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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.

The fourth episode of SmallBizTV is proudly sponsored by Inkblot Design Studio and is about Search Engine Optimisation (with tips from Glenn Murray and his brilliant ebook, SEO Secrets – The DIY Guide to Topping Google, increasing your sales conversions, and the 7 ways to kill your brand.

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 fourth episode of SmallBizTV:

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Did you know … that there are up to 1 billion videos uploaded to YouTube every day? And the it would take almost 500 years to watch every single video hosted on the YouTube platform today? That’s a huge potential audience – do they know about your brand yet? If you would like me to help you with launching a YouTube channel and making it work for your business, call me TODAY on 02 8006 2498 or email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

Stay tuned for the next episode of SmallBizTV.

Have you read Glenn Murray’s ebook, SEO Secrets? Or do you have some other tips on Search Engine Optimisation or increasing your sales conversions?

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.

The third episode of SmallBizTV is proudly sponsored by PMZ Marketing and is about Search Engine Optimisation (with tips from Glenn Murray and his brilliant ebook, SEO Secrets – The DIY Guide to Topping Google, and increasing your sales conversions.

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 third episode of SmallBizTV:

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Did you know … that there are up to 1 billion videos uploaded to YouTube every day? And the it would take almost 500 years to watch every single video hosted on the YouTube platform today? That’s a huge potential audience – do they know about your brand yet? If you would like me to help you with launching a YouTube channel and making it work for your business, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594 or email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

Stay tuned for the next episode of SmallBizTV.

Have you read Glenn Murray’s ebook, SEO Secrets? Or do you have some other tips on Search Engine Optimisation or increasing your sales conversions?

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.

Google has made some changes to their search pages and there has been some talk among bloggers and web development people about whether they are even relevant.

One of the changes is the introduction of the ‘Updates Search’.

This feature basically filters the organic search results and displays them, instead of in terms of a traditional ranking as defined by the Google algorithm, in chronological order, making the search results more like the real-time results you get if you used something like Twitter Search on a particular topic or set of keywords.

So how is this relevant?

Today, there was a glitch in the editing system of Facebook Pages. As it would happen, today is the day that I had planned updates on about 5 or 6 of my clients’ Facebook Pages so it was very frustrating. Even more frustrating, was the fact that Facebook hadn’t told the world anything of the glitch as they presumably scrambled to fix it.

So I turned to Google, and in particular the Updates Search within Google. Searching for the phrase “cant edit facebook pages” returned this result:

So, while it didn’t do much to relieve my frustration, at least I knew I wasn’t the only one unable to edit the pages.

The problem has since been resolved this afternoon and I have been able to do the updates on the Facebook Pages as I had planned for today.

The other ways you can now search for things on Google apart from Updates include discussions, images, maps and videos (which have been there for ages) and news, books and blogs.

Do you regularly use any of these search filters and if so, how? Please let us know in the comments. You don’t have to sign up or join anything to comment, just leave your comment below and it will appear on the post straight away.

SmallBizOnline 2010 was held yesterday at Treetops Resort Avoca Beach. 7 expert speakers presented topics for small business owners about various aspects of online marketing to 40 delegates in beautiful surroundings at the resort.

The day was sponsored by three great local small businesses, VideoSpark, Lime Travel and The Transcription People.

The topics included social media marketing, targetting the media, optimising your tribe, the secrets to successful outsourcing, business growth made easy, why networking is a great marketing strategy, search engine optimisation for smart people and a Q&A panel with all of the speakers.

The day also included some beautiful catering by Treetops Resort and some informal networking and trade displays. Some of the business owners who attended the day (and the links out to their business websites) were:

Ian Spruce – Grey Wolf Films
Felicity Harris – Grey Wolf Films
Christine Haynes – Diggers At The Entrance
Tara Rooze – Diggers At The Entrance
Luke Stephenson – Ettalong Bowling Club
Denise Hamilton – Ettalong Bowling Club
Maree Rodwell – Ettalong Bowling Club
Lisa Metzl – Lime Travel
Jane McLoughney – TravelManagers
Helen Mitchell – SoundsReal
Philiip Shaw – CleverClicks
Amanda Gonzalez – Untangle the Web
Bob Fitzgerald – VideoSpark
Rhiannon Lovell – Reebound
Glenn Murray – DivineWrite and SilverPistol
Nicole Hammett – Little Miss Useful
Kate Tribe – Tribe Research
Annalisa Holmes – The Transcription People
Steve Brettoner – The Transcription People
Alison Michalk – Quiip
Patrick Spedding – PMSquare
Allison Wigman – Kipps Business Reporting
Peter Kipps – Kipps Business Reporting
Jill Fisscher – Jill A. Fischer & Associates
Kathy Benson – Kambe
James Murray – Apscore
Keith Pitty – Cockatoo Software
Phil Burgess – Viking Supplements
Emma Lovell – Lovelly Inc.
Marcus Kroek – ACTIONCoach
Sue Henry – Sue Henry
Johanna Baker-Dowdell – Strawberry Communications

Coverage on Twitter

Thanks to some great support and prolific tweeting by some of the delegates, you can check out the live blogging of the event on Twitter by clicking here.

