Ways to come up with content for your blog!

As the Atlanta home inspectors wife  one of the ways I have helped our business is by blogging.  I have been blogging for almost two years and to be honest, I too have run out of ideas.  When I ran across the following post talking about how to come up with more content for your blog I couldn’t beleive how simple it was.  He listed two main points. 

1. Sit down and brainstorm article ideas, just write down the titles, that’s it!

2. Look through your list of titles and then create your blog, of course write down new ideas at the bottom and always add to your list. 

That was it, that was his two ideas, and so simple.  I would encourage you to stop by his blog, Next Level Blogger, and check out the full article, it’s good stuff.  I am often out and think of an idea for a blog, and I will record it in my phone notes, if I don’t it’s gone as quick as it came.  I notice a lot of the time that the ideas will come and it is not the most convenient time to write the blog, having a list of ideas can save you tremendous time.

I am the wife of a busy Atlanta home inspector and I do most of the marketing for our home inspection business.  I am constantly online learning about SEO, social network marketing, blogging, Google adwords and anything relating to the internet.  I teach classes and tele-seminars about blogging and social media.  I am part of an Internet Success Marketing Mastermind group and love helping people in general.  You can follow me on Twitter and on Face book.

Great article about treating your readers like dogs.

I ran across this really great article in my inbox and could not have said it any better.  It really brings into perspective how you should treat people that follow you, and a lot of times I see people treat theirs animals better than they treat their friends or themselves.  Sonia writes some really great articles and I love it when her stuff hits my inbox, I know I will always get a nugget or two that I can use.  You should check her out also, but for now here’s her article below. 

Do you want a wider audience, more subscribers, better conversion to paying customers, fanatically loyal readers, and enviable word of mouth?You can have all of them by keeping one simple piece of advice in mind: Treat your readers like dogs. If you want to teach your dog to sit, how do you go about it? Any good trainer will tell you that the smart way is to give him lots of rewards and love every time he sits when you say, “Sit!” It doesn’t take long before he’s waiting eagerly to see what other kinds of instruction you might have. Would you like him to shake hands? Fetch your pipe and slippers? Take out the trash and wash the dishes? Positive reinforcement makes an ally of your dog. You’re in the same pack. He wants to do things for you. He’s happy and you’re happy. How to treat readers like dogs Every time a reader does something you like (read a post, subscribe to your blog, open a message in an email newsletter, etc.), you want to give that reader a reward — a cookie. (When I say “reader,” I also include podcast listeners, video watchers, etc.) That’s what I call “cookie content,” and it has three characteristics. 1. Cookie content makes life better Cookie content makes the reader’s life better somehow. It might be a funny image, a useful tutorial, or just a really good low-carb dessert recipe. But in some way, large or small, cookie content makes the reader glad she took a few minutes to consume it. Reference and how-to content make great cookie content. Inspiring, funny, or heartwarming content can work too, if you’re good at it. If your readers print out your content so they can refer back to it, or bookmark it on Delicious, you’ve got it right. 2. Cookie content can be used right away The 60-Year Plan for Getting Moderately Well-Off doesn’t tend to make for good cookie content. 10 Things You Can Do This Weekend to Repair Your Credit does. No, you don’t want to overpromise quick “magic bullet” schemes. But cookie content isn’t about the long term and it’s not about hard work. It’s about fast, simple solutions that people can use right away. It’s fine to talk about the longer term too. But be sure you have enough quick cookies in your content to keep things palatable. Your readers have enough complexity to contend with. They’re not looking for more in your content. 3. Cookie content tastes good Cookie content is highly readable. It brings the reader pleasure. It’s often entertaining. It’s well organized, which makes it digestible. Cookie content uses your best writing skills. Not to show off how smart and talented you are, but to make the content more delicious for your reader. Easy reading is damn hard writing ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne Training your readers In a crowded email inbox or RSS reader, cookie content will tend to attract your reader’s attention first. You’re literally training that reader to consume your content, because the content is beneficial and appealing. Each time she reads your work, she feels better. It doesn’t take long for you to become a pleasurable habit with that reader. (Even better, you’re 100% fat free.) Does this mean you never get to promote yourself? Not at all. You can make high-quality offers regularly (and should, if you want to make a living). Just be sure you’re including enough cookies to keep your reader’s attention and interest. You probably don’t want to create content that consists of nothing but cookies. That can give even the most self-indulgent reader indigestion. But include enough that you’re always training your audience to open your email, read your blog posts, and pass along your special reports. You’ll find that the more you reward them, the more they reward you. About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.

Thanks Sonia for another great article and more great information that I can use.  I hope my readers can use it as well.

How to edit the publishing date on your blog post

Are you feeling creative and able to write several post in one day but don’t want them all published one right after the other.  Watch the following video and find out how to delay your post a few days or even a year.   

Need customized help, contact me today and let’s get started on your next marketing project.  Need to know how to start a blog, I can help!  Need to learn how to use social networking to build your business, I can help!  Want to get started on Facebook, I can help! 

Call 404-788-2580 to set up an appoointment today!

Want traffic, need traffic, don’t know where to start?

I ran across the following information over at Prep (Positive Real Estate Professionals) which is a site that I have been using now for quite a while to help drive traffic and create link backs to my own sites.   I was impressed with the job that these guys do already, but after reading this, I’m blown away!  So here’s the information:

when we were discussing putting a blog together for the Arkansas Realtors® Association (ARA), one question popped up from time to time — “Why don’t we host the blog ourselves?”

Some thought was given to hosting a blog on our ARA site, but we tried that once and it didn’t go over to well for want of traffic. That, folks, was the primary reason for making the decision to go with Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) — a growing real estate community that has spent the past few months helping people who make a living through real estate (agents, mortgage bankers, etc.) set up blogs and drive traffic to them.

Our little ARA blog opened about halfway through Monday and I feel compelled to share some traffic counts. From Monday through Friday, 1,866 unique visitors visited The Arkansas Realtor and we’ve recorded an average bounce rate of 18.98 percent.

Let me explain what all that means. The unique visitors count represents individual visits. If someone visited the site 30 times in the same day, only one visit would be recorded. So, 1,866 indviduals have made it to our blog over the past few days. That’s impressive and that 18.98 percent bounce rate is outstanding.

A high bounce rate, see, would mean that people are looking at the blog then quickly moving on to something else. If you have a low bounce rate, that means that people are sticking around and reading the content posted. A bounce rate below 40 percent is considered fantastic, I’m told, and this blog whips the socks off of that. Hopefully, that will continue.

What PREP has done for us is not only drive traffic to our site through social networking, but help get traffic that is meaningful. The PREP folks have found ways to get people here who can use the information we post. We don’t have to worry about promoting articles through Digg, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc. because the folks at PREP take care of that for us.

Of course, I am impressed at how excited our ARA members are about the blog and know that a lot of them have visited, too. The support from Arkansas Realtors is always appreciated and, in fact, we at the ARA wouldn’t be pursuing this project if we didn’t think it would benefit our members.

 

So are you ready to get started driving traffic to your own listings and your own website, then follow this link

http://positiverealestateprofessionals.com/membership-request-form-bonnie-lelak/ 

And get started today! 

The Atlanta home inspectors wife shares how to do a link

As the Atlanta home inspectors wife, I have been blogging and marketing for over two years and I know how much time I have spent trying to learn how to do the simplest things when marketing online.  I put together this video that is not that great, but gives you a quick glance at how to do a link in a blog post. 

 

Check back often to learn more about linking, blogging and online marketing.  Call me or check out my services page for information on how you can get one on one personalized help today.