“Yikes! SEO is foreign to me and I wouldn’t know where to even begin!”

CONTENT

5 Easy Ways to Write Content For Your Blog:

• Create a topic or tip series, interview other experts in your industry to gather some great content.
• Create and send out an industry survey as to what topics your audience would like to hear more about.
• Repurpose old newsletter or ezine articles.
• Round up your best tweets from Twitter and formulate those into blog articles.
• Create a blog posting editorial calendar in a spreadsheet format or post them directly to your Outlook or Google calendar. Be sure to set reminders so you will know when your next article is due. Here is a download link to a blog editorial calendar in Excel format.

COMMUNICATION

Manage and monitor your blog comments as they come in. Also, avoid spam comments by applying a spam plugin to block out unwanted spam. And be sure to use the trackback and pingback feature in your blog posts.

CROWD

Here’s how you can drive traffic to your blog:

• Provide a free offer sign up on your blog and market the free offer online and offline
• Add your blog to Facebook and Twitter (NetworkedBlogs and Twitter Tools).
• Submit your blog to blog directories
• Use a share plugin on your blog so that your articles can be shared on social media and social bookmarking sites (Digg, Delicious, etc.)
• Article marketing efforts – when submitting an article to an article distribution site, provide a link to your blog in the article author box
• Post an article to your newsletter or ezine and have the reader read the rest of the article on your blog

So the next time you get stuck trying to write your next blog article, consider the three C’s…Content, Communication, and Crowd and see if this doesn’t turn your blog around!

“The WordPress Website Creation Online

Workshop Preview Call”

This info-packed webinar will take place on Thursday, May 13 at 12 PM EST (11 AM CST, 10 AM MTN, 9 AM PT)

You will come away from this webinar call with an understanding of:

• How to plan and map out your website layout

• What to look for when choosing a theme for your website

• What are the best enhancements (or plugins) to make your website more appealing

• What effective marketing techniques to use for your website

There will be time at the end of the call for questions, so please come prepared to have your most challenging questions asked and answered by me.

Hey, and if for some reason you miss the live webinar call, I’ll be sure and send you the recorded video/audio in your inbox shortly after the call ends. But I would certainly love to have you there “live” so you can ask questions and gain the most out of this webinar session. And did I mention that the call is FREE?!

I wouldn’t pass up this opportunity as I reveal tools and tips to maximize the effectiveness of your website creation and marketing efforts.

More information and registration HERE.

So to be consistent with your daily or weekly blogging tasks, create a blog editorial calendar that you can plan out your article topics ahead of time, write your articles and post them on the day you want them to be broadcast. It’s much easier than saying you are going to blog daily or at least three times a week and you have no plan of action on what you are going to write or when you are going to write.

So I have included in this post a basic editorial calendar that I have put together using a simple Excel spreadsheet that you can download and use it anyway you like. Click HERE to download your copy to your computer.

How to Use the Blog Editorial Calendar

The editorial calendar spreadsheet is laid out so all you have to do is input your daily or weekly topics and a slot to input the different categories that correspond with your current blog categories. It may be easier for you to list the different categories that you want to write about and build your blog articles from the categories you choose.

Here is an example of what my editorial calendar would look like:

Set aside some time to complete your editorial calendar because it will take you an hour or two to put all your categories and topics in it, but once it is completely filled out, then you have a clear focus on what you will be writing for the whole year, not just tomorrow when you haven’t even thought what you were going to write about!

Another thought is that your blog editorial calendar may not be totally set in stone what you are going to write about. You can always tweak your schedule to meet the changing needs and trends of your business. But just think…you have a schedule that you can stick too!

Join me, Aletha McManama, THE BLOG STRATEGIST, where I will be your Question and Answer host via a FREE 60-minute live webinar …

“THE ULTIMATE WORDPRESS Q & A SESSION WITH
THE BLOG STRATEGIST”!

This info-packed webinar will take place on Thursday, March 18 at 12 PM EST (11 AM CST, 10 AM MTN, 9 AM PT)

I want to take this time with you to not only critique sample WordPress blog or blogsites, but to also open up the webinar session to allow you to bring your most challenging WordPress questions to the call so that I can answer them for you. And if you would like for me to critique your WordPress site for you, email me at aletha@theblogstrategist.com and I will be happy to review your site on the webinar call.

You will come away from this webinar call with an understanding of:

• How to critique your own WordPress blogsite…what to look for and what not to have on your blog!
• Tips on how to create your own blog posting editorial schedule
• Listen and learn from others that come to the call with challenging WordPress questions

There will be time throughout the call and at the end of the call for questions, so please come prepared to have your most challenging questions asked and answered by me. Better yet, email me your questions beforehand and I will have answers prepared for you when you attend the call! I will take your questions by email at aletha@theblogstrategist.com.

Hey, and if for some reason you miss the live webinar call, I’ll be sure and send you the recorded video/audio in your inbox shortly after the call ends. But I would certainly love to have you there “live” so you can ask questions and gain the most out of this Q&A session. And did I mention that the call is FREE?!

I wouldn’t pass up this opportunity as I reveal tools and tips to maximize the effectiveness of your blog marketing efforts.

Click and register here: http://wordpresstowebsite.com/qawebinar-mar18/

How many times have you visited someone’s website only to totally ignore the blog page? Before you decide that you don’t like the layout of someone’s website you are visiting, give it a chance and just take a moment to visit their blog page and read their blog postings. You may actually gain insight or information on what the blogger has to say. Better yet, if you like the information they provide, don’t hesitate to subscribe to their blog by an email web form or via RSS. Hopefully, this blog has the capability to subscribe. If not, the author is missing out on some great traffic to their site!

This is just one of the items that I will be seeking on sample blogs that I will be critiquing on next month’s WordPress Q&A call. Granted the author may be providing great content, but it is so, so important to keep your readers coming back so they can gain interest in what you have to offer. Okay, I couldn’t resist this cliché either…build it and they will come! They will come only if you have made an effort to index your blog site by easily available SEO tools for WordPress. The SEO tool I use for most of my blogsites is the All In One SEO Pack which you can find here.

Certainly, there are other ways to promote your blog, but the most important thing to remember is to post often! I would love to hear from you if you have other ideas you want to share. I’ll be glad to pass them on to the list in my next edition of the WordPress to Website newsletter! Email me at aletha@theblogstrategist.com.