wordpress

How to Turn WordPress into Your Unfair Advantage (a primer on business blogging)

By Christian

blogging-to-do-list — It's no secret blogging should be on your "to do" list for 2010!

If you run a business, it’s no longer a secret that you should also be running a business blog. When it comes to social media for business, your blog is most often the most valuable component of your marketing strategy. The most favored platform for a business blog is WordPress. There are a number of reasons for that, but for today, I want to help you turn your WordPress blog into a marketing tool that literally gives you an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE, one that will utterly destroy the competition. Sound good? 😉

Why Most Blogs Fail

First, let me preface this article with an explanation as to why most blogs fail. It’s important, because it’s true. Most blogs do fail to get results. There is a great reason for this, and the reason is because most bloggers spend the majority of their time doing the wrong things…things that don’t grow their blog.

They tweak their design.
They try out a million different themes.
They try out a million different plugins.
They constantly tweak their SEO (search engine optimization).
They spend too many hours writing content.

Candidly, all these things SOUND important, but they’re not. Design, SEO and content certainly have their place. Don’t get me wrong; they’re important, and they shouldn’t be ignored. But they should represent the SMALLEST investment of your time.

Most bloggers do the opposite. They spend the majority of their time on things that don’t grow their blog.

Then what happens? They give up out of desperation. They work for months and get no results. They wonder why blogging is so difficult. They wonder why other bloggers get tons of traffic and make money with their site, while they languish in obscurity.

A Blogging Success Secret

Here’s a blogging success secret for you. Setting up your design and SEO are just Step 1! Yet ironically, most bloggers spend a TON of time on this. The idea is that if your blog is so beautiful, so awesome, so optimized…then people will be drawn to it. Unfortunately this doesn’t work! Most bloggers never get past step 1. The spin their wheels endlessly here. It’s no wonder they never get the results they want!

Time is Your Greatest Asset

time-for-blogging — If we had all the time in the world, we could afford to do everything. It's not the case. As it stands, to get we results...we have to DECIDE we're only going to do what gets RESULTS. Not just what makes sense or what's fun 🙂

Would you agree that time is your greatest asset? If so, then we need to make the best use of it we possibly can, correct? So let’s do that. Let’s make a COMMITMENT that we’re going to spend the majority of our time on things that actually build our blog and make it successful. How does that sound? You with me? If so, then take these 3 steps to turn your WordPress blog into an unfair advantage for your business!

Build Your Blog: Step 1

OK, so Step 1 is getting the design out of the way. You need a great looking, highly optimized, very customizable design right out of the gate. Get the sucker set up, so you never have to think about it again! Get it set up right in the first place, and you’ll never have to spend tons of time on your design. It will always look sweet, so you don’t have the “I have an ugly blog” baggage weighing on your shoulders. Your burden will be light, because your blog will look great, just as you want it. This way you’ll have all the time in the world to focus on building your blog and bringing traffic in.

How to get an awesome looking blog quickly

There are a few ways to do it. One, you can bite the bullet and simply hire a designer. Many may try to advise against this when you’re first getting started. For a personal blog, I would agree. But if this is a business, I think it’s a fair option. Custom blog designs aren’t as expensive as you may think. If you’re looking for something very professional and simple, no one should charge you more than a thousand bucks, and you will likely be able to get a fantastic, custom blog set up for just a few hundred bucks.

I offer these services for clients, and there are also a number of other professionals who do this. A couple I like are:

Kinetic Knowledge
G2WebMedia

This is a way to get a great design right out of the gate. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive.

If you’re comfortable doing a little work yourself, another way to get a fantastic design right out of the gate is to install the Headway theme. Honestly, I’ve road tested a bazillion (yes that’s right, I counted!) free WordPress themes, and here’s the bottom line…you get what you pay for. Even most professional themes require a good amount of coding and expertise to truly personalize them.

