Hair and Beauty isn’t like every other business in the retail sector.

If you are in this industry your customers are, for the most part, coming to you to indulge themselves and spend money on something they see as a luxury that they have to fit in to their weekly or monthly budget.

Hair and beauty businesses also tend to have a lot of overheads and running costs, so marketing can be pushed down the list of stuff to do until it’s possibly too late.

But marketing and promoting a hair and beauty business doesn’t need to cost a bomb and in this list of the 31 ways to promote your business, I want to show you what I would do in the online and social marketing space if I owned a hair and beauty business.

1. Start a blog.

This is a great way to personalise your brand on the one hand, but also get your some great Google love on the other. Google loves dynamic content and, more importantly, so do the punters! Make sure your website changes regularly and provides up to date content as well as giving the readers some idea of who is behind the brand and the business. A blog does this so well.

2. Create a second  blog.

I would then create a second blog and also create a persona to be the author of it. The persona would be a pseudo staff member at the store like Little Vivo Lady from Vivo Cafe and Lily Stemms from Tynte Flowers. Being able to hide behind anonymity can provide a great opportunity to be a bit irreverent, a bit naughty and make the readers laugh and be interested in what’s going on in the store.

3. Create a Facebook Page.

It seems like a no-brainer these days but I mean create a Facebook Page that actually works! Work hard to get enough fans to get your custom web address for the page and then update, update, update! Build a committed and interested fan base on Facebook and you will keep those fans forever.

4. Create an engaging and effective landing tab on the Facebook Page.

When a punter comes to your page for the first time, make sure two things happen. Firstly, make sure they click on ‘Like’. This can be done using a ‘fan gate’ where they don’t see some of the content unless they become a fan first. This works well to provide an air of exclusivity as well as growing the numbers of likers on the page. Secondly, make sure they are engaged! There is no point simply getting a whole big number of likers if they are not engaged with your marketing on Facebook and therefore not spending money with you!

5. Make the Facebook Page look great.

While Facebook restricts the look and feel of all the Facebook Pages to some degree (thank God), there are still a few little things you can do to make your page not only look great to the user, but also look a bit different.

Firstly, the image you can have in the top left hand corner of the page can be up to 200 pixels wide and 600 pixels high. The majority of pages still have an image that is only 200 pixels wide by 150 pixels high. A taller, more dramatic image really makes the page pop in the readers’ eye and also frames the rest of the content on the page really nicely.

Secondly, make some smart use of the filmstrip of 5 images across the top of the page. Make sure all of them are optimised and sized correctly to look great and deliver some branding message too.

Thirdly, think about rotating that 200 x 600 image in the top left hand corner of the page to promote a new product or service, or an upcoming event, or even offer it to one of your key suppliers to promote one of their new products on it (to your likers) – for a price of course!

6. Do something great with the Photos tab on the Facebook Page.

The photos tab on most business’ Facebook Page is terribly under-utilised. This is despite the fact that more than 2 million photos are shared on the Facebook platform each month – what an opportunity lost! Make sure the actual tab and the photo albums are all neatly organised, labelled (with attention given to what people might be searching for) and not including any images that might detract from your branding or overall marketing effort.

7. Use the photos to introduce your staff.

I would have a photo on the Facebook Page of every current (and past if they are still OK with it) staff members with a full description of what sort of work they do or specialise in, what sort of work they enjoy doing, something about what they enjoy doing away from the business, where they have worked before and so on. All of this content is really searchable and engaging for people who might be shopping around to find a new stylist.

Think about getting some professional photography done for this so that every photo is uniform in look (black and white can look really classy too like on PRDnationwide Newcastle and Lake Macquarie’s Facebook Page). Either that, or do something quirky like using photos of the staff members when they were babies or even running a competition where people have to match up the baby photos with the staff members photos now.

8. Before and after photos.

I would include LOTS of before and after photos of your work on the Facebook Page whether it be hair or make up or cosmetic treatments. This can be such an engaging and powerful tool to promote the quality of your work but also to convince people who are thinking about getting a similar treatment or style that it will look great on them.

9. Show off your digs.

Does your salon look amazing? Does it create a really great user experience that people would only know if they actually came in to the store? Then take some photos and upload them to the Facebook Page too. They can present an extra dimension to your business that might be the deciding factor on whether someone is going to switch salons and become your client or not. This works particularly well if you have some equipment or perform some techniques that most salons in your area don’t.

10. Include photos of your products on the Facebook Page.

Lastly on photos, why not upload photos of all of your products – or at least the ones that you make the greatest margin on. Again you can also include comments and full descriptions of the products, their prices and so on, maybe even a special offer if the customer quotes a special code that is only found in the description of that product on your Facebook Page. Make sure you get some quality images of the products from the suppliers who should be more than happy to help you promote their range online. The best part about that is when you can encourage users to talk about or simply ‘like’ the product’s image on your Facebook Page, you know they are a pre-qualified fan of that product the next time they come in to the salon.

11. Feature events related either directly or indirectly to your business on your Facebook Page.

Facebook Events is another really under-used tool on the platform. The great thing about them is that they can become very interactive and very well promoted even before they are even talked about offline. You can use a tall 200 x 600 image for your event as above and also let the punters RSVP to the event, add their own photos or videos to the event (either before, during or after it) and of course comment on and ‘like’ the event as well. All of this appears in their own news feed also which can in turn be commented on and spread around even further – let the punters market your events for you!

