Women’s Business Forum :: Better Blogging

Thank you, Women’s Business Forum, for inviting me to speak this week about Better Blogging.

I’m a huge proponent of blogging (I must pause here and put in a plug in for my good friend, Stacie Tamaki of The Flirty Guide, who showed me the light and encouraged me to start my blog.   Thank you, Stacie!!)  What a great era to be in business and to have the opportunity to blog.   I have studios in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Doylestown, PA and with clients all over the world, it’s integral that they feel connected to me.

In conjunction with the product of my photography, I am selling an experience and my blog affords me the opportunity to build relationships with each of my clients.  Oftentimes, I’ll meet someone and I’m flattered at how much they already know about me.

I understand how overwhelming starting a blog and maintaining a blog can seem, in addition to maintaining a Facebook account, a Twitter account and a Linked-in profile.  Fortunately, there are a myriad of tools available now that link all of these accounts together and make posting more streamline.

My #1 piece of advice is that it’s better to do something badly than not to do it at all.  You need to start somewhere and the more you do it, the easier it’ll become.  Think of it as yoga for your brain.

I suggest that before you start, you find a notebook in which you keep all of your notes for your blog.  Write things down as you do them.  Chances are you’ll have to do them again and you may forget how to do them.  If you have the steps written down, you won’t have to spend time researching the issue again.

The two main platforms for a blog are Blogger and WordPress. Take some time to look at each and decide which works best for you.  I use WordPress.

Here are my action items for a blog :

1. Set your blogging goals. What do you want to accomplish with your blog?  Will your blog be your primary website or a supplement to an existing website?

1. Know your audience. Take the time to research your demographic and understand the type of information they need then fill that need.  Post useful information on your blog to drive traffic.

1. Ask for Permission. Use your manners and ask for permission before posting images, music or text that belong to someone else.  Chances are that the author of the content will be happy to share it with you if you ask first.  If you don’t ask first, you open yourself up to the possibility of a legal mess.

1. Permalink to Other Sites. Be sure to include links to other sites in your content. When creating a permalink, choose “open in another window” (or the equivalent) so that the link opens in a new page and leaves your blog open.  Having permalinks in the content of your blog helps increase your chances of being found in a Google search.

1. Reply to Comments. Take the time to thank people who have commented on your blog.  And, take the time to comment on other blogs.  The more you eNetwork, the more you build your readership.

1. Add a Subscription Widget to your Blog. Readers can subscribe to receive new posts via email when you have a subscription widget on your blog.  I use FeedBurner.

1. Add an RSS Feed from your Blog.  (RSS=Really Simple Syndication)  This allows your reader to receive feeds from all their favorite blogs on one page in their browsers.  Read the support documentation for your preferred platform to determine the best way to add an RSS button to your blog, however FeedBurner also has the capability of creating an RSS feed for your blog.

1. Use Keywords. Add keywords in the keyword section of your post to increase  your chances of top placement in Google.

1. Don’t Forget to Brag About Yourself. This is the appropriate forum to brag about yourself.  People want to know what you’re doing!

1. Budget Your Time. Yes, technically you should be posting on a somewhat consistent basis, but if you can’t, don’t beat yourself up over it.  Remember, it’s better to something badly than not to do it all.  Just make sure to schedule an appropriate amount of time to post on your blog.  Blogging does take time.  You could post in 5 minutes if you really wanted to, but it’s important that you take the time to proofread your copy and make your images look pretty.  Your blog is a reflection on you professionally and you always want to put your best eFoot forward.  Also keep in mind that when your readers receive your blog either thru their email subscription or their RSS feed, they’ll begin commenting.  Remember to budget time to reply to them.

So many of us are using the internet today before making our purchasing decisions and having a blog helps put you in the running.  Take the time to research your options and invest time in building your blogging empire.  Blogging can open doors that you never knew existed.