Never underestimate the power of the blog

By now, you know how important it is to have a blog, right? Whatever business you’re in, blogging is a must. It helps you and your business in so many ways. Blogging can bring more traffic to your site, help to establish your expertise, add compelling content to an otherwise stagnant website, help you build a community of loyal followers, and much more.

Blogs are now more powerful and more popular than ever. Which means your target market probably has several big bloggers in it already. The competition for most good keywords is fierce so you need some kind of trick or strategy to get your blog to the top and noticed before your competitors.

Here are the Atkins Biz blogging tips to get you noticed in just 30 days:

1. Hit Social Media Hard – This might fall under the category of “duh” but social media is an excellent tool for driving traffic to your blog. Using Twitter and Facebook, as well as LinkedIn, YouTube, and others, depending on your focus, can help you build and strengthen a community around your blog and your brand. Of course the trick is to do it right. Without going into thousands of words on how to “do it right,” for now, just remember that people want value. That means posting interesting, compelling, and/or entertaining information on a consistent basis. You’re going to tell your connections and followers about your blog on social media, but that’s not all you should talk about, or it will not work.

2. Get Involved in Forums – One outstanding way to connect with others who have the same interests as you is to participate in online forums. When you become active on a forum, like the one here on YoungEntrepreneur.com, people who might not have otherwise seen or heard of your site will notice you. Just like social media, though, you’ve got to do it right. Rather than promoting your own stuff, help people out, answer questions, ask questions, and truly participate. This will raise your credibility and get people wondering who you are and what you do.

3. Make it Easy to Share – Your blog readers shouldn’t have to search around for a re-tweet or Facebook ‘like’ button on your posts. In fact, they won’t. If it’s not easy for them to share your blog content, they just won’t share it. So make sure every post has an easy method for your readers to send it out to their social media and email connections. You can bet that any post that’s ever gone viral has had this element.

4. Give to Receive – Much like you need to do for social media and forum marketing, it’s a good idea to visit other blogs and provide value in their comments sections. Comment marketing is a topic all in itself, because there are so many advantages to commenting on other blogs. For instance; you might build a relationship with the writer of the blog; you’ll build credibility with their audience – if you’re taking the time to provide value, not just “cool post”; and you’ll give people a reason to check out your own site – again, if your comments are good.

There are other techniques and factors involved in increasing your blog traffic, such as SEO, SEM, site design, and of course, content. But the above actions can be completed in a short amount of time each day and can make a big difference in the amount of traffic you pull in. Do them consistently, and you’re likely to start seen results in 30 days or less.

Or, if you know you need a blog but are too busy to a) write on it or b) promote it – we can help. Visit our social media marketing page for more details. We already ghost write and are the outsourcing provider for several Hastings based businesses.