12. Create a Facebook Event where existing customers bring their partner in.

This can be a great way to in effect double your customer base. If you have a woman who is a fan of your business – and a ‘liker’ on your Facebook Page – she can bring her partner or husband in on a particular day or at a particular time for a special offer or discounted style or treatment. Then it’s up to you of course to do a great job and make sure he comes back of his own volition in the future!

13. Create a Facebook Event for when your new stylist is starting in the salon.

A new stylist or technician in a hair and beauty business can be a really big deal. Particularly if the new staff member is likely to bring a whole new database of customers through the door! So build some momentum and anticipation of the day they are starting work by creating an event on your Facebook Page. This can also act as a great way to let that stylist’s current client list know that they are moving.

14. Include a shopping cart on your Facebook Page.

You can also include a shopping cart on the Facebook Page to sell not only appointments and your services but also your products or the products of your suppliers. Again, make sure you get the best product shots from your suppliers for this. We can even embed your website (including your shopping cart) right there on your Facebook Page to create a seamless buying experience within your own branding.

15. Run a Facebook Only Promotion.

You should run a promotion that is featured only on Facebook and only available to enter if you are a fan of the Facebook Page. Remember these have to be done within Facebook’s Terms and Conditions which can be a bit tricky too. The competition could revolve around a free makeover of some sort and to an agreed value. The fans have to upload either a photo or video of themselves for example with a short sentence as to why they think they should win the makeover or something like that. Could be some interesting entries…

16. Run some Facebook Ads.

I’ve banged on a lot about Facebook Ads on this blog and I would definitely be running some if I was in the hair and beauty industry. They are great for local marketing and great for targeting new business as well as existing fans. You can target users by their age, location, relationship status, things they like, things they are interested in, music they like or whatever. This will give you a very accurate snapshot of who you are targeting and who might be interested in your brand and special offers on Facebook and so on.

17. Write an e-book.

I know that might sound a bit daunting but it doesn’t have to be a massive hard copy epic or anything like that. I would write an e-book – probably around 15 to 20 pages only – and titled something like, “How to get the most out of your new hairdo” (or something much more creative) and then give the e-book away as a free download in exchange for someone ‘liking’ the Facebook Page or signing up to your database. It’s also a great way for you to establish your credibility and expertise in your market.

18. Get yourself on Twitter.

You will be surprised how many of your existing customers will already be using Twitter and will be more than happy to spread your word around for you if they are. Twitter is also a great way to get new business AND establish your credibility and expertise in the hair and beauty industry. You can create a following that is really loyal to your brand and your ideas on Twitter.

19. Run time-sensitive offers for your Twitter followers.

You can then reward that following with special ‘Twitter-only’ offers that are only available for a certain amount of time AFTER they appear in your Twitter feed. For instance, “TWITTER ONLY SPECIAL: Receive a free treatment with any style booked in today. Only available for next 60 minutes. Must quote code FRTRT11″ … or something.

20. Run a Twitter Re-Tweet Promotion.

Each short message you put out on Twitter is called a ‘tweet’. Your following can then ‘re-tweet’ your message out to their following which can be a great example of your fans doing your marketing for you. Every time one of your following does that, you can know about it and track it. I would run a promotion where you reward your following for re-tweeting your messages by giving them one entry in the competition.

21. Create an alternate Twitter Account.

Back in number 2, I mentioned creating a blog for a pseudo staff member. This is along the same lines. That same persona could have their own Twitter account and say things that are a little unconventional in comparison to the rest of your marketing. You might even find that this account has a greater following than your more corporate one!

22. Build a free YouTube channel.

A YouTube channel for your business is free. It is basically a page within the giant YouTube platform where all of the videos that you upload are featured and listed in an organised way. You can also have comments, updates and subscriptions to your channel which is an often under-utilised marketing device as well. Remember to brand and customise your channel with your own colours and logos too.

23. Create new styling or technique videos.

Now to think about what sort of content you want to include in your videos. I would definitely do some videos that focus on new techniques or new styles that your salon could specialise in or that your stylists are particularly good at or well known for. If you can feature some ‘before and after’ about them, that would also work really well.

24. Introduce new and existing staff members in videos.

Video is a great way to introduce your salon but also to introduce individual staff members to the community as well. Whether they are existing staff or when new staff members come into the business, video is a great tool to showcase them and their particular specialties or skills.

25. Create a really engaging About Us video.

Nothing tells a story like that story being told in video. Forget the boring old text ‘About Us’ page on your website – create an About Us video that lets you tell the story of your business, where it’s come from, who’s involved in the business, what the premises look like and so on. When you optimise and tag this video really well you also get the added bonus of some serious Google love as well.

26. Answer your FAQs in videos.

One of the biggest reservations that salon owners have when I tell them they have to create some online video is that they have nothing to make videos about. I couldn’t disagree more. Every time the phone rings and someone asks a question, every time that someone asks you in a social situation what you or your salon do, they are videos! Instead of having boring old text pages of your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), create a series of short but well optimised and tagged videos answering them for your online community.

27. Create a weekly ‘expert’ video for others in the hair and beauty industry.

Video also allows you to position yourself really well as an expert in your field. There’s something about video that just lends great credibility to your story. I would take advantage of that by producing some videos specifically for other businesses in the hair and beauty industry, not necessarily for clients. This lets you show off what you do really well, what you specialise in and what you want to be known for. It might also help in recruiting other great stylists from other salons into your business.

