Indianapolis business consultant Robby Slaughter uses medical doctor Scott Haig as an example of how entrepreneurs and professional practitioners can make best use of consultants. Since, as a professional ghost blogger, I’m a consultant for each of my business owner clients, I found Dr. Haig’s remarks very relevant, particularly the things the good doctor had to say about what he calls "Googlers" and "Bozos".

At one end of the spectrum, Dr. Haig found, were patients who were annoying know-it-alls.  These patients had gathered a mountain of medical information on Google, and came into the office rattling off theories about their own condition.  Lacking the medical training and experience to properly interpret all this information, these patients think they know more than the doctor.

In the field of marketing through business blogging, I encounter plenty of do-it-yourselfers who, rather than finding out what I have to share with them, are eager to show off their own misinformation.  Typically, their blog and website are going in two different directions, with different styles, different key words, and different target markets.  Even though "Googlers" are using search engines themselves, they don’t use analytics to find what searchers want, and are not using their key words in their blog titles and links. In my earlier blog, "Would You Find You?", I described the challenge I pose to potential blogging clients – "Assume you don’t know the name of your own business, go ahead and type into Google (or Yahoo or MSN) what you as a customer need.  Does your website come up?  On what page?"

Dr. Haig describes the other extreme in patients – "Bozos".  "Some patients are non-compliant Bozos who won’t read anything longer than a headline.  They don’t know what’s wrong with them, or what medicines they’re taking….’Just get me better, doc’ is all they say."

The term "Bozo" is rather blunt, but, I believe what Dr. Haig’s getting at is that, for a medical strategy to be effective, it takes active participation from both patient and doctor. Ghost blogging isn’t a matter of "just get me better business", either.  Effective blogging for business takes a blend of ideas and talents, and a professional ghost blogger becomes part of your marketing team..  As the owner of the business, you may well lack the time to compose and post regular blogs, but the blog is still your message for your business to your customers. As I remarked in one of my earliest blogs, "My clients and I – we may not be making history together, but, by golly, with great blogging (and great cooperation), we can sure make business!
 

If you think about it, every really well-executed professional service consists of both science and art.  Consider a dentist, beautician, or even your carpenter.  They each need to know the science of their craft – how tools work, how chemical compounds react with wood, hair, or tooth enamel. But, in addition to their technical skills, we demand they produce aesthetically pleasing results!

Blogging for business, of course, has a creative element to it.  Even though the blog is more informal and conversational than, say, brochures or print advertisements, the writing still needs to be informative and interesting to engage readers’ attention.

There’s a science to blogging, too.  You want targeted traffic flowing your way, and key words are your "traffic magnets".  Before beginning to blog, you should use analytical tools to select the best key words, then use those in your domain name for the blog, in the titles for blog posts, and in links within each post. Links are important for search engine rankings – you use key words to link to former blog posts you’ve written, to other blogs and websites, and to attract links back your way as well.  All these things are part of the "science" of business blogging.

Keep in mind, though, blogs are a form of conversation, so the text needs to flow naturally, just as if the reader were right there with you.  That means the key words must be a natural part of the sentence, not inserted artificially.  If you overdo the key words or use them inappropriately, your blog will sound "spammy" and contrived, according to the blog maven website BlogManiac.

There’s no precise formula, though, to the science/art blend in your blogs.  Don’t get so fixated on the key word idea that you forget to be yourself and allow readers to "meet" the person behind the blog. If, in a 300-400 word blog post, you’ve used your key words three or four times, that’s probably more than enough.

As BlogManiac puts it, "there’s no better food for search engines spiders than fresh content", so the main thing is to keep posting regularly and frequently. If you don’t get the key word thing exactly right today, take two or three key words and call your professional ghost blogger in the morning!