The Headway theme for WordPress is the most flexible, optimized and powerful theme on the planet right now, and I don’t say that lightly. If you’re 100% comfortable with coding and web design, then you should probably just put your own design together. But if you’re not a coder, then Headway will give you total control over the look and feel of your site. Headway is a search-optimized monster, and it gives you total control in that regard as well. As far as the design of your site, you have complete control via a point and click interface. A monkey can work this thing!

Install Headway, and you’ll be up and running in just a few minutes. Spend an afternoon with it, and your blog will be decked to the nines.

If you have any doubts as to why I am an affiliate for Headway, I encourage you to take notice of the theme I’m running on this very website (and several others) at this very moment. That’s right. It’s Headway. I don’t sell anything to you that I wouldn’t use myself!

Build Your Blog: Step 2

Use your blog well, and it will pay you handsomely! Now that we’re no longer stuck on Step 1, we can move on two Step 2, where we can actually start targeting what will make your blog grow!

Make a list of keywords that apply to your business. For simple, fast results, I recommend going to adwords.google.com. Click on “get keyword ideas”. There are a number of tools you can use for keyword research. This is simply the most common. It’s powerful, and it’s free! The market where I personally started in business was real estate, so let’s use that as an example.

On the Get Keyword Ideas page, type in “Miami Florida real estate”. You’ll get a screen like this one:

Grab a list of keywords that you feel are particularly relevant for your business. Don’t just go with the highest traffic keywords. That’s tempting. Instead, focus on keywords that are the most relevant for what you actually do. Make a list of 5-10. Then, do a Google search for those keywords. Find forums and blogs that are already in existence, catering to these niches. Set up profiles and start reading and talking to the people there.

Additionally, set up profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Spend time there, meet people. Join in the conversation. There are already a lot of groups and ongoing discussions that are relevant to your business. Jump in and talk to people! Don’t be overly promotional. Just talk. Real talk is what wins here.

What the heck does this have to do with building my blog?

You may wonder what this has to do with building your blog. After all, how can spending time on OTHER PEOPLE’S sites help out YOUR SITE? The answer is, it does a TON to help your site. That leads me into Step 3. This is the good stuff!

Build Your Blog: Step 3

Don’t overlook the power of Step 3 because of its simplicity! This is where you can truly obtain the unfair advantage, because you’ll be doing the work that most everyone else wants to skip. Remember, just because it’s SIMPLE, doesn’t mean it’s EASY! Building anything of consequence…something that truly wins over your market, is hard work. But is it worth it? You bet. Does it pay well? Oh, yes!

So, what is the BEST use of your time when it comes to building a fantastically profitable blog? The answer to this question, as I’ve mentioned, is deceptively simple. It all comes down to using the tool skillfully, for its intended purpose. And what is a blog’s intended purpose? A blog is made for talking to people. So, talk to people! Sounds simple, right? Yet when we look at the facts, few bloggers do actually this. They tweak, they tool around, they try out new plugins, they buy expensive “systems” to “drive traffic” to their blog, they do everything under the sun to try to find a quick and easy way to make their blog successful. It’s such a shame, really!

Is social networking (i.e. “talking to people”) really the key to making your blog successful? Well, yes actually! How so, you ask? Well, the cool, convenient thing about social media is that nearly everything you do easily links back to your blog. Your profile, your forum signature, your blog comments…they all link back to your site. So when people check you out and want more information, it’s easy for them to stop by. It’s important to understand you can’t MAKE someone stop by, but if they like you and want more information about you, they will!

As you connect with more and more people on their home turf, more and more people will come out to your blog. If you’re engaging people in legitimate conversation and actually have something to talk about (you do, trust me), then they will almost always want to know more about you. It’s a natural part of human interaction. How many times have you met someone new and they’ve NOT asked “so what do you do?” If people meet you and like you, they will want to know more about you. And they will come to your blog.