28. Place QR codes in decals on your shopfront.

Quick Response or QR Codes act as that elusive bridge between the offline marketing and online marketing of your business. They are 2-D barcodes essentially. But when they are scanned with a smartphone the scanner is then directed to whatever website or online presence you want to send them to. This can be a website, a Facebook Page, it can populate an automatic email or SMS being sent and so on. I would direct them to a video on YouTube because this is guaranteed to look uniform and great on almost any smartphone – some websites and even Facebook Pages don’t look very good on smartphones so you don’t want to do all the hard work of getting people to scan and be engaged only to send them somewhere that doesn’t work on their mobile!

The decals on the shopfront can encourage people to have a look at and follow your different social media channels as well as go to a video detailing your salon opening hours (if it appears on your door when the salon is closed) and even on each work station’s mirror in the salon that can engage people while they are having their hair done and so on.

29. Print QR codes on DL flyers.

I would also use a QR code on a DL flyer or other offline hard copy promotional material. These can be left instore or given out in the local area by promotional staff you can hire for the day or by your own salon staff to drum up new business.

They can also be an entry into a competition or giveaway promotion of some sort to get new business through your door.

30. Record a podcast.

Podcasts are just audio recordings that you can host either on your own website or Facebook Page or on iTunes so that people everywhere can download them and listen to them. These are a great way to again establish your credibility and expertise in your market and can be aimed completely at other people in your industry for the same reasons as in point 27 above. Another way to use these is to interview industry people or even just your regular clientele and record it for others to listen to.

31. Host a webinar.

Like a seminar only online and without having to hire a venue and pay for nibblies! Webinars are a great way for you to show the rest of the industry, your local market AND potential new business that you know what you are doing and have some pretty specific expertise to impart. This can also be a great way to establish an alternate revenue stream as you can sell tickets to your webinars also.

Have you had any success with any of the above suggestions in your hair and beauty business? Which ideas do you think I have missed?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

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It’s pretty fair to say that I used to know absolutely nothing about Search Engine Optimisation. I knew what Google was, obviously, and I also knew that I wanted my business to be on the first page when people sat down to search for something, but I had really no idea how to get my business in front of the right people at the right time.

I didn’t know what my keywords were, what phrases I should be optimising for, what people were actually searching for, or how Google looked at all of the content on the internet and somehow indexed it usefully for people to find what they are looking for.

This period also, coincidentally, was when my business was going nowhere and we were going broke. Fast.

Then, I found an e-book which literally saved my business. I now have three successful businesses and I have that e-book, and its author, to thank for that.

The name of that e-book?

SEO Secrets. The DIY Guide to Topping Google.

The book is written by Glenn Murray, an Australian guy who owns copywriting business, Divine Write.

Glenn’s a pretty clever fella but he manages to keep the content of the e-book simple, clear and concise, despite it being 194 pages long.

This thing is value-packed. And you don’t have to be a web designer or SEO expert to be able to follow Glenn’s clear instructions and very quickly make a significant impact on your Google ranking.

And that’s what I was able to.

Before I read this book, my travel business, Nick Bowditch Travel – Australia’s Family Travel Expert, was floundering on Google. What I really wanted was for people to search for “family travel” and my website come up on (at least) the first page.

When I did a search of “family travel” myself, the best I could do was see something of mine on the 9th page of Google – which might have well been the 9,000th page.

Who looks past even the first page of Google??

Then I stumbled across this book, I followed Glenn’s advice and instructions TO THE LETTER and then everything changed.

Suddenly, Google knew who I was!

The next 2 blog posts I wrote – using all of Glenn’s advice and tips from the book got me more hits on the blog in 3 hours than for the rest of that week.

After just a few months, I was suddenly on Page 1 of Google when people searched for “family travel”.

Amazing.

And the best thing is, because Glenn’s advice was sustainable and was about putting systems and tools in place for the future, I have never left that first page of Google since.

In fact, at the time of writing this, I am currently the 5th search result on that first page, although from time to time I have been in the top 3.

(It’s also worth noting that the 4 ahead of me: Holidays with Kids, Kids Holidays Online, BYO Kids and KidSpot are all much bigger operations than mine and have been around a lot longer as well.)

It’s also at this time that my business really started to take off. We were suddenly getting a LOT of traffic, a LOT of enquiries, and (thankfully) converting a lot of those enquiries to sales.

I was stoked.

Not really secrets…

The thing is, there are no real secrets contained in Glenn’s book. It’s not like he is telling you something you couldn’t probably work out for yourself if you put enough time and effort into doing all of the research.

But why would you?

It’s all right there in the book.

It includes sections on:

* understanding what SEO really means
* how to choose your keywords
* how to develop your website the right way for search
* how to optimise your web content
* what link baiting is
* a whole lot of other link building methods
* how to monitor your progress
* the future of SEO

PLUS more than 207 references in the bibliography which are links to loads of other great content all included.

Have a look for free…

Glenn is pretty confident you will be happy with the book.

So confident, I guess, that he even gives some of it away for free.

That’s right, free.

If you want to check out a sample chapter of the book for yourself, you can just click here.

