Next Level Blogger

How to Start a Blog

One of the issues I help clients with a lot lately is how to start a blog. Many real estate pros are already pretty clued in on why blogging can be so powerful when it comes to marketing. It's a highly personal, highly leveraged, very inexpensive way to reach a large number of people.

If you happen to be sold on blogging but aren't sure where to get started, I hear ya. I hear that question daily. As a real estate pro, maybe you want to start a blog, but you...

Aren't sure how to set one up.
Aren't sure how to get traffic.
Don't know how to make the site look great. And maybe you feel you don't have the skills to set up a site yourself?
Maybe you're not sure how to build an email list with a blog.
Aren't sure how to create a blog that people actually want to read...you know, one that will actually BRING IN BUSINESS, and not just sit there.

These are all important concerns, so I created a video training course that walks you through the entire process, step-by-step. From the beginning where you don't have a blog at all through to the point where you're up and running, bringing in new leads. I have it all covered.

It's a 12 day video training course that covers all these concerns I mentioned plus a lot more. I hope you take advantage of it. For the time being I'm giving the course away at no cost. You can get details and grab your free video training here:

How to Start a Blog

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I put this together because a lot of the real estate pros I talk to out there are struggling with this issue, and I really think this course will answer your questions, put your concerns to rest and show you exactly how to get results with a business blog.

I get anywhere from 20-100 new leads a day exclusively through blog marketing. You've probably heard this before, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything! Let me show you the right way to get started. Blogging has become the cornerstone of my marketing, and the awesome thing is it costs me basically $7 a month. How does that compare with what you're doing now? Let me know what you think :-)

Must Have Wordpress Plugins For Your Business Blog

I’ve provided a list of must have Wordpress plugins before, but here’s the thing: stuff changes. New plugins become available, and some plugins stop working. It’s an ongoing process, so I wanted to provide an updated inventory on the cool Wordpress plugins I recommend for your Wordpress business blog.

This list is specifically for business blogs, not personal blogs. For business the rules are a bit different. You should pay attention to security and performance. You want the content you provide to engage your audience and get the response you’re looking to achieve.

Clearly, nothing is going to replace good content, listening to your audience and hard work. We’re on the same page there, right? That said, a few key plugins can definitely go a long way toward making your life easier.

Must Have Wordpress Plugins

I’d love to here if you think I’ve missed anything important! And btw, these are all free. No affiliates here

