The five most common new blogger mistakes are:

Diving in (rather than wading in)

Having unrealistic expectations

Losing focus

Plagiarizing

Ignoring the reader

Diving in! Many bloggers are so anxious to get started that they dive in rather than wading in slowly — its a mistake in an unfamiliar swimming pool or pond and its a mistake when entering a new arena such as the ‘blogosphere.’ Consider these things before you start your Blog:

Find a focus for your blog . . . a focus that reflects what you know, what interests you and what you enjoy talking and writing about. No topics are out of bounds: politics, religion, science, sexual orientations, comedy, exercise, diet, diseases, etc., etc..

Take the time to read dozens of different blogs: note the colors, graphics and layouts to get an idea of what appeals to you. Also note that some bloggers are long-winded and others are brief and to the point . . . others are just chatty and entertaining and have no particular point to make . . . this too is a personal style you get to choose.

You need a host for your blog, some are free, some charge a small amount per month for their service, some are simple to use and some require more technical knowledge, some have more features than others; choose carefully, once you’ve established your blog and have a few regular readers you may not want to change your address (your URL).

You may or may not want to use your real name on your blog, this depends on many factors, not the least of which is your stance on controversial issues and how publicly you want to be identified with your opinions.

Unrealistic expectations! If you come to blogging expecting instant results: a large readership and many complimentary comments, you may be disappointed. There are tens of thousands of blogs online vying for the same audience. Patience and tenacity are essential on your part. If you write well, find a unique niche to fill, have appealing titles for your posts and tirelessly promote your blog the readership and comments (some of which will be complimentary) will come.

Losing focus! When you started your blog you had a particular reason for doing so; it might have been to express your views on a topic or it might have been to just communicate with a close circle of friends about your daily activities. Readers will come to your blog for the first time and either be interested in your subject matter or not, will either like your style or not and, if they like your subject and style they may comment and then come back later. Once you’ve established a topic and tone for your blog you’re free to change it but to do so you’re basically starting all over.

Be aware that you can have more than one blog, each one devoted to a particular topic and each one, if you choose, under a different identity.

Plagiarizing! There are some great bloggers out there and as you surf through blogs you might find one who said something really well, something that resonated with you and something you want to put in your blog. DON’T just copy and paste someone’s words in your blog without giving them credit, making it look to the world like the words are yours. If you write it, write it in your own words and write it better, adding your own thoughts and feelings and then be gracious, mention where you got the idea and provide a link.

Ignoring the reader! Some of the people who read your blog will leave comments; some readers will agree with you and some readers may even praise your insights but most will pick a point you’ve made and criticize it. People leave comments on others blogs for the same reason they themselves blog, to exchange ideas and express their points of view. Always respond to your readers comments; thank them for reading and taking the time to comment (even the severe critics) and then respond, as appropriate, to their comment. If you ignore your comments your readers may end up ignoring your blog.

If your business seems to be affected by the “feast or famine” cycle, then I want to show you an easy, smart, simple, quick and inexpensive way to start alleviating this condition.

It’s called small business blogging.

Basically, you start a business blog, then write about your business and publish the information online through your blog.

Let me explain why this is a very smart thing to do, and how it can help you ride the ups and downs of small business life.

First of all, starting a business blog is simpler, quicker, cheaper and easier to do than setting up a small business web site. In a moment, I’ll share with you some valuable blog marketing tips you will want to know about when starting a business blog.

Secondly, by adding regular content to your blog that educates people about the benefits of your business, products and services, you will not only create more trust and authority with potential customers online when they visit your site, but you will also increase visibility and exposure for your business in your particular market sector.

So … how will this help you successfully manage the “feast or famine” cycles that most small business owners experience?

Well, in times of “feast”, you can simply refer people to relevant posts you have made on your blog that provide them with the information they are looking for. Every business owner is familiar with the sometimes frustrating experience of having their valuable time taken up with the usual explanations of how, why, what, when and where certain aspects of their business are done. Rather than spend 30-45 minutes or more repeating the same thing over and over again to luke-warm prospects, why not write an article about it and post it to your blog? Then, the next time someone calls you and asks you to explain this very same thing, rather than waste an hour of your or your staff’s time, just ask them for their email address and send them a link to your blog page where you have posted this information. Your prospect can then research the subject in their own time and call you back when they are ready to move to the next step.

Now … if, in your blog you have set up a way for people to opt-in to a database (such as a newsletter subscription form, or special report), then you have already taken an important step towards ensuring that your business can survive in times of famine. When work slows down, you can contact your list subscribers with special offers, or send them information about products or services they may want to consider buying from you.

By incorporating small business blog marketing into your regular business activities, you will be providing genuine service to those you cannot service immediately, as well as creating a prospecting pipeline for leaner times.

5 Essential Small Business Blog Marketing Tips

Small Business Blog Marketing Tip #1 – Host Your Business Blog On Your Own Domain

Although many small businesses set up their business blog on blogging platforms that offer free hosting, this can be a costly mistake in the long run. It also indicates that the business owner is not aware of what a valuable asset a business blog can be. By setting up a blog on your own domain, you are ensuring that all traffic, content and links pointing back to your blog pages are growing the value of your web property and not someone else’s, and also that they won’t suddenly disappear if, for, example, you decide to take your business to the next level and change blogging platforms or switch hosting providers.

Small Business Blog Marketing Tip #2 – Set Up Your Business Blog Using A WordPress Blog

WordPress provides an ideal business blogging platform (hosted on your own domain, of course). WordPress is free, and supports an active community of plugin developers and professional designers who have created thousands of plugins that can add incredible functionality and powerful flexibility to your blog, as well as thousands of professional themes you can use to completely change the look and feel of your business blog. Best of all, most WordPress plugins and themes can be downloaded free of charge, and customized for your own business use in many instances.

