SRPI

Social media is all the rage right now. You see it in blog posts everywhere. You see Twitter feeds on news shows. In the last month my mother and several uncles joined Facebook! Simply put, social media is all over the place. But is it useful for the average business?

While not all businesses will use social media the same way, I am convinced that all businesses can make good use of social media. Here are 4 ways any business can benefit from using social media.

1- Get to Know Your Audience

About a year ago I went to Blog World Expo, and one of the points that really stuck with me from that conference is this: use social media to find your audience and then hang out with them. Social media is full of groups, fan pages, and other things that make it relatively easy to find an audience that is already interested in your topic or industry.

But with all of the different social media sites, how do you find out where your audience is hanging out? Here are a couple of resources you can use:

• Use search.twitter.com to see what people are talking about that relates to your topic/industry. See what they’re linking to and mentioning. This can lead you in the right direction.
• Get a Facebook account if you don’t have one already and look for relevant groups and fan pages. Watch for multiple groups/fan pages for the same topic, and also watch to see how engaged the members are.
• Forums are more old school, but they can be great for finding other sites that people are using to hang out. In the end it may be the forum itself is the hangout, or they may direct you to other places.

Once you’re confident that you’ve found the popular hangouts for your industry start engaging with your audience. For many businesses Twitter and Facebook are great places to start since they are so universal, but you’ll also want to look for the niche hangouts.

2- Managing Your Reputation

Social media is a great way to keep an eye on the conversations that are happening online and respond to them. In fact, many companies have employees dedicated to watching the online conversations about their company and addressing them.

Here are a few tools you can use to monitor your reputation online so you can take any appropriate action:

• Once again, you can use search.twitter.com to keep an eye on any conversations going on in the world of Twitter that relate to your brand.
• For general monitoring of sites, news, and blogs you can always set up Google Alerts for your brand and main keywords to see what is happening online.
• For monitoring blogs specifically, you can use Technorati or Google Blog Search. Both can help you monitor what bloggers are saying about your brand or industry.
• If you’re really serious about tracking your reputation you could get an account at Trackur. Their pricing isn’t bad and it can be a great solution for companies looking to check in on the conversations happening online in a quick and easy way.

Watching and managing your company’s reputation is one way that every company can and should use social media. If you notice negative conversations happening you can respond and put out any fires before they get out of control.

A great example of this is Comcast’s use of Twitter. They have turned their Twitter account into another extension of their customer service division. For some great stories about this just do a Google search for ‘Comcast twitter’.

3- Promotions

Promotion is nothing new to the internet, but it hits new levels with social media. If you push the right message through the right channels you can reach a lot of people.

The key here is that you have to already have a lot of connections, especially with people that are willing to push the information to their followers as well. Twitter’s Retweet (RT) feature is very useful for this. If someone finds a story, blog post, or promotion interesting, they can just pass it on by doing a simple Retweet.

To be successful in promoting things through social media you have to have a plan and connections. Just sending out a tweet to your 30 followers won’t cut it.

Here’s another great article about using Twitter for advertising: Is Twitter Really an Effective Internet Marketing Tool?

4- SEO and Traffic Benefits

Being that we’re an SEO company, I naturally have to talk about the SEO and traffic benefits of being involved in social media. Social media can be a great traffic generator. Admittedly, it doesn’t always generate the kind of traffic that will convert into a lot of sales but it does increase buzz, recognition, and authority for your site.

Social media is also a great way to have a lot of links built to your site. As a page is promoted on different networks people are going to be linking to it. These links will include tweets, bookmarks, and even blogs. All of these links can help improve the authority of your site and lead to higher rankings in the search results.

Putting it All Together

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, not all businesses will use social media the same. But the fact is that all businesses can take advantage of social media in one way or another. Here are a few places to start:

• If your site doesn’t have a blog, you should start one. Blogs are where you’ll generate the content to be promoted on the social media networks. It is also a great way to interact with your customers.
• Start a Twitter account. Having a Twitter account will give you a place to interact with your audience and also promote the articles from your blog and from other sources that you find interesting. You don’t want to be a Twitter spammer just pushing your own stuff. Show that you can be part of the community.
• Create a Facebook fan page. Facebook is one of the giants in the social media sphere, so you need to have a company presence there as another way to promote your content and interact with your audience.
• Set up profile pages on a few social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, and Delicious. This will give you a place to create links to your content. Make sure you also bookmark other content from your industry. Also make sure to create links back to your site in your profile.

