Therefore, I aspire to provide a basic guide to new bloggers. This is not intended to be a list of do’s and don’ts as much as advice from someone who made some mistakes along the way and hopes to help the rest of you avoid a few pitfalls of your own. This also is neither an exclusive nor an all-inclusive list; it is more informational. My goal is simply to provide some insight into the idea of starting your own blog – what you should think about, what you should look for, and how to make some good decisions.

First, do some research.

Answer the questions of what, why, where.

• What type of blog do I want to write? Casual? Professional? Personal? Etc.
• Why do I want to write? To give information? To promote my product/service? To network with others in my field?
• Where do I get my inspiration and information?
• Where do I find the best hosting service?
• Where do I find out which platform is best for my blog (WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, etc.)?

It is essential that you answer these basic questions before you even write your first word. Unfortunately, I didn’t and so it took me a lot longer to find my way through the blogging process than it should have.

Second, read other bloggers’ content.

Find out what others write about, what their style is, and where they garner fresh ideas and information. There are many great bloggers and writers with varying methods, content, and perspectives. Read blogs on various topics and from various points of view to help you determine what approach, design, and platform may work best for you. Again, some advice I wish I had followed. While I did a little bit of reading ahead of time, I still ended up in way over my head.

Third, write some preliminary content of your own.

I’m not talking about publishing here. I’m talking about writing for the sake of writing — getting used to the art, figuring out the rules of grammar and usage, walking away from your work and checking/proofing it later. Have someone else read it, too, just to ensure it conveys what you want it to convey. Let’s face it, as much as you love and enjoy reading your own content, that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else does or that they even understand it the way you wrote it. Just read a few of my first blog posts and you’ll understand what I mean.

Fourth, establish your writing goals and schedule.

This is where you answer the questions of who, how, and when. Who is my audience and how do I reach them with my message/product/service/etc.? This is also where you decide, based on your answers to the previous questions, how often you want to write and when you will put aside time in your schedule to write. Do you aim to publish daily? Two or three times per week? Once per week? Etc. How often you would like to publish will propel your writing habits and schedule. The more often you publish, the more time you must set aside ahead of time to write.

Fifth, publish to your heart’s content.

Once you have answered all the questions (what, why, where, who, how, and when) and settled on a writing schedule, blog your little heart out. Also, I suggest using a free blogging service like WordPress.com, Tumblr, or Posterous to familiarize yourself with writing and blogging. Once you’re comfortable, then the move to self-hosting comes much easier.

Obviously, I am working on a few assumptions here. Namely, that you are genuine and are providing a legitimate good or service. There is no place in the blogging world for scammers or spammers. Plus, your audience will not accept you or your perspective unless you are authentic and sincere.
While I am not a rookie to the blogging scene, I am certainly not a pro blogger either. I guess you could say I am an amateur blogger.

For those of you who are new, let me know how I can help. For those of you who are pros, what other great advice would you pass on to those who are new (basically, what did I miss)?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Before You Jump Into This Blogging Thing

But oh, there’s more.

The truly successful blogs don’t just create great content based around a niche, tweet it out, and wait for the readers to come in. They create blog evangelists – readers that are actively passionate about the brand, spread it by word of mouth, and happily sit by the “buy” button when a new product is released.

Every great blog has these evangelists – of course, though, the question then is – how do I find and/or create these for my blog? It’s not as hard as you think. Blog evangelists require more than just making one great piece of content, though. They require a nurturing, long process, much like taking care of a plant and ensuring it has proper exposure to sunlight and water. Blog readers are no different – they want to be cared for, and when they are, they reward you with great air and beauty (their evangelism).

How to Create Blog Evangelists

1. Make a Great Second Impression

Hopefully you’ve already written a great post. If you’ve done this, then you’ve already converted your reader in some way. They might have tweeted it out, commented, or added you to their RSS feed. Although this is a great thing to see, it doesn’t mean much. For most blogs, so few of these actions will result in follow-up movements like continued retweets, comments, or the like.

Much of this has to do with blog writers doing a poor job of the follow-up. This second impression is arguably the most important one – because it is a strong, powerful step towards both branding your blog and creating future evangelists.

So how do you do this? When people comment, the standard act is just to reply. Believe it or not, this is not enough. Many of these people won’t ever return to look at your follow-up, or subscribe to the comment thread. So, really, all your follow-up comment does – most of the time – is create the illusion of blog activity. What you need to do – and what is so infrequently done – is send an e-mail to every first time commenter on your website.

This creates a real, personal connection with the person who comments. Do a little research on the person, look at their website, and compliment them genuinely on something they do well. Let them know you’ll help them with anything they might need – and don’t lie if you can’t!

2. Create Social Engagement with Readers

If you can’t find an e-mail and the connection point is through a retweet, first, thank the person. Do this individually to increase personalization (rather than the five person mass “Thanks for the RT!” message). Follow them, even if they haven’t followed you. Given their retweet, the odds that they follow back is significantly higher.

