........................................................................................................................

www.andreabolder.com

Beginners Guide To Setting Up A Smart Small Business Blog That Creates Instant Buzz!

Biz Blog Buzz

Business Blog Buzz By Andrea Bolder

Andrea Bolder is a Gold Medal Olympian turned social media expert, consultant and strategist. She has used internet marketing and social media marketing to build successful businesses online and coaches small businesses and solo-

entrepreneurs simple strategies on how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Blogging to find new customers and increase revenue.

Follow me on Twitter@andreabolder

www.andreabolder.com

Why Your Small Business Need A Blog 4

Know Your Blogging Options 8

Generating Blog Content 15

Optimizing Your Blog Posts 18

Promoting Your Blog Posts 22

Measuring Blog Success 27

Essential WordPress Plugins for Your Blog 29

Additional Blogging Resources 31

Step Up Your Internet 32

Marketing Game 32

www.andreabolder.com

Why Your Small Business Need A Blog

Blogging has come a long way since the days of journaling what you did today. Blogging now, is considered to be one of the most effective branding and marketing tools in promoting business online.

Recent marketing data gives us strong insight as t o w h a t m a r k e t i n g activities small business owners are taking when it comes to leveraging social media in 2012.

Not surpr is ingly, the majority of respondents m a r k e d F a c e b o o k , Twitter, and LinkedIn as the top 3 places where they are currently active. After all, these are easily the most talked-about social networks right now, a n d a r e p o i s e d t o c o n t i n u e t o b e tremendously effective in c o n n e c t i n g w i t h c u s t o m e r s f o r t h e foreseeable future.

Blogs came in at #4 on the list. While this shouldnʼt be too much of a shock, as there are millions of blogs and bloggers around the world, how do you as a small business owner use blogging to grow your brand awareness, generate leads and connect with existing customers to increase revenues?

www.andreabolder.com

It can be quite challenging getting your blog to be a standout superstar among so many. How do you get noticed? Why can some blogs attract thousands of people everyday and others get no blog traffic at all? If you want to get noticed by your ideal prospect, advertisers and search engines so you can make money from your blog, this guide is for you.

Businesses, more than ever, are recognizing the extensive list of benefits that come as a result of maintaining a relevant and up-to-date blog. Blogs are one of the most effective ways to convey what your brand is REALLY all about. What you talk about, and how you talk about it, gives your readers a very personal insight in to what the culture of your business is. It sheds light on what the core values and beliefs are in your organization by addressing what you stand for, how you view issues facing your customers, and how open your business is to talking about whatʼs going on behind the logo.

In addition to the obvious ʻbrandingʼ benefits that come with maintaining a blog, there are many other benefits that might not be apparent at first glance. Not the least of which is the boost you can achieve in organic search traffic. You see, itʼs most likely that your main website is optimized for a certain collection of keywords. These are typically your brand name, specific product names, and product or service types. However, when writing blog posts you create an entirely new batch of content that answers completely different types of search queries.

Through blog posts, youʼre not just trying to sell visitors something; youʼre trying to help them learn more about the topics that interest them. The appreciation that occurs through being genuinely helpful goes a long way to building relationships with your readers, so that when they do need to buy, youʼre much more likely to be their first choice.

As you continue to provide relevant and valuable content, your blog becomes a long-term marketing asset that will bring traffic and leads to your business. It introduces you as a thought leader in your industry and allows you to earn peopleʼs trust. In this ebook, we will walk you step-by-step through the blogging fundamentals and show you how to start reaping the benefits of this valuable marketing channel.

www.andreabolder.com

KeyBenefitsofBlogging

SEO Friendly

Creating a blog for your small business helps you get found in the search engines. Blogs are search engine friendly and you can get your content ranked on the top of the search engines, like Google and Yahoo, driving more traffic to your site.

By optimizing your blog posts using targeted keywords related to your industry, you can boost your traffic as people find your business as a result of searching for those relevant keywords online.

Also, the more blog posts you publish, the more indexed pages you create for search engines to display in their results, allowing you to attract organic traffic and increase brand awareness.

Lead Generation

A blog also helps you build your email list more effectively than any other type of website or capture page. The percentage of people stopping by your blog who opt in and join your email list will be much higher compared to a capture page or static website.

Your blog gives you valuable real estate to capture leads so you can continue building a relationship with them and moving them down your sales funnel.

