Posts from the ‘Blogging’ Category

Trackbacks are a feature of WordPress that let you know someone has linked to a page or post on your WordPress site. You’ll see trackbacks if you link one post to another (good for SEO and time-on-site) or someone on another site links to you. You can use these trackbacks for both relationship building and lead generation. Let’s see how.
Read more >>

Blogs are built for conversation. It’s why all major blogging platforms have a comment feature. And now even Google is reported to be getting into the comment game, though that could have something to do with mass amounts of people leaving Blogger, or because it sucks.

There are many blog metrics you can and should be measuring, including but definitely not limited to:

1. Audience growth
2. Author contribution
3. Number of inbound links
4. Number of social shares on a per-post basis
5. RSS subscriber growth
6. Email list subscriber growth

But there’s one that you may have overlooked – conversation rate.
Read more >>

So many blogs to read, so little time. So how do you decide which ones to read?

In two words: blog summaries.

Here’s the problem. If you’re anything like me you may have a ton of RSS feeds in your RSS reader. Perhaps you have the posts of a few choice blogs going straight to your inbox. Either way, over time the RSS feeds start to stack up and you quickly become inundated with unread items. As I write this Reeder tells me I have 718 unread items.

That’s just a few
Read more >>

Shock! Gasp! The horror! What did I just say?

That’s right my friend – blogging might not be your best option. In fact for some businesses, it may be a complete waste of time.

How do you know if blogging is for you, and what are the alternatives? Let’s take a look.

When Blogging Is Bad

Personally I’m a huge fan of blogging. It has been proven as one of the best ways to attract your ideal customers to your website. However having a blog that’s never updated, frankly, looks horrible. It’s like those dead corporate Facebook pages I read about.
Read more >>

Today’s entrepreneur has a lot of choices when it comes to creating a new website for their business. One of the fastest is to customize one of the thousands of premium WordPress themes available. Another choice is to create a fully custom site. A third choice is to use a combination of both.

That’s the tip of the consideration iceberg.

As more and more people use their mobile devices – phones and tablets – we also need to consider how our clients and customers will be finding us and consuming the information we provide. That means creating a website that works on desktops and laptops, mobile phones and tablet computers.

I’ve been driving myself nuts with this stuff lately as I redesign my site and blog. Reading about design, responsiveness, usability, web typography, how people use the web, looking at web stats, and developing ChecklistApp haven’t helped much.
Read more >>

Typically having a Twitter feed on your blog takes up valuable website real estate and could even be seen as fairly self-centered. However there are exceptions to every rule and this is one of those times!

When A Twitter Feed On Your Blog Doesn’t Make Sense

A very common mistake I see people making is that they only show their own tweets. That’s kind of the point of Twitter – to show your tweets. There is no valid reason for doing this though I’m open to discuss it in the comments. Instead, add a Twitter follow button to your blog so people can “opt-in” to your tweets.

Other than that there are many times you can one. Let’s see what they are.

When A Twitter Feed On Your Blog Makes Sense

After the Internet became aware that GoDaddy helped draft a horrible bill that would cripple free speech on the Internet – SOPA – the backlash erupted. First the marketards at GoDaddy decided to post that there were some unhappy customers but there was “no impact to their business.” I’m not sure how you could say FU any better, hence marketards.

That really got people’s blood boiling and a boycott was formed against GoDaddy and other companies that support SOPA (many of which have since withdrawn their support). Well GoDaddy waffled like a politician but it didn’t stop the mass exodus. This is where one of my clients comes into play and I get to my point.

Anthony Eden and his brother Darrin launched DNSimple over a year ago to simplify hosted DNS. As you can imagine they were in a fantastic position when the GoDaddy backlash hit. Here’s why:

1. They are software developers that created a service for software developers, that’s also good for marketers
2. They provide excellent, highly personalized customer service on their support site and via Twitter
3. Their site, as the name implies, is super easy to use – no upsells and very user-centric
4. People talk about how great their service is on social media

All planets aligned.

I added a Twitter widget to the DNSimple blog that shows what other people are saying about them. That’s the key right there – the mentions of other people without anything from the company itself.

Here’s a screenshot:

Ah the Twitter goodness!

