How To Stay Out Of Blogging Overwhelm
How many hats do you wear during the day? Have you recently added “blogger” to the pile?
Everyone talks about the power of blogging – how you can quickly get ranked in the search engines simply by writing a blog post or two every week. But what they don’t tell you is how to do it effectively, and how to stay out of blogging overwhelm just a few short weeks after you start.
1. Start with a plan.
A plan isn’t “everyone says its great, so I want one.” A plan is “to write twice per week every week from now on because I know it will have a solid impact on my business now, in six months, and 5 years from today.”
Your plan has to answer two questions: the why, and a measurable outcome. In the plan “to write twice per week every week from now on because I know it will have a solid impact on my business now, in six months, and 5 years from today”, the why is building a solid, successful impact on my business. And the measurable outcome is twice per week every week.
2. Follow Through
Now that you have a plan, how are you going to stick with it?
If your goal is to write two blog posts every week, put them on the calendar and get them done. Having trouble writing? Hire a ghost blogger to ensure you have quality posts each week.
Just like you have to pay taxes, pay the bills, and get client work out the door, your blogging has to become a priority in order for you to succeed.
3. Refinement
Take a class, hire a coach, or read a book every once in awhile about blogging. Are you doing everything you can for traction? Are you writing your titles in the best way possible? Are your posts long enough? Are they written about things people are truly searching for?
Rules change every day in the online world. What worked 6 months ago may not work today. In fact it may even get you banned from Google. Because you have your business to run, you may not stay on top of the most current rules and advice, so it’s important to check in with the experts here and there, and make sure you’re doing things in the best possible way.
4. Baby steps
When I show people the results I’m gaining every day, they get excited. Its easy to get caught up in what’s possible, and expect it instantly yourself. Just remember your business didn’t go from $0 to $100,000 overnight, and it won’t go from nothing to top search engine rankings overnight either. I’ve been blogging for years. I’ve built success into my online presence because I do a little each day.
You have to start somewhere. So why not let it be today? Imagine where you’ll be a year from now?
Blog Title – It’s More Than A Few Words
How do you choose a perfect blog title for your blog post?
In many cases, people barely think about it. I was on a wedding planners site recently, and one of her blog post titles was “Jessica and Andrew’s Wedding”.
But is that the best way to do it? Should your blog title just be an afterthought – something that gets your information on to your site with little thought to anything else?
If you’ve always done it this way, its time to give it more thought.
You can spend hours creating the perfect post. You can write, edit, and edit some more. Yet it doesn’t matter how much you put into your post if your title doesn’t accomplish two things:
1. Attract the attention of your readers
2. Attract the attention of the search engines
A blog title is important because: Read more
Instead of Selling, Blog The Story
What’s the one most common misconception of blogging?
Blogging is never about selling.
Many small business owners jump onto a blog, and start writing up all the benefits to their products, provide testimonials, and share information on why their business is the best.
If this sounds like you, you’re never going to make it blogging for your business.
Blogging is about telling a story. 
Ultimately, you want your reader to be able to really get into your story, see him or herself in your writing, and have the desire to move to the next level. To take action.
The easiest way to become better at writing is to create your blog posts like you would be telling a story to a potential customer. How would you speak to them?
Let me give you an example. What if you had a coaching company to help people improve their selling techniques? You may put together something like this:
“Selling isn’t fun and most people don’t enjoy it.”
You may agree with that sentence, but does it really motivate you to want to take the next step or to find out more about what the person is saying? Compare that to:
“Jane hated selling. She hated it so much she almost decided to close her business because of it. She loved working with the clients, making them happy, and following up with them after the sale. But it was always the initial meeting that made her nervous. She never wanted to come across as a used car salesperson. She didn’t want people thinking she was pushy.”
If you hate selling, you can instantly feel Jane’s pain. You can put yourself into her situation, and feel exactly what she’s feeling. You also want to read more of the story – what happens next? Does Jane shut down her business? Or does she find a solution?