Passive Income

You can have multiple streams of income positioned on your blog, allowing you to earn passive income 24/7. Your blog is your “personal store” for your own information products or services, affiliate products and other income streams you have in place.

www.andreabolder.com

You can place calls-to-action within your blog posts by hyperlinking keywords to appropriate offers you have or adding contextual links before or after your article. You can also place calls-to-action in the blog sidebar section, creating banners to advertise your offers and best selling products.

Social Proof

Blogs are also a great way to build social proof. This means that when you have other people commenting, sharing your content and interacting on your blog, a new visitor will be much more likely to listen to you and contribute as well. Itʼs just human nature…We see others doing something, and we are much more likely to follow the crowd and do it, too!

Thought Leader

As your company begins to solve the biggest challenges your customers and target audience face, your blog will become a go-to resource as well as an asset that positions you as an expert or thought leader in your field.

Use your blog as a platform to showcase your expertise and by sharing valuable information you will earn peopleʼs trust helping you to separate yourself from your competition.

www.andreabolder.com

Know Your Blogging Options

There are many different blogging platforms out there today that small business owners can choose from. These platforms include Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, and more.

DefiningYourGoals

When choosing your blogging platform youʼll want to ask yourself a few questions:

• Is blogging something I want to do long term?• What is the main purpose of my blog?• Will I be monetizing my blog?

DeterminingYourBudget

Blog platforms come with a variety of price points ranging from free to more expensive options. There are three main things that you might pay for:

• The blog platform itself• Domain Name• Hosting for your blog

Of course, different platforms offer different levels of service. Blogger.com and WordPress.com offer both the platform, domain name and hosting for free. Others like WordPress.org (note this is different to WordPress.com) offer the platform for free but you then need to find and pay for your own hosting and domain name.

Other costs you might like to factor in at an early stage include:

• design/graphics – all platforms come with free templates (some more professional looking than others) but if you want a more individual look youʼll either need to have some design skills, know someone who does or be willing to pay for a design.

www.andreabolder.com

• blog tools/metrics – there are any number of tools you can pay for to help you in your blogging. These might include statistics packages (again you can get free ones but can also pay for more features), offline blog posting tools etc. If youʼre a beginner you might not need any of these – but down the line you might find them useful.

HowTechSavvyAreYou?

This is a crucial factor to consider when choosing a blog platform. If youʼve never had any experience in creating a blog or website before and are not tech savvy then there are some blog platforms that will be much more suited to your needs than if you know a few of the basics, or at least are willing to learn them.

The other option of course is to find someone who is technologically able to help you out (either paid or as a friend). One of the great things about blogging and most of the platforms out there is that there are many forums dedicated to helping people get the most out of their chosen platforms.

Hostedvs.Self‐Hosted

Blogging sites like Blogger and Wordpress.com host your blog for you on their own domain, which means you do not have full control over your blog or the content you create on it. If they decide one day to shut down or pull your site, for whatever reason, your blog and all itʼs content is gone.

Wordpress.org is a self-hosted blog, meaning you will have your own domain and 100% control and ownership over it. This is what I do with all of my blogs. So youʼll see that the Marketing.Mindset.Money blog is hosted at AndreaBolder.com and is powered by WordPress.org.

Self-hosted blog platforms are ideal if you want a little more control or flexibility with your blogging. You are only limited by your imagination. Of course just because you go with a stand alone blog doesnʼt ensure you will have the perfect professionally looking blog. In fact if you donʼt have the

www.andreabolder.com

ability to set these blogs up correctly (or know someone who can) standalone blogs can be unorganized and non-professional looking blogs.

As a professional business owner, you always want to have complete control of your work, your business, and your income. Since your blog is the core of your online business, you donʼt want to ever risk losing it.

So if you are serious about maximizing your content, monetizing your blog establishing yourself as a credible player online, itʼs important to use Wordpress.org as your blogging platform…

Even if you are not highly skilled in this area itʼs worth spending a little money to get it set up with a designer or even better still, to learn how to do it yourself.

So letʼs see what it takes to create a money-making blog!!

www.andreabolder.com

Setting Up Your BlogOnce youʼve decided to launch a small business blog there are a few steps you need to take to get started.

1. Find Your Focus: What is it that you want to talk about? What's your niche? You can talk about anything that relates to your industry and attracts your target audience. You may not be knowledgeable about every single aspect, but find topics you want to focus on and stick with it.