Once they’ve retweeted you and/or commented, create a list for them. You can be straightforward and say “readers”, but I suggest you do something a little more obscure, like “people I find interesting” or “people I engage with”. After all, you don’t want to seem too commercial or automated when doing this. Use this list to track their tweet stream and find the best links or commentary they send out.

After that’s done, make a dedicated effort to make a follow-up engagement with this person. Look for something to reply to, or a tweet to funnel back to your followers. This follow-up will go a long way towards evangelism. And it must be within a week or so of their first engagement – as to ensure that you still have a familiar place in their mind.

Once that’s been done, you’ve made some strong steps towards creating brand evangelists. Now, you return back to the first impression – your blog post.

3. Follow up With More Great Content

Once you’ve planted the seed, it’s now your job to follow up on the initial great content that drew their attention. People love great posts, but they aren’t going to go out of their way to fall in love – not unless you nudge them to. By creating social engagement or putting yourself front-facing in their mind, you improve the likelihood they’ll return. Once that happens, you must continue creating things that stick, that they want to spread, and that they want to speak highly of.

The engagement is the easy (but also necessary) part – it’s the great content that’s going to make people run to their mothers to spread the word.

4. Maintain, Maintain, Maintain

Some people, based on personality type, schedules and other things, will take more nudges before turning in to full time readers of your blog. For these people, it will take more than that initial “poke” to start the ball in motion.

And admittedly, some of the smarter people will be very aware of exactly what you’re doing – trying to create evangelists. The more you connect, the more of a “friend” you’ll become – and less of a snake oil salesman. Of course, these kinds of relationships are more rewarding and fun anyways – and it should be your goal to establish this with as many of your readers as possible.

Every Plant Needs Water

The more I think about it, the more I realize blog readers are like plants. They take a long time to grow, but once you get them to their full height, they stay around for a long time, as long as you put them in the sunlight and water on occasion. But they can – and will – die if you don’t pay attention.

Good luck creating your blog evangelists. Do you have any more tips on creating loyal readership? Leave them in the comments!

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

How to Create Blog Evangelists

Have you ever met someone who had been married 55 years, was the CEO of one of the world’s largest and nicest hotel chains, and runs a pretty sweet blog? Meet Bill Marriott! And how did I know he’d been married for 55 years? He blogged about it.

As stated on the about page:

The purpose of this blog is to give you a forum to interact with Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of Marriott International. We believe Marriott is more than just the world’s largest lodging company with more than 3,000 hotels around the world.

We’re proud of our culture, history, service excellence, and especially our 151,000* associates whose Spirit to Serve makes us so successful. Part of what makes us great is our belief in service to the customer and “Success is Never Final.”

This blog allows us to hear from you and build on the community that we’ve nurtured since 1927. We are delighted you have decided to visit us, and we will do our best to make it a valuable experience for you.

The beauty of this blog isn’t in its rather basic design, but in the portal it opens between the average consumer/reader/guest and the CEO of an enormous operation. The company apparently recognizes this corporate blog for what it is, a mechanism to open the communication lines to the very top.

The blog does a great job at being social on the surface, providing links to other profiles and the company itself while allowing comments on posts, but one thread caught my attention on a post about offering points to timeshare owners. It seems there is debate about the points system, but reading between the lines reveals that there’s another debate going on between those who claim their comments aren’t being posted, and others whose negative comments are showing up just fine. Whatever the issue is, the negative factor that stands out is a lack of response, even in intervals.

What I love most about this blog is a very simple point: it’s a CEO, blogging for himself (in his own words, that is) about his company and his life. It’s quite a difficult task to convince C-suite executives of the value of working hard on their own content when they’re so busy with so many other tasks. Bill Marriott seemingly gets it.

What do you think? What does Bill get right or wrong? What can we learn from his blogging efforts?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Showcase: Marriott on the Move – the Blog of Bill Marriott

Fuel Your Blogging's List of Awesome Bloggers

We’d like to introduce members of our blogging community to other great bloggers, and we thought one of the best ways to do this would be to highlight, in a Twitter list, some of the people who have caught our attention in the recent past.

They’ve made the list for a variety of reasons. Some have simply established themselves as household names among bloggers. Others have been active within this Fuel Your Blogging community and have caught our attention because of their interactions. Some are outside the social media industry but have proving their wits when it comes to applying principles and practices of great blogging.

We’ll be adding more as time goes on. You’re sure to notice someone who is missing, so we apologize in advance that we can’t be fully comprehensive. We just wanted you to meet some really great bloggers!

So check out and follow the @fuelblogging list of awesome bloggers. Oh, and if you haven’t already, follow us on Twitter too!

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

A Twitter List of Awesome Bloggers

Probably the most common form of monetisation on blogs is advertising. For many bloggers, Adsense is an unreliable income source so they choose to go down the route of finding advertisers themselves. Trouble is, advertisers are often hard to find.

