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Upcoming Marketing Workshops

Kylie Fennell

I’m super excited to be delivering more workshops over the next two months. One is a FREE Social Media for Writers workshop and the other is Build Your Author Website in a Day.

Social Media for Writers – FREE Workshop

On Saturday 4 May I will be at Helensvale Library on the Gold Coast facilitating a FREE 2 hour workshop on social media for writers.

Whether you’re an aspiring or established writer, this workshop will teach you how to use social media to enhance your writing career and/or author platform.

Discover the variety of platforms available, what type of content to post and when, how to create and schedule great content, and the secret to getting more followers and keeping them engaged. Find out more here.

Build Your Author Website in a Day

On Saturday 8 June I will be back at the Queensland Writers Centre delivering Build Your Author Website in a Day.

You will walk away from this workshop with a published website.
Create an online presence for your writing and author brand, whether you’re just starting out or already published. No technical or website experience needed. At the end of this workshop, you will have a live wordpress.com website. Find out more here. 

I look forward to seeing you there : )

Forget 10,000 Hours of Practice – Embrace Shokunin To Be an Expert

Kylie Fennell 1 comment

Uncharacteristically, I had a hour or so to spare the other day, and I remembered that a new episode of Vikings should have been available SBS On Demand.

I was bitterly disappointed to find that the show hadn’t aired that week. Instead I poked around for something else to watch. My eyes fell on Jiro Dreams of Sushi. As a Japanophile the title was enough to draw me in, and I’m so glad it did, I just wish I’d seen it well before now.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a 2011 American documentary film following, the now 92-year-old, Jiro Ono – a sushi master and owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro.

Sukiyabashi Jiro is a Michelin three-star restaurant that only seats 10 people, and can be found in the unglamorous location of a Tokyo subway station. You won’t find any appetisers or fancy a la carte meals there. Jiro Ono only serves a tasting menu of around 20 courses, for a minimum of 30,000 Japanese yen (350 AUD) – ouch!

Apparently though it’s completely worth it. Obama described his meal there as the best sushi he had ever had.

What’s that got to do with being an expert?

It turns out everything.

Embracing Shokunin

Jiro Ono subscribes to the practice of ‘shokunin’.

Shokunin is a Japanese term that translates as a ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan’ – more specifically, the mastery of ones profession.

Famed Japanese artist, sculptor, teacher and woodcrafting expert Tasio Odate says “the Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skills, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness. … The shokunin has a social obligation to work his/her best for the general welfare of the people”.

This is a beautiful idea, but it seems that shokunin isn’t always driven by social obligation – even if there are beneficial outcomes for other people.

For many the shokunin is about the practice of doing something carefully and beautifully, to the best of your ability, and the personal joy derived from this. It is also about the continual quest for improvement and perfection.

In Jiro Dreams of Sushi we learn that the chef wakes up every morning and goes to work, despite already being incredibly successful and arguably the best sushi master in the world. He does this because he is driven by shokunin. He says, “All I want to do is make better sushi”.

The Cost of Perfection

As a self-confessed perfectionist I know the pressure I put on myself and how unhealthy it can be to me and those around me.

These days I prefer to aim for ‘progress’ rather then perfection – and sometimes ‘good enough’, is actually good enough.

Even Jiro Ono admits with perhaps a smidgen of a regret, that his quest for perfection meant he missed a lot with his family and could have been a better father.

So perfection isn’t all together perfect.

What I like though about the idea of shokunin is the drive to always improve and be better – to continually refine and master your craft – knowing that you may never reach perfection, and being okay with that, but also enjoying the journey and your craft.

Mastering Your Craft

I think shokunin is incredibly important whether you’re a writer, a software engineer, a cleaner, or a sushi master.

We should all take pride in what we do, want to be better at it and obtain joy from the process.

It can only lead to becoming an expert in your craft – and with that comes recognition, opportunities and self-satisfaction.

Debunking The 10,000 Hours Rule

Most of us have probably heard that we’re considered an expert in our field once we’ve practised our craft for 10,000 hours.

The concept comes from the work of psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, and was popularised by Author Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.

Gladwell pointed to several case studies of incredibly successful people such as Bill Gates, whose success could be partly attributed to putting in 10,000 hours of work. That though is a simplistic interpretation of Gladwell’s book, which provides a lot of other compelling evidence for what makes people successful – it’s very much worth the read.