And I’m not the only fan of the book. Check out what some other people have said. Darren Rowse, from the blogging authority website, ProBlogger, said this:

And Daniel Benton, who is actually a Senior SEO Consultant himself, working at The Found Agency, said:

But it’s not just the SEO experts who love it. Bronwen O’Brien, owner of The Virtual Assistant, agrees more with me:

So, if you are interested in getting your Google ranking higher and don’t necessarily want to pay a consultant thousands of dollars to get you there – check out the book.

I have no hesitation in personally recommending it.

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Have you had a look at SEO Secrets? What did you think?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

I’ve written more than 150 blog posts now, for my own blog as well as guest spots on other blogs.

And some of them, frankly, are terrible.

Lack of structure, poor grammar, no effort to engage the reader, too long, too short, too boring, not appropriate content for the audience… I’ve pretty much made every possible mistake a blogger can make.

I’ve also done a LOT of split testing of my blog posts to see what works with my readership and what doesn’t. And I reckon that I’ve now gotten to the point where my blog posts have a uniformity and formula that results in the best possible user-experience when reading my blog.

Your blog might be completely different to mine and so might your readership, but every one of my blog posts now includes a compelling headline, an appropriate and engaging image, introductory copy, sub-headings, bold text, lots of links, a blockquote section to break it up, a final teaser, questions to prompt comments, comments made easy, database sign-up feature, Facebook comments and then WordPress comments.

So let’s look at each in more detail:

Compelling Headline

With so many other blog posts popping up every day, what is the first thing that’s going to set yours apart? Especially if it’s read on a social media update or in a newsletter? The headline. And it’s where even the best written and engaging blog post can die a sudden and horrible death.

I try to limit myself to one of three winning combinations for my headlines: make a list (The top 13 ways to increase blog traffic without spending a cent), explain how to (How to use Linkedin more effectively), or share a secret (The secret to designing Facebook Ads that actually make money).

Try not to make your headline too abstract (your image can be) and try to meet a perceived need in your reading audience – if they are wondering, “How do I build a blog post?”, then this post would probably seem pretty enticing to them.

Also, for some reason, in the split testing I have done over the years, making a list with an odd number of points (17 ways to…, the top 9 things…) works better than an even number of points, but I still don’t really know why.

Engaging Image

This is where you can be a bit more abstract and make the reader think a bit. There are hundreds of thousands of free and royalty-free images you can choose from to include at the top of your blog post and I always try to use one that is slightly less than obvious.

For instance, on my post, The secret to designing Facebook Ads that actually make money, I used an image of an arrow hitting a target. The Facebook Ads can be very targeted (in fact, that’s one of the things covered in the post) so the image is appropriate for the post without being too obvious.

I tend to use only one image in the top-left of the post but when I have used images throughout the post, they have also tested well. I’m probably just a bit lazy to keep looking for great images, so I tend to just stick with one at the top.

Introductory Copy

Johanna Baker-Dowdell from Strawberry Communications told me once to always use the journalistic tool of ‘important stuff first and then the rest’, and I always try to stick to that in my blog posts. This is particularly important for me because I use the ‘read more’ feature to entice the reader to open the whole post rather than just reading the featured bit that appears on the front page.

I generally use the introductory copy to lay out what will be covered in the post (regardless of how long it is going to be) and I find that also helps the ‘skimmers’ to just read the bits that they want as well – remember, there is a chance that not everyone thinks what you have written is as vitally important as you do.

Sub-Headings

Which brings me nicely to the next point. A lot of blog readers like to just skim through posts – especially if, like me, they look at more than 20 or even 50 blog posts every day.

So I always try to break my posts up into sections with clear and engaging headings. I make those headings a different colour and font size and in effect make the entire blog post one big list of bullet points that help define the different sections but also make it easier to skim through and just read the bits that are either interesting or applicable to that particular reader.

Bold text

I often use bold text throughout the post to highlight people’s names or links to other articles. From an Search Engine Optimisation point of view, I also like to use bold text on keywords and phrases that might help with the optimisation of the post, although there is some conjecture whether that actually helps Google index your post better.

I also tend to favour bold text over italics in the body of the post.

Lots of links

I’ve spoken before about the importance of having links throughout your blog posts – linking both to your own articles within the blog as well as linking out to authorative sites that are related to your content.

Aside from the SEO benefits of this, it also adds something to the user-experience and helps to engage your readers longer on your site.

Break it up with a blockquote

Did you know … that I always include a blockquote like this one with a reference to something that I do for small businesses or an interesting side-fact about the content I am covering in the post? I always start it with Did you know… and usually finish it with a call to action to get the reader to contact me for more information.

And since I started using this toward the end of the blog post, it has resulted in a lot of readers contacting me, hiring me or buying electronic products from me – plus, it breaks the post up a bit for the reader too.

A final teaser

After the blockquote, I usually have a 1 or 2 line teaser for something else coming up in future posts, or I might ask for the readers to let me know what they would like covered in future blog posts.

I have found this helps greatly in engaging the reader to give me some feedback as well as making it easier when it comes to those times when I am stuck for something to write about!

Ask questions to prompt comments

At the end of the post, I ask two questions, in big bold text, that are designed to encourage the reader to leave a comment on the post. “What have I left out?” or “Do you agree or disagree” tend to work fairly well in prompting the reader to leave his or her opinion in the comments.

