Archive for the ‘Business Blogging’ Category
Best Business Blogging Guides and Tips of 2010
Monday, January 3rd, 2011How can you improve your blog’s position in search engines? Grow your audience? Effectively generate content contributions from subject matter experts in your organization? Produce more stylish and readable content? Find free, high-quality images to add visual appeal to your posts? Avoid common mistakes that can cost you traffic and goodwill?
Discover the answers to all of these questions and more here in the final selection of the best guides and tips for business blogging from the past year.
Blogging Guides, Tips and Techniques
The Step-by-Step Guide to Guest Blogging by 2 Create a Website
One key way to spread the fame of your own blog is to guest post on others; you reach a new audience, hopefully pick up some new fans, and get valuable backlinks to your blog. Here, Ann Smarty contributes a guest post on best practices in guest posting, from planning your approach and brainstorming topics to following through by responding to comments.
5 Reasons Why You Should Respond to Every Comment by Daily Blog Tips
In another guest post, Pat Flynn details five benefits of actively responding to comments on your blog, such as the fact that doing so encourages more comments: “People don’t leave comments just so they can be left unread. By replying, you’re not only letting people know that you’re actively involved in reading the comments, but you’re encouraging them to come back and comment again later.”
7 Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts for Maximum Exposure by Quick Online Tips
In yet another guest post, Jonathan Beebe offers seven common (e.g., promote via Twitter and Facebook) and not-so-obvious (e.g., use automated social bookmarking tools like IMAutomater and Shareaholic tips for increasing traffic to your blog.
How To Optimise Your WordPress Ping List by Pimp My WordPress
A colossal list of more than 120 sites to add to your ping list for automatic notification each time you publish a new post.
Best practices for a killer corporate blog by iMedia Connection
Sarah Hofstetter offers 25 outstanding tips for developing, maintaining and promoting a successful corporate blog, from creating an editorial calendar and incorporating visuals to setting up email distribution and tracking actionable metrics.
Blogs are Becoming the New Front Door for Prospects: Is Yours Open? by MarketingSherpa
Sean Donahue notes that, “If you’re still on the fence about the importance of a company blog, consider this trend: Many B2B marketers report that their team’s blog — not the company homepage — is now the most popular entry point for online visitors,” then provides tips for maximizing company blog success.
Why Host a Blog on Your Corporate Website? by ClickZ
The smart and prolific Mark Jackson supplies five compelling reasons for adding a blog to a company website, both subjective (a blog gives you the opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership) and objective (blogs are much more effective than typical commercial website content at attracting unsolicited links).
What’s Up, Blog? Seven Ways to Revive a Neglected B2B Blog by MLT Creative
Acknowledging that “Blogging is hard work. You must consistently create relevant compelling content,” Martine Hunter presents seven tactics for re-engaging with a neglected blog, including refreshing old blog posts, turning news releases into blog articles, and enlisting guest bloggers to lighten the workload.
How I Achieved Blogging Success In 30 Days by bizchickblogs
In you guessed it–another guest post–Wayne Howard describes his method for quickly building the following for a new blog, using tactics such as Facebook postings, the BloggerLuv community, Twitter, LinkedIn and contests.
Inciting Insight: How to make thought leaders think by The Communicator
Peter Schram offers a “recipe” for designing a thought leadership program within an organization to create a steady stream of fresh and compelling content, such as priming the pump: “Ideas are usually generated incrementally. This means that the more ‘inspiration’ that a thought leader is exposed to, the more valuable and insightful their ‘Big Ideas’ will be.”
35 Ways to Market Your Blog by Junta42
The brilliant Joe Pulizzi shares his list of 35 “common and some uncommon” methods for promoting a blog, from putting your blog URL on your business cards and leveraging Twitter hashtags to showcasing employees and using the blog as your customer FAQ.
Is blog marketing dead or just growing up? The naked (conversation) facts by conversionation
J-P De Clerck reports that less than half of companies have blogs, despite the fact that “blogs are real social media hubs and cornerstones of inbound marketing.” Furthermore, many of the companies that do blog don’t do it well; nearly three-quarters of all corporate blog posts don’t reflect the company’s message. Given that more than half of all Internet users in the U.S. read blogs, and the figure is expected to rise to 60% in the next four years, J-P notes that corporate blogging, far from being “dead,” is an area of growing importance and opportunity.
