April Tara » Blogging

Do you need to blog regularly if you have a service-based business?

April — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:56:37 +0000

Earlier this week, I had a nice long chat with a friend and colleague of mine who started her business around the same time I started mine. We were discussing some of the things we’ve learned over the past year and one of the topics was something along the lines of advice we’d been given and how much of that advice we now agreed or disagreed with.

One particular piece of advice I remember getting that went against everything else I’d been learning was that, if you’re running a service-based business, you shouldn’t be worrying about blogging. The advice-giver said it was just one more thing you’d have to fit into your schedule and gave an example of one particular service-provider who had plenty of business yet they don’t even have a blog.

This didn’t really sit well with me but every time I’ve started to feel guilty for letting my blog go stale, that little piece of advice would pop into my head and I would wonder “do I really need to be blogging regularly anyway?”

Since I don’t have an answer to this question, I decided to ask people I trust and admire: Michael Martine, Grant Griffiths, John Haydon, and Danny Brown.

When I say “ask”, what I really mean is that I fired off an email at 1:30 a.m. sucking up to them and telling them how awesome I think they are (I do!) and by the time I woke up and checked my email this morning, they had all taken the time to respond which really says a lot about what kind of people they are to take time out of their late-Friday/early-Saturday to share their thoughts with me. Great guys, I tell ya.

Ok, enough of my rambling….here’s what they had to say:

From Michael Martine

You need to be blogging regularly if the date of post publication shows, because people have a bias against what they perceive as “old” information on the web. If you’re not displaying dates, then it doesn’t matter as much, but it still matters. The reason why it still matters is that regularly updated sites get crawled and indexed more frequently by Google, and this is generally better for your search rank position (provided you’re doing other necessary search optimization tasks). If you’re using WordPress self-hosted and you have the Google XML Sitemap plugin (which you should), then you can alter its settings to tell Google to crawl your content according to the frequency with which you publish.

People crave consistency, so establishing a rhythm is key, regardless of how many times a week you post. Posting frequently means you’ll generate more content at a faster pace, and the more relevant content found via search, the better for a site’s search ranking.

Your readers will respond favorably or unfavorably to changes in posting. Pay attention to their reactions, and adjust accordingly. On Remarkablogger, the majority of my readers indicated in a poll they’d rather receive larger doses of content less frequently. When I delivered, my numbers shot through the roof. You’d think posting less frequently would mean less traffic, but that has not been case. I now receive more traffic.

From Grant Griffiths

Short answer, yes. And to even be more knee jerky, why wouldn’t you want to post regularly if you have a service-based business?

A service business is just that, it is a business. And like any business, you want to market and promote your business. You want to be found and you also want to be known as the place to go for information about your particular type of service-based business.

In fact, it has been shown that in today’s business world, 75% of those looking for a service-based business are going to the internet to find what they need. And if you have a presence online, you are going to be found. But, more than that, you need to make sure you can be found and blogging will accomplish this.

Blogging as a service-based business on a regular basis also positions you as a thought leader or opinion shaper in your particular area of service. There is no reason that a service-based business should not be blogging on a regular basis.

From John Haydon

Yes, yes yes! In order to create trust with folks, you need to give them value first – then they buy. Blog posts (to me) are ways to give away free stuff to thousands of people at a low cost (you write the post only once, but it gets read a thousand times). You’ll notice that all of the successful real estate agents teach people how to buy a home or select a mortgage.

The second reason is SEO. I rank #1 on Google for “how to make a Facebook Page”. Part of that result is due to the sheer amount of posts I have on Facebook. I’m no expert, but I think Google also looks at how current an article is.

Note: John also followed up his email with a link to this post about relationship management.

From Danny Brown

I’d say you need to be blogging as regularly as you have something worthwhile to share to your readers (whether they’re potential clients or not). It doesn’t even have to be about your particular service, but an off-shoot of it that’s still relevant. It’s a great way of showing your skill sets, knowledge and passion all under one cool roof. But… if it’s just filler for filler’s sake, this will come across and put you back a bit.

So… yes, but only if it’s “worth it”.

