Blogging
How to Fix Your Failing Blog
If you’re planning to make money with your blog, you need to treat your blog as a business. For independent bloggers, sitting at home doesn’t feel as official as going to an office every day, so the blog becomes something far down the list of priorities. That’s a recipe for failure. If you don’t want…
Read MoreWhy Your Blog Should Include “Evergreen” Content
One of my daily tasks as a blogger involves going through the analytics and visitor traffic reports I receive. While my “newsiest” topics are invariably the ones that claim the top spot on any given day, the posts that draw a much more reliable stream of readers over time are perennial subjects that have a…
Read MoreThe Problem with Guest Posts on your Blog
When working on an editorial strategy for their blogs, clients often ask me about “guest posts.” Why write our own content, the argument goes, when there are numerous industry luminaries willing to write content for our blog for free? If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and I generally advise against…
Read MoreGive It Away Now
Loved this interview with Michael Stelzner on the subject of offering web visitors free content, courtesy of the Intuit Small Business Blog (which we edit). The #1 takeaway is right here: “Your content needs to be commercial free,” Stelzner says, drawing from the core argument of his book, which has won rave reviews from all…
Read MoreWant More Business? Blog!
Just ran across this statistic from Hubspot: How much business blogging is best? To answer to those questions, I looked at data from 1,531 HubSpot customers (mostly small- and medium-sized businesses). 795 of the businesses in my sample blogged, 736 didn’t. The data was crystal clear: Companies that blog have far better marketing results. Specifically, the…
Read MoreWhat Should Your Business Blog About?
Online, the old adage that “anything goes” may be true, but on your business blog, you need to think about your posting strategy before you write a blog post. What should you write about? Well, it depends on your business. These tips should serve as a guide to help you get started. 1. The Industry…
Read MoreIs Quality Important in Blogs?
Check out a few blogs online — even A-list blogs or blogs published by major news outlets — and you’ll quickly start to notice something: No one seems to be editing this stuff. They’re riddled with grammatical errors, typos, dead links, and more. Why is this? The quick answer is that, yeah, no one is…
Read MoreGive Your Corporate Blog a Compelling Voice
Early in my journalism career (more years ago than I care to mention), someone asked me whether I was a better writer or reporter. Without much hesitation, I chose Option A, because I knew I was way too polite to be a real newshound. There were plenty of great reporters on the staff of that…
Read MoreIs Video Content Really As Important As Everybody Says?
Businesses get more business when they blog. We’ve already established that. But more and more, video content’s been being trotted out as the next big thing in customer communications. Is video really as big a deal as everyone makes it out to be? Rather than relying on clichés like “Pictures are worth a thousand words,”…
Read MoreThe Problem with “Corporate Blogs”
I’m constantly thinking about how we can help improve the state of corporate blogging in the world, and it’s a tough challenge. I think the main problem is the word corporate. Much as a “corporate suit” doesn’t inspire confidence and a “corporate office park” doesn’t make you want to hang out for the day, a…
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