Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

Everyone wants to bring in more traffic to their website.  A simple way is though other blogs -  making comments on other blogs,  especially those in your niche.

How does this work?

Commenting gives you backlinks to your site. Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. Most blogsites have you enter your name, email and website link to post a comment, this allows other readers to click on your name and link and they will be directed to your website. Backlinks can also help your own SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Your ranking in search engines is increased with the more backlinks to your site. Better rankings, means better chances of being found in an internet search.

Making these comments also allows you to showcase your expertise on the topic to others reading the blog and comments.  It offers and opportunity to get exposed you to an audience you may not otherwise have a connection to.

Choose wisely when picking what blogs to comment on.  Go for a niche connected to your type of business and choose well ranked and respected sites. Making comments on sites like this means your name and backlink will also be published within another high ranking website.  This helps your own online visibility. Finding blogs can be as easy as following main ones in your niche or setting up Google alerts for specific terms and watching for good blogs to comment on from these alert results.

In most cases the first person to comment will get the most clicks to their site. People tend to follow on the first few then the most valuable… so make it a good comment and one that people will remember.

For your own blog you should encourage readers to engage and post comments on your posts, and when they do; reply and acknowledge that they took the time to:

1. Read your post
2. Make a comment

Their comments are also an opportunity for you to go deeper when providing an answer – help them out by providing links to your services or products. Take what you posted in the blog and based on what their comment is, go into more detail to help them.  Taking the time to do this will build your reputation and someone who is willing top lend a hand and go one step further when people ask questions. This helps build that KLT factor – Know, Like and Trust – so that people can visibly see why people do business with you and want to do the same.

Always have the option for blog readers to get blog updates via email or an RSS reader.  If they can sign up it means they get an email every time you publish a new blog post, creating an opportunity for them to directly read your blog and make a comment.

How often do you look for other blogs to comment on?  Is it a regular task you schedule in your weekly work – or simply a chance happening?

Here’s a challenge:

1. Do a Google search on your name and see how many results are online.
2. Setup a blog commenting time regularly over the next month.
3. After the month is up, check your name search again and look at the results.  Is there an increase in hits on your name?

I started this practice in late 2008, at that time there were about 1400 search results for my name (and they tend to all be me *benefits of a unique last name*).  If I do a search today there are over 32,000 results.  Yes all the social media content I do helps, but the blog commenting does as well.

Technorati Tags: blogging for business, increase website traffic, Small business

I was reading Denise Wakeman‘s Biz Tips Blog – one of my favourites to follow. She is always full of great info for us beginner bloggers.

Anyhow, this week she had a post in regards to an interview she will be doing with Paul Chaney and they opened up the comments so if you had a question regarding social media, you can ask it directly. I have been wondering lately what the best practice is with regards to making tags and categories on your blog.

I asked…wasn’t sure if it fit into the topic, and it was a bit off, so instead Denise took my question and turned it into a blog post on the Build a Better Blog by answering it. It was great. I got a full out explanation about tags and categories for blog posts.

I’m not sure how many of my readers wonder this as well so today’s topic is a link to the answer Denise posted. I hope it helps you all as much as it did me.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Social Media

I have come to enjoy blogging lately… it’s a great outlet for many things spinning around in my head, but it was not always the case.

When I first started, as with most people, I struggled to find a topic to write, once I had the blog post written, then I would proofread it and then edit, edit and more editing.  It became a task I did not relish, at all.

I queried several other Virtual Assistants (VAs) to find out how they were dealing with this issue – and many had the same frustration. Listening to their advice, and some of it came from top VAs and great bloggers, I made a decision about my blog. Once I accepted this decision my blogging took off.

I found it less stressful and more enjoyable. I got excited about sharing my thoughts, which is primarily what blogging is all about.

So… what ‘decision’ did I make?  What could change to improve my outlook and ability to blog and blog even more than I did before? Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Blogging, promote business, virtual assistant

Social Media

Well, today was quite a day… as a social media virtual assistant, I had a very hairy day as Twitter and Facebook both succumbed to Denial of Service Attacks, which appeared to be coordinated attacks too. Their systems in effect were shut down and people could not sign in nor post any updates.

It meant that several items of work done for clients and also to do for clients could not happen.  It also was a wakeup call to me, and hopefully many others, that you should not keep all your social networking eggs in one basket. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Marketing, Social Media, social networking, virtual assistant

A Mini-Course on Blogging!  Great idea to learn more about marketing your blog and all in 2 weeks!

VAclassroom is a favourite learning place of mine, much of my social media training was done with them.  This month they have rolled out another innovative way to learn virtually – the Mini Course! The first one is all about Blog Marketing!  What a timely topic too considering that more than 10,000 blogs are started everyday according to WordPress

The 2-week mini-course titled, “Blog Marketing Tips, Tools & Tactics” and starts on August 10th, ending Aug 24th.  The program includes self study as well as live components.

The registration doors are officially OPEN NOW and seats are going fast. They have 60 32 3 seats still available for this training program.  You can use this discount code VABLOG to knock $10 off their special price of $67 when you register.

Whether you are looking to learn for yourself as a blogger or new to blogs, or are looking to add to your services offerings – it’s a fantastic way to learn more about blogging and in a condensed time period at a great price!

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Social Media, training, virtual assistant