“And there is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him?”

Every time you publish a blog post you should have an idea of what you want your reader to do when finishing it.  Most people overlook this idea, and it is one of the most underused and powerful techniques you can do with your blog.

Without having a call to action implemented into your post, you are basically inviting your reader to leave when they are done with your post.  Wouldn’t you rather see them stick around and accomplish one of your goals through blogging?

Specific Calls To Action

You will have different goals depending on the type of blog you have.  Some of these goals may be as follows:

• A business blogger may want new customers
• A blog post reviewing a new product may want you to click through to their affiliate page
• A marketing blogger may want you to consider hiring them to do the work they just described
• Or a blogger may simply want feedback to what they just wrote

The important thing to note is that with every blog post you publish you should be actively pursuing some kind of response from your audience.  The response is up to you, and you should craft your posts in a way that encourages that action on the part of your reader.

Promoting The Sale

If your goal is to gain new clients, then your blog posts need to showcase the benefits of hiring you.  You can accomplish this through your regular blog posts simply by highlighting your skills and knowledge and letting your readers know they can partner with you to achieve the same results.

Do you want your readers to click over to your affiliate products?  You have to explain the benefits of the product, instill a desire in them while removing any doubts.  Easier said than done, but that is the formula used on countless successful sales pages.

Getting people to comment on your post can be accomplished in several ways.  Be opinionated.  Be controversial.  Don’t be afraid to be wrong (if you are wrong people will definitely rush in to tell you).  And nothing beats simply asking people to comment on your post.  Try it sometime, it works wonders.

End Thoughts

The important thing to remember about your blog posts is that you should be soliciting some kind of reaction from everything you publish.  It builds interest, strengthens your community, and could even make you some money.

What about you?  Do you incorporate some form of a call to action in your posts?  Please leave a comment and let us all know how you do it.

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Let me get this out in the open right quick: Sometimes I love to complain.  When I’m feeling whiny and insignificant in what I do, nothing beats pointing out what I consider faults in other people’s  empires.  Boosting the self-esteem through tearing down others, know what I mean?

OK, maybe that last part was taking it too far.  I don’t really want to tear down others for what they’re doing unless I feel what they’re doing is illegal or unethical.  All the same, there are some things I notice on other sites (mine too) that just annoy me.

Let me present my list of gripes in an easy to follow, numbered list form.  Because I hear list posts have a greater chance of success than say their embarrassing brother-in-law, the 2000-word-post-that-only-has-4-paragraphs.

1.  The Copyright Date

Sure, this sounds trivial and meaningless, but is it really?  If a blogger has chosen to copyright their material, you most often find the copyright info in their footer.  The part that gets me with the copyright date is when it’s neglected.  My calendar tells me the year is 2011, and your copyright info states something like, “Copyright © 2003″.  2003?  C’mon people, you’re 8 years behind the times with that.

I’ll concede that maybe the copyright date isn’t rage-worthy (it’s not, really), but it is a sign of neglect.  And I can never help but wonder if a blogger is neglecting little things like this with their site, what other things (presumably larger things) are they neglecting?

If you want to set up your copyright date info in the Ron Popeil fashion (“Set it and forget it”), then look at the following code:

Copyright &copy;  <?php the_date(Y); ?> Rob McGuire Online

That little piece of PHP code will automatically display the current year on your webpage, and will do that for as long as it resides in your site files.  Use it.

Or, if you prefer to have a beginning and end year for your copyright info, use this:

Copyright &copy; 2007 - <?php the_date(Y); ?> Rob McGuire Online

This will display your copyright info as beginning in the year 2007 and ending in the current year.

2. Bloggers Who Don’t Respond To Comments

Bloggers who don’t respond to their readers comments most often fall in the category of “A-listers”, though there is a thriving industry of spam blogs which follow the same pattern.  And a few in between.

Many people would defend this action, saying that these high profile bloggers are busy with other business ventures and can’t relegate a lot of time to responding to comments. I can agree with that line of thinking to a point.  You also have to look at the flip side of that coin; some of these higher profile bloggers are turning their back on the community that they spent years cultivating.