Akismet: I still hear complaints about comment spam, and surprisingly there are a lot of people out there who don’t know about Akismet. For me, it rarely lets anything through. It’s blocked many thousands upon thousands of spam comments, and it continues to serve me well. This one is a no-brainer.
Contextual Related Posts: I love this plugin and have used it for quite a while now. It’s recently improved and become much more customizable. It searches keywords on your site and provides visitors a customized list of related posts, keeping your readers on your site longer. Very nice.
Google XML Sitemaps: This has been part of my arsenal from the beginning. It automatically generates, updates and submits a sitemap for you…an essential part of getting indexed rapidly and thoroughly in Google. You can create a sitemap manually of course, but why?
Login Lockdown: Has you blog ever been hacked? If not, stick around a while. It will happen. It happens to us all. One of the most common forms of attacks is a brute force attack, where a hacker randomly tries passwords until it breaks through. This plugin shuts them down cold. When it comes to securing your blog, there are a lot of things you can do, and there is a great report on it here. This plugin is an essential step in hardening your blog against attacks.
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer: When you write new content to your blog, Wordpress automatically pings search engines and directories for you, so they become aware of your new article. Cool, huh? When you edit an old post, Wordpress pings em again. And if you’re the kind of person (like me) who is regularly going in and changing stuff, your blog will be pinging the directories left and right. It may sound cool, but directories are smart enough to know you’re not actually adding anything new, and abusing your ping privileges can get you banned. Few people know about this plugin, but I’m definitely an advocate for using it. It’s smart enough to know what you’re doing on your blog, so when you’re publishing something new or adding a new page, etc…it lets the search engines know. Otherwise, it stays quiet, keeping you in good graces with the search engines. I dig it, how bout you?
Redirection: When you first start out, you likely won’t need this plugin, but you should go ahead and install in now anyway. What happens when you change the name of one of your pages? Or tweak the title of one of your posts? What happens when you change the name of one of your categories? You’re creating pathways to your 404 error page, that’s what’s happening. All of the links and bookmarks people have saved as a way of revisiting your blog still point to the old URL, but you’ve changed it. Having a custom 404 page is smart, but using a plugin like Redirection lets you go in and quickly forward the old page to the new one. You can do this by manually editing your .htaccess file, but who the heck wants to learn how to do that, right? I love non-techy solutions to tech issues, don’t you?
SEO Friendly Images: Do you know what image alt tags are? Search engines can’t actually see images, you know. They just index data. This plugin gives your images relevant keywords for search engines to play with. So basically, the pictures you use on your blog may just be dead weight as far as search optimization goes, but you can change all that by using this plugin. This is especially relevant to anyone who uses a lot of images on their blog, like photographers, real estate professionals, etc. But it’s also a great little SEO tool for anyone. A nice little side benefit of this also comes into play if your content feed is going out by email. Images often get blocked when people read your articles in their email client. Instead of just seeing that ugly little red square where an image is supposed to be, this plugin can put keywords in it’s place, giving a reader an indication of what’s supposed to be there. It’s just more professional-looking in my opinion.
SEO Smart Links: Internal link structure is important for both search optimization and user experience. Giving readers plenty of links in a post gives them lots of opportunity to be as click-happy as they want to be while staying on your site, absorbing more of your grand wisdom. Put in a keyword…let’s say “subscribe”. And then tell the plugin to link that keyword to your subscribe page. Then every time the word “subscribe” comes up on your blog, it will automatically link to your subscribe page. You don’t have to manually install any links; it’s all automatic. Of course this is an oversimplified example, but you get the idea.
SexyBookmarks: This plugin gives your readers a way to quickly and easily share your articles with their friends. You like people talking about your posts and spreading them virally all over the universe, correct? Install this sucker and watch the magic. There are many solutions for installing share links on your Wordpress blog of course, but this is my favorite.
Subscribe To Comments: I never ran this plugin before, but readers were specifically asking why I didn’t have any way to subscribe to comments. After you leave a comment on my blog, there is a check box where you can select to receive an email with follow up comments. It encourages your readers to come back and participate in the conversation.
TweetMeme Retweet Button: This is another new one I’m playing with, and I like it a lot. It gives you a count on how many tweets your post has received, and by clicking the icon at the top of any post, you can retweet the article.
Twitterlink Comments: I like to give as much value to commentators on my site, and one thing a lot of people seem to be using is the Twitterlink Comments feature I have installed. By filling out your Twitter name, it automatically links to your Twitter profile when you leave a comment.
W3 Total Cache: I’ve always used SuperCache in the past, and I’ve recently replaced it with W3 Total Cache. It delivers static pages to users instead of dynamically generated pages. Basically what the heck does this mean? It means your site loads faster. Visitors tend to hate clicking on a link and having to wait even a few seconds for a page to load. Wordpress is awesome, but it’s NOT the fastest platform out there. I admit to still having speed issues from time to time, but this plugin has on average doubled the speed of Next Level Blogger. I switched from Supercache, because this plugin just has a lot more features and is a more comprehensive caching tool.
WP-DBManager: Maintaining regular database backups and regularly optimizing your database is an important part of maintaining your blog. This can all be done manually of course, but this plugin automates it all.

I usually recommend keeping the number of plugins you run to a minimum. I’m running more than I have before, and I’m not having any issues. I think I have a total of 20 on Next Level Blogger currently, and I’m happy with that number. After installing Headway as my blog’s theme, I was able to get rid of some other plugins that I’ve used before like All in One SEO Pack. That is a plugin I definitely recommend if you’re not using the Headway theme. It offers some very essential SEO features.

Have I missed anything you consider essential? Anything on this list that’s new to you?

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There Are No Rules (OK, Maybe Just One Ruleâ€¦)

Don't waste time getting caught up in all the "rules" of blogging. Rules are made to be broken.