Why This One Works

This Twitter blog widget works for a few reasons:

1. People are speaking very well of the company. When people visit the DNSimple blog they see a business that people are so happy with they mention them publicly.
2. Many people are recommending DNSimple to their friends, recommendations that blog visitors will see.
3. As with anything social media the pictures put faces to names and make what is effectively a live testimonial that much stronger.

Often times the first impression someone gets of your and your company is a visit to your blog. If they see you speaking of nothing but yourself that impression won’t be a good one. However if they see people recommending your service and speaking highly about you that impression will be very powerful.

Three (Possible) Exceptions To The Rule

These are borderline as they violate what I said in the beginning of this post about not being an egomaniac and only showing your own tweets. But let’s see them anyhow.

Exception #1: You have a business with multiple employees and want to show the personal tweets of all your employees.

Exception #2: You have a network of blogs and want to bring together all the tweets from all the blogs in one place.

Exception #3: You’re an enormous company with many blogs and many employees and want to show all the tweets from all blogs and employees in one place.

The third exception applies to a little (as in world famous) company named Saatchi & Saatchi. Here’s a screenshot of their SaatchiNow site:

Click the image if you think you can handle the full version

This one page contains the latest updates from:

1. All of the blogs in their network, in two formats
2. Tweets from their blogs and employees in their global offices
3. Facebook updates
4. Flickr photos
5. Foursquare checkins

Information overload? Never heard of it.

Adding The Smarter Twitter Blog Widget

The WordPress plugin I’m using on DNSimple is the aptly named Twitter Feed for WordPress plugin from Pleer. Here’s how to get it up and running:

1. Log into WordPress and go to Plugins -> Add New
2. Search for “Twitter Feed for WordPress”
3. There are two plugins with the same name to be sure to install the latest version of the plugin by author Alex Moss
4. Activate!
5. Next go to Appearance -> Widgets
6. Add a text widget to your sidebar and use one of the provided shortcodes provided on the Pleer site

Not sure what a shortcode is? Here’s the one I’m using on the DNSimple blog:

[twitter-feed username="dnsimple" mode="mentions" tweetintent="no"]

Something awesome about this plugin is that it automatically includes the Twitter follow button along with the tweets.

Final Thoughts

This is one of those cases where an exception to a “rule” can make a lot of sense. Also, because we’re working with a blog here – something completely digital – we can add and remove these widgets at will. If you find that the Twitter mentions aren’t getting the results you want simply remove the widget.

New in the Dempsey Marketing store and available for 2,000 points is the blog critique. If you want actionable advice that turns your blog into a serious business tool then get another set of eyes on your blog with the blog critique.

The report we deliver to you covers three major areas of your site and provides specific ways to improve each:

1. Visitor Attraction: attracting your ideal customers using SEO and social media
2. Visitor Engagement: how well you keep the attention of your visitors
3. Lead Generation: how well you can convert your visitors to leads when they are ready

Join the Dempsey Marketing Community and start earning points good toward ebooks, webinars, other marketing and business resources and now the blog critique.

In this quick tip post I’ll show you how to avatar your pic so that your picture shows up on every blog post you write and every comment you leave on the blog posts of others. It’s fast and free so let’s get to it.

Step #1: Set Up A Free Gravatar Account

In geek speak your avatar is the image that shows up when you publish a blog post or comment. It’s also your profile image for Facebook, Twitter, and many of the online services you use.

If you have a WordPress blog you’ll notice that unlike the social networks there is no place to upload a profile picture. That’s because WordPress will use your Gravatar image.

Gravatar is a free online service created by Automattic – the company behind WordPress – that allows you to upload a picture and associate it with an email address. Then when you leave a comment on your favorite blog it checks with Gravatar to see if there’s an image associated with your email address. Iff it finds one it uses it, otherwise your image is the default for the site, which here is the rook looking thing.

So step #1 is to set up your free Gravatar account. Here’s how to do that:

1. Go to Gravatar.com and sign up for a free account. All you need is an email address.
2. Activate your account
3. Upload an image

That’s pretty much it.

Step #2: Add All Your Other Email Addresses

If you’re using other email addresses add and verify those too. Once you’re logged in:

1. Click the “add a new email” link
2. Enter in your email address
3. Click the verification link that arrives in your email
4. Select the image you want to use
5. Be happy it’s super freaking easy to do this

One note here is that you can upload multiple images and select which image you want to use for each email address.