How to Make an Awesome Corporate Blog by Entrepreneur Magazine
Bianca Male shares tactics for corporate blog success (such as “Your content should go beyond your company…contribute to the discussion of topics that readers are interested in, by talking about trends in the industry and having thought leaders offer their take, for example”) and links to some noteworthy examples, closing with “If you can’t commit to focusing on fresh, interesting content, avoiding all direct marketing ploys, (and) getting creative and moving beyond boring company info…just don’t do it.”
10 Proven Blog Marketing Tactics You Can Use Today by The Future Buzz
Adam Singer provides 10 valuable tips for effective blogs, including investing in a custom design, connecting with the social web “power users” in your segment, and even making enemies (the kind that will debate you blog-to-blog).
What Can You Learn from 7 Awesome Corporate Blogs? by KISSmetrics
Cameron Chapman highlights winning corporate blogs (such as The Facebook Blog), discusses the key features and provides takeaways from each (e.g., “having a huge blogging team that includes employees from throughout your organization makes your blog much more engaging for users. Your CEO should be blogging, but so should your interns”), and concludes with a brief guide to starting a corporate blog.
9 Awesome Ways to Market a Business Blog by HubSpot Blog
Kipp Bodnar details nine techniques for increasing traffic to a company blog, like including your blog URL on business cards and in corporate email signatures, name-dropping media editors and other influencers, and checking out content networks in your niche (content syndication and aggregation sites such as Social Media Informer in the social media space).
Tim Gunn’s Top 5 Tips for More Stylish Content by Copyblogger
Erika Napoletano channels fashion authority Tim Gunn to provide style tips for bloggers, such as “SEO is not the new black” (“you don’t have to optimize every piece of content you create) and “conversation never goes out of style” (embrace comments).
Get High Resolution Photos And Edit For Free by Trailblaze Social Media With Josh
Joshua Lyons reveals his favorite source for free photos and his favorite free online tool for editing them.
Five Key Ingredients for a Successful Corporate Blog by Sysomos
Mark Evans offers five commonsense, but not always adhered to, recommendations for corporate blogging success, starting with the need for quality content: “Content that provides insight, perspective and information. At its core, a corporate blog has to give its readers information they can use to increase their knowledge, learn new things or receive insight.”
Ten Blogging Mistakes I Learned in Year One by Nectar
Josh Wade shares 10 common blogging mistakes to avoid, like misspelling someone’s name when you highlight them in post (oops!), picking fights, trying to be everywhere rather than focusing, and being a conformist.
8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content by Copyblogger
Pamela Wilson suggests that “writing less and styling your text so it’s easy to read” is key to attracting greater blog readership, and offers corresponding tips for doing so effectively such as breaking up blocks of copy using subheads, bulleted lists and numbers.
Blog SEO
11 Must Do SEO Tips for WordPress by Better Blog Building
An excellent list of SEO tips for WordPress blogs, including using (optimized) images, installing key plugins like All In One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps Generator, and linking within your posts to relevant older posts.
6 Ways to Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines by Social Media Examiner
Jim Lodico offers six helpful tips for improving your blog’s position in search engine results. While the tactics themselves are mostly common knowledge, the value of this post is in the tools Jim recommends (such as SEOCentro’s Meta Tag Analyzer for optimizing meta tags).
7 Ways to Create Blog Content That Attracts More Back Links by Digital Labz
Links are critical both for SEO purposes and attracting direct traffic–but they don’t appear magically. This post provides proven strategies for naturally attracting more backlinks to your blog posts, such as capitalizing on current events, making big lists (think “101 Tips” rather than “10 Tips”) and creating an infographic.
Link Building Tips for Personal Blogs by SEOmoz
Links are SEO fuel, and in this post SEO guru Rand Fishkin helpfully advises bloggers on which link-building tactics to avoid (generic directories, link buying) as well as dozen technigues to use such as niche blog listing sites, answering questions in online forums and social sharing in order to improve your blog’s rank in search.