Once youʼve narrowed down your niche, build a keyword strategy that attracts your ideal customer or prospect. This will increase your chances of getting found by people searching with those keywords, which will drive more and better quality traffic to your businessʼ website.

2. Buy A Domain: Domain names are fairly inexpensive and ".info" domain names can be purchased for as little as $1.99 from companies such as GoDaddy, and buying one will allow your blog site to be picked up by the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and others. It is recommended to purchase a ".com" domain name because they are most popular and what everyone is accustomed to using. You can get a ".com" domain name for under $10 dollars.

You will want to purchase your company name and your own name as well if you are a personal brand - this way you can brand YOU on your blog.

Steps To Purchasing Your Domain:

Step 1: To secure domain name go to: GoDaddy.com

1a. If you already have an account set up with godaddy, please login using your username and password if no please create your account now.

www.andreabolder.com

1b. Use the domain search feature to see if the domain name you want is available. Enter the domain name and hit “go”

1c. If the domain name is available click the green “continue to registration” button to complete your purchase.

1d. Customize your domain settings. Choose to register your domain for 1 year, 2 years or 5 years.

1e. Move through the next steps as these add-ons are not needed. As you continue youʼll move on to the “Cart” section. Review your shopping cart,

www.andreabolder.com

enter your promo code - use discount code “cjc749fat” or search the internet for “godaddy discount codes”.

Once youʼve checked everything is correct click green “continue to checkout” button.

1f. Enter payment details and complete purchase.

Step 2: To purchase your web hosting visit: Hostgator.com

22a. From homepage click yellow “View Web Hosting Plans” Button.

2b. Choose your Plan. Suggested plan for small businesses is the “Baby Plan”.

2c. Enter the domain name you purchased from GoDaddy.com in the section “I Currently Have a Domain Name” and click Continue to step 2.

www.andreabolder.com

2c. Complete the necessary billing information to complete your order. Confirm package type and choose your billing cycle. Per month, every 6 months, annually, 2 years or 3 years.

You will also choose your username and security pin.

2 d . E n t e r y o u r b i l l i n g information

2e. Please review your order details, check that you have read the terms and conditions of use then cl ick “create account” button.

Hostgator will send you a welcome email that contains important information youʼll need to reference when installing your WordPress template. Hold on to it.

www.andreabolder.com

Generating Blog Content

Youʼve picked a beautiful WordPress template, installed it, and are ready to start generating content. But what should you be blogging about?

Finding topics to blog about (especially if you want to post regularly) can be one of the most challenging obstacles marketers face and can often lead to you not blogging at all.

So youʼll never be at a loss for words, in this section we are going to lay out for you a 21 super simple ways to find and begin generating relevant content that your target audience would be interested in.

1. What blog titles grab your attention? If you have seen intriguing articles or blog post titles that trigger curiosity, take note and use it as inspiration for your own posts.

2. If you see a blog comment that resonates with you or your audience and offers a great viewpoint, ask the commenter if theyʼd like to write a guest post for you and expand on the original comment.

3. Speaking of popular posts, if a small business blog in your niche has their most popular posts on display in their sidebar, click on a couple to read and see what made them popular. Then see how you can take inspiration from them.

4. Another method of generating content for your blog is to invite other industry experts to write guest posts for you. Use your network to find people who might be interested in guest blogging. Be confident in pitching them benefits of guest blogging. For instance, guest bloggers can gain exposure beyond their normal readership and generate inbound links that can help them rank better in search engines. Guest blogging is also a great way to begin a co-marketing partnership and build a strong relationship with industry influencers.

www.andreabolder.com

5. Delicious is a great resource for finding blog content. Just type your topic into the Delicious search bar and youʼll find a ton of results from people that have saved articles or blog posts about your chosen topic.

6. Stumbleupon is an awesome browser add-on that lets you randomly browse websites of interest. You can land on some great content that will give you your own ideas for your blog.

7. While not as popular as it used to be, Digg still has some great shared posts and news on its site. Look at the most popular and see what you can take away from them.

8. Technorati has close to 135 million blogs registered with them. Use the categories or top topics to find content you can get ideas from.

9. BizSugar is a sleeper site that is beginning to become popular, as it concentrates on small business news. Check this site out to get some great ideas.

10.A mix of social bookmarking and community, Blog Engage a cool community site focused on just bloggers but is a great for getting fresh ideas.

11.Alltop offers a great collection of blog articles in a number of topics.

12.Another really cool blog community is Scribnia. Search for both authors and bloggers based on niches.

