Year Of The Blog

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This is the season when I spend time at the Indiana State Fair.  It was interesting reading, in the Indianapolis Business Journal, details of an interview with the Fair’s executive director Cindy Hoye.  Hoye talked about the different ways the fair brings in revenue, everything from corporate sponsorship (think Clarian Health) to naming rights for buildings (think Pepsi Coliseum).
Since, as a professional ghost blogger, I’m part of each client’s marketing team, I always have an eye out for marketing ideas.  There were two in the IBJ article that I found especially apropos for bloggers.  Describing all the facility improvements that were made for this year’s fair, including a greenhouse, fishing pond, and new covered bridge, Hoye said “We’ve got to keep the product (referring to the fair) fresh.”  Right on for blogging.  In fact, of all marketing tactics, blogs are born for “fresh” – with new, different, constantly changing content put online every day or every couple of days, blogs are far more flexible and adaptable than print pieces or even websites.Tree
The one Indiana State Fair innovation that really caught my attention (and, apparently sponsors’ attention as well) is declaring an annual theme.  Last year was the Year of Corn, which highlighted Indiana agriculture.  This year it’s the Year of Trees.  (The Indiana Hardwood Lumberman’s Association became a big sponsor.) Since blog posts are much more frequent than yearly, you can present material on many themes, one per post, but all relating to what you have to offer. By limiting each blog post to one central theme, you attract online searches related to that one aspect of your business, plus you keep the product (your material) fresh!
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For Businesses On A Budget, Blogs Are Pocket Parks

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Where there’s little space and little money for redeveloping urban areas, pocket parks provide a welcome solution. Small green areas with benches for sitting and swings and slides for kids, pocket parks help unify as well as beautify neighborhoods. These mini-parks are part of the Central Indiana Community Foundation’s Keep Indianapolis Beautiful initiative, a wonderful example of making a little money go a long way.
My small business and professional practice ghost blogging clients are in something of the same boat, trying hard to do smart marketing on a limited budget.  Most owners enter the web world by having a site designed for their business or practice.  The website may be attractive and easy to navigate.  Still their “park” is not accessible to new customers and clients who don’t know it’s there!  That’s where business blogs come in, and where I, as a professional ghost blogger, enter the “neighborhood”.
Blogs are like pocket parks, much easier and much less expensive to create and then constantly redevelop.  People find your “pocket park” blog, not because they know the name of the company or even your own name, but because your blog content is organized around specific key words and topics.  People find the blog “right in their own neighborhood”, exactly when they need it.
There is no practical way a website can change its title and its content every day or even every couple of days to match different key words searchers use.  Blogs, small and nimble, can readily adapt. Since, by definition, blogs are providing new thoughts and new information with every entry, your “pocket park” is right there, informing the potential customer or client that you have the know-how – or the products – she’s seeking.
Eagle Creek Park offers far more amenities than the School 46 Pocket Park, to be sure.  But if you’re far away from the big reservoir, the little park bench under a tree in the pocket park is where you’ll sit for a spell.  Ideally, business blogging is just one piece of a multi-faceted business marketing and advertising plan.  But budget-conscious owners will find blogging delivers a lot of park bench for the buck!
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Getting Bumped Teaches This Ghost Blogger A Valuable Lesson

