10 Ways to Grow Your Business with Social Media (by Social Media Examiner)

I had the pleasure of attending this great social media FREE event from Social Media Examiner. Well, actually during the live event I was picking up my daughter from the school bus (LOL)...but it was recorded! And I got to listen to the presentation Sunday night and want to share with you some of the wonderful tips the Panelists had shared with us.

Presenters: Michael Stelzner, Andrea Vahl, Rich Brooks & Kristi Hines

Michael Stelzner, Founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner

First, there is a very nice introductoin of the panelists.  Then Michael Stelzner, CEO of Social Media Examiner, kicks off the event talking about Google Plus.  Google Plus is still very new and developing new features and functions rapidly.  He makes note of three very important things:

1. There can be only one administrator for your Google Plus business page.  This "issue" is being addressed and in the future (near) you will be able to have multiple admins for your business page, but as of now the person who sets up the page is the one and only administrator for that page. 
2. You can only "Circle" (become a fan) someone that "circles" you. 
3. There is a great advantage to having a business page and putting the badge on your site (using their Badge Configuration Tool).  Google then "rewards" you with more recommendations on Google Search. So there is a SEO benefit to having a Google Plus Business Page and putting their badge on your site! Go get started (but you have to create a page first and join Google Plus)!

Click here to learn how to create your Google Plus Business Page!

 

Andrea Vahl, Co-author of "Facebook Marketing:  All-in-One for Dummies"

Andrea first wanted to discuss leads and what is a lead. The number of Facebook "Likes" does not equal the number of "leads".

However, you first need a "like" to later become a possible "lead". You need to connect with them over and over again (posting great stuff and comments and articles on Faceobok) so when the need arises for your service you will be at the top of their mind.

Facebook is a sales pyramid: Like (get the Facebook "like") >>> Engage (commenting on your wall, communication, getting to know and "trust" you) >>> Buy (purchase your service or product).

So, the number of Likes does matter as its the size of your base, your foundation and then it goes from there.

Facebook Custom Pages

You don't know you have a "real" lead until they have given you their email address. You need to create a custom facebook page that integrates with your email marketing/newsletter service (like Constant Contact, aWeber, MailChimp).

You can also offer them something for free or some other "incentive" for joining your mailing list.  Here is Social Media Examiner's article on 10 apps to create a cusom facebook page or tab: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-10-facebook-apps-for-building-custom-pages-tabs/ 

Facebook and Webinars

If you are one who uses webinars you can also use them to capture email addresses (leads).

Promote a product or service at the end

• offer valuable content
• continue to connect with your audience thru email

Some popular webinar providers are (most range between $39/month and up depending on your audience size and more).

• GoToWebinar
• Adobe
• WebEx
• Ustream (ans similar types of service don't collect the emails)

Run a Facebook Contest 

But a legal one! 

You it to showcase your product or service, gather emails, and have fun! People like to "win" things :D

To be "legal" on Facebook, you MUST use a third-party contest facebook appication like: 

• WildFire
• WooBox
• Strutta (starts at $299)
• Booshaka
• North Social
• ShortStack 

You CANNOT run a contest that says "like this for your chance to win..."

Rich Brooks, President of Flyte New Media

Rich is a small business owner and gives lots of advice on YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn during this presentation.

Leverage YouTube's Power

• 3 billion every day
• 2nd most popular search engine

How do you tap into this?

• Create videos that answer your ideal customer's ideal questions.

How do you get them seen?

• You have to know what your customers want. 
• Use keywords 

   - in title
   - in description
   - tags
   - in narrative (in your video conversation)

Beyond YouTube 

How to connect and reach YouTube outside YouTube!

• Create a blog post on the same topic, keyword rich.
• Embed in your blog post!
• FB business page -- post in there. and profile page.
• Tweet it!
• Finally, email newsletter, email blast (Take a screen capture and link to YouTube video from the email/newsletter).