That’s the way you want to write. Let your writers feel what you are talking about. Bring out the details. Describe the situation how someone looking in would see it. Describe it from one person’s point of view.
Great books always pull you in because they tell a story. They make you want to read further because you want to find out what’s next.
Do the same with your blog.
Do this with every post. And do it between different posts. Make people move from one spot to the next.
The more you can pull them in, the greater they will stick to your blog. And the bigger the chance of them becoming customers in the future.
Will You Fail At Blogging?
I was doing a little research this morning for a new client. We built a blog for them over a year ago. They liked the idea of growing their online referrals by reaching out and sharing information. They had good intentions of blogging regularly. But after one year – and six posts scattered across that one year period – they knew they didn’t have the time and effort to make a blog work. So they reached out for ghost blogging help. 
As I started researching their industry, I found a few blogs in place amongst their competitors. And likewise, all of the blogs I found had a few posts scattered across a one year period of more.
Blogging works great if you work at blogging.
That’s really the secret.
Of course you need to understand keywording, how to create perfect titles, write about what people are truly searching for, and make your posts informative to the people who will read them.
But above all, you have to work at it. Regularly.
If you commit to blogging one a week, blog at the same time every week. Have more time? Add another day or two to your schedule.
I’ve been blogging for almost 8 years now, and the one thing that makes it work so well is commitment.
I keep a running file of ideas to blog on.
I write regularly and make time for writing.
I was talking with a photographer online the other day. She commented on one of my tips to gain more clients – I said to write blog posts every week. She stated she wasn’t a writer. I agree – not everyone is a writer.
But you don’t have to be a writer to communicate with your prospects and customers.
Grab a video camera and talk about what you do. Post that to YouTube and your blog, and you’ve just created a double strategy to reach out to new customers.
The key isn’t how much content, or how well its written. It’s how well you reach out to your customers, and give them what they truly want to read.
image source
How To Design A Blog
How do you design a blog? What’s the best way to get started as a blogger?
First, decide what platform you’ll be blogging on. There are blog sites you can set up for free, like Blogger. Blogger is well known and has thousands of active bloggers blogging every day. It may be a great choice if you’re blogging for fun, or just want to give it a try. There’s no cost involved, just choose a template and start blogging. But its main advantage is also its main disadvantage – it’s free.
I know many horror stories of people starting up a business blog using Blogger. A few months later as they start building traffic and a following, someone begins spamming the comments section. Blogger shuts them down, and they lose everything they’ve spent months working for.
Instead I would highly recommend using WordPress – my personal favorite. If you understand programming, hosting, and can connect all the pieces, you can probably set up a WordPress blog yourself and customize it. If not, hire a professional blog designer who can customize your blog and give you the look and brand you’re trying to create.
Then get started with a blog strategy. Here’s some ideas to help get you started.
1. Design a blog that covers your interests, your niche, and can help you develop your business (or interests) to a higher level. Narrow your focus as much as possible. It’s hard to be good at everything. When you concentrate on one thing specifically, you’re more apt to get more business, and more exposure.
2. Do a little research. Find other sites and blogs that already exist on your niche, and that you think are comparable to your thoughts and ideas. What do you like about them? How can you improve? Subscribe to their RSS feeds, email notices, free ebooks, etc.
3. Write the first few posts, and get some content into your blog. The first few posts are the easiest. The idea is still fresh. The passion is still there. The excitement is high. The more you can create and post now, the easier it will be down the road when you have other commitments.
4. Discuss ways of making money through the blog. Two of the easiest ways to get products into your blog is by going to eBay or Amazon. You can always find a book or product related to your interest that can add to the overall structure of your blog.
5. Blog and network. This is where the social networking can really work. Work at adding content regularly to your blog, and share your information on other social sites and blogs. Tell your Facebook friends about your blog, and share the information with them. People are more interested in what you do when you’ve built up a relationship.