There is always more that can be done, but these are four places to get started. For additional reading, here’s a great case study from Business.com on how they have been using social media: B2B Social Media - The Business.com Case Study.

Original post:
4 Ways Any Business Can Benefit From Social Media

Remember in grade school, when your teacher asked you to begin writing for two minutes; without stopping, and then forced you to pass this masterpiece over to a friend for editing? It was embarrassing and challenging as a young child to try something new and become an author in 2 minutes or less. Yeah, I believe that experience is to blame for why we fail at writing lengthy, descriptive, fun, colorful words today.

Designing a content generation strategy for your website is similar to this process. It begins with brainstorming through things to write about and then writing them out. If you’re doing it right, you’ve already completed your keyword research and your brainstorming session is focused around content centered on those keywords.

Once you’ve determined several great ideas to write about, you should organize them into sets of like information such as (vehicles, cars, trucks, recreational vehicles, motorcycles, etc.). This allows you to create taxonomy of information; the way scientists organize species of life. Remember this chart from middle school?

The purpose of this order system is to organize species and ensure that each species is assigned a family and not orphaned or incorrectly placed with more than one family. From an SEO perspective, this is how we avoid duplicate content and writing content that competes with ourselves. These building blocks of information stack up to a content-rich site, with interlinked pages of similar information. In other words, it’s the perfect recipe for search engine robots and visitors alike.

One simple example about a celebrity information site may stack up like this:

Now that you’ve structured the content for your site, you can easily write information and plug it into the right area of your site without duplicating content and causing your rankings to drop like a rock. As new keywords emerge, you can either place them into the architecture you’ve constructed or add on to your current strategy in an organized manner that doesn’t have you working against yourself.

As you create this content, remember the following rules to maximize your search ranking capabilities and tie all of your content components together. The basic necessities include:

• Keywords – each page should be mapped a handful of keywords; a primary keywords and a couple of modified keywords. Make sure to include supporting keywords to enhance your message and uphold your primary keywords for the new page.
• Links – create links to related information pages within the vertical where your new content will live.
• Images – remember to include images with unique names using your keywords to image search optimization.
• Alt text – include brief alt text in your img tag to maximize your on-page optimization.
• Videos – embed videos uploaded to social media sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, etc.
• Audio – include podcasts or audio messages to help encourage your visitors to take the action you desire.

See more here:
How to Design a Content Generation Strategy

Remember in grade school, when your teacher asked you to begin writing for two minutes; without stopping, and then forced you to pass this masterpiece over to a friend for editing? It was embarrassing and challenging as a young child to try something new and become an author in 2 minutes or less. Yeah, I believe that experience is to blame for why we fail at writing lengthy, descriptive, fun, colorful words today.

Designing a content generation strategy for your website is similar to this process. It begins with brainstorming through things to write about and then writing them out. If you’re doing it right, you’ve already completed your keyword research and your brainstorming session is focused around content centered on those keywords.

Once you’ve determined several great ideas to write about, you should organize them into sets of like information such as (vehicles, cars, trucks, recreational vehicles, motorcycles, etc.). This allows you to create taxonomy of information; the way scientists organize species of life. Remember this chart from middle school?

The purpose of this order system is to organize species and ensure that each species is assigned a family and not orphaned or incorrectly placed with more than one family. From an SEO perspective, this is how we avoid duplicate content and writing content that competes with ourselves. These building blocks of information stack up to a content-rich site, with interlinked pages of similar information. In other words, it’s the perfect recipe for search engine robots and visitors alike.

One simple example about a celebrity information site may stack up like this:

Now that you’ve structured the content for your site, you can easily write information and plug it into the right area of your site without duplicating content and causing your rankings to drop like a rock. As new keywords emerge, you can either place them into the architecture you’ve constructed or add on to your current strategy in an organized manner that doesn’t have you working against yourself.

As you create this content, remember the following rules to maximize your search ranking capabilities and tie all of your content components together. The basic necessities include:

• Keywords – each page should be mapped a handful of keywords; a primary keywords and a couple of modified keywords. Make sure to include supporting keywords to enhance your message and uphold your primary keywords for the new page.
• Links – create links to related information pages within the vertical where your new content will live.
• Images – remember to include images with unique names using your keywords to image search optimization.
• Alt text – include brief alt text in your img tag to maximize your on-page optimization.
• Videos – embed videos uploaded to social media sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, etc.
• Audio – include podcasts or audio messages to help encourage your visitors to take the action you desire.