Blogging Success is Counter-intuitive

It’s a little counter-intuitive, isn’t it? You’d think to build a successful blog that you should spend a lot of time on your blog. But that’s not the case. You should in fact spend very little time on your blog! Hard to believe? You can spend all the time you want on your blog, but until there’s a large readership, there’s not a lot to do there! You want readers, right? Well, then go talk to them!

When you’re first starting your blog, you should not have to spend more than a couple hours a WEEK on your blog. And that should be spent on writing content. All the rest of your time should be spent networking and talking to people. See, there are already thousands of people out there who should be reading your blog. Don’t wait for them to find you…go find them 😉

The principles of building a successful online operation are fairly simple wouldn’t you agree? I suppose I could make it a lot more complicated if you want, but the bottom line is that it all comes down to work. Spend time on the right things, and you will get the result. We all have the same amount of time in the day. Where you get the unfair advantage is when you decide you’re not going to look for shortcuts. While everyone else is spinning their wheels, you will be busy spending time on leveraged and effective things that actually get results. Tools like Headway make it possible to put the stupid busy work behind you, so you can concentrate on building your business. Get the ball rolling now!

I hope this basic primer on blogging helps you build your business this year. If you have any questions, I am at your service!

10 Mistakes to Avoid When Promoting Your Blog

By Christian

When it comes to building an audience for your blog…one that keeps coming back…one that you build a real relationship with…there is a lot of work to be done.

I just yesterday had a guest post on David Risley’s site that covers 10 of the smartest things you can do to promote your blog. I encourage you to check it out. There are also a lot of mistakes that can be made, and that’s what this post is about. Combine these two articles, and I think you’ll be off on the right foot!

