Getting Your Blog off the Ground and Growing!

Most small business owners understand the importance of having a blog as part of their business. However, figuring out where to start and how to grow the blog is a daunting task – Today’s guest post from David Gurevich (who’s posted here before, sharing SEO tips for small business websites)  should help answer those questions you have about begining to blog.

David recently visited Israel and helped his 14 year old nephew start a blog on iPod hacks: the iPod Wizard.  With experience with more than 10 internet start-ups, David wrote this letter on the flight back to Boston to help teach his nephew how to blog.

A Letter to My Nephew

Dear Benjy,

      The road to a successful online blog may seem foggy to you, but I have learned with experience what the first few steps are.  As follows is everything about blogging that you need to know.  Because we can’t take walks together anymore as I’ve left for the States, I’ve written it down for you.

      Getting Initial Traffic/Subscribers

      First, always use keyword tools to find high volume/low competition search phrases and to see what people are thinking or are curious about.  Google Keywords is one useful one, as is Wordstream.  You can use Wordstream to find good options to plug into Google Keywords; other keyword tools are also useful, but sometimes not so accurate. 

      These tools will take a keyword phrase like “green bananas” and tell you how many people search for it monthly.  If 10,000 people monthly, for instance, want to learn about “green banana pies” and no other site is offering an article on that, it’s quite easy to get that traffic. 

      A strong initial move is to find a keyword that many people are searching for but doesn’t have significant competition.  A good initial target is a phrase that has 5-10,000 monthly searches.  Write an article on that keyword.  Then you can join forums and add links to your article – this is too much of a pain to do for all your articles, but can be a great way to rank well initially and get some good traffic.

      To get initial subscribers, people who sign up for your blog’s updates, this is one of the best strategies: write 5 AWESOME posts that are really useful or interesting.  Post them to your site.  Now keep posting awesome posts, at least 1 a week, but also post awesome posts on related blogs. 

      To do so, you have to find blogs in your niche and convince the owner to allow you to provide a guest post.  It isn’t so hard because everyone wants free, high-quality content.  This article, for instance, is a guest post.

      What is an “Awesome Post”?

      An awesome post is one that is typically long, interesting, either original or provides a new angle on an idea, and makes readers think “wow, this is awesome.”  Creating one can take several hours to research, write and edit.  Here is more on that strategy; this article, which discusses all the medications for treating a common condition, is one of my attempts to write an ‘awesome’ article.

      Sharing some of your best posts – at first – can attract attention and new subscribers from the people most interested in your writing.

      But while long, authoritative posts are a great strategy, I have seen many blogs that thrive on many short ones, especially when they are commenting or responding to news items.  The best idea, in my opinion, is to provide many awesome posts. 

      Since that may be too much work, consistently providing great posts mixed with many short ones is a common strategy.

      Remember, the title of each post is the single most important thing.  It will determine if people read your post, what they expect from it, and if search engines will send it traffic.  Make it your habit to use effective titles.

      Also remember that getting links that point to your site is the number one way to get traffic to the site from search engines.  Every link that points to your site is like a vote saying it is high quality.  That said, links from “bad” sites can be worthless. 

      Again, identify and befriend existing blogs in the same niche.  You can do this by searching for related phrases like, “iPod blog,” and so on.  They are your competition until you befriend them.  Then ‘a rising tide floats all boats.’ 

      Develop relationships with your readers.  Respond to their comments with an eye towards developing a long-term relationship.  You want to develop a base of subscribers who appreciate the posts you provide, and who will help spread the word for you. 

      Post and respond to news items.  For you, if Apple does something – cover it!  Show off your personality in your posts when possible because it is that which people are drawn to.  A blog is your personal brand so make sure to represent.

      How to Keep on Track

      You need to set a schedule for posting.  Make a schedule that you can stick to, then stick to it.  This is absolutely essential.  You have more free time than you think, and when you have to get something done by a certain time, you will.  Set goals and standards & meet them.  For myself, for instance, my goal is to write at least 2 articles a week, with one focused on a new or challenging medication. 

      Be creative, but train yourself to be creative in a way that leads to success.  Andy Warhol has no more talent than dozens of artists I know who are poor.  His genius was marketing his creativity. Remember those conversations we have about how bad modern hip-hop artists are?  Their poor quality doesn’t hold them back from making millions of dollars – being able to sell something can have little to do with how good the thing actually is. 

      Look at the top blogs and see what they do – best of all, figure out which of their posts are linked to or most commented.  Those posts can teach you much more than I about what a great post is.

      On that subject, occasionally check out Digg.com to find out what is popular.  The articles that make it to the front page there can also tell you a lot.

      When writing instructions, assume your reader knows the bare minimum and is not that smart.  Assume impatience – if things aren’t clear or make sense in a matter of seconds, the visitors go away.