More:
How to Design a Content Generation Strategy

Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. Content is NOT important. (…)

I could make an entire post like that with nothing but rubbish content and it wouldn’t matter. Why? Because content doesn’t matter, backlinks do.

Ok, that might sound a bit exaggerate… And I must admit, whenever I work on a site I spend more time working with the content than anything else (Even in my blackhat ventures like [YACG], it’s pretty evident that I make a big deal out of content).

In fact, you know what? Scratch everything I just said. Content IS important, but it all depends on what you are trying to achieve.  I make a big deal out of it because of the usability of the website. Because Good content = Returning visitors, and we all know that.

But in the particular case of rankings, backlinks are much more important than content. Let’s take as an example the keyword “click here”:

Interesting. Now let’s take a look at “worst band in the world”:

*I firebug’ed out the first results for the sake of the length of this post

It’s evident that there’s not a single mention of “click here” or “worst band in the world” in those sites, but still they are ranking #1 for those keywords. Why? Simple, there’s a bunch of backlinks with that anchor text pointing to those sites.

(Bullshit alert!)

I’ve done some extensive testing over the past couple of years using neural networks, statistical analysis, midgets and large quantities of vodka… And I think I figured out how Google’s algorithm work. I’m planning on releasing a paper later on, but here’s the basic formula:

Where K is Google’s magic constant (100), 0.1 is the position you want (0.1 for #1, 0.2 for #2, 1.1 for #11 etc…), x1 is the number of words in the page you want to rank (without counting the keyword you want to rank for), x2 is the number of times the keyword appears on the page and f(x1,x2) is an approximation to the number of backlinks with the keyword as anchor that you need.

You don’t believe me? Let’s try it out with http://get.adobe.com/reader/ for “click here” on #1 position. I used for this experiment this word count tool and Yahoo! Site Explorer.

According to Yahoo! Site Explorer, http://get.adobe.com/reader/ has 652,799 backlinks.

Yes, this is the moment when you go all HOLY-MOTHER-OF-GOD at your computer screen and nearby peers.

(Bullshit alert is over!)

Bottom line: Looking for rankings? Focus on backlinks.

See original here:
Content is NOT important

When we first get a client at SEO.com, one of the first things we check during our intake process is the client’s blog. Many of our clients come to us without a blog, and those that previously had one rarely use it. We often suggest adding a blog and using it as a marketing tool for the site. However, often when we make this suggestion, people get a glazed look in their eyes like they are hearing, but not really following us. For this reason, and for the simple fact that I am in the process of starting my very own personal/professional blog, I thought I would take the time to properly discuss what factors should be considered for anyone starting blog. Whether it is for a hobby, work/business, or personal purposes, these components are necessary for any new blog.

Think Ahead

The most import thing any new blogger can do when they want to take the plunge into the blogosphere is to make a plan. Take the time to understand why you want to blog, and more importantly, the style of blog you want to write. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• When do you plan on writing?
• Who do you want to read your blog?
• Are you in for the long haul?

Blogging takes a lot of time if you want it to be successful, but if you plan your strategy, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and possible regrets.

The Purpose

The first thing you want to do is pin down the purpose of your blog. Start by asking yourself, is the blog for existing clients, new customers, for the general benefit of your industry, or to open a window for people to see the quirky insides of your business? If you look at the SEO.com blog as an example, you’ll quickly see that it is for the general benefit of the SEO industry. As such, it has the potential to help our current clientele as well as potential clients understand the industry better.

If your company lacks personality (I say that nicely, of course), and you don’t feel that your office atmosphere can carry a good blog on its own, then an industry blog is a good option. (Note: Just because SEO.com has an industry based blog, don’t assume we lack personality. If you don’t believe me, come see our 3 foot hole in our wall from our recent Office Olympics.

Blog Mapping

Once you have decided who your audience is, map out the basics of your blog. This is an ideal time to list categories and write a number of initial posts to introduce your main subject. In addition, you’ll settle on the keywords your blog will target.

You can also work out a simple game-plan on how you want to interact with your readers. Figure out who will be your main writers, or if you want your entire company involved. Another option is for guest writers to contribute to your blog.

On the issue of choosing a topic, keep this in mind: “Will the topic you’re considering starting a blog about lend itself to being an ongoing project?” (ProBlogger.net) It is important that your topic is broad enough that you will have content to last, but yet not too broad that your blog loses focus.