Find Your audience on Twitter

• Find the right people - customers, partners, vendors.
• Do a search on related topics and products and then contact to their tweets
• Go to advanced search for geographic sensitive companies for example if your are targeting an audience within a 25 minute radius of your business location.
• Create Twitter Lists (like Facebook Groups)
• Subscribe to other people's Twitter list to gain access to who's tweeting there.
  
  

How to use LinkedIn

• Most people don't get it.
• Used for Business to Business.
• Create an engaging profile.
• Use Groups to generate leads.
• Joining appropriate groups. Local area and in business community.
• Join the conversation. 
• Do not sell, sell, sell
  • 80% promoting other people, helpful, inform, valuable content (trust)
  • 20% promote your own stuff
• Don't' hang out on Linked in like you do on Facebook or Twitter
• Sign up for Email Daily Digest.

 

Kristi Hines, Founder of Kikolani

Kristi spoke about blogging. That one popular problem is finding what to write about. She continues in discussing what to do next...post it and promote it!  Last but not least at all is to view your stats (Google Analytics for example).  You want to see where your visitors are spending time, what's your bounce rate, what keywords are popular, etc.

Finding Blog Content

Let's get started with the problem - finding blog content. Kristi explains that finding topic ideas is the most popular blogging problem or obstacle.

She suggests:

• look for people asking questions….
• Q&A networks
• Social Media networks
• Blog comments

Sites Kristi recommends to look for questions/answers to find potentional blog content are:

• Quora.com
• LinkedIn.com/Answers
• Look at the keywords for your industry
• Yahoo! Answers 

Use Social Media

• HootSuite helps you manage your social networks.

When you do post on your blog... 

• You need to write really GOOD content.
• PROMOTE it.
  • Social Media
  • Go to sites and post the updates
  • Thru Blog Comments

Leverage your analytics

• it's MORE than just clicks and visitors
• Bouce Rate (you want this rate to drop, as you want people to stay on your site)
• Keywords and landing pages
• Not providing organic keywords (google analytics)
• What pages are they staying on (you want them to continue to stay)

What are visitors really looking for?

• Search box on your blog and it will tell you what they are looking for!

 

I hope you enjoyed this summary of free webinar I had recently attended by Social Media Examiner!

More blogging how-to articles to come as that was the leading desired topic in the recent survey!

Happy blogging,

Heather :D

 

 

Creating a Hyperlink: How do you make a "word" or "phrase" in a post link to another page or site?

Here is a recent question posted to Blogs By Heather, and one that I am asked often. Ask away! I'd love to help and I know others will benefit as well! 

QUESTION: Creating a Hyperlink

I know you must think I am crazy, but I have typepad. Instead of linking the whole http in your post I want the word that I choose to go to that specific site or page in my blog? Thanks so much for your assistance.

Basically, he/she is asking how to create a hyperlink. How to create a hyperlink where you are using a word or phrase as the "anchor text" instead of showing the entire address in the form of http://www.blogsbyheather.com (for example if linking to my site).

If you have done this in Microsoft Word, it is very similar.  In any case, you will see how easy it is to do :D

SOLUTION: How to Create a Hyperlink

Begin writing your posts as you have always done.  When you are done and are now ready to choose a word or phrase to link to another page on your site, do the following:

1. First, be sure you note the URL/address to the page, post or site you want to link to. For example, if you wanted to link to my site, http://www.BlogsByHeather.com.  If you wanted to link to my post series on SEO: How do I get found on the web, you would use this URL: http://www.blogsbyheather.com/series-how-to-be-found-on-the-web/. 
2. Select and COPY the URL (you are going to link to).
3. Next, you select the word or phrase you want to use to link to that URL.  So in this example, I am going to select the phrase "SEO: How do I get found on the web".
   
   
   
   
4. With the word or phrase selected, click the link button on the toolbar (it looks similar in all the blog platforms, this is TypePad's).
   
