What can a blog coach do to help your business?
There is no one definition of a “blog coach” and no solitary reason for which a business owner would seek blogging support. That being the case, I wanted to outline what I do as a blog coach and the types of clients with whom I work. Additionally, I’ve provided some suggestions as to the crucial questions to ask before you hire your own blog coach.
What I can do as your blog coach
- Translate technical jargon and more sophisticated features of blogging into simple, easy-to-understand concepts. Rather than getting stalled out because you don’t understand what an RSS feed, trackback, or blogroll is, I help my clients build enough general knowledge to become self-sufficient bloggers.
- Help you determine what design and organizational layout will best support your business objectives and your company brand. Many new bloggers don’t realize the flexibility that’s available in a blog design and therefore merely settle for the “standard layout.” I help you strategically think about what you want to emphasize on your blog and how to organize it to work best for you.
- Build a beautiful blog in WordPress that will strengthen your image, build your credibility, and support your key goals. Instead of just using a standard template that doesn’t fit your business or the goals you want to reach, I customize a blog design specifically for you and your business.
- Assist you in creating a marketing plan with a strong blogging component. Instead of relying on blogging as your “magic pill,” I can help you determine what group of activities and tools will best serve your marketing needs.
Clients I work with as a blog coach
- Coaches, consultants, service professionals. These people don’t have much technical expertise, yet want to be competent at maintaining their site. They want to use their blog to give people a “taste” or them/their style/their process and potentially sell products from their site.
- Professionals with outdated, ugly, or poor-performing websites. These people want to change and want the switch to be easy, cost-effective, and effective. Generally they don’t have the skills or time to do the work themselves.
- Business owners whose web designers no little or nothing about blogs. These people want a blog that coordinates with their existing site and they want to know how to use it effectively as a marketing and communications tool.
- Professionals with no existing website who are ready to claim their own piece of online real estate. Some of these individuals intend to take full advantage of the blog’s capability while others simply choose to have a fairly static site created using the WordPress blogging system.
What to learn before you hire your own blog coach
- What is it like to work with this coach? Read their testimonials and ask for references. Though you might not have the same needs or wants as their other clients, talking with these people will help give you a feel for the blog coach’s strengths, weaknesses, and work style.
- What specific skills or experience does the coach have? Are they a graphic designer with a blog specialization or are they a marketing professional with web design skills? Learn what expertise they can bring to bear for you.
- What is the estimated cost and timeline for the work? Know ahead of time, what the coach’s services will cost, how they do their billing (e.g., deposits, payment methods, going beyond the estimate, etc.), and how long the work is estimated to take.
- What are your responsibilities? Find out what the coach needs from or expects of you. This could be anything from access to your web hosting account and finished graphics files or regular feedback on the design in progress and the ability to upload your own plugins.
- What’s the end result? Though this might seem obvious, make sure that your vision of the end result is the same as the one held by the coach. For instance, they might think they’re simply creating a custom blog design that you will put up on your site yourself, add plugins, and maintain the blog yourself. Your vision might be that once they’ve created the design they’ll install it, test for any problems, and get all your desired plugins ready to use. Better to clear this up upfront than to have a misunderstanding to work through later.
- What blog system will you be using? Learn what system your coach recommends and why. Then make sure you think it’s a system you’ll be happy using over the long-haul. I use WordPress exclusively for customized blog designs, though I have provided some generic education for clients using Blogger. Other folks you might consider if you’re looking for help on a TypePad blog are Mike Sansone and Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff (The Blog Squad).
Of course you don’t have to hire a blog coach. You may have the skills, time, and interest in learning the ropes for yourself. However, if you are like many of the people with whom I’ve worked, knowing you have a partner (at least temporarily) in the blog creation process may help you navigate these waters more quickly, more effectively, and with more joy.
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The Coaches’ Blog Book — use a blog to market your coaching practice
If you want to attract new clients, provide value to your current clients, and build new business relationships, blogging is a
great tool to use. Using a blog as part of your marketing strategy isn’t necessarily straight-forward, however, so it’s good to have a helping hand on your blogging journey. To make it easy for every coach to learn how to use a blog as a marketing and communications tool, I’ve written The Coaches’ Blog Book: The 8 Building Blocks for Blogging Success.
Written in non-technical language that’s easy to understand, you’ll discover how you can use a blog to:
- Reach more potential clients
- Share your knowledge and wisdom
- Create greater cash flow
- Promote your products and services
The Coaches’ Blog Book is a workbook that you use to find the right answers for your practice (it’s not a cookie cutter process). View a PDF preview of the book or visit my publisher to purchase your own copy today.