Your Platform

When you get ready to put your blog together, you will notice that you have many options available for a blogging platform. VOX, LiveJournal, Typepad, Blogger, and WordPress are a few examples. Each platform has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Blogger and WordPress are the most popular platforms. Blogger is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog and can be an ideal solution for the person who doesn’t want to get too geeky with it. WordPress, though, is a preferred option for the individual who really wants full control over their blog. You will be able to get more involved with the technical side and tweak the blog to perfection. Check out this post by Nathan Blair on how WordPress can be a benefit for your SEO efforts.

Developing Content

The cliché “content is king” rings truer with a blog than any other aspect of a website. The problem is that this is also the hardest part about running a blog. You need to take to time to be informed about your topic. Do research to answer your own inquisitive mind, and then present your answers. In your blog mapping you may want to brainstorm what unique opinions or points of view you can offer on your particular subject.

Be Involved

One of the best ways to entice blog followers is to become involved in the online social community, and particularly the social media relating to your industry. Make regular comments on other blogs that relate to yours, this may also include competitors’ blogs and articles. Use Twitter and Facebook to find and follow people in your industry. If you are an expert in a certain field, you may also be asked to guest post on someone else’s blog where you can drop a shameless plug to yours. When it comes to connecting with people online you don’t want to be bashful.

Write Regularly

And finally, the most important thing to remember when starting your blog is to write regularly. This will do a number of things for you. One, people will get in the habit of checking your posts. With regular posting you can start to train your audience when to expect new insight from you. Whether it’s every hour, once a day, or once a week, if you make a habit of writing, your followers will make a habit of reading. Two, you will draw the attention of web-crawlers, and the search engines will index you more regularly (more on this topic by Scott Cowley).

By taking the time to conduct research and proper planning, your blog can become a major benefit for you and your company.

If you have other suggestions or things to consider when starting a blog please feel free to share in the comments section.

Read the rest here:
When Starting a Blog…

When we first get a client at SEO.com, one of the first things we check during our intake process is the client’s blog. Many of our clients come to us without a blog, and those that previously had one rarely use it. We often suggest adding a blog and using it as a marketing tool for the site. However, often when we make this suggestion, people get a glazed look in their eyes like they are hearing, but not really following us. For this reason, and for the simple fact that I am in the process of starting my very own personal/professional blog, I thought I would take the time to properly discuss what factors should be considered for anyone starting blog. Whether it is for a hobby, work/business, or personal purposes, these components are necessary for any new blog.

Think Ahead

The most import thing any new blogger can do when they want to take the plunge into the blogosphere is to make a plan. Take the time to understand why you want to blog, and more importantly, the style of blog you want to write. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• When do you plan on writing?
• Who do you want to read your blog?
• Are you in for the long haul?

Blogging takes a lot of time if you want it to be successful, but if you plan your strategy, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and possible regrets.

The Purpose

The first thing you want to do is pin down the purpose of your blog. Start by asking yourself, is the blog for existing clients, new customers, for the general benefit of your industry, or to open a window for people to see the quirky insides of your business? If you look at the SEO.com blog as an example, you’ll quickly see that it is for the general benefit of the SEO industry. As such, it has the potential to help our current clientele as well as potential clients understand the industry better.

If your company lacks personality (I say that nicely, of course), and you don’t feel that your office atmosphere can carry a good blog on its own, then an industry blog is a good option. (Note: Just because SEO.com has an industry based blog, don’t assume we lack personality. If you don’t believe me, come see our 3 foot hole in our wall from our recent Office Olympics.

Blog Mapping

Once you have decided who your audience is, map out the basics of your blog. This is an ideal time to list categories and write a number of initial posts to introduce your main subject. In addition, you’ll settle on the keywords your blog will target.

You can also work out a simple game-plan on how you want to interact with your readers. Figure out who will be your main writers, or if you want your entire company involved. Another option is for guest writers to contribute to your blog.

On the issue of choosing a topic, keep this in mind: “Will the topic you’re considering starting a blog about lend itself to being an ongoing project?” (ProBlogger.net) It is important that your topic is broad enough that you will have content to last, but yet not too broad that your blog loses focus.

Your Platform

When you get ready to put your blog together, you will notice that you have many options available for a blogging platform. VOX, LiveJournal, Typepad, Blogger, and WordPress are a few examples. Each platform has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Blogger and WordPress are the most popular platforms. Blogger is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog and can be an ideal solution for the person who doesn’t want to get too geeky with it. WordPress, though, is a preferred option for the individual who really wants full control over their blog. You will be able to get more involved with the technical side and tweak the blog to perfection. Check out this post by Nathan Blair on how WordPress can be a benefit for your SEO efforts.

