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Blogging for the Non Blogger

Written by: Kathleen Gage

Article Overview: The following are some easy to apply strategies that will get you well on your way to becoming a competent blogger.

Blogging for the Non Blogger

If you are new to blogging chances are you may be unsure of what the best and most effective approach to gaining maximum benefit from time and effort invested. A primary goal for blogging should be to gain visibility, credibility and market reach for your efforts.

The following are some easy to apply strategies that will get you well on your way to becoming a competent blogger.
Determine Your Purpose
The first thing you need to do is determine what is the purpose of your blog. Are you blogging for fun or is this a viable part of your overall branding and marketing strategy?

Here are some common reasons for having a blog:

* Establish expert status
* Keep in touch with clients
* Reach a global market
* Blow off some steam
* Create your online personality


Blog Consistently
To be effective you need to blog on a fairly regular basis. Your postings can be short, but need to be relative to your purpose. Many bloggers post information from other sites as a way to keep their readers informed on a particular topic. Doing this makes your job pretty easy. Other than doing a few Google searches for information and posting the information, there is not a lot for you to do.

The advantage to this is it’s fast and relatively easy. The disadvantage is you are not establishing your own expertise if this is the only type of posting you do.

Why not offer a bit of both?

Driving Visitors
There are a number of effective ways to get people to view your blog. One is to use key words relative to your market and industry. Whenever you post something you want to include those key words.

Next you can announce to your opt-in subscribers you have a blog and give them the blog address.

You can add your blog address to your sig (signature) file that you use at the end of your email messages.

Write articles specific to your market and industry. Add a resource box at the end of your article with a link back to your blog. If you areticle is of value there is a very good chance readers will visit your blog.

Post your articles in various online article directories to optimize exposure and reach. A quick google search with the words “article directory + your topic” will bring up various locations to submit your articles to.

One of the most popular is EzineArticles.

Subscribers to Your Blog

Make it easy for people to sign up for your blog. You can add in a simple form by visiting feedblitz and/or feedburner

Utilize the power of RSS feeds. People can subscribe to the feed and receive updates as you add new content to your blog.
Keywords
Keywords are a way to improve your search engine ranking. Choosing the right words is extremely important. Keywords are what lead search engines to your blog.

Before you begin blogging think of the keywords you need to include specific to your market and industry. The more targeted your list the more effective your postings.

Analyze your business and your market. Think of any words that your readers might be search on to find you that relate to your company, industry, product or service.

For example my market uses words like:

* Making money on the Internet
* Internet marketing for authors
* Internet marketing for speakers
* Internet marketing for consultants
* Self Publishing
* Writing
* Authorship

This is only a partial list. However, it is a very broad and general list. The more targeted I can be the more my ideal client will find me in a search.

The way to narrow your target words down is to use a keyword selector tool. A reliable selector tool will help you to narrow the search by indicating how often people search on specific word combinations.

In Conclusion
Blogging can be a fun experience and it can create great opportunities when done correctly, consistently and conscientiously.

Related Articles
  Blogging on Free Hosts not a Good Idea
  The Benefits To Bloggers Of Search Engine Optimization
  Happy One Year Blogging Anniversary!
  Master The Skill Of Blogging Easily
  Learn Blogging From Others!

Article Tags: authors, book marketing, internet marketing, making money on the internet, online business, online marketing
Referred by: http://www.sandcconsulting.com



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Use of Blogging For Promotion - Blogging might not be the easiest promotion and advertising method however it certainly is one of the cheapest methods. All you need is a hosting package and a domain. Actually you could do it through Blogger and it would be free of charge.
Site promotion and Blogging - Blogging might not be the easiest promotion and advertising method however it certainly is one of the cheapest methods. All you need is a hosting package and a domain. Actually you could do it through Blogger and it would be free of charge
Re: Poll: Blogger or Wordpress Blog? - Hi GT, While I prefer Wordpress over Blogger, for many reasons already stated, Blogger does have it's benefits, even if they're few. There's nothing wrong with Blogger; afterall, Google does own it. I think that may be one particular reason why getting approved for Adsense is so easy with them. However, as Tanny pointed out to me some time ago, there's no way to disable the "nofollow" attribute, even after removing the code out of the template. So, this could discourage some from leaving comments on Blogger blogs. One benefit about Wordpress that I mentioned is having the social aspect as commenters can reply to each other, much like a forum. There's really no way to do this with Blogger, either. Regardless of whatever blogging platform you choose, it's all about the content. Using one or the other isn't going to make you anymore successful. Just keep pumping out the content and both search engines and people will notice.
Blogger Vs Wordpress? - Hey all, I have around 12 or 13 blogs. Most of which I host on my own server so I can use Wordpress. Was wondering if anyone else had pros or cons on Blogger or Wordpress? I happen to really like Wordpress because of all the plugins and themes you can use. I happen to dislike Blogger because of the limited themes & layouts. Also it is a pain in the rear to do a split blog post, where you can have a small part of the article showing with a 'read more' link for the rest. I do like the fact that on Blogger my blogs get picked up quicker by google. Go figure, since they own Blogger it isn't surprising. Any positives or negatives on either one? .
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategy - Hi David, I agree about the Blogosphere. You have a smaller group that Blog, but do so on the premise that they think they should, but have never really considered the purpose of their Blog. Then I think there are a few SEO or Internet Marketing types that see Blogging as just another link building strategy. But the largest group of Bloggers, tend to be people who enjoy writing and discussing their topics of interest. Blogging is good for link building, but the true Blogger is a breed apart from the rest. They want to dialog, to debate, to have feedback and they are very willing to link to other worthwhile conversations that are relevant to their topic. I agree with you. These group of Bloggers obviously are passionate about their writing and together, they create huge conversation trails interactive and travel from Blog to Blog. But the evidence is clear with this group that loves what they write about. With comments enabled on a Blog and having a Blog tuned to a specific purpose you already have the evidence of original Social Media.


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