   
   
    
5. Then PASTE the URL in the URL box area, enter the Link Title (if that option is available) and check to open in a new window (if that option is available in your blog platform).
   
   
   
    
6. Click OK (or Insert Link) and you're done.

 

SEO friendly tips to remember when composing your posts:

• Use keywords in your hyperlinks when appropriate.
• Use keywords in your post title and in the top of your blog post content.
• Use your formatting tags - Heading 1, Heading 2, Bold - in highlighting key content.
• Categorize your posts.
• When inserting image like in this tutorial, but sure to add or modify your ALT tags. In TypePad and Blogger you need to go to HTML view to do this manually. In WordPress you can do this when inserting Media (pictures).

 

Ask away! I love questions!

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com
To ask a question, you can do so on the Blogs By Heather Q&A page :D 

SEO: How do I get people to find me on the web? (Round-up)

In the recent article series "How do I get people to find me on the web?" we addressed many techinques on how to use your blog to increase your online exposure and improve your search engine rank.  I shared with you tips I had learned from Rich Brooks, and then also added my own thoughts as well to give you the best coverage of this very hot topic.

WHAT YOU NEED

In part one, we review three things you need to help improve your blog's online visibility - the right platform (Brooks recommends WordPress), your own domain name, and commitment!

KEYWORD ANALYSIS AND BLOG POSTING

In part two, On Page Optimization, we talk about keyword analysis and tools that are free (and those you can pay for) to help you find the best keywords for your business - those that high search volume but low competition. See Google Adwords Keyword Tool (it's free!).

We continued with what you need to do in your blog posts to help each article (post) you write have the opportunity to rank well.  Tips include:

• using keywords in your post title
• more heavily towards the top of your blog post, then sprinkle throughout
• using ALT tags on your images
• use formatting such as Bold and of course your heading titles (H1, H2, H3).

Most importanly it is important to understand that achieving good search engine results takes time!  Brook says up to SIX MONTHS or consistently posting 2 to 3 times a week.  So that is your new goal!  Start today!

LINK BUILDING

In part three, we discuss Off Page Optimization, and that is links that are inbound to your site, whether its you linking to yourself or other sites linking to yours.  Not all links are "created equal".  When building links keep in mind is the site linking to you a trustworthy site, what is the text being used to link to you (anchor text), and more.  

This part was focused on link building and how it can used to expand your search engine success and feed your other online sites - your website, Facebook, Twitter.

I hope you enjoyed this SEO Series!

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com 

SEO: How do I get people to find me on the web? (Part 3 of 3)

How do I improve my search engine rank? How do people find me on the web? How to do I get new customers? How do I get people to visit my site? 

In reviewing a video from Rich Brooks of FlyteBlog.com, here is what I have summarized from his presentation on how to improve your search engine visibility. Specifically, how to use your blog to increase your online, search engine visibility.

In the last post we discussed On Page Optimization which focused on the content and quality of your blog content. In this post we will discuss Off page Optimization (the quality and quantity of inbound links) and link building opportunities.

LINK BUILDING AND OFF PAGE OPTIMIZATION

Think of incoming links (from other sites) as votes of confidence. And keep in mind not all links "are created equal".

• Is the site linking to you a trustworthy site?
• How many links are coming to you (be directed to your blog)?
• What is the context of the site referring you...is it the same topic?
• The "anchor text" (wording in the link) that links to should be SEO friendly, SEO Optimized.

SEO TIPS and TECHNIQUES 

First, you need to create valuable content and something meaningful to and desired by your audience.

Use these techniques:

1. Numbered lists. Such as 10 ways to do this…7 tips to do this…..the top 5 <something>
2. How to articles are popular and wanted!
3. Embed videos!!!  People love videos!
4. List of best blogs in your industry.  Link and summarize their blog and be sure to email them to let them know you have linked to them.
5. Be sure to add your blog to "directories" like Technorati (click here to learn how to claim your blog). 
6. Leave intelligent, meaningful comments on other influential blog. Create conversation and many will follow you back to your blog.
7. Be a guest blogger. Go to www.MyBlogQuest.com to look for guest bloggers or to be a guest blogger.