13.Google Blog Search offers up a huge resource of blogs on an unlimited number of topics.

14.Junta 42, also known as the content marketing institute, offers some great tips on content marketing and lists top authority blogs – check out their articles for ways to get ideas for your own blog.

15.If youʼre on Twitter, one of the best ways to find content for your blog is to jump into the weekly #blogchat discussion.

www.andreabolder.com

16.You can also look for whatʼs trending on Twitter and if itʼs relevant to your niche, write about it. Use Trendsmap, a real-time mapping of Twitter trends across the world as a source to find hot topics to write about.

17.Another way to use Twitter for blog inspiration is to utilize the Twitter Search feature which is great for finding out what people are saying as it relates to your niche. Simply type in a keyword, and see what people are talking about.

18.Networked Blogs is a very popular application on Facebook that shares content from Facebook users who have blogs listed on the Networked Blogs directory. Pull ideas from this directory.

19.LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Answers are perfect places for finding blog content on what I like to call the no-nonsense social network. Look at the questions being asked and write a blog post as your answer.

20.Document sharing sites, like Scribd and Slideshare has so much great content that you can always find relevant, quality content to pull from.

21.YouTube, one of the largest social networks on the web, is the 3rd most visited site on the planet. YouTube is essentially blogging with video and it is overflowing with content. Use the search feature to find hot topics related to your industry. You can even embed relevant videos into your blog post to use.

www.andreabolder.com

Optimizing Your Blog Posts

There are many things you need to thoroughly check before hitting the “Publish” button that are so easy to overlook. Letʼs outline a list of action steps you will need to take before publishing your blog posts. Iʼm sure you will find it useful especially for those “pillar” articles that you put so much time and effort in to.

SocialMediaSharingButtons

Give your readers a way to share your content with social sharing buttons. Expand your reach by including social media sharing buttons (e.g. “Like,” “share on LinkedIn,” “tweet,” “email,” “pin it,” etc.) on every single post.

This will encourage readers to share your content with their own social networks and expand its reach beyond your own connections.

DoMyKeywordResearch

Keywords are Key! As weʼve learned in Internet Marketing Success, keywords rule the search engines and are the best way to maximize your traffic.

Use the same keywords that other popular blogs or businesses are using to drive their traffic and increase their rankings on the web.

You want to make sure that the keywords you choose donʼt have too much competition. This way your content will have a realistic chance of getting on the first page of Google instead of getting lost in the crowd.

www.andreabolder.com

CreateAHypnoticHeadline

Your headlines are probably more important than the content itself because your title will draw in your visitor and turn them into a reader! If your headlines and titles donʼt trigger curiosity, are not clear or donʼt create a sense of urgency no one is going to take the time to read your posts. Itʼs just a fact when you are competing against so much other great content on the Internet.

Capture the readers attention by offering something of great value, something that makes them curious to know more. It can be witty, it can be emotional, it can be newsworthy, it can be controversial. Whatever your headline is, make sure it is something that makes you want to read more. Also, donʼt forget to include your targeted keywords in your title. This will help you with search engine optimization.

LinkToOtherResourcesonMyBlog

Linking to previous posts inside your blog is a great way to help your visitors navigate through your blog and find additional nuggets of content that can help them solve their challenges. Itʼs also a good practice for search engine optimization allowing the search engine spiders to crawl your site more efficiently, allowing them to understand your content through the link anchor text.

Your links can, naturally, point to your internal and landing pages to help you generate more leads from your content.

Always, always, always, make sure that before you hit “publish” you take the time to link to older posts.

LinkToExternalSources

Some people are so afraid of linking to other sites for fear theyʼll lose their reader. This is so far from the truth. Donʼt be afraid to link to external websites when itʼs helpful and appropriate. If your content is valuable and solid, you will only be enhancing someoneʼs learning experience by linking

www.andreabolder.com

to relevant resources. For example, if you mention a tool in your blog post that helped you get winning results, link to it. If you mention a term or phrase that others may not be familiar with, link to Wikipedia, or a source that explains that term in greater detail. You can even link to an online dictionary.

CheckForBrokenLinks

Now that youʼve included both internal and external links you want to make sure they are not broken. Check to make sure your links are working properly. I use a nifty WordPress Plugin called Broken Link Checker. It automatically checks your posts, comments and other content for broken links and missing images, and notifies you if any are found. This is a really cool way to monitor your blog. Itʼs so easy to make a small mistake that results in a broken link and the impact on the reader and even your pocketbook can be significant.

