First Word

I blog almost daily. I don't blog on Sundays (my fingers day of rest). I use Blogger, which has analytics to measure traffic to the site. The "Stats" show which articles are viewed, and the numbers. The average page views per day for this blog are about 50-75. I am always looking for ways to increase readership. Labels or keywords are what pull traffic to the blog. If you blog, pay attention to what "labels" work for your readership to increase. Let me digress. Does your blog have analytics? If not, you should either attach that feature or find a new blog system that provides it. Blogging without measurement of readership is like riding your bike blind: you don't know where you're going and you can crash and burn. What is the point of just slapping up random content that no one reads? I know some bloggers don't care and slap it there anyway. But if you blog for your business you should care. Education-based marketing, which is what good blogs for b...

It's a la, la, la day and I have to blog ... well, I try to blog daily. Why do I blog daily? I'll tell you ... No. #1 -- Daily = Attraction from those Web crawlers . The web crawlers for the search engines are out on a daily basis, searching for new keywords to lure the little spiders to your page. This act attracts more readers. No. #2 -- Daily = building an audience . People who read the blog on a daily basis want to keep reading and no new material deters repeat business. Readership goes down if you don't keep them coming back for more. No. #3 -- Daily = interested readers = prospective business . Steady readers may some day convert to customers.  Customers/clients pay the bills. Simple. Necessary. No. #4 -- Daily = interested readers = prospective business = virtual relationship building . Steady, interested readers who convert to prospective business become clients. You have to build a "relationship," which is done through the constant flow of inform...

If you're and author, you should realize that writing is only half the job. The other half is the true business end, which involves promoting and marketing the book. In my writers' group Writers Who Mean Business , I teach writers the "business" of writing not just the writing. While some writers' groups focus on craft, I focus on making the book do more than gather dust on the bookshelf. As a publisher , I feel that is my job. We are right in the middle of promoting the new book Vengeance is Now and my book California Girl Chronicles, Brea's Big Break . I want to break apart the media campaign so if you work in this business you might get some ideas. Please note: An effective promotional and marketing campaign should run at least six months to a year. Media and Book Reviewers -- this is the most popular promotional methodology. You promote the book to the mainstream book reviewers, which these days it's mostly bloggers. (When doesn't the Inter...

In the soon-to-be-released 3L Publishing book 10 Powerful Women 10 Strategic Insights into Successful Business , blogging is discussed as a powerful social marketing tool. A few key points important about blogging and its value for marketing your business. According to the 10 Powerful Women , companies that blog have 55 percent more website visitors and overall 88 percent more leads (in consumer market) and 67 percent more leads in (business sector). The main reason I persuade our marketing clients (yes, 3L Publishing does have exclusively marketing and public relations clients, too) to blog is the ability to drive more traffic to their websites. The search engine optimization (SEO) that arises from keyword labels pushes out to the Internet and pulls in visitors who do Google or Yahoo searches to find your blog articles. You need to ensure you make it easy to drive that traffic to your website by having that information readily available through information about your blog and links ...