Just Do This

As soon as you create your Gravatar account, upload an image and associate it with your email address your picture will show up on blogs everywhere. That puts a face to a name – a must for anyone operating a business online.

On this blog I have a comment policy that inclues using a real name for your comments. Anyone not using an actual name has their comment deleted, with no exceptions. It’s amazing the number of people I’ve emailed about this, received no reply with an actual name I can use, and deleted their comments. One person left 43 of them! Oh well, thems the rulez.

So be sure to avatar your pic today. It’s easy peasy.

For many entrepreneurs and business owners blogging and social media are the last things on their mind. After all, it’s not like many of us are taught anything about blogging or social media in school. However the world has changed and we entrepreneurs must be sure to not only keep up but stay ahead of the curve. That’s where my blueprint for blogging will come in.

I’m happy to announce that we’ve begun development on a site that will make it super easy and fun to learn how to use blogging and other social media tools for business.

Three major problems with many of the current learning options out there today are:

1. It’s hard getting started when you feel you’re always behind. The information you need is scattered about the Internet, in books, and in people’s heads. I’ve been blogging since 2007, am mostly self-taught, and know it can take months to piece together everything you need. And then the firehose of information never stops.
2. They don’t tell you the specific steps to take once you have a blog or have created your social media accounts
3. They aren’t fun or enjoyable. Blogging and social media should be fun, not a chore. It can be. It will be.

Here’s what we have planned.

Phase 1: Blueprint For Blogging

A blog is the hub of ALL your online marketing efforts (or should be if it isn’t) so this is going to be phase one. We’ll walk you through your first 60-90 days of blogging with a step-by-step plan of action. We’ll help you:

1. Generate and capture more ideas for blog posts than you can fathom
2. Get to know your ideal customers and how to reach them with your posts
3. How to write content custom tailored for your audience and guaranteed to get their attention
4. Create and execute a content strategy
5. Make search engine optimization really simple. People make this look like magic, and while it can be complex the basics surely aren’t. We’ll ensure you know what you need to know to get your posts found
6. Get your blog posts shared on social media
7. Use blog comments and other research to find product and service opportunities
8. Much more!

A blog is the center of your online universe, but it isn’t the entire universe. Once you’re solid on blogging we’ll be doing the same for social media.

Phase 2: Get More Tweets

I’ve been fortunate to connect with thousands of people all over the world using Twitter, relationships that have led to:

1. Business partnerships – teaming up with people on projects and getting referral business
2. Speaking opportunities – I got to speak in the U.S. as well as internationally thanks to the connections I made
3. Business opportunities – getting clients and customers

It’s more than possible when you have a solid business strategy in place that evolves with your business. In phase 2 we’ll lay the groundwork for a Twitter strategy that is focused on business and the relationships that make it happen.

While Twitter is my platform of choice it isn’t the only game in town.

Phase 3: Stay Tuned

When we get to phase 3 who knows what Google will have done, or Facebook, or something else. Stay tuned for the phase 3 announcement.

Now to address some questions I’ve already been asked.

Will This Be Free?

This site will not be free to join. I’m taking all of my experience and expertise from more than 5 years of using blogging and social media to grow my businesses. Classes aren’t free; books aren’t free; this site will not be free. Also development of the platform is not free.

But worry not! It won’t be prohibitively expensive either.

Do I Need To Be Using WordPress?

We’ll have some WordPress specific modules but they won’t be part of the core blueprint. Blogging is blogging, SEO is SEO, and brainstorming is brainstorming regardless of what blogging platform you choose.

Will You Cover Setting Up A Blog In The First Place?

Yes and no. No because we’ll dive right in as if you have a blog already set up. Yes because we’ll have additional resources on how to set up a blog using WordPress.

When Will The Site Launch?

Development is already underway. We’re looking at a mid to late January launch.

Can I Give You Money Now?

Ok so no one asked me this one but the answer is not yet

A Blogging BluePrint That Works

My clients today are getting leads from their blogs. What enables that is a step-by-step plan of action that get results, measured in leads. It works for entrepreneurs like you, and it will work for you too.