And Finally…
90 Tips To Make Your Blog Rock by Jeff Bullas
And as if all of ideas above aren’t enough to keep you busy for the next year, Jeff Bullas offers 90 more including writing about industry trends, highlighting customer successes, writing a series of “how to” posts and then turning those into short videos, turn the results of surveys or polls into blog posts and more.
Related Posts
Best Business Blogging Tips and Guides of 2010 (So Far), Part 1
Best Business Blogging Tips and Guides of 2010 (So Far), Part 2
http://blog.2createawebsite.com/2010/06/14/the-step-by-step-guide-to-guest-blogging-part-1/
One key way to spread the fame of your own blog is to guest post on others; you reach a new audience, hopefully pick up some
new fans, and get valuable backlinks to your blog. Here, Ann Smarty contributes a guest post on best practices in guest
posting, from planning your approach and brainstorming topics to following through by responding to comments.
5 Reasons Why You Should Respond to Every Comment by Daily Blog Tips
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/5-reasons-why-you-should-respond-to-every-comment/
In another guest post, Pat Flynn details five benefits of actively responding to comments on your blog, such as the fact that
doing so encourages more comments: “People don’t leave comments just so they can be left unread. By replying, you’re not only
letting people know that you’re actively involved in reading the comments, but you’re encouraging them to come back and
comment again later.”
7 Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts for Maximum Exposure by Quick Online Tips
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2010/06/promote-blog-posts/
In yet another [italics] guest post, Jonathan Beebe offers seven obvious (e.g., promote via Twitter and Facebook) and not-so-
obvious (e.g., use automated social bookmarking tools like IMAutomater [http://www.imautomator.com/] and Shareaholic
[http://www.shareaholic.com/]) tips for increasing traffic to your blog.
How To Optimise Your WordPress Ping List by Pimp My WordPress
http://www.pimpmywordpress.com/wordpress-tutorials/optimise-wordpress-ping-list
A colossal list of more than 120 sites to add to your ping list for automatic notification each time you publish a new post.
Best practices for a killer corporate blog by iMedia Connection
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/27253.asp
Sarah Hofstetter offers 25 outstanding tips for developing, maintaining and promoting a successful corporate blog, from
creating an editorial calendar and incorporating visuals to setting up email distribution and tracking actionable metrics.
Blogs are Becoming the New Front Door for Prospects: Is Yours Open? by MarketingSherpa
http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/business-to-business/the-importance-of-b2b-blogs/
Sean Donahue notes that, “If you’re still on the fence about the importance of a company blog, consider this trend: Many B2B
marketers report that their team’s blog — not the company homepage — is now the most popular entry point for online visitors,”
then provides tips for maximizing company blog success.
Why Host a Blog on Your Corporate Website? by ClickZ
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1727984/why-host-blog-your-corporate-website
The smart and prolific Mark Jackson [http://webbiquity.com/?s=Mark+Jackson] supplies five compelling reasons for adding a blog
to a company website, both subjective (a blog gives you the opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership) and objective
(blogs are much more effective than typical commercial website content at attracting unsolicited links).
What’s Up, Blog? Seven Ways to Revive a Neglected B2B Blog by MLT Creative
http://www.mltcreative.com/blog/bid/37259/What-s-Up-Blog-Seven-Ways-to-Revive-a-Neglected-B2B-Blog
Acknowledging that “Blogging is hard work. You must consistently create relevant compelling content,” Martine Hunter presents
seven tactics for re-engaging with a neglected blog, including refreshing old blog psots, turning news releases into blog
articles, and enlisting guest bloggers to lighten the workload.
How I Achieved Blogging Success In 30 Days by bizchickblogs
http://www.bizchickblogs.com/2010/09/blogging-success.html
In you guessed it–another guest post–Wayne Howard describes his method for quickly building the following for a new blog,
using tactics such as Facebook postings, the BloggerLuv [http://www.bloggerluv.com/] community, Twitter, LinkedIn and
contests.