What though has come to light more recently is that the 10,000 hours may have little to do with whether you’re an expert.

Brad Stulberg, co-author of the book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success, says expertise develops based on the way you practise, rather than the time you practise. That the quality and focus of your practise determines your performance. He recommends intensively focused practice or “deliberate practice”.

Start Becoming an Expert

Deliberate practice certainly isn’t at odds with shokunin, because they’re both about mastering your craft.

The premise of the 10,000 hour rule isn’t terrible either, as the more you practise something, the more likely you are to improve.

Perhaps in our quest for shokunin and being an expert, a realistic step is reminding ourselves that every day is an opportunity to be better than we were yesterday.

For me, I dedicate myself every day to improving my writing and marketing craft.

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The Biggest Content Marketing Mistake You Need to Avoid

Kylie Fennell

There’s one big mistake many content marketers are making, and it’s potentially costing brands dearly.

It turns out marketers and writers everywhere are doing themselves, and their content, a disservice by letting good content go to waste.

The number one culprit is creating content with a short shelf life, or content that becomes out-of-date quickly.

There is a simple solution though. It’s making your content evergreen.

Creating evergreen, or timeless content, means content remains relevant and valuable to your target audience indefinitely.

It also can save you time, because it gives you a depository or content you can promote more than once and repeat on social media.

The Content Marketing Gift that Keeps Giving

Evergreen content can bring you lots of long-term marketing love.

When done well, evergreen content can generate engagement, traffic and leads for days, weeks, months, and even years to come – ­­­especially if it’s promoted on more than one occasion.

In fact, Hubspot research showed 76% of its blog views, and a whopping 92% of leads, came from “old” or evergreen posts.

A slight tweak to your content can easily transform it from being a one-hit wonder to forever young, and help you reap similar long-term benefits.

What is Evergreen Content?

An evergreen article is content that isn’t likely to date. It will stand the test of time.

For example, ‘How to Choose the Best Haircut for You’ would be more evergreen than ‘The Top Hair Trends This Season’.

While it’s important for some industries or businesses to demonstrate you understand and can comment on the latest trends, you should aim to mix up your content with evergreen articles as well.

Where possible try not to reference specific dates or years in your content, or facts or statistics that are likely to date quickly. 

What Next?

You should go through your existing content and identify what is evergreen or could easily be tweaked to become evergreen.

Then create a repeating schedule for promoting the content on social media and other marketing channels such as e-newsletters.

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The Big Bad Truth about Blogging and Content Marketing and Why Your Business Should care

Kylie Fennell 1 comment

Content marketing and blogging remains one of the most effective marketing strategies for businesses.

Your online content has never mattered more.

In fact it REALLY matters. The Content Marketing Institute cites numerous studies that show:

  • Small businesses with blogs get 126% more leads than businesses without blogs.
  • 77% of internet users read blogs.
  • 61% of consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  • Websites with blog content have 434% more search-engine indexed pages – making your business easier to find on Google.
  • Content marketing generates 3 times the leads and 6 times the conversions, while costing 62% less than other marketing methods.

I know this first-hand because I regularly work with global marketing specialists and agencies. I also ghost-write for one of the world’s leading Content Marketing Experts, featured numerous times in Forbes magazine.

So what’s BAD about what I’m telling you?

It’s not bad if your business already has a content marketing and blogging strategy.

However, if you aren’t creating and distributing valuable content – preferably original content – then you may be missing out on valuable lead generation and sales opportunities.

I’m not talking about advertisements or blatant brand promotion. I’m talking about useful and interesting content, such as blog or online articles, relevant to your target audience.

The intention of the content, of course, is to stimulate interest in your brand and result in the reader taking an action, but this is achieved by being helpful as opposed to salesy.

How to Get Started

Regular blogging via your website, or publishing online articles on sites such as LinkedIn Pulse is relatively simple when you work with a professional writer.

You can get high quality blog articles and online content in a cinch – and it will only take 10 minutes of your time.


Check out our blog writing packages. You may also like to check out my blogging FAQs. Contact me now for high quality content.

5 Ways to Nail Your Content

Kylie Fennell

Online and social media content continues to be a major challenge for small business marketing.

The biggest obstacles are lack of time and expertise – not knowing what makes good content, so here are my 5 top tips for nailing your content.