I remember I was promoting a hot new affiliate product and didnʼt check my link to make sure it was working properly. Come to find out I had added an extra http:// in the html code. I can only imagine how much money I lost and how frustrated my visitors were when they couldnʼt get to the information page.

In the first week of launch I had hundreds of people clicking the link but made no sales because they couldnʼt get to the sales page. Iʼve double and triple checked my links from that point on. Itʼs as simple as hitting “Preview” in WordPress and clicking on all the links to make sure they are working and pointing to the correct URL.

OptimizethePermalink

WordPress allows you to customize or edit your slug or permalink to each of your blog posts. Take advantage of this feature to ensure your permalinks are concise, and that they contain your targeted keywords.

For your internal page URLs, separate individual keywords with dashes (-). For

www.andreabolder.com

example: http://andreabolder.com/facebook-marketing is a good URL that captures ʻmarketingʼ and ʻfacebookʼ as keywords.

Eliminate filler words such as a, of, the, etc. This will give your permalinks a clean look and help with SEO, increasing your traffic from the search engines.

IncludeImagesThatMakeAnImpact?

A picture is worth a thousand words, so use an image in the body of your content that will entice people to read the rest of your post. Pictures are great for helping with search engine optimization and can also bring you some traffic from the Google Image search.

Also consider adding other forms of media that can make a blog article more memorable and fun to read. It also helps to break up the text to make it more pleasing to the eye. In addition to adding at least one image try incorporating slideshow presentations, video, audio and info-graphics.

ProofreadYourPost

Make sure your article is well written and formatted in a way that is easy to read. If you do not take the time to read your post in itʼs entirety you a) wonʼt find grammatical errors and spelling mistakes b) wonʼt be able to tell if it makes sense c) wonʼt be able to tell if the paragraphs are in the best order and d) you wonʼt be able to tell if your message is being conveyed as you intended it to.

So read and reread what youʼve written from title to signature before you hit the publish button.

MakeSureThePostIsCompleteandRobust

Driving traffic is the name of the game and if you want to drive readers to your site then you need to make sure your post is as robust and complete as possible. Does your blog posts give in depth explanations and descriptions? Do you outline actions steps and provide supplemental

www.andreabolder.com

content that fulfills the readers expectations? Use header tags and bullet points to break up content into sections. The goal is to make sure that your blog post is valuable to potential readers.

InteractandEngageYourReaders

The mark of a great blog is visitor interaction. When you can come to a blog and it feels alive you know there is some great content being shared. Every bloggerʼs goal is to build a community around their blog and engaging visitors with your valuable content is one of the best ways to do this.

Ask questions at the end of your post, prompt readers to take action by sharing your content - Each and every blog article you publish should include a relevant call-to-action in the article to help boost lead generation - and reply to as many readersʼ comments as you can. This letʼs them know you are a real person that genuinely cares about what they think.

Business blogging creates a platform for attracting organic traffic and engaging with your audience. The primary goal of your blog should be to drive conversions by adding call-to-actions to your posts and have them link to landing pages that provide downloadable access to more in-depth learning materials, such as an ebook or webinar.

Promoting Your Blog PostsIn Internetland we all know that content is KING! Not only do you need content, you need quality content that people can actually find. So todayʼs post is a 7 step guide to promoting your small business blog post.  Because we all know that no matter how great your content is, if nobody reads it everybody loses - You arenʼt growing your business as an online entrepreneur and your target audience is not able to benefit from the information you provide to help them grow their business.

www.andreabolder.com

The worst feeling in the world is to put tons of time, energy and money creating content for your small business blog posts and there is no reward for all that hard work because you are not penetrating your target market.

So how do we change that around?

Well it is easier than you think. There are no super secret underground ninja tactics to promoting your small business blog post on the internet, just a simple step guide that you can use every day to gain exposure for your business leveraging the internet.

SubmitToFacebook

With almost a billion people engaging on Facebook, why wouldnʼt you want to share your content on the most famous social media site on the planet?

Once you have published your blog post, copy the Title and a 1-2 sentence description. You want to make sure it has your target keywords and a hypnotic tagline that piques curiosity and interest. Use a variation of the meta description you used when creating your post. It is already optimized with keywords, it grabs attention and itʼs short and concise.