Now watch the other guys completely contradict me

Nope, Danny, they didn’t! In fact, all four of you gave some great advice! And it confirms some of my own thoughts, especially when it comes to two of the main reasons I think blogging is a great “tool” for marketing your business – you’re providing fresh content for the purpose of search engine ranking and you’re providing value to your clients and readers who may become clients.

Thanks again to Michael, Grant, John and Danny!

To anyone else who may be reading, what do you think? Do you have a service-based business? If so, how has blogging (or not blogging) affected your business? If you don’t have a service-based business but you’re a consumer, would it influence your selection of a provider if they were blogging regularly?

Blog marketing

April — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:23:18 +0000

I recently read a discussion on a group for legal bloggers in which an attorney was asking for comments on his blog. I haven’t met a blogger yet who didn’t appreciate comments. We all have our own personal measures of validation whether its traffic stats, RSS subscribers or how many comments we receive.

But there’s more to it than just saying “Hey, I wrote some blog posts. Can you please go read them and leave me a comment?” Blog comments are like compliments. They have more meaning when they are sincere and unsolicited.

So how do you get more comments? Well, in order to get comments you need to get readers. And in order to get readers, you need to market your blog.

Let’s start with some of the easiest and most popular methods of publicizing your blog.

Blog directories – Think of a blog directory as the “yellow pages” of blogging. Bloggers can submit their listing and, depending upon the directories format, the blogs are then categorized or tagged by topic, making it easier for readers interested in that topic to find them. Most blog directories cover a wide variety of blogging genres, both personal and business. You can also try business blog directories, most of which break their listings down into types of businesses, such as marketing, computers, health, education, and law.

Signature lines – If you have a business and you use email, you probably have an email signature. Most signatures include your name, company name and your phone and fax numbers. But what about your website or blog URL? Including it in your signature lines will let your existing contacts know about your blog. Don’t overlook forum signatures either. If you belong to any forums, check their guidelines about signatures and if links are allowed, add yours!

Leave comments for others – Everyone appreciates comments and sometimes you have to give to receive. If you come across an interesting post, show the author of the post some appreciation by letting them know. However, don’t just leave a comment saying “Great post. I agree.” Engage in conversation, even if you don’t agree. Provide interesting and thought-provoking feedback and others just might follow your link back to your blog to see what else you have to say.

Social networking – If you’re not investing some of your marketing efforts in social networking, its time to start. As I’ve said in a prior post, use places liked LinkedIn, Ning and Twitter to get the word out about your business and your blog.

But publicizing your blog to get more readers and more traffic isn’t enough. Like the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Once you’ve brough someone to your blog, you have to give them a reason to want to stay as well as to come back again later.

Now let’s look at how to keep the readers once they’ve found you.

Engaging content – Blog writing is different than any other kind of writing. Its more interactive than journalistic writing, less “wordy” than legal writing. Keep paragraphs short and make your first paragraph attention-getting.

Visual appeal – Make sure your blog is easy to read. Avoid using fonts that are too small or don’t contrast well with your background. Break your blog into sections by making headers clear to distinguish between posts, use photos to draw attention to your content, and avoid using too many distractions like animated images or lots of ad links.

Invite and encourage – Once you’ve managed to draw a reader to your blog then kept them interested in your content, ask for their participation. Invite them to comment by asking questions like “What do you think?” or “Have you ever experienced this? How did you or how would you have handled it?” You can also add social bookmarking services at the end of your posts to encourage readers to add your post to popular sites like Stumble Upon and Digg.

Make it easy for them to come back – If you don’t have an RSS feed, get one. Give your readers the opportunity to subscribe to your blog updates by email or feed reader. Feedburner is a good choice and its very easy to set up and monitor. Once you’ve added RSS subscription options, make it easy to find. Its frustrating for readers who have found a blog they like and want to continue reading to have to hunt down your subscription info. Use an RSS icon and place it somewhere at the top of your blog. Some bloggers even add subscription options at the end of each post.

Once you’ve added some of these steps to your blogging regimen, you’ll see some increased traffic and more comments. If you need assistance with any of these, whether its promoting your blog, designing it, or adding content to it, Advantage Virtual Assistant can help. Its just one of the many services we provide for our clients.