Developing Content

The cliché “content is king” rings truer with a blog than any other aspect of a website. The problem is that this is also the hardest part about running a blog. You need to take to time to be informed about your topic. Do research to answer your own inquisitive mind, and then present your answers. In your blog mapping you may want to brainstorm what unique opinions or points of view you can offer on your particular subject.

Be Involved

One of the best ways to entice blog followers is to become involved in the online social community, and particularly the social media relating to your industry. Make regular comments on other blogs that relate to yours, this may also include competitors’ blogs and articles. Use Twitter and Facebook to find and follow people in your industry. If you are an expert in a certain field, you may also be asked to guest post on someone else’s blog where you can drop a shameless plug to yours. When it comes to connecting with people online you don’t want to be bashful.

Write Regularly

And finally, the most important thing to remember when starting your blog is to write regularly. This will do a number of things for you. One, people will get in the habit of checking your posts. With regular posting you can start to train your audience when to expect new insight from you. Whether it’s every hour, once a day, or once a week, if you make a habit of writing, your followers will make a habit of reading. Two, you will draw the attention of web-crawlers, and the search engines will index you more regularly (more on this topic by Scott Cowley).

By taking the time to conduct research and proper planning, your blog can become a major benefit for you and your company.

If you have other suggestions or things to consider when starting a blog please feel free to share in the comments section.

Original post:
When Starting a Blog…

When we first get a client at SEO.com, one of the first things we check during our intake process is the client’s blog. Many of our clients come to us without a blog, and those that previously had one rarely use it. We often suggest adding a blog and using it as a marketing tool for the site. However, often when we make this suggestion, people get a glazed look in their eyes like they are hearing, but not really following us. For this reason, and for the simple fact that I am in the process of starting my very own personal/professional blog, I thought I would take the time to properly discuss what factors should be considered for anyone starting blog. Whether it is for a hobby, work/business, or personal purposes, these components are necessary for any new blog.

Think Ahead

The most import thing any new blogger can do when they want to take the plunge into the blogosphere is to make a plan. Take the time to understand why you want to blog, and more importantly, the style of blog you want to write. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• When do you plan on writing?
• Who do you want to read your blog?
• Are you in for the long haul?

Blogging takes a lot of time if you want it to be successful, but if you plan your strategy, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and possible regrets.

The Purpose

The first thing you want to do is pin down the purpose of your blog. Start by asking yourself, is the blog for existing clients, new customers, for the general benefit of your industry, or to open a window for people to see the quirky insides of your business? If you look at the SEO.com blog as an example, you’ll quickly see that it is for the general benefit of the SEO industry. As such, it has the potential to help our current clientele as well as potential clients understand the industry better.

If your company lacks personality (I say that nicely, of course), and you don’t feel that your office atmosphere can carry a good blog on its own, then an industry blog is a good option. (Note: Just because SEO.com has an industry based blog, don’t assume we lack personality. If you don’t believe me, come see our 3 foot hole in our wall from our recent Office Olympics.

Blog Mapping

Once you have decided who your audience is, map out the basics of your blog. This is an ideal time to list categories and write a number of initial posts to introduce your main subject. In addition, you’ll settle on the keywords your blog will target.

You can also work out a simple game-plan on how you want to interact with your readers. Figure out who will be your main writers, or if you want your entire company involved. Another option is for guest writers to contribute to your blog.

On the issue of choosing a topic, keep this in mind: “Will the topic you’re considering starting a blog about lend itself to being an ongoing project?” (ProBlogger.net) It is important that your topic is broad enough that you will have content to last, but yet not too broad that your blog loses focus.

Your Platform

When you get ready to put your blog together, you will notice that you have many options available for a blogging platform. VOX, LiveJournal, Typepad, Blogger, and WordPress are a few examples. Each platform has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Blogger and WordPress are the most popular platforms. Blogger is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog and can be an ideal solution for the person who doesn’t want to get too geeky with it. WordPress, though, is a preferred option for the individual who really wants full control over their blog. You will be able to get more involved with the technical side and tweak the blog to perfection. Check out this post by Nathan Blair on how WordPress can be a benefit for your SEO efforts.

Developing Content

The cliché “content is king” rings truer with a blog than any other aspect of a website. The problem is that this is also the hardest part about running a blog. You need to take to time to be informed about your topic. Do research to answer your own inquisitive mind, and then present your answers. In your blog mapping you may want to brainstorm what unique opinions or points of view you can offer on your particular subject.