1. Identify and subscribe to great content

Take the time to do a bit of research online of what content is popular or routinely shared on social media. You can get a feel for this by looking at your own social media accounts and people who like your pages. What content and pages do they like? Go and like or follow the same pages or accounts and then you will have similar content come straight into your feed, which you can share later on.

You can also google key topics and find popular blogs or news sites and then subscribe to them. You can also use the free versions of tools like buzzsumo.com to search for the most shared content.

You can try bloglovin.com that allows you to search for and subscribe to popular blogs and sites from one dashboard and will send you an update email of any new posts.

2. Look outside of the box

Be prepared to consider content outside of your immediate subject area. Content is useful if it’s of interest to your ideal customers and target market. If you run a childcare business, your customers are likely to mums, so think about what kind of content interests mums. Your content doesn’t just have to be about childcare.

Below is a table showing the four elements that makes content go viral. Consider these when selecting your content.

Source: buzzsumo.com

3. Schedule!

Schedule has two meanings. You should schedule yourself up to 1 hour a week to sit down to select your proactive social media content and then you schedule it in a free tool such as www.hootsuite.com or www.buffer.com where you can post your content in advance for usually up to 5 social media accounts all from the one place.

4. Mix it up

Choose a variety of content. Some designed to entertain, some designed to inform, some to reward.

Use images, videos as well as informative longer content pieces (or link to these).

5. Monitor and evaluate

Always check your analytics such as those built-in to Facebook or those offered by hootsuite or buffer.

What posts are most popular? What time of day is best to post for your audience? Who are you reaching?

Check out this post to find out more on how to write brilliant social media content. For expert marketing advice go to www.kyliefennell.com

 

The marketing gift that just keeps giving

Kylie Fennell

I’m in a giving mood and I’m going to give you a marketing gift that just keeps giving.

My biggest marketing tip of all time relates to content marketing.

When it comes to the most effective marketing tactics, providing valuable content to your ideal customers wins hands down.

I’ve talked a lot in the past about why providing valuable content is…well…so valuable.

When you’re engaging with potential customers and influencers it is imperative that you build up some credits in the “trust bank”.

They need to believe that you know what you’re talking about and that you’ll deliver.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to create engaging content that builds credibility and delivers value to your target. Whether that content is a case study, media release, blog post or fact sheet, it doesn’t matter, the thing that makes it so effective is once you have created the content, you can then leverage it. And by leverage it, I mean LEVERAGE it.

Great content can be repackaged and redelivered across different mediums saving you valuable time, money and resources.

Say you have a great case study, then you promote it via your social media platforms, you create a video testimonial and post it to YouTube then share it, you upload that case study to your website, you include some of it in your promotional flyer, you use it for a media release, you follow it up with an email…the list of opportunities is almost endless.

The key to valuable content is REPURPOSE, REUSE and RECYCLE.

A popular blog post you created 12 months ago can be rehashed and used across other mediums.The even more valuable part of this is that it will also create additional communication touchpoints, which is critical in taking a prospect from the awareness stage to purchase.It’s widely accepted that it may take several different points of contacts (touchpoints) before a prospect takes the step of buying from you.Many talk about ‘Rule of Seven’ which states that you must contact your potential buyers a minimum of seven times in an 18-month period for them to remember you.

The number of touchpoints is debatable but most agree that in today’s world when we are overloaded with advertising and messages, the number of touchpoints may need to be higher and more varied.

As a result you need to get as much valuable content out there as possible and yes LEVERAGE the heck out of it.

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12 days of digital – the best marketing present ever