The benefits of business blogging are well-documented. If you are not convinced that blogging is a powerful way to reach your audience, build awareness of your brand and generate significant sales, this is a great time for you to go through some of the archives on this blog and some of my “recommended blog tips” articles. The facts speak for themselves.

However if you are already convinced, you are probably on this site seeking great advice on how to maximize the results you see from your blog. That’s smart.

There Are No Real Rules

I’d like to submit a thought to you that may save you some time in your pursuit for the hottest blog tips. There are no real rules. OK…maybe just one small rule, and I’ll let you in on that rule in just a second. But here’s the thing about rules: many people read them and automatically feel they HAVE to follow them. This is not how successful businesses are built.

For now I just want to point out that there are SO many articles out there telling you what to do, leading you to believe they contain the “secret” you’ve been looking for, that if you were to try following all the advice out there, you’ll never go anywhere. Don’t get stuck in this trap. Here are some examples of “rules” that I don’t believe in following:

You need to post often - this is good general advice, but it’s important to know that many successful blogs only post sporadically. Scott Stratten from UnMarketing just wrote about this recently as well, after not having posted anything to his blog in 6 weeks. Some blogs publish new content several times per day. Others post once every few weeks. Your approach has much more to do with what works for your business, not what actually works for blogging in general. With regards to blogging in general, there is no rule.

You need to write long, detailed posts - there is a school of thought which dictates the highest quality posts are long, detailed, highly valuable articles posted to your blog. Some blogs such as ViperChill and many others specialize in writing longer content. Bravo…it works. But it’s important to understand…it works for them. What does that have to do with YOU? With some things, you simply need to follow your own path. Long content and short content both work. There is no real rule.

You need to write short, pithy posts - Some tools such as Blog Grader suggest that your posts should be no longer than 800 words. It even appears to use this metric as a means of grading your blog. Longer posts seem to score lower. I don’t know what the heck this is about. Everyone knows that some of the greatest resources online are very long blog posts that took the authors many hours or days to produce. They generate thousands of incoming links, because they offer huge value. Yes, short posts are quicker to read, but your audience may value longer, detailed posts on occasion. The best approach is not to follow the arbitrary advice of only writing short posts. Nothing replaces actually knowing your audience. Again, no rule.

You need to search-optimize all your content - Sorry to all the SEO pros out there, but this is just B.S. I certainly believe in the power of search optimization, and I think every blogger should take some time to learn the basics. Michael Martine’s Wordpress SEO Secrets is a good place to learn what you need to know. Here’s another rockin post on blog SEO. Here’s another great article on SEO. But here’s what I’ll tell you…stop there. Absorb those resources and then get back to your life. SEO professionals could easily have you believe that your success online hangs in the balance, and if you don’t pay more attention, you’ll slide off the face of the earth without their advice. Ain’t gonna happen. Some of the biggest bloggers in the social web like Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk and many others admit they know very little about SEO and do almost nothing to “optimize” their content. What does that tell you? Is SEO important? Certainly. Is it worth hours and hours of your time? That’s up to you…but probably not. This is just another example of something which distracts many new bloggers. It’s not about learning the “trick”. There is no trick. Blogging is simple. It’s just talking to your audience. You don’t need an internet marketing PHD to get this done. Just talk to your audience.

You need a professional design - I’ve built blogs for many clients. Everyone wants their site to look cool, and that’s understandable. But it’s also essential to understand the difference between pretty and effective. My specialty is in doing what works. If you want conversions, leads and sales, I’m your guy. If you want pretty pictures, I’m probably not your guy. I submit that most new bloggers and marketers spend way too much time worrying about how their site looks. You don’t win a race by sitting in the driveway putting on a fifth layer of wax. I don’t mean to argue that design is not important. It is, but it’s so easy to spend hours and hours on trying to make your site look cool. It’s easy to get burned out on all this, and it’s such a waste, because it has nothing to do with getting results.

Of course, the list goes on. What other rules have you come across? Leave a comment and share! It’s important to take the advice of others with a grain of salt. Yes, the advice on my own blog is included. Here is the truth: there is no recipe…there is no turnkey, guaranteed, “cookie cutter” way of achieving success. Of course you already know this, don’t you? Perhaps you know this through experience. Perhaps you simply know it in your gut. But one way or another, you sense that good things take time and hard work.

