Welcome to the Blog Marketing Journal! Blog marketing is something that has become a very important area for any growing business. Businesses have been able to really leverage their online appearance by implementing a blog into their website. Building the blog is only half the battle. If you are already in a saturated industry you will have to stay focused and persistent with your blog so that you can find website visitors that want to read what you have to say.

This blog is designed in order to help you out so that you can learn blog marketing yourself. Below are some categories that you should find very useful.

Blog and Website Services: This section goes over some miscellaneous items that you will want to know when launching or building your blog from a standalone to website integrated format.

Blog Content: Blog content is probably one of the most important aspects of launching your blog. Content is the key to your blogs success so it will be important that you structure your content so that people enjoy reading it.

Blog Design: Blog design is equally as important as your content. Your blog needs to have a personality in order to get people to not only stay and read but also to react.

Blog Directories: Blog directories are a great way to give your blog some additional exposure. They are not however the only marketing effort that should be done. We give you some ideas and pointers in this section as to how best to market your blog in other ways.

Blog Marketing: Blog marketing comes in many different shapes and sizes. Often times it just takes a little outside the box thinking. We have created this section to help you find some new creative ways to promote your blog.

Blog Marketing Books: At some point you might want to brush up on your knowledge the old fashion way, books. We have laid out some of the best blog marketing books in the industry for you.
Blog Metrics: isolating the amount of visitors you have to your website will be very important so that you can make accurate decisions on what changes need to be made to your site.

Blog Plugins: Plugins will give your blog a tremendous amount of flavor and user experience. A few good plug ins decrease your bounce rate drastically.

Blog SEO: Blog SEO will be a very important ingredient in your daily routine. You will want to perform some SEO efforts on your blog so that your blog can be searchable.

Blog Software: We go over the various blogging software’s that can help you complete your day to day tasks much easier. We will help you find which platform you would like to use.

Blogging Income: many bloggers eventually want to be rewarded for the fruits of their labor. We give you some tips on how you can go about monetizing your blog.

Blogging Tips: Come read through many little insider blogging tips to help you better understand how too effectively maximize your efforts with blog marketing.

Wordpress Tips: Since we all like Wordpress so much we have decided to create a category for it specifically.

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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.

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.

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.

Are you experiencing writers block lately? Do you feel like you write and write but can’t seem to get ahead? Or are you just running out of things to write about? Just give it sometime. Maybe what you need to do is change up your blog marketing writing style a bit and test out some other things. Often times you just need to give things a fresh new approach on what your are doing. Change is good and you should re-invent yourself from time to time.

Analyze what you have been writing about for the last 6 months or so. If you have any analytics software take a look and see what the most popular posts have been and what people are enjoying reading. This will give you an idea of what your visitors are interested in reading and can help you with your long term blog marketing efforts. If you haven’t done this try reviewing some products in your industry. Do this as a campaign over a three or 6 month period and see how it works out for you. Pick a handful of popular products and do a blog post every week on one product of your choice. Write a 400-500 word blog post, complete with prices, product specs and photos of the product from various angles and see how that works for you. If you can even sign up with an affiliate network and find the products that you want to write about you might be able to make some money with your blog post but don’t let that be your goal. Start writing some product reviews and attempt to optimize your post and title to drive as much search engine traffic as possible.

For all of you thinking about launching a blog to become rich or famous just stop now, seriously. We all hear about bloggers who make 200, 300 grand a year with their blogs but there is something you don’t know. Chances are they started blogging when the blog and blog marketing was first invented and have never stopped.

Launching a blog and writing 50 posts and wondering why your affiliate ads are not generating enough profit for you to stay home is a ludicrous way of thinking. Time, patience and years and years of writing is what it takes to really make money from a blog through your blog marketing efforts. Not to mention proactive blog marketing efforts, partnerships, trade shows and everything else that comes along with owning a business. You do know that a blog should be run like a business right? if you are going to launch a blog do it because you have a passion for a niche or industry and you want to write about that topic. If you make money from it than that will be a bonus. There was a recent post done about a blog that was averaging a few million unique visitors every few weeks and the amount of income they generated from that much traffic was not even worth writing about. Making money from a blog should always be a secondary interest.

Negative online publicity can easily make or break your business. Digital voices travel at lightening speed online and it is important to be able to hear those voices before everyone else does. StepRep is new online tool that allows you to monitor your reputation a real time. A major factor that sets this tool apart from it’s competition is that is has the capabilities to track your reputation through the various social platforms. Places like Twitter where word can travel unbelievably quick, often times by the time you hear it naturally it can sometimes be too late. Platforms like this where voices travel fast and the importance of catching them early is crucial. StepRep allows you to monitor, manage and build your reputation from one website. Negative online press could can bring your business to crawl or even a halt very quickly so it is crucial for any individual or business to hear what the online community is saying about you.

With the emergence of whistle blowing websites like Rip Off Report and social platforms that allow for opinions and voices to be heard over a wide audience it is important to be able to hear it. One wrong move and your online reputation can be tarnished for ever. StepRep allows you to log in right through your Google account allowing to closely monitor Google chatter for what people might be saying about you or your business. Once you are in the site is is very user friendly to operate. Even a novice can log in and navigate through the various pages and set themselves up to be monitored.

For more information about how StepRep can help your please visit the StepRep website and start monitoring your online reputation.

You know that age old saying how everyone has an opinion well sharing yours on your blog is one way to get noticed. Especially if your opinion is controversial. Blog marketing does not have guidelines and comes in many different shapes, sizes and colors. These days thinking outside the box is really the only way to get your hands on some good website traffic.

When someone feels the need to express their own opinion you can bet your bottom dollar that someone else will want to challenge that opinion. Before you know it you will get a surge of website traffic chiming in on the discussion and voicing their opinion to the original post or others that might be leaving their comments. If you currently write about a controversial topic your opinions will most likely spread like wildfire through your industry allowing your website to really grow in traffic. It is important to be unique and offer a unique spin on everything you discuss in order to get people coming back. Make sure your content can be used by your readers in some sort of way. It has to peak their interest. This will be a great way to stand out from your competition and if you position it the right way you can quickly become and industry expert.