Secrets of Successful Blogging

Feb. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- For years now, blogging has become an extremely popular form of online promotion for many entrepreneurs. As with many internet media (especially social media), however, a great deal of uncertainty exists among business people as to how to successfully leverage their efforts.
While there has been a great deal of debate recently over whether blogging is still a strong, viable marketing tool, it is important to recognize that blogging is simply another media, like any media for promoting your expertise, services or products. The key to its effectiveness lies in how it is used.

The following are the "Four C's" for using your blog to help grow your business:

First is Content

When it comes to the difference between a "junk" blog and a truly effective blog, content is king. Providing fresh, original content for your prospective clientele serves multiple purposes.

First, it allows you to offer information and advice of real value to the people you want to serve. The more that your prospects know you and the more value you provide, the more likely they are to identify you as the expert and choose to do business with you. This is a basic but powerful principle of value exchange – the more value you provide, the more you will receive. Writing with authority about your area of expertise is a great way to showcase your knowledge and show your prospects what you can do for them (and that YOU are the one they should be working with).

Second, search engines are cracking down on spam and duplicate content, so it's more important than ever to create original content to boost your SEO (search engine optimization) rankings. This is good news for authentic entrepreneurs, since you will be rewarded for your time and effort with greater online visibility.

The Second C is Connection

Hand in hand with creating great content is the importance of establishing a connection with your audience. Don't be too "stuffy" in your writing; instead, let your audience get to know your voice and get to know you through your writing. Although it may not be feasible to speak to everyone in person, with a blog you can speak to their challenges and discuss important news, events, or developments that may be pertinent to their needs. Let them know about your opinions and interests. When your information is both useful and comes from a known, trusted source, you are much more likely to reap the benefits from your blog

The Third C is Consistency

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is to start working on a blog (or any other media), maintain it only sporadically, and then expect that it will yield any real results.

If you are inconsistent with your blogging, you are essentially training your audience not to pay attention to you (and to a certain extent, that you yourself are inconsistent, which undermines your goal of establishing trust and authority). Although you don't necessarily need to blog on a daily basis, it is a good policy to blog at least once weekly, and make sure that you meet your audiences expectations.

Finally the Fourth C is Conversion

A fatal mistake to successful blogging is providing great content, driving more traffic to your site – and then failing to convert any of your audience into real leads. To make blogging work for you, you must start with the end in mind, which is to be able to find and communicate to your prospective clientele.

To accomplish this, be sure to offer a clear and powerful call-to-action in your blog so that you tell your audience exactly how to do business to you, ideally through the use of a great offer.

Make no mistake – there are many benefits to blogging, not the least of which is that it can be an effective means of driving free traffic to your website and communicating to your desired audience. With the right approach, your blog can be a valuable addition to your online marketing plan.

For more information about proven internet marketing strategies, visit http://stephenwhittier.com.