1. Blogging for Business Beginners
Lorna Sixsmith
Write On Track
www.writeontrack.ie

2. How To Blog
• What is a blog?
• Why blog?
• Various Blogging Platforms
• Google Keyword Tool
• Set up a wordpress.com blog
• How to add
text, photos, links, tags, catego
rise, and optimise
• Editing photos
• Connecting with other blogs
• Preventing Bloggers Block
• Calls to Action
www.writeontrack.ie

3. What is a Blog?
• A blog is a page on your
website
• Similar to diary entries as
they permit frequent
updates.
• Blogs can be standalone
websites
• Blogs can be used to tell
your customers what your
product/service can do for
them - Benefits
www.writeontrack.ie

4. Why Blog?
Benefits of Blogging
• To improve SEO
• To drive more traffic to your
website & increase sales
• Communicate with customers
• To increase brand awareness
• More PR and media attention
• Credibility
• Trustworthiness
• Core of online presence
www.writeontrack.ie

5. More Reasons To Blog
• B2B companies that blog generate 67% more
leads each month
• B2C companies that blog generate 88% more
leads per month
• Companies that blog have 55% more visitors
• Source Hubspot
www.writeontrack.ie

6. How to Blog Effectively
• Writing good titles
• Effective opening paragraphs
• Adding Images to posts
• Hyperlinking correctly
• Increasing backlinks
• Using the Keyword Tool
• Using the All in One SEO plug
in
• Effective Calls to Action
www.writeontrack.ie

7. A.I.D.A
• Attract attention with a great title
• Interest them in your topic
• Desire – arouse desire for your product or
service but don’t give away all the informtion
• Action – always end with a call to action
www.writeontrack.ie

8. Blogging Platforms
• Tumblr – micro blogging, great for photo blogs
• Blogspot – owned by google, free, great for
personal blogging, easy to use
• Wordpress.com – hosted by wordpress (can pay
$30 pa to rid url of wordpress part and ensure no
ads shown
• Wordpress.org – for business use, requires self
hosting
• It is possible to move a blogspot or wp.com to
wordpress.org
www.writeontrack.ie

9. Google Keyword Research Tool
• Free
• Need a gmail email account
• Type in your word/phrase
• Select country/language
• Aim for low competition
and high search results
• Look at the suggestions too
• Use 3 or 4 keywords per
post
www.writeontrack.ie

10. Photo Manipulation
• Free Tool – Picmonkey
• Resize photos
• Create collages
• Lower res photos for blogging
• Rename photos
• Put text on photos
www.writeontrack.ie

11. Starting a Wordpress blog
• Go to wordpress.com
• Start a New Blog
• Decide on domain name (see what’s available)
• How to choose a theme
• How to add your header
• Static page – blog page
• About Us page
www.writeontrack.ie

12. Blog Categories
• Good for Navigation
• Readers can tell at a glance
what your blog is about
• Good for SEO
• Choose a Max of 5 categories
• Ensure they are relevant
www.writeontrack.ie

13. Tags for Your Blog
• Tags will be picked up by Wordpress / Searchers
• Tags are keywords that people may search for
• Ensure the tags are used in the body of the post
too
• Max of 8 tags
• You might have 20 categories but thousands of
tags for your blog
• Tag Cloud
www.writeontrack.ie

14. Hook Readers with a Great Title
• List Titles – 10 Ways to ......, 9 Secrets of ....
• Keyword comes first in a statement – Wallpaper
Wednesday: 3 Nautical Wallpapers
• ‘How to’ – How to write a blog post a day
• Promises – e.g. The Best Way To ..., The Ultimate Guide
to ....
• Rhetorical Questions with personal pronouns – e.g. Do
you know how to upholster a chair?
• Benefits – e.g. Free, Create ... in minutes,
• Part of a club – e.g. What Everybody Knows ...’, Join Us
For....’,
www.writeontrack.ie