Honestly, this is also the thing that I have struggled the most with. Even though I knew I was getting great traffic I wasn’t getting hundreds of comments, and it’s still something that I would love to do better on every one of my posts.

Comments made easy

I’ve also spoken before about the importance of making it easy for your readers to leave a comment. In fact, I think you should remove every possible obstruction from someone interacting with your blog. No sign up first, no moderated comments, just have your say and it will appear.

I also make it quite clear to the reader that that is the case.

And remember, the easiest way to double your comments on a post is to reply to everyone that you get.

Database Sign-Up Feature

This is something that I wish I had done sooner because since professional blogger Chris Garrett told me about it, it has had a HUGE effect on the amount of sign-ups I have, which in turn has lead to a lot more products sold and consultancy hours booked.

And it’s simple. At the end of each post, I offer a free copy of my ebook, 34 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started on Twitter, which normally retails for $39 and which has been downloaded now more than 3,200 times, in return for the reader signing up to my database.

I have a great respect for my database and never spam them or clog up their inbox with crap so I think that helps too.

Facebook Comments

This is something that I have only recently added to my blog. The Facebook plugins for WordPress are ridiculously easy to implement and allow the reader (if they are also a Facebook user) to ‘like’ your post without ever having left your blog as well as leave a comment at the end of the post using their Facebook login – which in turn leaves the comment on their Facebook feed too.

It’s early days for this feature on my blog at the moment, so I’m not sure how it will test or even if I will keep it active there yet.

WordPress Comments

At the very end of my blog posts is my general comments which are supported within the WordPress framework. Comments on your blog are great for SEO, great for referring back to from your social media channels and also offer the reader a more rich experience when reading your posts.

They are also in a lot of ways my greatest challenge (and obsession) when blogging. So do me a favour and leave a comment will ya?

Did you know … that Glenn Murray from DivineWrite and Darren Rowse from ProBlogger have teamed up to create an amazing blogging tool called The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers? It’s an ebook that’s over 100 pages in length and is an invaluable checklist for keeping your blogging on track. The scorecard alone is well worth the price and I highly recommend you getting it. You can get your own copy here.

If you would like more posts about the structuring and authoring of compelling and successful blog posts, let me know.

Do you include other features in your blog posts that I might have left out? Or do you disagree with any of my inclusions?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

Nick Bowditch is an Australian online success story. He has built up three businesses from scratch – all without staff, a shop front, and without any mainstream advertising in print, radio or television – instead opting to promote his new businesses using Social Media Marketing. He now works with other small businesses to show them how they can also compete utilising platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and YouTube. His ebooks and electronic products have now been downloaded thousands of times, he is a blogger, author, keynote speaker and has a regular YouTube show called SmallBizTV

My small business clients often ask me what they can to simply tweak their blog and their blogging effort a little bit to get more page views. Most of them have a limited budget for these kind of measures also.

So I have put together my list of the top 13 free ways to increase your blog traffic.

All of these are pretty easy to implement if you aren’t doing them already and they should all not only increase your actual blog traffic but also help with the all-important search engine optimisation as well.

1. Write at the right time.

As bloggers, we tend to be inspired to write at different times of the day and week but when are most of your readers looking at your blog? If you have an international audience, what time is it locally when they are more likely to be looking at your blog? If you’ve just written a cracker of a blog post and its 2am where your main readership is, it might be worth hanging on for a few hours before you publish it.

2. Be smart with links.

Don’t be afraid to give away some links in your post to another blog or website – especially if the other site is a well-trafficked one. Also, think about including links within your blog post that links away to other posts within your blog. This can be great for SEO, but also improves the reader’s experience while also establishing you as an expert in whatever you write about. Sometimes writing a ‘series’ of blog posts about the same thing or splitting your posts into several different posts over a number of days can work really well for traffic too because you are adding a sense of anticipation.

3. Put your Facebook Page to work.

OK you all know how much I love a high-performing optimised Facebook Page. And this is the great way to see what power it really has. Every time you publish a new blog post, update your Facebook status with the direct link. Not only that but ask a question of the Facebook audience that they can only get the answer of from the post or encourage more comments and interactions in that way.

There are a heap of really nice Facebook plugins available for WordPress blogs now which will make the readers’ experience – especially if they are also Facebook users – so much better.

4. Fall in love with StumbleUpon.

I love StumbleUpon. I know it can be perceived as pretty nerdy but it’s also one of the 3 highest referrers of blog traffic for me. After I publish a blog post, I also ‘stumble’ it – and it can lead to a lot of new traffic you wouldn’t get otherwise. For instance, last month, StumbleUpon referred 4,267 people to my blog posts – not bad.

5. Get comfortable with video.

YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. Using video is a great way to be found by random searchers and Google loves video! Not only that, but video can provide a different, and in some ways more engaging, element to your writing. A lot of people aren’t too keen on doing stuff in front of a camera but if you’re not one of them, you will definitely see increased traffic (as I have) if you include video elements.

6. Will it be your blog or a guest blog?

There are two parts to this. You can get another blogger to write a guest post for your blog. This can increase traffic hugely because you are suddenly utilising two different audiences instead of just your own. It can also be a disaster if the person you get to write for you is controversial, has a horrible writing style or is just really rubbish. Always check out their work on their own blog first.