 

Social Media, like Facebook, can be used to help direct traffic to your blog, but FB comments and posts are not indexed in search engines (this may change in the future). 

SPREAD THE LOVE

How to you take the traffic you built on your blog and pass it to your other online entities - you website, Facebook, Twitter.

1. From your blog, you can link to products or services pages on your website.
2. Sign every post with your name and phrase or link to another area of your website or blog or social media. 
3. Quality links to yourself.

 

I hope you enjoyed this series. In the next post we'll summarize what we've learned over the last few posts on SEO and add a few more tips!

Happy blogging!

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com
For more SEO Tips and Techniques, click here. 

SEO: How do I get people to find me on the web?

How do I improve my search engine rank? How do people find me on the web? How to do I get new customers? How do I get people to visit my site? 

These are amongst the most popular questions I get from customers, especially those who have just started a blog.

In reviewing a video from Rich Brooks of FlyteBlog.com, here is what I have summarized from his presentation on how to improve your search engine visibility. Specifically, how to use your blog to increase your search engine rank.

In addition to using paid services (which Brooks is not saying to do) Google AdWords, buying ads on related or popular sites, spending money on other SEO services like www.EnterURL.com (which I have personally used as well as Google AdWords, banner ads and Facebook Ads), the bottom line is....POSTING!  Meaning, you don't have to throw money into advertising, you need to take time, be patient, and consistently post to your blog.

CONSISTENTLY POST TO YOUR BLOG

Yes, you need to post at least 2-3 times a week and consistently for at least SIX months before really seeing a jump in revenue from search engine traffic.  Yes, it does NOT happen overnight. Not in a day or a week or a month. SIX months at least Rich Brooks states.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS AND KEYWORDS

What he does often is use Google Analytics. In Google Analytics it reports the most common keywords used when people are searching for and find your site.

Google Analytics…what were some of the keywords that were driving traffic to that their site. You can continue to use these keywords in your blog and posts to continue to drive traffic to your site using those keywords. We'll revisit this topic again shortly in this "series", as he recommends other tools as well.

SEO THOUGHTS WHEN POSTING

Search engines are best source to refer business to you. Every blog post you write, creates a new web page. Each web page is a unique opportunity to rank well in search engines.  The more blog posts, the more possibilities and opportunities to drive more traffic your way.

MONETIZATION

Brooks feels every business blog is about monetization! Some are immediate monetization with Ads and Sponsor blogs, or those with a bunch of Affiliate links. Commonly featured in the sidebar or banner space.

Others are lead generating, considered "delayed monetization".  This is where you have a call to action and drive them to a landing page to purchase a product or get their free product for signing up (for you newsletter for example). 

USE SEO TO GET NEW VISITORS

Two considerations:

• How to you improve your blog visibility.
• How to pass along that improved rank to your website, FB, Twitter (other online presences).

HOW TO IMPROVE  YOUR BLOG VISIBILITY

First, you need the right platform.  He strongly suggests using WordPress. WordPress has a large user group, big development group, and tons of plugins available.

NO, he is NOT saying to transfer to a WordPress blog if you already have a blog.  You can still use these tips for your blog!  He is simply saying that if you are starting out...then go with WordPress.

Secondly, own your own domain! This way if you do ever decide to move your domain (blog) to another platform, you keep the trust and traffic you have built.  if you don't use a domain and instead use <mycompany>.typepad.com or even <mycompany>.wordpress.com, then if you move, you lose your rank and all that you have built in regards to SEO. Not to mention from personal experience in helping people move, it is not always easy (especially if moving from TypePad to another platform is "hell").  You can purchase your domains through me, www.BlogsByHeatherDomains.com and I'd be happy to help you map it to your blog!  Or you can follow this tutorial!