Kylie Fennell
On the 12th day of…digital…I had a strategy.
We’re officially on the countdown to Christmas and I’m in a particularly giving mood.
I’m giving you 12 steps for putting together a digital marketing strategy. If you tick off a step a day (depending on what you already have in place) you can have the direction of that strategy ready by Christmas, and implement in 2015. It will be the best marketing present you have ever given yourself.
Digital marketing by far is one of the biggest pain points for small to medium enterprises. It seems so vast, daunting and different from all the old school and traditional marketing strategies that have worked so well in the past.
The worst part is that there are savvy young people out there, that have grown up with the internet, and they have many of us convinced that anyone born pre-Google without a smart device permanently attached to their arm, couldn’t possible master digital marketing.
Understandably overwhelmed, many smaller businesses don’t venture down the digital path at all, while others hand over hard earned cash to those savvy young entrepreneurs billing themselves as digital marketers.
Businesses in the modern world can’t afford not to have a digital marketing strategy. This is because digital marketing by definition is the use of electronic devices, digital technologies and platforms to engage with stakeholders, and the majority of said stakeholders engage in these digital channels. The infographic below explains this in more detail.
So while digital marketing is critical it also has several benefits, such as the ability to reach a wider customer base at a time and place convenient to them and in an interactive way.
Fortunately there are plenty of credible young and not so young digital marketing experts who can assist and if you can afford it, by all means go for it – just make sure they are reputable. It’s usually a case of you’ll get what you pay for.
However if you want to develop your own digital marketing strategy, I am here to demystify it for you and give you some simple steps to make it happen.
Before I get into the spirit of my 12 days of digital, I want to give you my take on Digital Marketing.
Digital Marketing is not (or doesn’t need to be) vastly different from traditional marketing.
It is simply using traditional marketing and communication methods that have stood the test of time, but applying them to digital channels.
To give you a Christmas inspired analogy, where in the past many people may have sent out hard copy Christmas cards to their loves ones, they may now send an email, e-card or post a social media update, but they all serve the same purpose. The purpose is to share news of the year with your loved ones.
The purpose and messaging essentially don’t change, it’s just the delivery methods that have evolved.
What we’re really talking about when it comes to digital marketing strategy is your marketing and communication strategy that incorporates digital channels.
The core part of this strategy was, and still remains, valuable content that engages and boosts the customer experience.
It’s no coincidence that another jargony term ‘content marketing’ popped up around the same time as digital marketing.
So let’s forget the jargon and remind ourselves that if we know how to market and communicate effectively with our stakeholders, we now just need to incorporate digital channels and make the most of them.
On the first day of digital…
  1. Brand and positioning – before you dive into the digital deep end, take a moment to revisit your brand and positioning messages. As I said digital marketing is about content and you can’t create valuable content unless you understand and can effectively communicate your brand and point of difference. 
  2. Customer personas – similarly you should take a look at your ideal customers and their profiles, to make sure you use the right digital marketing channels for your target market. 
  3. Website – review your website and whether it’s up to scratch in terms of functionality and site structure. You should be looking at it from the view of your customer and making it as easy as possible for them to engage with you/purchase from you. Look at design and speed as well as search engine optimisation (SEO). The great news is that you don’t need to be a website developer or have technical expertise in coding to create an effective website. 
  4. Social media – having a social media presence and keeping it up-to-date is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy. The most important thing to consider here is what social media platforms are best for your target market and how to create valuable content
  5. Blog – a blog is a great way to maximise your digital marketing presence and improve SEO. If you go to the trouble though of creating a blog be sure to post regularly and leverage your content as much as possible
  6. E-newsletter – there are some fantastic tools out there (including free options with http://mailchimp.com/ ) that provide ready-made optimised e-newsletter templates that you can send to your database. They also provide great analytics, database and subscription management. You can create sign-up forms on your website and social media pages. If you write a blog you can provide highlights in your e-newsletter
  7. Visual content – visual content such as videos, images and infographics are great digital tools that promote SEO and encourage engagement. Videos can be loaded on YouTube and on your website. You could also create memes or reaction gifs. Think broadly about different types of videos you could create: testimonials, Q&As, events, instructional videos.
  8. Advertising – advertising may be a traditional marketing tool, but it still holds a valid space in digital marketing. Pay per click Google Ads and Facebook particularly can be very affordable advertising options, and you can gauge effectiveness very quickly. You can be very specific about what types of pages you want your ad to appear on and really zero in on your target audience. Twitter and Instagram also have popular advertising options. 
  9. Mobile marketing – marketing messages via mobiles and SMS can be extremely effective particularly for some industries. Special and limited time offers, reminders for events and appointments and competitions work well on mobile. Texts are reported to have a very high open rate as well (as a general rule).
  10. Other written content and tools – depending on your customer personas and their stage of the sales cycle, you may need specialist written content and tools that can be uploaded to a digital space, particularly your website. These may include ebooks, data sheets, white papers, calculators, testimonials, media releases, reports, submissions, testimonials, games, apps, quizzes, resources. Whatever written content you’re producing, ensure it meets its purpose and is tailored to your target audience.
  11. Integrated strategy – now that you have identified what digital tools you may need, go back and incorporate them into your broader marketing and communication strategy. 
  12. Monitor and evaluate – like any good marketing activities, monitoring and evaluation is very important. There are some really good digital marketing evaluation tools that are very accessible such as google analytics. 
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I’ve got a business blog – now what?!

