Having a Difficult Time Writing a Blog?

One of the most common challenges my clients express is “blogging to help build their business“. Search engines, such as Google, have made it abundantly clear, websites without in-demand, good quality content simply won’t rank as well in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

Additionally, web visitors won’t become engaged if there’s nothing going on! Without question, maintaining your blog is one of the pillars to building online business success!

For those new to this… Writing a blog is the act of submitting content for the Internet, in a sense, like a journal (“business journal”).

So… What are the tips?

Below are the most common points I advise clients when they begin using online initiatives to help build their business.

Use a self-hosted installation of WordPress. This makes it very easy to publish whatever you write – Anytime, anywhere! This will help you improve your website, because you can edit posts on-the-fly, add content, images, video, audio, and so on. It helps improve search engine visibility (as well as contribute to increased interest when visitors read, view, and listen to your content).

Comment on other’s blogs so that you can produce more interest for your own as well. Providing insight and relevant comments helps broadcast your expertise.

One strategy I use (on my mobile device) is a free app called “Aggregator”. It’s much more than just a newsreader. It ensures I don’t miss any posts from the blogs I follow (and lots – millions actually, use these types of applications to stay “tuned into a blog”. (What I’m saying between the lines… Make sure your website has an RSS feed). I don’t need to spend excessive time following up and trying to find the latest posts – They are all neatly listed – and delivered – right to my screen. What’s even better, the latest posts are sent directly to me as they are published. Naturally, this helps instantly locate posts of interest, and also those that can be commented on. (Blogging is a multi-way communication stream). So… With that app (one of many such type apps) we can read through favorite blogs, visit posts we’re immediately interested in; discuss/comment on them frequently. Make sure your comments have worth but don’t be reluctant to voice an opinion in case you have something to state, that’s based upon interpretation.

Whenever you set up your website, it may be smart to get your own domain name rather than utilizing a totally free web site (you want control over your own website and content, it’s not the best approach to hand that over to someone else). Buying your own website is surprisingly inexpensive (for smaller websites) and makes your website appear a lot more professional. One of the leading WordPress themes (for some years) is Divi from Elegant themes (this is something you can check out in your research). Including your business’s “label” or some other memorable tagline in your name will make it easier to remember. The shorter the domain name, the easier it is to remember.

Try to be genuine. Don’t try to win over readers with how much you understand or know. Don’t forcefully argue a point (even when you know you are right).

Rather, quality and visibility are key. Do that always. Maintaining a blog demonstrates you and your business personality. Don’t spend time becoming a perfectionist. See this as a function in improvement. Mistakes are “human” and when you make them, blogging about it further demonstrates your integrity, sincerity, placing both you and your business in a positive light. Understand that it’s your recognized challenges and offerings, which frequently cause you to be unique.

Your posts should be succinct. Providing your readers with plenty of specifics is important, just keep in mind publishing too many lengthy posts can result in visitors losing interest. Change things up, short posts, long posts, podcasts, and video! Your niche readers want to get important information from you, they are not so worried about the number of words in your posts, etc.

Ask other people who own popular websites to contribute guest posts on your website. You will (over time) raise the interest for your blog with the addition of top quality content. You may receive traffic from your other blogger’s website, particularly if they notify their audience (of their guest posts on your own blog). Try to grow a group of guest post creators on your own blog. Naturally, be sure to try and reciprocate, providing help to the other blogs (those guest posters may own).

Consider welcoming guests to post content material on your website. Doing so can help you boost partnerships working with these people. Don’t ever ignore the strength of marketing. Additionally, guest writing blog posts helps build website link relationships for both websites –  They publish on your blog, and you on theirs.

Additionally, you’ll both have quality, original content from an SEO viewpoint, as well as a backlink for your particular niche.

Build your blog subscriber mailing list. Start this as soon as possible. This is one topic I cover in-depth in my ebook “Email List Management Secrets” (it’s a free publication).
In general, this provides you a great benefit because you are able to get your message directly in front of your subscriber’s eyes (I’d argue the majority of us check our email several times daily). By far this is a very effective, direct communication with your audience. It enables you to provide them with CTAs (Calls to Action), that benefit both you and your readers. As subscribers (opt-ins) increase, your blog engagement increases!

Persistence and time are critical to growing a following. Visitors do not “magically” stumble upon your blog overnight – It will take time, dedication, and promotion to build your initial audience. As alluded to earlier, content is the primary factor to grow visitor traffic; and you should consider it takes some time to publish a broad range of content, that attracts a larger, growing, number of readers. The more work you put into it, the more rewards you’ll reap. Think of the Pareto principle which suggests the 80/20 rule: “…for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes…”

Before launching (or relaunching) your blog, look for a subject to write about that is meaningful to your target audience – This is called “the Niche”. Trying to reach out and appeal to everyone, won’t work. To be effective (and grow), you need to pitch to your specific niche (because that’s what interests them!) – You are going to grow far better and with a lot more organic engagement, when you talk about subjects that appeal to your niche audience. This helps build stronger exposure to your potential customers (audience), and that is what will assist in the enhanced growth of your blog (and business).

Choose key phrases related to your website/business. These words will be less competitive in search engines, such as Google, than common (overused, saturated, common) keywords and phrases. To paraphrase… Not the actual keywords, rather words related to them. If you are concentrating on common key phrases, it is extremely difficult to compete with others. The more unique you can be, the more viewers will visit your blog. For example, if I were a house painter, I would not depend on using the keywords “house painter” (which is saturated), rather I’d maybe look to use related keywords such as “environmentally safe paint” or the words “how much house painting cost interior”.

It’s essential to the growth of your blog (and the audience that will grow with it) that you keep to a regular, consistent posting schedule.

When we aren’t constantly posting new articles, etc., readers will look elsewhere. When possible, and as soon as you can manage to do so… Every single day should see you posting new content.

Use bullet points when possible! Doing this will help make your articles much easier for search engine listings as well as your readers to absorb, and definitely will give your visitors a lift. This one approach can perform miracles for blog growth.

Place your keywords in strong bold print. This can be helpful to search engine indexers, but more importantly to your readers – They will value it, as they do their initial quick scan through your post (to decide if they want to read it). Also, it’s very helpful, to have those keywords, link to other (related and relevant) blog posts you’ve published.

Before using your blog as a business promotion tool, you have to determine precisely what you want to get from it. Take into account whether you are creating content in order to discuss your knowledge, advertise your expertise, etc. – Naturally, in a business scenario, your primary objective is usually to generate income, grow your business, and so on. You may have multiple objective for your website – And that’s okay! It’s essential that you understand what your goals are and what your targeted niche audience/market is, only then, move forward.

Be branding specific with regards to the type font, colors, image sizes, logo, page layout (among other aspects). Your content has to be legible to your niche audience, which for any business, is also your potential customer base. A caveat about fonts… More web surfing etc. is now completed on mobile devices than on desktop PCs – Your font size must maintain a balance, neither too small nor too large, for the greatest final results. Why mention this last point about fonts? Make SURE your blog is built for mobile FIRST (as that’s the dominant platform, readers use).

It really is possible to build your business through blogging. If you want to attract a larger following of visitors to your website, you should ensure you post new content on a regular basis. Consider my above suggestions, and you’ll be on how you can have your own growth-oriented blog.

To your success!