Be Involved

One of the best ways to entice blog followers is to become involved in the online social community, and particularly the social media relating to your industry. Make regular comments on other blogs that relate to yours, this may also include competitors’ blogs and articles. Use Twitter and Facebook to find and follow people in your industry. If you are an expert in a certain field, you may also be asked to guest post on someone else’s blog where you can drop a shameless plug to yours. When it comes to connecting with people online you don’t want to be bashful.

Write Regularly

And finally, the most important thing to remember when starting your blog is to write regularly. This will do a number of things for you. One, people will get in the habit of checking your posts. With regular posting you can start to train your audience when to expect new insight from you. Whether it’s every hour, once a day, or once a week, if you make a habit of writing, your followers will make a habit of reading. Two, you will draw the attention of web-crawlers, and the search engines will index you more regularly (more on this topic by Scott Cowley).

By taking the time to conduct research and proper planning, your blog can become a major benefit for you and your company.

If you have other suggestions or things to consider when starting a blog please feel free to share in the comments section.

Continued here:
When Starting a Blog…

When we first get a client at SEO.com, one of the first things we check during our intake process is the client’s blog. Many of our clients come to us without a blog, and those that previously had one rarely use it. We often suggest adding a blog and using it as a marketing tool for the site. However, often when we make this suggestion, people get a glazed look in their eyes like they are hearing, but not really following us. For this reason, and for the simple fact that I am in the process of starting my very own personal/professional blog, I thought I would take the time to properly discuss what factors should be considered for anyone starting blog. Whether it is for a hobby, work/business, or personal purposes, these components are necessary for any new blog.

Think Ahead

The most import thing any new blogger can do when they want to take the plunge into the blogosphere is to make a plan. Take the time to understand why you want to blog, and more importantly, the style of blog you want to write. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• When do you plan on writing?
• Who do you want to read your blog?
• Are you in for the long haul?

Blogging takes a lot of time if you want it to be successful, but if you plan your strategy, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and possible regrets.

The Purpose

The first thing you want to do is pin down the purpose of your blog. Start by asking yourself, is the blog for existing clients, new customers, for the general benefit of your industry, or to open a window for people to see the quirky insides of your business? If you look at the SEO.com blog as an example, you’ll quickly see that it is for the general benefit of the SEO industry. As such, it has the potential to help our current clientele as well as potential clients understand the industry better.

If your company lacks personality (I say that nicely, of course), and you don’t feel that your office atmosphere can carry a good blog on its own, then an industry blog is a good option. (Note: Just because SEO.com has an industry based blog, don’t assume we lack personality. If you don’t believe me, come see our 3 foot hole in our wall from our recent Office Olympics.

Blog Mapping

Once you have decided who your audience is, map out the basics of your blog. This is an ideal time to list categories and write a number of initial posts to introduce your main subject. In addition, you’ll settle on the keywords your blog will target.

You can also work out a simple game-plan on how you want to interact with your readers. Figure out who will be your main writers, or if you want your entire company involved. Another option is for guest writers to contribute to your blog.

On the issue of choosing a topic, keep this in mind: “Will the topic you’re considering starting a blog about lend itself to being an ongoing project?” (ProBlogger.net) It is important that your topic is broad enough that you will have content to last, but yet not too broad that your blog loses focus.

Your Platform

When you get ready to put your blog together, you will notice that you have many options available for a blogging platform. VOX, LiveJournal, Typepad, Blogger, and WordPress are a few examples. Each platform has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Blogger and WordPress are the most popular platforms. Blogger is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog and can be an ideal solution for the person who doesn’t want to get too geeky with it. WordPress, though, is a preferred option for the individual who really wants full control over their blog. You will be able to get more involved with the technical side and tweak the blog to perfection. Check out this post by Nathan Blair on how WordPress can be a benefit for your SEO efforts.

Developing Content

The cliché “content is king” rings truer with a blog than any other aspect of a website. The problem is that this is also the hardest part about running a blog. You need to take to time to be informed about your topic. Do research to answer your own inquisitive mind, and then present your answers. In your blog mapping you may want to brainstorm what unique opinions or points of view you can offer on your particular subject.

Be Involved

One of the best ways to entice blog followers is to become involved in the online social community, and particularly the social media relating to your industry. Make regular comments on other blogs that relate to yours, this may also include competitors’ blogs and articles. Use Twitter and Facebook to find and follow people in your industry. If you are an expert in a certain field, you may also be asked to guest post on someone else’s blog where you can drop a shameless plug to yours. When it comes to connecting with people online you don’t want to be bashful.