Of course, you could use a service like BuySellAds to sell your adverts for you, but as they take a percentage of the sale as their fee, understandably some prefer to stay away from such services and retain total control of their ads themselves. If you’re running WordPress then I’d highly recommend the WP125 plugin to manage your ads.

Once you’ve decided you’ll take control of finding advertisers yourself, the next challenge is to actually find these advertisers. With advertising budgets been cut, the skill is certainly in making your blog sound as attractive to possible to potential advertisers.

The first thing to do is to find people and products in your niche who you think could benefit from advertising on your blog. Take my site, WPShout, for example. It’s about WordPress so I emailed a couple of people selling plugins and themes. If your blog is about fishing, email some people selling fishing products. They’ve got to be relevant and able to benefit from advertising on your site, otherwise you’re not going to be finding them sticking around on your site.

Now that you’ve chosen a couple of people to email, it’s time to dig out some statistics about the site to throw at them. Be careful what you choose: it’s got to sound impressive. Only mention your RSS feed count if it’s rapidly rising and over 1000. Equally, only mention site visits if they’re 10,000+. If you’ve been mentioned by a huge blog in your niche, mention that. If this doesn’t leave you with a lot of statistics, don’t fret. You can then explain how your blog is rapidly getting bigger and better, perhaps showing how your RSS readers have increased by X amount in the last 30 days.

Once you’ve thrown the statistics at them, now it’s time to go for the price. Don’t go overboard with pricing. If your blog’s only a couple of months old then chances are you won’t be able to charge more than $20/month for a 125×125 ad spot in the sidebar. If your blog’s getting a year old with a fairly good following then you could get away with $30/month for a sidebar spot. You’ve got to be able to keep your advertisers coming back so make sure the price reflects the kind of gain they’re likely to get; it’s got to be a win situation for both of you.

Something I’ve found hugely effective is offering discounts if an advertiser takes a couple of months’ advertising. It’s not something everyone will want to do, but it’s a good way of filling your ad spots and making sure they stay filled. The obvious advantage for the advertiser is they get locked in at the discounted rate for however long they’re advertising for and so stand to benefit if your blog continues to grow at the rate you’ve experienced so far. The trick here isn’t to say “I’ll take $5 off” but to take a percentage off so that it sounds more impressive — 20% may only be $5, but it sounds more.

Finding advertisers isn’t easy, but if you ensure you create a situation where everyone stands to gain — you get the money, the advertiser gets the coverage — then you should soon find advertisers flocking to your site.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

How to Pitch Your Blog to Potential Advertisers

1. Attention Grabbing Headlines: if you don’t have an attention grabbing headline your article is dead in the water. How are people supposed to know how great your article is when they don’t notice it? The key to great headlines is in the interest of your readers. No interest no click through. So you have to ask yourself “what does my reader want?” In business blogging it is never about you. Focus on your readers and attract them with their interest. Your headlines have only a few seconds to grab them. Use action words to entice them. But make sure your vocabulary fits your niches interest.
2. Deliver in the body what your headline states: don’t you hate it when you click on a headline only to discover it didn’t deliver in the body of the article? You have to deliver in the body if you want people to take you seriously. After all you are blogging to convert your readers i.e. visitors into customers. I doubt they will buy anything from you if they can’t even trust you to deliver FREE information.
3. Your articles overall tone should be in alignment with the theme of your blog: That means that if your blogging about say email marketing because thats your focus. If your a humorous person then keep that same tone in your blog. As a marketer for 15 years I can attest to one key fact. And that is that some of the most powerful people in entertainment established their authority with humor. And their key to success was doing that consistently.
4. Cite your information with links to other authorities in your niche: want to establish an aura of confidence and authority? Start linking to others in your niche. As long as they are actually credible you have nothing to lose. I have shared over 10,000 sources in the last year and it has paid off. Trust me your readers will respect you for this strategy.
5. Speak the unpopular truth: Don’t be afraid to get controversial in your headlines and body. Sometime ago I posted a concern I had about a internet marketers ethics. I received a lot of attention and some flack about it but I stood strong. People trust people who share the truth. Especially when it doesnt benefit them to do so.
6. Offer specifically detailed information for FREE: When others are charging offer for FREE. Not all the time of course but regarding a specific subject say copywriting course or a email marketing program.
7. Offer a conclusion that invites inclusion (comments): I must admit I don’t always do this. But this is a very effective way to gain input on your blog and feedback. You will know it is really working well when ideas are generated from the comments. products and major sites have sprouted from comments. The results of course lend credit to you.

You need to get attention and deliver. You need to write in the same consistent tone. You need to cite your information to credible sources and don’t be afraid to be controversial. Offer high quality detail and invite inclusion in your constitution.

