Beginner Blogger – Installing WordPress and Initial Setup of Your Blog

I just realized something. How in the world can you start blogging if you don’t have a blog to post to.  And that is why I have decided to include this tutorial in the ongoing series – Beginner Blogger. And just an FYI, this is an excerpt from a book I am working on.

Installing WordPress and Initial Setup of Your Blog

We always recommend hosting your own WordPress blog or website on your own domain, rather than signing up for an account at WordPress.com.  The reasons are pretty simple too:

1. You are better off having your own domain name for your business.  Not the least of which, your own domain will get you the best results in local searches for your business.
2. You have complete control over your site, both the look and function.  In other words, you can make the site your own.
3. Because you have complete control, you can make your site look like a website and not just a blog. (Which we will show you in the near future).
4. Having your own domain and hosting it on your own hosting account will get you the best SEO results too.  If you use a WordPress.com site, even if you map your domain to the WordPress.com domain, you are still a sub-domain and you are not taking full advantage of the SEO.
5. It is easy to set up and get started with a WordPress site hosted on your own hosting account

You can get a free blog from WordPress.com, and a lot of people do. But don’t!  If you are serious about using a website or blog to market and promote you business, then get serious about your site.  You want a hosted WordPress site.

Getting a hosted WordPress installation

You can struggle with installing your own version of WordPress on any host that supports PHP and MySQL.  WordPress can be downloaded free here.

However, I strongly suggest you use a hosting provider which permits and supports 1-click installs of WordPress.  Taking advantage of this type of service will allow you not to worry about downloading WordPress, uploading it to your host, creating the database and editing the configuration files.  Something I don’t even want to mess around with.  Besides, “I have people” to handle all of that for me.

For the small business, HostGator is a great way to go for WordPress hosting.  They have plans starting as low as $4.95/month for hosting, and provide some great features that fit right in with the type of sites we will be discussing.

Installing WordPress in under 7 minutes

1. Log into your Hostgator cPanel (control panel)
2. Scroll down until you’re near the bottom of the pagre
3. Locate the section entitled “Software/Services.”
4. Click on the Fantastico icon. Its the one with the blue smiley face.
5. On the Fantasico page, click the “WordPress” text link on the left sidebar.
6. Click on “New Installation.”
7. Choose which domain you want this WordPress install to be on.  If you have an individual site hosting plan, this will default to your one domain. If you have a shared hosting plan, choose which domain you want this WordPress install to be on.
8. In the section that says, “Admin access data,” you will put the login name and password you want to use to log into your WordPress Dashboard.
9. Fill in the “Base Configuration” fields with the name you want to be associated with all the posts you write in your new blog.  Also, add in your email address and the website’s domain name for your new site.
10. Click “Install WordPress.”
11. You will be given the domain information, to make sure it is being installed on the correct domain.  If it looks good, click “Finish Installation.”
12. You are done.  You have just installed WordPress on your new website.  Make a note of your login information and/or print on the information on your screen so you have it for future reference.

Logging into your WordPress Admin

Now that you have installed WordPress for your site, you will want to login to the Dashboard.  Type the URL (http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin) into your browser and put in your login when you see the login screen.

There are going to be a few things you are going to want to do to get your site ready to go.  All of these settings you will make after you have WordPress installed on your host.

I have marked the three areas above you will want to change as soon as you can.  You will want to change these in the General Settings panel which can be found under Settings on the left side of your Dashboard.  Change the field labeled Tagline, E-mail address and Timezone.

Next, we want to make some adjustments to the “Permalinks Structure” of your site.  You do this by choosing Permalinks on the left hand menu also.  Set your permalinks structure to look like the screenshot we have provided below.

Making this change to your permalinks makes your URL of your website pages more search engine friendly.  The URL to your pages will look like: http://www.yourdomain.com/sample-post instead of http://ww.yourdomain.com/?p=123

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Copyright © 2010 Blog For Profit. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 3% [?]

Beginner Blogger – Using the Kitchen Sink in WordPress

I wanted to give you one more quick WordPress tutorial today before we get into some of the other questions which have been asked.  We have some meaty topics coming and a good one tomorrow.  But, before we talk about posting to your blog, I wanted to make sure you knew how to use the tools available inside WordPress.

This tutorial covers the extended toolbar inside your WordPress Dashboard.

The Add New Post and Add New Page areas provide you with the default tool bar. Included at the far end of the tool bar is what is called the “Kitchen Sink” and this button provides you with many more options for formating your blog post.

Default Tool Bar

You will be in the Add New Post screen where you should be drafting your blog post. As you can see from this image, the tool bar is limited on what it provides. However, clicking on the button indicated, will provide you with those features included in the Kitchen Sink.

The Extended Tool Bar

As you can see, the extended tool bar provided by the Kitchen Sink button provides you with many more tools you can use for formating your blog post. We will go over some of these in addition tutorials. (As a side note, if I had my choice, this feature would be visible without the “kitchen sink” button being clicked)

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Copyright © 2010 Blog For Profit. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Beginner Blogger – Getting Around the WordPress Write Post Page

The purpose of this tutorial is to give you an idea of the different areas within the WordPress Write Post page. By reviewing these areas, you will be more familiar with the different areas of the Write section of your blog.

Add New Post

This is one of the most important pages in your WordPress Admin Panel. This page is where you will draft each new blog post.

Title Bar For Your Blog Post

This is where you will write the title to your blog post. One of the keys to a good blog post which takes advantage of SEO is to make sure you are using some of the Keywords that best describes what you are blogging about.

Post Permalink (Slug)

The permalink (formally known as the post slug) is what you can customize to change the appearance of the blog post’s URL. Without permalinks set up, your blog posts will have URLs that end in something similar to ?p=1, instead of /post-title/ or however else you set it up. You want your Post Permalink to have keywords in it just like the post title. The area highlighted in yellow is the area you can edit if you wish. However, this is also the area which will include your post title. Unless you title is very long, I would not recommend you edit it.

Post Content Area

This is where you will type in the content for your post. Even though we are not covering in detail search engine optimization in this tutorial, your post should contain your keywords in a natural way, but be specific to the topic you are writing about. This is also where you would insert images relevant to your post. But even more important, the content you post about should be relevant and interesting to your target audience.

Post Categories

Categories are also a way of organizing your blog post. Like tags, they are keywords for your post. While Tags are specific, Categories are usually a more broad definition of your blog. Even though how you organize your blog post is really up to you, think about your post and what important areas you are talking about. You should also try to limit the total number of categories in your blog post to no more than 2 if at all possible. I would encourage you to try to limit it to one. Use Tags to further mark your post. Tags are discussed below.

To add a new category, you will want to click on the link which says “Add New Category”

Adding a New Category

Once you click on the “Add New Category” you will be given the option to add your new category. You can also assign a category to a parent. Making that new category a “child” of the parent. This is handy if you feel you need to organize your categories into sub-categories.

Post Tags

The Tags area is where you would enter a tag, which is a keyword or keywords used to organize your post. They can also act as keywords for your blog post, thus it is important you keep them relevant to the post itself. Tag keywords are usually more specific than Categories. Tags are also very helpful with SEO. Don’t overlook this one simple step when you are drafting your blog post.

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Copyright © 2010 Blog For Profit. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Beginner Blogger – How to Add a Favicon to Your Website

A favicon is a detail in web design that is often overlooked, and it’s a missed opportunity. This tiny little image is just one more way to extend your branding throughout your site – and even onto your visitors computer! You see, visitors who bookmark your website will also notice that your favicon becomes the icon for that bookmark, rather than an unattractive “blank” icon or default web browser icon. Furthermore, users who utilize a modern browser with tabbed browsing will see your favicon on the browser tab as well – just one more way to remind them of who you are!

So how do you get one of these elusive favicons? Read on for a simple step by step solution.

1. Create: Create a .png, .gif or .jpg image that you want to use as a favicon. You can also download any number of great-looking icons at websites like Free Favicon, Icon Finder or Icon Archive.