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Blog statistics for business — What to monitor and why
If you’re blogging for business, monitoring and analyzing your blog stats must become part of your blogging routine. Personally I use three primary tools to measure the effectiveness of my blog. I monitor my blog traffic with Google Analytics, review the least utilized, most promising keywords with HitTail, and use FeedBurner Pro to analyze my blog’s feed.
Why blog statistics are important for business bloggers
There are numerous reasons that one of your regular blog-related activities should be reviewing your blog statistics. Here are four of the most important.
- Your blog statistics keep you focused. Unlike personal blogging, knowing your blogging goals and whether or not you’re reaching them is vital to your success. Looking at your statistics, you will know if you have achieved your goals, are making progress, or are off-track.
- Blog statistics help you plan effectively. By knowing how people are coming to your site, what they’re reading, and what actions they’re taking, you can make more thoughtful choices about such things as where to advertise, with whom you want to collaborate or exchange links, and which posts to highlight.
- Statistics can help you earn money (and save it too). By knowing your number of visitors and feed subscribers, you can ask to be compensated fairly for advertising you run on your site or feed. If you know you’re already drawing a lot of traffic from search engines for certain keywords then you can skip or eliminate the pay-per-click advertising.
- Blog stats can wake you up. Whether you’ve underestimated the value of your blog or have gotten complacent about adding value, knowing your statistics will give you a snapshot of reality.
Which blog statistics matter most?
As with almost any blog-related discussion, my answer to this question is “It depends.” Here are a few pieces of advice I can offer.
- Your blogging goals should determine which statistics you track/monitor. For example, if one of your goals is to turn one-time visitors into regular readers, you’ll want to look at your “% new visits” statistics in Google Analytics or your “subscribers” totals in FeedBurner.
- You might monitor the same stats all the time or you might analyze certain stats only for specific purposes. For instance, when I was preparing for a redesign of MyBlogCoach, I looked at what Google Analytics could tell me about what browser use and screen resolutions were most common among my visitors. I then optimized my site for those people, knowing that they made up the majority of my traffic.
- Make certain that you use whatever statistics you track. Though plugins and simple javascript can make tracking statistics a simple process, if you’re not going to use the stats don’t waste your time setting them up. Make the process as simple as possible even if that means you track only one thing. Just track and analyze it consistently.
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support rather than for illumination.”
~ Andrew Lang
Want to learn WordPress and create your own business blog the easy, cost-effective way? Check out the sizzling summer special of my Simple, Successful Blogging Audio Course. Just $47 for 12-hours of audio lessons and PDF workbook. Buy your copy today!
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What are the best plugins for your blog?
Answer: It depends. Yes, that’s my initial response to many questions about blogging, but it’s not because I’m attempting to be coy or evasive. It’s my answer because it’s true. The best plugins (added features for your blog) will vary from blog to blog depending on the purpose of the blog, the goals of the blogger, and the other tools they have at their disposal.
Plugins I recommend for business bloggers
- FeedBurner FeedSmith (formerly Feed Replacement) — FeedBurner (FB) has many free features that you’ll want to take advantage of. Some of these tools are even used outside your blog. For instance, in my email signature I use FB to show rotating headlines from my latest blog posts. I also send blog posts via email thanks to FB.
- Subscribe to Comments — Allows site visitors to subscribe to comments to a post (Handy for when folks post a question and want to know when you’ve posted an answer.)
- Angusman’s Feed Copyrighter — Places a message at the end of your feed saying your content is copyrighted. Most of my readers are feed readers (versus those of you reading this on my blog itself), so it’s important to me to have certain plugins that work specifically with my feed.
- WordPress Database Backup — Keeps your data safe. Also allows for your backups to be done automatically at regular intervals so it becomes one less task on your “to do” list.
- Subscribe Remind — At the beginning or end of each post, this plugin adds text that reminds your readers that they can subscribe to your blog’s feed. Helps with retention of first time visitors/readers.
- Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form — Allows people to contact you without leaving you vulnerable to spam floods. There are several colors/styles of forms to choose from so you’ll likely find something that complements your theme.
- Contextual Related Posts — Shows “related posts” to highlight relevant content for your readers. Helps them discover previous posts without searching through your archives.
- No Self Pings — When you reference your own posts, you don’t ping yourself (basically showing your excerpt as a trackback).