Where to Spend Your Time

I believe it’s crucial to read other sites and learn about your craft. Don’t stop learning how to improve your work, but be mindful about what you’re doing with your time. Before you apply some new tool or technique to your approach, ask yourself some important questions:

“How much time is this going to take?”
“Is this something I’m going to enjoy doing?”
“Is it sustainable?”
“What benefits do I honestly believe will come of this?”
“Is the return commensurate with the expenditure of time or money?”
“Do I actually understand this technique and what it will do, or will I just be doing it because it sounds cool?”
“Can I delegate it?”

Answer these questions first, and if a tool or technique you’ve come across passes the test, then put it to use. If not, trash it.

How Much Time Do You Have To Waste?

Business owners often struggle with the return on investment from blogging. I hear this a lot… “How can I justify the use of my time?” Do you have this concern as well? Do you want to make sure you get a good return from the time you spend blogging?

Here’s the key: blogging can have a HUGE return on investment. But this is only true if you do it well. You need to do what works. Use the questions above, and they will keep you from blindly following arbitrary advice. This is what makes the difference between getting a huge return on your blog and burning out. Successful bloggers get results; they don’t follow arbitrary advice just because it sounds cool.

The One Rule To Follow

I promised one rule, and I will share it with you now. I think this one rule will serve you well as you go about the process of building your blog. Use this as your guide, and it will not only keep results coming your way, but it will also steer you clear of useless advice.

Here’s the rule: “Give first, then receive.”

Let me expand on this briefly, because a rule this simple can easily be glossed over or misunderstood.

Do you want more incoming links? Then link to other people first.
Do you want other bloggers to talk about you? Then talk about them first.
Do you want people to submit guest posts to your blog? Then submit guest posts to other blogs first.
Do you want people to comment on your blog? Then comment on other people’s blogs first.

Do you get the idea? Does this make sense? It may seem overly simplistic, but the idea stems from a foundational belief I have about blogging. I believe blogging is inherently social in nature. To attract the attention you want in the social web, you need to be active socially.

Finally, don’t be the nerdy kid in the corner

Most new bloggers spend WAY too much time on their blog. They need to spend time on other people’s blogs! Does this sound counter-intuitive? Think about it for a second. Spending all your time on your own blog is like being the nerdy kid in high school who sits in the corner and draws pictures, never looking up, never talking to anyone. He’s a genius, yes. He’s talented, yes. He has a lot to offer, no doubt. But he never actually offers it. He sits in the corner. He works endlessly refining his talent. The other kids see him, but no one really knows him.

Don’t be the nerdy kid in the corner. Share your genius with the world. That requires getting out there. Trust me on this, your design doesn’t matter, the length of your posts doesn’t matter. How often you post doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get out there, and you can do that in whatever way makes sense to you, in whatever way that works with your schedule, in whatever manner that is consistent with your goals.

You can “put yourself out there” by building links, writing content, spending time on Twitter, handing out business cards at your local brew pub or shouting the name of your blog from a high building…whatever truly, earnestly makes sense to you, your business and your customers. Just do it. Don’t sit on your hands, reading blogs and trying to find “the rules to success”, cuz there aren’t any. The rule I share with you here in this post isn’t even a blogging rule. It’s a life rule. If you rock, you will get results. I promise.

What are you going to do to get results this week?

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Stop Reading This Blog â€“ No Seriously

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while now, and of course someone else way cooler than me beat me to it. That seems to be the way it goes sometimes After reading David Risley’s recent post about why most of us should probably start reading a lot less and actually start WORKING a bit more, I realized it was time to get this article published…it really is an essential topic.

This is a post about how to become highly productive

When it comes to running your business, there is always more to learn. If you’re new to internet marketing or blogging, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype of it all and to spend the next several months…or a year…or longer, just reading. Consuming new ideas, reading ebooks, subscribing to dozens if not dozens of dozens of blogs.

