How to Blog More Effectively

June 2011

Agenda• Goals of the Webinar• Optimize

o How, What, When to Writeo SEO for Blogso General Recommendations

• Publicizeo Increasing Blog Traffic

Nancy Shapira-Aronovic• The Founder and Manager of shapira marketing• Former Director of Corporate Marketing for the Formula Group

www.formulagroup.com• 20+ years experience in Marketing Management, AR and PR for

Hi-Tech Companies• Lecturer on PR, Analyst Relations and Social Media• Blogger on Marketing, Social Media and PR

o http://shapiramarketing.com/blogo http://www.thecmosite.com/author.asp?section_id=1334&doc_id=

206159o Technology PR, AR and Social Media Linkedin Groupo Shapira Marketing on Facebook

Optimize: How to Write a Good Blog Post• Choosing a Topic – take a little extra time defining your topic and the post

will flow better and you’ll develop something that matters to readers.• Crafting Your Post’s Title – perhaps the most crucial part of actually getting

readers to start reading your post when they see it in an RSS reader or search engine results page.

• The Opening Line – first impressions matter. Once you’ve got someone past your post’s title your opening line draws them deeper into your post.

• Your ‘point/s’ (making your posts matter) - a post needs to have a point. If it’s just an intriguing title and opening you’ll get people to read – but if the post doesn’t ‘matter’ to them it’ll never get traction.

• Call to Action – driving readers to do something cements a post in their mind and helps them to apply it and helps you to make a deeper connection with them.

Optimize: What to Write• Statistics, graphs and info graphics. • A collection of links and resources. • Videos are an interesting, engaging way to spice up your

blog posts. • Interviews with industry thought leaders. • Use numbers in your title. It has been found that his

most popular posts almost always included a number in them (i.e. 9 steps, 4 types, etc.)

• Use Humor• Write a Series of Posts.

Optimize: When to Write

Optimize: When to Write• The best time is in the morning for most views • Social Media Sharing happens later in the

afternoon• The best day to blog is the beginning of the week• The more frequently you blog—the more traffic

you create

Optimize: How to Use SEO to Bring Free Traffic to your Blog

• Search Engine Optimization is a technique which helps search engines rank your site higher than the other sites in response to a search query.

• SEO thus helps you get traffic from search engines.

Optimize: Increase Google Traffic

Optimize: Make Your Content Relevant

• Keyword / Synonym in the page or siteo Body contento URLo Page Title, ALT Texts, Meta Tags

Optimize: How to Use ALT Text and meta tags

• ALT = Image Alternate Text, search engines can “understand” pictures from it

• Meta Tags = Text in the page code that is not visible in the browser. o Description – controls the display in the search

resultso Meta Keywords. Does not help SEO

Optimize: How to Increase Popularity• Add external links to blog in order to

increase popularity like a Blog Roll• Use Plugins like BlogGlue to check your

SEO as you write your post and check your links

• Try to Increase readers time on page• Analyse Readers behavior using google

analytics and other tools

Optimize: What are people searching for?• There are many free SEO and keyword research

tools. Google Adwords Keywords Tool is the most recommended one

• Don’t forget to select “Exact Match”

Google AdWords

Optimize: Learning SEO Techniques• Link to other sites

When relevant – link to other content on the web. Especially to other blog posts.• Trackback

If you link to a trackback enabled content (see example), you may paste the trackback URL of places you linked to notify them that you linked to them.• Internal Links

Create relevant internal links to other posts in your blog, other blogs or website.

Publicize: RecommendationsSubmit your posts to social bookmarking sites Taking the time to submit your best posts to social bookmarking sites such

as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and more can be a simple way to quickly boost traffic to your blog.

Join Forums, Web Rings or Online Groups. Find online forums, web rings, groups or social networking sites such as

Facebook and LinkedIn where you can share ideas and ask questions of like-minded individuals.

Nominate yourself and other blogs for blog awardsHarness the power of comments Leave comments on other blogs to drive new traffic. Make sure you leave

your blog's URL in your comment, so you create a link back to your own blog.

http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsIncreaseBlogTraffic.01.htm

Increase Visibility -Submit your blog’s URL• Google • Yahoo• The Open Directory• MSN Live Search• Bing

Publicize: Recommendations• Create a list of favorite bloggers relevant to your

market and put in a Blogroll. Then notify them that they made the list. If the list is good, they'll promote it, and possibly comment.

• Link to your other posts within your current blog• Go back to older posts and add new links to

current posts.

Publicize: Recommendations• Join Blogging Communities:

o Blogengage.com o MMOSocialNetwork.com

• Promote on Social Media:o Facebooko Twitter and Twibeso Industry Linkedin Groups

• Ping Yourself:o Ping-o-Matic! o Pingoat

Publicize: What is A Blog Alliance?• It’s a small group of people who banded

together to promote each other using social media and personal blogs as the vehicles of choice to get messages out.

Publicize: Blog Alliance• Create a Blog Alliance and leverage your

relationships to increase readershipo Comment on each others blogs for self promotiono Link to one anothero Guest Post on each others blogs to gain a greater

reader audience

Publicize: Recommendations• Build an e-mail list and send subscribers to post

archives• Disable comment moderation• Respond quickly to comments• Submit to blog directories:

http://www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/

Resources• How to Use Your B2B Blog to Improve Lead Gen

eration• 3 Guaranteed Ways to Improve Your Blog’s SEO

Today• For Bloggers by Bloggers (Tips)• Hubspot ebook on Better Blogging for 2011• ProBlogger—Not just about making Money

Questions?

nancy shapira-aronovicmanager, shapira marketing

Cell: 054-4863888 Email: nancy@shapiramarketing.com

Twitter: nancyshapiraBlog: http://shapiramarketing/blogWeb: www.shapiramarketing.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin/in/nancyshapiraFacebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shapira-Marketing/

Skype: nancyshapira