- LinkLove — “Thank” your regular commenters with this plugin that removes the “nofollow” attribute allowing search engine spiders to follow the link they leave when the comment. I like this plugin because you can specify how many comments earn someone the designation as a “regular commenter.”
- Viper’s Video Quicktags — If you use video on your site, this plugin makes it easy to add the links as you’re composing your post.
Other’s “plug” their top blog plugins
- David Airey shares his Top 5 essential WordPress Plugins, reminding us of why we use plugins in the first place, to “improve user-friendliness and functionality.”
- Lorelle VanFossen offers an extensive list of plugins for images, photographs, and graphics. Chances are if an image-related plugin exists, it’s on this page.
- Arpit Jacob offers up a list of plugins, most of which focus on back-end issues so they’re helpful to the blogger. I look forward to checking out WP Plugins Tracker and WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin.
- Vlad Akilov posted a thorough list of WordPress Plugins that run the gamut from fun to functional.
You’re welcome to vote for your favorite plugin or share one that’s not listed here. Of course you could also have a little fun and add a comment about the plugin you’ve been dreaming of (some developer may just come along and create it for you). 
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Why blogging isn’t as easy as some say (but it can be easier)
“Create a blog in 3 easy steps: 1. Create an account, 2. Name your blog, 3. Choose a template.”~ Blogger Instructions
“It’s [a blog] easy to start and maintain. You don’t need an IT staff or a degree in computer science to start a TypePad blog. Designing your blog is point-and-click, and updating your blog is simpler than sending an email. You can be up and running in minutes.”
~ TypePad Instructions
There is no dishonesty in the two statements above; however they are misleading.
Key blogging distinctions
- Creating a blog and blogging are two entirely different things.
- Using a cookie-cutter template and having a customized blog are two more entirely different things.
- Personal blogging and blogging for business are entirely different.
- Having a blog and using a blog effectively are entirely different.
- Having an easy-to-use blog system and having a strategic blogging plan are entirely different too.
These distinctions aren’t what the people at Blogger and TypePad tell you. Why? It’s not a conspiracy to inflate your expectations and then let you down. Most of the “free” hosted systems (Blogger, TypePad, wordpress.com) are catering to personal bloggers for whom design, flexibility, and the overall process aren’t that important. For this kind of blogger, the distinctions above don’t matter that much. As a person using a blog for business, however, everything about your blog matters.
Key components of the business blogging process
All of these items are covered in detail during my Simple, Successful Blogging Program, a 10-week group blogging course designed to help business owners plan and launch a blog for their company and customers.
- Know the purpose behind your blog.
- Know who you’re blogging for and what’s important to them.
- Know what will sustain your passion for blogging once the newness has faded.
- Develop specific goals and know how to evaluate your progress.
- Organize your blog in a way that best helps you achieve your goals.
- Have a plan for promoting your blog online and offline.
- Develop a blogging practice that you can maintain easily over time.
In addition to developing the components listed above, as a Simple, Successful Blogging participant, you will:
- install WordPress on your own web host — this step gives you the blogging system from which you’ll do all your amazing work
- add the key plugins (added features) — this step ensures that your blog is user-friendly and highly functional for both you and your readers
- learn how to use most of the functions of WordPress — this step helps you learn your way around WordPress so your time blogging can be as fruitful as possible
By the time you complete the program, you will have learned what you need to be a successful business blogger.
So the bad news is that blogging is NOT easy, despite what you’ve read/heard. The good news is that business blogging can be easier, more effective, and more enjoyable if you take part in my Simple, Successful Blogging Program. Early bird pricing is in effect until August 16, 2007. Space is limited.
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Save time when you blog with these free resources
“By labor we can find food and water, but all of our labor will not find for us another hour.”~ Kenneth Patton
Whether you’re blogging for your business or for your hobby, it’s important essential to use your time efficiently. I learned some awesome time saving blogging techniques and tools at the BlogHer07 conference held in Chicago at the end of July. Barb Dybwad (who blogs at Weblogs, Inc. at AOL, Joystiq, geeked., and Engadget) and Gina Trapani (who blogs at Lifehacker) shared these efficiency ideas. Now it’s time to pass on some of their pearls of productivity wisdom and time-saving links.
Tools that save you time when blogging
- Type your blog posts faster with these tools — TextExpander and Texter (easy text expansion for common blogging markup, like href’s and blockquotes); AutoCopy for Firefox (never Ctrl+C again!); and CoLT Firefox extension (copy entire formatted links with text AND HTML). If you don’t use FireFox, get it now.