2. Convert: Go to Dynamic Drive’s Favicon Generator. Upload your newly chosen icon and click “Create icon.” A favicon.ico file will be created and you’ll see a preview on the screen.

3. Save: Save favicon.ico in a safe place. You can rename it, but ensure that you do not modify the .ico file extension.

4. Log In: Go to your website admin. If you have an HTML site, you might use Dreamweaver, if you use WordPress it’s your WordPress admin panel, etc.

5. Upload: Upload your new favicon file somewhere that it is accessible via the internet. That means you should be able to type in a URL — like http://blogforprofit.com/uploads/favicon.ico — and see the favicon in your browser. If you cannot see it, neither can anyone else.

6. Prepare Code: Replace the URL in the following code with the URL to your favicon:

<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="http://blogforprofit.com/uploads/favicon.ico">

7. Insert Code: Put the above code – with your modified URL – in the <HEAD> section of your site’s HTML. (This is where I lose most of you. It sounds scary, but it’s not!)

Depending on what platform you are using, there is a different way to get there – but you need to find the source files for your website. This might be under Appearance –> Editor in WordPress, or it could be accessible via FTP or Dreamweaver on an HTML site. You’re looking for a file called header.php in WordPress. If you are on a straight-up HTML website, you’ll need to edit each page individually.

Look for code that begins <HEAD>, with a bunch of gibberish after it, and ending with </HEAD>. Directly after the <HEAD> tag, on it’s own line for readability’s sake, add your <link rel=” …> code.

8. Save! Now you can view your site – and your newly established favicon – in your browser. Note that if you are using a caching plugin, it may take longer to show up, and you may want to clear that cache manually. Your browser also may have cached the old version of your website, and you may need to clear your browser’s cache.

TIP: Some WordPress themes, such as the amazing Headway Theme, provide special fields for you to insert, or even upload & insert your favicon. If the code here scares you (it’s ok! It won’t bite!) then look in your admin and theme options to see if there is an easier route to take. Some themes provide special areas to link your favicon where you’ll only have to enter the URL you got in step 5 above, and some provide Header Script areas where you can insert the code from step 6 without digging through PHP files.

Exclusive for subscribers! Download Blogging Tips To Help You Blog

Copyright © 2010 Blog For Profit. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Beginner Blogger – How to Add a Favicon to Your Website

A favicon is a detail in web design that is often overlooked, and it’s a missed opportunity. This tiny little image is just one more way to extend your branding throughout your site – and even onto your visitors computer! You see, visitors who bookmark your website will also notice that your favicon becomes the icon for that bookmark, rather than an unattractive “blank” icon or default web browser icon. Furthermore, users who utilize a modern browser with tabbed browsing will see your favicon on the browser tab as well – just one more way to remind them of who you are!

So how do you get one of these elusive favicons? Read on for a simple step by step solution.

1. Create: Create a .png, .gif or .jpg image that you want to use as a favicon. You can also download any number of great-looking icons at websites like Free Favicon, Icon Finder or Icon Archive.

2. Convert: Go to Dynamic Drive’s Favicon Generator. Upload your newly chosen icon and click “Create icon.” A favicon.ico file will be created and you’ll see a preview on the screen.

3. Save: Save favicon.ico in a safe place. You can rename it, but ensure that you do not modify the .ico file extension.

4. Log In: Go to your website admin. If you have an HTML site, you might use Dreamweaver, if you use WordPress it’s your WordPress admin panel, etc.

5. Upload: Upload your new favicon file somewhere that it is accessible via the internet. That means you should be able to type in a URL — like http://blogforprofit.com/uploads/favicon.ico — and see the favicon in your browser. If you cannot see it, neither can anyone else.

6. Prepare Code: Replace the URL in the following code with the URL to your favicon:

<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="http://blogforprofit.com/uploads/favicon.ico">

7. Insert Code: Put the above code – with your modified URL – in the <HEAD> section of your site’s HTML. (This is where I lose most of you. It sounds scary, but it’s not!)

Depending on what platform you are using, there is a different way to get there – but you need to find the source files for your website. This might be under Appearance –> Editor in WordPress, or it could be accessible via FTP or Dreamweaver on an HTML site. You’re looking for a file called header.php in WordPress. If you are on a straight-up HTML website, you’ll need to edit each page individually.

Look for code that begins <HEAD>, with a bunch of gibberish after it, and ending with </HEAD>. Directly after the <HEAD> tag, on it’s own line for readability’s sake, add your <link rel=” …> code.

8. Save! Now you can view your site – and your newly established favicon – in your browser. Note that if you are using a caching plugin, it may take longer to show up, and you may want to clear that cache manually. Your browser also may have cached the old version of your website, and you may need to clear your browser’s cache.

TIP: Some WordPress themes, such as the amazing Headway Theme, provide special fields for you to insert, or even upload & insert your favicon. If the code here scares you (it’s ok! It won’t bite!) then look in your admin and theme options to see if there is an easier route to take. Some themes provide special areas to link your favicon where you’ll only have to enter the URL you got in step 5 above, and some provide Header Script areas where you can insert the code from step 6 without digging through PHP files.

Exclusive for subscribers! Download Blogging Tips To Help You Blog

Copyright © 2010 Blog For Profit. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

5 Reasons To Build An Email List

Email marketing is one of those touchy subjects. Some love it. Others fear it or don’t understand it. Some recent conversations on Twitter say it’s dying or (fill in with new technology of the day) is an email killer. When I hear these statements I know this means it is a marketing method that will be around for a while.

While building and maintaining a list can be a little work, the rewards are well worth it. I’m not going to go into list maintenance, segmentation or, marketing strategies here. I want you to understand why email is important to you today and why you want to build a subscriber list as soon as possible.

1. Everyone Online Has At Least One Email Address

This is probably the most important reason any person who wants a business online needs to build an email list. Email is the only form of online communication that everyone participates in. It’s the biggest social network online.

Only a percentage of all people online have a Facebook or Twitter account. Although many people are flocking to drop their brands in these playgrounds, they’re only hitting a fraction of the online population.

If you were to sign up for Facebook, Twitter or any other site on the Internet, what’s the one thing they’ll ask you for before letting you register? Yes, they’ll probably ask you for your name or set up a username and password but all sites ask you for an email address. Why is that?

Because everyone has an email address.

People read their email (I’m going to ignore spam and email delivery issues here). Unlike most social media options, email sits in an a recipients inbox waiting patiently to be opened. It doesn’t matter if your reader is on vacation. In seven days, when they return from the beach, your email will still be sitting there waiting to be read and it will be one of the first things they go through when they’re back online.

Which leads me to…

2. Email Is Important To People Online

Many people hop on to Facebook everyday and see what aunt Gertrude is up to in Florida. They play their games and share links and patriotic sayings but they don’t wonder what’s the next important business message I’m going to get?

Email is different. We check it regularly to see if anything important has come in. We even have it automatically load on our phones so we can be accessible for business where ever we are. Email is where we go to really find out “what’s happening?”

Yes, we all expect some junk in the inbox. It’s just like traditional snail mail. We sift through it eagerly searching for something more exciting than the new process for covers on the TPS reports. We want to see what exciting friend has emailed us. We check to see if smelly Stan down the hall was fired yet.

This is where you come into the picture. This is where you provide a small escape from their day-to-day boredom of life. You have the opportunity to give your list something of value and brighten their day.

If you’re mixed in with friends and business, you’re on the same playing level. You’re important and that is where the money is.

3. You Own Your List

Over the past couple of years the online marketing masses have flocked to Facebook and Twitter. They preach loudly, “You can communicate directly with your audience.” And, they’re correct. These are wonderful tools to do so. There’s real time interaction and the ability to create a quick and easy following with hundreds, thousands or, hundreds of thousands of followers and fans with a few simple clicks. But, what if?

What if, with a few simple clicks, Facebook deletes your personal or fan pages? What if Twitter’s fail whale makes a permanent appearance and never leaves? Chances of it happening are slim, right? But, what if?