Blogs are social platforms, and if a blogger doesn’t want to be bothered by engaging with their readers, but instead just sit back and let the conversation take place without them, then that’s their choice.  But c’mon Mr. Blogger, at least jump in a little.  People cared enough about what you wrote to stick around and either praise you, ask a question, or disagree with you.  Can’t you give a few minutes and respond to your audience?

Mr. Blogger, I don’t need you to talk directly to me to give me validation in life, but I think if you spent some time addressing your readers individually (like you probably used to do), then you wouldn’t appear to be such an elitist.

3. Page View Blogging

This trick dates back to when bloggers first started to try and monetize their blogs by offering advertisements on them.  Advertisements on blogs can operate several different ways, but 2 of the most popular are impression rates and click-thru rates.

Impression rates work like this: a blogger is paid a certain amount of money for a set amount of ad impressions, while with click-thru ads the blogger is paid only when a visitor clicks on the specific ads.  Either way you look at it, both advertising methods prosper with the more page impressions the blog has.

Which brings me to my topic of page view blogging.  This is when a blogger prioritizes their site not so much in their reader’s interests, but in the interests in increasing page views.  Common methods to increase page views are:

• Splitting a post into multiple pages so a visitor is subjected to more ads than if the article was on one page.  (Many of these posts would have been better suited in one page rather than multiple pages to begin with).
• Posting on the current hot topic of the day, even though this topic does not relate to the core subject of their blog.
• Creating unnecessary steps to a destination on the blog in order to increase ad impressions

I get the fact that for some blogs, revenue does need to be raised in order to keep the blog running.  But even then, the focus should be on reader satisfaction and not on advertising statistics.  A lot of readers are keen to tactics that increase ad impressions while sacrificing usability, and many of those readers will eventually become non-readers.

4. Articles That Fail To Live Up To Their Sensational Headlines

We’ve all seen blog posts with sensational headlines.  Headlines such as “Absolutely Everything You Need To Make Your Blog Outstanding” strongly hint at a lengthy tutorial that details improvements that could be made to every aspect of your blog.  However, after reading the aforementioned article, I found it severely lacking.

Not lacking in quality, mind you, but lacking in that it failed to deliver on the promise made in the headline.  Headlines are a fickle thing; their job is to attract visitors, but if the content doesn’t live up to the expectations, it can be hard to get that same visitor to return.

I see, and I’m sure you see, headlines that inject some superlative adjectives in the title such as “ultimate”, “amazing”, “outstanding” and more, often have content that  fails miserably in fulfilling the initial promise.  The blogger wrote a great headline with an article that doesn’t back it up.  For many people, myself included, this is an example of the “bait-and-switch” scenario.  They lure them in with a headline, but don’t have the content to back it up.

Bloggers who dupe people once or twice with sensational headlines without sensational content can find it hard to lure that same visitor over to their site again.

5. Less Is More

I know several guides tell you that you have to write a blog post in a certain way.  You have to start off with an anecdotal story that somehow relates to your topic, follow it with an introduction to what you want to talk about, and then list your key points in bullet form.  That may work out great for some specialized blogs, but most people have limited attention spans and brevity is key.

Whenever you have a topic to write about, you need to consider the general attention span of your audience.  The attention span of your audience is generally pretty short, which is why the rule of thumb is to keep your blog posts short, and your main points easily scannable.

You see, most people don’t actually “read” your blog posts, they scan them.  Adding things like bullet points or heading tags increases the chance that your thoughts will be picked up by your speed reading audience.

Reasons like this dictate that generally wouldn’t want to publish a 2000 word post that is only separated into 4 or 5 paragraphs.  You’ll lose your audience’s interest quickly and they’ll move on before even finishing your article.

Bloggers that publish short stories as a post may need to work on their condensing skills.  Some blogs are OK with the super long posts, but most are not.  A-list bloggers can get away with this rule, if only for the fact that they have spent years building the audience they have and therefore the “general rules of blogging” don’t really apply as much to them as they do to others.

