Blogs That Mean Business

by Lisa Peyton

What I’ll be covering in this presentation: What: Discuss definition of a blog. Why: The business benefits of an optimized

blog strategy. How: How to build an optimized blog. Content Strategy: Publishing optimized

content. Attracting Visitors: Via Search, RSS, Social

Media.

What is a blog? BLOG = WEBSITE Outdated Webster’s Definition - a web site that

contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

Wikipedia - A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Pages, posts, comments, images, videos, music, and audio or podcasts.

Why Blog for your business?

Increases traffic to your website via search engines, inbound links, RSS, etc.

Provides platform to dialog with your customers Share your knowledge and expertise Provides value-added services for customers, via

events calendars, product reviews, photo-sharing, etc.

Creates an online community Very affordable, most blogging platforms are free Easy content management system

How do you build an optimized blog? Location: Blog should live on your own

domain NOT http://blog.yourbiz.com or http:yourbiz.wordpress.com

URL: http://www.yourbiz.com/blog or blog.yourbiz.com

Hosting: Best to use Linux OS instead of Windows OS on server. More stable and pretty permalinks.

How do you build an optimized blog? Permalinks: Clean URL structure.

http://www.lisapeyton.com/category/blog-optimization/ vs. http://www.lisapeyton.com/category/?p=234

Platform: Wordpress or Moveable Type. Both are free, easy to install and widely supported. I have used Wordpress examples for this presentation.

How do you build an optimized blog? Themes Default Wordpress Install

How do you build an optimized blog? Themes 1000s of free customizable themes or

templates available.

How do you build an optimized blog? Themes

How do you build an optimized blog?Plugins 1000s of modules adding functionality.

Surveys, product reviews, ecommerce, reader polls, etc.

Headspace, SEO plugin extraordinaire Google Analytics for Wordpress Google Sitemaps Generator for

Wordpress Sociable, Easy social bookmarking tool for

posts

What now? Content Strategy

Research: Find out what your prospects are looking for and provide relevant content. Keyword research (Google AdWords Keyword Tool) is essential for an optimized blog.

Categories: Fill pages, categories, titles, copy with relevant keywords.

Compelling Content: Publish valuable content for your customers frequently and consistently.

What now? Attracting Visitors ‘Build it and they will come’ motto DOES

NOT APPLY! Current Customers: Promote blog to

current client base. Offer valuable content that keeps them coming back. Monthly or weekly top 10 lists, etc.

RSS Syndication: Use Feedburner’s tools to Publicize (PingShot, Email Subscriptions), Optimize (SmartFeed)and perhaps Monetize (AdSense) your feed.

What now? Attracting Visitors Social Media: Integrate your blog with Twitter

(Twitterfeed, Hootsuite), Facebook, LinkedIn. Add your blog’s feed to your profile or page. Add a link to your social media profiles in the sidebar of your blog.

Social Bookmarking: Share your published content via Reddit, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon etc. (Onlywire)

Search Engines: Optimized posts are quickly indexed by Google, eventually providing targeted traffic to your blog/website.

Questions?

Resources/Tools http://ithemes.com/wordpress-versus-movable-type-

the-smackdown-comparison/ Linux vs. Windows OS:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/196995 Onlywire Auto-synidcation Service -

http://www.onlywire.com/ Twitterfeed - http://twitterfeed.com/ Hootsuite Twitter Tool - http://hootsuite.com Feedburner - www.feedburner.com/ Google Keyword Tool -

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Wordpress Plugin Links

Headspace - http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/headspace2/

Google Analytics - http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/

Google Sitemap Generator - http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

Sociable - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sociable/