These are great places to start a conversation and engage readers however, once you’ve been kicked off you’re out of the conversation. You don’t own your content. You don’t own or have access to your market anymore. And, if you don’t have an email list of your subscribers you have absolutely no way of contacting your readers to tell them what happened.

An email subscriber list is yours. It’s yours to have and to hold, until death (or unsubscription) do you part.

Because it’s your list, you can download a copy and save it to your hard drive. If you have issues with your email provider, you can move it to another provider and magically continue business with little interruption.

And, since it is yours, it’s becomes an asset to your business. If you someday decide to leave or transfer your business you’ll have a tangible asset of value you can sell to a buyer.

4. It Is Pure Permission Marketing

When a reader signs up for your email subscription they’re raising their hand and showing interest. They want more information. Give it to them.

If you’re using a double opt-in email provider (you are using double opt-in, right?) you’re ensuring the subscriber actually wants you to contact them. First they give you their email address. Next, they click a link in their email to confirm they signed up. It’s a qualifying mechanism. Now it’s up to you to keep them happy.

Many big shot marketers get you on a list and then pummel you with affiliate offers for every big launch that comes up. That’s not a great way to run a strong permission marketing list. It does work but you’ll lose a lot of the list over time and constantly need to look for new subscribers. If you want to keep your list responsive provide value more often than you’re promoting offers.

Send a newsletter every month or two weeks. Make sure it contains special content you aren’t providing on your site. Give them a reason to stay subscribed. Always hint at the next big idea coming to their inbox soon.

They’ve given you permission. They’re not just a fan or a follower, they’re a member of your list. A member is more valuable than any fan or follower.

Give your subscribers a reason to stay on your list because you want to scream…

5. Show Me The Money!

Visitors come and go. Maybe they’ll click on a banner ad or buy your product but once they’re gone, they’re gone. If they subscribe via RSS then read your content in a 3rd party reader and rarely visit your site missing all your money making mechanisms.

Email allows you to send them the post, a teaser, or whatever copy you want to use to drive your subscriber back to your blog. This forces them to see the ads and other money making mechanisms on your site.

Plus, and here’s the fun part, you can email affiliate offers or direct offers for your products without publishing it live on your site. If you want to have a special money making weekend you can send an email or two that lead back to a hidden page on your blog with a special offer just for subscribers. Or, you can send an affiliate offer of a product you recently fell in love with and want to share with your subscribers. Either way, it’s a more responsive way to making money than publishing a post to your site and hoping people will see it.

How Soon Will You Start?

If you have any experience with direct marketing you may have heard, “the money is in the list.” If you haven’t started building an email list then I hope this is a friendly jolt to start building your list today.

It doesn’t require much effort to maintain and, just like other pieces of the online marketing puzzle, once you start you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier.

If you’re using email now, what motivated you to start building your list? If you’re not, what’s stopping you?

_____________________

And here is a great new tool for building those email list with, EmailBuddy.  Take a look at all of the great features and benefits of this WordPress plugin.

Exclusive for subscribers! Download Blogging Tips To Help You Blog

Copyright © 2010 Blog For Profit. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

5 Reasons To Build An Email List

Email marketing is one of those touchy subjects. Some love it. Others fear it or don’t understand it. Some recent conversations on Twitter say it’s dying or (fill in with new technology of the day) is an email killer. When I hear these statements I know this means it is a marketing method that will be around for a while.

While building and maintaining a list can be a little work, the rewards are well worth it. I’m not going to go into list maintenance, segmentation or, marketing strategies here. I want you to understand why email is important to you today and why you want to build a subscriber list as soon as possible.

1. Everyone Online Has At Least One Email Address

This is probably the most important reason any person who wants a business online needs to build an email list. Email is the only form of online communication that everyone participates in. It’s the biggest social network online.

Only a percentage of all people online have a Facebook or Twitter account. Although many people are flocking to drop their brands in these playgrounds, they’re only hitting a fraction of the online population.

If you were to sign up for Facebook, Twitter or any other site on the Internet, what’s the one thing they’ll ask you for before letting you register? Yes, they’ll probably ask you for your name or set up a username and password but all sites ask you for an email address. Why is that?

Because everyone has an email address.

People read their email (I’m going to ignore spam and email delivery issues here). Unlike most social media options, email sits in an a recipients inbox waiting patiently to be opened. It doesn’t matter if your reader is on vacation. In seven days, when they return from the beach, your email will still be sitting there waiting to be read and it will be one of the first things they go through when they’re back online.

Which leads me to…

2. Email Is Important To People Online

Many people hop on to Facebook everyday and see what aunt Gertrude is up to in Florida. They play their games and share links and patriotic sayings but they don’t wonder what’s the next important business message I’m going to get?

Email is different. We check it regularly to see if anything important has come in. We even have it automatically load on our phones so we can be accessible for business where ever we are. Email is where we go to really find out “what’s happening?”

Yes, we all expect some junk in the inbox. It’s just like traditional snail mail. We sift through it eagerly searching for something more exciting than the new process for covers on the TPS reports. We want to see what exciting friend has emailed us. We check to see if smelly Stan down the hall was fired yet.

This is where you come into the picture. This is where you provide a small escape from their day-to-day boredom of life. You have the opportunity to give your list something of value and brighten their day.

If you’re mixed in with friends and business, you’re on the same playing level. You’re important and that is where the money is.

3. You Own Your List

Over the past couple of years the online marketing masses have flocked to Facebook and Twitter. They preach loudly, “You can communicate directly with your audience.” And, they’re correct. These are wonderful tools to do so. There’s real time interaction and the ability to create a quick and easy following with hundreds, thousands or, hundreds of thousands of followers and fans with a few simple clicks. But, what if?

What if, with a few simple clicks, Facebook deletes your personal or fan pages? What if Twitter’s fail whale makes a permanent appearance and never leaves? Chances of it happening are slim, right? But, what if?

These are great places to start a conversation and engage readers however, once you’ve been kicked off you’re out of the conversation. You don’t own your content. You don’t own or have access to your market anymore. And, if you don’t have an email list of your subscribers you have absolutely no way of contacting your readers to tell them what happened.

An email subscriber list is yours. It’s yours to have and to hold, until death (or unsubscription) do you part.

Because it’s your list, you can download a copy and save it to your hard drive. If you have issues with your email provider, you can move it to another provider and magically continue business with little interruption.

And, since it is yours, it’s becomes an asset to your business. If you someday decide to leave or transfer your business you’ll have a tangible asset of value you can sell to a buyer.

4. It Is Pure Permission Marketing

When a reader signs up for your email subscription they’re raising their hand and showing interest. They want more information. Give it to them.

If you’re using a double opt-in email provider (you are using double opt-in, right?) you’re ensuring the subscriber actually wants you to contact them. First they give you their email address. Next, they click a link in their email to confirm they signed up. It’s a qualifying mechanism. Now it’s up to you to keep them happy.

Many big shot marketers get you on a list and then pummel you with affiliate offers for every big launch that comes up. That’s not a great way to run a strong permission marketing list. It does work but you’ll lose a lot of the list over time and constantly need to look for new subscribers. If you want to keep your list responsive provide value more often than you’re promoting offers.

Send a newsletter every month or two weeks. Make sure it contains special content you aren’t providing on your site. Give them a reason to stay subscribed. Always hint at the next big idea coming to their inbox soon.

They’ve given you permission. They’re not just a fan or a follower, they’re a member of your list. A member is more valuable than any fan or follower.

Give your subscribers a reason to stay on your list because you want to scream…

5. Show Me The Money!

Visitors come and go. Maybe they’ll click on a banner ad or buy your product but once they’re gone, they’re gone. If they subscribe via RSS then read your content in a 3rd party reader and rarely visit your site missing all your money making mechanisms.

Email allows you to send them the post, a teaser, or whatever copy you want to use to drive your subscriber back to your blog. This forces them to see the ads and other money making mechanisms on your site.

Plus, and here’s the fun part, you can email affiliate offers or direct offers for your products without publishing it live on your site. If you want to have a special money making weekend you can send an email or two that lead back to a hidden page on your blog with a special offer just for subscribers. Or, you can send an affiliate offer of a product you recently fell in love with and want to share with your subscribers. Either way, it’s a more responsive way to making money than publishing a post to your site and hoping people will see it.