Where To Post Your Blog Post on Facebook

1. Post to your personal Facebook FanPage2. Post to 5 groups a day – (make sure the groups are related to the

content you are posting)3. When you engage with others on Facebook, promote your new blog post

if it relates to the topic of discussion

SubmitToTwitter

Twitter is another powerful social media outlet every entrepreneur should be using to build brand recognition and gain exposure. If used the right way, Twitter can send tons of people back to your blog post. Enough said here!

www.andreabolder.com

SubmitToTop20SocialMediaOutlets

Use Pingler and Ping.fm to send content out to 40+ social media sites with one click of a button. Both sites are free to sign up and will help you get massive exposure across the web.

These sites let you submit content without having to sign into each and every social media account you have. Simply cut and paste the title and short description and click submit. Takes less than 2 seconds.

Here is a really cool tip. If you want more link juice….make sure you are posting directly to Facebook first before submitting to Ping.fm. This will get you more SEO juice from it as a direct link back to your blog.

SubmitToSocialBookmarkingSites

Bookmarking is an excellent way to promote your content and it works!! Use Onlywire to send new post out to over 30 sites every time you publish new content. You can also use Shareholic as well to submit to another dozen or so sites that Onlywire doesnʼt submit to.

Within minutes you can have your blog posts submitted to almost 50 sites.

UseaContentSyndicationTribe

A great way to get others syndicating your content is to utilize the power of a Tribe! Yes content syndication tribes can help you create social buzz and move you to the first page of Google within hours. Just imagine how powerful it is to have hundreds, even thousands of people promoting your content.

SubmitToYouTubeandOtherVideoSharingSites

Well how do you do this?

www.andreabolder.com

Here is a quick tip on re-purposing your content. Summarize your blog post, highlighting the key points and shoot a quick 3-5 minute video. Post that video to the top video sharing sites, making sure to direct viewers back to your original blog post by including the url at the beginning and end of the video description. Make sure your video title has your target keywords and you use the same tags as you did in your original blog post!

CommentonRelatedBlogs

On the Marketing.Mindset.Money blog we have talked about how to use blog commenting to leverage the influence of other top bloggers by tapping in to their audience. Comment on blog posts that relate to what your most recent post was about.

Here is a quick tip. If you are only commenting for the sole purpose of gaining a backlink, donʼt comment on a post that has more than 20 comments. With that many comments already posted to one post your chances of someone scrolling down to read your comment and click your link is slim to none. So donʼt waste your time.

Also, Google only spiders the first 60 links on a page top to bottom, so if your comment is 48 along with all of the other links on that page beside the comment links, then you wont get credit for that back link.

The point of commenting is to offer value not just to scoop up a backlink. Make sure you are contributing something worthwhile, not only will you get a backlink, but you will get the attention of other commenters, possibly even the creator of the blog…That is how you get noticed!

PromoteInEmail

Whenever you send an email, you can link to the awesome resources located on your blog. Email signatures can drive a surprisingly high amount of traffic to your blog.

www.andreabolder.com

LeverageBlogDirectories

Blog directories provide a great opportunity for promoting your blog. There are hundreds of free blog directories out there. Youʼll want to make sure to submit your blog to at least the top 25-50 directories available. This can help you get more traffic and help with rankings as well because it creates inbound links to your blog.

Events&Presentations

Are you speaking at an event or giving a presentation? Refer the audience to your blog for further information. You can use a QR code (a mobile- scannable barcode) to allow people to quickly and easily subscribe to your blog.

ConnectWithOtherIndustryBloggers

A great starting point for promoting your blog is to leverage your existing connections and create new relationships.

Reach out to influential bloggers in your industry and attract their attention through mentions on your blog and social media. Comment on their sites and contribute to the community theyʼve created around their blog.

Your goal here is to create an opportunity for them to share your blog posts across their network. You can also create link-building opportunities that will improve your blog posts rank in search engines.

www.andreabolder.com

Measuring Blog Success

As a small business you are not blogging just for the sake of blogging. You are blogging to get results. To know if your results are actually contributing to your bottom line you must be able to measure them.

Measuring the results of your business blogging efforts can save you time and make you more money. When it comes to your business blog, there are a range of metrics you will want to consider.

Letʼs look at the most important metrics you need to keep an eye on to know how your business blogging is going.

Visitors

One of the most important metrics to keep track of is the number of visits your blog gets daily, monthly, yearly. Visits are the count of people who actually read your blog content.

