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Why people should read your blog

Guest post by: Bonnie Harris

Article Overview: Some tips on what you can do to make people take you and your blog seriously.

Why people should read your blog

While your blog might be filled with helpful information, you’ve still got to sell yourself a little and tell your readers why they care about what you have to say. In recent weeks, we’ve talked a lot about over-selling, so you’re walking a fine line, but there are a few things you can do to make people take you seriously:

1. Ask for a testimonial – you need to ensure that you present this in an appropriate way, and this is not something that will be suitable for all blogs/websites so proceed with caution. But the bottom line is having a testimonial placed on your site, written by someone else that tells readers why you rock, will go a lot farther than if you try to brag about your own accomplishments. When this isn’t appropriate, a simple biographical statement with a link to an ‘about me’ or testimonial page works too!

2. Have someone else’s endorsement – if you have a column hosted by another blog or website, that’s a great way to show that you’ve got the endorsement of a credible business, person, or online publication. Nothing even needs to be said, because as it stands, their reputation is riding on you so clearly they take heed of what you have to say and everyone else should too!

3. Don’t be afraid to link to mentions of you – if you’ve been quoted in an article or mentioned in a post online, go ahead and link it in your blog with a brief introduction to it!

4. Toss in some stats – people don’t know what kind of following you have when they can’t see the reports. Sometimes tossing in your Alexa ranking with a subtle banner on your site may be a good idea. If you’ve got a following, then it’s obvious to readers you’ve got some good things to say!

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Article Tags: blog topics, blogging small business, business blogging, promoting small business with a blog, writing a blog



Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter Woes.... Whats slowing you down? - [quote="JackieGold":16j42pq9]My problem is getting legitimate followers. I feel like I write meaningful blog posts but people don't really click on them. The followers I do have are people I followed who were nice enough to follow me back. I don't want to use spammy software to acquire more followers either - I want people to read my blogs!![/quote:16j42pq9] Hi Jackie, Writing meaningful blog posts is a good start, but if you want people to read your blog posts you really have to give them something else: * put your personality into them - avoid impersonal pseudo-professionalism. * show that you are passionate about your topic. * make them fun and entertaining to read. * look out for unique/unusual/crazy/intriguing ways to write about stuff. * discuss problems people face in your niche and offer solutions, demonstrating your expertise. * liven up your posts with photos, videos, diagrams, infographics. * make each blog post different in style: tell a story/Q&A/product review/problem solving/interview people in your field etc. etc. * invite/encourage visitors to get involved - develop "involvement strategies" Hope that helps, David
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Sept 24, 2010 - Glad you enjoy the lists guys! It does take some time to prepare and I can't vouch 100% for the content - these were just blog posts / articles that caught my attention - I usually skim the text for points that stick out for me and then bookmark the ones I like to read "later" I had to assign a time to "later" so that it actually happened and weekend reading at a local coffee shop became a perfect fit. I used to read the entire local newspaper but found that it didn't really add much value to my life. Now I just read the Sports and Business sections and then on to my saved blog posts! David - Zen Habits is a great blog - I haven't read Leo's book so I can't say how good a product he has but his blog is top notch if that's any indication. I might look into his program myself!
Re: Tactics for Blog Traffic - One really easy way to get yourself blogging more often is to repurpose your blog posts...republish them on article sites (or put a couple of short blog posts together into one article), put them in your newsletters, put a quantity of blog posts together into an ebook or even a full-fledged book. Also turn your blog posts into audios, for blog "readers" to listen to rather than read; or a video, for "readers" to watch. Again, group several into a teleclass, etc. And vice versa. Look at your existing articles, ebooks, teleclasses -- can you break them down into several or a dozen blog posts? This also has the advantage of having an ongoing theme for a period of time on your blog, which brings readers back to read the next installment. Plus the added bonus that you can sit down with one article and write 3 blog posts in one sitting, then schedule them out...and go on vacation! Lots more that can be done in this manner, let your creativity be your guide!
Successful Blog Marketing Tips - So you have a blog and want to market it and make it a successful blog. How do you do this? How do you go about getting your blog out there to be seen and known by others? How do you draw readers and keep them coming back for more? There are many ways to get your blog out there and known by others. This can be known as challenging for some and just quite easy for others. If you have ever had a successful blog before then you know what it takes. You are not going to get anywhere by just setting up a blog and hoping that people will find it and read it. You are not going to gain any links, nor a higher search engine ranking by just having a blog. This is all part of blog marketing. Anyone can do it, even you. Successful blog marketing tip number one. When you first create a blog, of course it is unheard of. No one knows anything about the blog unless you give them the link and show it to them. However, for a new blog that has never been seen, there are many ways to get it out there and known. You just need to know how. The first thing that you can do is to allow RSS feeds be taken from your blog. Allow other websites and blogs to publish your same exact blog. When you do this, they are giving you a link back to your blog, and also telling their readers all about your blog. You will get more traffic than ever with this tool. RSS feeds are wonderful for promoting and getting your blog out there. Blog marketing tip number two. Update your blog frequently. We can not put enough emphasis on this tip. If you tell your readers that you are going to update your blog daily, then do it. If you tell them that you will be writing in your blog weekly, don’t let them down. Your readers are what makes your blog successful. You may not realize this in the beginning, and you will have few readers in the beginning as well, but you will eventually build a readership base and have people checking out your blog regularly. Maybe you do not plan on telling your readers how often you will update your blog. That is ok too. However, think about this, if you were reading a blog on a weekly basis, and you expected to see the blog that you like to read updated at least once a week, you would be very disappointed to find out that it was not. Sure, things happen that might prevent you from updating, and that is expected, and excused, but week after week can hurt you and cause you to lose readers. Tip number three. While you are working on your readership base, and trying to gain readers, you are going to find that commenting on blogs that are relevant to yours will surely help. Find a blog that is on the same topic to yours, or close to it and leave comments. You can also make a track back with your blog postings to comment on your own blog. Doing so will probably more than likely give someone else the urge to track back to your blog. Which will be good for it as well. Commenting on blogs that get many comments will make yours be seen by those interested in that market. You will gain traffic and readers that way, and it is easy as well as free. The fourth blog marketing tip. Learn and apply SEO to your blogs. SEO is search engine optimization. You are going to find that if you want your blog to go anywhere, you need SEO, and you need to know how to use it to the advantage of your blog. Just like a website, a blog will be better off optimized.
Re: New man with Twitter Studies - I have noticed I've developed a one-sided relationship with Twitter. I wonder how many others have too... Thanks to Wordpress blog plug-ins I now tweet almost every blog post that I publish. I also tweet any other article or blog post that I like IF there is a tweet button... BUT I hardly ever read anybody's tweets... The only time I read a tweet is if I happen to end up on my own account page and see something interesting pop up by coincidence. Does that strike a chord with anyone? Or do you have some good advice to offer me to show me what I'm missing? Thanks! DH


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