How Soon Will You Start?

If you have any experience with direct marketing you may have heard, “the money is in the list.” If you haven’t started building an email list then I hope this is a friendly jolt to start building your list today.

It doesn’t require much effort to maintain and, just like other pieces of the online marketing puzzle, once you start you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier.

If you’re using email now, what motivated you to start building your list? If you’re not, what’s stopping you?

_____________________

And here is a great new tool for building those email list with, EmailBuddy.  Take a look at all of the great features and benefits of this WordPress plugin.

Exclusive for subscribers! Download Blogging Tips To Help You Blog

Copyright © 2010 Blog For Profit. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us so we can take legal action immediately.

Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Why Giving Stuff Away For Free Is More Profitable Than You Think

Blogging is about giving…and giving…and giving. So how is this good for business again?

There’s a problem with blogging. A few problems actually. Big problems. Let’s look at what they are. These are the three main objections I hear:

• Blogging takes too much time.
• Blogging is too techy and difficult to maintain for an average business owner with no web marketing background.
• I don’t want to give away my best ideas for free (this is the big one).

You’re right to bring up these objections for blogging. There is a cost to running a business blog. It’s not free, and it does take some of your time. And yes, it will require you learn a few new things. But cost is not really the issue, is it? After all everything has a cost, doesn’t it? All marketing costs something.

Can we agree that blogging SHOULD require an investment, as all marketing does? If so, then let’s focus for a minute on what REALLY matters, shall we? Let’s look at whether blogging really provides a good return on investment. If it does not, and if I’m not able to show why it’s profitable for your business, then you shouldn’t do it. Pretty simple. If I can show you why it’s a good marketing tool and provides a good return on investment, can we agree that it would be kind of foolish to not get started? Is that fair?

So let’s hit it. I’ll address these three primary concerns, and we’ll see where it takes us. For reference, I did not just make these three concerns up. As I’ve begun to work with more and more small business owners on their web marketing, these concerns have crept to the top. There are many other peripheral objections to blogging, but they all seem to be offshoots of these three. If you have other concerns that are not addressed here, please leave them in the comments, and I’ll address them. I ain’t scared

Blogging Takes Too Much Time

To start, you can run a blog in just 10 minutes a day. Did you know that? It’s true. Yes, you can take more time than that. You can spend any amount of time you want, and as your blog becomes a more and more essential part of your business model, you will likely want to spend more time on it. But you’re not going to be running a world class blog right out of the gate. The first step is to just get started.

The fact is that blogging doesn’t take too much time, and with some coaching the chances are good you can learn to realize you’re probably ALREADY producing all the content you need for your blog just by running your business day by day. You’re just not putting that content to work for you.

Your blog is just a tool you learn how to use. It took time for you to learn how to operate a computer also, but you’re a lot quicker at it now than you were when you first started. Am I wrong? And where would your business be today without a computer? It’s become an essential part of your business, hasn’t it? Think of your blog similarly, and it will be a lot easier to see the role it really can play in your business.

Blogging Is Too Techy

Candidly, this objection is only uttered by those who have never done it. I’m not talking about installing and designing your blog. Pay someone a few bucks to do it for you. From there, if you’re comfortable using Microsoft Word or any other word processor, then you can write a blog. It really is very simple to write awesome-looking articles and publish them to your site.

I Don’t Want To Give Away My Best Ideas

This is the big one. Blogging is about sharing valuable information with your readers. If you’re not sharing information and ideas that are truly helpful, what reason do your readers have to keep coming back? Why would they tell their friends and spread the word for you? And without this kind of action, you’re blogging to no one, and no one wants to do that.

So in order to have a well-received and successful blog, you need to give your ideas away for free. How can this possibly be a good business model? How can giving stuff away for free be profitable? Why will anyone work with you or buy from you when you’re giving awesome stuff away at no cost?

Here’s the answer: Good ideas are helpful and inspiring. They establish credibility and build value. But they have no intrinsic value on their own. That’s why the best move is to give your best ideas away on your blog. No one is going to buy them anyway. After all, people don’t buy ideas. They buy products. They buy services. They buy systems and solutions. Ideas are often the building blocks and the inspiration behind great products and services, but they are not what people buy. Ideas are why people buy, not what they buy. Think about this carefully, because it’s really important. If you have this particular objection to blogging, it’s proof you need a blog. Here’s why…

The Role Of Great Ideas

By holding back your great ideas, you’re holding back something that no one is going to pay for anyway. You’re not allowing your ideas to work for you in the way they were meant to work. With a blog, you can publish your ideas and have them out there 24/7, inspiring and motivating your readers to take action. That is the real power of ideas. People don’t buy them, but they take action because of them.

And what action is it they’ll take? Will they take all your great ideas and knowledge you’ve shared with them and then go buy from someone who has given them nothing? If you’re blogging and helping your readers, inspiring them and taking care of them and your competition is not, you will be who the customer buys from every single time. That is the purpose of ideas. They are the evidence of value. They are not the essence of value.

In fact, learning the distinction between ideas and value is one of the most valuable things blogging will give your business. It puts you on the front line and forces you to learn what your customers and clients really value. The more you give, the more you get.

Conclusion

So ideas are the evidence of value, not the essence of value. And as such, shouldn’t you give your customers and clients as much evidence as possible that you actually have real value to offer them? If you don’t, why should they buy from you at all? Can you see that blogging is built specifically for this purpose?

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

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Beginner Blogger – Why Blog?

For many, the one question they ask often is “why should I do a blog in the first place?”  In all seriousness, before you start a blog, that is a question you have to ask.

Let me put to rest right now some of the information out there.

1. Blogging takes time. Yes it does.  If anyone is telling you that blogging does not take a good time commitment on your part, they are blowing smoke up your butt.  Sure, you can have a blog built.  Put up some canned content.  Post to your blog once or twice a month or even less and never do anything else with your blog.  Just like you can start out on a trip in your car, put gas in it once and never touch it. But what happens to your trip when your car runs out of gas.  You are going no where. The same will happen to your blog if you don’t put the time and effort into doing it and doing it right.
2. Blogging is easy. Yes it is. It is easy if that is all you have to do with your time during your day.  But, chances are you are running a business or a professional service firm and you don’t have the entire day to devote to blogging, let alone marketing.  However, you do have the time to make it as easy as you want. You do have time to spend some of your day marketing.  When we look at the time blogging takes and whether it is easy or not, you need to look at your day and pin point one or two activities you do during your day which are not giving you any return on your investment (ROI).  I will bet you dollars to donuts, there is something you are doing which you don’t need to be doing. and I will bet you, that time could be used for making blogging an easy activity for you to do during your day.
3. Blogging will get me results. It will if you take the time to do it right.  In other words, give blogging the commitment it requires.  Blogging for a business is only one aspect of a good marketing program.  And blogging will get results.  In fact, those businesses who have a blog get more leads and get more business.

Why should I blog?

The answer to that question is in the facts.

Keep in mind that a blog is simply a website that the blogger can add content to as often as they want.  And one little bit of factoid too many forget about all that content is this. Each and every one of those blog post you are doing are actually individual web pages with all of your information on them.  And each of the pages is one more opportunity for the search engines to find you and one more way for web users to find you.  The more pages you have online, the more pages you will have indexed by Google.  The more pages you have indexed by Google, the more leads you have the chance to generate.

The relationship between the number of pages you have indexed and the number of leads generated takes a drastic jump when a business has over 300 pages on their site.  Take a look at the graph below if you don’t believe me.

Growth in leads accelerates significantly once a site achieves several hundred pages indexed by Google (300+).

Isn’t it true that the purpose of any marketing program is to generate leads?  Isn’t it also true, the more leads you generate, the more sales you should also generate?  And, if you are generating a new web page each and every time you post to your blog, doesn’t it make sense that you should be blogging?

What can a blog do for my online marketing presence?