Submitting to hundreds of directories: Lisa Irby described this type of method very well pretty recently. I agree with her take on it. Look, we all know that in-bound links are good. This isn’t a secret. But keep in mind that not all links are created equal. If a directory is going to accept anyone that submits, do you think Google doesn’t know that? Unimportant, easily acquired links really just aren’t going to do much for you. If you have all the time in the world on your hands, then by all means feel free to submit to hundreds of directories and get their links, but your time is better spent on writing good content, interacting with your readers, or drinking a good beer with friends.
Automatic blog commenting: Another thing that’s not a secret is blog commenting. Leaving comments on other blogs is a great way to build name recognition and get traffic to your site. So why not automate it? Here’s why…because it’s spam. Yes, there are tools that enable you to leave tons of comments on other people’s blogs with just a few clicks. And no, I’m not going to mention them :). I’m a fan of automation when it’s appropriate, but auto-commenting is not only ineffective, but it’s also a way to damage your brand, not help it.
Not using self-hosted WordPress: Yes, there are easier, simpler, quicker ways to get a blog fired up. But none of those easier paths will give you the control you will require later on. I don’t mean to imply self-hosted WordPress is the only way to go. It’s not. But if you’re new to blogging, and you want to do this for business, the learning curve is worth it. Trust me, after you’ve been blogging for even a short time, you’re really, really going to want to be able to tweak some things, optimize your site and take things to the next level, and if you’re on a platform that doesn’t give you that control, your creativity is going to be stifled. That’s not a good thing. If you want to skip the learning curve altogether and just get a rocking professional blog site up without a hassle, just hire me to do it for you.
Putting up Ads from Day 1: I don’t mean this critically of anyone who wishes to advertise on their blog. I will probably advertise on Next Level at some point; it’s a good way to make some cash. However, this is a post about mistakes often made in marketing, and while I believe success in blogging is largely subjective, I also believe that a lot of new bloggers equate getting some Adsense clicks as success. Here’s the bottom line: If making $5 a month is your goal, go for it. Not everyone is in this blogging game to make money. I get it. But if your goal is not to make money, why are you putting up ads? And if you’re goal IS to make money, I seriously question whether $5 a month is going to do it for you! And that’s what you’re going to get when you’re first starting…$5 a month, so just skip it. NOTHING is more valuable than your time. When you’re getting a few hundred solid visitors a day or more, look into advertising then. At least then it will be enough to cover your hosting expenses! Til then, focus on content and building your brand. It is a way better return on your time.
Put up your blog, write one or two posts and complain about how you’re not getting any traffic: Any business endeavor worth doing takes time and effort. I’m not saying it’s going to take years to build a successful business. It won’t. Not if you’re working it like you should be. In fact, building an income online is fairly simple and doesn’t have to take that long…but the effort still needs to be there. Even the gurus like John Reese work their asses off prior to a launch. Yes, they may rake in a few million bucks doing it, but the wrong assumption to make it that it was easy to do. I’m not saying you can’t make really good money doing this. Clearly, you can. But even Frank Kern, the king of lazy, openly admits to working long, hard hours when necessary. It doesn’t mean you can’t kick back and live a good life, but the work has to be done. If you want results, you have to do the work.
Beg your friends to stop by and comment your blog: It is not comments that you lack when you’re trying to build a new blog. It is community. This is another example of good energy being focused in the wrong place. Allowing your blog to grow organically takes patience, but it is the best return on your time. Additionally, unless your blog covers a truly universally appealing niche, it is unlikely your friends are ideal visitors to your blog anyway.
Buy traffic from a traffic broker: This is a complete waste of time. Wanting traffic is understandable. Pay-per-click traffic can be used well, but it can also get expensive very quickly. But traffic that comes from a broker (i.e. GET 10,000 VISITORS TO YOUR SITE FOR $39.95) comes mostly from pop-under windows or other similar methods. It is basically forced traffic, and it is not valuable.
Blast out an email to everyone in your database about your new blog: It is natural to want to tell everyone about your new blog. But who do you have in your database? Is it really just close friends? If so, OK. But most people’s contacts are filled with a lot more besides just close friends. Coworkers, business contacts, vendors you’ve done business with in the past, etc. If someone has not specifically asked for updates from you regarding your new blog, it is spam for you to blast a message out. Just because you tentatively know someone does not mean you can email them about anything, even if it’s really cool! You’re not forwarding them cute pictures of cats and funny political cartoons too, are you? : )
Use social networks solely for promoting your blog: No one likes someone who only talks about themselves. Social networking sites are for conversation. It is perfectly fine to tweet out links to your site and such. I do it. I recommend you do it also. But doing it incessantly, or if your twitter stream or any other status updates are 100% (or even 50%) links to your blog, you need to reconsider what your motive is for being a part of that network. If your main motivation is to promote your blog, you will be well-served to reprioritize . Brutal truth: if all you’re doing is promoting yourself, your “friends” aren’t listening anyway.
Constantly tweak your site: Everyone who has a blog wants their blog to look great, work great and be great. It’s important to work on the design and functionality of your site. Right now for example, I’m having some issues with some of my files taking way to long to download, and it’s causing my pages to load way too slowly. I apologize if this page took too long to load…I’m working on it! But here’s the thing…you only have so much time, and prioritizing is absolutely essential. I’m going to fix this slow page load issue, no doubt, but not before I make my contacts and write content for the day. First things first. Design, plugins, etc can really work for you. They’re important. But there is no such thing as a blog design or a specific plugin that’s going to make your business a success. Likewise, you can have the ugliest blog ever, but if your content is awesome and you build a community that is engaged and loves what you do…the ugliness of your blog just won’t matter. Work on the fine details of your site, but focus on the important stuff…do the important stuff first.

I write these tips because when I was first getting started, I did most of these things. I never did auto-blog commenting, but I did look into it. I DID email everyone in my database to promote my very first internet marketing project. What a disaster. I’ve made mistakes, no doubt. And you will too…surely you’ll be able to write your own list of 10 things to avoid, and I’d LOVE to hear about them in the comments! But hopefully I can at least help you avoid these 10 mistakes, so you can make better use of your time and get better results quicker 🙂

10 Essential WordPress Plugins for Your Business Blog

By Christian

I don’t typically do technical stuff on this blog, because my focus here is the effective use of blogging and social media and how to monetize your business using these tools. In other words, I don’t usually concentrate so much on the technical side of things, because my focus is on sales principles and the human element of making money online. However, it seems appropriate for me to share with you what plugins I personally use on this site and which ones I consider indispensable for any business blog.

