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In the “old” days, it would take weeks to get a page indexed on a search engine like Google. Now you can have something indexed in hours, sometimes even minutes thanks to the new social media like blogs and video

Yesterday afternoon I posted my latest entry Micro Blogging By Email. First thing this morning I checked Google to see if it was indexed – there it was. In less than 24 hours, the entry was indexed and ready to work for me using my keywords.

Blogs work so well because you can quickly get information out to your readers, and get it indexed to gain potential readers.

1. Create an entry that’s targeted to your readers, and gives them specific information. Title it using your keywords, but don’t make the overall post keyword heavy. I once saw a blog wherever post was using keywords – it was boring and I didn’t stay around to read much. Think readers first, keywords second.

2. Tag your blog entry to match your keywords.

3. Post on a regular basis to index a variety of posts on a variety of topics – and attract new readers.

4. Repeat.

So you’ve created your blog. You post regularly. But you’ve also been hearing about other sites like Twitter and Plurk. Should you be doing more?

It really comes down to one question. Where are your clients? If your clients are using different forms of technology, you should be there as well.

I found a new micro blogging, Posterous,  site that makes posting even easier than logging in and writing a post. You simply send an email – and the post is instantly there.

I opened up my account today and created my first post, just to give it a try. I sent in 4 photos via email. By the time my email program sent the message, and I had returned to the site and refreshed, my post with the 4 photos was up. Cool!

You can use this anywhere. Out and about at lunch with clients, or at an event – simply send an email with your notes – and its instantly online.

Now its time to check into the RSS capabilities…

I was reading a report on a recent study by PEW Research Center, the 2008 biennial news consumption survey. While there were no huge surprises, I did learn a few interesting things.

 

According to the survey, 36 percent of respondents preferred to get some or all of their information from online sources. Print media continues to decline, Internet resources are rising, and television is remaining fairly constant. 

The study then divided up the population into groups based on how they receive their news.

The oldest population prefers traditional methods; the 35 and under group is moving towards online methods only. Online news gathers are more affluent, better educated, and have an 8 in 10 chance of having attended college. Fewer than half of this growing crowd watch television on a typical day.

Who is your target audience?

I constantly work with small business owners who set their target market towards the affluent crowd. If you’re not providing quality information online in a timely manner, how will you be reaching your target audience?

The affluent buyer is online many hours per day. They understand search, and can quickly find answers to their questions by doing a few searches. If you’re not there, they won’t find you.

You can blog every day, but if no one is reading, what’s the point?

How do you know if anyone is reading? Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can track what’s happening on your site.

1. Take a look at your statistics through your blog hosting company. Or set up a site statistics tracker to be able to see your results. [If you host with us, you have access to all of your stats - ask me how if you're unsure.] I’m excited to have had over 2400 unique visitors to my blog last month.

2. Check your signup rates. Whether you have an RSS feed signup, or you have a signup for an ezine or free report, watch how many people are signing up each day. We’ve been growing our signups at a rate of 45 percent per month. Your signups for RSS feeds can be through places like Feedburner. Or if you have an ezine system, you should be able to log in and look at your list statistics.

3. Search Engine Optimization - yes you can watch your blog to make sure you are achieving results. This blog currently has a pagerank of 3, and has 216 pages indexed by Google. Not bad for a blog started in April.

If you haven’t tracked your statistics before, give it a try. Just seeing how you’re growing and reaching out to new people can give you the motivation you need to keep blogging. 

Everywhere you look people are mentioning the benefits of using social sites for marketing your business. But what can it truly do for you? Is it really worth your time?

Here are 20 reasons why you should get on board with social networking:

1. Find new customers outside of your local market.

2. Teach people about your industry.

3. Showcase your expertise.

4. Connect with old friends and acquaintances.

5. Build up your list of prospective clients.

6. Build your brand.

7. Teach people about your product or service.

8. Share your opinions; having some controversy can get people talking.

9. Share case studies from current clients.

10. Gather testimonials and rave reviews.

11. Share your knowledge.

12. Share your advice.

13. Find new employees and new contracted help.

14. Connect with like minded business owners from around the world.

15.  Gain more traffic to your website.

16. Stay at the top of your industry.

17. Join groups that share common interests.

18. Niche your brand even further, making it stronger.

19. Connect your online and offline marketing efforts.

20. Find potential you never new was available.

Should you write a blog for fun, and only concern yourself with your readers? Or should you write for the search engines, and use great keywords?

Actually a little of both.

You have to start with a great post that gets the attention of the search engines in order to have your post found, and ultimately read. If you’ve never played around with keyword tools, Google has a great one that gives you keywords, phrases and some statistics on search volume.

When you use this tool, type in small keywords that pertain to your industry. If I put in the word "pets", I find phrases like "pet clothes" "pet boutique" and "pet photography". You can use these keywords to create your title, and ultimately create the content of your post. Using "pet boutique", you may end up with a title, "How To Start Your Own Pet Boutique".

