Which of these are you not doing on your blog?

Do you agree that there are times you wake up and blogging just isn’t what you want to be doing? I know you’re slowly nodding your head. No worries I am so with you too. It’s a task that has somehow weaved itself throughout your whole business.

If someone had told me that after I finished 3 years of university about 5 years later I would be blogging. An that I would have written more in a year on my blog than i did in the 3 years at university I would have told them “stop talking crazy”. But here we are blogging away. Sharing value, hope, inspiration and more through your words to help connect your readers to you and your products.

There’s so much to think about when it comes to blogging. It’s easy to blog away and miss things that can really boost your efforts but it’s like everything. If you don’t know, then how can you improve and grow. By adding these 7 blogging areas below, they will help you better serve your readers. Which in turn will add value to your readers visiting experience?

So tell me in the comments, which ones are were you not doing? Don’t be shy spill the beans:)

Being Real in your Business

Business is no longer faceless anymore. An as a small business owner you have an advantage because you are the one behind the business, behind the blog behind, creating your products. So connect with your readers. I’m not saying share all your holiday pics all over your blog but at least have a picture on your homepage or on your about page. So when they are reading your words they have a mental image of you talking to them directly. The more they connect with you the more they will read your blog and trust you as a retailer.Ross from brightlocal.com take a looked at how real images of business owners impacts your site. Check out the survey data they collected after their little experiment.

Writing for your Target Market

Do you know who your target market is? I know marketing to everyone is easier because then you don’t have to think about it. But focusing on the people who would love your products is the start of spreading your marketing message in the right way. If you don’t know who your target market is, or even how to go about finding out I am going to help you learn. Don’t avoid this area because your whole business depends on you understanding your customers. An believe me even though marketing to everyone might get you a customer or 2. When you know your target market your blogging efforts become a whole lot easier.April from Blackburgbelle does an awesome job of explaining the whole process of finding your target market. Check it out and get applying it to your business.

Embracing SEO

Yes, the SEO thing is here again. You have got to embrace keywords they are your little but powerful friends. Your keywords will help your target market find you. Yes, people find you so much easier when you have keywords. And these people are searching for you with wallets and purses open and if not open in their hand. Your long list of keywords that are 2 – 4+ words long will be with you all your blogging and business life. Work with them and they will defiantly work for you. Oh and those who say SEO is dead, I beg to differ. As long as the internet has search engines, your keywords will be relevant and will still do their thing. The only difference will be all those who want to try and fiddle, hack or spam their way through the search engine system will be kicked out. That then leaves you the genuine business owner, adding value to people who want to find you, who want to read your blog and will want to buy your products

Blogging Consistently

For this one, you need to figure out your blogging schedule. You as an individual need to see what works for you. Experiment and when you find your sweet spot just keep blogging consistently. Of course change things up a little, and if you change days that’s cool too, Just let your readers know what’s happening and then be consistent. If you find blogging every 2 weeks on a Tuesday is your thing, make sure that you are consistent with it. Your readers will remember and come check you out on those days. If you don’t stick to it there’s only so many times a reader will continue to check your blog until they get fed up and not return. This is changes as your audience grows then you kind of get a bit more flexibility.

Looking after your Readers

Make your readers and subscribers feel exclusive. When you have new products or product updates share them on your blog. The 1st people who should know is your email list, an as many of your readers will be on your email list anyway, you are killing 2 birds with one stone. You want to turn your reader into your future customer so keeping them in the know is a must.

Linking to Others in your Niche

Now don’t be afraid of doing this one because it can be a little scary. You linking to other bloggers is a union that can yield great results &  expand your blogging reach. You may be worried because you could lose your reader to the other blog. Well, your reader will find other blogs with or without your help. But with you, makes you a person who isn’t afraid of sharing more value even if it is on another blog. There’s many blogs that you can fuse and create great relationships even with the same type of target market. Brian from Copyblogger.com looks at this very subject, its an interesting read.

Promoting other People’s Posts

You need to share the hell out of your blog posts, but you also need to mix up your post sharing with OPC Other People’s Content. It shows your interests and makes other bloggers aware of you and your generosity. All the sharing will help get more eyes on your posts & help you stay in the minds of your followers, fans, pinners etc.. Also don’t just share your post on the day it’s published and leave it at that. Share it at least 2 – 3 days later and choose either 1 or 2 platforms where it will work best.