You Have Your Blog, Now What?
Introduction

So you have taken the plunge and you’ve got a blog of your own! Either you set it up yourself or you hired someone to do it for you. You’re convinced that blogging is going to bring you new customers, make you look like an expert, and generate lots of sales. You may even have an idea or two for what you might possibly blog about. You Have Your Blog, Now What?

But getting a blog set up and posting on it isn’t the half of it. First of all, you need to deal with the fact that blogging isn’t just a one-shot deal. Adding a post every once in a while won’t get you the results you’re hoping for.

For blogging to really pay off, you have to do it over and over again, several times a week, at least for as long as you expect to get those results. It’s more like brushing your teeth than painting the house.

And there’s more. While it’s true that blogging can be one of the best marketing moves you could make to grow your business and your brand, it’s also true that you have to do it right.

But don’t worry. Even though there are a number of things you have to do correctly, it’s not rocket science. I’ll show you exactly what you need to do to blog “right.” You’re convinced that blogging is going to bring you new customers, make you look like an expert, and generate lots of sales. You may even have an idea or two for what you might possibly blog about. You Have Your Blog, Now What? Read on!

Writing for your readers

You have your blog – write for your readers.

When online entrepreneurs talk about blogging, they usually think about all the ways it can help them. They wax nostalgic about traffic, sales, and their soon-to-be-achieved “expert status.”

But what they often forget is that to gain traffic, revenue, and attention, you need to provide something your audience wants. If you’re focused on your business and what blogging can do for YOU, you’re going to alienate your readers and come off as a self-absorbed jerk, to put it mildly.

Here are the top five mistakes that bloggers make and how to avoid them:

1. Thinking “What do I want to write?” vs. “What does my audience want to read?” It’s okay to include a few personal details or stories every so often. But keep in mind that your target market doesn’t care too much about your new car or your kitten’s celiac disease – unless it has a direct bearing on their life or the niche you’re writing about. If your website is about natural health cures for pets, then include the gory details of Fluffy’s gastrointestinal distress. Otherwise, focus on your readers’ biggest worries and problems and how you can solve them. Save the chit-chat for your therapist or your spouse.
2. Taking “informal” too far. One of the biggest mistakes many bloggers make is to get carried away in their efforts to be informal, with the result that they appear downright unprofessional. By their very nature, blogs tend to be casual, based on conversation and interaction. Just don’t get sloppy. Be sure to check spelling and grammar, and capitalize words where. Think about it… Would you trust a brain surgeon who can’t be bothered to capitalize and punctuate properly?
3. Becoming undependable. You don’t have to blog daily if you don’t want to, though you do have to blog consistently. If you blog fifteen times one week and then disappear for a month or two, you’ll appear flaky and disorganized. Instead, use the scheduling function on your blogging platform to set up a regular posting routine. If you want to sit down just once a month to write, that’s fine. But be sure to set up your posts so they appear on a regular schedule.
4. Ignoring the interactive element of blogging. Blogs should be dialogues. You throw out the conversational ball, and your readers catch it and toss it back in the form of comments, e-mails, and even responses on their own blogs. If you write but don’t listen or respond, you’ll seem distant and unapproachable. It’s important that you care what your customers and readers have to say, or at least appear that way.
5. Making your blog read like a press release. Customers love blogs because they believe they’re getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse at your business. If everything you post reads like a corporate press release, no one is going to stick around. After all, they might as well read your annual report.

This doesn’t mean you need to air your dirty laundry in public, but you do need to give the occasional “behind the curtain” scoop. Share what you’re working on, the challenges you’re facing and how you’re overcoming them, and details about your process.

Occasionally, you might even want to ask for advice on how to solve a minor business problem. Asking people to provide input helps them feel like part of the team and increases brand loyalty.

As you can see, these aren’t difficult concepts to grasp. You don’t have to write Pulitzer-winning prose or answer complex “meaning of life” questions. Instead, just be yourself – your best self! – and keep your readers’ interests in mind.

Finding topics

You have your blog – what happens with the topics?

Many business people resist starting a blog in the first place because they have no idea what they can write about every week for the rest of their life.

While the idea of blogging into eternity may seem a little daunting, it shouldn’t be. Assuming your business is in a niche you enjoy, you should never face a dearth of topics to write about.

Have you ever met a football lover who ran out of things to say about their favourite team? Or a golfer who didn’t enjoy rehashing each hole of the last 18 holes they played?

What about a shoe-lover who can wax poetic over the finer points of stilettos vs. platforms? Or an opera lover who’d love nothing better than to hear about your trip to watch Les Mis in Paris?

The point is, if you are excited about a topic – and you are open to discussion and dialogue – the possibilities for interesting posts are endless. All the same, there will be times when your writing well runs dry.

That’s why I recommend you create a list of ideas so you always have prompts to give you a good start.

