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Five reasons you should still blog on your own site

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Let’s face it, you have a lot of options if you are interested in blogging.

Your pearls of wisdom can be shared on Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, Facebook Articles, or dozens of other places around the web.

It’s good to get exposure for your writing, to speak to new audiences, and to become a thought leader in your subject area. However, there are certain advantages to blogging on your own home site or domain rather than an external social network. Your website is your castle.

1. SEO

It should be obvious, but building up a deep resource of well-written articles on your own domain will help you get found by the search engines. No trickery or keyword stuffing needed, just quality content that is valuable to your readers over a long period of time.

2. Collect Email Addresses

Social networks can be a fickle bunch. In January of this year, Medium fired a third of its staff amid a strategy shift. It appears they aren’t going away for now, but there are no guarantees when you’re not paying for use of the platform. Collecting subscriber emails gives you insurance against the vagaries of social media pivoting.

3. Control the Experience

On Facebook and LinkedIn, all published articles march out like little soldiers, exactly the same format and presentation. You can inject images and text formatting, but you certainly can’t differentiate the structure or branding. On your own site, you can make your blog stand out from the crowd with great design as well as great content.

4. Cross Promote

Did you just write an e-book? Are you speaking at an upcoming conference? On your own site, you can pop in an ad or image to promote whatever you want, in context. On a social network, you might instead have an ad for one of your competitors pop up beside your article.

5. It’s Not Either/Or, It’s And

I’m not proposing that everyone withdraw into their website cocoons. The strategy I endorse is website-first, then promote and share out to the social networks that make sense. You can even republish your entire article on LinkedIn or elsewhere, as long as you include a link back to your original post (to make sure Google knows where it originated). Be sure you tailor your posts a bit for each social network, so it fits in. Don’t forget to promote your blog posts on Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks that don’t support long-form content, as long as your potential audience is there too.

Where are you blogging right now? Do you have a castle that will endure?

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image: Johannes Plenio

Give Your Brand More Punch by Adding Blogging

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bar-621033_640Is your brand kind of stuck in a rut at the moment? If so, what plans do you have to change that moving forward?

For many business owners, their brands are not where they’d like them to be right now. In fact, some are in trouble of dipping into the red when it comes to their finances. If that happens, getting out of that mess can prove quite cumbersome.

That said what are you doing to give your brand more punch?

For some, this means more marketing and advertising initiatives. Others, meantime, will turn to their products and services to see if they need improvement.

No matter how you deliver more bang for your dollar, it is important that you. With all the competition you are facing, standing pat oftentimes is a recipe for disaster.

Look at Your Website

One of the first areas of attention when looking to give your brand more punch is turning to your website.

In reviewing it, go over the following areas:

  • Credible and relevant information – How informative is your website? Does it provide consumers with all the details they would want to know about your business? If the answer is no, this is one area that demands your attention. One way to give out more information is having a credible blog (see more below). If blogging has been non-existent with your brand up to now, change that detail moving ahead.
  • Ease of use – How easy would you say your website is to use for visitors? If they feel like they’re traipsing through a maze more times than not, they’re likely not coming back. Doing regular reviews of your website is not only a good idea, it is a necessity. By doing your best to find cracks in its armor, you will lessen the odds of visitors being one-and-done guests.
  • Proper contact information – Do you make it simple for your online visitors to contact you? Make sure your company contact info is in an easy area to find. By doing so, you won’t have consumers jumping through hoops trying to reach out to you.
  • Google ranking – Finally, do you know where your company’s website ranks in online searches? If not, you should get up to speed on this all-important ranking. A strong ranking helps bring more consumers when they search for the products you offer. It can be easy to work your way up the rankings with sound search engine optimization (SEO) practices.

Blogging Your Way to Success

In mentioning blogging a little earlier, it is important to keep in mind how big of a deal your blog is.

For instance, are you doing any guest blogging on other sites? What about having guest bloggers write for your site? By reviewing guest blogging prospects, you can open up a new world of brand opportunities.

While many stick to writing all their own material, it never hurts to allow guest bloggers. In fact having some different bloggers on your site helps in several ways.

First, you bring a different tone and style to the writing on your blog. Second, those guest writers could be some of the top experts in your particular industry. Third, they are more apt to share their posts they write for you with others. By using social media, they can open your business up to countless other B2C and B2B customers.

So, don’t be afraid to blog your way to success before you know it.

As a business owner, are you doing all you can to bring more punch to your brand?

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web

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4 Tips for Better Brand Marketing

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google-76517_640Are you more than a tad concerned about where your brand marketing efforts are headed (or not headed for that matter)?

In the event the answer is yes, what do you plan on doing?

For many business owners, it isn’t necessarily an issue of not attempting the right brand marketing initiatives, but more of a matter of being reluctant to do them in the first place.

That being the case, step back for a few minutes and look at how you’ve approached brand marketing up to this point. Are you simply not connecting with your target market, a market that undoubtedly is your key to making more revenue?

If you’ve been reluctant to move full-steam ahead, is that because of a lack of money, thinking that possibly brand marketing isn’t your strongest forte, or maybe even just not finding the right people to do the job?

It All Begins with SEO Plan

Before you can even begin to mount numerous effective brand marketing initiatives, you must make sure you have the right people in place to launch them.

With that being said, stop and look to see if the time has indeed come to reach out for assistance.

If so, that assistance might very well start and end by working with a San Diego SEO agency or one closer to home.

Keep in mind that search engine optimization (SEO) can do so many positive things for your business, things that you likely have been missing out on up to this point. In the event you do reach out to an SEO agency for help, how do you know which one is best suited to your needs?

Before just working with anyone, be sure you look for these qualities in an SEO partner:

  • Years of experience
  • Proven record of results
  • Open lines of communication
  • Pricing that is fair for the work in return
  • Honesty about how SEO really works

Once you’ve decided on an SEO partner, the next step is of course to improve your brand marketing initiatives.

Content is a Great Starting Point

So that your business can nail a number of key areas in the SEO brand marketing process, focus on these four for starters:

  1. Blog content

When was the last time you assessed your website’s blog? If it was recently, were you happy with what you came across?

For many business owners, their blogs unfortunately rank at or near the bottom of importance on their list of things to do. As a result, they miss out on a number of opportunities to connect with consumers.

In working on your blog, not only write content that is authoritative and informative, but that also connects with consumers. By doing so, the doors to increased revenue opportunities are certainly opened up.

  1. Drive off with better keywords

As part of that winning blog content strategy, it is imperative that you select winning keywords for your blogging content efforts.

One example would be for those in the auto selling business, specifically offering used cars for sale.

Sure, many used car dealers rely on TV commercials, newspaper ads; even word-of-mouth etc. in order to bring in business, but their websites shouldn’t be taken for granted.

With that in mind, your focus when writing content for this industry should include long-tail keywords, keywords that emphasize the auto industry and selling used vehicles.

Lastly, make sure you avoid any keyword stuffing, something that can send your Google search engine rankings into reverse sooner rather than later.

  1. Social media outreach

Just as lackluster efforts towards blog content can hurt your brand, the same holds true with mediocre social media outreach.

Given the fact millions of consumers are on various social networking sites at any point and time of the day, shouldn’t your brand be there too?

With the answer being of course so, make sure you are active on a number of social media sites, but with that activity, also be sure to make your time there count.

Along with posting links to your blog content and other relevant industry content (whatever line of business you are in), also take the time to engage consumers. Remember, the more engagement possible the better.

  1. Review your website regularly

Finally, do you take the time on a regular basis to review your website? If not, you could be hurting your brand more than you’ll ever know.

In reviewing your website; look for any and all glitches that could be hampering your efforts to make better inroads with consumers.

Such glitches can include:

  • Long downloading times
  • Pages that are broken
  • Hard to locate contact information
  • If you have an online store, difficulty for consumers in completing sales

Those are but some of the SEO website issues that could easily be curtailing you from better brand marketing, not to mention making more sales.

When it comes to better brand marketing, has the time come for you to invest some more time and energy in what you do?

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes for Organic Media Group on SEO and marketing topics.

Let Guest Posting Market Your Brand

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blogging-1168076_640Are you at a loss for words as to why your brand is struggling these days?

If so, the answer might be right in front of you.

