successful blogging - Express Writers

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Blogging for ROI in 2017: Where to Blog, SEO, and Writing Strategies with Julia McCoy

June 19, 2024February 17, 2017 by Rachel Moffett

Are you curious about blogging for ROI in 2017? That’s what we covered in our latest round of #ContentWritingChat! And if you missed out, you’re in luck because we’ve created a recap for you and it’s filled with awesome tips. Keep reading to check it out! Blogging for ROI in 2017: Where to Blog, SEO, and Writing Strategies with Julia McCoy Join us for #ContentWritingChat TOMORROW at 10 AM CST! Our CEO, @JuliaEMcCoy, will be guest hosting! pic.twitter.com/h8rYfvYvX8 — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) February 14, 2017 For this week’s chat, our very own CEO stepped in to guest host. Julia McCoy shared her expertise on blogging for ROI in 2017 and offered some amazing tips for writing, SEO, and where you should be blogging this year. We covered some of the key topics to help you succeed as a blogger this year, so make sure you read through them and start implementing this advice for yourself! Q1: For those that aren’t convinced, why is blogging still so important for brands? The reality is, many brands still aren’t convinced that blogging is worth their time. They don’t realize the value that it can provide to their audience and their brand overall. So, let’s convince them why they should be blogging! Here are just some reasons blogging is important for brands: A1 Consistent blogging is a WINNER. This graph shows us outranking million $+ funded competitors, solely from blogging. #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/saEk6raPvF — Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) February 14, 2017 A1 Just a few awesome stats on why every brand should blog. (from https://t.co/l6E0VrwJlI) #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/3Bey4oIe5z — Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) February 14, 2017 Julia knows that blogging is a must for brands! She even shared some pretty impressive data that backs it up. The graph above shows Express Writers outranking major competitors solely from blogging. She also shared some stats that are sure to convince you of the importance of starting your own blog this year. A1: Blogging is a lead generation opportunity. It’s how you can build influence, which draws in an interested audience. #contentwritingchat — Annaliese Henwood (@MktgInnovator) February 14, 2017 As Annaliese said, blogging is a lead generation opportunity. So many people will stumble upon your blog and want to do business with you because of the content you share. She also said blogging helps you build influence, which is key to drawing in your audience. A1) It’s a way to establish an authentic, authoritative voice that YOU control. Your thoughts, your words…it’s genuine #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/CsGRfImgTN — Jason Schemmel (@JasonSchemmel) February 14, 2017 Jason knows that blogging is a powerful way to establish an authentic, authoritative voice. Your blog is your place to share your thoughts with your audience. A1: Blogging is a great way to show your expertise to the industry. It also helps you connect with your audience. #contentwritingchat — Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) February 14, 2017 Blogging is an opportunity to show off your expertise to your industry, but also to your audience. It’s a great way to connect with your audience and to start building a relationship with them. A1: Blogging is important because it allows brands to expand their audience, share more information, and establish voice #ContentWritingChat — Josh Lawson (@JoshKLawson) February 14, 2017 To put it simply, blogging is an opportunity to expand your audience, share quality information with readers, and can help you establish your voice as a brand. A1. Social media is just rented properties while your blog is your real estate #contentwritingchat — Cheval John (@chevd80) February 14, 2017 Cheval’s advice is important to keep in mind. Social media is like rented property when you think about it. You don’t own the platform, nor can you count on it to always be around. If a social media platform shuts down, you’re going to lose your followers and everything you’ve worked so hard to build (unless you’ve successfully converted them to readers, subscribers, and customers). Your blog, however, is one place that you truly own and are in control of. Q2: Where should you blog this year besides your own website? Discuss how to find the right platforms. While blogging on your own website is great, blogging on other sites can provide major results. There are a lot of benefits to guest blogging, but it’s all about choosing the right places to post if you want to make it work for your brand. Keep these tips in mind: A2 Create a target persona then study the publications they share. THAT’S where you want to blog https://t.co/FBSVmRvRxb #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/cRvVTrCOk0 — Julia McCoy ? (@JuliaEMcCoy) February 14, 2017 Julia recommends creating a target persona for your audience so you know what they’re like. You can figure out their demographics and also what sites they’re reading on the web. That’s where you should be sharing your content! Check out the blog post she linked for more information on creating your own target persona. A2: Guest blog on the websites YOUR audience is reading. Find out where they spend their time online and BE THERE. #ContentWritingChat — Rachel (@redheadrachel) February 14, 2017 The key to choosing the sites to guest blog on is figuring out where your audience spends their time online. You want to post on the sites that your target audiences reads so they’ll discover you and head over to your website. A2) Find popular blogs within your wheelhouse & be a guest blogger. That exposes your content to a broader audience #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/5vB7ffeUe4 — Jason Schemmel (@JasonSchemmel) February 14, 2017 Jason also knows the importance of finding the popular blogs in your wheelhouse and guest posting there. It’s the best way for you to reach your target audience and hopefully make them a fan of your brand. A2 Industry specific forums, Guest blog on Authority sites, Quora, Reddit, #LinkedIn are few great places #ContentWritingChat https://t.co/8bhBiI9RFQ — Varun Kumar ? (@DigitalVK) February 14, 2017 Varun recommends posting on forums that are specific to your industry, guest blogging on authority websites, and also using platforms … Read more

