Blogs: Elements and Design 2

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We will continue our discussion about blogs and the elements that make them up and how to use them to your best benefit.

Once you have the basics of naming your blog, designing the theme, and getting the page the way you want it, you will want to focus on the content of the blog.  That means understanding how to make an effective post that takes a reader through the promo chain rather than giving them great content that leads them nowhere.

Now as I said before, some blogs are designed more as sites than as blogs, and that is fine if yours is that way.  But I would encourage you to still update the top page with new content periodically.  After all, if I’ve read your whole site, why should I come back?  That, to me, is the magic of blogs.

I went for a lot of years with a website and updating it was no fun.  Worse, I had no effective way of pointing people to my new content.  Blogs change that with the ability to let people subscribe and the ability to easily update your content.

Before we get into setting up your posts, let’s review a few points:

1)  Push-Pull Marketing (part of your blog posts will be pull, part will be push)

2)  The Promo Chain (taking a reader from the hook through to the Jump)

3)  Riding the Wave Marketing (setting up and going through a campaign)

4)  Stacking Waves (creating lots of landing pages in various places to be able to promo, your blog is the primary place to do this)

With those in mind, let’s look at a typical post and how to pull-push through the promo chain…

A great post starts with great info.  Have something valuable to say to your readers.  For me on my Spirit Light Books blog, I focus on how Christianity is found in very everyday circumstances. I post about Sunday School lessons I’ve taught, lessons from my kids and friends as well as from things I’ve read and watched.  My central focus is to add value and understanding to my reader’s spiritual journey.  Once in awhile I’ll post about my writing, but even then I try to have some lesson attached that I’ve learned.

So the first thing you want to do is:  Add value.  Don’t make the post all about you.  Give the reader something GREAT they can take away, learn from, and use in their own lives.

You will want to add three things to your post for optimal SEO (search engine optimization):

Pictures — and be sure to use your alternative text to put in keywords!

Categories — Don’t do these haphazardly.  Think in terms of Google Adwords.  You will notice that this G&F Marketing blog is not done that way.  That’s because this blog is focused on YOU, the G&F member, not the general public or even book marketers in general.  It’s not to promote me.  It’s to help you.  However, take a look at my Ebook Romance Stories blog:  http://ebookromancestories.com  Look at the list of categories along the right side in the side column.  All of them are keywords from my Google Adwords searches and I add the ones that fit each post.  The more you can use your keywords in your content, the greater the chance your blog will climb the charts in Google.

Tags — Again, USE YOUR KEYWORDS!  Can you reuse category words?  Absolutely!  Use every keyword you can think of, starting with your main two or three every time.  The more you do this, the higher your site will be placed in Google, and the more people will be able to find you.  Don’t get stingy with tags either.  Use as many as you can think of.  Make a list of them when you’re doing your Google Adwords searches.  The tags on my Ebook Romance Stories post are found at the bottom of each post.

Now that your content is in place, you’ve got your pictures set up and your categories and tags done, you’re done, right?

Not so fast.

Here is the place that for YEARS my marketing stopped.  Big mistake!

You’ve done everything else on the Promo Chain, but finally, you MUST have a way for the reader to Jump to the next landing page!

For me now that I understand this, I have put a jump to something else of mine on every single new post I do.  To see samples of this, you can go here, here, or here.  Scroll to the bottom of each article to see major jumps (those with pictures of a cover that links to the Amazon page, and links to Amazon and B&N) and minor jumps (a simple text link to my other sites).

Make SURE you put a jump tag on every post.  This one, simple thing can make a huge difference in your marketing.  And if you’re like I used to be, don’t think of it as promoting yourself but rather promoting friends (your books) that you really believe in!  That helps!

Have fun marketing!