And before you blast me as a hypocrite let me say that, yes, I know this post is longer than what the “book” says it should be.

Back to you

I would be really interested in your thoughts on what bugs you with blogs and other bloggers in general.  I would ask that any mudslinging towards other bloggers be kept as anonymous as possible.  And if you think I’m way off base, I wouldn’t mind hearing that as well (preferably with your reasoning behind it!)

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If you were to make a list of reasons why you should be blogging, what would that list consist of?  Some great reasons such as cheap marketing and customer interaction should obviously be mentioned, but what do you think the #1 reason would be?

Put simply, the main reason why you should be blogging is to project yourself as a knowledgeable individual in your field.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?  If you are continually publishing content that other people find valuable, it won’t be long before you have a strong positive reputation in your chosen field.  Building a strong professional (or even personal) brand should be the #1 reason behind your business blogging.

Professional Branding Through Blogging

Your professional brand speaks volumes about you, your character, and your business.  For most people, building a great brand takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.  It’s not something that happens as quickly as we would wish.

This is where business blogging comes in.  A good blog is something that can take on the role of a PR manager, a marketing agent, and a publicist.  With the power and flexibility that blogging provides, you can increase the speed of branding yourself in ways you otherwise couldn’t.

Why Blogging Builds Your Brand

Blogging can be one of the best tools in your toolbox for promoting yourself to others.  Your blog works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in promoting your skills and knowledge to an audience far wider than what you can probably accomplish face-to-face.  It works while you work, and it works while you sleep.

Your blog is a hard worker, but it can only work with what you give it.  That’s why it’s important to follow some general guidelines to business blogging if you want to achieve the goal of projecting a strong image to others.

Tips For A Better Business Blog

1. Professional design – Any business blog should have a design that reflects who you are and what you do.  It doesn’t need to be anything overly fancy, but it should be personalized to suit your needs.  You wouldn’t use a sports themed design if you were a financial advisor, would you?
2. About page – This is an important and often overlooked area of anyone’s blog.  People who are interested in your services, or who want to know more about the person behind the blog, are probably going to be looking for an “About” page.  Don’t leave this out, and don’t leave it lacking.  Describe your experience, your history, and don’t feel timid about linking to examples of your work.
3. Contact info – You have to give people a way of reaching you, whether this is through a contact form, a phone number, address, or all of the above.  Make this information easy to find so visitors don’t have to hunt for it.  A blog page containing your name, phone number and contact form is a great start.
4. Great content – This is the most important piece of the puzzle.  A blog by nature is a platform to publish content, and the content you do publish matters when it comes to branding yourself as an expert.  You can’t take the easy route in this area, you have to frequently publish content that showcases your talent, training and abilities.  And don’t be afraid of giving away too much information in your blog either; many of the people who come to your blog looking for your valuable information will often turn into a customer or client later on.  (If you don’t believe me, just check out Chris Brogan. This guys gives out a vast amount  of free information on his blog and still has a ton of people wanting to pay him for more.)

Your Turn

What is your primary goal through business blogging?  Is it to market yourself to a wider audience, gain leads, or something else entirely?  I’d love to hear your thoughts about this in the comments below.

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Not too long ago I received an email from someone I built a website for in the past.  She has a business website with a blog built into it.  She updates her blog frequently, and several months after I turned the keys over to her I get this in my inbox from her:

I’ve been blogging all the time but I don’t see my rankings going up.  What am I doing wrong?

This is a rather loaded question because it’s based on the preconception that blogging improves your search engine rankings.  Or let me restate that in a way that more closely relates to this particular preconception: frequently updating your blog will automatically elevate your search engine rankings.

I know that the statement, “Blogging improves your SEO” gets thrown around a lot, and when asked by others, I will affirm that statement.  But that statement on its own isn’t exactly true, it needs outside help in order to live up to its reputation.

