Archive for the Blogging Category

Timing blog posts and Tweets to reach your readers and followers

By on November 3, 2011


I have been going through the reports that I get on CrowdBooster. It shows how many followers I have and how many mentions and retweets. I can see how my followers react to my messages, what sort of interaction there is.

One thing that I am now testing is scheduled Tweets. CrowdBooster recommends the best time to send out Tweets. This is to ensure that they get the best exposure to my followers.

This got me thinking about timing not just for Tweets but for blog posts as well. Up to now I have been using Tweet Old Post plugin for WordPress, not exactly timed as such as it has set times between updates, not set times of the day. I also use the schedule facility in WordPress to set the times new posts become available. But they don’t appear on my Twitter timeline straight away as I use TwitterFeed which has a time delay of about 2 hours.

The best time of day to post new blog entries depends on your audience. Where are they based? When do they check their emails, Twitter and RSS feeds?

Knowing the right time to schedule blog posts and Tweets means you can catch your followers and readers at an optimal time. Meaning you are more likely to be read and not get lost in the background noise.

 

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Unsure that a blog for your business will have impact?

By on November 1, 2011


I can understand that a business may think a blog has limited appeal to their clients. Should you give it a go? Worried about a blog for your business won’t return the money invested?

Then why not test it out?

In my own opinion, WordPress is one of the best blogging platforms out there. So if you are uncertain then why not try it out for free? WordPress.com allows you to create a blog that you don’t have to worry about hosting details, they host it for you.

If and when you want to expand your blog, it is much easier to export your content and load it in to your very own blog with your own hosting.

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6 top tips for when you run out of blog post ideas

By on October 28, 2011


After you have been blogging awhile, it can get difficult to keep thinking of new things to write about. The harder you try to think of something just makes it seem less likely you will come up with an idea.

Don’t worry if that happens to you, all bloggers go through it. It’s happened to me more than once. But I have a small trick I use to help me through. If you feel you are loosing your blogging mojo then this may well help…

Take a look at your existing posts, read the titles of each one and remember what you wrote. Read them if you can’t remember what they were about. Then try the following and see if it helps…

Extend a post

Is there a post that you wrote but seemed a bit brief? Can you write further about the subject or topic.

Break down a post further

Did you write a post with lots of subjects and ideas? Take one and write a blog post just about that. Refine the idea and take it a bit further.

Update a post with a follow up

Did you write about an upcoming event, a product release or review? What happened at the event? Is the product still available and if you are still using the review product, how has it been?

Using comments

Is there a really interesting comment that deserves expanding in to a blog post?

Take two posts

Do you have two posts on a similar theme? Join them, edit the result and update where needed.

Still getting stuck?

Talk to someone in your industry or an existing client. Phone them, Skype them or meet them in a bar. Find out what they like or find frustrating.

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Be a better blogger with the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition

By on October 18, 2011


The Ferengi are quite possibly the best at business in the known Universe. What makes them so good is their Rules of Acquisition. The ultimate set of rules which they live by and conduct business – most of the time. However, not every knows that those same rules can also apply to blogging, some of the rules anyway.

We can skip a few (such as number 31 – Never make fun of a Ferengi’s mother and number 286 - When Morn leaves, it’s all over) and head on to those most relevant…

Rule number 9 – Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.

Blogging creates opportunities. It’s amazing the people you connect with and I have connected with some amazing people. They are the ones who will expose the opportunities in front of you.

Instinct for me, is recognising when opportunites arise. Not everyone has it but it can be improved on. Read lots, connect with people, reach out when you need help. You can learn to improve but you must be willing to.

Rule 62 - The riskier the road, the greater the profit.

Don’t be scared to stick your neck out about something. However don’t be controversial with out a good reason. While every one is writing about something and being mediocre about it, say something different. Say it like you see it.

Rule 64 - Knowledge equals profit

This should be obvious, be the expert. Show them all that you know exactly what you know, be the leader in your field!

Rule 203 - New customers are like razor-toothed gree-worms. They can be succulent, but sometimes they bite back.

You blog about your products and services and you have loads of positive comments. Then there is the one where they complain bitterly about your business. Going to approve it? Do it, this is an opportunity. Nothing says more about your business then how you deal bad situations. Respond to that bad comment and make things better. Show that you care about your clients and customers.

Rule 208 - Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer.

Ask your blog readers a question but don’t answer it for them. This way you can encourage interaction, comments etc. But the tough questions you might not want to ask, such as ‘What do you think of the products and services’, should be asked. Get feed back and make sure you are on the right track.

