If you have a WordPress blog and you feel like it is time to really tighten up the look and function of your plug try navigating through through some of the thousands of plugins or even themes out there to help you really spruce things up. WordPress has made it so easy for non code writing individuals to have a real savvy looking blog to be able maximize their potential.

Writing lots of content on a blog is very important but user experience when a visitor gets to that blog is also very important./ You want to keep that user engaged and navigating through various pages and looking around and reading other posts. One plugin that every WordPress blog should have is the All In One SEO plugin. This allows you to customize all your meta information on every page and even posts as well. In my opinion this should be one of the very first plugins downloaded. If your blog consists of many different pages or even a few different pages you will want to have custom written meta tags and descriptions to go along with those pages so people can find you. If you plan on depending on your blog for income at some point you will have to get really serious with it and really promote it through all the various social networks. Not only is this important from generating traffic but when people come to your blog it is important for them to see that you are active on other areas. This will build brand for your blog and others will find you. There is an abundance of social networking profiles from Flickr RSS to Twitter updates and also Facebook connections. Keeping your blog connected with all communities will help you build traffic and also a following. If you someday plan on selling ad space or trying to monetize your blog these steps will be important.

On June 8th – 9th MarketingProfs is holding a business to business forum for business professionals and business owners looking to sharpen and strengthen their internet marketing skills. The MarketingProfs conference is intended to help attendees on how to integrate their marketing programs, engage their customers and aid in measuring ROI on various web 2.0 marketing initiatives. The internet is always changing and evolving and more and more entrepreneurs and decision makers are looking for a way to be able to harness the raw power of online marketing. This conference is dedicated for those types of individuals. Whether someone is looking for additional information to strengthen their blog marketing skills or be able to pull in all outsourced SEO effort The MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 has something for everyone.

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When you first launch a blog for either yourself or your business it might take you some time to figure out what type of writing style you want to approach your blog with. Some companies know right from blog launch and some take a little time to figure out exactly what type of approach they would like to take. There is no right or wrong approach to take. Everyone has their own style and personality and this will reflect in your blog. Here are some different approaches that we have seen.

Personal: Some business or individuals like to take the personal approach on their blog. This usually works well after you have built up a following for either yourself or your business. if your name is a brand people look for than they will come to your blog regardless of what you write. In the beginning days of your blog it wouldn’t hurt to sprinkle in some of these personal type blog posts letting people know about your dog or a project your child had at school, just to let people know you are a person.

Do It Your Self: if your business offers a service you can’t just cater each blog posts to talking about your services otherwise people are not going to really respond well to that. Writing blog posts about how people can do it themselves or attempt to is a great way to bring in heaping amounts of traffic. I know what you are thinking, won;t these people just learn what I am trying to do for a living? The answer is yes and no. Many people might take the information and run with it but many will not want to bother to do it themselves even after reading instructions. That is when they will contact you directly.

Industry: Some blogs might cater towards the whole industry that you are in. Reporting on various things occurring in that industry. Everything from competitor news, to industry events to hot topics that might occurring. This approach gives you probably the greatest amount of material to work with so running out of things to write about doesn’t really happen to often.

Launching a blog and waiting for people to arrive is not as easy as it might seem. You could find yourself writing for months and even years without mass amounts of traffic. Often times it takes much more than just writing to market your blog, even though that is the most important part of owning a blog.

You will run into many mental battles when you start writing. You will want to put nice short witty titles and use creative verbiage in the post but you know that you run the risk of having a harder time to be found by search engines. You will definitely want to always write for humans first but search engines should also be a close second. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself what the goal of your blog is. Do you want people to find it? Or do you want to just write for the sake of writing? Sure you always want to the flow of words and language to have a natural feel so when people read it does not sound foreign. You also want to write so search engines find you. Before every blog post do some quick keyword research on whatever topic you are writing. Take two or three words or phrases and naturally incorporate them into the blog post. Don’t forget to add some keywords into the blog post titles as well. Will this work to get your post ranking every single time? Probably not but if you don’t apply any type of SEO efforts to your blog than you can guarantee no search engine traffic. if you are a blog that is just starting out and you don’t really have a following to back yourself you will have to apply some of these techniques to your daily or weekly writing.