You have your blog – find your topics. Here are just a handful of places to find ideas:

• On other blogs. Follow the leaders in your industry to see what they’re talking about. You can provide your own perspective on the latest topics, or you can predict what’s happening next. For instance, if everyone’s talking about the challenges of outsourcing overseas, you could create a post about the legal considerations of outsourcing to freelancers abroad, or a post about cheap places to outsource domestically.
• On forums. Reading industry forums can give you the fly-on-the-wall view of what people are struggling with, wondering about, and doing in your industry. Even if you don’t actively participate, you can “eavesdrop” on what people are discussing and create blog posts that answer questions or add new insights.
• In the news. Some of the best blog posts are those where you take a current event and talk about how it impacts your particular niche. For instance, if it’s time for the Olympics and you have a photography blog, you could talk about the best lenses and techniques for capturing action shots. A marketing blog could talk about the ways the Olympic committee is marketing the Games, and a fashion blog could talk about how the Olympic games impact fashion.
• From the past. A great place to find post ideas is to go back in time. For instance, a recipe site could include blog posts on old-time cooking, or on what a typical diet might have looked like in different points in time, or on recipes we’re still using today that haven’t changed much in the past hundred years.

The overall theme is to take the lens of your niche and use it to look at the world around you. Your job as a blogger is to interpret the world for the rest of the market, letting them know what’s important, interesting, and noteworthy.

If you look at every newspaper article, every book you read, even every TV show you watch and ask yourself, “How does this impact my market?” you’ll have a good start.

Every Post Has a Point

You have your blog – how to choose your topic.

Choosing a good topic is only the first step in creating a fantastic, bookmark-worthy blog post. After you’ve selected a subject – or maybe even beforehand – decide on the main point of your post.

Each post on your blog should have one point. Whether it’s to encourage readers to sign up for your email list, urge them to leave a comment, or encourage visitors to buy something, each and every post should have a specific point and a call to action.

Here are some common points that blog posts could have:

To encourage subscriptions. If you write what Darren Rowse of Problogger.net calls a “pillar post,” you may impress your readers so much that they’re longing for more. At the bottom of these posts, include a sign-up box for your email list so you can capture traffic while they’re still wowed by your brilliance.

To sell something. Whether it’s your own products or someone else’s, blog posts can make people more receptive to buying something. Product reviews, case studies, and new product announcements can help you sell a product or service. Just be sure to skip the hard sell.

To engage your readers. Sometimes, you may want to reinforce that sense of community. To get your readers to respond, you could ask questions, invite discussion, or actually suggest that readers respond in the comments section or on their own blogs.

To encourage viral marketing. If you want your posts to go viral, you need to create valuable, evergreen content that others will want to save and pass on to friends, or even tweet to their followers on Twitter. These types of posts, called “pillar content,” make up the backbone of your blog. While they may not be directly monetized, they encourage readers to return again and again, and to recommend your site to their colleagues and friends.

You have your blog! Of course there are other reasons for blogging, so if you have a reason that’s not listed above, not to worry. The key is to have a reason, and to know that reason before you even start writing. Then and only then does that post belong on your blog.

Happy Headlines

You have your blog -what are your headlines?

You’ve heard it before: People DO judge books by their covers, and they also judge blog posts by their headlines. If your headline isn’t entertaining or compelling, your potential readers won’t expect anything different from the rest of your blog post, and so they may not bother to read it.

Yet writing great headlines can be a challenge. After all, you need to include your keyword phrase for search engine optimization purposes. But as long as you keep your focus on your readers, you’ll find that there is a great deal of crossover between what your readers want and what the search engines want. After all, the search engines want to deliver the best results to their users.

Here are some tips for writing effective blog post headlines:

• Start with the point of your post. Each post needs to have a single call to action, and a single point. Choosing a headline that supports this point will help make sure the rest of your post stays on topic.
• Put the keyword first. Search engines give higher priority to the words at the beginning of the title. So if you are writing about parsley’s health benefits, instead of writing “Twelve Powerful Health Benefits of Parsley,” rephrase it to be, “Parsley: Twelve Powerful Health Benefits.”
• Keep it short. Common wisdom is that Google will only display up to 66 characters in a title and will crop the rest. That’s yet another reason to put your most important words up front.
• Make it interesting. The best titles are a bit mysterious or clever. Just don’t sacrifice clarity for the sake of cleverness! You’re much better off going with a straightforward title than being so obtuse that someone scanning titles on Google has no idea what your post is going to be about.
• Make a promise… and deliver. Tell people what you’re going to tell them, and then spend the rest of your post delivering on that promise.

Here are some great headlines I’ve seen lately:

• How to Blog Like Bond. James Bond. (copyblogger.com.) While this post won’t pull a lot of search engine traffic (I don’t think anyone’s searching for “How to Blog Like Bond!”), it would be very appealing to the blog’s regular readers.
• Free Blog Content: Embed YouTube Videos in your WordPress Blog Posts (nicoleonthenet.com). You can see right off the bat what Nicole’s trying to rank for – Free Blog Content. Yet the title is also compelling for browsers and regular readers.
• Advil’s Lawsuit Waiting to Happen (sugarrae.com). I use Advil. I want to know what about Advil might give rise to a lawsuit. Don’t you? In fact, I bet you’re going to go try to find this post after you’re done reading this report.
• 7 Ways To Make Damn Sure Your Email Gets Read (ittybiz.com). Maybe not totally search engine optimized, it’s still compelling enough to pull a ton of readers.

You have your blog! Headline writing – like much of internet marketing – is a balancing act. You must balance clarity with interest, and cleverness with SEO. Just do your best and stay true to your style.

You Have Your Blog, Now What?

For today’s post we covered writing for your readers, finding topics, making your posts have a point and happy headlines.

For more information on how to write your blog, read our next post on the topic “Standing Out With Your Blog In a Crowded Room”.

You will want to read this post as it gives here more answers to You Have Your Blog, Now What?