THE ART OF BLOGGING:A GUIDE TO BECOMING A SERIOUS BLOGGERNIKKI LITTLE | IDENTITYPR.COM | @NIKKI_LITTLE

WHY GET SERIOUS ABOUT BLOGGING?o Showcase expertise

o Your own publishing hub

o Generate new business leads

o Advertising/sponsorship ops

o Media/guest post ops

o Presentation/speaking ops

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, PEOPLE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU (AS LONG AS YOU PROVIDE VALUE)

FIRST STEP: SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS BLOG, PURCHASE DOMAIN NAME & HOSTING

BENEFITS OF SELF HOSTINGo Access to more customization/themes/plugins through

WordPress

o Unique URL

o Custom analytics

o Site support through your domain and hosting companies

o You own it – WordPress doesn’t

IMPORTANT: INSTALL GOOGLE ANALYTICS BEFORE YOU RAMP UP POSTING

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!

CRANKING OUT CONTENT – WHERE DO I FIND INSPIRATION?

CONTENT IDEASo Your customers/clients – What questions are they

asking? What do they care about?

o Your employees

o Keywords that bring people to your site (look in your analytics program) and AdWords Keyword Tool

o Company news

o Events/philanthropic efforts

o Your culture

o Customer stories/testimonials

CONTENT IDEASo LinkedIn Answers, Quora

o News and blogs related to your industry – build off their content (don’t copy – add something new)

o Book reviews, recaps of conferences/events/Webinars/seminars

o Good old Google

TIP: CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR, ASSIGN DEADLINES & AUTHORS

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A KICK ASS BLOG

BLOG MUST-HAVESo Updated and consistent content

o Multimedia – at least one image for each post

o Subscription options (RSS & email) – FeedBlitz is best available

o Commenting plugin – Disqus or Livefyre

o Sharing plugin – Digg Digg is my favorite

o Contact information

o Optimized for mobile and tablets – WP Touch plugin

BLOG MUST-HAVESo SEO elements – WordPress SEO or All in

One SEO plugin

o Fast loading site – W3 Total Cache plugin

o Suggest related content to keep readers on the site – nRelate plugin

o Information about you/your company

o Clean design

CALLS TO ACTION – WHAT DO YOU WANT READERS TO DO?

SNAZZ IT UP EVEN MORE – LEAD GEN WITH LANDING PAGES

MARCUS SHERIDAN (THE SALES LION) MADE MORE THAN 2 MILLION IN SALES THANKS TO HIS BLOG AND LEAD GEN CAPTURING/TRACKING

PROMOTING YOUR BLOG & POSTS

WAYS TO SPREAD YOUR CONTENTo Share on social networks – personal and

companyo StumbleUpono Email signature – WiseStamp for Gmailo URL in online profiles and business cardso Comment on other blogso Submit to directories like Alltopo Paid ops: AdWords, LinkedIn/Facebook ads

WAYS TO SPREAD YOUR CONTENTo Guest bloggingo Share with relevant groups/people

online – be selective!o Link to previous posts within your

contento Use for new business follow

ups/customer retentiono Include in e-marketing campaigns

QUESTIONS

NIKKI LITTLE

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER | IDENTITY

@NIKKI_LITTLE

WWW.IDENTITYPR.COM

WWW.IDENTITYPR.COM/BLOG

WWW.NIKKILITTLE.COM

Photo Sources:http://www.flickr.com/photos/30931517@N03/4520713515/http://www.flickr.com/photos/13006614@N07/2206974242/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/50318388@N00/519286151/http://www.flickr.com/photos/84856173@N00/3734360895/http://www.flickr.com/photos/31502604@N00/251570225/http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelanman/366192378/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaibara/2756361218/http://www.flickr.com/photos/24749556@N08/2428589782/http://www.flickr.com/photos/73194085@N00/253074522/http://www.smartlaunch.com/wed-love-to-hear-from-you/