Inciting Insight: How to make thought leaders think by The Communicator
http://communicationsunlimited.ca/blog/2010/09/08/inciting-insight
Peter Schram offers a “recipe” for designing a thought leadership program within an organization to create a steady stream of
fresh and compelling content, such as priming the pump: “Ideas are usually generated incrementally. This means that the more
‘inspiration’ that a thought leader is exposed to, the more valuable and insightful their ‘Big Ideas’ will be.”
35 Ways to Market Your Blog by Junta42
http://blog.junta42.com/content_marketing_blog/2010/09/ways-to-market-your-blog.html
The brilliant Joe Pulizzi [http://webbiquity.com/?s=Joe+Pulizzi] shares his list of 35 “common and some uncommon” methods for
promoting a blog, from putting your blog URL on your business cards and leveraging Twitter hashtags to showcasing employees
and using the blog as your customer FAQ.
Is blog marketing dead or just growing up? The naked (conversation) facts by conversionation
http://www.conversionation.net/blog/bid/46187/Is-blog-marketing-dead-or-just-growing-up-The-naked-conversation-facts
J-P De Clerck reports that less than half of companies have blogs, despite the fact that “blogs are real social media hubs and
cornerstones of inbound marketing.” Furthermore, many of the companies that do blog don’t do it well; nearly three-quarters of
all corporate blog posts don’t reflect the company’s message. Given that more than half of all Internet users in the U.S. read
blogs, and thr figure is expected to rise to 60% in the next four years, J-P notes that corporate blogging, far from being
“dead,” is an area of growing importance and opportunity.
How to Make an Awesome Corporate Blog by Entrepreneur Magazine
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217393
Bianca Male shares tactics for corporate blog success (such as “Your content should go beyond your company…contribute to the
discussion of topics that readers are interested in, by talking about trends in the industry and having thought leaders offer
their take, for example”) and links to some noteworthy examples, closing with “If you can’t commit to focusing on fresh,
interesting content, avoiding all direct marketing ploys, (and) getting creative and moving beyond boring company info…just
don’t do it.”
10 Proven Blog Marketing Tactics You Can Use Today by The Future Buzz
http://thefuturebuzz.com/2010/10/04/blog-marketing-tactics/
Adam Singer provides 10 valuable tips for effective blogs, including investing in a custom design, connecting with the social
web “power users” in your segment, and even making enemies (the kind that will debate you blog-to-blog).
What Can You Learn from 7 Awesome Corporate Blogs? by KISSmetrics
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/7-awesome-corporate-blogs/
Cameron Chapman highlights winning corporate blogs (such as The Facebook Blog [http://blog.facebook.com/]), discusses the key
features and provides takeaways from each (e.g., “aving a huge blogging team that includes employees from throughout your
organization makes your blog much more engaging for users. Your CEO should be blogging, but so should your interns”), and
concludes with a brief guide to starting a corporate blog.
9 Awesome Ways to Market a Business Blog by HubSpot Blog
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6788/9-Awesome-Ways-to-Market-a-Business-Blog.aspx
Kipp Bodnar [http://webbiquity.com/?s=Kipp+Bodnar] details nine techniques for increasing traffic to a company blog, like
including your blog URL on business cards and in corporate email signatures, name-dropping media editors and other
influencers, and checking out content networks in your niche (content syndication and aggregation sites such as Social Media
Informer [http://www.socialmediainformer.com] in the social media space).
11 Must Do SEO Tips for WordPress by Better Blog Building
http://betterblogbuilding.com/10-must-do-seo-tips-for-wordpress/
An excellent list of SEO tips for WordPress blogs, including using (optimized) images, installing key plugins like All In One
SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps Generator, and linking within your posts to relevant older posts.
6 Ways to Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines by Social Media Examiner
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-ways-to-optimize-your-blog-for-search-engines/
Jim Lodico offers six helpful tips for improving your blog’s postion in search engine results. While the tactics themselves
are mostly common knowledge, the value of this post is in the tools Jim recommends (such as SEOCentro’s Meta Tag Analyzer
[http://www.seocentro.com/tools/search-engines/metatag-analyzer.html] for optimizing meta tags).
