Editor | Blog Basics - Build a Blog with a Profitable Audience

Kenneth February 17, 2011

Writing a blog: A business like approach

Introduction Your business website is useful, probably essential, in today's world. It can provide potential clients and existing customers with contact details, descriptions of your products or services, maybe an online shop, support notes, specifications, technical notes and white papers. Now the real problem is how do you attract visitors to your site? And not just any old visitor - you need the type of visitor who is going to be interested in your product, wants to co-operate with your business, wants to supply your business or actually has cash and wants to buy from you. You can, and should promote your business website through your business literature: your business cards, advertising leaflets, letterheads and even invoices. You should also put a link to your business site at the bottom of every email your business sends out. If you've covered all of the above then you're working well. However, you still need to drive traffic to the website and then from the site to the business. There are four ways to do this: through public relations, probably through the print and trade press through advertising, Google Adwords, being a useful way to start and the third way through blogging social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter What is a blog Originally a blog was an online diary that displayed entries, called posts, in a reverse chronological order, so that the last post written is displayed on the home page. Today a post can combine text, Continue Reading

Kenneth February 16, 2011

12 ideas to promote your UK site for free

[ Introduction Question? I've recently launched my own company, I've had a website developed and I want to push as high up the search engines as possible, I've registered with as many online business directories as I can find, I've linked to it through Facebook, twitter and linked in. What else can I do to push its rating up and in turn generate more hits - for free? Her business was in nursing and social care recruitment. Off the top of my head can I suggest the following: Yell First I would recommend paying the little extra to get your website on Yell. (I know it's not free - but your business should be there). BT tradespace - a it cumbersome but it gives you a quality lead. Do a guest post. If there are relevant blogs in your niche then offer to do a guest post. Free article directories -write something reasonable and you should get both backlinks and visitors. One trick with this is then do a search about three months and then six months on your name and the articles you've written. Then track down the sites and if relevant offer to write a guest post for them. Google's Knol. Post your articles on Google's Knol - I don't know how it works but I get a steady stream of visitors from Knol - more than have read my actual articles on Knol. Free PR sites. When you launch your website or make any changes send a press release to the free PR sites Proper Business PR. Also build up an email list of the relevant national, business and local press and send them a PR Continue Reading

Kenneth February 15, 2011

Blogger: Branding yourself

Overview: In my previous post, Branding the blogger, I demonstrated that the personality of the blogger is very important to the success of the blog. This article describes how to build your personality, your brand, into your blog. I feel sorry for royalty I've just seen the excellent film, 'The King's Speech'. It shows the story of how George VI, (that's 6th to you), overcame a serious stammer. The poor guy who was destined to play only a minor role in royal circles suddenly gets thrust into the limelight as the major player, the King. In the film the king develops techniques to overcome his stutter. The most important techniques being to pause before difficult words. This made him appear thoughtful and concerned, (which he probably was), as he made an important radio broadcast, (there was no TV then), in the build up to the Second World War. In those days royalty could control what appeared in the newspapers and by remained a little aloof and minimising public appearance he was a well respected leader. The current ruler, Queen Elizabeth, has managed to remain aloof and is well respected though her husband, Prince Philip, is a potential media disaster. Not today. The press are not so obedient and with twenty four hour news and dozens of tabloids the royals have a lot less control over what appears in the press. Prince Charles, (who will be crowned king when his mother dies), does not keep a low profile and as a result has lost a lot of respect, (see Continue Reading

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Kenneth February 14, 2011

Branding the blogger

Overview: This is the first tutorial in the series, ‘Self Branding’ the others in the series will appear late February and March. This tutorial, ‘Branding the blogger’, will help you understand that the personality of the blogger is as important as design and the actual content itself. The aim of this series is to help you become aware of your current public image and then develop a number of techniques to build your image, both on a personal basis and on the Internet. Introduction Every business needs to be concerned with the image it presents to its customers, suppliers, the press and the world in general. Business stationery, advertising, websites and even the look of invoices sent out affect the image - the brand - of the business. In this current ‘wired’ world image is very important to you as an individual. Your Internet profile and your business profile will affect how your career develops, how you get promoted, get a new job and is essential if you plan to work as a consultant, freelancer or start your own business. As a blogger your personal image, or brand, is as important as the image, or brand, of your blog. In other words you need to become aware of your own image and develop yourself as a brand, which you inject into your blog. Your personal brand is a crucial part of your blog Why does someone read your blog rather than an other? There are numerous blogs covering the same subject area. In most cases there are two reasons why a person Continue Reading

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Kenneth February 13, 2011

Twitter: Only twits don’t tweet

Not a Twitter user Introduction As you progress in your blogging career you will evolve from being just a content writer to becoming a web journalist. One of the most revolutionary tools in your armoury is that lovely package Twitter, as it provides you with instant access to information and a unique way of communicating with important people. I recently had to explain the use of Twitter to a group of small business people who were all very negative. I realise I had to demonstrate the benefits the system before they’d believe me. I was lucky as in my demonstration I managed to find a useful potential supplier's link for one businessman. During the coffee break he managed to phone up and get an appointment the next. After that they were all hooked. The the benefits of Twitter to a blogger are: you can follow the action In your niche'is world: PR announcements, new product releases and gossip spread like wildfire Twitter world. you can do research Query a topic, person or business and those tweeting about the subject will probably be useful. Many Tweets will provide useful links to websites. you need to understand the use of the # symbol For example protest in the UK against government cuts are labelled #ukuncut. To follow this lead I was provided with instant information on various protests. I note that #ukuncut was actually used to organise flash protests at a number of shops. Two way Twitter conversations I get the impression that this is often the Continue Reading