Kylie Fennell
Businesses are pretty well versed these days in digital marketing and social media. Many of them have branched out and created a blog.Painstaking hours are spent trying to come up with engaging content that is highly relevant to target markets.

It features great useful content and looks fantastic, and you’re confident of getting hundreds of subscribers, thousands of hits and hopefully lots of promising leads.
You built it, so by all rights, they should come…right?…but they don’t.
The first thing you need to do is congratulate yourself. 
The next thing is to figure out how to best leverage your blog to help achieve your marketing and business objectives.
It’s important first to have realistic objectives for your blog.
If you expect a hundred new leads to come from your blog each month, it may not be achievable (this of course depends on your industry and the content itself).
Sometimes having a blog isn’t just about leads, but about search engine optimisation and building credibility for yourself and your brand.
That being said, you shouldn’t despair. Here are my six top tips on how to leverage your blog.
  1. Use your content in multiple ways – if you are going to the trouble of creating great content, make the most out of it. Post excerpts on social media, create mini ebooks, create a video and post to YouTube, write a White Paper, paid search, website links, banner ads, create a media release or compile content into an e-newsletter. Also don’t forget to leverage your other marketing activities on your blog. For example, if you have a great media story appear in the local paper, promote it across on your blog.
  2. Make it easy to subscribe – a subscription list is a valuable database of potential leads (as long as you adhere to relevant privacy and anti-spam laws). The key is having a call to action message such as: “Subscribe here and never miss our updates”. The sidebar is a great place for a sign-up form, but don’t ask for more than three fields. Research has shown that any more than three fields discourages readers from signing up. A pop-up subscription form is an option but can annoy people. Use these only for important messages or exclusive offers such as, “today only, sign-up and receive a free copy of our e-book on…”
  3. Promote yourself (within reason) – link back to other relevant blog posts (your’s and others) and your website page. You can also include an advertisement for yourself in the sidebar. Test it though. If you don’t experience significant click throughs via your ad, you may need to reassess. Make sure you include a great About Me page if your blog is hosted on a separate site to your business website. If not, include a great profile and image with your blog post.
  4. Don’t wait for everything to be perfect – sometimes you may be working on a tool or resource that would be greatly useful and interesting to your target audience. It’s a great idea to share it as a work-in-progress or Version One. Then ask your readers for feedback and ideas, which encourages engagement but also gives you an opportunity to improve your product or service, as well as a chance to publish another blog post with Version 2. There’s a great blog post here on how deliberately making content that becomes obsolete, is a great idea. 
  5. Offer variety.Provide lots of different types of posts. Mix it up with guest bloggers, Q and As, infographics, podcasts.
  6. Promote your clients – use your blog to create stories about your customers. These serve the purpose of a testimonial, without necessarily reading like a case study.

So yes you built it, you just need to nurture it now. 
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Giving away the secret sauce – why you should create free and valuable content for your customers