Tim Gunn’s Top 5 Tips for More Stylish Content by Copyblogger
http://www.copyblogger.com/tim-gunn/
Erika Napoletano channels fashion authority Tim Gunn [http://www.fabsugar.com/10-Fashion-Essentials-According-Tim-Gunn-763661]
to provide style tips for bloggers, such as SEO is not the new black (“you don’t have to optimize every piece of content you
create) and conversation never goes out of style (embrace comments).
Get High Resolution Photos And Edit For Free by Trailblaze Social Media With Josh
http://joshuajlyons.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/get-high-resolution-photos-and-edit-for-free/
Joshua Lyons reveals his favorite source for free photos and his favorite free online tool for editing them.
Five Key Ingredients for a Successful Corporate Blog by Sysomos
http://blog.sysomos.com/2010/11/03/five-key-ingredients-for-a-successful-corporate-blog/
Mark Evans offers five commonsense, but not always adhered to, recommendations for corporate blogging success, starting with
the need for quality content: “Content that provides insight, perspective and information. At its core, a corporate blog has
to give its readers information they can use to increase their knowledge, learn new things or receive insight.”
7 Ways to Create Blog Content That Attracts More Back Links by Digital Labz
http://digitallabz.com/blogs/7-ways-to-create-blog-content-that-attracts-more-back-links.html
Links are critical both for SEO purposes and attracting direct traffic–but they don’t appear magically. This post provides
proven strategies for naturally attracting more backlinks to your blog posts, such as capitalizing on current events, making
big lists (think “101 Tips” rather than “10 Tips”) and creating an infographic.
Link Building Tips for Personal Blogs by SEOmoz
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-building-tips-for-personal-blogs
Links are SEO fuel, and in this post SEO guru Rand Fishkin helpfully advises bloggers on which link-building tactics to avoid
(generic directories, link buying) as well as dozen technigues to use such as niche blog listing sites, answering questions in
online forums and social sharing in order to improve your blog’s rank in search.
Ten Blogging Mistakes I Learned in Year One by Nectar
http://drinknectar.com/2010/11/24/ten-blogging-mistakes-i-learned-in-year-one/
Josh Wade shares 10 common blogging mistakes to avoid, like misspelling someone’s name when you highlight them in post (oops),
picking fights, trying to be everywhere rather than focusing, and being a conformist.
8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content by Copyblogger
http://www.copyblogger.com/scannable-content/
Pamela Wilson suggests that “writing less and styling your text so it’s easy to read” is key to attracting greater blog
readership, and offers corresponding tips for doing so effectively such as breaking up blocks of copy using subheads, bulleted
lists and numbers.
90 Tips To Make Your Blog Rock by Jeff Bullas
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/12/02/90-tips-to-make-your-blog-rock/
And as if all of ideas above aren’t enough to keep you busy for the next year, Jeff Bullas offers 90 more including writing
about industry trends, highlighting customer successes, writing a series of “how to” posts and then turning those into short
videos, turn the results of surveys or polls into blog posts and more.
100+ Blog Directories and RSS Sites for Promoting Your Blog
Monday, October 25th, 2010Over time, the top source of traffic for most blogs is search. The two keys to search success are great content and links. Assuming you’ve already got great content, there are many places to get links (e.g. social networking profiles, social bookmarking sites, other bloggers). But two great sources are blog directories and RSS syndication sites. Not only do they provide valuable links, they can also supply direct traffic and help build your RSS subscriber list.
To give credit where it’s due, both the TopRank Online Marketing Blog and Robin Good have provided nice lists in the past, but as changes in the blog directory world can be challenging to keep pace with, both now include dead links and directories that have significantly changed their policies (e.g. charging for inclusion).
So, having recently completed a submission campaign for a client, here is an updated list of blog directories and RSS syndication sites that remain active and free. The list excludes sites that were, ahem, inappropriate for most blogs, had non-operational submission forms, appeared inactive, required a fee, or had a Google Pagerank of zero.
