small business blogging tips

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Small Business Blogging

Presented by: Adam Dince @adamdince

Head of Organic Search & Social Media Optimization

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These days, everyone has a blog

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On average…

2,730,000 blog posts written every day

81,900,000 blog posts written every month

982,800,000 blog posts written every year

http://www.quora.com/Blogging/How-many-blog-posts-are-written-every-day

http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/all

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Blogs are powerful!

• 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.

(Source: BlogHer)

• Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small

businesses that do not blog. (Source: ThinkCreative)

• Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links. (Source: Hubspot)

• 92% of companies who blog multiple times per day have acquired a

customer from their blog. (Source: HubSpot)

• Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to

30%. (Source:TrafficGenerationCafe)

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/top-blogging-statistics-45-reasons-blog-

180101993.html

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Today, we’ll get you started

• Configure

• Ideate

• Write

• Socialize

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Step #1 – Select and Install Blogging Platform

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Start with the right address and location

Recommended: www.yourwebsite.com/blog (best for SEO)

Secondary: blog.yourwebsite.com

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60% of bloggers use WordPress and so should you! Check with your Web hosting company or visit

http://wordpress.org/hosting to find the easiest way to install

WordPress on your server

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Why WordPress?

Easy to set-up

Easy to integrate social

Easy to embed video, images, etc…

Easy to integrate Google Analytics

No coding experience needed to maintain

Thousands of free site themes to use

Great for SEO

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Find a free theme or hire a designer to create one for you

http://mashable.com/2010/09/07/free-wordpress-

themes-small-business/

http://wordpress.org/themes/

http://www.designrazzi.com/2013/free-wordpress-

themes/

Google, “free wordpress themes”

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What a free theme can look like

Source: http://www.designrazzi.com/2013/free-wordpress-themes/

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Download theme

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Sign into WordPress admin panel

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Click on appearance & themes

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Click on Install Themes

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Click on Upload

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Click on Choose File, Install Now & Activate

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This is what a Free theme did for me

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Basic plug-in downloads A. Asynch Social Sharing: http://rachelbaker.me/download/

B. Captcha: http://bestwebsoft.com/plugin

C. Google Analytics: http://wordpress.org/plugins/googleanalytics/

D. Slick Social Share Buttons: http://wordpress.org/plugins/googleanalytics/

E. Yoast SEO Plug-In: http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/

A

D

B

E

C

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Installing plug-ins

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Configure Permalinks

Not Default!

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Step #2 – Once you’ve set-up your blog, it’s time to get ideas!

Source: http://theweddingwardrobist.blogspot.com/2011/04/excuses-

excuses-miss-paige.html

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It first starts with an idea

Content should be created based on:

The interests of your audience

Your business goals and objectives

“Crowdsourcing is the process by which the

power of the many can be leveraged to

accomplish feats that were once the province of

a specialized few”. – Jeff Howe, Wired Magazine

Source: http://www.ereleases.com/

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A few tools to identify your audience’s interests

Crowdsource Search Queries Social Listening

VerticalResponse.com Soovle.com SocialMention.com

Freemium Free Free

Email and talk with customers and prospects and about

what types of information related to your products /

services they’re interested in learning more about

Type in a keyword and Soovle provides you the top suggested

keywords from the major search engines

Input keywords and themes to see what’s buzzing about

it on blogs, forums, and other social channels

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Let’s look at the process in action

Query: “garageband for ipad” “garageband for ipad tutorial” is a suggested

keyword across almost all engines

SocialMention questions related to query Now you’re ready to create your content

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One last tip for gathering ideas

Keep track of the questions your customers and

prospects ask. Write articles or helpful resource

content around common themes.

Source: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/head%20tilt?before=37

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Finally, put together a content calendar and stick to it

Source: MarketingLand.com

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Step #3 – It’s time to write!

Source: http://rickischultz.wordpress.com/

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It’s got to be quality

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?

• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well,

or is it more shallow in nature?

• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting,

original research, or original analysis?

• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in

search results (competitors)?

• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is

beyond obvious?

• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or

recommend?

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-

guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

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A great example: dirtyyogaco.com

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And it’s so easy to write in WordPress

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More tag makes it easy to make the user-experience great

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“Fullscreen” allows you to write it freely

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Publish

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Step #4 – Let’s get social

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Once you write a post, share it on your networks

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Customize your messages

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Market your content to your customers

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Questions and Answers

Source: http://www.centersquarejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Raise-Your-Hand-05.jpg