Subscribe to the blog using the form below to be sure you hear when the site launches.

I look forward to helping you make your blog a success.

Does your blog lack engagement? It might be because it's a blog.

Readers of this blog that have been here for the past few months know that I’ve changed the design more than a few times. And those changes aren’t going to stop.

The #1 reason I’ve changed the design so many times is that I’m trying to get more engagement from you the reader. And I’m not the only blogger out here looking for that. But what does engagement even mean, and can we get engagement from or with the readers of a blog?

Let’s talk about it today.

In order to answer the question of whether or not a blog is a good platform for engagement we first need to define the word.

What Engagement Means

Engagement has a few meanings, but the one closest to what we’re looking for is, according to the dictionary on my Mac, is:

the action of engaging or being engaged

Oh wait that doesn’t help much. Let’s see how the dictionary defines “engaged”:

(engage in) participate or become involved in

(engage with) establish a meaningful contact or connection with

This is more of what we’re looking for.

So by definition if we’re looking for more engagement we’re looking for more participation in order to create a meaningful contact or connection with our readers.

The next question is how do we do that? Let’s see how a blog helps this to happen.

Using A Blog For Engagement

Out of the box a blog has two basic functionalities:

1. Publishing content
2. Posting comments, including replying to existing comments

We could easily argue that both of these functions can help us get engagement. The content that we create can make a connection with a reader, and then we can strengthen that connection by replying to comments. In addition, readers can connect with each other in the comments.

While not considered a “functionality” per say the design of the blog is very important. That will be a topic of another post. But keep in mind that the look and feel contributes to the overall experience a reader has with your content, and is the next most important thing behind the content itself.

By why stop here?!

We want our content to reach more people, and let’s not forget how we like to point our colleagues, friends and family to awesome content we’ve found and think they’d be interested in, or want their feedback on.

That’s when social media share buttons come into play.

Adding On The Social Medias

The cliche “if you build it they will come” is false when it comes to content. With hundreds of millions of blogs competing for search engine rankings as well as our time if you don’t get your content in front of people – hopefully the right people – it will languish in it’s lonely corner of the interwebs.

Enter social media!

We’ve talked about social media share buttons before so there’s no need for us to get deeper into it. But needless to say that when a reader shares our content with any of their social media networks (communities?) it helps to expand our potential reach.

When those folks come back to our blogs we still need to establish those connections, which brings us back to content, comments and design.

It’s really looking like these three items form the ways we can achieve engagement - participation in order to create a meaningful contact or connection with our readers.

Perhaps this is why additional commenting systems like LiveFyre and Disqus have come about, along with premium WordPress commenting plugins that allow people to connect with their social profiles before commenting.

Another question we haven’t asked though is how do we measure engagement?

Measures Of Engagement For A Blog

Let’s whip out our Google Analytics account using the new interface. Oh look! There’s a link for engagement. Let’s see what that looks like and how Google tells us to measure engagement:

Click for a larger view

According to Google engagement is measured with a few numbers:

• Visit duration – how long someone spends on your site
• Visits
• Pageviews
• Percentage of total (visits / pageviews)

There’s also a view to look at the data by Page Depth, which is the average number of pages on a site that visitors view during a single session:

Click for the larger view

So what Google is telling us to look at, and how many people measure engagement is:

• How long someone spends on your site
• How many times they visit your site
• How many pages they view during a visit

But do these numbers truly tell you how engaged someone is with you and your business?

Let’s go back to our definition which also tells us our goal:

more participation in order to create a meaningful contact or connection with our readers

Perhaps these numbers are telling us what we need to know, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we’re limiting ourselves by looking purely at this set of metrics. Or perhaps blogs limit the ways in which we can create meaningful connections online.

Should we abandon blogs and stick to social media networks, or is there another way? Or are we already doing enough?

What Do You Think?

Does the above set of numbers tell you whether you’re creating a meaningful connection with your blog readers? Are there other metrics you look at to get a better view of engagement?

Let’s talk about it in the comment below.

Here’s a quick tip for finding out exactly what to blog about. This will take no more than 15 or 20 minutes of your time on a single day and will give you a ton of blog post ideas.