Execute 1-4 always and add 5-7 at least 50% of the time. Do that and your blog will prosper. These are just (7) ideas. What do you do to fuel your headlines, body, and blog?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

7 Ways to Build Credibility With Every Blog Post

“Pepsi set out to dominate TV with their message, and billboards and vending machines. Newspapers, not so much. The media you chose to spread your message mattered. In fact, it could change what you made and how you made it. [Stop for a second and consider that... the media channel often drove the product and pricing and distribution].

Today, of course, everyone has access to a media channel. You can create a series of YouTube videos, or have a blog. You can be a big-time tweeter, or lead a significant tribe on Facebook.”

He went on to list a couple more “wag the dog” examples where the media channel itself defined the message, such as Tom Peters being defined by the format of public speaking engagements.

As a blogger, this caused me to reflect on a couple of different things.  First, I’ve noticed that my message is different depending on the blogging channel I plan to publish to.  Guest posts are written with a specific site in mind.  If I’m going to list something in an article directory, any post that relies on images and links is probably not going to work.  For corporate blogs I manage; a fair amount of work has to be done to make sure the copy is SEO’d and can be pasted into collateral at some point.  I view all of these things as positive influences on the content itself because they’re forcing me to adapt it to the audience.  That’s aside from the fact that every additional publishing channel directly increases exposure to my blog and all of my other work.

But there’s another set of channels that I’m not using as effectively as I should: new media.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m familiar with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  I’ve notified friends, fans, followers, and group members of new posts and occasionally even cross-published to those sites.  But there are other sites, most noticeably YouTube, iTunes, and SlideShare, which I’ve neglected almost completely.  Moreover, I haven’t really used Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn as they were designed to be used.  Linking to my blog in Facebook isn’t really using Facebook.  To use Facebook, I’d take the core message of my blog post and turn it into a Facebook Status update with maybe a poll attached.  For Twitter, I’d try to condense my message down to a 140 character statement and see what kind of conversation I could start.  LinkedIn allows me to publish my post through the news feature, but a better use of that medium might be to restructure the conclusion of my post as a “discussion”, which might result in a lot more participation from the group.

I’ve seen YouTube videos where people are literally reading their blog posts into a webcam.  Is that really compelling?  Wouldn’t it be better to use some visual aids a la Be Kind, Rewind to boost the hit count?  Even if it was just narration over play-doh sculptures or crayon drawings it would be more interesting than a talking mugshot.  But by far my biggest regret has been not doing more with SlideShare.  When you think about it, any of the posts with numbers, like this one on using LinkedIn more effectively, screams to be dropped into a 6 slide set with compelling graphics and submitted to SlideShare for the non-blog-reading world to enjoy.  It would probably take 2-3 hours to convert my average blog post into a fun slide deck that could eventually be compiled into an e-book or shared from my site as an alternate way to enjoy my writing.

Blogging makes text more shareable and mashable than ever before.  One of the most compelling things about consuming content on the web is that we’re not confined to reading, listening, or watching.  As consumers of content, there’s so much out there that we get to choose our channels.  As a publisher, I should be trying to reach more than just the “readers”.

When Kindle came out in November of 2007, it was lauded as a revolutionary way to consume content from a traditional medium.  Even though it was limited, for the most part, to black and white text.  When the iPad came out in March of 2010, it changed all that.  eBooks, newspapers, and blogs will be expected to take advantage of color screens that are capable of sound and video playback embedded within the content.

Being a blogger is great, but the web allows so much more and eventually my audience will demand more.  If any of you have started down this journey from blogger to New Media Guru already, I’d be very interested to hear how it’s going.

Image Credit

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

You Can’t Afford to Stop at Just Blogging

With an exception of those dedicated solely to audio and video, the heart of most blogs lie within the written content therein. The blogger’s ability to captivate their readers’ interest, and engage them through their written word can make or break his or her success—so in other words, if you’re a blogger, taking steps towards improving your writing ability is an essential move that you simply cannot afford to skip.

This article will explore the things you can do to improve your writing in general, as well as specific steps you can take to improve each individual article you write. After reading, I challenge you to go through your “already published” works to see if you can improve a thing… or two.

Your Daily Writing Quota

The first step to improving your writing is to write regularly. Nobody was born an awesome writer; they had to work at it, and so do you. A great way to accomplish this is to set a daily writing quota and make sure you meet it everyday. 100 words a day is a great starting point, and can work wonders for your writing ability over time.

That doesn’t mean you have to publish a new post everyday, but at least write in a journal, work on a draft post, or participate in some creative writing exercises. Whatever you do, write everyday and over the course of a year, you’ll be a much better writer than you are today—even if you’re already awesome at it.

Mary Jaksch wrote a pretty extensive list over at Copyblogger on becoming a better writer, which may be worth your while to check out if you want some more general advice. As for now, I’ll get on with the specifics…

Simple, Effective Outlining

Next I’ll cover the little gems that’ll make up a large majority of your blog posts: your individual articles. The easiest way to start a piece of writing is to begin with a general outline of the entire piece.