Kylie Fennell
If you have been diligently trying to stay current in the rapidly changing world of marketing and social media, you would have noticed a recurring theme.
You would have heard the term content marketing. You would have read that to maintain a competitive edge and convince people to engage with you on social media, you need to provide valuable content.
This is absolutely true. You can’t expect funny cat pictures alone to help you achieve your marketing goals. Don’t misunderstand me, funny cat pictures do have their place when used occasionally (I for one have a fondness for them). This may get you some ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ but it may not get you long-term engagement and sales.
You have to provide value to your customers and stakeholders. More than value, you should be prepared to give away your ‘secret sauce’. The secret sauce is the premium ingredient when it comes to content marketing.
The secret sauce 
Previously I have highlighted that giving away your secret sauce meant providing value but not asking for anything in return.
Why give away the secret sauce? Remember you are in the business of solving problems. Your potential customer has a problem and your content may help solve it, at no cost to them. When they need more help, hopefully they will come to you and/or share their great experience with everyone they know.
Giving away the secret sauce is not a terribly new concept. McDonald’s ran a highly successful campaign where they encouraged customers to ask ANY question and they answered them publicly. As part of this they literally revealed their secret sauce for a Big Mac.
You don’t have to be McDonald’s to enjoy similar success.
Don’t be afraid
Many businesses, especially those that rely on selling services and knowledge rather than goods, fear giving away their intellectual property.
Forgive the analogy, but businesses fear that if they give away their precious milk, their customers may not buy the cow. Further they worry their competitors will learn their secrets.
There are compelling reasons not to focus on these fears.
The competitors most likely know what you are doing already and your customers often do want to try before they buy. Think about it as tasting a wine sample before buying a whole bottle. You are not giving away the whole bottle, just a sample to entice potential prospects.
What is even more important to realise is that future prospects are not necessarily your current customers. They may not even be in the market for your products or services at this point in time. What they are looking for is some easy-to-find, relevant information to solve their immediate problem.
Let’s use this blog as an example of giving away the secret sauce. Maybe someone is planning on setting up a small business and they need some initial marketing tips. They may not have the marketing dollars they need to engage a marketing expert. They come across this blog and glean enough tips to get started. If a few months down the track they do want to hire a marketing specialist they may recall where they found some useful free information and come calling. Sure they may not call either, but what have I lost in the process? Not much, just the time and effort to compile and share my ideas, which frankly I enjoy doing.
Am I worried that I am giving away so much for free that customers won’t need me, that they can do everything themselves? The short answer is no. At the end of the day customers know they are getting a taster only for free, not the whole wine bottle. Even if customers think they can do it all themselves, they may not have the capacity or the confidence to proceed. They also want the sommelier’s expertise that comes with the wine bottle.
Still not convinced? So far I have talked about the incentives for giving away your secret sauce but here’s the consequence if you don’t.
If you don’t give away valuable content for free, you are already behind the eight ball. These days customers don’t just want content for free, they expect it. Smart companies have been doing it for a while and already set the benchmark.
How to give away the secret sauce
When it comes to giving away the secret sauce, it does have to come from a good place. What I mean by this is that you have to authentic and well meaning. You are giving away something and should be expecting nothing in return. Any benefits you receive should be a bonus. There shouldn’t be any catches, or obligations. You should not be using free content to soften up prospects for an aggressive sales pitch.
If you are someone who genuinely likes to help people, solve problems and share knowledge you already have a head-start.
Ways to give away the secret sauce
  • Start a blog like this one, focused on your business and industry
  • Have free downloads and templates available on your website
  • Include free tips and insights in a newsletter or e-newsletter
  • Create instructional videos and upload them to Youtube
  • Include summaries or short tips and links to any of your online content on your social media pages and website
  • Print out hard copy flyers or brochures with tips and display them in your shop.
“That sounds fine for you, but it wouldn’t work for my business”
Some organisations may find it easier than others to come up with secret sauce ideas.
However any business or industry should be able to identify valuable content they can share, it just may take some lateral thinking.
Here are just a few ideas:
  • Hairdresser – how to do our perfect blowdry
  • Plumber – how to replace a washer
  • Real estate – how to present your property for sale
  • Recruitment company – how do create the perfect Resume
  • Accountant – here is a free spreadsheet template to download and track your business budget.

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What the blog?! Why you need a blog and anyone can do it

Kylie Fennell
Blogs are one of the most under-utilised and misunderstood marketing tools a business can lay its hands on. Anyone can start a business blog and the best news is that it can be done for free.
For nothing more than a little planning and your own time, you can create a business blog that drives all of your online marketing efforts and boosts your traditional promotions and advertising.
Now before I go on, we need to dispel some myths and mis-conceptions you may have about blogs.
To have a successful blog you do not need to:
  • be a tech-head or computer wizard
  • be a great writer
  • be a celebrity
  • spend hours a day typing away at your computer in your PJs/trackie dacks – though that is completely optional. 