Education is essential…but what are you doing to actually BUILD YOUR BUSINESS? Research doesn’t count…

How a good education can actually make you fail

I’m big on education, and I make an effort to stay up on what other leaders in my business are saying, what projects they’re involved with, what new technologies and systems are being implemented to move things forward. You should do the same, of course. But here’s the thing…your education should augment your business…not interfere with your business. It should enhance what you do. It should help you take things to the next level. Many of us spend way too much time on education and not nearly enough time on production.

It’s entirely possible to get locked into “education-mode” and in doing so put your business on hold…this is suicide.

If you want to be dangerously profitable in your business, education cannot be your primary focus. And if reading this blog…or any resource out there…is causing you to NOT take action, you need to cut that out and get to work!

Productivity-killers to keep an eye on…

Here are a few important things that might be keeping you from being successful. Wait…hold on there. How can something important be a bad idea? Because when it comes to being effective in your business, you have to pick and choose. There simply isn’t time to do everything. This is why I wrote recently about how important it is to implement the 80-20 principle in your business. It’s also why I wrote recently about how important it is to get control over your schedule. Cutting off dead weight is crucial.

The big secret is that a lot of the things that may be keeping you from being productive are really cool things. There’s a lot of great stuff out there that you don’t have time to implement. Saying “no” to really cool opportunities is part of the game. Think of it this way: saying “no” to cool stuff is the only way you’re going to have time for the REALLY cool stuff. Keep an eye on these things:

Reading blogs, articles, books, etc
Commenting blogs, forums, etc
“Networking” on Twitter, Facebook, etc – there’s networking, and there’s shooting the breeze. Be honest about what you’re doing on Twitter, and you’ll see most of your time is probably not focused. Yes, it’s fun and there’s NOTHING wrong with conversing on Twitter. In fact it’s important, and you should do it. But DON’T do it instead of taking care of production. Production comes first. Take care of business first, then hop online and yap your head off.
Tweaking your site – yes, design is important. But there is no perfect design. Your layout or logo is not going to be what makes or breaks your site. If you think a rockin blog design is crucial, go visit this very popular blog and get back to me with your thoughts.

NOTE: I’m not saying to not do these things. In fact if you notice, I acknowledge they are very important. Here’s where to find balance…you just can’t do them INSTEAD of being productive. Reading a great book is important, but it doesn’t build your email list. Commenting on blogs or improving your logo design are important, but they don’t increase sales. Not directly anyway.

It’s ironic that so many new bloggers are struggling to even make $500 a month, yet they will spend half their time (or more) on non-productive things. Implementing what you already know is the true path to success in business. It’s hard to accept sometimes, but success is really not all that difficult to achieve…in blogging or anywhere. It’s just a matter of focusing on the right things.

It’s a fact, if you spend most of your time reading other people’s blogs, your own blog is never going to make it. You’ll know everything…and accomplish nothing.

Do this stuff first. Do everything else second.

Accomplish this stuff first, and then you can get down to the fun stuff (like reading my blog)

Creating content – articles, guest posts, newsletters, sales copy.
Creating products – videos, ebook copy, planning a seminar, whatever you’re selling, schedule ample time for creation of high-quality, valuable products and services for your customers.
Creating marketing campaigns – ppc, email and other marketing that will directly bring targeted traffic to your site for conversion.

Making the decision to set aside important stuff and focus on production can be a hard call sometimes. There’s grey area, it’s true. But doing what actually brings in customers is what pays the bills, and without that, what are you studying up for anyway?

Here’s your assignment

I’m actually pretty serious when it comes to not reading my blog…or any others, until you’ve taken care of business first. So here’s your assignment: Create 10 pieces of content that will pull in business for you or help take you to the next level. What 10 pieces of content should you create? Anything you want…

Pillar content for your new blog
Articles for an article marketing campaign
A 10 page report to use as a premium for your new email list
10 guest posts (I recommend this one)
You get the idea

Create 10 pieces of content that will build your business, and don’t come back until you do. Get this done first, and trust me…the internet will still be there when you’re finished. I will be working on more totally awesome content for you in the meantime

Is there anything you’d add to the “non-productive” or “production” categories here? Do you disagree with any of this? Are you actually going to take me up on this assignment?

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Is Your Business Blog Viable?

Don't let the success of your business blog throw you for a loop. Don't leave success to chance. Take the reigns baby!