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Rap music listenerThe past couple of weeks provided proof of something I’ve been saying about blogging.  In today’s Internet-based shopping-and-searching business world, it’s simply not good enough to hand out stuff.  Businesses have handed out and sent out stuff for decades – flyers, brochures, letters to customers and prospects.  All of this is one-way communication.  Today, the process has got to get inter-active.  Blogs, being short, frequent, and “out there” on search engines, are ideal for this purpose.  Potential clients and customers can post comments, ask questions, or simply proceed to the business’ website to learn or do more.
There’s another aspect to interaction with blogging, and this is the one that had such a direct effect on my own blog in recent weeks.  Since one of the goals of business blogging is search engine optimization (meaning moving up the ranks in Google, Yahoo, and MSN territory), I try to set an example for my ghost blogging clients with my own Say It For You blog.  In the days leading up to my big come-uppance, my blogs had been showing up on page 1 or 2 on Google under the category “ghost blogger”.  Then, whammo – my blog disappeared!  What had happened? Without fail, I’d blogged every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, using the key words and providing fresh content that was relevant to the topic of blogging.
Turns out, I was upstaged by none other than hip-hop artist Kanye West and a host of his fans, plus a few of his detractors.  Sandra Rose claimed she’d discovered Kanye using a ghost blogger named Marcus Troy.  Dozens of fans were posting blogs opining on the truth or untruth of the matter, offering approval or horror at the practice of using a ghost blogger.  The principal players Troy, Rose, and even Kanye himself were blogging.  It was time for this professional ghost blogger to weigh in, and so I did (see Does Kanye West’s Ghost Blogger Say It For Him?).  Whew! Back up the ranks once more.
I’d been writing a lot about what drives search engine rankings, and then along comes this this living, breathing answer to the question.  What are the keys to success in blogging to win search engine rankings?  Recency?  Yes.  Relevance to the topic?  Of course, yes.  Frequency?  Yes, again.  But, there’s one more element that can’t be forgotten – traffic.  In other words, it matters how many people are writing in and coming to call at your little corner of the blogosphere – a.k.a. interaction.
All the excitement about whether Kanye is writing his own blogs or whether he’s found the perfect ghost blogger to “speak” in his voice skillfully enough for there to be a debate – well, it just goes to show.  Blogging works because it drives traffic and interaction.  And that, I learned the hard way, is What Search Engines Want.
I like to keep my blog language a lot more grammatical and a lot cleaner than Kanye’s, but boy – is he great at traffic, or what?
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Easy Does It For Blogs and For Financial Advisers

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The Journal of Financial Planning warns that financial success can get lost in translation. An AARP Financial survey showed many Americans complain that financial service professionals use too much jargon, even more so than mechanics or doctors.  Worse, many people expressed the thought their advisers use jargon on purpose, to distract consumers’ attention from investment fees and to make them feel more dependent.  The Journal’s advice: follow the KISS principle by keeping it simple.  (As a financial planner for almost three decades, I recall taking special pains to explain things in understandable terms, and so I really didn’t like reading that some of my former colleagues aren’t doing that to the satisfaction of at least some consumers.).

Bloggers (and ghost bloggers) from all fields of business can learn a valuable lesson from the AARP survey. You’re blogging to invite potential clients and customers to visit your website and learn more about why they should be doing business with you.  If the “lessons” you’re offering require too much effort of the “students”, they will excuse themselves quickly and look elsewhere for information.

Remember, browsers on the Web stopped at your blog because they were searching for something you know how to do or something you sell.  Present yourself and your business as expert, experienced, and professional – by all means.  Tell ’em something they may not have known before, certainly.  But (and here’s the lesson to be gleaned from the AARP survey and the Journal of Financial Planning‘s warning), lose the lingo.  Jettison the jargon.  Speak easy!

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Blogs Check Into The Hospital

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Talk about an ironic turn of events – blogging is turning out to be such a healthy marketing tool that hospitals are inviting blogs to check themselves in!
Community Health Network’s new SharingSites (www.ecommunity.com/sharing site) allows patients to create their own blogs to tell family and friends about a newborn or keep them up to date on treatments. St Francis and Clarian North offer blogging, too, through a Chicago company called CarePages.   Meanwhile, links to the hospitals’ main websites allow patients and families to find information about different medical conditions and treatments, and even participate in online discussions with other patients and their families.
Dan Rench, vice president of e-business at Community Health Network, was quoted in a recent Indianapolis Business Journal issue as follows: “There’s definitely a lot of power in social networking from a health care perspective.”

Businessowners aimed at robust growth should pay heed to this trend.  Many businesses think they have an Internet “presence” because they’ve had a website created for their company.  Often, there’s little updating going on, and even less attention paid to how to help potential buyers find their way to that website.  Advertising, including online advertising, is certainly one avenue in marketing a business.  Very interesting and important, though, is a statistic I learned in a Compendium Blogware webinar from CEO and co-founder Chris Baggott:  80-95% of business conducted online comes about as the result of organic search, not pay-per-click advertising or sponsorships. What this means in plain terms is that people searched online for information about products or services.  Those businesses that were providing up-to-date, easy-to-understand, and relevant content through regularly posting blogs came out the winners – of new customers.

You know what they’re starting to say?  A blog a day keeps the doctor away!

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