• Adding post/pages to your blog can be done easier and faster than you can do on a static website
• As a business, you can create your own unique, target specific content.  And you can add those keywords you need to be found too.
• Other bloggers will link to you in their own relevant post which will show Google you have authority in your particular niche or market.
• Posting to a blog on a regular, consistent basis gives visitors a reason to come back and interact with you and your business.
• Posting to a blog on a regular, consistent basis helps to build your position in your niche or market as the go to location for information your readers  can use to deal with problems and issues.
• Blogging gives you the tools you need to gain visitors to your site.
• Blogging gives you a way to gain readers of the information you have and which you are making available via your blog
• Blogging gives you and your customers and potential customers a way to communicate and connect
• Blogging gives you a way to build trust with the people who are visiting your blog and this in turn will help you grow your business.

But, aren’t there too many blogs already?

Easy answer to that one is this.  There is always room for another good one.  But, let’s look at some numbers.

As of June 30th, 2010, there were 6.8 billion people living on our little old planet known as earth.  Out of that 6.8 billion, there are 1.9 billion using the internet. Now tell me this, what percentage of that 1.9 billion internet users do you need to have a successful blog readership? Not a huge percentage, do you?  [Source]

But, there are already blogs in my particular niche or market.

Knee jerk answer coming.  SO!!!

If you were afraid of a little competition, would you have your own business in the first place?

Look at what Seth Godin had to say a while back about competition.

Two big pieces of news for you:

1. Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits the sale to be this or that, not yes or no. And this or that is a much easier sale to make. It also makes decisions about pricing easier, because you have someone to compare against and lean on.

2. There are six billion people in the world. Even if your market is hand-made spoke shaves for left-handed woodworkers, there are more people in your market than you can ever hope to track down.

And one more point about competition.  If you were to build a new fast food restaurant, where would you build it?  If you were smart, you would build it right next to a McDonalds.  In other words, competition is good.

Final thoughts

Ask yourself the question as to whether you should be blogging or not.  Take a good honest look at your own situation and you decide if you can give blogging the time commitment it does require.  And look at what blogging could do for you. Only you can decide if you should be blogging or not.

Leave you comments and let’s keep the conversation going.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

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Beginner Blogger – What is a blog?

How could we start a series of posts answering questions from Beginner Bloggers and not answer the one burning question so many of us have had.

What is a blog?

Blogging has been around now for a number of years. And I am still asked this question.  And I am still amazed, but shouldn’t be, this question is still being asked.  Before we dive into the other questions we will be tackling over the next month or so, we have to figure out what a blog is in the first place.

Here are some definitions of what a blog is

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis.  New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new.  They they comment on it or link to it or email you.  Or not. [Where we found this.]

A blog is a web site consisting of entries (also called posts) appearing in reverse chronological order with the most recent entry appearing frist.  Blogs typically include features such as comments and links to increase user interactivity.  Blogs are created using specific publishing software. [Where this came from.]

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects. [Source]

A blog (a blend of the term “web log”)is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. [Wikipedia]

When you look at blogs, they tend to have a few things in common:

• A main content area where you write your content.  The content is listed chronologically, newest at the top.  Usually, the posts are organized into categories and sometimes “tags.”
• Because you are posting to a blog on a regular basis, there will be an archive of the older  posts.  And this archive of older post can be accessed by your readers either from an archive link in the sidebar. Or by searching the blog with the blog’s search feature.
• There should be a way for your readers to leave comments on each and every post.  A way for the conversation to take place between the readers and for the readers and the blogger to continue the conversation.
• A list of links to other related sites or resources.
• One or more feeds or ways for the readers to subscribe to the blog via RSS.

Does all of this fit with what you thought a blog was?  Do you have your own definition of what a blog is?  Share your thoughts and leave a comment. Let’s keep the conversation going!!!

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

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Questions Beginner Bloggers Would Like to Ask

If you have been reading Blog For Profit for any length of time at all, you know I like to do a blog series from time to time.  And it has been a while since we have done one.  Yesterday, I did a post where I asked you to consider for a moment what your readers  are looking for from your blog.  Today, I am going to take that to the next level and tell you a bit about what I learned from that post and also from some research I have been doing.

Beginner Bloggers

I spend a lot of time talking to brand new bloggers.  Those conversations take place in the comments on this blog.  I also talk to a lot of beginner bloggers on twitter. And, we spend some time visiting with beginner bloggers as a result of our own premium WordPress Framework, Headway Themes.  What I found from all of those conversations was a common pattern.

Beginner Bloggers are looking for answers to questions many of us see as simple questions.  Elementary questions.  Questions and answers too many of us take for granted and usually ignore.  I have been blogging for going on 6 years and I will be the first to admit, I sometimes ignore these questions as I don’t want to take the time to answer them.  And what is worse, our own ignorance and willingness to listen, truly listen to these Beginner Bloggers has a awful side effect.  These Beginner Bloggers tell me they are usually too embarrassed to ask these basic blogging questions.  Those of us who have been blogging for what seems like a lifetime, are not giving them the answers they need.  And we are also failing to explain the answers in ordinary everyday language.

This new series is my way of spending the next 30 days to tackle some of these questions and provide the answers the Beginner Blogger has been looking for.

I need your help too!

If you are a Beginner Blogger or for that matter, any blogger who has some questions about blogging they want answers to, now is your chance.  I say this series will run for the next 30 days. But, I would be happy to run a series of post answering questions for the next month and a half.  Let’s push this out to at least October 1st and see where it leads us.

Just so you know, I have a long list of questions already which have been pushed my way.  But, don’t let that stop you. Ask, leave a comment with your burning questions.  Also, if you want send me a tweet at @GrantGriffiths with your questions.  Let’s see if we can get the conversation going there too.

I am really looking forward to doing this series where we answer those burning questions the Beginner Bloggers would like to ask.  And keep in mind you oldies out there.  Look at this from the position if you were a Beginner Blogger, what would be your pressing questions too.

UPDATE

We just added a form for all of you to use for asking your burning blogging questions.  Have fun!!!

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

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What are your readers looking for from your blog?

When you first started blogging did you ask yourself that question?  And for you beginner bloggers, are you asking that question now?  If you are not asking what your readers are looking for, how do you know what to give them?

Recently, I asked that question and here are some of the answers I saw.

1. Targeted information from my industry
2. The discussion we get in the comments after the post itself
3. The unique points of view from the blogger themselves
4. The unique information from the blogger we don’t see in other places
5. The direct interaction with the blogger
6. Behind the scenes look at what goes on in the life/work of the blogger
7. Relevant, value-rich content that improves my life, work and business
8. Fast tips

These are just some of the things your readers may be looking for.  As a blog reader yourself, what are you looking for in this blog and the other blogs you read?  Leave your comments and let’s keep this conversation going.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

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WordPress.com Drops an oldie but goodie…

I originally wrote what you see below as a comment to a post on WPTavern. However, I decided to post it on my own blog as a post because I want my own readers and our community to have the chance to read it.  As a prelude to this post let me state we did benefit from the spat between Matt and Chris over the GPL issue.  In fact, Matt did send some new users our way and even paid for their license.

However, what has transpired even after Headway went GPL and Thesis did too, causes me and others and others to be very concerned with the future of the WordPress platform.

The recent actions and actions and  comments and more comments, made by Matt and others associated with WordPress and Automattic should make everyone sit up and notice. And even more, it should cause the Community to wonder what the hell is going on.

In my own humble opinion, I question whether the best interest of the community is even coming into any decisions or discussions taking place right now by WordPress.

I also hope the writing is not on the wall when it comes to perhaps the “chosen one” theme or framework. Is WordPress and another company attempting to take the position there is only one theme or framework out there for WordPress. Surely, the utopia which is being strived for is not one where competition and innovation is squashed in favor of “the one chosen” theme or framework.

It would be fun to be part of those discussions which more likely than not, are taking place at some local Starbucks on some back street somewhere.

It is my hope and the hope of others this does not happen. The WordPress community will not be served by WordPress having a “one chosen” theme or framework. Competition by its very nature breeds innovation. It is competition that causes Headway, Thesis, iThemes, Press75 and others to continue to build and innovate. And this is what benefits the community.