Before we get into it though there are some assumptions with this tip:

1. You have been blogging for a few months at least 2 times per week (not a solid requirement but it helps)
2. You have people coming to your blog and reading your posts
3. You are using Google Analytics

If you meet those three criteria let’s get to the tip.

Step 1: Open Up Google Analytics

Open up Google Analytics and go to Content -> Site Content -> Pages

Step 2: Select A Month Of Data

Using the date filter select the past 30 days for your date range.

Step 3: View The Top 25 Pages

By default Google Analytics gives you the top 10 pages. Select the top 25. Take note of these pages as they are the most viewed on your site.

Specifically, take note of the “Avg. Time On Page” column. Typically your homepage and about page will get a lot of views but won’t have the highest “Avg. Time On Page” number. Depending on the content of those pages I’d say that’s fine.

Step 4: Create A Topic Mindmap

If you’re a regular here then you know I love mindmapping. It’s definitely one of my top productivity tips for getting over writer’s block. This is another time to use a mindmap.

Fire up your favorite mindmapping software and create a new one.

Add a central topic of “blog topics” or whatever. Then as your branches add the top 25 blog posts.

On each of the posts add one or two ideas for additional things you can say on the topic. Ultimately you’ll have a larger version of this:

Step 5: Start Writing More Posts And Be Amazed That You Know What To Blog About!

If you’ve made it to this step then you have a lot of things to blog about. And what’s even better is that you know that people are interested in those topics as you’ve created your blog topic list based on actual data.

Much easier than guessing.

When asked “What do you want from me?” Ed Tancig responded:

Do you ever suffer from writers block? How do you deal with it? Like you, my problem often is choosing something to write about. I’m going to ask my friends and customers the same question. I would like to see more information on how to keep track of the ideas for future blogs.

Thanks for the question Ed, I’ve got an answer for you today!

Let’s dig in.

Is It Really Writers Block?

There are three potential reasons I’ve run into for not knowing what to write about:

1. I read too many other marketing blogs and don’t want to simply repeat or rehash what others have said. Sometimes I look at my mindmap of topics and don’t see anything truly new or novel I can add to what’s already been said.
2. Sometimes I just don’t feel like writing anything, especially after a week or two of writing 1500+ word blog posts

Before offering advice on handling both of these issues (problems?) let me tell  you about a technique I use to generate a metric ton of ideas.

Behold The Mighty Mindmap!

Mindmapping is a technique for free association. So rather than creating a formal outline you start with a central idea and then create branches from there.

The mindmapping tool I use is XMind, which is a free tool available for both Mac and PC. An example of a mindmap is available for download on the 2011 Best Practices For A Successful Small Business Blog post. Use that example to guide you in your brainstorming blog posts.

So now that you see how to use mindmapping to generate a lot of ideas let’s look at addressing the two issues I mentioned above.

How To Be Different Than Everyone Else

During one of the worst job interviews of my life I was asked by a company VP what made me unique. I’m really sad to say that I couldn’t come up with a good answer because I was so focused on what I did (in my job) rather than how I did it and what I brought to it.

Given knowledge and training people can do just about anything. So what makes you unique?

Your life. Your life makes you unique.

There is literally no one in the world that has gone through the exact same things you have. And while that may sound contrived rest assured it’s far from it. Only you are you just as only I am me. That is what you bring to your writing.

So how to do this?

• Use examples along with your how-to information.
• Bring your perspective and point of view to the subject.
• Talk about a conversation you had with someone about the topic on which you’re writing.
• Talk about an experience you had in your life that relates to the subject.

What do you do if you don’t have any experience on the subject? Don’t wait for it to come to you. Try things out. Sure not everything will work out 100% but who cares? The cost of trying is much less than the cost of not.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

Never be afraid to ask your readers what they want to know about. These are the people you serve with your content.

It’s not bad to not have all the answers. And just because you ask you aren’t saying “I have no idea what I’m doing.” And if someone jumps to that conclusion you don’t want them on your blog. That’s, in the immortal words of Lisa Gerber on the Spin Sucks blog, douchebaggery. And we don’t handle that very well around here, and neither should you.

What To Do When You Don’t Feel Like Writing

Don’t. I give you permission right now to not write if you don’t really want to. BUT, do something else instead. Never do nothing.

