without making your customer feel like you're trying to sell them something.

Before you start writing, you will want to keep a few things in mind. We've already addressed the concept of making your blog posts relevant, but there's much more to it than that. Whether it is blogging, articles, your newsletter or your posts and updates in social media at least 80% of what you post should be of value to your readers without selling them in any way. You should keep in mind that the focus of the blog is to increase your image as an expert in your field NOT to sell your products and services. If you are successful in creating a positive image for yourself the sales will come, however, if all you do is sell you'll only create an image for yourself as a spammer and a narcissist incapable of focusing on much more than yourself or things that benefit you rather than your readers. The best way to create value for your readers is to put yourself in their shoes, think like your customer and write about something they care about. As a spiritual entrepreneur this should be easy because your customers and potential customers care about the same things you do. There is a plethora of things you can do which will add value to the lives of your readers whether you are reviewing a book, turning them onto a person, business or product that will assist them in their own endeavors, or even discussing controversial topics such as religion and politics. Your insight is just what is needed to change the world and the lives of your readers.

When your piece has been posted on your blog keep in mind that the process isn't over. You will need to promote it by making sure to post it on your social media pages and scheduling automatic updates for future posts so you won't have to spend your every day posting updates on your pages. As long as the blog post is relevant you can promote it and it will circulate around the internet being read by potential customers & clients. Don't make the mistake of thinking it is only relevant for a short time or that you can't promote it, because as long as there is a link that will take the reader to it you can promote it all you wish. Additionally, you will need to periodically check your blog site for comments and moderate them appropriately. Over time as your blog becomes more and more popular, people will make comments and have discussions on your posts. Make sure you moderate those comments in order to prevent spammers from clogging your feed, and make sure you spend some time responding to those who post comments on your blog. Remember the point of online social media marketing is to establish relationships with your customers and potential customers, and no relationship can be properly nurtured without two-way communication. You will notice me saying this over and over again - SOCIAL is the first word in the phrase "SOCIAL media marketing" for a reason so don't forget it!!

This should help you with a tad bit of insight to get started posting. Good luck and please be sure to let me know if you have any questions by visiting http://www.JennieHowell.com .

Please note: if you've decided to make your blog a podcast blog or a video blog the information above applies equally to those posts it's simply a matter of changing the focus from writing to recording.

The 4 W's of Blogging (The Who is YOU!)

WHAT is a blog?

A blog is a type of website that is usually maintained by an individual who generally posts articles, commentaries, events descriptions, graphics, podcasts, videos and much more at regular intervals. Blogs are usually geared to be interactive in a way that allows readers to make comments and in some cases even message one another via widgets and plugins. The main trait which distinguishes a blog from other static websites is the interactivity. A typical blog will combine commentary, text, links to other blogs and sites, images &/or podcasts or videos and will require consistent and regular updates in order to be a success on any level.

WHEN should you blog?

If you exist in a physical earthly body you should blog. Every person who has a desire to promote themselves as an individual, entrepreneur or business needs to have a blog and post regularly. The more frequently you blog the more visitors you will have, the more visitors there are to your blog the higher your potential to establish yourself as an expert in your field, and the higher the likelihood your blog will be linked elsewhere. How frequently you make your blog posts is completely up to you, but I would suggest a minimum of one time per week to start. Your posts don't necessarily have to be long or even written, but you should have posts on your blog at least once per week if you intend to establish any sort of reputation for yourself at all.

WHERE should you blog?

There are a plethora of choices where a person can blog on any level. I would recommend that you go with WordPress as it has one of the simplest template systems. With WordPress you will need to brainstorm a URL for your blog, register it with someone like GoDaddy and host it through a hosting service such as BlueHost. There is also the possibility of configuring a tab on your main website that uses a WordPress template. WordPress allows for a multitude of plugins that will allow you to monitor spam, have social interaction on your site, collect email addresses for your newsletter, backups so that you don't lose your work and much more. WordPress is also set up for SEO which will assist you in the process of pushing people to your website and getting your blog ranked more highly in the search rankings, which in turn brings you more customers, clients, readers, potential customers, followers etc.

You can also get a blog free through Blogger (Where this blog is posted) which has simple to use templates. Blogger is a simple tool that is easy to use and a great way to get into blogging if you are a beginner. If you are new to blogging all together this is a good way to get started and work toward becoming a more serious blogger. Blogger is not optimized nearly as well as WordPress for SEO and other processes that will assist you in bringing potential customers in so if that is your focus you will work a bit harder. Blogger is something I recommend for new bloggers just trying to get the hang of blogging before moving up to WordPress. (Though you can go directly to WordPress and simply save yourself a step).

WHY Should you blog?

Blogging is one of the top ways to bring new customers and clients to your business (along with article writing, press releases). Blogs are keyword rich for searches that your potential clients will be searching for via their online searches, they serve to increase your image and establish you as an expert in your field, they are usually optimized for SEO so that your site goes up in rankings as you blog more frequently. Blogs do not only serve to increase your brand image and establish you as an expert, they also are one of, if not THE prime method in which to prompt people toward visiting your main website and in turn purchasing your products and services. Without blogging both your image and your website clicks will suffer in comparison to others in your field.

In the end it all comes down to the fact that without a blog you will be left behind by your peers. Blogging (along with article writing and press releases) is the main way to promote your brand image and push people to your products and services & with everyone else doing it, the simple fact is, you cannot afford not to.