The unwritten rule - When no appropriate rule applies, make one up

So what rules do you blog by? Have you created your own that you follow?Does it make you a better blogger? Do you have rules in life? Do they make you a better person? Follow your own rules to be a better person and blogger but remember – be just like a Ferengi, adapt the rules to each situation.

This entry is filed under Blogging and tagged , , , .

Case studies, a great way to demonstrate how you solve problems

By on September 19, 2011


Whether you sell products or provide services, you supply solutions to problems. Plumbers fix broken pipes. Electricians sort out your wiring. I am sure you know what I mean.

So you write on your business blog that you fix problems and provide solutions. How can you convince future clients you really know what you are doing? How can you sell your expertise?

Show them with a case study

Case studies can show future clients how you sorted out a situation, beginning to end. A customer came to you seeking help and with your involvement the problem was fixed. Doesn’t matter if it was your advice or technical knowledge or a product you had. You brought about a successful resolution.

Wikipedia has a page all about case studies from a more technical view point. ‘Made by Many’ website has a posting about a case study regarding Amnesty International, Case study: Amnesty UK ‘Campaigning with Social Media’.

How to approach a case study.

You need to have the cooperation of the client you help that forms the case study itself. You can think of this as a super-duper testimonial but the main topic of conversation is you or your business.

Make sure the client is happy to have his problems discussed. Not everyone will want it out in the open. If you are a web developer helping a business sell more with a blog and Facebook then they will most likely be cooperative.

Keep notes and documentation of what you did. Which services did you supply and which products were used. How did they help?

Cover the main points of how you were involved but we are not writing a book here. Keep it succinct and to the point but avoid sounding boring. Readers want to know what you did but not the nitty-gritty. A few more tips can be found on Top tips to write a persuasive case study By Debbie Weil.

What the case study is really for

As I said at the top, you want to show how your expertise solves problems. You are demonstrating your knowledge by using a real life example. The case study should show that the client had a need that you could satisfy.

You can almost consider it as a piece of marketing. But instead of the usual ‘buy this’ message you are actually showing the product or your services in action.

As a page on your website, the case study will reassure visitors and help turn them in to clients. Give it a static page on your blog and feature it in the site menu. Or perhaps (or as well as) a brief description and a link to the page in one of the sites side bars.

 

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Blog post ideas: the odd list

By on September 12, 2011


You will find ‘list-type-posts’ very popular on blogs because they are easy to do, can be informative and catch the readers eye. The way to make a ‘list post’ popular is to make the title a great big hook. For instance…

3 reasons why lagging your boiler will save you money

5 great tips for an easier life

7 ways to save time and money

Appealing to peoples wallets is always a great way to entice readers. So is time saving, doing things better or getting better results from small changes. But there is also another thing, all the numbers above are odd numbers. The human brain is weird, odd numbers in titles are much more attractive than even ones.

So how can you make use of a ‘list post’?

Choose a product that you sell, what 3 things does it do that could improve someones life? You provide a service, list out the advantages of what you do over traditional methods that aren’t as effective.

As good as these kinds of posts are, don’t do that too often or your readers will loose interest in them.

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Did you make it yourself? WordPress for business blogs

By on September 10, 2011


WordPress is easy to use but to many, hard to get the right look and design. Yes there are thousands of templates you can use, free ones and paid-for ones. Yes you can change the colours, add a header image and tweak bits and pieces. Yes you can get a site that gets near the image you have in your head.

For me the real power is understanding the templates and themes. I have experience in coding HTML and CSS and actually do enjoy messing with the themes directly. What can’t be done within the WordPress framework can be done with style sheets and some editing. But I have been creating sites and learning HTML, CSS and programming for a good many years.

So how far do you go? Have you installed WordPress and experimented or have you gone further?

When you add a blog to an existing site, it needs to match the look and feel of the original. Header images ought to be the same, background colours should match and really look as though it is an extension and not a clumsy addon.

If the blog is the site then you want something that will match the image you want to portray. Themes can get you there but in the long term you need something unique.

Leave a comment below, did you create your own WordPress blog or did you use someone else?

This entry is filed under Blogging and tagged , , , . | 1 Comment

Why you should have a testimonial page on your business blog

By on August 9, 2011


You know when you have been out shopping for something and you see what you think is the ideal item but you are not sure to get it, do you mention it to friends?

Often when you are not sure you speak to friends or perhaps you look it up on the Internet just to get another view. They may tell you they saw it too and bought it and loved it.