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Kenneth February 10, 2011

Blog Writing: Taking issue with blogging

There are five types of new blogger those who know what they want to write those that are writing to promote their business those that are writing to promote a cause or raise an issue. those that want to write a blog, but don’t know what to write and people like me who like to write, but are unfocused. Issue Blogs In political circles blogging is now very important as a few bloggers have a lot of influence leading politicians, on issues, on getting matters raised in national press and in organising large and small campaigns. Bloggers can be very active on international, national and local issues. Blogs are also very active in that they raise issues that are not published in newspapers. Leaks, rumours, the highlighting of shady practice and, unfortunately, smears are frequently announced on Twitter and then backed up by blogging posts. The blog is a useful tool on all sides of the political debate. As an example the political blogger and rumour mill, Guido Fawkes, it's one of the UK's leading sources of dubious information about politicians. Resignations, scandals, leaked documents and opinion are often reported directly to this blog rather than directly to the newspapers. A whistle blower knows that sending information to this site is a more effective, and quicker, way of getting information out on something it directly to a newspaper, where it will have to be checked before publication. The different roles of an issue blogger There are a number of different Continue Reading

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Kenneth February 7, 2011

Success 300 visitors for Blog Basics

Today, 7th January, and it is notyet even midnight, the Blog Basics site has, according to the plugin, Jetpack's Stats has hit the figure of over 300 visitors today. I cannot work out where the big jump from a normal 120 or 130 visitors to this high number have come from. My previous highest has been 262. This jump is a surprise as although I'm in the process of revamping Blog Basics this work has been mostly behind the scenes. I'm working on: writing a number of linked tutorials, which I plan to upload in the next few days I am working with a designer to redesign the site. There's a technical problem with the new theme which is holding things back a little I am also working with a friend to restructure the way that the posts are linked. Let's see what we can achieve by the end of the year. Continue Reading

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Kenneth February 6, 2011

Starting Blogging: Having a plan

Introduction When starting a blog there are two main types of people. Those that just jump in and just write and those think a little, plan a little before setting up their blog. this article considers those that want to do a little planning. There's another post for those that just want to jump in and start writing. Things to consider before starting to blog I advise anyone starting to blog to consider where the blog's going to be in 6 month's time, one year's time and five year's time. Are you going to write for a long stretch of time? Are you happy writing for these long periods of time? Will you be happy writing your posts - once a day, three times a week, once a week or just when the feeling takes you over these periods. Who is going to read your blog? Who is going to read your blog? Just friends and family, peo4ple with a particular interest, say the same music, interested in the same gadgets, follow the same football team, go to the same church, collect the same stuff as you or hate the same set, or all, politicians etc. Do you want people to just read, comment, interact, argue, do something specific, join your club, go to your organisation's events, buy something or vote a certain way. What are going to write about? Your life, your interests, your business, your services, your club, politics, news, celebs, your favourite soap, great places to visit, gadgets, cars, health, software, photography, jokes and many more. You have to be sure that you are able Continue Reading

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Kenneth February 2, 2011

Be Inspired to Write by Free Articles Directories

Introduction Free article directories are a good place to do research and should inspire and encourage you to write good posts. take ideas and adapt them to your own writing style. Also being encouraged by the poor writing of some of the authors, who are more interested in trying to thrust their marketing messages down your throat. Free article directories Free article directories are, as their name suggests, large websites with a large number of articles that you can download and put on your site. The rules are that you cannot change the article and that you must keep the links at the bottom of the article, which are used to promote the author, or the author's business. Mostly the writers placing their work on a free article directory fall into three main categories: those who like to write and see their work online, similar in some ways to bloggers; there are others who want to see an idea on the web; however, the vast majority of writers are promoting something or another and using the directory to build links to their website, (as a blogger you should be doing this. I will be writing about this later this month). Using the free directory for research Look through any free article directory and you will see thousands and thousands of articles. These directories can be, should be, a great source of inspiration for any blogger. Click on the directory's search system and put in your search. Usually, you will find hundreds of articles on the topic that you have chosen. Now Continue Reading

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Kenneth January 28, 2011

Blogging: A blog post is a long as a piece of string

Introduction A question that is often asked what is the ideal length of a blog post. Should I write long posts to attract thoughtful readers or short posts that are easily scanned? What type of post is best to get properly indexed by search engines? There is a simple answer - which is? There isn't a correct answer. Look at the Successful Bloggers Long posts If you type into Google the following search: 'How to make money with a blog', you will find the three prominent blogs, Problogger, Daily Blog Tips and Steve Pavlina among the top ten answers. So they're doing something right. Steve Pavlina writes extremely long posts, usually over 1,000 words and quite frequently over 5,000. The site built up traffic by the number of long tailed searches, ie searches with unusual combinations of words – which are more likely to be found in a long article, which has more words and therefore more combinations of words. His articles are also linked to by numerous other bloggers to the mass of articles and the couple of million words of text on his blog. He makes little effort to promote his site and his blog demonstrates the power of the attraction of good content to build a very successful blog and online business. Medium Sized Posts The majority of leading blogs, such as Problogger and Daily Blogging Tips tend to offer useful medium sized posts. Their big secret is that their posts are produced regularly and their large number of posts cover all aspects of their Continue Reading

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