If you’re going to operate a blog for your business, efficiency, effectiveness and security should be top priorities. Use these 10 Essential WordPress Plugins, and you’ll be in good shape 🙂

All in One SEO Pack – this one is a classic. It’s one of the most downloaded WP plugins of all time and for good reason. It is a huge asset to your blog with regards to search optimization.
WP Super Cache – this one makes your pages load faster. Why the heck wouldn’t you use it?
Google XML Sitemaps – builds and maintains a sitemap and robots.txt for you automatically. It also lets Google know when it should visit your site again to index new content. “What’s a robots.txt?” you say? You need this plugin.
Login Lockdown – if you’re not too concerned with someone hacking your site, you obviously are not aware of how often blogs get hacked and how much damage they can do. One way they get in is by randomly trying passwords over and over again until they get through. It’s called a brute force attack, one of the most common types of attacks. This plugin shuts your login page down after 2, 3 or however many false attempts you feel should be the limit.
Redirection – It’s essential to think ahead. You probably won’t need this plugin right away if you’re just getting started blogging, but it’s inevitable that you will take a page down, rename a post or something that will break links. This plugin allows you to make sure that everyone visiting your blog lands on a valid page. A very cool tool.
SEO Smart Links – strong internal linking is good for SEO. This wordpress plugin allows you to attach specific words or phrases, and anytime they appear on your blog, they will automatically link to whatever page you designate. This is a great tool for quickly establishing a good internal linking structure. Get it.
WP-DB Manager – your blog is going to require ongoing maintenance. Database optimization and repair, backups, etc. This plugin gives you an easy way to do a lot of these things, and it automates most of it as well, saving you time.
SEO Friendly Images – Images can be your friend when it comes to search engine optimization. Especially if you use good alt tags on all your images. For me, it’s easy to forget to do this, and it takes a minute, so this WordPress plugin automatically does it for you. Another no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer – Pinging google and other directories when you produce new content is a good thing. WordPress does this automatically. The problem is that when you make a change to an existing post, WordPress pings em again. And when you make any other small change to your site, WordPress pings em yet again. Basically anytime you hit “save”, WordPress pings Google. This can get you blocked. Not a good thing. This WordPress plugin knows the difference between when you should ping search engines and when you’re just doing edits. This way, you’re getting all the exposure you need, and you’re not abusing the system. A lot of bloggers don’t even know about this. It’s a very good tool.
Google Analytics for WordPress – having some type of analytics program installed on your site is essential for anyone serious about getting results from their business blog. There are other more robust alternatives. Google analytics is definitely not the holy grail of analytics utilities. However for me it is the best, because it’s free and it gives me everything I need. I’m not going to spend all day analyzing my web traffic. I want a really good snapshot of what’s going on…where people are coming from, my most visited posts, etc. Google Analytics gives you this and more, and it’s free. As far as I’m concerned it’s the best analytics application out there for business bloggers, and this plugin makes installation a snap.

If you’ve been involved with using WordPress for any length of time, you will likely have heard of all these before. My personal take is to keep plugins to a minimum. I like to run as lean as possible with plugins, because the fewer you have, the fewer things can go wrong. I prefer to spend as much time as possible on content and networking…and as LITTLE time as possible on design and coding, etc. Technical stuff is not for me, although I’ll learn whatever I need to learn to get things working smoothly.

That said, a handful of plugins, like what is on this list, will save you a lot of time, make your business blog more secure and much more effective for both your visitors and for search engines.

All these plugins are available for download at no charge by visiting the WordPress Plugins page.