For many business owners, their brands have trouble getting traction as a result of inefficient and/or ineffective marketing.

As a result, there is missed sales revenue, revenue that could very well be the difference between a solid month of sales and a lackadaisical one at best.

With that in mind, what should be you doing to give your brand a boost?

While there are a myriad of options available to you, some typically prove to be more successful than others.

One such option is guest posting.

Between guest posting on other blogs and allowing relevant and authoritative authors to provide your site with guest posts, you can oftentimes increase your site’s traffic before long.

Although there are several reasons you will likely see a spike in your website traffic, one is that your site could very well improve its search engine rankings, most notably with Google.

So, has the time come to let guest posting for your brand be the possible boost it has been missing up to this point and time?

Knowing Where to Start

In order to understand why guest posting matters to your brand, start by looking at some of your competitors and their websites.

Are they running guest posts on a regular basis and/or guest posting on other sites? If they are, what are some of the topics they are routinely covering? While there are a myriad of things to discuss, search for posts that will be most useful to your regular audience.

As an example, if you work in the real estate business, consumers would tend to want to know the following:

  • Current trends – What is happening in the market as of now for both buyers and sellers?
  • Future forecast – What are experts saying about the market’s pluses or minuses over the next six months to a year?
  • Home repairs – For someone looking to sell, how much time and money should they invest in repairs? Oftentimes, repairs done prior to listing the home can increase the value of the residence.

As you prepare to do guest posts, the above-mentioned topics are just a few of the many things you can discuss on other real estate and financial blogs. Likewise, encourage those looking to post on your site to hit some of those areas and more.

Lastly, no matter what industry you are in, guest blogging won’t be all that successful for you if you don’t engage your readers.

Although some comments may slip through the cracks on occasion, do your best to read all of the remarks you get from readers. If you feel there is the need for a response and/or to continue the discussion, by all means do.

Promoting Your Guest Posts

Finally, turning to social media to promote your blog posts is imperative, especially if you are new to the guest posting scene.

For the best results possible, use a variety of social networking sites, with Facebook and Twitter the top two. You can also opt for Instagram and Pinterest, though both of those platforms tend to be more focused on imagery.

Going back to Facebook and Twitter for a moment, be sure to do some cross-promoting, allowing both you and others in your industry (except for direct competitors in most cases) to benefit from helping one another out.

As with your guest posts, be sure to engage those on social media taking the time to comment about your efforts.

If you’ve been lackadaisical about using guest posting in the past to market your brand, start changing that mindset today.

As a business owner, how are you using guest posting to bring more awareness around to your brand?

Photo credit: Pixabay

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business and marketing topics on the web.

 

 

 

Establishing Your Blog as a Leader

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Computer ViewThere are many ways for your business to stand out from all the rest.

That being the case, what have you been doing to take your brand to the next level? Specifically, how is your blog entering into this conversation?

While some businesses drop the ball when it comes to their blogs, many others take the ball and run with it.

For your brand to be exposed in front of as many eyes as possible, your blog needs to be a top priority in your daily initiatives.

So, are you ready to establish your blog as a leader? If so, how will you go about that process?

Outside Help Can Make the Difference

In order for your business blog to really gain traction on the Internet, you need to remember these tips:

  • Authority – Put the onus on establishing authority when it comes to your blog. In doing so, you lend more credibility to your site, not to mention your brand as a whole. That authority can be improved dramatically when you have an outside guest posting service helping you with not only writing your blog content, but also marketing it. When you turn to those with the experience in guest posting, you take the pressure off you and/or your staff to come up with killer content day after day. That guest service can also handle the marketing and social media needs your blog so dutifully requires, again, removing a burden from your shoulders;
  • Resonate – Today’s consumers have myriad of online sites they can turn to for information, so why should they visit your site? Give them a reason, in fact; give them multiple reasons to pay attention to your site, notably your blog. Your goal should be to serve as the go-to site when consumers need information and/or are considering shopping. For example, if you run a home improvement business, your blog should be chock-full of details regarding the latest trends in home renovations, what the typical costs are for the common home improvement projects, what time of the year might be best to do them (especially when it comes to outside projects), and how to go about hiring the best help if you are unable to do the project on your own. When that kind of information resonates with consumers, you are likely going to be the beneficiary, landing more business as a result;
  • SEO – You can’t get too far these days as a business owner without knowing something about search engine optimization. With SEO in your corner, you can better your chances of improving your search engine rankings, notably on Google. Just as with the writing of your blog, you may be a little green when it comes to knowing all the intricacies of how best to use SEO. If so, that is where a consultant can provide much needed assistance. He or she can help guide you in improving your current search engine ranking. Remember, while you’re not likely to go out of business with a low search engine ranking, the higher it is, the more eyes will find your business when searching for your respective products and/or services. In hiring the right SEO mind, look for not only someone with a mound of experience, but also someone willing to put you first. If they’re just using you to cash your checks, move on. The right SEO consultant will not only be beneficial to your blog, but he or she can assist you with your social media needs and so much more.