The whole day and all of the sessions were filmed by Grey Wolf Films and recorded by The Transcription People and the content will be available in coming weeks for those weren’t able to attend in person.

If you are interested in having a look at, listen to, or read the transcripts of the presentations, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594.

And lock in #SBO2011 to your diary now – Wednesday 6th July 2010.

There are basically two types of blogs employed by most online businesses these days – those embedded as a link inside the main website, or those which are separate to the main website but are linked to from the menu of that site.

The principle, though, is basically the same.

A blog, literally short for web log, is a great way to achieve good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by having regularly updated content. It also provides a more personal aspect to your online presence which people may be more likely to follow and want to be updated on.

With around 120 million blogs circulating around the ‘blogosphere’, blogging is now starting to gain some serious credibility – and some serious exponents with quite a few bloggers now making their living solely from blogging.

So why should you want to blog? If for no other reason than it keeps your content fresh, dynamic and interesting. It engages visitors to your site to not only read your ponderings but also interact with and comment on them – Google loves this!

Secondly, having a blog that is insightful, interesting and most importantly focussed on your niche specialty that you know a lot about, goes a long way to establishing you as an expert in your field. It’s really important to be able to position yourself as somebody that people should listen to about your specific topic – your business.

Nobody knows your business better than you. At the moment, however, practically nobody knows you! Perception is everything and even if you are not a world-famous pioneer in your industry, if you write content as if you are, nobody will ever argue.

Content is king. You will hear that again and again and it’s because it’s true. The more content you have on your website (and through your social networking platforms) the more Google will index you, the more keyword-rich your online presences will be, and the more visitors you will get to your site which will eventually make your business grow.

Obviously writing the content is important but there are other more subtle things about the writing you need to concentrate on as well, and the difference between a well-read post and an ignored post, even if the content and the quality is exactly the same, can be the headline.

Let’s say you own a gym and you want to blog about your services to increase the traffic to your website which will then increase your memberships.

You could write a piece on let’s say, safe exercise for pregnant women. As you write the piece, keep in mind the person who will read it. If the heading appeals to them, that’s the first hurdle.

With headings, I stick to three difference angles that have worked really well for me: make a list, explain how to, and share a secret.

Making A List

“The top 11 safe exercises for pregnant women” – engages the reader because they obviously don’t want to know the 17 worst exercises for pregnant women to do. Human nature is to not only make lists in our head but to be compelled to read other ones – and for some reason odd numbers work best!

Explaining How To

“How to exercise safely when pregnant” – appeals to readers because of a natural curiosity, after all they are reading your blog because they want more information, and people want to get their information from experts in that field – which is, of course, you.

Sharing A Secret

“The secret to exercising safely when pregnant” – appeals to that part in all of our brain that wants to have something exclusive of others. While it’s true that a million people could read the same post, the reader still feels like they are hearing something not only for the first time, but written specifically for them.

These kinds of headings not only pique people’s interest more but search engines love them!

Jeremy Schoemaker, probably the most famous and most successful blogger and affiliate advertising specialist of recent times, outlines nine steps (odd number see?) to creating articles that attract readers and increase sales.

His first step is also to write headline that arouse curiosity, and he says you only need to pick up a tabloid or teen magazine to see how it works, they are always wanting you to know 37 ways you can please your girlfriend like never before or how you can drop 5 waist sizes before summer, celebrity tells all, or the 12 secrets that funeral homes don’t want you to know.

Jeremy says, “People are naturally curious, so use reverse psychology to draw them in. Your ‘insiders guide’ gives them what they’re not supposed to know. It’s top secret, in fact. So maybe the government, your spouse, your doctor, or someone else doesn’t want you to know – and therefore, it must be juicy!”

Another way to make your blogs stand out is to be a bit controversial. I don’t mean Perez Hilton-controversial (although his blog certainly stands out), but don’t just write about the same stuff everyone else in your niche is writing about – or if you do, maybe take a different opinion than theirs into your writing.

Let’s use the gym analogy again. If there are already a few blog posts on the safest way for pregnant women to exercise, why not write a post explaining why pregnant women should not exercise? You have to find something that’s interesting to people – even if it goes against what they particularly want to hear.