The first and last paragraphs (or mini-paragraphs) will obviously make up your introduction and conclusion, so what I’m really concerned about here is the “stuff” in between. Write down anywhere from two to four things that are related to your title and these will be the sub-points your article will cover (the main point being the title which should encompass the whole thing).

Ask yourself, what individual things need to be addressed to fulfill what the title of my article promises? That should provide a good starting point to coming up with good sub-headings for your article.

Get Your Ideas Down

From there, you’ll start by writing an introduction for what they can expect from the article—but don’t give away too much. It’s best to engage your readers by adding a little suspense to your introduction. Keep them guessing.

Next, simply go through your sub-points and elaborate on each one. This is what will make up the body of your article. The point here is to not worry so much about things like spelling and grammar and just get your ideas down. The beauty of having words on a screen (or page) is that they’re not going anywhere (granted you save often!), so you can always go back and fix the spelling and grammar later (which you WILL do).

Once you’ve fully elaborated on your sub-points and feel like the problem that your title imposed has been solved, write out a conclusion to your article and engage your readers one last time by asking them a thought-provoking question to encourage comments and discussion.

Congratulations! The “hard part” is over (mostly).

The Art of Formatting

This takes me to the next aspect of your writing that might not “make” your article all on its own, but it can certainly break it—and that is the presentation of your article via formatting. Fortunately, formatting is very simple, and taking the extra time to “discombobulate” your writing can mean the difference between your visitors staying to read what you have to say, or clicking away due to an overwhelm of TEXT-IN-FACE.

The easiest way to format your work is to turn the “sub-points” you made within your outline into short, consumable headings that encompass the sentences and paragraphs below them. Break your paragraphs into 1-3 sentence “chunks” (separated by blank lines) and make good use of bold and italic text to emphasize key points in your writing.

The bottom line is, formatting makes your content more readable. It’s an art, but that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. Think of it as art… in 2nd grade. Not so hard now is it?

Finalizing Your Work

This very last but crucial step is the icing on the cake, the tip of the iceberg, the polish on the shoe… whatever you want to call it; just know that it’s very important.

Once you’re done writing and formatting your article just the way you want it, you need to go back and proof-read it for spelling errors, grammar mistakes, sentences that just don’t make sense, etc. And then do it again until you feel like your article is perfect. If you’re really serious about producing the best quality article possible, you’ll set the whole thing aside and do this step over again later.

And that’s all there is to it! If you make a concerted effort to write everyday (100 words a day isn’t that much) and use the simple-but-effective article writing strategy I just described above, not only will your writing continuously improve on a regular basis, but you’ll be captivating your readers in a way that makes you stand out far above most bloggers—which is essential in today’s growing blogosphere.

Let’s Talk About You

What is YOUR current strategy for producing amazing content? How does it compare or contrast with what I just presented to you? There’s always room for improvement, so I encourage you to share your knowledge and opinions in the comments section below.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

The One Big Unavoidable Ingredient of Great Blogging

Unless you’re blogging purely for fun, there’s likely to be some kind of financial or compensatory motivation behind the writing. And even if you are just writing for fun, you’ll probably have some interest in monitoring readership statistics as the blog grows and changes.

It’s something of a philosophical concern, but it’s worth asking: is my blog a product or a service? If it’s a limited-run sort of a thing, and you don’t intend on supporting any of the content or moderating comments, then you your blog could be considered a product. But if you intend to continue publishing into the foreseeable future, and maintain the content and the community that forms around it, then your blogging enterprise really revolves around a service.

Why does this matter? It matters because if you think of your blog as a product when it’s really a service, you may find yourself ill-equipped to deal with the ongoing costs of serving your user base.

Service-oriented blogging affects frequency

I do my best to be real. And what’s real to me is that many blogs fail because the owner/publisher in charge doesn’t fully account for the cost of maintaining the service. Here’s an illustration of what I mean:

Blogger Alex runs some self-analysis and decides that the best times to write are evenings on three weekdays, and on Sunday mornings. Alex estimates that keeping to a 4 posts-per-week schedule will be enough to keep readers interested, and drive up traffic whilst making the most of downtime when creative energy is high.

However. What Alex doesn’t realise is that although individual posts might be considered products destined for a market of attention, really what’s on offer is a comprehensive service. A service that involves thoughtful research, inspiration management, the discipline of sticking to a reliable formula, ensuring a great technical delivery, and the positive touch of a human presence.

Ultimately Alex’s initial estimate of the time involved falls short of reality because all these other items need to be taken care of. What’s likely to happen is that Alex will feel some obligation to hit the original scheduling target and start working on the blog outside the “optimum hours” originally determined by careful self-inventory of “up” times and surplus attention.

The goal is to survive

When faced with the prospect of not hitting a frequency or coverage goal, it’s important to look at the big picture. The absolute most important thing in pursuing a professional or hobbyist blogging career is persistence. I like to say “existence contains persistence”, and this is particularly true of working to maintain a viable service as writer-publisher.