You effectively have taken some ones testimonial in to account. So why not make this work for your business blog?

Contact previous and current clients and customers. Ask them to write a testimonial, just a paragraph or two. Ask them if you can mention their web address and use their name or perhaps business name. This helps to add authenticity.

Once you have created a testimonial page on your blog, make sure it’s visible to everyone. If a visitor is not sure whether they should buy from you, reading the testimonial page should be enough to push them in to being a customer.

Check out Nikki Pilkington’s testimonial page to see what I mean

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Why you should write in French (you could be missing something)

By on August 4, 2011


I was reading through a post from Problogger,5 Crucial Questions to Ask Before Deciding to Blog in Another Language, which discusses the idea of writing in another language and the derived benefits.

If you are already good with the French language and dealing French people then consider writing your business blog in both English and French. This is more than just getting your site translated but actually writing posts in French.

Having your website translated is good but what ever language it is in, it will rarely change. So why not engage in a area you may not have considered to attract new customers?

Point 5 from the Problogger article seems very relevant here…

5. Are you in a niche where you can leverage the fact that you speak English?

If the answer is yes, than it could be a very lucrative idea to start a blog in another language!

Let me explain.

If you are blogging in a niche where there is a huge time gap in knowledge between the English-speaking market and your other language, you have a real advantage: you can learn everything in English before everyone else, and then look like a hero by teaching it in another language and be the first one to do it.

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9 very useful things to do with your blogs RSS feed

By on August 2, 2011


An RSS feed is specially formatted data that can be read by a program, it is not designed for humans. An RSS feed for a blog contains post titles, images and either a summary of the text or all of the text for a blog post. It can be read by RSS feed readers but there is a lot more that you can do with it.

Use it to update your Facebook business page

One easy way to keep your Facebook page updated is with your RSS feed. Check out the many apps that can take your feed and post it direct. I have used Social RSS and Involver RSS App. Easy to setup and keeps your Facebook page looking busy with posts from your blog.

Update Twitter and save time

Two great services you can use to update Twitter with your blog posts are TwitterFeed and Feedburner. Create an account, add your RSS feed and away you go. The benefits of the these services are…

  • Twitterfeed: Each update to twitter includes the post title and a shortened link to the blog post. That is tracked and you can find out how many clicks there have been for each one.
  • Feedburner: Not only will it update Twitter with post title etc, but also you can create emails alerts for each new post. If a reader subscribers to them, each time you publish a post they will get an email linking to it, all from your RSS feed.

Send updates to LinkedIn

I really don’t spend enough time on LinkedIn. It’s a wonderful way to network with businesses and professionals. If you are lacking time too,  head over to your profile and select edit. Look for the section for adding ‘apps’ and select RSS (keep an eye out for the WordPress logo). Add your feed address and check to make sure it’s found it. Here is my profile with my latest blog posts.

Keep Google informed with Site Maps

Login to Google Webmaster tools and if you have not done so already, add your site and get it verified. In the site map section, you can add your RSS feed along with site map files. Each time you publish a new post, Google will find it not only through it search systems but also through your RSS feed.

Have a friend with a blog?

If you know someone who blogs and it is in someway relevant to what you are doing then ask them to add your RSS feed. My theme allows me to add an RSS widget, I can specify an RSS feed address where it will take the information and display it on my blog’s sidebar.

Make use of your forum profile

Are you a member of a forum? Many have profiles that you can edit, add photo’s and even add your RSS feed. When a forum user takes a look at your profile they will also see your latest posts. It should take minutes to do and is another way of getting your work seen by others.

Use RSS to help with your SEO

Daily SEO tip has a good article,RSS SEO Course: Get Traffic and Index Your Backlinks with RSS feeds)  as the title suggests, use your RSS feed to get links back to your site. The article mentions the following RSS directories to submit your feed to…

Easily create newsletters

Hopefully you have signed up for my weekly newsletter, the summary of the weeks posts that I send out at the weekends. That is created with this sites RSS feed. You can do exactly the same by heading over to MailChimp and sign up for a free account.

Follow your own feed, check for errors!

I use a RSS feed reader anyway, I follow a lot of sites and read lots of interesting things. I have also added my own site so I can check for errors. If I can’t see an update then no one else can. Also, if the feed reader has troubles displaying the post or picks up a formatting error, I will know about it and can sort it out. I really don’t want to discover a problem weeks after it has happened.

What do you do with your feed?

If you have a suggestion or something to add to the list then please leave a comment. By the way, here is my RSS feed address – I know, shameless plug…

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