Write Regularly

And finally, the most important thing to remember when starting your blog is to write regularly. This will do a number of things for you. One, people will get in the habit of checking your posts. With regular posting you can start to train your audience when to expect new insight from you. Whether it’s every hour, once a day, or once a week, if you make a habit of writing, your followers will make a habit of reading. Two, you will draw the attention of web-crawlers, and the search engines will index you more regularly (more on this topic by Scott Cowley).

By taking the time to conduct research and proper planning, your blog can become a major benefit for you and your company.

If you have other suggestions or things to consider when starting a blog please feel free to share in the comments section.

More here:
When Starting a Blog…

When we first get a client at SEO.com, one of the first things we check during our intake process is the client’s blog. Many of our clients come to us without a blog, and those that previously had one rarely use it. We often suggest adding a blog and using it as a marketing tool for the site. However, often when we make this suggestion, people get a glazed look in their eyes like they are hearing, but not really following us. For this reason, and for the simple fact that I am in the process of starting my very own personal/professional blog, I thought I would take the time to properly discuss what factors should be considered for anyone starting blog. Whether it is for a hobby, work/business, or personal purposes, these components are necessary for any new blog.

Think Ahead

The most import thing any new blogger can do when they want to take the plunge into the blogosphere is to make a plan. Take the time to understand why you want to blog, and more importantly, the style of blog you want to write. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• When do you plan on writing?
• Who do you want to read your blog?
• Are you in for the long haul?

Blogging takes a lot of time if you want it to be successful, but if you plan your strategy, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and possible regrets.

The Purpose

The first thing you want to do is pin down the purpose of your blog. Start by asking yourself, is the blog for existing clients, new customers, for the general benefit of your industry, or to open a window for people to see the quirky insides of your business? If you look at the SEO.com blog as an example, you’ll quickly see that it is for the general benefit of the SEO industry. As such, it has the potential to help our current clientele as well as potential clients understand the industry better.

If your company lacks personality (I say that nicely, of course), and you don’t feel that your office atmosphere can carry a good blog on its own, then an industry blog is a good option. (Note: Just because SEO.com has an industry based blog, don’t assume we lack personality. If you don’t believe me, come see our 3 foot hole in our wall from our recent Office Olympics.

Blog Mapping

Once you have decided who your audience is, map out the basics of your blog. This is an ideal time to list categories and write a number of initial posts to introduce your main subject. In addition, you’ll settle on the keywords your blog will target.

You can also work out a simple game-plan on how you want to interact with your readers. Figure out who will be your main writers, or if you want your entire company involved. Another option is for guest writers to contribute to your blog.

On the issue of choosing a topic, keep this in mind: “Will the topic you’re considering starting a blog about lend itself to being an ongoing project?” (ProBlogger.net) It is important that your topic is broad enough that you will have content to last, but yet not too broad that your blog loses focus.

Your Platform

When you get ready to put your blog together, you will notice that you have many options available for a blogging platform. VOX, LiveJournal, Typepad, Blogger, and WordPress are a few examples. Each platform has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Blogger and WordPress are the most popular platforms. Blogger is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog and can be an ideal solution for the person who doesn’t want to get too geeky with it. WordPress, though, is a preferred option for the individual who really wants full control over their blog. You will be able to get more involved with the technical side and tweak the blog to perfection. Check out this post by Nathan Blair on how WordPress can be a benefit for your SEO efforts.

Developing Content

The cliché “content is king” rings truer with a blog than any other aspect of a website. The problem is that this is also the hardest part about running a blog. You need to take to time to be informed about your topic. Do research to answer your own inquisitive mind, and then present your answers. In your blog mapping you may want to brainstorm what unique opinions or points of view you can offer on your particular subject.

Be Involved

One of the best ways to entice blog followers is to become involved in the online social community, and particularly the social media relating to your industry. Make regular comments on other blogs that relate to yours, this may also include competitors’ blogs and articles. Use Twitter and Facebook to find and follow people in your industry. If you are an expert in a certain field, you may also be asked to guest post on someone else’s blog where you can drop a shameless plug to yours. When it comes to connecting with people online you don’t want to be bashful.

Write Regularly

And finally, the most important thing to remember when starting your blog is to write regularly. This will do a number of things for you. One, people will get in the habit of checking your posts. With regular posting you can start to train your audience when to expect new insight from you. Whether it’s every hour, once a day, or once a week, if you make a habit of writing, your followers will make a habit of reading. Two, you will draw the attention of web-crawlers, and the search engines will index you more regularly (more on this topic by Scott Cowley).