Then have fun with it. Remember to schedule time to blog each week. The biggest reason people fail is because they give up writing before they’ve gained attention. If you make it a part of your marketing routine, its only a matter of time before it pays off – big.
Blog Ghostwriting – Getting Help To Reach Your Prospects
What’s one of the best ways to reach out to new prospects? Create a business blog. But what if you do that, and simply don’t have the time to fill the blog with quality content?
Many business owners face this every day. They start with good intentions. Then months go by with only one or two posts. And no results.
If you’ve ever had the desire to use a blog to market your services – but just don’t have the time to write on a regular basis, what about hiring a blog blogwriting service?
As a blog ghostwriting service, we write content for our clients. Content is important to:
1. Prove you as the expert within your industry.
2. Showcase your knowledge, and answer the most popular questions people are searching for online.
3. Develop a larger online presence – allowing you to move ahead of your competition in the search engines.
Blog ghostwriting means you have quality content without having to write it, yet you get full credit for it. It allows you to quickly build your online presence, attract clients, leverage your skills, and create the perfect content that people are truly looking for.
One client started using our services after trying to blog for six months on their own. In six months, they created four posts: a welcome message, one wishing everyone happy holidays, one describing a recent vacation, and another on a current event.
They knew blogging worked – they had done their research, and we’re convinced this was a great way to reach out online. But with little results on their own, they also knew there had to be a better way.
There is. Are you ready to have a blog ghostwriting service help you?
Are You Asking This Question Before You Hit Publish On Your Blog Post?
When you start planning out a blog post, what goes through your mind before you start writing? Do you just let it flow, or do you start out with a plan?
For me, I always start out with a question:
Can my reader learn one important point by reading this post, with no more than three supporting sub categories?
And I start writing from there.
People don’t want to read through pages and pages of information to learn all about one subject. That’s what we have books for. Instead when they come to your blog, they come with one question in mind. Your blog post should be the answer to that one question.
If they wonder, “What’s the best macaroni and cheese recipe for kids” your post entitled, “The Best Mac N Cheese Recipe For Kids” will surly get them what they need.
If they search for, “Using Twitter For My Consulting Business” and your blog post is titled, “4 Ways Consultants Can Use Twitter To Bring In Clients” they know what they’ll quickly learn by reading your post.
If your title is clear, chances are the content will be as well.
From there, I make sure I don’t drift off into territory that’s not directly related to my title. People come for one reason only. They get what they came for and move on. To provide more in that one post dilutes your message, and doesn’t allow your reader to develop a relationship with you in their own time.
If they want to learn more, they’ll click around. If they like what you have to say, they’ll do more research. Or sign up for your offers. The key is they’ll do it in their time and in their manner, not yours.
Ghostwriting For Blogs
Is A Blog Really What I Need For My Business?
And if I can’t keep up with it, is ghostwriting for blogs a service I should use?
As a creative professional, you’re probably looking for as many ways as possible to get the word out about your business. I’ll bet you spend well over 40 hours a week working with clients, and marketing to bring in more clients. If you don’t do it all, who is?
You’ve probably experimented with websites and online marketing. And just when you thought you had some of that figured out, along comes blogging. Is it really necessary to build a blog too?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Would I benefit from building up my expertise and credibility in my niche?
- Can I find clients in more than one location?
- Am I ready to expand my business?
- Am I finding it harder and harder to gain clients using email and other more traditional online marketing methods?
- Do I enjoy trying new forms of marketing just to see what they can bring in?
- Do I have a pretty good marketing plan in place – now I just want to rev it up a bit?
- Would I enjoy being online every day, working with my blog and building up online relationships?
Is blogging for everyone? Of course not. But blogging is quickly becoming one of the most effective ways of interacting with prospects and clients, and building your expertise up in a short and powerful way.