Now that you have a good keyword, and a great title, write your post for your reader. What does your reader want to hear? What do they want to learn? How can you be a resource to them?

I recently came across a blog in one of my niches. It was brand new - started in the last month - and had about a dozen posts. Everything about it was ranked high for the search engines, and the posts did come up several times on the first page for the search I was doing. But when I went over to read the posts, they were clearly written to impress the search engines - not the reader. None of the information was accurate, or made much sense to the reader. In reality, the blogs posts will never give people a reason to visit again. They were solely put up to capture a little bit of ad revenue.

By using the two together, you’ll end up with far more traffic overall, and a larger audience that comes back again and again.

Blog Action Day 2008 has just been announced - and I’m excited to be a part of this amazing event.

Thousands of blogging sites will take place in this unique online event. On October 15th, every blogger registered for the cause will make a blog post about poverty. To be truly unique, the blog post should be targeted towards your audience of readers.

Because this site is all about businesses blogging, I’ll be looking at what aspiring entrepreneurs can do to create business out of blogging. 

I’ll also be supporting Kiva that day - an amazing organization in which you can help entrepreneurs in developing countries with a micro loan.

Do you have a blog? Do you want to join this amazing cause yourself? Come join in the fun, and see how blogging can take you to new heights. 

Having a blog (or a website) isn’t enough. You have to market it too.

One of the ways I’ve always recommended is article marketing. Article marketing involves writing an informative article that pertains to your business, and submit it to a variety of places in hopes they will use it, giving you a valued link back to your site or blog.

I use a variety of sources and tools to get the article into as many hands as possible. Some of my old tools are becoming more difficult to use. So when I heard about Affsphere, I decided to head over and see what they have to offer.

They set up their article program a bit different than others. In most cases, you write articles for the sole purpose of getting your article onto other websites, and into other ezines for the linkage back to your site. Affsphere takes it one step further, and allows you to offer earn affiliate commissions based on the connections you make and the people you refer. They also have an advertising network that allows you to advertise - and drive traffic back into your site. Pretty cool.

I created my account yesterday in just a few minutes. And I’m working on my 10 articles to submit to gain my  free 2000 ad credits. The other thing I like about their back end system is I can set up multiple authors - a great thing for me to easily market for my clients.

I’ll be testing out this new system here over the next couple weeks to see how well it performs.

The more choices you give, the more confused your customers will be.

It’s human nature to like to have a choice, but given too many choices, most of us simply shut down. If you have a child, you can remember that they loved to have a choice of whether to wear the red shirt or the blue one. But if you open up the closet and make everything available, well, let’s just say you may be in for a long battle.

The same goes with your marketing. People like choices. But if you give them too many, they will move onto another website - one that is more likely to tell them what to do.

Start with the basics. Get your clients into the "door". Then sell them as you develop a stronger relationship.

To start, ask them to sign up for your RSS feed, or for your free report or your ezine. Whichever you choose, make sure it’s obvious on your home page of your blog. You can even provide an article or copy elsewhere on your site explaining how and why to sign up. Don’t leave it to chance - ask for the signup.

Then sell your products/services subtly throughout your blog posts. Remember, each blog entry should be written to inform the reader, not sell. But as you are providing quality information, you can add a line or two about one of your offers. Think 80 percent information, 20 percent sales. If they find value in what you do, they’ll be more likely to follow you, and ultimately buy from you.

[Want step-by-step advice on how to blog for your business? Check out my latest video coaching series which walks you through what you need to do to succeed with your blog.]

If you are in a tiny niche, or a niche that isn’t Internet savvy, your prospects and customers may not even know they are reading a blog. They just simply like the information you are providing.

The important thing isn’t to make sure they know they are reading a blog; it’s to make sure they know how to follow you on a regular basis. Start by understanding RSS, and how it can work for you.

Understand RSS. RSS is still a relatively new concept – one that not all of your prospects and clients may understand. RSS (really simple syndication) provides an easy way for you to connect up and share information with your readers. There are a variety of ways to do this. In it’s easiest format, every blog comes with some type of RSS feed.

Highlight your feed, and tell your clients about it.

In Internet Explorer, when you click to subscribe, a new screen will appear that will ask you to subscribe to the feed.

When you click, it will open up a box. Here you can change the name it’s saved under, and assign it to folders within your feed favorites.

Now that you are subscribed, you can visit your feeds anytime you like. In Internet Explorer, you have a favorites button in the top left hand corner. You can store your Favorites, which are your favorite web addresses, or your Feeds from your favorite blog RSS feeds.

Then any time you click on your favorite Feeds, you can instantly see who has posted new entries to their blogs. Bold entries have new posts. No new entries if its not.

Other browsers work in similar manners.

This is the simplest way to begin getting followers. From there, you can get even more sophisticated, which we’ll follow up on in later posts.

The important thing is to understand it yourself, and request your prospects and clients follow you.

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