How much thought do you put into the titles of your blog posts? Do you like them to be serious or do you take a witty approach? Maybe you don’t even really think about and just write something. The fact is titles are very important. There is a thin line between being creative and actually having people find your blog posts with some effective blog marketing.

if you really want search engine traffic to find your blog posts you will want to target some keywords into your blog posts. This is how search engines will find your blog posts. Sometimes blog writers don’t like how this looks because they want that witty factor on their blog but you have to stop and ask yourself what is more important, having a blog with witty titles and no traffic or less attractive titles with keywords and having readers actually visiting your blog? This all depends on how your blog is set up. If you have a company blog that is only dedicated towards your current fan base visiting your site and your website is established that is another story. Or if you have a blog that has already built a very strong following with visitors coming everyday regardless of blog titles than you can afford to get a bit more creative with your titles. If you are a new blog or an under established you should be creating SEO friendly blog posts and titles in order to start driving traffic to your blog. Most blogging platforms now have the ability to be able to create a custom URL for your blog posts. Try shortening your blog post URL structure to include your top chosen keywords from your title. The cleaner the URL structure the more likely it will rank higher in the search engines allowing search engine traffic to find you much more easily.

Whether you are launching your blog because you just got laid off or you want to expand your hobby eventually you will want to reap some sort of reward with your blog. Possibly an advertiser, some new business or maybe your 15 minutes of fame. In order to get anything out of your blog you must treat it like a business at all times.

If you haven’t looked online lately there is a lot going on. Lots of new stuff being published each and every day. Some good and some bad but lots of clutter. Just launching a blog and adding to the clutter really won’t help anyone. This is why you must approach your blog like a business. What would you do with a business to help it grow? Yes you would promote it. This is essentially what you need to do with your blog if you want people to read it. Just launching a blog and writing as much as possible will certainly help but in most cases it will require some additional saviness and marketing efforts on your part.

Promotion will be a very large component of your success with your blog. You have to give it a push and get it out there for people to find in as many different areas as possible. Don’t assume people will just find your blog once you start writing. You will have to start submitting your blog into blog directories along with actively engaging in social media to help build traffic to your blog.

Most people launch and write in blogs because they want others to come and read what they have to say. It is a way to have your voice heard by whom ever wants to read it. Everyone says that writing lots and frequently is what needs to be done when you first take on the task of launching your own blog. This couldn’t be further from the truth but it does often times require blog owners to put on their blog marketing hats.

Here are some ways to help you push your blog posts out a bit further.

Twitter: If you don’t have a Twitter account yet, what are you waiting for? Launch a Twitter account and spend some time following your audience. By taking each blog posts and dropping it into your status you can quickly start building traffic to your blog. it is always good to diversify how you use any of the social networks. Eventually you will start conversations on Twitter with other people. Once you build up a great deal of followers you can quickly see a nice surge in traffic to your blog.

LinkedIn: If you have a B2B type of audience LinkedIn can really help you generate some great traffic as well. By locating and finding groups that your audience would be part of joining and actively engaging in discussions and also posting each blog post the news article section. This will generate steady streams of traffic if the network is large enough and is viewed by enough people.

There are many social networks that allow you to post links directly for everyone that is on your friend list to be able to see and follow. By placing your blog posts links in these areas you will be able to give your blog a generous kick start of traffic.

Many people still don’t seem to realize that the search engines are not artificial intelligence. The read text and web pages, that’s it. They don’t have a personality or get grumpy in the mornings and they are not, for the most part, biased. They read text so if your text is not that great it might be a bit more difficult to be visible with your blog.

Blogs are content driven so it is important to always have blog posts with some meat to them, it is more than just blog marketing. Slapping up some words is not going to get your new blog visible. Sure there are many other factors that fall into blog marketing but content is one of the most important. We know that it is difficult to write about topics that might have already been beaten into the ground but it is important to try and be as unique as possible with your content. Content is what will drive your blog through the search engines and more importantly it will be the reason why people come back to read your blog. If you regurgitate the same content that everyone else in your industry already is than it will be that much more difficult to get new traffic to your blog reading your stuff. Now consider if you have amazing content written coupled with very clean and inviting blog design and a proper link building campaign to get your blog visible in the search engines. A great blog requires many different factors working at the same time. Many times these things can be done by the blogger it just takes a little elbow grease and patience.

You shouldn’t be asking yourself how a blog can help your business but more importantly when you will be launching a blog for your business. We talk to many people who can’t seem to understand the value of a blog for their business which I find just fascinating. If you are going to be serious about driving an online business you will have to be serious about incorporating every aspect of online marketing into your strategy, including blog marketing.