With that in mind, my number one tip for creating content is to blog honestly. If you are trying to shock or be controversial or go against the mainstream thinking on a certain topic – and you don’t believe it – that will come out in your writing. Likewise, if you really do believe the opposite view on a topic to most people and blog about that, it will be genuine to people.

Keep some human frailty in your writing and people will be interested, if not always happy.

So to make your blog stand out, get read and increase more traffic to your website and business, remember a few key points: blog often, blog honestly, don’t be afraid to be a bit controversial (as long as you are being honest), write about popular or topical current events, make lists, explain how to and share ‘secrets’.

If you are interested in finding out how I can help you grow your business by blogging, or for a obligation-free consultation, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594.

Have you had success starting a blog for your business? Have I missed any important points? Please let us know in the comments below.

In my last post, I discussed that one of the 4 components that every small business needs is a dynamic website. As a bonus addition, I asked Dean Collins and Justin Roberts from the premium graphic design and web solutions company, Big Click Studios, why they think every small business needs a website.

They replied, “Whether you’ve got five employees – or fifty – a website can be a critical business tool for small business. While the scope of your site will depend on your specific needs, there are some big benefits to establishing an online presence, starting with being where your customers are.

With a few exceptions, chances are that your customers spend a significant portion of their day – or at least their week – on the internet and most importantly, search engines are the way most people find new sites, and the way that most businesses find new sources for products and services.

Unlike other forms of marketing, your website has the potential to be a living, breathing thing. Provided you have content management capabilities built into your site, you can update it any time. This can enable you to be extremely current and respond to changes in the market as they happen.”

And not just where your customers are – but also where your competition almost certainly is. “Chances are that your competitors are already online. If they’re not, it’s a fantastic opportunity for you to seize market share. If you’re thinking of building a website, make sure you do your research and find out what your competitors are doing. Think about what you would do differently – and why a potential customer would choose your website over theirs.”

Price Point with Websites

I asked the guys about price. Does a website package have to be really expensive?

“Your website is one of the best investments you will ever make – and can be extremely cost effective. While you do pay for quality web design, web development and Search Engine Optimisation consulting services, a website certainly doesn’t require the same enormous investment as TV or radio advertising, and it also has the potential to deliver very low cost leads over time.

Plus, websites are flexible. You can start out small – and expand your website as your budget expands. And by investing in strategic initiatives like SEO and online advertising – or by registering with the right online directories – you can very easily and cost effectively drive users to your site.

Importantly, your website is completely measurable. By integrating proprietary analysis tools, or free software like Google Analytics into your site, you can determine who is going to your site, how long they’re staying for, which pages they’re visiting, and what they do while they are there. This enables you to discover quite in-depth information about your target audience, and determine how they are relating to you. You can also take advantage of this information to optimise your website over time.”

DIY Website Updating

So being a web designer is one thing, but could most of us small business owners look after our website ourselves?

“Provided your website is well designed and structured in the first place – you should be able to manage it independently, in house. This means you don’t need to be tied to an advertising or marketing agency for ongoing updates or promotions. Instead, you can assign ongoing marketing duties to your team, or take care of them yourself.

As well as reducing costs, this can make things more efficient and fast-paced – very important for small business.

Your Website’s Role in Customer Service

The guys went on to point out how important a website is in terms of your customer service effort as well.

“A website can enable you to service the needs of your customers – any time of the day or night. People can easily find out about your products and services – without having to call you or request more information. You can also publish regular updates to your site, and can also set up members-only areas, where existing customers can get exclusive updates that make them feel valued.

Importantly, your website can also function as an effective way to qualify customers as part of the sales process. Once customers have visited your website and reviewed your information, they will know whether or not your business is right for their needs. This means that when they contact you, they are already pre-qualified sales opportunities. In addition, by encouraging users to submit their details into online forms or tools, you can capture their information for ongoing marketing.

If appropriate, your website can even become a self-functioning sales tool. By integrating online purchasing tools, you can easily close the loop on the sales cycle – without you or any of your staff having to be directly or immediately involved.”

Remember, your website is like the shop front window used to be – the initial and therefore most important impression you can make with a customer. The majority of people leave a website before they have been on it for ten seconds so if you that first impression, you might have lost them forever.

Do you agree with Justin and Dean’s opinions about small business websites? Please let us know in the comments below.

Are you looking for a website for your business? Contact Big Click Studios for an obligation free quote.

A lot of small businesses in Australia start up and then fail in a relatively short time. Some are mismanaged, some have too narrow (or wide) a focus and some are just unlucky.

A lot of established businesses are failing, however, because of their inability to adapt and change to a new business – and new consumer environment in 2010.

