How to Create an Effective Blog Strategy

So you’ve built a website (or have had one built) and now you want to generate some business from it. Having a static website is great, but with out any continual content creation, you probably have very little traffic coming to your website. What you need to do is to blog. Blogging does these things:

  1. It creates new, fresh content which keeps the search engines like Google coming back to your site regularly. This generally indicates to the search engines that your site is alive, and has something important to say. They tend to give a little more attention to sites that are alive.
  2. It give you a platform to establish yourself as an authority on a particular subject matter. This will convince your website visitors that you know what you are talking about, and will establish trust with them. Chances are they will be more likely to do business with you.

In this article we are going to create a recipe you can follow to make the most out of blogging. A lot of business, learn that they need to start blogging, but don’t really know what to blog about. They end up taking a shot at it, and produce non-valuable content that has little to no return.

1. You’re The Expert….At Something

Chances are you are in expert in a subject related to your business. Identify what that is and get out a spreadsheet or a note pad. I prefer using a spreadsheet and if you use Gmail for email, you can create spreadsheet by clicking on the “documents” link up at the top of your Gmail window.

2. Write down 10 topics to write about

Knowing that you’re an expert at something, come up with ten topics that provide value and/or solve a common problem for your customers. For example:

  • If you are a DUI attorney you might write an article like: What to do if you’ve been pulled over by a police officer.
  • If you are an art framer you might write an article like: How to properly Matte a 11 x 17 frame.
  • If you are an insurance agent you might write an article like: 10 ways to lower your car insurance rate in 10 minutes.
  • If you are physical therapist you might write an article like: 5 easy stretches to make your morning more pain free.
  • If you are a realtor you might write an article like: How to find the best home deals in….

Create a column in your spreadsheet or on your notepad for “Topics”. List each of the topics you have come up with in that column.

3. Schedule when you will write these articles.

Figure out when a good time to write these articles will be for you. Are you a morning writer (say after you’ve had a strong cup of coffee) or do you write better in the evenings (when you have less pestering tasks).

Create a second column called “Creation Date” or whatever nomenclature you prefer. Assign dates to get these posts written by.

Don’t forget to account for the time it takes to find and prepare images and videos.

4. Schedule when you will publish your content.

There are better times of the day to publish than others. Think about when your audience will most likely be available to read your content. Create another column for publish time and date.

5. Set a reminder to come up with new topics every week.

It’s much easier to come up with 10 topics a week than 40 topics a month. Program your mobile phone calendar or email calendar to remind you to come up with ten topics every week. This is a really important step to keep on top of your blogging habit.

Important Notes About Blogging

  • Do not copy content. Do not use content from other websites unless you are quoting or referencing something. Always write your own original content. Otherwise you will get no search engine “love” and you may be contacted by attorneys for stealing content.
  • Blogging is time consuming. When scheduling time to write, set aside at least an hour to write each post. The savvy or entrepreneurial business owner can outsource this task. The trick is to find a good writer you can afford.
  • How long do these posts have to be? Post length is not really important. Just write as much as you need to get your post across

We hope this article helped. If you have questions please contact us!