As Seth Godin stated recently,

Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits the sale to be this or that, not yes or no. And this or that is a much easier sale to make. It also makes decisions about pricing easier, because you have someone to compare against and lean on.

The actions of WordPress and those in charge lately causes one to worry if the competitive market place will no longer be in existence at WordPress. It surely causes one to be concerned if the community as a whole will suffer because of it. I fear we may be seeing the idea of a utopia get in the way of the free market driven innovation that has benefited the WordPress community for so long.

I hope I am wrong and that I eat these words.

What would really be nice would be if all of this crap would stop.  And maybe then, those of us who only want to build the best possible solution for our own customers and community can get back to work and do just that.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

WordPress.com Drops an oldie but goodie…

I originally wrote what you see below as a comment to a post on WPTavern. However, I decided to post it on my own blog as a post because I want my own readers and our community to have the chance to read it.  As a prelude to this post let me state we did benefit from the spat between Matt and Chris over the GPL issue.  In fact, Matt did send some new users our way and even paid for their license.

However, what has transpired even after Headway went GPL and Thesis did too, causes me and others and others to be very concerned with the future of the WordPress platform.

The recent actions and actions and  comments and more comments, made by Matt and others associated with WordPress and Automattic should make everyone sit up and notice. And even more, it should cause the Community to wonder what the hell is going on.

In my own humble opinion, I question whether the best interest of the community is even coming into any decisions or discussions taking place right now by WordPress.

I also hope the writing is not on the wall when it comes to perhaps the “chosen one” theme or framework. Is WordPress and another company attempting to take the position there is only one theme or framework out there for WordPress. Surely, the utopia which is being strived for is not one where competition and innovation is squashed in favor of “the one chosen” theme or framework.

It would be fun to be part of those discussions which more likely than not, are taking place at some local Starbucks on some back street somewhere.

It is my hope and the hope of others this does not happen. The WordPress community will not be served by WordPress having a “one chosen” theme or framework. Competition by its very nature breeds innovation. It is competition that causes Headway, Thesis, iThemes, Press75 and others to continue to build and innovate. And this is what benefits the community.

As Seth Godin stated recently,

Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits the sale to be this or that, not yes or no. And this or that is a much easier sale to make. It also makes decisions about pricing easier, because you have someone to compare against and lean on.

The actions of WordPress and those in charge lately causes one to worry if the competitive market place will no longer be in existence at WordPress. It surely causes one to be concerned if the community as a whole will suffer because of it. I fear we may be seeing the idea of a utopia get in the way of the free market driven innovation that has benefited the WordPress community for so long.

I hope I am wrong and that I eat these words.

What would really be nice would be if all of this crap would stop.  And maybe then, those of us who only want to build the best possible solution for our own customers and community can get back to work and do just that.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

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PostRank Connect – New Service from PostRank

I am checking out the new feature of PostRank, PostRank Connect.  I will give a more detailed post as soon as I can.  

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

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Taking the Actions You Need to Reach Your Blogging Goals

Here are just 5 actions you can take to keep on track with your blogging goals:

1. Posting Frequency: Perhaps one of the most overlooked and most important actions bloggers need to do is to remember to post regularly to their blogs. If I had my wish, every business that is blogging, would post daily. However, I know this is not possible. You need to pick a weekly schedule which works for you. Whether that is daily or 2 to 3 times a week. The important thing to do is to pick a frequency of posting and stick to it. What you need to remember is your readers are going to come to expect some type of frequency. And once you establish this, you need to stick with it.

   If there is one area that might just affect your blogs success more than another, it just might be consistent posting. Set a schedule, stick to it and you will be well on your way to reaching those blogging goals.

2. Blog Design and Brand: Have you considered if your blog’s design and layout will help or hurt you as you strive to reach those blogging benchmarks you have set for yourself? This might just be the summer you need to get that new design done. Whether you decide to hire a firm to do this for you or you look at getting a new theme, take a step back and look at your blog. Even better yet, ask some of those individuals you trust to give you an opinion of your blog’s design and layout. Is it easy on the eye and easy to read? By getting a fresh set of eyes to look at your blog, you will get a clearer picture of whether you need to get that redesign ASAP.Additionally, is this a good time to not only get a new design, do you need to get a whole new brand. If a new design is in order, now is the best time to get a new, fresh brand. Get something unique to you and what you are trying to project to your target audience. Does the blog’s appearance match up to what you are trying to project with your business? If not, get it done and get it done before the end of February so you can hit the road running.

   If you are struggling with the whole process of hiring a designer, get Michael Martine’s great book, How to Start a Business Website and Hire a Web Designer.

3. F.L.E.E.: Ask yourself if you are doing those activities you need to be doing which will make your blog successful. Revisit our ongoing series on Building a Successful Blog. Re-evaluate whether you are following the F.L.E.E. process of blogging.
   • Find the conversations
   • Listen to the conversation
   • Engage in the conversation
   • Enpower or Eable your readers to get involved in the conversation too

   Make sure you are doing all of those activities and providing the means for your readers to do the same. The F.L.E.E. actions will help you get your blog noticed too, which is also important to your blog’s success.

4. Start a Newsletter: If you are not using an opt-in on your blog to build a mailing list, do it. And in the process, start a newsletter to provide additional information to your target audience. You need to make sure you are providing value to your readers. Value that will keep them coming back for more. Additionally, setting up and starting to collect a mailing list is a great way to build a list of people who know and follow you. A list you can even market to and best of all, they actually expect you to.  One of the best tools I have found for setting up and sending out an email newsletter is MailChimp. MailChimp is very cost effective and it works great.
5. Use Social Media: I started to use twitter roughly 6 months ago. And I can honestly say my traffic to this blog has more than doubled. In fact, twitter is now the top referrer of traffic, even before Google. Don’t overlook the effectiveness of social media tools like twitter. Twitter is certainly one of the tools you can use to grow your blog and get just one more step closer to meeting those blogging goals you have set. You should also be looking at the other social media tools like, FaceBook and LinkedIn. Neither of these take a huge amount of your time and you can even take advantage of the tools they offer to streamline your efforts. You can feed your blog post to both of them. Which will expand your sphere of influence even more. Not only that, you can set up a “group” or a specific page to promote your blog and your business. Social media is a powerful tool, use it.

These are just some of the actions you can take to make sure you blog reaches the goals you have set for it. If you have others you are using or know of others, please leave a comment with your suggestions. Lets keep the conversation going and lets all make sure we reach our blogging goals.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Taking the Actions You Need to Reach Your Blogging Goals

Here are just 5 actions you can take to keep on track with your blogging goals:

1. Posting Frequency: Perhaps one of the most overlooked and most important actions bloggers need to do is to remember to post regularly to their blogs. If I had my wish, every business that is blogging, would post daily. However, I know this is not possible. You need to pick a weekly schedule which works for you. Whether that is daily or 2 to 3 times a week. The important thing to do is to pick a frequency of posting and stick to it. What you need to remember is your readers are going to come to expect some type of frequency. And once you establish this, you need to stick with it.

   If there is one area that might just affect your blogs success more than another, it just might be consistent posting. Set a schedule, stick to it and you will be well on your way to reaching those blogging goals.

2. Blog Design and Brand: Have you considered if your blog’s design and layout will help or hurt you as you strive to reach those blogging benchmarks you have set for yourself? This might just be the summer you need to get that new design done. Whether you decide to hire a firm to do this for you or you look at getting a new theme, take a step back and look at your blog. Even better yet, ask some of those individuals you trust to give you an opinion of your blog’s design and layout. Is it easy on the eye and easy to read? By getting a fresh set of eyes to look at your blog, you will get a clearer picture of whether you need to get that redesign ASAP.Additionally, is this a good time to not only get a new design, do you need to get a whole new brand. If a new design is in order, now is the best time to get a new, fresh brand. Get something unique to you and what you are trying to project to your target audience. Does the blog’s appearance match up to what you are trying to project with your business? If not, get it done and get it done before the end of February so you can hit the road running.