You do need to have enthusiasm and a commitment to blogging on a regular basis, such as once a week or fortnight. The rest is relatively easy. Just follow my blogging guide below.
What is a blog?
A blog or weblog is a simple way to get your viewpoint into the market and bring together online and social media marketing efforts. Your blog should form the basis or primary source of all of your social media activities. 
You should use Facebook, Twitter and other social media to drive traffic back to your blog and website. 
How does it work?
The blogger writes about a topic and uploads it to the internet on a blogging platform, such as WordPress or Blogger.
People interested in the blog, can go to the blog’s web address by typing the url address into their browser, just like visiting a website. Users can then read the blog, as and when they choose.
Most blogs also have built-in tools and plug-ins, which allow your audience to subscribe to blog updates via email or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. This means, whenever you update your blog, your subscribers will receive notification.
Don’t worry about the technological components of this, as the tools are usually built into your blogging platform’s templates as ‘options’. FAQs and instructions are also usually available on your blogging platform.
Users can also share your content on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn via buttons or ‘plug-ins’ usually built into the template.
Additionally you can allow users to engage and comment on your content (if you enable comments on your blog).
Some people may not like the idea of letting strangers make comments on their content, so you can use various moderation options available on blogging platforms. This can allow you to moderate or check comments in a range of circumstances and check for offensive language. You can also restrict comments to ‘members only’ if you wish.
You may choose not to allow comments at all. This option is not recommended as the aim of a blog is for people to engage with you. If they can’t comment, they can’t engage. Additionally, regular comments also contributes to optimising your blogs for search engine optimisation (SEO).
Also keep in mind that if your moderation is too rigorous that users may be put-off from engaging. For example it is reasonable to moderate comments added to a post after 14 days (it is harder to for you to manually monitor comments made to old posts). You can choose this as an option in your platform. You may also be able to moderate a users first post only, to demonstrate the first time they are not a trouble maker. You can even have an automated message that explains this in a polite way.
  
The benefits of blogs
+      Search engine optimisation – blogs rank high in search engine results especially if they are regularly updated and have comments on them. In most instances, blogs will rank much, much higher than corporate websites. The more traffic on your blog, the more leads you get. The more posts, the more your overall site traffic increases.
+      You can provide important background information and context in a blog, which you couldn’t provide in a tweet or on Facebook
+      You have the space to provide better and more valuable content to your readers
+      It uses simple software which is often free (WordPress or Blogger are two examples) ­– anyone can have a professional looking blog up and running in minutes
+      You can position yourself as an expert by providing insights about your field of expertise or industry
+      You can build trust by providing valuable, consistent and authentic content
+      You can voice your opinion about key industry issues (in a controlled manner)
+      You can gain insights from your customers and test new ideas/products.
But I’m not a writer
You do not have to be a great writer to have a successful blog. The most successful bloggers write in a conversational style that resonates with their audience. 
What do I write about?
First of all, write about what you know. Write about things you are passionate about. Also consider what your point of difference is to other blogs out there.
Once you decide on your overarching theme, stick to it.
Ideas for blog posts can come from anywhere, but her are a couple of ideas.
+      Create post with lists eg. “Top 10 tips for a Successful Blog” or “25 Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Blog.”
+      Interview Bloggers or an expert in your niche. Post the Q&As on your blog or even better – upload the audio interview – this helps with web traffic and don’t forget to include a photo
+      Ask a colleague, staff member or another expert to ‘guest write’ one of your blogs
+      You can also use HitTail to help automate the process and come up with ideas that will help you gain additional organic traffic. They will give you recommendations for topics based on your existing search traffic and their algorithm to identify the best opportunities.
Also apply the same approach that you use for developing content for your other social media sites.
What platform do I use?
There are a lot of free/or mostly free platforms available with ready-made templates.
The most popular platform by far is WordPress. Google’s Blogger platform is also popular. Most have easy tutorials, and offer custom domains. Your website provider may also have a blogging facility built into its website templates.
Frequency
You should aim to publish on your blog about once a week (this could increase to two a week or decrease to once a fortnight depending on how you are inclined). There is no need to post daily unless you really want to and people are engaging with your blogs on a daily basis.
Key tips
+      Ensure your blog and posts clearly link back to your website, especially if your blog is hosted separately from your website. You should also link from your website to your blog.
+      Use images/video/audio as it gives the user something to pin to or share and it ranks higher in SEO. Also tag or name your image with keywords that may also come up on search engine results.
+      Submit your blog to search engines (see more below)
+      Submit your blog posts to social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Reddit and blog community sites. Bizsugar is one of the top free Blogging Communities. Check out the community though before you submit to it. You only want to be associated with credible or reputable sites.
+      Comment and interact – respond to comments left on your blog (appropriately) and leave your own comments on other reputable blogs (where you can add value), leaving a backlink/URL linking back to your own blog. You should then acknowledge and/or respond to valuable comments on your own blog, in order to engage conversation. Even better, you may sometimes pose a question to your readers to engage them.
+      Don’t comment for comment sake – only comment on other sites when you can add a comment of value.
+      Follow other influential blogs – the blogging community is all about helping each other out and supporting each other as everyone will win out.
+      Set up an RSS Feed such as Feedburner so users are easily aware of new content (it is usually built in to the template)
+      Use keywords in your content. However the keywords must be relevant otherwise Google will penalise you for keyword stuffing, use Google Trends to identify popular keywords being searched.
+      Create labels for your keywords so users can search your blog for related topics.
+      Promote your blog – on your web, in conversations, on other social media, on business cards and other promotional material, in email signatures, at networking events, to journalists, to other bloggers, to friends and family
+      Ensure spelling and grammar is correct
+      Make sure there are no broken links in your content or in comments. Especially in older posts, regularly check it for links which no longer work or lead back to questionable sites. You will be penalised by Google otherwise. You can clean up broken links using CommentLuv Link Cleaner.
+      You can setup Google+ Authorship distinguish and validate your content in search results.
+      Embrace guest bloggers – partners, experts, employees are always great sources to ask to submit blogs for you. You should review the content though before you publish it.
+      Do not take criticism personally. You will receive opinions, or feedback, and if somebody is nasty, there are options to block users or blacklist them. Take on board constructive criticism and respond to it swiftly and appropriately, and ignore the troublemakers.
+      Stay on topic – once you have chosen a key theme for your blog post or for the whole blog, try and stick to that theme.
+      Use internal links – link to previous relevant posts especially if they were popular ones.
+      Use simple easy-to-navigate layout – avoid Flash or unnecessary coding on a page, ensure the loading time for images and pages is not too long by making the template simple and compressing the images.
+      Use Google Analytics to track the visits to your blog. Most platforms also have statistics built into the platform dashboard for you to track.
+      Be patient and persevere because the time you invest will eventually pay off. If you build it (and provide valuable content and promote it) they will come!
Submitting Your Blog to Search Engines
You should submit your blog to search engines including Google, MSN/Bing and Yahoo.
Otherwise search engines may not recognise your blog. All you need to do in this case is to submit the URL of your blog to them just to notify them of your newly created blog.