Such an important question, don’t you think? Yet how many of us fail to ask ourselves this question and give it a serious, comprehensive answer? Don’t shortchange yourself. This is something to take seriously. Not every business blog works, and not every idea is successful. Importantly, there are always reasons for failure of success!

Most people who read this site are interested in business blog marketing and generally taking their business to the next level through social media. Rock on. But is your business blog viable to begin with? Because if it’s not, no amount of blog marketing (or any marketing for that matter) will make it work.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

What am I selling?

Psst…the answer is not “widgets”. That’s the product. You know…the steak. You sell the sizzle, not the steak. This is Sales 101 of course, but amazingly most business owners are not truly in touch with what they’re ACTUALLY SELLING. What engages your customers? What gets them to act? Why do they buy from you? What emotionally causes them to tell their friends about you? What is your sizzle? What makes you different? If you can’t answer this clearly and succinctly, you don’t know what you’re selling, and that is dangerous.

Do people want what I’m selling?

If you take the principle of “selling sizzle” you can quickly realize that there are many potential reasons people buy from you other than the actual product (or service) you’re selling. People buy for emotional reasons, not practical ones. Are you struggling to make your sales goals? In other words, are you failing to make the money you know you deserve from your business? Then you are either not selling something people want, or you are not IN TOUCH with why people actually buy from you? Do people buy from you because you’re conveniently located? Because you have a great smile? Because you have the best price? Because they truly believe you can help them with their particular problem more than anyone else can? What is it that’s actually causing the sale? Make sure your marketing is in alignment with that, and you will get beautiful results.

There is a restaurant (I won’t mention the name of the franchise) in my town that is the dirtiest restaurant in maybe the whole city. The service is horrible to an almost comical level. Yet they are the most profitable restaurant in the entire chain. Why? They have a beautifully convenient location. They are horrible in almost every way, except location. When it comes to location, they are invincible. We could discuss the ethical ramifications of this of course, but my point is that they know what they’re selling. They’re not selling a sanitary or enjoyable dining experience, and they make no attempt to do so. They are selling poor quality food at a high price to people who don’t want to drive a few minutes out of their way. Clearly, their are a lot of people who want this, because they rake in the cash, and they don’t challenge their business model. They are selling convenience. What are you selling? And…do people want what you’re selling?

Am I Hoping or Executing?

When it comes to marketing, a lot of business owners simply throw a bunch of stuff out there and hope something sticks. There’s something wrong with this approach of course. First, it’s expensive. Second, when something works, the scatter shot approach isn’t very good at indicating to you what works and what doesn’t. So you have no choice but to continue doing everything, for fear of losing whatever IS working. This is horribly inefficient.

Are you blogging? Why? What is your plan? What…specifically…do you hope to achieve from your blogging efforts? A blog is a fantastic communication tool, a way of creating a powerful community, a way of testing ideas, selling products and services, even creating new income streams that were never possible for your business before. But if you don’t approach it deliberately, you’re simply putting up a blog and hoping it works.

Instead of putting all the effort into blogging and marketing your business and blindly hoping for the best, do the research up front. Do it now. Talk to your people. Talk to your customers. Determine what you’re really selling, the most effective way to engage your audience on an emotional and effective level, and decide how you want to use your blog as a way of reaching people in a helpful and powerful way.

A business blog is not magic, it’s a powerful tool. Like a surgeon’s 10 blade. With deliberate, careful and trained use, it can create results that are amazingly helpful and even life-changing. But the same tool when used recklessly can do a lot of damage. It’s not the tool that produces any magic. The tool is simply a mechanism for producing a result. The magic comes from you. Do the ground work. You know…the boring stuff! It will pay you huge dividends.

A Trick to Getting Started Blogging â€“ Listen More Than You Talk

Yeah, it's time to starting your business blog already! If you're on the fence, this article has a couple tips for you

A lot of you are on the fence, no? Perhaps some or all of these have transpired:

You’ve heard me and others talk about the high value of blogging
You want to get in better touch with your customers
You want to reach out to more customers and broaden your base
You are seeing a significant increase in costs associated with traditional marketing and want to find more cost effective ways to engage your audience
You WANT to start a blog…it just looks like fun (it is, you know!)