   If you are struggling with the whole process of hiring a designer, get Michael Martine’s great book, How to Start a Business Website and Hire a Web Designer.

3. F.L.E.E.: Ask yourself if you are doing those activities you need to be doing which will make your blog successful. Revisit our ongoing series on Building a Successful Blog. Re-evaluate whether you are following the F.L.E.E. process of blogging.
   • Find the conversations
   • Listen to the conversation
   • Engage in the conversation
   • Enpower or Eable your readers to get involved in the conversation too

   Make sure you are doing all of those activities and providing the means for your readers to do the same. The F.L.E.E. actions will help you get your blog noticed too, which is also important to your blog’s success.

4. Start a Newsletter: If you are not using an opt-in on your blog to build a mailing list, do it. And in the process, start a newsletter to provide additional information to your target audience. You need to make sure you are providing value to your readers. Value that will keep them coming back for more. Additionally, setting up and starting to collect a mailing list is a great way to build a list of people who know and follow you. A list you can even market to and best of all, they actually expect you to.  One of the best tools I have found for setting up and sending out an email newsletter is MailChimp. MailChimp is very cost effective and it works great.
5. Use Social Media: I started to use twitter roughly 6 months ago. And I can honestly say my traffic to this blog has more than doubled. In fact, twitter is now the top referrer of traffic, even before Google. Don’t overlook the effectiveness of social media tools like twitter. Twitter is certainly one of the tools you can use to grow your blog and get just one more step closer to meeting those blogging goals you have set. You should also be looking at the other social media tools like, FaceBook and LinkedIn. Neither of these take a huge amount of your time and you can even take advantage of the tools they offer to streamline your efforts. You can feed your blog post to both of them. Which will expand your sphere of influence even more. Not only that, you can set up a “group” or a specific page to promote your blog and your business. Social media is a powerful tool, use it.

These are just some of the actions you can take to make sure you blog reaches the goals you have set for it. If you have others you are using or know of others, please leave a comment with your suggestions. Lets keep the conversation going and lets all make sure we reach our blogging goals.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Give your blog exposure and get visitors and readers – Revisited

Building, launching and posting to your blog is not enough. You need to get your blog some exposure. You need to get your blog noticed. There are a number of way to do this. Some of them work better than others. However, you should not overlook any of them. I am going to list the ones I use the most, there are others. This list is not exhaustive and I welcome all of you to add the ones you are using in the comments to this post.

• Read and Comment on other blogs in your niche. Remember the conversation we keep talking about. You should engage in the conversation being offered on other blogs in your niche. Read those blogs to see what is being talked about there and than comment on at least 3 different blogs per day. But, when you do leave a comment, leave a comment that adds something to the conversation. Engage the blogger and the other commenters in the conversation. Why should you do this? Because on almost every blogging platform, when you leave a blog you also leave a link to your own blog. I know when I see someone has left a comment on one of my blogs and there is a link to their blog, I will visit it. I may like what I see and will continue to visit and/or subscribe to the blog. Once you start to engage in these conversations you will start to build a relationship with these other bloggers. Posting, conversation and relationships is what is so wonderful about using social networking or social media like blogging to promote and market your business or service firm.
• Link to other blogs in your blog post. If it fits with the post you are writing, you should include quotes to other blog post in your post. And when you do, link out to the blog and the post you are quoting. When someone links to my blog post, I always go and visit the post and the blog to see what their post is about and to see what the blog is about. And if I like it, chances are I am going to keep reading it and eventually link to them too. In addition to this, I will leave a comment on that blog and join in the conversation taking place on the post which linked to me. By linking out you get noticed and you get exposure. And it doesn’t hurt your SEO either.
• Guest post on other blogs in your niche. Most bloggers welcome guest bloggers. A guest blogger relieves them from having to think of a post topic and from posting. I have done guest post and I have welcomed guest bloggers myself. Guest posting on other blogs exposes you to a new set of readers. You have the opportunity to show your “stuff” to a whole new audience most of the time. When you do guest blog, give them your best stuff. Write some of your best stuff for the guest post and you will get exposed. Usually when you do a guest post, the blogger you are posting for will include a very brief “about you” sentence or two and a link to your own blog. And if you have the opportunity to guest post on a blog that gets more traffic than you do, even the better. However, don’t strive to only guest post on the “A-listers”. Building a relationship with blogs which have similar stats as your own can provide you the opportunity to grow an audience together.
• Join forums and email listservs in your niche. Follow the conversations taking place on forums and listservs and participate in the conversations. Provide help, hints and tips and you will get noticed. And since most forums allow you to put at least one URL in your signature, chances are your blog will get noticed too. And when you participate in an email listserv, make sure you have a short email signature with at least your name and URL in it. You will get noticed and you will get visitors to your blog. But keep one thing in mind. Just as you should do when you comment on other blogs, you should only comment on a forum or listserv when you have something relevant to add to the conversation.
• Use social networking tools like twitter and post your new blog post in twitter with a link to the post. But don’t just do that. Twitter is one of the best social networking tools for joining in on conversations. It gives you the opportunity to really interact with other “thought leaders” in your niche and other areas of interest. By participating in the conversations you will get noticed and your blog will get noticed too. Don’t overlook the usefulness of a tool like twitter.

These are only a few of the methods you can use to get your blog exposure and in turn visitors and readers. What are some of the ways you have used to get your blog exposure?  Leave your comments and let’s keep the conversation going.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Give your blog exposure and get visitors and readers – Revisited

Building, launching and posting to your blog is not enough. You need to get your blog some exposure. You need to get your blog noticed. There are a number of way to do this. Some of them work better than others. However, you should not overlook any of them. I am going to list the ones I use the most, there are others. This list is not exhaustive and I welcome all of you to add the ones you are using in the comments to this post.

• Read and Comment on other blogs in your niche. Remember the conversation we keep talking about. You should engage in the conversation being offered on other blogs in your niche. Read those blogs to see what is being talked about there and than comment on at least 3 different blogs per day. But, when you do leave a comment, leave a comment that adds something to the conversation. Engage the blogger and the other commenters in the conversation. Why should you do this? Because on almost every blogging platform, when you leave a blog you also leave a link to your own blog. I know when I see someone has left a comment on one of my blogs and there is a link to their blog, I will visit it. I may like what I see and will continue to visit and/or subscribe to the blog. Once you start to engage in these conversations you will start to build a relationship with these other bloggers. Posting, conversation and relationships is what is so wonderful about using social networking or social media like blogging to promote and market your business or service firm.
• Link to other blogs in your blog post. If it fits with the post you are writing, you should include quotes to other blog post in your post. And when you do, link out to the blog and the post you are quoting. When someone links to my blog post, I always go and visit the post and the blog to see what their post is about and to see what the blog is about. And if I like it, chances are I am going to keep reading it and eventually link to them too. In addition to this, I will leave a comment on that blog and join in the conversation taking place on the post which linked to me. By linking out you get noticed and you get exposure. And it doesn’t hurt your SEO either.
• Guest post on other blogs in your niche. Most bloggers welcome guest bloggers. A guest blogger relieves them from having to think of a post topic and from posting. I have done guest post and I have welcomed guest bloggers myself. Guest posting on other blogs exposes you to a new set of readers. You have the opportunity to show your “stuff” to a whole new audience most of the time. When you do guest blog, give them your best stuff. Write some of your best stuff for the guest post and you will get exposed. Usually when you do a guest post, the blogger you are posting for will include a very brief “about you” sentence or two and a link to your own blog. And if you have the opportunity to guest post on a blog that gets more traffic than you do, even the better. However, don’t strive to only guest post on the “A-listers”. Building a relationship with blogs which have similar stats as your own can provide you the opportunity to grow an audience together.
• Join forums and email listservs in your niche. Follow the conversations taking place on forums and listservs and participate in the conversations. Provide help, hints and tips and you will get noticed. And since most forums allow you to put at least one URL in your signature, chances are your blog will get noticed too. And when you participate in an email listserv, make sure you have a short email signature with at least your name and URL in it. You will get noticed and you will get visitors to your blog. But keep one thing in mind. Just as you should do when you comment on other blogs, you should only comment on a forum or listserv when you have something relevant to add to the conversation.
• Use social networking tools like twitter and post your new blog post in twitter with a link to the post. But don’t just do that. Twitter is one of the best social networking tools for joining in on conversations. It gives you the opportunity to really interact with other “thought leaders” in your niche and other areas of interest. By participating in the conversations you will get noticed and your blog will get noticed too. Don’t overlook the usefulness of a tool like twitter.