Sure, your sales and advertising/marketing initiatives typically get top billing, so your blog may be a bridesmaid so to speak.

What you want to do if you haven’t already, turn that bridesmaid into a bride.

Give your blog the love and care it needs in order for it to reward you.

Those rewards will typically come in the form of more website traffic, oftentimes translated into more revenue when all is said and done.

If you have not established your blog as a leader up to this point, change course and do that sooner rather than later.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about business topics on the web.

Don’t Be Afraid of Technology

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Market.Given all that technology has to offer your brand, why would you in turn run away from it and try to hide?

Unfortunately, there are businesses out there that do just that.

For myriad of reasons, some companies see technology as too cumbersome, too expensive, too much to try and teach their employees. As a result, they miss out on all the great things technology can offer a brand.

That said has your business embraced technology as it should. If not, are you in fact afraid of all technology has to offer?

Consultants Can Make the Difference

For some of those businesses that are afraid of technology, what if they hired consultants to implement and manage such needs?

While some brands may shy away from using consultants, many other companies see much benefit in using men and women who have extensive experience in the world of technology.

With that being the case, how can your business put I.T. consultants to work for you?

Among the ways they can assist:

  1. General website production and upkeep – Your website should know no boundaries when it comes to promoting your brand. That said your website must always be maintained so that not only is it working as it should, but also giving visitors to the site what they need. You can opt for a provider such as Maryland I.T. services or others that are out there, searching for the one best suited to your needs and financial means. Don’t just automatically opt for the one offering the cheapest price. Then again, the most expensive one doesn’t automatically guarantee the best service. When you combine great experience with an affordable price, you typically hit the nail on the head. Speaking of upkeep a minute ago, your site’s I.T. pro or pros should review the website regularly, looking for any errors. Some of the typical gaffes can include 404 errors, pictures that do not match with the content, headline typos etc. While the occasional error may slip through from time to time, a website filled with errors is likely going to give many visitors the wrong opinion about your brand. If they feel like your site is nothing short of a joke, can you really expect them then to fully trust your products and/or services? Don’t let visitors be the ones to routinely find gaffes on your site;
  2. Blog content – Assuming your website offers a blog, that blog is some of your best marketing means available. With the right focus on the blog, you can write and/or include guest posts that revolve around your particular industry. The number one rule here regarding content is that it must be informative and authoritative for the reader, not trying to sell something every other sentence. The content should also have a call to action, thereby leading you to potential sales at each and every opportunity. Finally, the content should be shared (see more below) as often as possible, allowing you to get it in front of as many eyes as possible;
  3. Social promotions – If your website has been lax at promoting itself on social media, that needs to change immediately. Your presence on social networking sites can open so many different doors for your brand, so don’t hesitate to use it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc. are all great tools to give your brand the social exposure it truly needs. Make sure your site has its respective social media icons in an easy to locate area, allowing those wishing to an opportunity to follow you. Yes, some business owners will lament that they have trouble truly figuring out if social media provides a good return on investment (ROI), but the overwhelming evidence shows that it does.

These are but three of the ways I.T. consultants can educate business owners on improving their technology efforts.

If you have been only a so-so player in the world of technology, perhaps it was because you didn’t have the right consultant help available?

When you stop and think about it, technology is only going to get bigger and better in the years to come.

That said don’t be afraid of it and lose out on all sorts of potential business.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business and technology items on the web.