6 Ways To Not Suck At Blogging

June 19, 2024January 12, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Blogging is like a full-time profession for many of us, and because of that we have a dedicated interest in our audiences. We are the place that they come for content and we have a responsibility to provide current, accurate reporting as far as content is concerned. Our opinions usually shape the final decisions of a number of our readers and because of that a lot of power rests in our hands. Creating captivating blog entries is always a challenging task, especially when you have a lot on your plate and little time to get it all done. In order to be a successful blogger, you have to understand what success means to a blogger. For some it equates to a lot of clicks, but to others it means providing a source of information to our readers. We are tasked with presenting an unbiased view that is free from fear or favor when it comes to a particular topic and we should take our responsibilities as bloggers very seriously. Success Tips To Help You Make Your Blogging ROI Increase If you truly want to succeed and produce a blog that you can be proud of, here are a few things that are almost guaranteed to net you success. Success Tip #1: Put Your Audience First How many bloggers out there truly know their audience? How many of them are simply assuming what their audience wants and instead miss the attractive points that would draw the crowds? Understanding your audience is one of the most important things any blogger can do. By understanding what drives your audience, you locate the motivation behind their need for content and this allows you to better home in what they love to read. Putting your audience first means taking their likes and dislikes into account. Usually in niche blogs this is a simple matter because only an individual that follows the particular area of interest would be a reader on such a blog. When it comes to more open, wide-ranging blogs there is a lot more scope for you to be good (or bad) at presenting your ideas. Knowing your audience helps you to streamline your ideas to present it in a more palatable fashion to your readers, according to Copyblogger. Know what they read and what interests them and you’re well on your way to creating riveting content that will ensure that people take notice of what you say. Success Tip #2: Be Unbiased In Your Representation Of Facts Anonymity has made it easy for anyone to be a blogger and hide their real identity. It doesn’t do much to promote trustworthiness, however. When you produce a blog, what you write on it is a direct reflection of your own opinions and ideas. However, if you’re blogging about a factual piece of information then you should be careful to separate your ideas from what makes up the body of truth. Representing fact is important and the more accurate you are in presenting the fact uncolored by bias, the more your audience tends to trust you. Creating trust in an audience means that it is more likely that they will come back to you for news since in their opinion, you are a reliable location to get the truth. Opinion pieces are welcome since the aim of most blogging is to represent a blogger’s opinions on a particular issue. You must be careful to draw the line between opinion and fact since blurring those lines will lose you credibility in the eyes of your audience. Showing your audience two sides of the story before chiming in with your own take on the issue is a very good way to present an issue in a simple, unbiased way. Success Tip #3: Don’t Get Complicated One of the things that turns a lot of readers off from a blog is content that is simply padding. Overcomplicating an issue is a very common way to pad a word count, but it does your audience no favors. The more complex a piece of content is, the less likely that you’re going to get readers willing to sit through your filler text. Get right down the point and do it effectively and efficiently. It might be a lot easier to simple research a point in depth rather than trying to create meaningless phrases and words to make up a word count. Keeping it simple helps connect with your audience without alienating them. In some industry blogs, using jargon that is common within the industry does not count as being complicated. This exception is because such blogs are usually aimed at industry professionals that are already familiar with these terms. General Blogs should try to maintain a conversational tone without inserting obscure words and phrases. Doing so usually interrupts the flow of your conversation with the reader and could lead to them dismissing your entry as not worthy of their time. Success Tip #4: A Picture Paints a Thousand Words We’re no longer in the dark ages of the Internet where a single jpeg file could take as much as ten minutes to load on a dial up connection. Thanks to the wonders of easily available high speed internet, using eye-catching images is not only an option, it is recommended. Quite a lot of human beings have the ability to process graphic information far more readily than textual information. It’s the reason why memes are such a popular thing in internet culture today. Utilizing images capitalizes on this ability by giving your readers content in a breathtaking flurry of color and shape. Selecting the right image for your post is as important as writing the post itself and due care should be taken to choose an image that best represents what you want the reader to take away from this entry. Images are probably the best way to communicate simple ideas and you should utilize them in blog posts as often as you can in order to give your content … Read more