People want to shop online, they want to review products and services online and they want to be listened to online. In short, the clever and successful businesses understand that social engagement is the way to build the brand and the customer base.

So what does every small business need to succeed in their social engagement effort in 2010? Four components: a dynamic but simple website, a sound Social Media Strategy, an old school component, and a consistent contact with your existing and potential database through email marketing that’s not spammy or annoying.

A Dynamic Website

You may already have a website, you may not. If you do have one, chances are you had it built by somebody else and it is from a template that is tried and true – and which you probably thought you paid way too much for. Regardless, a website is probably the most necessary online tool your business needs – as long as it does what you want it to.

There are a few things that each small business website must definitely have. The first is functionality, it must be easy to use.

There is a great temptation among small business owners to make their websites full of great graphics, flashing images, galleries and flash pages that take thirty seconds to open even on the highest speed broadband.

All of this might look great and make you feel great about your site, but they really annoy everyone else – particularly your customers who need to find something quickly on your site and are forced to endure a whole lot of time-wasting features first.

So if you have a website, take a good objective look at it. Does it load up straight away, does it have any graphics or sound which might be annoying, especially if people view it from their desk when they should be working, and it is generally easy to navigate around with the most obvious sections people go to websites for – the contact details and topical updates – clearly visible and easy to find?

If the answer to any of that is no, then do something about it now. And if you can’t physically do the changes yourself without the help of your webmaster, think about changing to a platform that is easier for you to update and make changes to yourself.

Your site should have the ability to display fresh and dynamic content, or at the very least link out to your blog directly from the menu. This helps with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as well as providing a more engaging experience for your site’s visitors. If a website looks exactly the same and has exactly the same content on it every time a visitor looks at it they will stop looking pretty quickly. Wouldn’t you?

The exception to that are straight e-commerce sites with a ready made audience which just needs the facility to purchase a certain product.

You should be able to embed images or video easily into the front page which should also be dynamic and constantly changing. This helps to provide a much more engaging experience and also allows you to show some of your own branding and individuality on the web page.

There should be some availability to include affiliate advertising somewhere on the page or in its sidebars if you want to. These are advertisements by other businesses whereby when a visitor to your site clicks on the ad and then goes through to the advertiser’s site and makes a purchase, you get a commission from the sale.

These can be a very handy secondary income stream to a fledgling small business but you should be careful not to turn your website into a cluttered billboard of other people’s ads, this can be very off-putting for your readership and sometimes smack of desperation.

I believe the three most important inclusions on any small business website, however, are clearly visible links away from the site to social networking platforms that you participate in, a database inclusion form, and a link for your readers to subscribe to your Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed.

Social Networking Links

You should try to make it as easy as possible for your readership to be able to interact with you and the easiest way for them to do that is through the social networking platforms that you participate in. Including a badge that links to your business’ Facebook Page or your Twitter feed is simple and can be quite unobtrusive. You should try to find a way to make it more compelling for your readership to follow you on social networking sites and one of the best ways to do that is by promoting them directly on your website.

Database Inclusion Forms

These can be seen by some as a sinister and unsafe thing to fill in. Conspiracy theories abound that the government is going to get your hotmail address and somehow use it to launch missiles etc. etc.

You should really want to grow your database though, so you should try to make your database inclusion form as benign and simple looking as possible, maybe just ask for people’s name or email address only.

Also, think about something cheap or free that pertains to your business or market that you can give away in return for people signing up to your database. An email newsletter, a free e-book or white paper works particularly well.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

I believe RSS is one of the of the most under-used and under-valued applications available to online business owners today. RSS is basically a way for your readership to be automatically updated, either into their email inbox or into their RSS Reader, that the content on your site has changed, for instance with a new blog post.

There are two things that you should keep in mind when trying to encourage people to subscribe to your RSS feed: hardly anyone knows what it even is, and people are even less likely to see the value of it without you showing it to them. Make the link to the RSS feed very obvious, not tucked away at the bottom of the page. Also consider having a bit of text above the link explaining just what RSS is and how it would help your readership keep up with any changes they might be interested in so that they don’t miss anything.

In the next installment, I will go into detail about the importance of a small business having a sound Social Media Strategy.

If you would like to see how I can help you improve your current website, or show you how to build an impressive but simple and functional website for your small business, call me TODAY on 02 4324 2594.

Do you agree or disagree with any of my advice in this post? Do you have any other tips or suggestions to share with my readership about building the perfect small business website? Please let us know in the comments below.

Bonus Interview

I interviewed Justin Roberts and Dean Collins from Big Click Studios about whether a small business really needs a website. You can check out the interview in full by clicking here.