Itʼs interesting to look at your total number of visits to measure the overall improvement of your blog. However, a better way to look at this data is viewing visits by individual blog articles.

This will give you an indication of the content that sticks and what your target market actually wants to read.

Look at your five most successful and popular blog posts. What do they have in common?

Leads

Your primary goal for blogging is to generate targeted leads. Look at the leads you generate from your posts. If you are blogging and not generating leads you are wasting your time and missing an opportunity to grow your

www.andreabolder.com

business. Leads are the catalyst to the growth of your business and they are the true measure of a successful business blog.

Subscribers

Give your readers the opportunity to subscribe to your blog either via RSS (really simple syndication) or via email. Look at how many people subscribe to your blog as this will give you great insight into the quality and consistency of your content. Your subscribers are the foundation of your readership and can help spread your content to others.

SocialMediaShares

Social media is a critical element to building a viral blogging platform and it can drive explode your traffic. Keep tabs on the social media shares for your blog posts to determine which types of posts get the most social media traffic and how can you use them the social proof to your advantage?

InboundLinks

Inbound links - links to a page on your website from another website- are used by search engines as a way to determine how pages are indexed and where they should rank in search engine results.

Inbound links can boost your search traffic so it is important to look at how many inbound links each of your blog posts attracts. By taking note of these these metrics youʼll be able to create a complete strategy for the success of your blog.

www.andreabolder.com

Essential WordPress Plugins for Your Blog

Many of the clients I work with are using the WordPress blogging platform and they are always asking for helpful plugins to increase the functionality and performance of their blogs.

So I thought Iʼd compile a list of the most popular to get you started.

SEOplugins

All In One SEO Pack: If thereʼs one plugin from this list that you should get, this is the one. It automatically optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines., and much more.

Broken Link Checker: This handy plugin will tell you which links on your site are broken – an automated problem spotter.

WPTouch: Easily create a mobile version of your site.

nRelate Related Content: Make it easy for people and search engines to find related content around your site.

WP Editorial Calendar: Make blogging more manageable by setting up a blogging calendar with this plugin. Very simple drag-and-drop editing on a calendar.

Ninja Affiliate: Autolink words to URLs of your choice—great for internal linking.

WP Super Cache: This plugin will speed up your blog—and site speed is an SEO factor. While not necessary for smaller blogs, bigger blogs will definitely want this plugin.

www.andreabolder.com

Socialplugins

DiggDigg: This flexible plugin allows you to have an all in one social sharing plugin for your blog. Display all social sharing buttons nicely on your blog in a clean and minimalistic manner.

Onlywire: OnlyWire syndicates your blog posts to over 50+ social networking sites simultaneously with one button click. Increase your blog traffic overnight.

Analyticsplugins

Google Analytics Dashboard: Adds a Google Analytics dashboard as well as a graph for every one of your posts.

Generalplugins

Akismet: Eliminate comment spam. This plugin is already installed—all you need to do is enable it and get an API key.

Maintenanceplugins

WP Database Backup: Backing up your blog is extremely important—you donʼt want to lose your blog because of some freak accident. This plugin allows you to schedule backups.

WordPress Backup to Dropbox: Back up your WordPress files to your Dropbox account.

There are a ton of great WordPress plugins out there that just make life easier. This list is intended to help you get started Iʼm sure youʼll find additional plugins that enhance your blog as you grow.

www.andreabolder.com

Additional Blogging Resources

WordPressTemplates

Luckily for you, there are a TONS of free wordpress blog themes for you to choose from. Google “free wordpress themes” for a ton of resources.

• Woothemes.com• WordPressThemes• GoThemes• WordPress Themes that Support Custom Header Images• WordPress Themes Base• Free WordPress Themes Directory

BannersandHeaders

A low cost option (and one of my favorite sites) is Fiverr.com. Sign up for a free account, do a search for blog banner, header or blog graphics to find potential graphic designers…and the best part, everything is $5!!!

• WordPress Theme Headers• Header Spot

PLRContent

• TheMLMPLRStore.com

RecommendedTraining

• Start a Blog That Matters by Corbett Barr

www.andreabolder.com

......................................................................................................................

Step Up Your InternetMarketing Game

Wondering what else you need to know to build an insanely successful business online? Find out by visiting our Social Media Resource Room.

www.andreabolder.com/smrr......................................................................................................................

www.andreabolder.com

share this ebook!

SHARE ON FACEBOOK

SHARE ON TWITTER