Preparation: What You’ll Need First
Before you get started with blog directory and RSS submission, here is a list of assets you’ll need to have ready in order to make your submission work productive. Create a plain text file, using Notepad or a similar tool, with the following information compiled:
Blog name/title (e.g., Webbiquity B2B Marketing Blog)
Blog URL (e.g., http://webbiquity.com)
Feed URL (e.g., http://feeds.feedburner.com/Webbiquity)
Meta description: (usually no more than 200 characters, e.g., “Webbiquity is the fusion of SEO, search marketing, social media, reputation management, content marketing and social PR to make you or your company omnipresent on the web for your unique search phrase.”)
Alternative short description (up to 255 characters, to take advantage of the slightly higher character limit offered by many directories, and to mix things up just a bit)
Keywords (6-8 core keyword phrases for your blog, e.g., “b2b marketing blog, SEO, search engine marketing, social media, SEM, online reputation management, content marketing, social PR”)
Long description (up to 500 characters)
About the author (up to 255 characters about you)
A user name, password and email address you’ll be using for the submissions. It’s simplest to use a common name and password across all of the sites, but if you’re concerned about security, use variations. Just keep a list in case you need to go back and edit details (e.g. change your email address) in the future.
100+ Blog Directories and RSS Submission Sites
Several of these sites require registration, and some require a reciprocal link, but at last check all were still active and free.
Blloggs
PR=1
Blogarama
PR=4
Blog.com
PR=6
Blogaz
PR=4
Blogbunch blog+rss
PR=3
Blogburst
“by invitation only” (not all blogs accepted)
PR=6
Blog-collector blog+rss
PR=2
Blogs-collection
PR=3
Blog-directory
PR=5
Blogdir
PR=4
(free) registration required
Blogdirectory001
PR=5
(free) registration required
Blogexplosion
PR=5
(free) registration required
Blogfinds
PR=3
Blogfolders
PR=3
Blogged
PR=6
Bloggapedia blog+rss
PR=5
(free) registration required
Bloggernity
PR=5
Bloghub
PR=5
Bloglisting
PR=3
Bloggernow
PR=3
Blogobbler
PR=1
Blogotion
PR=4
BlogPulse blog+rss
PR=6
Blogrankings
PR=6
Blogs.com
PR=7
Blogsearch
PR=6
Blog-search
PR=3
Blogsrating
PR=3
Blogville
PR=5
Blogz
PR=5
Buzzerhut
PR=3
Feedmap blog+rss
PR=3
Feednuts blog+rss
PR=5
Feedplex blog+rss
PR=3
Flookie
PR=4
FyberSearch
PR=3
Getblogs
PR=5
Globeofblogs
PR=7
Google
PR=10
Gozoof
PR=3
Grokodile
PR=3
Icerocket
PR=7
Info-listings
PR=4
Leighrss
PR=4
Loaded Web
PR=5
LSBlogs
PR=3
Minnesota blog+rss
PR=4
Mozdex
PR=3
Mvblogs
PR=4
Ontoplist blog+rss
PR=5
Regator (not all blogs accepted)
PR=5
Roask
PR=4
SmallBusiness.com
PR=5
Spicypage
PR=3
Submitblognow
PR=4
Technorati
PR=7
Theseoking
PR=3
Topblogarea
PR=5
TruthLaidBear
PR=5
Ubdaily
PR=4
Wilsdomain
PR=3
Weblogs.com
PR=6
Webloogle
PR=3 (a bit edgy)
Webworldindex
PR=3
Zimbio blog+rss
PR=6
RSS Feed Syndication Sites
4guysfromrolla
PR=4
5z5.com
PR=4
9rules.com
PR=4
Blogdigger
PR=6
Chordata Blog+Rss
PR=4
Devasp
PR=5
Feedagg
PR=6
Feedage
PR=6
Feedcat
PR=6
Rssfeeddirectory
PR=2
Feedest
PR=4
Feedgy
PR=4
FeedListing
PR=3
Feedmailer
PR=5
Feedsee
PR=5
Feeds4all
PR=5
Feedzie
PR=4
Finance-investing
PR=5
Goldenfeed
PR=4
Guzzle
PR=4
Jordomedia
PR=5
Keegy
PR=5
Leighrss
PR=4
Metafeeder
PR=3
Millionrss
PR=5
Moneyhighstreet
PR=4
Newsnow
PR=5
NGOID News Network
PR=5
Oobdoo
PR=5
Plazoo
PR=6
Rss001
PR=4
Rssmountain
PR=5
Rssmotron
PR=4
Rsstop10
PR=5
Rubhub
PR=6
Scribnia
PR=5
Solarwarp
PR=4
Swoogle
PR=6
Syndic8
PR=5
Urlfan
PR=5
Weblogalot
PR=6
Yopod
PR=5
Best Business Blogging Tips and Guides of 2010 (So Far), Part 2
Monday, October 18th, 2010How can you craft more compelling blog headlines? Which SEO tools should be part of every blogger’s arsenal? What characteristics do successful bloggers share? How can you get more links to your blog? Continually come up with fresh and interesting topics? Avoid dumb mistakes that even smart bloggers make?