In the fictitious case of Alex, the best course of action is to take stock of the situation as it is, and not as it could or should be, and realise that a 1 post-per-week goal is a better way to use one of the four overall work sessions. The other three can be shared between additional service elements like research, delivery maintenance, customer contact, and business development.

If all this sounds rather clinical, consider that the best blogs are the ones run by people who handle their responsibilities well. It’s advisable to foster one’s ability to switch modes from romantic to professional, and realise that blogging is a rewarding but also quite rigorous personal discipline.

I wish you all the very best of luck.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Is Your Blog a Product or a Service?

MachineFinder itself is a database of used farm equipment for sale by various John Deere dealers across the United States. Though the blog is simply a branch of the site, it’s a community unto itself. One would expect to find this blog to be one of two things: a collection of long, text-based, keyword-rich pointless articles to gain SEO attention for the site, or a stream of the newest listings in the store. What you’ll find instead is an interesting approach to blogging within a niche.

The Machinery of MachineFinder

The blog is built on Wordpress, which immediately gets it three thumbs up, not so much because of Wordpress itself, but because using Wordpress for such a blog demonstrates an understanding of the friendly relationship between the open source blogging platform and the social web.

Surprisingly Good Content

Having perused so many hundreds of good design blogs, I was surprised to see the similarities in approach that the John Deere bloggers take. Criticize list posts and linkbait if you want, they’ve done a sweet job of emulating this approach on their blog. Just check out 7 Excellent Tractor Pull Images or 8 Incredible Farm Infographics for evidence.

This is the kind of content that can gather enthusiastic adherents around a brand. It demonstrates a connection with the… farm implement subculture, if there is such a thing.

Social Media Integration

MachineFinder is on Facebook and Twitter, but also boasts two other sweet profiles on YouTube and Flickr. Both of these sites allow the brand to use imagery to connect people emotionally with their brand, allow further interaction, and recruit people to spread their identity all over the web. And who doesn’t love watching videos of tractor pulls?

One Simple Suggestion

The blog is nicely designed, integrates well with other media channels, and boasts sweet content. If I could offer one critique from the perspective of a blogger, it would be that I’d love to know who “machinefinder” is. In other words, let us know about the person who is posting content. Let us interact with a face. If Ford Motor Company can have a Scott Monty, Deere and Company could certainly find a John Doe… or… Deere to be the face of the blog.

Awesome job. We’re all green with envy. Any comments from the audience?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Showcase: MachineFinder Blog by John Deere

1. To get traffic (and thus subscribers, potential customers and buyers, etc)
2. To get links (and thus grow the power of their own domains)
3. To become popular (to get your name heard by many people)

However there are other important benefits of guest posting which are no less important and by forgetting about those benefits you may sacrifice on the strategy quality (by only chasing for links and traffic).

So here are those extra, less known (and almost never discussed) benefits of guest posting:

Get Inspired

It happens to active bloggers: sometimes they are just stuck – no fresh ideas, no inspiration, nothing. In this case the best thing you can do is to blog more! Yes, you heard it right. But this time don’t blog at your own site, arrange a guest post “outside”. This way you will get inspired by:

• Researching someone other’s content and thinking about what his audience might appreciate, what seems to do well at this new platform and which topics seem to encourage more active discussion;
• Getting comments from new audience you will discover plenty of new topics you feel like covering and discussing further. Nothing works better for inspiration than hearing other people’s opinion about your work.

Position Yourself As An Expert

Here’s an awesome post on how guest blogging promotes you as an expert. By guest posting regularly, you will soon notice your opinion valued much higher and your work cited more and more often.

Being seen as a thought leader in your industry certainly has its advantages. As an expert, you’ll attract the top-shelf clients who are willing to pay more to get the services of an industry leader. You’ll also have an easier time earning the trust of new customers, a challenge for all online businesses.

Discover New (Neighboring) Niche

Guest blogging is the great way to look outside the box. Being popular beyond your niche is a great marketing opportunity that should not be overlooked. This way you can:

• Expand your business (sometimes you never know in which direction you can develop your business without looking around)
• Find partners and build mutually beneficial contacts (most successful businesses grow together by backing each other)
• Explore plenty of new marketing models and ideas (which can be implemented to your niche)

And why do you guest blog?

photo credit: Olivander

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Three Benefits of Guest Blogging You May Not Have Known

We’re showcasing the blog of a gardener / CEO today…

About Chick-fil-A

You can read much more about the sweet story of Chick-fil-A on their corporate website. Their approach to marketing is a phenomenon in itself, especially their approach to engaging their community of self-proclaimed brand evangelists and their skilled use of social media alongside traditional media tools.

The short version is that they essentially invented the chicken sandwich in 1946 just outside of Atlanta in one small restaurant under the leadership of founder, S. Truett Cathy. They’ve managed to stand for some great values in addition to offering great food and service, such as an emphasis on caring for the environment and helping hurting families.

