All Entries in the "Blog Post Tips" Category

Christmas Blogging Without Undoing What You’ve Done

It’s officially Christmastime. Today is what many retailers call Black Monday. The day after Thanksgiving Day when many people are still on vacation and the malls are open. They go shopping.

My wife got a call this morning at 7:30 a.m. from her youngest child. It was 6:30 a.m. in Texas where she lives. She and her stepmother were on their way to the mall for some holiday shopping. This is also the day that my wife usually likes to set up the Christmas tree. So it’s a big day in our family (and, I suspect, in most families).

But your business is your business and you have to do what’s right for your business. If you have a retail blog and you are ready to start talking about the Christmas season, how much is too much and how much is enough? Should you discuss Christmas on your non-retail business blog?

I think anything that draws you closer to your customers and the people you want to be your customers is good. But you do have a reputation and you want your customers to respect that. So don’t overdo it. If your business is not a traditional “Christmas” business then it’s OK to post some thoughts on the holiday season as long as you don’t do it every day. The first thing you need to keep in mind is the need of your target audience. Do they expect you to discuss Christmas? Will they be turned off if you do? Is a Happy Holiday greeting appropriate or should you be more specific (Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, etc.)?

In other words, think before you write it, but don’t be afraid to do it. Stay focused on the real mission.

How To Promote Your Blog Posts Through Twitter

There are ever increasing ways to promote your blog posts today. Twitter is another tool that you can use to promote your blog. Here are a few ways to use Twitter to promote your blog posts:

• Open your Twitter account in your blog’s name
• Link to your blog from your Twitter profile
• Install Twitter Tools and set your settings to post a tweet for your blog posts
• Send your tweets from your blog using Twitter Tools
• Set your Twitter Tools settings to post a blog post every time you tweet
• Use the daily tweet rollup feature in Twitter Tools
• Send a tweet with a link to your latest blog post
• DM your Twitter friends and ask them to retweet your blog promotion tweet
• Ask your social networking friends to tweet your newest blog entry
• When you comment on other blogs, include a link to your Twitter profile

Twitter is becoming a powerful force in online marketing. I highly recommend it for every blogger.

Don’t have a blog? Learn how to get a blog for your business today.

5 Ways To Turn Scanners Into Blog Readers

Online people don’t like to read long drawn out texts. They like to scan then slow down to read the parts that interest them. How can you create useful blog posts that facilitate easy scanning while providing readers with content that begs to be read?

First, make sure that your content is original and unique. If it stands out then people will read it – or at least scan it. Then when they see the quality they will slow down to read. Here are some ways to make your content more scannable:

1. Use lists – Lists come in two types, ordered and unordered. Ordered lists are numbered lists. Unordered lists are bullet statements. Either way is OK and it breaks up the page so that readers just have to look at your points. If they want more information after scanning your list then they’ll stop to read the fine print.
2. Subheads – Using subheads with h2 or h3 tags every third paragraph or so will cause readers to scan the page and read your headlines. If they like what they see then they’ll read the whole page, or at least the parts that interest them.
3. Graphics – Break up your page with graphics. You can include a graphic image or photo instead of subheads, or use them along with subheads, and people will use them as measures of your blog posts quality. If they like the visual aesthetics of your posts then they’ll stop and read.
4. Bold/Italic Text – When you bold a word, phrase, or sentence, you are telling your readers that you place special emphasis on that text. Do it too often and it will have the opposite effect. The same goes for italics. This is where moderation can be a useful tool that will snag your readers in and engage them. Make sure that you bold or italicize the right text.
5. Include Useful Hyperlinks – A page with lots of links looks inviting and you can judge quality by the relevance of quality of the links. Don’t make it spammy, but if you have a blog post with a lot of links to useful resources then your readers will stick around longer as they test drive those links. If you lead them to really useful resources through links then they’ll come back and read your blog more often.

You don’t have to include all five of these elements in every blog post. Use them judiciously and effectively and you’ll turn blog scanners into readers in no time.

When Do You Approve Comments

After managing nearly 100 blogs in the last couple of years I’ve narrowed down blob comments to three types:

• Spam
• Legitimate Comments
• Well-meaning people with little to contribute

Almost all comments fall into one of these three categories. I always approve legitimate comments from real people. There’s no reason not to. I don’t always delete spam, but I usually do. I approve it only when the comment actually contributes to the thread and when I’m confident that my blog readers won’t be taken to a site that might harm them. They may be annoyed the sales message, but they won’t be harmed.

With well-meaning people, it’s difficult to know just when to approve the comments. I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes a comment is just so off-the-mark that I treat it like spam.

Approving comments is something that comes from experience. The worst mistake a new blogger can make is to approve everything. Some comments are just plain harmful and they could lead to a diminished benefit to your users. Exercise some critical thinking here.