At the same time, I know its also difficult taking on a project like blogging, knowing you’ll have difficulty keeping it filled with content. How do you decide what to write about each day? And will you really feel like turning on the computer late at night, just to get a little content into your blog?
For small businesses, ghostwriting for blogs is a smart business decision. You can have quality content put into your site that directly pertains to how people are looking for you. Each post is written in a professional manner, and gives you the guarantee of providing your clients and prospects with quality information, no matter how your week goes.
Is blogging for everyone? Of course not. Is ghostwriting for your blog for everyone? Again, of course not. But if you’re looking at providing quality content to your prospects, building up your web presence, and giving people answers to their questions when they are out searching, it may be an answer for you.
Which Social Site Should You Spend Your Time On?
As a business owner or professional, you only have so many hours in the day. While the promise of what social media can do for you is great, how do you really know where you should be spending your time? Which site is truly the best for you?
During this past July, Facebook attracted 87.7 million unique visitors in the U.S., up 14 percent from June. Compare that with Twitter, which saw 21.2 million unique visitors during July, up 6 percent from June. (full stats here)
In either case, the numbers look great. Where else can you head out and interact with millions of unique visitors all in one month?
So of course you should jump on to both Facebook and Twitter, and enjoy the ride.
While that’s a great strategy, you may be overlooking something that will work far better for your business. First ask yourself a series of questions.
- Who is my ideal client?
- Where can I connect with them?
- Where are they most likely to hand out online?
- Is there a way to restructure what I do to reach out to more people?
- Can I niche my business, and reach out to individual groups in different ways?
The whole idea behind social is it allows you to connect with prospects and customers, and provide them with more information in your area of expertise. The more expertise you can provide, the more clients you’ll find by being in tune with them.
Start by listing out your ideal clients. Be specific, thinking of individual clients when you create your list. Then categorize them. As a massage therapist, your list may look like this:
1. people recovering from auto injuries
2. people referred by chiropractors
3. people who work out at a gym regularly
Now you have three distinct categories of people you can connect with. You can look for people that list this in their bios on places like Facebook and Twitter, and you can also look for specific social groups that target these specific areas.
Keep up your postings on the main sites, but spend more of your time connecting on the niche sites as well. With smaller sites, you may not have to post as option to have a big impact. And you can also pull out from the crowd as an expert quicker, giving your business an even bigger boost.
Do You Write A Blog Post For The Search Engines Or Your Reader?
Why do you start a blog? Is it to reach out to potential customers? Or is it to reach out to the search engines?
In many ways, that’s kind of a trick question. Of course you are writing to attract new business. But where is the new business actually coming from?
Your blog is meant to attract your new customers by ranking well on the search engines, ultimately getting them to click from the search results back over to your blog. Once they get there, its up to you and your content to keep them there, and get them to make contact with you.
So how do you do both? How can you work both into your everyday strategy?
Use titles and content that makes sense to your readers.
No one wants to read boring content. They want it to be exciting and informative. That’s why we like the “How To” or the “7 Steps” titles. They tell us what to expect, and deliver what we’re looking for. But if they were all the same, and focused on a specific keyword, we could see right through what the person was trying to achieve. And we’d head back out of the blog immediately.
So don’t write titles like this:
- Niche Keyword: A How To Guide
- Niche Keyword: Answering Your Questions
- Niche Keyword: How It Works
- Niche Keyword: 10 Ways To Implement
Sure, it might do well in the search engines. But where is the attraction? If you get me as a reader over to the home page of the blog, what’s going to entice me to want to stay?
Instead, use things related to your keyword. So if you are in the golf industry:
- A Guide To Colorado’s Top Golf Courses
- How To Improve Your Golf Swing
- 7 Steps To Choosing The Right Golf Club
- Golfing Today: Who Is Really Golfing On The Toughest Courses?
See how those titles use Golf and Golf related keywords? Yet they all are informative and would instantly attract the attention of anyone that loves golf.