They’ve built their brand on “second mile service.” You’ll find fresh flowers on the tables each morning and I was once met at my car on a rainy day by an employee with an umbrella. On that day, they threw in some free extra chicken mini’s and walked me back to my car when I left.

About Dan Cathy

One huge principle to remember when it comes to having a great blogging presence is that it begins with being a great person first. Blogging success shouldn’t flow out of technical or writing abilities alone, but out of character and charisma – more personal things.

I heard Dan Cathy speak at a leadership conference once and he talked about his interesting camping activities. When a new franchise opens somewhere, the first 100 customers get free Chick-fil-A for a year in the form of 52 meal vouchers. Groupies and fans camp out the night before waiting for the doors to open. I personally know several people who have been crazy enough to get in. Dan has participated in campouts across America. This CEO rolls up his tent, heads to the new franchise site and camps with the fans. At about midnight, he offers a personally-guided tour of the restaurant.

This kind of approach to leadership is what makes Dan’s blog an excellent subscription to add to your rss reader. He sets a tremendous example for other CEO’s and corporate leaders to follow.

What Dan’s Blog Gets Right

There is almost too much to tell, but here are some things that jump out at me…

Simple Design

The blog is based on Wordpress and features a rather simple layout. It’s super easy on the eyes and extra, unneeded junk has been eliminated. Instead of widget-chaos, Dan’s blog takes your eyes right to the heart of its awesome content.

Simple Navigation

Dan blogs about four topics. Three of those topics are expressed throughout the site as “Live. Love. Lead.” The fourth topic is, of course, Chick-fil-A. You can easily jump to any of these categories to find stories such as Relevance and Kindness (a post about living compassionately) or Letting Others Up the Ladder (a post about growing other leaders).

Simple Explanations

One of the more unique features of the blog is that it helps non-technical folks understand social media along the way. Instead of a simple link to his feed or his Twitter profile, Dan uses these little icons to lead people to an explanation page – a help page of sorts. Just glance at the page on which you arrive when you click the Twitter icon…

Want to reach Dan? His contact page simply says, “Email me.” How simple is that?

Super Personal

Yes, you’ll read news about the company. I wouldn’t ever assert that corporate blogs be so unselfish that they devote zero attention to themselves. But you’ll read as much or more about Dan’s life, his loves, and his leadership lessons. You’ll read about the people who work for Chick-fil-A that make it great. You’ll read about their community activities and Dan’s hobbies.

Since subscribing to Dan’s blog, it’s quickly become one of my favorites. Read him, get to know him, and learn about blogging (and life, love, and leadership also) from one of the best! DanCathy.com

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Showcase: Dan Cathy’s Blog (CEO of Chick-fil-A)

A little over a year ago, I told a few friends that I wanted to start a blog. They looked at me in utter disbelief and said, “What are you going to write about?” They might as well have asked, “What in the world do YOU have to say?” Feeling a little defeated, I answered, “I’m not really sure, I just want to try it and see if I like it.”

Candidly, when I began blogging, I had no clue what I was going to write about it, or even if I could write. I certainly couldn’t tell you the difference between Wordpress and Blogger, Hosted and Self-Hosted, widgets and plug-ins. I didn’t know if I would have anyone that would be interested enough to read what I had to say. And I certainly didn’t know that my parents would be printing off posts and showing them to their friends (because I assure you if I knew that I would have never ever started).

So completely naive, I began to blog. And I must tell you I have loved every minute of it. Here are three reasons why:

I have a new community of friends supporting and encouraging me. Probably my favorite thing about blogging is the people I have connected with as a result. I love interacting with people from all over Tennessee, all over the country, all over the world. Geography becomes irrelevant.

Blogs bind us together by allowing us to focus on what we have in common, instead of our differences, instead of our distance. Blogging has helped me form meaningful relationships with people who get me, my questions and my struggles. Daily I find myself supported and encouraged by my readers friends.

I have learned so much about myself through the process of writing. Some days I sit down at my computer and have no idea what I am writing about until a post is published. Some days as I read back over I post, I wonder where the words came from.

As an extrovert, I am not always good about taking time alone to process. But blogging forces me into a quiet place to think. It forces me to think about how I feel, what I am afraid to say, and who I want to be. It forces me to craft my often-convoluted feelings into concise words or questions.

Blogging makes me want to be a better version of myself. Blogging has reminded me that I am drawn to people that are real, transparent, encouraging, and inspirational. It has reminded me that is the kind of person I am striving to be. So blogging serves as a gut-check. Am I being a person that other people want to be around? Am I being real? Am I staying true to myself regardless of my audience? Am I being inspirational? Am I being the person God created me to be?

Blogging has changed my life, because blogging has changed me.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Start. Launch. Go. Begin. Commence. BLOG!

At various points of any worthwhile endeavor I’ve ever undertaken I get this nagging feeling. It’s sneaky and creeps up on me when I least expect it. It’s as if someone is whispering in my ear, probing me, asking questions, and spreading negative thoughts such as “what’s the point?” “you’re not going to make it…” “just quit…” “who really cares anyway…?”