One thing you have to realize is that a blog is more than just a journal, it is a communication tool between your company and the outside world. There are many different ways you can really optimize the use of your blog posts to drive in new traffic and create much needed business for yourself. By simply incorporating keywords into your blog posts you can quickly see your blog posts ranking for many different targeted keywords. It is important to always write blog posts for humans but there should always be elements of blog marketing and search engine optimization in all your posts. A blog can be used in many ways to pull new traffic and business in. You could use it as a how to guide, new products or simply just a way to give your audience any new information on your industry or your business.

Make sure your blog are interesting and inviting. Cater your blog so that you stand out from your audience a bit. Blogs don’t have rules, it is OK to go against the grain and put anything you want in them.

When you first launch your blog it will most likely require some external marketing efforts to kick start some traffic your way. Remember that a blog is just a website so it will be important to treat it like a business in order to drive traffic and keep people reading. Here are some ways to start generating some links to your blog so you can start creating some pathways for others to find you.

1. Directories: Yes directory submissions have been beaten into the ground quite a bit but they still add value. Out of the thousands of directories out there only a fraction of those require your presence. There are many older established directories like DMOZ that everyone should be in.

2. Blog Directories: Research all the various blog directories like Blogged.com and BlogCatalog.com and get your blog visible in those. Those blog directories are highly trafficked blogs with people looking for what your talking about.

3. Online PR: Write some press releases and distribute them online announcing the launch of your new blog. This can be done right through various free online PR distribution sites. Some actually allow you to have direct links embedded into the release helping you with your link building.

4. Social Profiles: Launch social profiles for your blog. If you start to develop traffic chances are you will build loyalty and social profiles will allow your loyal readers a place to meet and converse creating a business directory around your business.

5. Social Bookmarking: Tag your best or most popular posts into the social bookmarking websites like Mixx and Digg. This will allow them a bit further of a reach in order to start climbing in search results. Many times the link will start to float around in search results before the actual post will.

There are many many different blogs in cyberspace today. More and more pop up every single day only adding to the clutter and confusion. If you have been actively writing in your blog for a great deal of time and still see no traffic or interaction than you might want to take a look at something with your blog marketing. If you are not sure how to check to see if your blog is SEO friendly we are here to give you some pointers.

1. Keywords: Do you strategically use industry keywords and phrases when you write your blog posts? if not, you should. Keywords are how search engines find you and drop you into search results. This is important because many search and if your blog doesn’t appear than your just not going to be seen.

2. Custom URLs: Are you customizing your URL structure before you publish? Most updated versions of WordPress now offer a feature where you can customize what your URL looks like before you publish your post live. Search engines read words so if your URL structure has only the important keywords displayed in a nice clean shorter URL instead of just some random numbers you have a better chance of appearing in search results.

3. Enough Copy: Are your blog posts long enough? Remember search engines read words, that is how they find information so make your blog posts sort of meaty. Long enough where the search engines like them and short enough where a reader won’t leave because they are bored of reading. Usually 250-350 words for a blog post is sufficient.

If you are thinking about launching a blog and really pushing it out there to maybe further your career or your business or maybe you just want start a blog as a business you will need to do a bit more than just launch and write. It requires a deal of efforts and blog marketing tactics to get a blog visible. If you approach in the sense that is a business and you treat as a business it will eventually pick up traction in the community and start to gain visibility. One important ingredient you should have incorporated into your blog is some sort of tracking tool so you can see what is going on your blog. We recommend signing up to Google analytics. It is a free tool that allows you to see everything that is going on your site.

Here are some things you will get to see with your Google analytics software:

1. Unique Visitors: You will want to be able to see how many new visitors come to your site. You can also look at reports that allow you to see the trend of new visitors over a period of time to see if your new visitors are trending upwards or downwards.

2. Bounce Rate: You will also want to see how long people stay on your site when they land on it. This will allow you to make necessary tweaks to keep people on your site. If you notice that people leave your site within a few seconds than that is a problem and you can adjust it accordingly. It won’t tell you why they are leaving but just seeing this will allow you to make tweaks and changes to your website.

3. Links: You can also see what links people are using to find your site. This is important because as people link to your blog you will want to know where visitors are coming from.

