Ultimately, you want your reader to be able to really get into your story, see him or herself in your writing, and have the desire to move to the next level. To take action. 

The easiest way to become better at writing is to create your blog posts like you would be telling a story to a potential customer. How would you speak to them?

“Selling isn’t fun and most people don’t enjoy it.”

You may agree with that sentence, but does it really motivate you to want to take the next step or to find out more about what the person is saying? Compare that to:

“Jane hated selling. She hated it so much she almost decided to close her business because of it. She loved working with the clients, making them happy, and following up with them after the sale. But it was always the initial meeting that made her nervous. She never wanted to come across as a used car salesperson. She didn’t want people thinking she was pushy.”

If you hate selling, you can instantly feel Jane’s pain. You can put yourself into her situation, and feel exactly what she’s feeling. You also want to read more of the story – what happens next? Does Jane shut down her business? Or does she find a solution?

That’s the way you want to write. Let your writers feel what you are talking about. Bring out the details. Describe the situation how someone looking in would see it. Describe it from one person’s point of view.

Great books always pull you in because they tell a story. They make you want to read further because you want to find out what’s next.

Do the same with your blog.

Do this with every post. And do it between different posts. Make people move from one spot to the next.

The more you can pull them in, the greater they will stick to your blog. And the bigger the chance of them becoming customers in the future.

Google Alerts is a free service you can sign up for that will let you know every time your keywords are found by Google’s search robots.

For example, I’m subscribed to Google Alerts for the keywords “photography business”. Anytime that anything comes through Google with that search result, I receive a notification as to where on the Internet they exist. Because this particular key phrase is fairly common, I receive one email every day, and usually with a dozen or so links.

The great thing about Google Alerts is you can put in as many words and phrases as you choose. Also consider using it for your name and your business name – I have it set up for “Lori Osterberg” and my business name and websites. This keeps you up to date if anyone is talking about you online.

By using Google Alerts for your keywords and key phrases, you can find a lot of ideas for future blog posts. You’ll be led to other websites and blogs with ideas you can continue on with. And you’ll receive news and press releases on brand new items coming out that you can alert your readers to.

It only takes a couple minutes a day to stay on top of the news. And to make sure you know what is being said about you.

We’ve always used a fairly high quality video camera in the past. You know, get out the tripod, set it up with lighting, create a great background. Hey, we’re photographers right? But I have really wanted a Flip Video since they first started making their appearance online.

• They are small and portable.
• You can bring them anywhere.
• It’s easy to create video – just push the button.
• It’s easy to move the video to your computer – just pop out the USB and plug it in.
• And amazingly enough, it has high quality video and audio for such a small inexpensive camera.

So a week ago I decided a Flip Video would be the perfect gift for Father’s Day. So we’ve been playing with it for the past week, and I decided its time to get busy and start recording.

So what can you do with a Flip Video and your blog?

• Video your clients. Ask them questions, get testimonials.
• Create your own weekly video. Talk to your readers and tell them a tip or two.
• Record your products in action.
• Meet your office staff. Instead of a group photo, why not have everyone do a two minute introduction?
• Record your networking groups and ask your strategic partners for quotes and comments.
• Bring it along to tradeshows. Get the details you want to remember more.

I think once you have this camera in your pocket, you’re going to find a ton of uses for it. I know I will, and I’m looking forward to sharing more video with you soon.

If you are a blogger, you know what I’m talking about. Each day you sit down to write on a new subject that’s pertinent to today and to your market. But if you’ve ever searched back through your categories, chances are you’ll find something similar from several months before.

How can you use old information to help you gain clients today? 

Let’s look at three strategies.

1. Instead of sitting down with an entirely new idea, choose a category instead. Then click over to that category on your blog and start reading some of your posts from the past few months.

Are there any posts that would make an interesting topic today?

Are there several posts that you can combine together to make a new point?

Start writing your new post, linking back to the old posts as reference. It will give your old posts traction (people click through to read your point) and will help you dive deeper into a topic you have a lot of knowledge in.

2. Tweet your posts on Twitter. Sure you can set up your posts to automatically head to Twitter via RSS feed as you create them. But your old content is still valuable. Use a service like TweetLater.com to release your posts periodically. Choose posts that had great content, high comment ratio, or to provide support to other things you are Tweeting about.

3. Combine your blog posts into a whitepaper, ebook, or free report. When you start out blogging, you usually cover a broad range of topics. But over time, each category begins to become more complex. And in some cases, they can be merged together to tell a bigger story. This is a great way to gain a product quickly without a huge workload to get it into place.

You can even plan this over time. Create a category with an ebook in mind for a 6 month delivery time. Add one new post a week that fits into the outline. Your ebook will be written in your 6 month time frame.

I know we all experience that at sometime or another. Well April 1st was my day. I was reading a book, and completely disagreed with what the author was saying.

Even just a few years ago, I wouldn’t have had a venue to promote my own feelings. I may have talked to friends and family I bumped into that day. But for the most part my feelings would have simply faded away.

No longer. Now we have the power of blogging.

So I created my rant in blog format. And posted it to my blog. And the comments came pouring in all kinds of formats (blog, email, Twitter).

1. Know your audience. Who are your readers? What do they want? The best way to tell is keep writing and read everything they respond to you with. If they like something, they’ll tell you.

2. Write quality information they can trust. The great thing about blogging is you can push the limits. Because we all experience different things every day, its easy to find new things to write about. Your readers are changing too. Chances are they’ll enjoy reading different sides of what you have to say.

