When I started this blog, I had a fairly good understanding of SEO. 

But building and promoting a blog has given me a much more hands on understanding of what works and what doesn’t work.

Here is a list of things I now focus on with my blog:

1) GREAT Content (for my site & others)
2) Basic SEO Stuff
3) Incoming Links
4) Knowing my Numbers
5) Keeping Inspired (not giving up)!

GREAT Content

What is GREAT content?

To me great content is content that people are:

• Looking for (i.e. searching for in Google) and
• Find really helpful when they get to it

I found that I liked to explain how to market stuff in my posts and those have tended to rank the highest in the search engines. Those are also the posts people email me about the most often.

In order to write great content I had to:

a) Be learning myself and
b) Do some keyword research about how people are searching for in Google

I think this is the cornerstone for blogging SEO. If you don’t have great content, people will not find or come back to your blog.

Basic SEO Stuff

Here are the basic SEO things I do:

• Choose URLs that are search engine friendly like “.com/seo-and-blogging”. Wordpress makes this easy.
• Use keywords in my title, my heading tags, and content. I don’t go crazy here. It’s got to be readable, but I try to use the “key” phrase in the title, the heading tags, and in the content.
• Name my images. Rather than naming the image for this post “image.png”, I name it “SEO-and-blogging.png”.

If you are a Wordpress user I’d suggest you also read this post on SEO for Wordpress Blogs. I found it full of Wordpress specific to dos.

Incoming Links

The more people that link to your site, the more important Google believes your site is.

Here are 3 tactics I used for growing my incoming links:

• Offered to write for other blogs in my niche
• Wrote some really in-depth blog posts that I believed people would link to (called linkbait at times)
• Reviewed other websites, blogs, and tools in my space and linked to them (and in turn they were more willing to link to me)

Knowing My Numbers

I’ve watched a few numbers over the past year to chart my progress.

Here’s what I watch:

• Monthly visitors (from zero to ~ 5k monthly visitors)
• Incoming links (grown from zero to 244)
• Keywords (which keywords do I rank for?)

Keeping Inspired

There are two times when I felt like giving up my blog efforts:

About 4-5 months after launch I hit a wall. Not a lot of visitors. Felt like I was doing a lot of work for nothing.

It wasn’t till month 5 or 6 that I really started to see a big spike in visitors. I just had to keep writing and promoting.  Well around month 6 traffic started to really take off and some of my posts started to get lots of attention. Through research, trial, and error I figured out what kind of things people were searching for.

In Summary

So those are some “keys’ to SEO and blogging. Hope that helps!

Photo credit: Bramus

If you want to rank in search engines, drive traffic to a website, and/or find new customers, a blog can be a great asset.

I’ve been writing this blog for just over 1 year and it’s finally starting to take off.  Most of my new clients in the past 3 months have come from this blog.

But that’s not the best part. It’s what I’ve learned along the way.

Let me share 3 key ingredients to successful blogging:

• Work smart
• Work hard
• Don’t quit

Work Smart

You can’t just work hard when it comes to ranking high in Google.  If you don’t know what you are doing, you’ll get nowhere.

In my experience you can learn about blogging from one of three sources:

1. Reading…you can learn TONS by reading. Just type in “learn to blog” and you’re on your way. The downside to this approach for me has always been time. Who has that much time?
2. Job experience…jobs train you for all sorts of things. You may be in print advertising, but your company needs you to learn about blogging. So you get a great opportunity to learn something new.
3. Mentors…unfortunately most of us don’t have the time to read or are in the place for a “blogging” job experience. So I suggest you find a mentor.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount for two very different services: BlogSuccess and HubSpot.

Work Hard

Then again, it’s still really hard work. If you are going to create a blog, you’ll be working hard.

My advice is, if you can’t blog at a minimum weekly, don’t do it at all.

In addition to writing, you’ll need time to:

• Set up & maintain your blog
• Promote your blogs posts 
• Guest blogging to build links

Don’t Quit

There are no guarantees that your blog will be successful. Mine was definitely not at first.

Here is some inspiration. My traffic over the last 12 months:

 As long as you’re working hard and working smart, DON’T QUIT!

You’ve got to be patient so that you don’t give up before you succeed. I’d suggest you blog weekly for a minimum of six months before you think of giving up.

In Conclusion

IF you work smart, work hard, and don’t quit, you can create a blog that greatly benefits your business. Hope that helps!

Photo credit:  robertpogorzelski

I’ve been an online marketer nearly 15 years and yet until a year ago I knew very little about blogging. I decided to jump in with both feet.

Why Blog?

If your potential or current customers can be found online, you should consider blogging. Here are a few reasons.

With a blog you can:

• Find customers online without paying for the traffic
• Build trust with potential customers
• Reduce time fielding questions on sales calls
• Decrease support calls by answering common questions

If you’re convinced you need a blog, but have NO IDEA where to start, let me give you my thoughts. I think there are 3 approaches you could take.

Approach #1 – Do It All By Yourself

Perhaps you are the ultimate do it yourselfer and you’ve got no budget.

In this scenario you just sign up with TypePad or Blogger.com and in just a few minutes you can be blogging.

Pros – You’ll save money and can get started very quickly
Cons – You’ll make lots of mistakes and will have limited success
Upfront cost – $0
Ongoing cost – $0

I wouldn’t suggest this approach unless you have no budget and this is just a hobby or experiment.

Approach #2 – Build the Blog Yourself with a Mentor

Sometimes you need someone to run alongside you.  You still build the blog yourself, but find a guide. That’s the approach I took. 

This is a great way to go if you really want to understand how everything works. BlogSuccess was my mentor. 

Pros – You’ll save some money, learn a lot, and be much more likely to succeed
Cons – Will still set up the blog yourself & the technical side can be a bit daunting
Upfront cost – $150 (hosting, blog theme, etc)
Ongoing cost – $50/month (hosting, BlogSuccess subscription)

Approach #3 -  Use a Blogging System and a Mentor

This is perfect for the non technical person or company that wants to be supported by a full service system and set of best practices.  

You’ll still need to do the research, create the articles, and promote the blog, but you’ll have lots of help along the way.

 Pros – You bring your content and time, everything else is provided
Cons – Will be too costly for many
Upfront cost – $500
Ongoing cost – $500/month

I suggest HubSpot if you think this is the approach for you.

So there it is. Three different ways to approach starting a business blog.

Good luck!

Photo credit: Mrs Logic, mikebaird, lollyknit,