Mark Tibergien, nationally known business consultant to financial planning practitioners, visited Indianapolis to address a meeting of the Financial Planning Association.  Tibergian was very blunt about the importance of growing a business as opposed to staying small. "If you are recognized as one of the top three firms in your market," he said, "you will be given twice the opportunities to acquire new clients as the firm that is #4."

Tibergien produces business succession plans, not blogs, but without realizing it, he captured the essence of "winning search" through business blogging. Search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and MSN love frequently updated content, and companies that provide these things through business blogging earn high rankings.  That’s because Google attracts advertisers by bringing visitors who have come to rely on Google as the place to most quickly and easily get the information they need.

Just as Tibergien points out, ranking in the top tier in your market is enormously important in customer acquisition.  Having your blog show up at or very near the top of Page One of a search engine geometrically increases your chances of getting your link clicked on, which is the first step to converting a searcher into a customer. Almost no searchers ever go as far as Page Four, and most don’t look past Number 4 on Page One!

The need to "rank" in order to "get found" is the one of the main reasons blog strategist Michael Belicove defends the practice of ghost blogging. He sees the role of ghost blogger to be articulating clients’ thoughts and unique business propositions with the frequency necessary to achieve and maintain those top search rankings, something most business owners simply cannot manage along with all their other responsibilities.

According to Mark Tibergien, an owner of a financial planning firm focused on growth needs to be able to say to himself: "I need to focus on where I make an impact, and hire other people for where they make an impact." That decision, says Tibergian, is the one that was most responsible for the most successful firms’ ability to grow.

As a retired financial planning professional now part of a small, elite group of specialty writers for hire, I found value on a variety of levels in Tibergian’s talk. His words made me more dedicated than ever to the task of helping each of my corporate blogging clients get to one of those top three spots on search engines’ results pages.  (That’s where they begin leaving their competitors in the dust!)

While being Interviewed for the cover story of the Chicago Reader, Robert Smigel was asked how good of an education he’d needed to become a humor writer. "You mean an academic education?",Smigel replied. "You don’t necessarily need one.  What’s just as important, I suppose, is to be self-educated – to read and soak in as much as you can from the world at large." Smigel ended by quoting comic Del Close: "The more you know about, the more you can joke about."
Whether you’re writing your own business blog or getting help from a professional ghost blogger like me, Del Close’s statement is on the money. One of the services offered by Say It For You is training for business owners and their employees on developing content for business blogs.  Of course, blog posts need to keep a sharp focus, in order for searchers to quickly confirm they’ve come to the right spot for the information, products, and solutions they need. At the same time, interesting, different, content is what keeps those searchers reading rather than "bouncing" away from your blog.

To be able to use some of the strategies for blog content development I outline in "Six In A Fix For Blogs", it’s going to take reading and learning. Preparing blog posts that capture online searchers’ interest by blending "ingredients" that don’t seem to match, by tying your content to the news, by relating your content to a celebrity or historical story,  or by debunking myths – that all takes curiosity and self education on a broad scale. Constant curiosity is the secret  – reading, clipping, bookmarking (think magazines, newspapers, websites, and other blogs)  listening (think radio, TV, concerts, lectures), and thinking and "processing" all the way.

Milestone Internet Marketing’s 2009 Online Marketing Predictions are extremely bullish on blogs in 2009 and beyond.  "If done correctly, blogs can help you to communicate with target audiences in a more personal, informal, online setting. Blogs will become essential for business owners who are committed to retaining their customer base and "providing compelling information and true value."

Comics Smigel and Close, and Milestone, you’ve all really hit the proverbial nail on the head.  Simply put, the more you know about, the more you can blog about!