      Always remember that people pay attention to something as long as they find it interesting.  People have horribly short attention spans but when you get their attention you can hold it as long as you are capable. 

      To improve your writing style, find the best writing that does something similar and learn from it.  Different situations call for different styles, but some writing, like that of The New York Times, is always a delight.

      General Advice

      Have a Google alert for your brand name.  This will let you quickly know whenever you are mentioned.

      If you run out of post ideas, use keyword tools to find things people are searching for.  That will almost always give you an idea or two.  Or make a list!  Some of the most popular posts are lists, like “50 ways to have more energy.” 

      Find a good monetization method. Remember, having 100 visitors daily and selling one $50 product makes as much money as having 5,000 and getting paid from advertising.  Guess which one is easier?

      Use ad placement that does not detract from your readers’ experience but that makes you good money.

      Keep up to date with the best practice security.  You do not want your site shut down because of a virus.  Respond to comments with an eye towards building a long term relationship.  Have a mission statement or goal and use it to guide all your decisions.

      When you employ someone, make sure they understand why they are needed.  They are making the website so…, they are running a PR campaign so… This will make their lives easier while ensuring the product you get is in line with your goals.

      Favor paying a little more to get a great job over paying little and getting something that reflects badly on you.  Your website design can easily cost in the thousands depending on complexity and quality, but remember that your design is an investment.  It controls how readers view your content and frames everything.  So it’s quite important.

      Be passionate about what you do.  This is made easier by choosing to do things that you are passionate about.  When you care about something, it will show in everything you do and will lead to you success and keep you going through the hard times.

      Have metrics for success.  You will be successful when you have this many visitors a month, and make this much revenue.  Set reasonable yet ambitious goals.  Choose a great domain name, possibly one that includes relevant keywords.  But you’ve done that already.

      Know what you do best and how valuable your time is.  If your work is worth $30 an hour, spending time on $15 an hour work is waste of your time.  Most importantly, doing the $30 work will improve the skills that take you to $45 an hour, while the less paid work typically leads nowhere that you aren’t already.

      As such. it makes sense to pay someone $15 an hour so you can do the $30 an hour work.

Now thinking like that only works if you are serious.  If you are worth $30 an hour but spend your time watching YouTube videos or wasting time, then such analysis doesn’t matter.

      Be very careful in hiring people.  It is a lot like starting a relationship or dating someone, which you will soon learn more about!  You will get burned by someone you hire sooner or later, this I can promise you, but you will at some point have to do it nonetheless.

      Get business cards with your site address to give to people.  When advertising, be very careful and know how to gauge success.  StumbleUpon advertising, for instance, can be fun if you get stumbled (which isn’t that hard), but after the thousands of people visit – how many new subscribers did you get?

      Numbers are one thing, cash in your bank account or loyal readers is another.

      In Conclusion…

      Planning is the key to success.  As mentioned, you can even plan creativity or inspiration.  That said, sometimes great ideas happen when you least expect them.  It is a common misconception, however, that this means not trying or working hard is OK if you have sudden breakthroughs.

      As many wise people have said, “the more I prepare, the luckier I find myself.”

      There is nothing like setting goals – and meeting them – to improve your performance, quality and achieve greatness. 

      Listen most carefully to criticism because it almost always has some truth in it that is something you can improve.  Praise, on the other hand, deafens you quite quickly.

      Realize that hard work means getting up earlier than your competition and going to sleep later.  But there are millions of people who work 12 hours a day and remain in horrible poverty.  If you ever feel too proud, remember that it is only luck that you do not have that fate.

      Still, it is no longer luck when you work intelligently and make the 8 hours you work worth a great deal.  That is why you must plan.  A planned move is silent but when you reach your destination will ring with obviousness.

      Realize that blogging is a learning process.  My first posts seem terrible to me now, but they were 100% needed.  Only after writing about 100 of them has my writing become somewhat better.  Still, with editing – and an eye towards meeting the needs of your readers – you will do quite well.

      I wrote all that to share some of the things your Uncle has learned the hard way but will end with the simple truth.

      If you can provide great quality posts consistently while building a relationship with your readers, you will succeed.  Do that, and I can promise results.  There are many nifty and fun diversions along the way like advertising and promotions, but everything else is just a detail. 

      To repeat: Provide great quality posts consistently while building a relationship with your readers.

      Make doing that your goal and you will succeed.

      I wrote these words and published them on a top blog to give your site a boost and show you how much I care.

      With love,

      Your uncle,

       David

David is happy because his blogging on medical topics has helped thousands of people understand their conditions and medications better.  Hopefully this post will help you better understand how to blog.  David occasionally tries his luck (fairly successfully) as an SEO consultant and recently wrote an adult add adhd book.

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Photo Credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com