The other thing is you can also write a guest post for someone else – a more authorative, higher-trafficked post with a bigger audience. This has the effect of raising your profile as a blogger but also increasing the traffic back to your own blog because you have been exposed to a bigger audience. Always include a couple of obvious links back to your own site.

Most blog owners – including me – won’t accept blogs that have been published somewhere else, I only use guest posts that are 100% original and haven’t been posted before – even on the guest bloggers own site.

So, before you publish an article, particularly if it’s a pretty good one, think about whether you would like to submit it to another blog for consideration. Blog owners (like me) are always on the lookout for quality content, so you could get lucky. If nobody else is interested in the post, then publish it on your own blog.

7. Promote your RSS Feed.

This is one of the most under-valued and under-used tools for bloggers. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way that people can get updated with any changes on your blog (like a new post) without having to check back to your site all the time. I honestly think that if more people in the world understood what RSS was, they would all be using it!

So, on your blog posts, promote your RSS feed clearly and encourage your readers to subscribe to it. If they are using an RSS Reader, or something like Microsoft Outlook that works like one, it can be a great alternative for people to sign up to your site who may not want to receive emails but instead get your RSS update feed.

This, by the way, is something that I should be doing and I’m really not doing it. Not very well anyway. Not yet…

8. Present an alternate view.

OK, I don’t mean present a blatantly and obviously antagonistic view but maybe write about a topic in a way that nobody else has written about it. For instance, there might be thousands of blog posts about the top 13 ways to increase your blog traffic without spending a cent (I hope there isn’t) so you might write a post about the top 13 ways to increase your blog traffic by spending $50 or less.

With more than 100 million blogs circulating the world, you have to do something to stand out a bit.

9. Find the right length for your posts.

I was going to entitle this section “write short posts” but that isn’t always a recipe for increased blog traffic. Some of my most successful blog posts have been really short succinct ones but some of my long-winded rants have done really well too. My standard advice, based on two years of constant split testing, is that on average the blog posts that were between 300-800 words have done the best. As a point of reference, this post is just over 1,600 words.

The point is, you have to find what works for you and your readership.

10. Get the Twitterverse on board.

As you all know, I am a massive advocate of Twitter. While it is a great tool for building brand awareness, creating an online community around your business and raising your personal profile, it is also an amazing referral tool for new blog posts. After every new post is published, I always tweet the headline and the link out and then I might follow that up a couple of times on that day in a different form so that people in different time zones and countries might also be exposed to the new blog post.

Just remember to try to avoid any of these.

11. Make it easy to comment.

In the past, I have had it so that nobody could leave a post on my blogs without first signing up to them or at least having me moderate what they said before it went live.

After speaking with my SEO expert Glenn Murray and reading his amazingly simple and helpful ebook, SEO Secrets – The DIY Guide to Topping Google, I changed all of that and now when you make a comment on my blogs, it appears right away. I also wrote another post about the pros and cons of doing that and you can read it here.

Since I made it easier for people to comment on blogs, guess what? They do!

12. Comment on your comments.

It’s simple. If there are 10 comments on a blog post and you return every comment with a comment of your own (to thank them or challenge them or encourage them in some way to comment further) then there are 20 comments on that blog post. The end result is your blog looks more authorative, the user experience is enhanced with more comments to read at the end of the post, and your commenters are pleased to have been validated. Too easy.

13. Write good content.

Write for people, not search engines. Try to have good spelling and grammar (although I am not one to talk). Write content that is interesting, engaging and encourages comments from your readership. Listen to your readership – ask them what they would like you to write about. It’s not rocket surgery, if you write good content, you will get more readers.

Did you know … that I can help you with blogging content, guest posts and search engine optimisation features on your blog? Or even just show you how to get started? If you would like to find out how I might be able to help you with making your blog better, more relevant, and found more by Google, call me TODAY on 02 8006 2498 or email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

And let me know if there is any other topic you would like me to write a blog post on that is relevant to your business or industry.

Do you have any other tips that can really make a blog work better for a small business owner? Do you disagree with any of my tips?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

This is my 100th blog post on The Bowditch Group’s blog.

(OK, actually it’s my 104th – I forgot about the milestone coming up and kinda missed it. But let’s just pretend it’s my 100th blog post.)

I have taken the opportunity this morning to look back through some of the old stuff and plan for the future as well. It’s really hard to objectively look at your own work and appraise it but even I can honestly say that some of the stuff I wrote early on is just crap.

Also, it’s interesting that a few opinion I fervently gave in the early days are no longer my opinions – due in large part to the other bloggers I have networked and interacted with since kicking all of this off. I have learnt so much from other people and I’m sure I will continue to as well. The blogging community is generally a very generous one and I am grateful for all of the help, advice and criticism I have received along the way.

Here is some of what I learnt when I reviewed the blog over its 6 month life thus far:

I have had 48,267 unique visitors, 194,411 page visits and 672,749 hits in that 6 months. StumbleUpon has been responsible for 16,565 visitors and from other external referrers, Twitter has been the biggest contributor (44%) followed closely by Facebook (31%).

My most-read blog post was 15 things you should be doing on Linkedin but probably aren’t which has to date had more than 10,176 views, followed closely by The top 9 ways to annoy the crap out of Twitter people which has had 10,062 views.

The thing I have been most proud of on the blog is our effort to raise awareness – and funds – for the charity, Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids. At the start of this month, I posted a story about them and declared that I wanted to raise enough pledges for 20 backpacks (at just $25 each) to be made up which are given to kids when they are taken into foster care because that’s usually done in a hurry and if they get anything at all, in a lot of cases, it’s a few things chucked in a garbage bag.