By taking the time to conduct research and proper planning, your blog can become a major benefit for you and your company.

If you have other suggestions or things to consider when starting a blog please feel free to share in the comments section.

Read more:
When Starting a Blog…

When we first get a client at SEO.com, one of the first things we check during our intake process is the client’s blog. Many of our clients come to us without a blog, and those that previously had one rarely use it. We often suggest adding a blog and using it as a marketing tool for the site. However, often when we make this suggestion, people get a glazed look in their eyes like they are hearing, but not really following us. For this reason, and for the simple fact that I am in the process of starting my very own personal/professional blog, I thought I would take the time to properly discuss what factors should be considered for anyone starting blog. Whether it is for a hobby, work/business, or personal purposes, these components are necessary for any new blog.

Think Ahead

The most import thing any new blogger can do when they want to take the plunge into the blogosphere is to make a plan. Take the time to understand why you want to blog, and more importantly, the style of blog you want to write. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• When do you plan on writing?
• Who do you want to read your blog?
• Are you in for the long haul?

Blogging takes a lot of time if you want it to be successful, but if you plan your strategy, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and possible regrets.

The Purpose

The first thing you want to do is pin down the purpose of your blog. Start by asking yourself, is the blog for existing clients, new customers, for the general benefit of your industry, or to open a window for people to see the quirky insides of your business? If you look at the SEO.com blog as an example, you’ll quickly see that it is for the general benefit of the SEO industry. As such, it has the potential to help our current clientele as well as potential clients understand the industry better.

If your company lacks personality (I say that nicely, of course), and you don’t feel that your office atmosphere can carry a good blog on its own, then an industry blog is a good option. (Note: Just because SEO.com has an industry based blog, don’t assume we lack personality. If you don’t believe me, come see our 3 foot hole in our wall from our recent Office Olympics.

Blog Mapping

Once you have decided who your audience is, map out the basics of your blog. This is an ideal time to list categories and write a number of initial posts to introduce your main subject. In addition, you’ll settle on the keywords your blog will target.

You can also work out a simple game-plan on how you want to interact with your readers. Figure out who will be your main writers, or if you want your entire company involved. Another option is for guest writers to contribute to your blog.

On the issue of choosing a topic, keep this in mind: “Will the topic you’re considering starting a blog about lend itself to being an ongoing project?” (ProBlogger.net) It is important that your topic is broad enough that you will have content to last, but yet not too broad that your blog loses focus.

Your Platform

When you get ready to put your blog together, you will notice that you have many options available for a blogging platform. VOX, LiveJournal, Typepad, Blogger, and WordPress are a few examples. Each platform has its own set of strengths and weaknesses.

Blogger and WordPress are the most popular platforms. Blogger is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog and can be an ideal solution for the person who doesn’t want to get too geeky with it. WordPress, though, is a preferred option for the individual who really wants full control over their blog. You will be able to get more involved with the technical side and tweak the blog to perfection. Check out this post by Nathan Blair on how WordPress can be a benefit for your SEO efforts.

Developing Content

The cliché “content is king” rings truer with a blog than any other aspect of a website. The problem is that this is also the hardest part about running a blog. You need to take to time to be informed about your topic. Do research to answer your own inquisitive mind, and then present your answers. In your blog mapping you may want to brainstorm what unique opinions or points of view you can offer on your particular subject.

Be Involved

One of the best ways to entice blog followers is to become involved in the online social community, and particularly the social media relating to your industry. Make regular comments on other blogs that relate to yours, this may also include competitors’ blogs and articles. Use Twitter and Facebook to find and follow people in your industry. If you are an expert in a certain field, you may also be asked to guest post on someone else’s blog where you can drop a shameless plug to yours. When it comes to connecting with people online you don’t want to be bashful.

Write Regularly

And finally, the most important thing to remember when starting your blog is to write regularly. This will do a number of things for you. One, people will get in the habit of checking your posts. With regular posting you can start to train your audience when to expect new insight from you. Whether it’s every hour, once a day, or once a week, if you make a habit of writing, your followers will make a habit of reading. Two, you will draw the attention of web-crawlers, and the search engines will index you more regularly (more on this topic by Scott Cowley).

By taking the time to conduct research and proper planning, your blog can become a major benefit for you and your company.

If you have other suggestions or things to consider when starting a blog please feel free to share in the comments section.

Original post:
When Starting a Blog…