Blogging for Business or Profit:
Building Sales or Careers with Content

- Making a living from your blog.
- Being hired to write for others
- Using a blog to build your business website

Why blog as a business?
- biz with blogs = 70% more leads
- 434% more pages indexed, 97% more links
- 15 posts per month = 5x more traffic than no blog

Why blog as a person?
- no wait to get experience. Post about companies you'd like to work with.
- Build a rep as a thought leader
- get invitations to speak, consult, write.
- Build your network. Guest post etc

+
- Don't rely on 3rd party social media to exist
- control over design and content
- be found via search
- target semantic/contextual queries

Step 1
'Define your target'
- 5% of leads from the blog in the next 12 months?
- to earn 300 per month in 24 months?
-To get 3 paid writing assignments by October?
( Make it measurable! )
-Cut customer service enquiries by 20%?

Step 2
'Research readers & Competitors'
- identify your niche & identity
- Write for your ideal reader/customer/client
-Who else is trying to get to them? What do they do well (steal!) or Badly (Attack!)

Step 3
'plan'

But be prepared to learn and evolve daily/weekly/monthly

No, Really plan:
- Editorial/Content plan for consistency
- marketing plan to actually reach new readers & customers
- Costs: Resources, Design, Sanity?

Step 4
'realism & perseverance'
- millions of bad blogs exist & achieve nada
- Blogging & 'content marketing' take focus, perseverance & skill
-blogs don't magically fix seo, bad products or bad businesses

'realism & perseverance'
You are probably not Pete Cashmore
- starts 'Mashable' blog age 19 in Scotland
- Now CEO of Mashable company worth millions in U.S

Step 5
'focus'
- 1 idea, blog or social network at a time & don't jump on every viral bandwagon
- What works for your ideal customers, not every internet user
- what drives the results you need?

Step 6
'learn your tech /embrace your geek'
- domains/sub-domains?
-Self hosting is way better
-get to know Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools and how to set tags and event tracking
- Know how your ad software works!

Step 7
'for every job, a tool'
- ads: Google Adsense, Google DFP
-Affiliates: Skimlinks, viglinks, Amazon, Commission Junction.
-email: mailchimp
-Social Media: Buffer
-offline: Windows Live Writer

Step 7
'for every job, a free open source tool'
- writing: Open Office, Libreoffice
-Images: G.I.m.p
-video: Blender
-audio: audacity
Wordpress plugins: 'WordPress SEO by Yoast', WooCommerce, akismet, etc

Step 8
'Stay inspired'
- Read everything: Blogs, books adverts, packaging, comics
- pick out what is engaging you and why it works
- 'Bad artists copy. Good artists steal' said Picasso
- check q&A sites, social media etc for questions to answer

Step 9
'develop your style'
- Keep consistent style and tone, even with multi-authors
- easiest with one editor / sub-editor
- create a style guide
-Don't make it too dull or you'll be the same as everyone else
- Dull B&W presentations is a style too!

Step 10
'Make it fun'
- fun means you'll keep going
- helps you stand out
- stops you getting dull, and any subject can be fun at times

Some biz blogs that work:
- Signalvsnoise (37 signals) https://signalvnoise.com/
- The Rivet Press (Hiut Denium)
http://www.therivetpress.com/
- Buffer (Buffer)
http://blog.bufferapp.com/
- Innocent Drinks (Innocent)
http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/blog

Don't just do text
- Create original images & share on instagram, flickr, pinterest
- Create video & share on youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion
- create audio & share on soundcloud, audioboo
- presentations = slideshare
- pdfs = scribd
visualisations, infographics etc

Notes:
- this Presentation: http://www.thewayoftheweb.net/dpip-aug14/
- For Me:
dan.thornton@thewayoftheweb.net or @twotwmarketing
-For DpiP Presentations:
http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalPeopleInPeterborough