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10 Reasons You Should Start Blogging for Your Business Today

10 Reasons You Should Start Blogging for Your Business Today

Nowadays, it seems like everyone has a blog. But have you ever stopped to consider why? For one, many people misunderstand the purpose of blogs. Blogs go far beyond the mundane – they’re used for everything from showcasing personal writing to offering actionable tips that can help people solve problems and make their lives better, raise brand awareness, and in many cases (like ours) drive a huge percentage of online leads to their business. 10 Key Reasons to Start Blogging For Business (Now) To me, blogging is like the surety of an umbrella on a rainy day. As long as we consistently blog (along with a formula of high quality content + promotion of what we create), we keep our SEO rankings up and thriving, and our visitor numbers flourishing. No matter how “rainy” the day gets, these leads will come in. If you’ve ever considered starting a blog for your business, here are the top 10 reasons you should do it right now. Learn how to be a better blogger today with our free email course, 10 Days to a Better Blog. 1) Blogging will drive traffic to your site Blogging is HUGE, HUGE for driving traffic to your site. Not convinced by me just saying it? Okay, okay… go read two of these posts: How We Gained 300 Positions in One Day – 100% through blogging! The Power of Content Today (Case Study) – Published back in July 2015, this is still relevant to our post today. I discuss how content is the cornerstone of online marketing. Seriously, though, how do people typically find your website? If they come to it via paid aids, it’s likely that you’re spending a lot of money that you don’t have to. If this sounds like your situation, it’s probably wise for you to start dividing your time differently. Instead of spending tons of money on paid ads, you can start blogging, beefing up your social media presence, and optimizing everything you do for SEO. Here’s why it works: if you don’t blog, your website is a little stagnant. It’s likely that you don’t have a ton of pages and, of the pages you do have, very few of them are updated that often. In a setup like this, you don’t have many pages indexed in Google, which means that you’re only marginally visible to people who may be searching for a company like yours. This, in turn, means that one of the only real ways to grab traffic for your site is to pay for it. When you blog, though, all of this changes. Every time you write a new blog, you provide a new page to be indexed in Google. By creating content that your readers and customers love, you ensure that people can find your page. Plus, when you share your blogged content on social media, you create an entirely new outlet for traffic and social shares. (And content is HUGE for Google. Their recent 160-page doc, which we analyzed, discusses how their standards rely on the quality and expertise of the written content.) 2) Blogging can help you make conversions Once you’ve begun to drive traffic to your site via content, you’ll need to find a way to convert that traffic, right? Enter the power of the blog. Because every page you write is a new page that Google gets to index, every page you write is also an opportunity to create new leads and help those leads convert into subscribers, sales, or shares. Blogs work best for conversions when you focus on including a high-quality CTA at the end of every blog post. By doing this, you tell your viewers exactly what you want them to do and help ensure that nothing is lost in translation. It’s really that simple. 3) Blogging helps establish you as an authority What’s one of the most important aspects both of ranking well and drawing in new readers, done with blogging for business? If you answered “authority” you’re right on. Page authority is incredibly important and it’s not something you can buy. The only way to create authority on the web is to create content that is genuinely useful, helpful, and interesting to readers. Nowadays, the majority of people (about 81%) conduct nearly all of their product research before ever speaking to a company or its customer service representatives. One of the primary places that people turn to conduct this research is the web. When you build and maintain a business blog where you publish valuable, educational, helpful content, you can be the person who provides the answers to questions your would-be customers ask during the research process. By doing this, you establish your company as a leader in the industry, as well as helping ensure that when the customer is ready to purchase, they’ll come back to your site. 4) Blogging for business is a long-term plan There are many marketing tactics that produce short-term results. While those things can be effective to drive huge bursts of traffic, they’re seldom cut out to be a long-term solution. Blogging, on the other hand, is designed for the long-term. When you sit down to create a blog, you create a valuable piece of content that long outlives your efforts and your investment in it. By generating shares, drawing views, and producing conversions, each blog you write has the potential to draw traffic long beyond the day it is published. In fact, HubSpot reports that upwards of 70% of its monthly traffic and 90% of its overall leads come from blogs that were published in previous months, some even as long as a year ago. 5) Blogging is low-cost, high-return Have we mentioned that blogging only costs what you want to invest for writing and imagery? The ROI is way, way worth the small investments. Blogging is both one of the cheapest and one of the most effective ways to drive traffic, views, and attention to your business website and, while it has the potential to produce a huge return investment, … Read more

Our Top 10 Strategies To Becoming An Expert Blogger

Our Top 10 Strategies To Becoming An Expert Blogger

How do you become an expert blogger? This is a question that’s asked by many aspiring content creators. And it’s a good one. After all, blogging and content marketing are stronger than they’ve ever been. 91% of today’s businesses participate in content marketing.  In addition, there are tons of ways to make money blogging in the modern world. For example, we use blogging to earn 99% of our leads and revenue around here at Express Writers. And we’re not the only one bringing in the bacon through our blogging. Michelle at makingsenseofcents.com is a blogger I follow who travels the world and makes six-figures monthly through affiliate blogging. And Jon Morrow at SmartBlogger is a smart marketer who uses his blog to earn over $100k/month. So, whether you’re attempting to start your own blog or looking to create content for other businesses, the opportunities are there. And while there’s quite a bit of competition in this space, becoming an expert blogger is something that can set you apart from the field. If you’re able to nail the strategies outlined below, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an expert in the blogging world. Let’s get started. [bctt tweet=”Learn how to become an expert #blogger in our 10-step guide. ” username=”ExpWriters”] 10 Strategies to Becoming an Expert Blogger Ready? Let’s get into them! 1. Learn How to Write Well-Structured Blogs Arguably, writing is 80-95% of the weight of a highly-successful blog. Just look a few examples of top-ranking, top-shared, conversation-driving blog posts: How to Become a Freelance Writer and Get Paid $200 – $1K per Post – Jon Morrow at SmartBlogger 3 Creative Habits That’ll Make You More Inspired and Prolific All Year How to Find Your Brand’s Unique Content Differentiation Factor and Use It to Your Advantage The structure and readability of these blogs are critical examples. This is the style you need to follow when you write a blog. For example, look at the readability and short, impactful-sentence structure of Morrow’s blog, linked to above: Learning how to write a great blog is definitely an art and a science. But once you learn the art of writing a great blog, everything follows. We have a free guide on how to write great SEO blogs that might help. And my book, So You Think You Can Write, is an excellent primer to learning online content writing standards. Takeaway: Learn the structure and writing style of great blog posts. 2. Create Audience-Centric Content Understanding this concept is the most important step on your journey to becoming an expert blogger. Fortunately, it’s also a pretty simple one to follow. There are essentially two types of content; content-centric and audience-centric. Image Source As you can see in the image above, content-centric blogs are those where the writers create content and then try to find an audience that will read and appreciate it. Writers of audience-centric blogs, on the other hand, establish the audience they’re writing for and work to create content that’s designed specifically for them. The more important point to take away from the image above, however, is that audience-centric content enables you to reach your maximum audience. By identifying who you’re writing for, and what they want to hear, you’re giving your content the best opportunity to earn the interest of readers and be successful. And isn’t that your goal? Takeaway: Identify your audience and create content based on what they want to hear. 3. Stay Up-to-Date With Your Industry Ten years ago, not many people were familiar with content marketing. As time has gone on, however, the industry has developed and improved to the point where Marketing Mag projects that content marketing will be a $300 billion industry by 2019. So, how has the content marketing industry grown so much over such a short period of time? Because the amazing people that helped create the industry, and those that have joined since, have worked to constantly improve it. Modern day blogging is MUCH different than it was 10 years ago. In fact, it’s a lot different than it was just 3 years ago. And because the industry is constantly evolving and improving, it’s essential that you stay up-to-date. How Can I Stay Up-to-Date With the Industry? You can start by paying attention to the movers and shakers. People like: Joe Pulizzi. Founder of the Content Marketing Institute. Author of ground-breaking books like Content Inc. and Killing Marketing. Ann Handley. Head of Content at MarketingProfs. Author of Everybody Writes. Jay Baer. Founder of Convince & Convert. Writer of four best-selling books related to content and digital marketing. Brian Clark. Founder of Copyblogger. Darren Rowse. Founder of ProBlogger. In addition, there are plenty of great blogs to follow. Some of the best include: Content Marketing Institute Copyblogger ProBlogger The Write Blog MarketingProfs To get the most out of these blogs, be sure to join their email lists to receive useful content to your inbox on a regular basis. Takeaway: Follow top industry experts and blogs for tips and strategies that can improve your skills. 4. Research is Everything Next to writing well is research. Just like writing skills are integral to structuring a great blog post, research is everything to a well-read, informative, and accurate blog. As Shout Me Loud contributor Chassie Lee tells us, research is the core of content marketing. She goes on to say that: “Research is the first and most vital step when developing and executing a content strategy. Without complete research, the steps of Ideation/Planning, Creation, Connection, and Measurement will be based on insufficient data.” So, you know that research is important. But how do you actually do it effectively? What’s the Best Way to Research Effectively? This is where things can get a little tricky. Because, while there are many ways to go about researching, you’re going to have to take the time to determine the strategy that works best for you. In Neil Patel and Kathryn Aragon’s Advanced Guide to Content Marketing, they recommend a three step approach. … Read more