Find the answers to those questions and others here in more of the best guides to business blogging of 2010 so far.
10 SEO Tools Every Blogger Must Use by Daily SEO Tip
Anil Gupta provides mini-reviews of 10 useful SEO tools for bloggers, from the popular (e.g., Google Analytics) to the lesser-known (e.g., Ranks.nl keyword density tool and Sitening.com SEO Analyzer).
Blog Optimization, Post Title SEO & Deadeye Targeting by aimClear
Marty Weintraub explains, with his customary depth and real-world illustration, how to use keyword research to craft blog post titles that draw both human readers and high organic search position.
The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers by Copyblogger
Want to join the ranks of highly successful bloggers? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this. Annabel Candy details eight traits to cultivate for blogging success, such as being concise, focused and persistent.
Meaningful Metrics for B2B Blogging by Proteus B2B Marketing
The prolific Galen De Young first clarifies which commonly used metrics aren’t particularly important (and why), then does a deep dive into several more valuable ways to measure the impact of a corporate blog, including analysis of total site traffic driven by your blog, your blog’s impact on search traffic, and visit quality.
Top 10 Blog Directories by SEO Wizardry
***** 5 Stars
Pete Hollier lists the top ten blog directories for listings that will generate both direct traffic and valuable backlinks.
The 5 Old Blogging Rules Killing Your Readership by Outspoken Media
The highly linkable Lisa Barone showcases five “old rules” for blogging success that no longer apply, and recommends new ones to replace them. Example: “Old Rule: Good Bloggers Keep Posts Short…Instead of insight, opinion and commentary, we got copycat stories and blogging for blogging’s sake. It was riveting. Only not. New Rule: Size doesn’t matter, the content does.”
Smart Professionals with Dumb Blogs by Writing on the Web
Patsi Krakoff presents a list of common “dumb” mistakes made by otherwise smart bloggers (long sentences, overuse of “we,” vague terms) along with recommendations for writing better posts.
17 Easy Steps to Brilliant Blog Posts by Copyblogger
Lamenting the lack of a “succinct summary all in one place” of the most valuable guidelines for bloggers, Jill Chivers proceeds to offer her own excellent summary of four key factors in writing a compelling post, eight ideas for more interesting content and five things to check before publishing.
4 Business Blogging Best Practices by HubSpot Blog
Noting that “Great business blogs have to walk a fine line: they have to create value for current and prospective customers while at the same time supporting a strategy that provides business growth,” Kipp Bodnar advises business bloggers to think like publishers, consider SEO and provide a clear connection to the corporate website among other practices.
7 ways to get more link love by iMedia Connection
Garrett French offers seven tips for getting relevant links to your content, such as constantly looking for ways to link to your peers first: “Link lavishly, and it will return to you in time.” Hey, it worked for him here.
50 Ways To Optimize Your Blog by jeffbullas.com
Jeff Bullas presents 50 tips to increase your blog’s readership, like asking questions of your readers, using StumbleUpon and AllTop, thoughtfully commenting on other blogs (with a link back to your own) and tweeting each of your new posts at least twice.
100 Sources of Blogging Inspiration by Ink Rebels
Diana Adams compiles an outstanding list of “though starters” to help break through blogger writing block, including writing a follow-up to an earlier post, lessons learned from an event you’ve attended, a book review, a case study, or if all else fails—inviting another blogger you’re socially connected with to write a guest post.