I can’t speak for anyone else who makes this statement, but when I say “blogging improves your SEO”, I’m saying it with some particular patterns in mind.  The general pattern I’m referring to is:

1. You continually publish content that resonates strongly with your readers.  Your readers like what you’re offering, they share your information with others and link to your content, blog and website.
2. These links are like “votes” with the search engines, and in a nutshell, the more links you have to your site, the higher your site will rank in the search engines.
3. As more and more people begin linking to your site, your blog is exposed to a larger audience.  Some of these people may even visit your blog through these links, like what they see and link to and share your content again.

This is the basic formula behind the statement “blogging improves your SEO”, and it all starts with the content you’re publishing.  If you are frequently publishing great content, then your readers will share and link to it, and these links will eventually cause your search rankings to get stronger.

In the case of the email I received, it was apparent to me that this person understood that blogging can boost your your site’s search engine rankings, but she didn’t understand the how’s and why’s behind it.

What do you think about the idea of blogging to improve your SEO?  Is this something you actively pursue, or is it just something you combine with your other goals from blogging?

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Ever notice how a lot of blogs are churning out posts promising to tell you the secrets to a better, more successful blog?

Yeah, I’ve seen those too.  I’ve seen them more times than I would care to admit.  After reading so many posts on the “secrets” of blogging I can say one thing:

They are all wrong.

Yep, that’s right, they are all wrong.  There is no deep, dark secret to successful blogging.  Every blog post that is titled something like, “{number} Secrets To {superlative adjective} Blogging” are not giving away any secrets.

Let me tell you what the real secret to blogging is (and you can quote me on this):

The secret to blogging is that there is no secret.

There is no “secret”.  This flies in the face of what many others are saying, and let me explain what I mean.

If you were to compare the countless posts detailing the secrets to blogging, you’ll quickly notice that they just keep touching on the same stuff we’ve all heard before.  Secrets like posting regularly or responding to comments.  How can those be secrets if they’ve been published thousands of times before?

What those blog posts are really doing is rehashing the same logical principles to blogging that have been discussed before.  The readers of those blogs may not have heard of those blogging points before, but that hardly qualifies them as secrets.

The information in all these “secrets to blogging” posts can be helpful general guidelines on general behaviors that have positive benefits for many blogs.  But your blog isn’t like someone else’s blog, so you’ll have to do what works for you and what works for your niche.  There is no cut and dry secret formula for blogging success.

If you want your blog to succeed, you first have to define what “success” means to you and then take the logical steps to get there.  When you think of it that way, the only person who knows the secret to blogging success is you.  Then it really is a secret.

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There are several steps I take when I’m writing a blog post that I want to specifically target a keyword with.  They aren’t technical or difficult, and when combined together they can make a huge difference.

As an example, let’s say that I’m writing a post about Ethiopian coffee and I would like for Google to rank me as high as possible for the phrase “Ethiopian coffee”.  Here is what I would do:

1.  URL

I would start by making sure my blog post’s URL included my target phrase.  This happens automatically if my permalink structure includes the post title, but I would probably remove words that were not needed in my URL to help me out.

2.  Title

Putting the target keyword or phrase in the title is one of the most important things you can do, the closer to the beginning the better.

3.  Meta Description

I will also insert my keyword in the meta description, as close to the beginning as possible.  Not only does it help with the search rankings, it helps visitors get a better idea of what the post is about.

4.  Meta Keywords

I know some search engines and most SEO experts ignore these but I still use them anyway.  Just like the title and description, I put my target words at the beginning of the list.

5.  Content

Here is where it’s both an art and a science to include your keywords.  You want to include your keywords in a way that’s natural but doesn’t overdo it.  There’s no hard and fast rule on this, but some things to keep in mind are:

• Your keywords should not count for more than 5% of your content.  I like to keep mine around 3%.
• It’s a good idea to include your keyword at the beginning and at the end of your post.
• Bolding your keyword text or a string of text containing your keywords provides emphasis on it.

6.  Images

I like to insert a pictures into my posts, and adding the right wording to the alt text of those images can help with the overall onpage SEO.  If I’m feeling frisky I will also make sure the image has a file name that relates to what I want to rank for.