There are always exceptions though. You may have a very successful TypePad blog without a domain name and such. Seth Godin is one prime example - http://sethgodin.typepad.com. And he rarely uses images (but that's besides the point).

Lastly, COMMITMENT is required. You need to post 2 to 3 times a week for at least 6 months to gain traffic and increase visibilty.

• Does NOT happen overnight.
• You can't just throw money at it and expect it over night.
• Once you get it going, it will stay hot.

 

WHAT AFFECTS YOUR BLOG'S RANKING?

Two things affect your blog's ranking.

• On Page Optimization - How the words on your blog match up with those a user is using to search.
• Off Page Optimization - is the quanity and quality of inbound links from other sites into your blog.

In the next post, we'll continue this conversation with ON PAGE OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES.

• One of the tips being to break up your posts! 300-500 words and instead create a SERIES of post so you don't lose your readers attention and also create more "web pages" with every blog post increasing you chances to be found.

Be sure to come back this weekend for more GREAT information in continuing this topic "SEO: How to I get people to find me on the web?" and focusing on On Page Opimization. You don't want to miss this!

To read more on SEO while waiting, click here for past articles.

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com

 

Papers & Pixels Sept. 2011 Issue - Using Google Webmaster!

I am so happy to be writing for Papers & Pixels. Each month their online magazine is filled with many digital, image editing techniques using Photoshop (pixels), as well as beautiful handmade, "paper" crafting samples ==> Papers & Pixels. 

Their Photoshop tips and tutorials are really, really amazing and easy to follow! So, even if you are not a papercrafter, you can subscribe to receive the editions for FREE and learn new Photoshop techniques!

This month, September 2011, is their Anniversary edition so I put together a special article featuring Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Webmaster Tools

In learning about your site, such as what your most popular keywords are, who refers to your site or detecting any problems with your site can help you optimize your site and improve your search results. In this month’s article we review a lot and I hope it helps you better understand your site and build your web presence.

Click here to download
FREE PDF on Google Webmaster!

It contains a modified, SEO section in my latest book, Creative Blogging! Be sure to check it out on Amazon.com!

Recent Testimonial:

Hi Heather! I stumbled across your book at our local Barnes & Noble and bought it this weekend. It's terrific. I've wanted to have fun learning how to 'tweak' some things in my blog and you covered those topics (and much more!) in your book. Thank you so much for writing about 'blogging' and sharing also here in your blog. I accessed your blog through your contact info in the book. Thank you again. (Lisa)

Click here to view previously posted P&P articles and free PDF downloads!

Happy Blogging!

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com 

How to Use Facebook to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

We are always looking for ways to gain new leads and to increase traffic to our blogs.

Similarly to how you use a newsletter to drive traffic to your blog,  you can use the same concept with Facebook.

Summarize or begin an article on Facebook, and then do a "Read More" or "View Full Story" and have it link to your blog (a post or page).  

In following this concept, when you use NetworkedBlogs, a popular Facebook application, to have your blog posts feed into your Facebook page (or wall if personal blog), it automatically does this - shows only a snippet of your blog post where the user will need to click on it to read more.

To learn more about using Facebook to drive traffic to your site, click here to read more from ProBlogger or click here to read more from Social Media Examiner.

Helping your build your online presence….Happy Blogging!

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com 

Looking for new ways to get noticed and found on the web?

Many of us use newsletter (email marketing) services like Constant Contact, AWeber, MailChimp, and so on to deliver information to "our" list of customers; which is a great tool in itself in building relationships, promoting sales or driving traffic to your site. However, how do you find NEW CUSTOMERS? This is a question that I am ask often.

Create online press releases that get distributed to the right people===new potential customers for you!

Take a moment to look into a few of these online resources - from free services to great exposure (big bucks).