15. Opening Lines for your Blog Post
• Start with a question that either makes them answer
‘yes’ and read on or will make them want to find out
the answer.
• Start with a statistic
• Start with a reader’s question
• Begin with a quotation
• Tell the readers what benefits they will achieve by
reading the post
• State a common problem
• Make a controversial statement
• Begin a story
www.writeontrack.ie

16. Importance of Adding Photos
• Photos break up the text
• Add visual relief
• Demonstrate your points
• Useful for Pinterest
• Essential
• Credit the Source
• Photopin.com – useful
source of photos
www.writeontrack.ie

17. Prevent Bloggers Block
• Brainstorm
• Keep a list of topics
• Read related material
• Think benefits, not features
• Let personality shine
• Interviews
• Save drafts, schedule posts
• Guest bloggers
• Regular topic once a week
• Interaction
• Exercise
www.writeontrack.ie

18. Calls to Action
• Always ask your readers to do something
• Like your facebook page / follow you on twitter
• Ask them to share the post with their friends if
they enjoyed it
• Ask them to sign up for your newsletter
• Ask a question and ask them to let you know
their opinion in the comment box
• Ask them to check out the product you were
writing about
www.writeontrack.ie

19. How to get good traffic to your blog
• Highly searched keywords into blog post
• Use keyword analysis tool
• Comment on other blogs – community
• Tweet links to your blog posts
• Use Stumbleupon or similar
• Offer sneak peeks, giveaways, contests,
• Be original, topical or slightly controversial
www.writeontrack.ie

20. Inbound Links
• Inbound links – links from other websites/blogs
• Calibre of link depends on where it comes from
• Commenting on other blogs = ‘no follow’ now
• Guest post on other blogs or directories
• Exchange links with complimentary businesses
e.g florist/wedding cars
• Ask suppliers/customers/networks to list you on
their website
• Write great content – others will link to your post
www.writeontrack.ie

21. Cross Links
• Cross links are links within your own website
and blog (or websites owned by you)
• Linking to other blog posts on related content
• Include highly searched keywords within the
hyperlink
• Don’t use ‘click here’ for the link, web users
now understand they need to click when they
see the highlighted text.
www.writeontrack.ie

22. Adding Images to Posts
• Place cursor where you
want image to go
• Click icon and browser
upload
• Upload photo
• Insert Title, description etc
• Choose size and position for
the image
• Click insert into post
www.writeontrack.ie

23. Creating Hyperlinks
• Highlight the link (use
descriptive language rather
than ‘click here’)
• Click the link icon
• Paste in the link address
• Click for ‘open in new
window’
• All these instructions can be
found on the Write on Track
blog in ‘For Beginners’
www.writeontrack.ie

24. All in One SEO PlugIn
• Free with wordpress.org
• Has to be a self hosted blog
• On the ‘new post’ page at
the bottom
• This will show up on the
search page
• Include keywords
• Call to action in the opening
160 characters
www.writeontrack.ie

25. Commenting
• Become part of a community
• Network
• Write an engaging comment
• Respond to comments on your blog
• Comments lead to friendships and to business
www.writeontrack.ie

26. Social Sharing
• Don’t just click publish, you also need to ....
• Pin your post to Pinterest
• Tweet a link to your post
• Share your post on Facebook
• (if business-related) share your post to Linked
In
• Share your post on Google +
www.writeontrack.ie

27. KLCK Bloggers Network
• Join the KLCK Bloggers Network
• www.facebook.com/klckbloggersnetwork
• Monthly meetings – free
• Kildare, Laois, Carlow and Kilkenny
• Next Meetings – Monday 8th April in
Portlaoise, Monday 6th May in Kilkenny
• Don’t forget the Blog Awards – nominations
open 1st June
www.writeontrack.ie

28. Find Lorna At:
• www.facebook.com/writeontrackresults
• http://www.writeontrack.ie
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/lornasixsmith
• 086 1051007
• www.twitter.com/writeontrack_L
• Lorna@writeontrack.ie
www.writeontrack.ie