Comment SPAM­

Occasionally you may receive a notification that someone has commented on one of your posts. The post may not appear to make any sense grammatically and is unrelated to your blog’s content. It is annoying and can lead to your blog being penalised by Google.
It usually involves links to another website. This is an out-dated and automated tactic used by marketers to try and improve website ranking in search engines. While search engines are onto this, the practise is still used as it is relatively simple to post comments enmasse to many blogs at the same time.
You can avoid these SPAM comments in the following ways:
+      disable commenting on your blog all together (generally not recommended)
+      moderate and delete comments as they appear (this would need to be done regularly and can be time consuming depending on the number of comments). You could also moderate first time commenters and after that allow them to post un-moderated.
+      A third-party spam filter such as Askimet or Defensio, which examines comments and either holds them for moderation or deletes them. It may not stop all spam.
+      A spam blockersuch as Bad Behavior which stops the comments from reaching your blog and can even prevent them from finding your website in the first instance. It may however indiscriminately discard legitimate comments along the way.
+      CAPTCHAs(Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) use challenge-response tests to ensure comments are coming from a person and not a computer. This may ask the commenter to re-type some text, symbols or answer a question. Some blog platforms have this facility built-in.
+      Nofollow Comment Links mean spammers will gain no search engine result benefit.WordPress and most other blogging platforms do this by default or is offered as an option.
+      Blacklist and block troublesome spammers by their names, email addresses, URLs, or even their IP addresses. Your blogging platform eg WordPress should have some advice on how to do this 
+      Disable comments on older posts. Older posts are often targeted by spam as they are less moderated. Many blogging platforms allow you to delete comments on posts after a set time period.
If you do start a blog, don’t be disheartened if it takes time to build a following or for people to engage with your blog. Remember Keep Calm and Blog On and most of all ‘have fun’.
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