• PRWeb
• Online PR News
• PRLog
• iReach

Here are 8 reasons to get started
(provided by LegalZoom.com when writing about PRWeb):

1. Be more visible and reach new customers. Online releases get your story straight to the search engines that everyone uses to search for products or services. When people search for a local business in your field on Google, they'll find you there.
2. Get your website found faster. The links to your website you include in your online news releases help your site to boost its search rankings. That means you move up the page on Google, get found before your competitors, and look more credible.
3. Grab attention with multimedia. A picture is worth a thousand words—so what’s a video that tells your story worth? Answer: a lot. Online news releases let you include multimedia like photos and videos that grab readers’ attention, and encourage them to share and republish it.
4. You don’t need to be an expert. Even if you've never written a story or press release before, you can create one quickly and easily. All you need is a good story about your business. If you’re nervous about writing, choose a service with professional editors who check your story before it goes live.
5. Spread the word across Facebook and Twitter. Because it’s easy to link to an online news release, readers can share your story across social networks like Facebook and Twitter with little effort. You might even go viral if people love your story. 
6. Get publicity in the news. Online releases can get your story onto major news sites like Google News and Yahoo News, connecting you with local readers and also journalists who search these sites for new stories to cover. A good service will also send your story directly to thousands of journalist and blogger subscribers.   
7. It’s current—but it lasts forever. A good release service will host your release forever, meaning that it stays online making you visible forever—all in one, single purchase. Once your release is published, there are no additional fees to budget for.
8. You get the feedback you need to grow. A good service will tell you how often your headline is viewed and your release is read, and even show you where your readers are. It shows you what works and helps you target your next one better, meaning that you can improve your effectiveness time after time.

Helping you build your online business, one blog at a time and having fun doing it!

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com 

 

 

Claiming Your Blog in Technorati

To help improve your visibility on the Web, you want to join Technorati!

By claiming your blog and then continuing to post on your blog focused around the keywords you enter below (in the steps setting up your Technorati claim), you will then begin to show up on the Technorati search and your Authority ranking will increase as well.

Again, Technorati is like a "Google" for blogs (searching blogs); so you want to join. It won't hurt!

Click here again to review the article from Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati.

Let's get started.

• Go to www.Technorati.com and click Join.
• Enter profile information.

• Go to My Claimed Blogs Start a Claim area Enter your blog, such as http://www.handstampedbyheather.com (which is my personal, stamping/paper-crafting blog). 
  
  
  
  
• Click Claim button.
• Next screen - Claim a new blog.

• Enter Details, Site Description, Site Categories and Site Tags (use tags to describe your blog, to help people find it - ilke Keywords).
• Click Proceed to Next Step.
• Blog Claim Status. I received the notice that my claim is submitted but due to backlog may take some time for evaluation. That "you will be contacted with instructions on how to complete your claim."
  
  

 

• About 5 minutes later I received an email with a Claim Token and directed to go back to http://technorati.com/account. Then you will see your Blog under My Claimed Blogs. 

• Click Check Claim.
• You will then find instruction that you must create a post on your blog with the Token number provided to you and PUBLISH that post.
• Then click Check Claim. 
• You will then get another Claim Status and again that it may take time to evaluate.
• I then received an auto-email that they crawled my blog and found the token and not the site is awaiting review. (Now you may remove/delete the post you had created previously with the token in it.)
• Today, May 19th, twelve days later I did get the "Claim Complete" email that my claim is now complete on Technorati.

Congratulations, your claim is now complete! Please allow 24 to 48 hours for Authority and recent posts to begin showing for your site now that it has been successfully claimed. Once they are there, we will update your site's Authority once per day.

At first you may not see your site listed in the Technorati Blog Directory for all of the categories you've selected. As you write blog posts around those topics, you should see your Topical Authority in those categories begin to rise.

• If I now go to my Technorati account and My Claimed Blogs, I will see it there as shown below (as well as my other Blogs By Heather claimed blog).
  