There are only two directions you can move in – forward or backwards. You’re either moving ahead or being left behind. As a reader of this blog I believe you are a forward mover. But at times keeping that direction can be hard.

So what else can you do instead of writing?

• Record a video that’s informational, helpful or educational for your ideal customers
• Start a podcast – I hear that podcasts are great for business
• Create an eMagazine that’s full of content for your ideal customers – we have one coming out January 2012
• Create a knowledge library for your clients – take all the knowledge you have in that head of yours and create a video library that only your customers have access to
• Start an online chat that integrates with Twitter. Stanzr is perfect for that.

Of course you can also step away from the Internet and:

• Read a book on a related topic or one that’s completely unrelated to your field
• Spend time with your friends
• Spend time with your family
• Take your dog for a long walk. Dogs love walking and it’s good for you too. Win/win.
• Take a day off
• Take a bunch of days off
• Play some video games
• Buy a camera and go out and take some pictures
• Take your Kindle to a park and read a book there
• Hop in your car or on your motorcycle and just drive somewhere else

Basically go experience something new and different. I can guarantee that if you get out of your own head the inspiration will come. And when it does, run with it until you hit the wall.

How Do You Get Over Writers Block?

Do you get writers block or is it more along the lines of what I’ve described here – a desire to stand out and be different than everyone and everything else out there? How do you overcome it?

Let’s talk about it in the comments below.

I’ll see you there…

Have you ever had this problem?

I’ve been sitting here racking my brain about what to write about today. Perhaps it’s because I was up at 3 AM this morning for the first NISM Industry Advisory Committee meeting, where I was elected Chairperson and I need more coffee…

Perhaps it’s because there are so many possibilities of what to write about. At the higher topic level I cover 12 categories:

• Blogging
• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
• Business Strategy
• Lead Generation
• Lead Nurturing
• Entrepreneurship
• Business Psychology
• Website Analytics
• Email Marketing
• The New Social SEO Podcast
• Personal Stuff

That’s the high level. Then we have the types of posts that can be written. ProBlogger gives us a list of 52 types of posts that we can write. Here’s the first 20:

• How-to / Tutorial posts
• News posts
• Definition posts
• Standard list posts
• Resource/link list posts
• Profile posts
• Case studies
• Problems-and-solution posts
• Comparison posts
• Stories
• Controversial posts
• Inspiring posts
• Research posts
• “What others are saying” posts
• “What if” posts
• Parody posts
• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) posts
• SAQ (Should Ask Questions) posts
• Reviews
• Interviews
• 32 other types (seriously it’s nuts check out the full list)

That covers high-level topics and the post formats that can be applied to each. If we do the math (which I’m bad at) we have a potential of a metric ton of posts that could be written. Something like 12 to the power of 52, which is a hell of a lot according to my iPhone calculator. And that doesn’t include the spreadsheet I have with 152 keywords around my services that I can write about.

I realize that I’ve been a jerk and making a number of assumptions about who you are and what you want to read about here. The indications I have to go on when it comes to the “popularity” of my content with you my highly valued reader are:

1. Comments you make on the posts
2. The amount of sharing you do of my content with your social media communities
3. The metrics that HitSniffer gives me in real time
4. The ClickTale heatmaps which help me measure interaction

But seriously data only tells part of the story. And you have so many options of where to go to get your information. I don’t want to have yet another “how-to” blog with posts around 500 words that only provide a nugget or two of information. I want to help you perfect the art of asskickery for your business!

So today I ask you to…

Please Do Leave A Comment And Tell Me What You Want

I know not everyone wants to leave a comment on a post. I don’t always either. However this time I’m asking that you do.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog please leave a comment telling me what you would like from me. I can write about all sorts of things:

• Being an entrepreneur living overseas building a marketing firm using online networking
• Being a husband and father working 18 hours a day building his third company
• Attracting and converting ideal customers for my clients
• The tools I use
• The books I read and how I apply them to business and life
• Summaries of the blogs I read and how I apply that knowledge
• All sorts of other stuff

So what questions do you have that I can help answer?