After posting the story, and within two hours of talking about it on my social media channels, we had those 20 backpacks pledged. I revised my target up to 100 backpacks by the end of August and I am proud to say right at this moment we have gotten over 30 donated. There is still time if you want to be involved or if you just want to read the story, click here.

The thing that I was sure was a winner and can’t believe it hasn’t done better? The Small Business Forum I set up also this month. It’s only early days with it of course, but it was definitely one of the times where I have thought I had a brilliant concept that everyone would love and it’s fizzled a bit.

My most valuable lesson? Including weekly recap posts. By posting each week the top 5 most-read blog posts of that week, it had a two-fold effect: it gave people a chance to only read the good parts of the blog if they wanted to, and it was great for traffic as those posts were among the most-viewed on the whole site.

Did you know … that there are more than 120 million blogs circulating the internet now? Can you imagine how many of them are rubbish but also how many of them might be directly competing with you for readers’ attention? If you would like to find out how I might be able to help you with making your blog better, more relevant, and found more by Google, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594 or email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

I have learnt so much and gotten so much return on the effort of producing 100 blog posts in 6 months – despite a bit of my writing being pretty ordinary along the way. It does take discipline, creativity and a lot of time but the return on that investment has been massive for me and I would highly recommend it.

What have you learnt from reviewing your own blogging? Or have you read something of mine that you thought was pretty good or pretty awful? I have thick skin …

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

This is the first of a six part series about how to put together a complete online marketing plan for a small business.

I have blogged before about the need, not only to put together a comprehensive online marketing plan, but to really believe in it. And the best way to make sure everyone in your organisation is on the same page when it comes to your online efforts is to give them a formalised picture of it – even if your whole organisation is just you.

This is what we do for our small business clients when they first sign up with us – give them a diagram that represents what we are going to achieve online and which platforms are going to help us do it. It’s important that they are included and that they can see the benefit from which of the 27 points on the plan that we decide to adopt for their business.

There is basically 7 prongs to the overall online marketing plan for most small businesses. I suggest that every small business utilises at least one platform from each of the following 7 prongs: blogging, social networking platforms, complimentary social networking, groups/communities, events/networking, advertising and measurement.

Let’s take one at a time:

Blogging

This is the second most important of all of the initiatives in a small business’ online marketing strategy. Not only is it a great way to boost your brand, personalise your brand and make Google love them just a little bit more, but it gives a great base to link all of the social networking platforms back to.

Social Networking Platforms

Facebook is probably the most obvious, and in some ways the easiest, platforms for small businesses to use to promote themselves online. More specifically, at this level I am talking about developing a compelling, engaging and interactive Facebook Page for the business.

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Twitter is the big mover and shaker in the social media world right now. It is growing really quickly and is a great way to build your brand as well as drive new traffic to your blog. Small businesses can develop a ‘corporate’ kind of account or a more personal one.

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Linkedin is social media for grown-ups. It is the perfect way for professional people to network online and is also great for recruiting and business-to-business communication. The average user in Australia is 41 years old, 80% of them are tertiary educated, and the average household income is $110,000.

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YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine, after Google. It is also one of the best ways to introduce your business to the world and get your blog to rank through the roof! I usually encourage them to record introductory videos, sales videos, instructional videos and so on – all embedded in their blog.

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Flickr is like YouTube but instead of videos, it’s a photo-sharing platform. Most of the photo sets on Flickr are rubbish but occasionally there is something good. A small business can use Flickr much like they would use YouTube for videos – product shots, shopfront shots, staff profiles and so on.

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FourSquare is a relative newcomer to the social networking scene but one that, in my opinion, will become very relevant and more mainstream when more people understand how it works and how it can help market a small business – particularly if that business has a bricks and mortar shopfront.

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Did you know … that I put together comprehensive online marketing plans for small business and also have retained clients who I service from month to month? If you would like to find out how I might be able to help your business, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594 or email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

In the second part of this series, I will go through the next line of the comprehensive online marketing plan – the complimentary social networking platforms. And, if you would like your own copy of our complete online marketing plan mindmap, click here to download it.

Have you had success with any of the above platforms? Would you include any that I have left out for a small business?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

This is the first of a series of guest blogs from James Hallam, a fellow Aussie blogger who also blogs about small and medium-sized business and how they can make the web work harder for them.

I really like James’ writing style and, although it can be pretty in-your-face, it’s also always sensible, simple and features common-sense solutions to everyday problems faced by small businesses and their blogging effort.

In this post, he goes through the 6 reasons your blog sucks and nobody’s game to tell you.

Reason 1: It’s about you.

Unless you’re Lady Gaga, nobody cares what you’re wearing today. Have a look at your text. How many times do you say “I”, and how many times do you say “you”?

“I’s” should be approaching zero, and “you’s” should total a very big number. Remember that everyone else has the same problem you do – they all think they’re the most interesting person in the world. So put yourself in their shoes and talk about them for a change.

Reason 2: You can’t explain in 10 words or less what problem your blog solves for the reader.

People need to get something useful when they come to your blog, and if you’re not razor sharp on what that is, they won’t come back. This takes constant work. You need to write it down, and remind yourself constantly what problem you’re solving. Remember that logic isn’t what sells – find the emotional words for the problem and talk about that.