Would You Publish This Comment?
Monday, September 20th, 2010It’s always been my practice never to write anything overtly negative on my blog, on the simple philosophy that it never pays to make enemies. If I read a book and think it’s nonsense, I don’t review it. If I test a product or service and don’t see value in it, I don’t write about it. I’d rather ignore something than have my honest, but harsh opinion permanently accessible online.
When it comes to comments however, I’ll generally approve any comment that isn’t blatant spam. I think honest debate is healthy.
But one recent comment presented a quandary. In one of my best-of articles, I noted that I found a particular blog post interesting and linked to it. I know nothing about the blogger other than that he wrote a piece I found helpful and thought my readers would find value in. I received this comment (still unpublished):
[blogger name] is a scam artist and you will be taken advantage of if you do business with this sorry excuse for a human being.
If I ever see him again, I will make sure I don’t recognize him after that. Ask around, he is [expletive]. Most people are just too busy to waste any more time on him and feel sorry for all his next victims. And you all are victims.
On one hand, I’d never want to point my readers in the wrong direction. On the other, this comment is not only vulgar but borderline libelous and threatening.
What do you think? Would you publish this comment in the spirit of open debate or trash it potentially inaccurate and damaging? I’m interested in your thoughts.
Proper Care and Feeding of a Blog
Monday, September 13th, 2010My daughter is hooked on those pet rescue shows on Animal Planet. What I’ve learned from my more occasional viewing is that despite the many joys of pet ownership, not everyone is cut out for it. By the same token, despite the many benefits of a business blog, not everyone should rush into it. Like owning a pet, writing a blog isn’t rocket science but does require a certain level of care and attention, lest the effort end up among the millions of abandoned, forgotten and neglected blogs littering the online landscape. Here are seven tips for a healthy blog and a happy blogger.
Post regularly. A healthy blog thrives on fresh content, at least once per week, more often if possible. If it’s difficult for you to maintain that schedule on your own, consider a group blog where several authors provide content, easing the load on each. A blog with fresh content looks vibrant; a blog with no posts for several months appears neglected or abandoned to the lonely back streets of the web.
Maintain your blog. Make sure sidebar links are current and working, and keep your plugins updated. A blog with obsolete (e.g. promoting an event that is already past) or dead links, buttons that don’t work, or features that don’t function looks scruffy and uncared for.
Moderate and respond to comments. The best blogs communicate with readers rather than just broadcasting to them. Encourage comments, and when you get thoughtful comments or questions, respond and keep the conversation going. But being social doesn’t mean permitting every comment to be posted; obvious link spam or other worthless input should be rejected like the annoying parasites who leave them.
Provide contact information. There will be times when someone (such as a prospect with a product or pricing question, or a journalist looking for the right expert to quote) needs to contact you directly rather than just posting a comment. You can post your email address, use a WordPress contact form plugin, or incorporate an interactive business card (see the upper-right of this blog for an example) on your blog. A blog without contact information is like a lost pet with no ID tag.
Link out. Blogging is a social activity. No matter what topic you write about, there are other smart, insightful bloggers addressing it as well. Link to other posts that support a point you’re making, provide additional information or present a different point of view. It’s helpful to your readers as well as to the bloggers you link to, and often leads to some “link love” coming back to your blog in return.
Acknowledge those who link to you. Links are good things; they drive direct traffic to your blog as well as helping improve your rank in the search engines. When someone is thoughtful enough to link to your blog, show your appreciation: leave a comment on their blog, link to their post from your blog or from Twitter, Digg their post, send them a quick note, do something to affirm the recognition. There are certain over-inflated egos in the worlds of SEO and online marketing who are very poor at this. To be successful in social media, act more like a friendly pooch than an aloof feline.
Be patient! The animals on Pet Stars didn’t learn to do those amazing tricks overnight, and you shouldn’t expect your blog to attract a massive audience right away either. Like pet training, growing the readership for a blog requires using the right techniques and takes some time.
By following these tips for the proper care and feeding of your blog you’ll increase your odds of blogging success. And you won’t need a visit from Victoria Stilwell.