These are only a few of the methods you can use to get your blog exposure and in turn visitors and readers. What are some of the ways you have used to get your blog exposure?  Leave your comments and let’s keep the conversation going.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

You Don’t Have Time Not to Blog

I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard someone say that. “I don’t have time to blog…” Quite frankly, if you think blogging is a fit for your business or professional service firm, you don’t have time not to blog.

Do you have time to do marketing? Do you have time to increase your business and your bottom line? If you are serious about your marketing program, you will find the time. Besides, if you are not spending that time blogging, chances are you are going to be spending the time you could be blogging on something else. You need to ask if the other activity you are engaging in is as productive and beneficial for your business or firm as blogging could be.

I am not going to sugar coat it or mislead you at all. Blogging takes a commitment and it takes time. If you are serious about having a blog and doing it right, it is going to take a solid commitment from you.

So, do you have the time to blog?

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

You Don’t Have Time Not to Blog

I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard someone say that. “I don’t have time to blog…” Quite frankly, if you think blogging is a fit for your business or professional service firm, you don’t have time not to blog.

Do you have time to do marketing? Do you have time to increase your business and your bottom line? If you are serious about your marketing program, you will find the time. Besides, if you are not spending that time blogging, chances are you are going to be spending the time you could be blogging on something else. You need to ask if the other activity you are engaging in is as productive and beneficial for your business or firm as blogging could be.

I am not going to sugar coat it or mislead you at all. Blogging takes a commitment and it takes time. If you are serious about having a blog and doing it right, it is going to take a solid commitment from you.

So, do you have the time to blog?

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Not Getting Noticed – What You Should Not Be Doing – Revisted

I spend a lot of time talking to new and “used” bloggers on a daily basis.  One frustration I get from a lot of them is the fact they feel they are not getting noticed.  At least their blog is not getting noticed.  The questions I get can be summed up by the six we have listed below.

• Why am I not getting a good Pagerank
• Why am I not getting traffic
• Why am I not getting incoming links
• Why am I not showing up high in search results
• Why am I not getting comments
• Why am I not getting noticed

Some of the reason you are not getting those things may have to do with your SEO. However, what we are going to discuss here is not going to be the under the hood type of SEO steps you should be taking. What we are going to discuss is some of those things you can do by just posting correctly which will help. The under the hood SEO help is going to be coming soon however.

Why aren’t you?

One of the biggest mistakes new bloggers and even some not so new bloggers make is they are not posting the right stuff. Lets face it, you are doing things you should not be doing. Do I dare say it? You are doing it wrong! Granted, you are well ahead of most of your competitors in the fact you are at least blogging. You have a web presence. But you are not taking full advantage of it. You are not writing the right kind of post and you are not using the right kind of titles either.

The biggest mistake I see many doing is simple regurgitating news items on their blogs. While I would be the first to admit, it is okay to do a few post from time to time about hot news topics in your niche. However, it is not okay to only post hot news topics in your niche. Quite frankly, I can go to the news sites and get that.

For example, if you are a lawyer and your blog is about personal injury, don’t tell me about an accident in every one of the post. Give me something of substance.

• Tell me about some of the new developments in the law.
• Tell me about how I can better work with my lawyer to make the case go smoother.
• Tell me what the steps are in how a case works from start to finish.

These are the type of questions people are searching for answers to. And if you are giving them those answers, you are going to get those “why am I not” taken care of. If you will take this example and apply it to you own niche, market and/or industry, you will see what I am talking about.

Give Them What They Want

People are starving for information and that is why so many of them are using the Internet to find it. Don’t just be another “news” source and regurgitate the news like mainstream media. Give your visitors something more. Whether you own a business that sells broom sticks or you own a professional service firm, your potential customers or clients are looking for answers to questions and problems. And the best way to get noticed and to get all those “numbers” you think you should be getting is to answer them. You know what questions they are because you hear them every single day. Take those questions and write your blog post. I would almost bet you that you have enough of these basic questions in your own mind you would have blog post ideas from here to the middle of next year. Start keeping a list and start writing the answers.

These type of “give me the answer” blog post don’t have to be long. And they darn sure don’t have to be complicated. Write to your audience. Don’t write over them and don’t you dare write down to them. Write to them.

Give them answers not the news and you will see good things happen to your blog and to your return on your investment in your blog.

We cover a lot of the how-to’s in Start Blogging Today.  You can check out what all of the lessons are by visiting the Member’s Area where we list out all of the lessons.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Inserting a Link in a Blog Post – Revisited

When you are reading blog post or others are diong the same, it can be frustrating for the reader when there is not a link to the other blog you are mentioning. Readers like to follow the links and check out the information you are writing about in more detail. They can’t do that if you don’t provide a link for them to do so. All you have to do to provide a link is to follow the simple steps below.

Its good blogging practice to link to (1) another blog if you mention that blog; (2) the post you might be talking about on another blog. Another key reason to link to other blogs you are mentioning on your own blog is to make that blogger aware of it. They will get a Pingback from your post telling them you have linked to them. This may cause that blogger to visit your blog to see what is being said about them or their blog. This is a key way to build a relationship with other bloggers and get noticed. Getting noticed will help increase your own traffric.

Start in the Write Post Window

You will start inside the “write post” window for inserting a link in a blog post as this is where you will do all of your post drafting.

URL You Want to Link To

 

Copy the URL of the post you want to link to

Insert in your Blog Post

 

1. Highlight text you want linked to the post; 2. Click on the Insert/Edit Link button; 3. Paste Post URL into the Link URL field. 4. Set the target, new window or new tab.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Client questions should become blog posts – Revisted

In any type of business, whether it be a business which sells products or a service business, you get questions every day from clients and customers. And if you publish a blog to promote or market your business you should be taking advantage of all those questions. When I first started my blog, one way I was able to move up in the search engines so fast and so high was to take those questions and make a post out of them.

What I soon discovered was those questions I was getting every day either on the phone or in person from clients and prospective clients were some of the same search terms people were typing into Google and Yahoo. And, what I also found, they were basic questions. Questions which made great blog post and were easy to answer.

Of course I never used names or anything that might identify someone in the blog post. And when the post would go up, I did notice my hits and placement improve in the search engines.

Everyday you are getting questions and/or comments from clients, customers and prospects. If you are not taking those and making them into blog post you are really missing out on a great opportunity. Not only is it great post content, it shows you are connected to what is going on in your niche. Using those questions and/or comments also gets you involved in the conversation taking place in your niche or market.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]

Hitting the road for a much needed break

We will be out of the office officially for the next week or so as we go on a much needed break.  The entire family is heading down to Tampa Bay, Florida where our our oldest son and his wife live.  This will be the first time in over a year we have all been in one place at one time.  And both Tina and I are looking forward to spending some time with our four sons and two of their wives.  Oh, and if I have not told you, we will be grandparents come January too.  WOW, do I feel old.

During the time we are out, I will of course have my MacBook Pro with me and will be keeping up on emails (unofficially) and even twitter.  And, just so BFP doesn’t feel left out, I will be posting some previous posts as “revisited” topics too.  I am going to be putting up some long forgotten post from the last couple of years, with some modifications of course.  These post are going to be hitting on some of the topics and questions I have been getting over the last few weeks.

Make sure you jump in and leave your comments on the post so we can all learn from each other.  Also, and you know what I am going to say.  Leave your comments so we can keep the conversation going.

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Published by: Grant Griffiths

Popularity: 2% [?]