  

Now, on the flip side, in the forums I have seen lots of comments on people's claimed blogs not showing up in the search but I have no control of that.  I still wanted to share with you how to claim your blog and encourage you to do so. It doesn't hurt either way, even if Technorati has "issues" at times with listings and searches, I would still go ahead and do this. It's free and can help build your online presence.  The key is you also must continue to post on your blog focused around the keywords you used in setting up your claim.

I will be reclaiming my Blogs By Heather blog as there is now a new process in claiming a blog and I will soon be deleting this one and reclaiming it in hopes the new method will better expose my business.

And I'll be writing for Technorati as well so I'm very excited about that.

Hope you enjoyed today's article.

Keep on blogging :D

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com 

 

Blogging Success Summit SERIES: Content Marketing

I've had the pleasure of listening to recordings from the Blogging Success Summit 2011! It is wonderful and as promised, I will share my recap of each course here on my blog and recap of additional bonus materials with newsletter subscribers.

In this post I'd like to review the presentation by Joe Pulizzi, co-author of Get Content..Get Customers.  His presentation was focused on Content Marketing and 10 Blogging Tips for Beginners and Experts. These ten tips will help in search engine optimization, lead generation and content creation; and includes many concepts we've already discussed here on my blog in previous posts, such as SEO Tips, as well as in both of my books: Beginning Google Blogger and Creative Blogging.

Writing Good Content

Writing good content may be the most important thing in building a business blog, in combination with posting often. Remember in the last Blogging Success Summit article, Richard Jalichandra (CEO of Technorati), he mentions that professional bloggers post up to 500 times more than average bloggers and some up to 30 times a day (where podcasting and mobile, smart phones and iPads makes this possible and has really impacted the way people blog).

So how do they do that? There are a few ways you can accomplish it:

• Spend a day or several to write and schedule posts to be delivered.
• If you have a team of people in your company, all of you can post (as authors) on your blog.
• Hire people to blog for you.
• Have guest bloggers on your blog.

It is important to realize that some blog as a full-time job, the professional bloggers, but others can still make money from blogging, and here are some tips:

• Include a great title (Killer Headline as Joe says).
• Write about what people want to read.
• Include a call to action (have your readers "do something" such as sign up for your newsletter, post a comment, go to <this> page (directed to another area of your site or another website)).

Playbooks of Compilation CDs

Additionally, you should sell or offer "playbooks" - this is turning portions of your blog into book form or into a compilation CD. Some of my customers already do this, such as my friend and fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Monica Weaver of Add a Little Dazzle (www.AddaLittleDazzle.com). She is offering a 2010 Compilation CD of all the tutorials featured on her blog throughout 2010. She does amazing work, be sure to check it out!  

I'm hoping to turn different categories and elements in my blog into book form as well - How-To: TypePad, How-To: Blogger, for example, or a book on all the SERIES I'll be featuring throughout the year.  You can do this too! You www.Blurb.com or other company, or simply copy and paste into Microsoft Word and format. However, you need to do it to get it done and for sale on your blog, or give as a gift or blog giveaway!

Weekly or Monthly SEO Round-outs or Lists

Joe Pulizzi also suggested that you create a weekly round-out.  This may be a list of your top ten posts of the week, such as top ten blog finds. Or you may create a round-out list for your own site, picking out a top ten list of your most popular posts or the top ten posts on a particular subject.  Linking to other pages or posts within your own blog is called interlinking and is a great way SEO (search engine optimization) method.

In Closing

Joe stressed that you need to find your niche! What can you be an expert in, what can you share with the world.  That's what you then blog about until you can't blog anymore (LOL)! For me, it's blogging tutorials and writing posts to help you learn all different elements of blogging and "how to" do it in Blogger, TypePad, and WordPress; as well as sharing other tips on HTML, Constant Contact, Image Editing, Blog Design, and showcasing some of my artwork along the way.  

Thanks following me! Happy blogging!

Heather Wright-Porto
www.BlogsByHeather.com