Small Business Blog Marketing Tip #3 – Automate Your Business Blog Marketing SEO And Search Engine Indexing Functions

Although a WordPress blog is quite easy to install and set up, the default installation is quite basic and lacks most of the functionality you need to ensure that your content is automatically optimized for ranking better than your competition in the search engines, as well as getting quickly indexed and added to the search results of all the major search engines and blog directories. This is by no means a “negative”, as WordPress allows you to quickly add all of this functionality by simply installing and activating certain plugins. All you need to do is spend a little time learning which plugins work best together to deliver this important automation to your blog.

Small Business Blog Marketing Tip #4 – Add New Content Regularly To Your Business Blog

Every small business owner I have ever met carries an incredible amount of information in their brains about their business, their industry, expert tips on buying, installing and using their products and services, benefits and features, comparison data on competitor products and services, etc … In short, there is no shortage of information to provide potential new customers with. Many small business owners, however, don’t fully understand how much leverage they can generate for their business by turning this information into “sales bait,” i.e. short informative articles, announcements, interesting posts, news releases, answers to faqs, etc … that can attract the attention of people searching online for what you can help deliver, educate and engage prospective customers, and funnel visitors into a process that delivers not only great value and service every step of the way, but that can ultimately lead to new customers and new sales for your business.

Having a simple plan to add 1-3 articles per week to your business blog can lead to amazing results. As I have just stated, there is no shortage of information when it comes to thinking of things to write about your business. If you commit to investing as little as 20 – 30 minutes a day to blogging activities, you can transform your business quite rapidly.

Divide your business blogging time as follows:

- Spend 40% of your time researching topics to write about. Start an ideas file and add to it every day – even just the title of a blog post will do.
- Spend 40% of your time writing your article. Open up a simple notepad text file and just write on a topic the same way as you would if you were explaining something to a prospect one-on-one. Keep the style conversational, use your own voice and don’t worry about editing anything until you finish writing at least 500 – 700 words (4-5 short paragraphs)
- Spend 20% of your time editing and proofing what you have written, then publish it. You can always easily edit your post later if you need to add, modify or delete sections of your post.

Using the above blogging activity schedule, if you invest just 20 minutes a day, five days a week into growing a business blog, you will spend a total of 40 minutes researching (e.g. reading other blogs for topics to write about), 40 minutes writing your post(s), and 20 minutes editing and proofing your article. This is enough time to add one or three new posts every week or so, and start growing your business online. Keep this commitment for one whole month to get the blogging habit and do this for 3 months before evaluating your performance and your results. I guarantee you will be more than pleasantly surprised!

Small Business Blog Marketing Tip #5 – Use Your Business Blog Performance Data To Improve Your Business Results

As a small business blog marketer, your goal is to deliver content that will attract new visitors to your site, engage and build trust with your readers, and then direct them to areas of your site where they can either get more information about the benefits of using your products and services, contact you for the next step, or place an order once they have made a decision to buy.

Setting up a simple information system that tracks where visitors to your blog are coming from, what keywords and phrases they are typing into search engines and other sites to find you, how long they stay on your blog when they visit and which pages they visit the most when they are browsing through your blog can all provide valuable information that you can then use to improve your business, deliver better customer service … even uncover a demand for new products and services.

I hope you have found this information useful and I wish you great business blogging success. For more information on how to start your own business blog, including step-by-step video tutorials on installing and using WordPress, automating your business blog marketing, setting up an information system to monitor your business blog performance and growing your business online faster with a blog, watch the video below or go here: Marketing Your Business With A Blog

If you keep yourself aware of these things you’ll know exactly what you need to do to combat the problems. You’ll be a better blogger with an great blog as a result.

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The three problems most bloggers deal with include:

* Burnout
* Sameness
* Lack of Focus

Let’s tackle this one-by-one!

The first problem is burnout. When you first got started with your blog the chances are good that you were really overjoyed. You had it in your mind that great things were going to happen. You probably also thought that the returns were going to be immediate. Soon enough, you realized that writing about the same topic all the time can be boring, and that it can take some time to bring in a great income.

It’s fine to feel frustrated! You should know, however, that these feelings are what can make or break you as a blogger. If you give up, you’ll never know what it’s like to be a successful blogger pulling in great money. If you manage to get past this frustration you can be extremely successful! The majority of bloggers give up, so make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

The next most common problem is sameness. This simply refers to the fact that it can be hard for bloggers to find their exact “niche”, Sure you know what your blog will be about – you might even have it very targeted. That doesn’t mean your blog will stand out from the crowd! In order for you to gain the most loyal following possible you need to do something that will put you above the others. You might run special contests, write in a unique “voice” using humor or other forms of unique writing, or just come up with something that is absolutely off the wall but that your visitors will love.

Finally, the last problem many bloggers face is the lack of focus. We’ve already discussed that it’s hard to stay motivated past the early stages, and this problem often leads to a lack of focus. You started out writing a blog about weddings, but you quickly got disenchanted and start blogging on a different site about sports instead. This goes back to the issue where you just need to push through. Even if you feel like you just can’t focus on this topic, you need to realize that jumping from one thing to the other will only hold you back from reaching your goals.

There are, of course, other problems that bloggers face as well. The difference between those who do well and those who give up is their determination. If you are determined to earn enough income to replace your job, for example, you’re going to need to know that these problems are there and come up with a battle plan to banish them forever.

Remember, blogging is wonderful, but it takes a unique mindset to really make it as a blogger.

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