3. Rant every once in awhile. I’ve found ranting actually makes you more trust worthy. People find your passion through your rants. They know where you stand. They know what you care for. And they’ll trust you all the more.

As a part of my research, I continually came across one blog in particular. They rank very well, and came up through a variety of my searches.

One problem. 

They wrote for the search engines, not for their visitors.

When I entered their blog and scrolled down through the first few posts, they looked something like this:

• Niche Keyword: A How To Guide
• Niche Keyword: Answering Your Questions
• Niche Keyword: How It Works
• Niche Keyword: 10 Ways To Implement

Lots of text. No photographs or graphics. And LOTS of niche keywords throughout the titles and blog posts.

Boring.

Sure, it might do well in the search engines. But where is the attraction? If you get me as a reader over to the home page of the blog, what’s going to entice me to want to stay?

And to keep me as a loyal reader?

1. What keyword or key phrase would you like to rank high under? Use that as your starting point. Create your title around that keyword or key phrase.

So if I choose to write about a key phrase “How To Write A Blog Post”, it may turn into a title of “How To Write A Blog Post For Your Reader And The Search Engines”.

2. Use that title to create the content of your post. You may end up using the key phrase once or twice throughout the post, as well as the title. But don’t overdo. As long as your post is using keywords and phrases that pertain to your main key phrase, Google will know.

3. Write for your reader, not for the search engines. It’s important to get high rankings in the search engines. That’s how you’ll grow your readership. But it’s equally important to keep your readers happy once they find you.

4. Write continually about different things. Every niche has a ton of things that can be written about it. Your goal with your blog is to write a little about everything, and continually focus on specific areas. Over time, you’ll cover it all. Just keep writing.

Depending on your field, the information you created six months is still relevant. Yet to filter down to that content is hard to do. The majority of your readers, whether they’re brand new or have been following you since the beginning, don’t remember what content you created back at the beginning.

So bring it back to life.

Browse through your older posts, and find a theme.

Then create a brand new post, writing a small amount of new content, and linking back to the blog posts that inspired this new post.

Let me give you an example.

Because this post is on creating content, I searched through my old blog posts on creating content. I found:

• Put Your Knowledge Into A Blog Post
• Turn Your Questions Into Blog Posts
• Choosing What To Blog About
• Would You Read Your Own Posts?

All have great information, and can help out any new blogger trying to build up their content.

But the posts are anywhere from 1 to 9 months old. And by writing up to 5 times per week, these posts were buried.

Not anymore. I’ve just revived them, and given my readers a chance to read each of the posts again.

I’ve also performed a deep linking strategy, which will ultimately help me in search engine rankings. (A deep linking strategy is making a hyperlink that points to a specific page on my blog, instead of to my home page.)

So if you’re having trouble coming up with something to blog about this week, why not revive your content?

What do you learn just by being in the business that would be of interest to those that may do business with you down the road?

I was out networking today and talking with a number of different professionals about blogging. As I chatted and explained blogging to one man, he stopped me after a short time and said, “I just don’t have that much to talk about”. I asked him a few questions.

• Tell me about your business.
• Why is your company different than others?
• Who has been your favorite client?
• What excites you about working in your industry?

And he came alive. I spent over 5 minutes listening to his responses. He was very passionate about what he does, and he obviously new a lot about his industry. He has a ton of experience, and really enjoys being able to help people with his services.

I looked at him and said, “that’s what you blog”.

• Talk about your favorite client.
• Talk about how you saved a client hundreds of dollars a month.
• Talk about the research you do to find the perfect product for each customer.
• Share your expertise.

And he got it.

We’ll be designing his blog over the next week, and he should be up and blogging by the end of February.

Do you get it?

When you’re meeting with a prospect, what questions do they have before they become clients?

When you’re working with your clients, what questions do they ask you as you go through the process of the sale?

These are perfect blog posts.

The purpose of a blog post is to educate your potential customers, and provide them with quality information that proves your expertise. People are more likely to do business with people that provide quality information – people they look to as a resource, and can rely on for help throughout their learning process.

They will also make your job easier.

If a prospect emails you a question, you can direct them to the blog post that provides more information.

If you’re working with a client for an extended period of time, you can email them occasional posts to help explain things in more detail.

And of course every post you write will ultimately be helping you attract even more clients. As long as they remain on your blog.

There are different ways to hire a ghost blog writer.

1. Some services are national firms that write a great deal of content, and have it available for release to clients. When you sign up with them, you get content fed onto your blog on a regular basis. The problem with these firms is they are feeding the same content not just to your blog site, but to sites of your competitors as well. Anyone within the industry is free to purchase this information, and use it to fill up their blog.

Great idea – but without the original content, it just isn’t a perfect match for some companies that pride themselves on customer service.

2. Using sites like Elance.com to hire writers for very low cost to produce a set amount of blog posts. You can hire in quantity, and they will write specifically for you.

While this is an option many people find successful, you still may have issues. Writers may not be writing in their native language, or they may not understand the complexity of the industry, thus not getting into a lot of detail that you would possibly add if you were writing.

3. Use a ghost blogger that sets aside the time to write specifically for you, in your voice. Is this your greatest cost? Of course. But by hiring a professional ghost blogger – someone who is working on your behalf – means that they are committed to adding the best quality content available. They will ask you questions, find out your niche market, and write to promote your specialities. They will meet with you regularly to find out your upcoming events, and discuss topics for future posts. They will write from your perspective.

Ready to try out ghost blogging for yourself?