The only things off limits for me are deeply personal stuff, though I’ve shared the fact that I’m a recovered alcoholic with you, so I’m not too sure what could be more personal than that. Oh wait I can, but I’ll keep some things to myself which you wouldn’t want to know anyhow

Please leave a comment below and let me know. I do truly appreciate it and your time.

After all the hubbub I caused removing the sidebars from the blog and then reporting the results of the removal you might be surprised to see them back. Not only are they back but I moved the blog theme from the Genesis framework to Headway.

Now let me explain why all the changes.

The Greater Context

I recently read the Zero Moment Of Truth, a (free) book published by Google about consumer buying behavior. There were a few stunning statistics. The first is the number of sources that people now use for making a decision compared to a year ago:

10.5 sources of information for a decision. Talk about an informed consumer.

Not only that, but people start making a purchase decision months before they actually pull out their credit card.

I’ve found this to be true with my business. It’s very rare that a client comes along, reads a few posts, and spends thousands of dollars with me. It just doesn’t happen. What does happen is that someone first finds this blog using a search engine or social media, subscribes, reads the posts for a few months, opts in to an ebook or two, and then requests a free consultation.

This isn’t unique to my business – it occurs with a majority of my clients, whether they provide services and consulting as in the case of SagePresence and Lauri Flaquer or they have an online product like DNSimple.

It’s also not unique to any demographic – it applies across the board.

So we’re operating in an environment where:

1. People begin making purchase decisions months before an actual purchase
2. They use 10 or more sources of information in their decision process
3. Anecdotal evidence points to a building of trust being a major factor in making a sale happen.

The lesson here: be the resource and provide more information to the readers of your blog, and make it very easy for them to find, save and return to.

My Bounce Rate Sucks

Bounce rate represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and “bounce” (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site.

- Wikipedia

Here’s my bounce rate for the three months before I removed my sidebar:

Click to see a full view

Here’s my bounce rate during the time I had no sidebar:

Click to see a full view

And here’s a comparison for the month without sidebar to the month with:

Click to see a full view

The bounce rate did improve by 5.73% however 71.46% isn’t ideal.

What’s a good bounce rate? Answers vary greatly but the one I’ve settled on is anything lower than 60%.

The lesson here: lower the bounce rate by helping people get to more of the content that is relevant to them.

And Thus The Sidebars Return

Using those two bits of information and after finding out that I can use the Headway theme to completely control the look of my blog I mocked up the site, created it entirely on my local computer, and then put it in place here.

Will it work? Will I be able to reduce my bounce rate?

We’ll see. Stay tuned over the coming months as the strategy unfolds.

And to be sure you don’t miss a thing fill out the little form below to get email updates directly to your inbox.

This is going to be a very short post, because finding the time to blog is a very simple thing. But like many simple things, it’s extremely hard to do.

What it comes down to is three key elements:

1. Knowing what you want to write about
2. Putting a high priority on writing
3. Doing it

Let’s look at each.

Knowing What You Want To Write About

We’ve talked before about the curse of knowledge, and how it can cause you to believe you know a lot less than you actually do. You know a lot. And in some instances a vast amount more than others when it comes to your topic.

For instance, I know very little about a number of things that interest me – personal fitness, robotics, travel in certain countries, how to start a coffee roasting business, and a lot more. Perhaps you know about these?

The trick is getting it out of your head in the first place and writing about it.

For that I suggest mind mapping. Another way is to use the Google Keyword Tool.

Putting A High Priority On Writing

Let’s be honest, perhaps you don’t put a high priority on writing blog posts? Why is that?

When it comes to content marketing one of the worst things you can do is devalue it. It is the way to attract and convert your ideal customers online today.

Seems like a high priority to me.

The trick here is getting that all important lead. Once you achieve a lead or two from your online marketing efforts you’ll understand that it is a very high priority.

Doing It

Many times the hardest part is just getting started. But above you’ve been given a way to create a metric ton of blog topics – mindmapping. This ensures you are never without a topic.

Jayme Soulati shared how to find your blogging voice, which is one of the best ways to get a lot of this done. When you find writing easier you’re more likely to do it. Simple psychology.

How Do You Find The Time?

Do you have any tricks that help you find the time to blog? Have you experimented with how many blog posts to write each week and determined one that fits best?

Let’s talk about it in the comments below.

I’ll see you there.