I’m constantly refining the problem my blog solves, but currently what you get is the “freedom to make the web work for you”. That’s 8 words. Small to medium businesses need a cost-effective, sustainable web presence, and that’s what they get from me – the benefit in emotional language, is freedom.

Reason 3: It doesn’t have pictures.

People love pictures. Put them near the top of the page, get high quality, royalty free images from somewhere like Shutterstock. Make them humorous, or a little bit racy, or inspiring, or whatever resonates with your answer to Reason 2.

Reason 4: You don’t have a call to action.

So they read a post, and you’re getting traffic. What then? Every post needs to ask or challenge the reader, directly, clearly and for a purpose. Do you want them to comment, so you can create a discussion and relationships with readers? Do you want them to subscribe? You need to work out what comes next after the hook, and keep reeling people in. Every lousy fisherman has a story of the one that got away.

Reason 5: You’ve got a fantastic blog but you don’t promote it.

This sucks the hardest, because you’ve done all the work but nobody knows about it. There are some crappy blogs out there that get traffic because their owners are great at spreading the word through every available channel. Do yourself a favour, read Nick Bowditch’s tips on making use of Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin to promote your blog.

Reason 6: You’re not passionate about your blog and your customers.

People can smell a fake a mile away. They can even smell when you’re half hearted about something, and that’s worse in many ways because it’s wet, insipid and uninspiring.

Have an opinion. Be prepared to offend someone, or if that’s too direct for you, at least be prepared to disagree, and never apologise for your work or your opinions. Be nice, but don’t be weak.

There is a metric sh*tload of work you have to do to make your blog successful, but if you work on the 6 points above, you’ll start to see things change, I promise.  To learn more about getting your blog or website on track, subscribe to my blog and send me an email.  I’ll reply the same day every time.

Did you know … that there are more than 120 million blogs circulating the internet now? Can you imagine how many of them are rubbish but also how many of them might be directly competing with you for readers’ attention? If you would like to find out how I might be able to help you with making your blog better, more relevant, and found more by Google, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594 or email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

James will be contributing more blog posts in coming weeks. If there is a particular topic you would like him to cover, let us know.

How many of these 6 things are currently present in your blogging? Do you have other reasons to add to James’?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

James Hallam writes a blog about making the web work for small and medium businesses. James is an internet entrepreneur who in former lives has been a Software Engineer, Sales Representative, Boat Builder, Manager and Business Analyst. James loves to help people “think about things in an unambiguous way” and has a knack for identifying business problems and drivers and converting them to solutions. You can also follow him on Twitter.

SmallBizTV has officially launched.

The first episode is below and can be viewed either right here on the blog or on the YouTube channel of The Bowditch Group.

The first episode is proudly sponsored by Bounce Foods and is about comments on blogs, creating an interactive community around your brand, and the perils of videoing YouTube series’ with kids.

We are also looking for sponsors of upcoming episodes. The sponsorship package includes a 30 second video commercial at the start of the episode as well as branding and links back to your website. The potential reach of this sponsorship is more than 8,000 subscribers of our blog and makes for great value for a small business. If you are interested in sponsoring upcoming episodes, please email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

So here it is, the first episode of SmallBizTV:

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Stay tuned for next week’s episode of SmallBizTV which will be released next Friday 13th August 2010.

What do you think of the content in this episode of my opinion on how easy you should make it for people to comment on your blog?

Please let me know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this blog, it will appear straight away – no signing up, no moderation of comments so tell us what you think!

SmallBizTV is the new YouTube weekly show about Small Business in Australia, Online Marketing, and the rise and rise of Social Media and how Small Business owners in Australia can take advantage of it.

The first few episodes are now in post-production, and I am looking for other small business consultants, advisers, marketers or small business owners who would like the opportunity to promote themselves and their businesses for future episodes.

There are still some episodes that have sponsorship openings so if you are interested in promoting your own business to a wide variety of small businesses and more than 8,000 viewers, let me know by email on nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

Tomorrow’s episode is sponsored by Bounce Foods and is about comments on blogs, creating an interactive community around your brand, and the perils of videoing YouTube series’ with kids.

Do you know about the Bounce Foods brand already? Are you as excited as me about SmallBizTV???

Please let me know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away without having to sign up or be moderated.

This is the second in the series of seminars I will be doing for the Tuggerah Business Enterprise Centre this year.

In this two hour session, I will go through the benefit of having a structured social media strategy for your small or micro business. I work with small and micro businesses every day to put plans together to make the most out of social media and online marketing platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, email marketing and others.

This interactive and entertaining presentation is essential for any small or micro business owners who know a lot about social media, a bit about social media or nothing about social media but who want to find new and inexpensive ways to grow their business in the online space.

I will show you how to develop a social media marketing plan from scratch and the real life way each of these marketing tools can work in a step by step session that is interactive and fun.

When and Where?

This workshop will be held a week from today on Wednesday 4th August 2010 at 6:00pm to 8:00pm at the Zenith Business and Function Centre in the Tuggerah Business Park on the NSW Central Coast. The cost is just $55 and that includes refreshments and notes from the presentation.

Want to attend?

There are still some spaces left so if you would like to attend, go to the Tuggerah BEC’s events page and register or you can call them on 02 4355 4885.