- Transfer files to/from your site without opening new software by using FireFTP in-Firefox.
- Add a multi- “bookmark this” icon to your site’s front page or to every post using AddThis.
- Easily submit and promote your posts to about 20 social bookmarking sites with Onlywire.
- Get every other time-saving tool, tip, and trick that Barb and Gina shared (and a few, fun time-wasting ones too
).
Other resources for using your blogging time effectively
- “Just remember: you don’t HAVE TO do anything,” says Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek. Read Darren Rowse’s interview of Tim where time-saving tips are liberally offered.
- Anne-Marie Nichols, of The Write Spot live blogged Barb and Gina’s session at BlogHer. Get the links they shared as well as Anne-Marie’s notes.
- Learn 6 time saving tips for interacting with your readers from Patric-Herber.
What tools save you time when you blog? What tool would you like to find?
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Take these simple steps to create exceptional blog content
Blogs make it so easy to add content to your website that it’s possible to publish a post before it’s really ready. On the other hand, such ease may also mean that your blog is more conversational and engaging than much of the highly polished brochure lingo featured on more traditional websites. So, how do know when your post is ready to publish?
Basic guidelines for creating exceptional blog content
Before I offer my suggestions, let’s clarify what I mean by “exceptional.” WordNet defines exceptional as, “far beyond what is usual in magnitude or degree; surpassing what is common or usual or expected.” When I think of exceptional blog posts, I think of posts that are well crafted, clearly written, tell a compelling story, provide useful information, and are easy on the eyes). These are posts that I want to share with others, link to, comment on, and thank the author for. Below are my specific suggestions on creating your own exceptional blog content.
- Write about what your readers care about. This is the starting point. If your subject matter isn’t of interest to your audience, it makes no difference how well it’s written or how slick it looks.
- Write about what you care about. Passion stirs creativity that can lead to posts that are more compelling to read. This will help ensure that the process will be enjoyable for you as well.
- Use the tools of great writers. Yes, the dictionary, thesaurus, and grammar and punctuation guides are meant for bloggers too. Misspeled words, typ0s, and incorrect grammar looks bad (Yes, I cringed as I wrote that sentence. Yes, I desperately wanted to correct it before publication.)
- Read what you write aloud. Before clicking the “publish” button, print out a copy of your post (use your recycled paper, please) and read what you’ve written out loud. This can help you find errors, clarify when necessary, and assure that your text flows smoothly.
- Use another set of eyes. For posts of significant length or those that are particularly important or meaningful, ask another talented writer to review what you’ve written to ensure that it’s ready for public consumption. You might even consider hiring a copy editor to proof everything you publish if you’re blogging for your business.
- Pause before publishing. Many times, especially if intense emotion is fueling your writing, publishing right away may not allow you to produce the best work possible. Consider writing every post as a draft, giving yourself a day (or at least a few hours) between typing it and transmitting it to the wide world. You may not change a thing, yet at least you’ll have the chance to do so before your entire readership sees your work.
- Consider adding enhancements. A quote, graphic, and links to other people’s ideas, though optional, may make a good post a great one. Prior to publishing, take a look at your post in the preview mode to determine what might make it more visually appealing, readable, or valuable to your audience. Small changes like adding an ordered list (1, 2, 3) or an unordered list (like this one) or shifting some copy into italics or bold can polish off your post and bring it that sense of completion.
Other’s advice for anyone writing and publishing professional blogs
As I often do, I now share several links from other authors about how you can effectively write and publish content for your blog.
- 11 things to do before publishing your blog post from Weblog Tools Collection
- Ten practical posts about writing effectively for business
- Professional writing advice from the editors at Proof-Reading.com
- Liz Strauss’ pre-publishing checklist for creating search engine worthy blog content
- Top 10 blog writing tips (check the bonus at the end for the pre-publish reminders)
If you cultivated just one new pre-publishing blogging habit, what would it be?
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Expert tips to improve your blog (for free)
You’ve done everything you can think of to create a great blog. Perhaps you’ve overlooked, or didn’t even know of some other ways to maximize your blog to the greatest effect. Well, thanks to Douglas Karr at The Marketing Technology Blog, you can get free blogging tips. Learn how you can get Douglas to, “spend a couple minutes reviewing your layout, usability, SEO, and your latest posts to find something that will help tweak your website or blog.”
“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
~ Dr. Denis Waitley
Happy tipping folks! Thanks Douglas (and thanks to Dawud Miracle for alerting me to this great offer.)