So what’s the hang up? After talking with many of you for the last several months, I’ve discerned there are three big reasons many of you remain on the fence. You want to start blogging, but these concerns must be addressed first.

It’s kind of techy…you might not be sure how to install your own blog software, etc.
You can’t imagine always having something new to say…coming up with new posts consistently over time seems quite daunting.
Writing to an audience of zero seems like a drag; you want to be confident you can build a good readership

I will be offering a series of video tutorials on dvd showing you how to research, install and operate a business blog. For those of you concerned with any of these three concerns, this video coaching series will answer these concerns in detail.

I’m doing this for one simple reason: these are the most common things I go over with clients for my consulting rate via web conferencing, so it makes sense to me to create a product which offers the exact same content but costs only a fraction of what one-on-one consulting costs. Does that make sense? So any of you on the fence but who cannot pay for consulting, this will give you everything you need for a very affordable price.

That said, I want to sell you on the power of listening. Listening is the key to building a successful blog marketing campaign. It may sound intuitive to pay attention to your audience, but when you look around, not nearly enough (in my opinion) of it is actually going down.

We worry about SEO, what to write about, what to tweet about, how to make our sites look cool…this is all talking. Granted, you need to open your mouth on occasion if you want anyone to know you’re there, but it’s essential to understand that unless your product or service is grandly original…one of a kind, never-existed-before-on-the-face-of-the-planet-original, there is already a vast amount of conversation already going on around what you’re doing. Tap into it, and funnel a portion of it back to your site. How? By listening.

Why Listening is Key

Struggling to come up with content for your blog? Strugging to get enough traffic? Shut up and listen for a bit! There is HUGE traffic and conversation going all already. All you have to do is tap into it.

There is a simple reason why listening will do you more good than talking. Here it is…if all you do is talk, then all you’ll be capable of saying is drivel. That will do you no good at all. You can only create valuable content in direct proportion to how much you listen. And listening must come first of course. You know those bloggers who post every single day, and the content they put out is actually good stuff? They are dramatically tuned into their audience. They follow a lot of people on Twitter and actually pay attention to what people are saying. They incessantly read good content online, and respond to it. They listen intently. They listen first, then they respond.

Blogging is a conversation. When you go to a party or a conference, do you stress out about what you’re going to say? No. You go and meet people; hang out and have fun getting to know new people. This is how it’s done in person. This is ALSO how it’s done online.

Listening Takes Care of Everything

Have a problem with getting traffic to your blog? Then you’re spending too much time on YOUR blog and not enough time on OTHER people’s blogs. When you’re on your own blog, you can’t listen (unless you already have a strong traffic stream and lots of comments). Spend time reading what’s going on in other places instead. Read other blogs, and when you have something to say…leave a comment. Pay attention, because a lot of your comments will spark quick and easy inspiration for a blog post. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I leave a comment on a post somewhere, and I find I actually have more to say about it…thus a blog post is born. You don’t have to grind it out…it happens automatically. It happens naturally.

And there is even more value than that…because the post is in direct response to an ongoing conversation. You see? There is already confirmed interest in the topic; this makes your post relevant. Instead of having to constantly tap into your own genius, you spend time listening. Tap into the genius of others.

And when you spend time on other blogs, forums, etc…occasionally leaving comments and interacting with other people, guess what’s happening? You’re networking. You’re engaging people on their home turf, in a place where they’re comfortable and at ease. And when they find they like you…when they find you’re genuine and actually have good stuff to say, what do you think will happen? They will visit your site. They will naturally want to know more about you.

See, it’s not about finding the magic keyword. It’s not about creating the ultimate blog design. It’s not about how often you post or how long (or short) your posts are. It’s not about posting links to your articles on Twitter. It’s about simply finding your audience where they already are…and listening to them. When you spend time doing that first, your content takes care of itself. Your traffic takes care of itself.

So am I full of it? Or am I onto something? Instead of worrying about how to use Twitter and pondering what magical tweets you can send out to get that golden traffic stream, maybe you can seek out and follow people you want to reach out and pay attention to what they’re talking about. By paying attention and actually caring about about your audience, everything else in a very real way, takes care of itself.

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