Every where you turn, you’ll find people raving about blogging, with good reason. Blogs are easy to use communication tools… and businesses NEED to communicate with potential customers. So if you’re a business and you need to communicate to customers WHY they need to be doing business with you… you need a blog.
However, while blogs make PERFECT sense as a business marketing tool… there are drawbacks to blogging.
What no one ever tells you about blogging
Blogging is not marketing magic.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it is true.
I’ve had several clients who paid to have the most popular and powerful blogging software on the planet set up on their own hosting account. I installed essential plug ins to make their WordPress blog even more attractive to the search engines.
More than once I have gotten emails from clients wondering why their blogs aren’t getting great search engine rankings on their highly desired keyword terms. When I load their blog, I’m greeted with the “Hello World” initial WordPress blog post. There are no other posts published. There are no categories set up. Nothing but “Hello World”.
Successful Blogging Takes Planning
Planning and research are both ESSENTIAL keys to blogging success.
Planning begins with knowing who your target audience is and why they are at your blog is the most critical element in your blog’s success.
(Here’s a poorly kept secret… it’s also the key to your BUSINESS SUCCESS!!! That’s why I wrote the book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results
Once you know who your audience is, then you need to figure out what keywords they are using to find your site. This is the “research” side of th equation.
Top A-list bloggers have shared that on average more than 50% of their traffic comes from the search engines. That means using the right keywords is a KEY element in your blogging success.
There are plenty of free tools you can use to find keywords. However, I got an email today which calls into question the accuracy of those free keyword tools. My client ran her favorite keyword through 3 separate free keyword tools and got the following:
Google: “Average”
Overture — 1211
Keyword Discovery — 600
Wordtracker — not listed
So, I ran her keywords using a new tool I recently discovered called Wordze.
Wordze gave the COMPLETE picture on what was happening with her keyword. It not only showed the standard info… it also showed her who her competitors are on that keyword as well.
PRICELESS!!!
Using the link above saves you $10 a month if you decide to subscribe.
Successful Blogging Takes Effort
The most successful blogs have posts published on a regular basis… at least once a week… more is better.
Many, many blogs begin with a flurry of posts… and then, the new blog owner loses interest and stops posting. Defining your blog’s direction is essential to achieving blogging success.
Successful Blogging Takes Time
There is no such thing as an overnight success when it comes to blogging. The blogs that do “race” to the top usually find their stay at the top to be precarious at best.
You won’t launch your blog tomorrow and then cash a six figure adsense check within 30 days. It just doesn’t work that way.
However, if you’re willing to invest the time and effort into this powerful business communication tool… then you’ll find that your blog can act as a powerful, versatile, easy to use marketing tool.