4. Keywords: You can also see what keywords people type into the search engines to find your blog. This is very important because you can see which keywords are delivering traffic. This will allow you to alter your writing and use specific keywords to target a specific audience.

5. Popular Posts: You can also which posts or pages are the most popular and which get the most visits. This can also tell what kind of audience you have or what people are really interested in hearing about.

There are many different ways to get your blog to start to climb and grow in power. Getting guest bloggers will be a great way to get more traffic coming to your blog. This process is not always as easy as it sounds. Especially if you are in an industry that either doesn’t have enough experts in their field or has too many. Guest bloggers can really help boost your blog marketing efforts.

If you can track down a leader in your industry and get them to write a blog post and hopefully their following will catch wind of your blog and continue to read it once the blog gets archived. If it is someone that has a large following and generates a great deal of search for that person’s name than there is a good possibility that blog marketing post will get a great of traction and really generate some readers. Of course this all depends on how much traction your guest blogger also has your industry. Finding guest bloggers will also help if you start hitting writers block with your writing which happens to many writers and bloggers from time to time. Worst case scenario your guest blogger ads to your building content on your site.

When researching guest bloggers or responding to inquiries from others looking to gues write in your blog always do your research on that person. Do some searches for their name and see what comes up in the search results. The last thing you want is having someone write in your blog that might have performed some not so nice efforts and people are actively complaining. You can easily find yourself getting pulled into a reputation management nightmare. You don’t want to associate your new growing blog with any crooks in the industry.

With thousands of blogs being written in everyday what are you going to do to stand out from the crowd? Just simply writing a few times per week might not drive the traffic that you are looking for. if you are writing in a competitive space what will you write about to differentiate yourself from your competitors?

Writing everyday is great but in today’s market that is almost a requirement. Especially if you are just launching your blog and you need to establish yourself. If you have not educated yourself yet on how to make your blog stand out. There are many blog marketing things that could you hold you back from search engine traffic like performing black hat techniques that hold you back from climbing. That is a whole other blog post. Keywords are what will help people find you. First thing you have to do is really isolate what your blogs voice is. Are you writing about a specific industry? Regardless of what industry or space you are in there will be some certain keywords that people looking for you are writing about will use in the search engines to find info. Some blog owners want to use witty titles and posts but those don’t always gain traction unless the post is really good and it spreads like wildfire. There are ways you can track down keywords for your industry whether yourself or hiring a company to do the keyword research. You will want to structure blog posts tastefully around your targeted keywords to drive in as much traffic as possible. This is only scratching the surface but it will help drive in traffic to your blog and will help you get noticed as part of your blog marketing effort. Also when using and photos in your blog make sure to describe the photo tag using keywords so your blog pic will rank in the images section.

Many new blogs pop up almost every single day. Some are good and some just a train wreck. I think many people that launch a blog are under the impression that once you launch you write some posts and your famous! It really doesn’t work that way. We do see some really great blogs with quality work put into them with a realistic mind set understanding that it will take sometime and hard work to really become a blog with some authority. Here are somethings that we have noticed not to with your blog if you are trying to really grow your business or online presence. Some serious blog marketing efforts are required to get your blog visible.

1. Don’t Cover Your Blog in Ads: If someone gets to your blog and the every space is covered in a Google it just kind of looks tacky. There is no problem with trying to monetize your blog but take a tasteful approach. If you look a little too greedy you will not get any returning traffic.

2. Don’t Write Once Per Month: There is nothing worse than coming to a blog and not seeing any updates for a few months or so. Once per week maybe week and a half are fine but once you start to approach the thirty day mark you will quickly see any traffic you have drop. Even if you start writing again it might be tough to get some of those people back.

3. Purchase Some Server Space: Get a blog that has your own domain hosted on your own server. having your own url structure and your own blog gives you freedom to do what you want. Recently music blogs have been seeing blog posts removed for anyone that uses a free Google blog because they are picking up posts that bands have given permission for a link to an MP3 as piracy. This is the stuff you have to worry about if you don’t have your own blog.

4. Stop Promoting Yourself: if you sit there and self promote over and over you are just going to loose all your traffic. It is fine to write about announcements at your company or even a new service or product offered once in a while but do just demand business on each blog post.

5. Use Photos: I think the use of a photo or video with your posts will keep the reader hanging out a bit longer. It is important to have a little more than just text. Even thought they are there to read not look at pictures a good user experience is important.