Depending on how overwhelmed I am feeling at the moment, I may even entertain the thought for a few moments and then my stubborn resolve kicks in and talks some sense into me. Reminding me that I’ve come entirely too far to just quit, and the potential rewards are far too great to forfeit.

Have you ever felt this way about your blogging efforts? Do ever feel as if you’re running out of fuel to blog?

My advice is this, no matter what just don’t quit. Take a break and refuel if you must, but don’t give up. You never know when your day is going to come. Everyday puts you one more day closer to your goal. What if you were to quit today, and then you found out that the next day would’ve been your golden day?

What if the very next day after you closed all of your affiliate accounts was the very same day that all those visitors with those 90-day cookies returned to make purchases? What if the day after you shut down and deleted your blog was the day you discovered that several expensive requests for advertising on your site had been swirling around unread in your spam folder?

It’s these questions that give me the fuel I need to keep blogging. I can’t quit because I would always wonder what would have been if I had just kept on blogging. I’m certain that would drive me to insanity. So whenever I’m feeling a bit blogged-down (that’s way beyond being bogged-down) I find ways to refuel and re-engerize so that I can continue blogging.

Whenever you find yourself in this same rut, here’s what you can do:

• Brainstorm and research new issues brewing in your niche. Visit some forums and see what the recurring questions or problems are and consider new ways to solve them.
• Get ahead by writing at a time of day when you feel like writing and then write several posts at a time. It’s okay if they are imperfect, you can always go back and edit and add to them.
• Plan ahead. Decide on a sort of editorial plan for your week. It’s easier to write when you have a framing structure to go by. I try to divide up the various issues surrounding my niche and devote a separate day to each one so that I’m covering a variety of topics throughout the week. On most Mondays my readers can expect a link list post on WeBlogBetter and a post about marriage on Highly Favored. I wouldn’t be able to function if I didn’t know what type of post I needed to write ahead of time.
• Check your reader and review your subscriptions daily. I find that when I’m constantly reading other blogs related to my niche, it fuels my writing by providing me with a cue about what things I need to be writing about and which topics I need to stay away from. If I see too many bloggers writing on the same topics, if I can find an angle that hasn’t already been beaten to death, I avoid those topics altogether.
• Take a break. Take a day off. Take a nap. Take a load off. When I find that I’m stressed out, it really affects my ability to write effectively. I can’t concentrate and I often just end up procrastinating for hours anyway. Don’t force yourself to write, most likely what you’ll produce will be crap anyway. (or maybe that’s just me…)

Do what you need to keep going – you’ll thank yourself for it in the long run.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

5 Ways to Refuel Your Blogging Efforts

Think of it this way: your “cameo” appearance could be the equivalent of a celebrity featured on a popular talk show! (minus the 5-star hotel and the fancy fitting room, of course). Done correctly, it can introduce your product or service to new audiences, cultivate networking opportunities, increase your bottom line, and elevate your visibility exponentially. As far as free marketing goes, there’s no greater bang for your buck!

But with so many blogs saturating the blogosphere, it can be difficult to decide how to make the most of this medium. Do a Google search on “Blogs” and you’ll undoubtedly be bombarded with options on everything from art to zoology. Where does one start for the best end results?

As a freelancer who’s had my work accepted by some of the highest ranked among award-winning Blogs, I offer the following five pointers to help you make the best decision and make the most of your efforts.

1. Recognize that all Blogs are not created equally. There are Blogs, and then there are Blogs. Do your homework. Visit different sites devoted to your niche area. How do they differ? Which ones are user friendly and attractive? If you wouldn’t consider the Blog as “bookmark worthy,” chances are others are not very impressed either.
2. Aim high. Choose the best of the best. When I was exploring the possibility of guest Blogging, I targeted Blogs that ranked the highest in Google searches, had a large number of subscribers, demonstrated artistic integrity, and had received recognition through various awards. You should too.
3. Assess your odds for success. Remember that no matter how awesome a Blog might be, if it’s not updated and maintained regularly and infused with new content, your work won’t receive the best exposure possible.
4. Work smarter, not harder. Some writers might be surprised to discover that often times Blogs will accept previously published submissions, as long as it’s not something that was heavily circulated on the Internet. Consider some of your pieces that have appeared in print publications or perhaps on your own personal Blog for guest posts. Doing so will save you time and energy. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
5. Think before you ink. Know that just as you’re evaluating Blog sites to see if they cut the mustard, Blog owners are “interviewing” you and your site as well. Write tight. Write well. And make sure that your Blog boasts of good clips and clever content, so that a link exchange will be a win-win situation for all parties involved. In the business world it’s viewed as success by association.

Follow these five tips and you’ll reap the many rewards of guest blogging, and become a welcome visitor in new territories.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Five Ways to Take the Guess Work out of Guest Blogging