7.  Video

If I’m pulling out all the stops, I will also try inserting a relevant video into my blog post.  It helps to make a post “sticky”, and also helps by gaining traffic from video searches.  There is obviously more to Video SEO than just embedding a video on your site, and I’ll touch more on that later.

So that is a quick rundown of 7 things I do to optimize my blog posts.  As you can see, I focus on more than just the words on the page.  What kind of things do you do for onpage SEO?

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A blog audit is something that should be done at least once or twice a year by anyone serious about improving their blog.  A detailed examination of your blog is a lot like getting a physical from a doctor; it tells you your strengths and your weaknesses.

If you’ve never audited your blog before, it is something you should consider doing.  The information you learn will help you and your blog improve, which is something I’m sure every blogger wants to do.  So let’s start in on what a blog audit is and what it can do for you.

What Is A Blog Audit?

In short, a blog audit is a collection of data on all the aspects of your blog such as:

• Post count
• Post frequency
• Comment count
• Comment frequency
• Categories
• Posts per category
• Social sharing
• Pages
• Page hierarchy
• And more

The data collected from a blog audit can be invaluable in determining how well your blog is performing, what you are doing well, and things you can improve upon.

A blog audit should be done regularly in order to monitor the progress you’re making as a blogger and to be aware of any problems in their early stage.  You can personally perform an audit on your own blog, but it’s always a good idea to have someone else verify your findings.  Sometimes a second set of eyes can notice things you might have overlooked.

5 Critical Areas In A Blog Audit

When gathering data, there are 5 elements that are crucial in determining the growth or lack of growth in your blog.  These individual characteristics can all dictate how well you are serving the needs and desires of your audience.

1. Comments

Comments are the lifeblood of a blog.  They are the main way your readers interact with you and vice versa.  When analyzing your comments, some important things to consider are:

1. Comment count – Which posts have the most comments?  Is there a common characteristic or topic between these posts?  If so, this could be a strong indicator of the kind of material your audience likes best.
2. Positive or negative – What kind of comments are your posts receiving?  Do all posts generally receive the same ratio of positive to negative comments?  Do some of your posts have a larger amount of negative comments than usual, and if so, is there a connection between these kinds of posts?
3. Little to no comments -There is a lot of room for interpretation here.   It is true that only a miniscule percentage of your visitors will take the time to comment on your post.  A lack of comments could mean that visitors aren’t finding a reason to comment, or it could also just be a result of low traffic to your blog.  The reason behind low comment counts can’t always be easily discerned.

2. Subscribers

The amount of subscribers to your feed can be a good benchmark of how much interest others have in what you’re publishing.  Monitoring your subscriber count is another good way to measure how well you are doing with your audience.  Some things to consider with subscribers are:

1. Subscriber spikes – Whenever you notice a sudden increase in subscribers to your blog is there something you can attribute it to?  Oftentimes, if you write a post that gets popular among others you will see an increase in subscribers.  If you notice a sudden spike in subscribers you should check your most recent posts for activity.  A large increase in subscribers that correlates with a lot of activity on a recent post is a signal that you hit a chord with a lot of people.

3. Social Sharing

Most bloggers have social sharing buttons or widgets inserted along with their blog posts.  And most of these buttons also display the number of times that post has been shared in that particular social circle.

It’s pretty obvious that posts which have been shared more often than others have something special about them.  Try separating your most shared posts from your least shared posts and see what characteristics separate them.  What topics do your most shared posts touch on?  Do your most shared posts offer more information than your least shared posts?

There are a lot of questions that can be addressed towards social sharing of your posts.  What’s important is if you can identify a pattern in the most successful of the bunch.

4. Categories

All blogs publish information that can be sorted by category.  When analyzing the categories of your blog you should collect data such as:

• Category count
• Posts per category
• Most successful and least successful categories (based on other data)

How do the categories you set up in your blog fare?  Are they all sub-categories of your blog’s main topic, or do you have some categories that seem to be “islands”?  By analyzing the posts per category and all the parameters within, you should be able to recognize which topics sit well with your readers and which ones to avoid.

Here’s something to keep in mind: the most successful bloggers focus on one area (or niche) and stay that way.  Their visitors are interested in that subject and know what to expect every time they come back.  If these bloggers started to regularly publish posts that strayed from their original core topic, they would eventually lose many of the people they attracted in the beginning.

Back to you

You may have noticed that I left out #5.  I leave that for you to fill out.  Out of all the things that are most important in a blog audit, what would you include as #5?

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How is your real estate blog working out for you?  Is it performing the way you want, or is it more like an empty corner in the internet?

Many real estate blogs have the same characteristic in common: the focus is on the real estate agent and on their properties, not on the visitor.  If you want to really generate more business through your real estate blog you have to offer your visitors something they want.

For example, a blog that is solely dedicated to listing new properties for sale isn’t going to help you much.  These types of posts generate little search traffic and even less interest in social media circles.  The trick to attracting people is to offer them something of value, something that they want.

Instead of just blogging about your properties and services, how about dishing out on topics related to your expertise?  You could attract a lot more people with posts touching on things like these:

1. Alternate home loans
2. Tips to closing on a house faster
3. How to sell a house in a bad economy
4. How to sell a house in a good economy
5. What to expect in a home inspection
6. How your credit score affects financing
7. Short sale tips
8. How to prepare your home for the market
9. Investment properties
10. The who, what, and why of offer prices

This is just a sample of topics you could write about that would generate interest in your real estate blog.  Another great source of inspiration would be your clients.  What questions are they asking?  Other people have these exact same questions, so why not blog about it?

What are you doing with your real estate blog?  Is it informative and helpful?  Feel free to link to one of your great posts in the comments and show others how you use blogging to help your business.

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It is becoming more and more common for a website to appear differently on a mobile device as compared to what it looks like on a desktop computer or laptop. Here are how the top 50 blogs according to Technorati compare.

There are two images for each website: the left image is as it appears on a desktop computer, and the right image is how it appeared on a mobile phone. And in case you are wondering, the phone used for the mobile images was a Sanyo Zio running Android. (Click images for larger view).

1. The Huffington Post

2. TechCrunch

3. Mashable!

4. Think Progress

5. TMZ

6. Engadget

7. Gawker

8. Gizmodo

9. Boing Boing

10. Business Insider

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Even though every item here could be a blog post on their own, for now I’ve decided to just list some random thoughts I have in regards to blogging.

• The quickest way to royally screw up a blog is to copy and paste a post directly from Microsoft Word
• Having a unique “voice” is important, but that doesn’t necessarily make you special
• If blogging is becoming a chore then perhaps it’s time to rethink why you’re blogging in the first place
• A great design can’t make up for crappy content
• Great content can be hindered by a poor design and/or layout
• Chances are good that you won’t ever make a living through blogging.  Just accept it
• If everyone is agreeing with you, you’re doing it wrong
• Only a small percentage of people comment on your blog so spend some time responding to these people.  They are important
• Advertising on your blog can bring in revenue, but don’t make your blog look like it’s in NASCAR
• Linking to other blogs is a good thing.  Share the love
• Don’t let the content in your sidebar be the main attraction of your blog
• Use whatever blogging platform you’re comfortable with (I recommend WordPress)
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Everyone, even the “pros”, are still learning
• There is no easy way to create a popular blog. It takes time, a lot of work and some luck
• Backup your blog, and back it up often.  You’ll be thankful for doing this if and when disaster strikes
• Visit a commenter’s blog sometime. They have good things to say too
• After you have written a rant post, wait at least a day before posting it.  Trust me
• The rules that govern your blogging niche do not apply to other niches.
• Your blog is an extension of you.  Can you see yourself in your blog?
• Blogging is like baseball.  Some posts are homeruns, some are singles, and there are the occasional doubles.  Many posts are outs.
• Too many social sharing options on your blog makes your look desperate.  Don’t do it
• Sometimes it pays to ignore your Analytics stats and go spend time with your family instead

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