Creating a Blog for the Local Business

Some local businesses can benefit by providing blog. Accountants, lawyers and other professionals can gain a lot of credibility and traffic by regularly publishing articles to their own blog. The reason it is great for professionals, is that they get paid for their knowledge and a blog gives them an opportunity to showcase their work. Not every local business will benefit by a blog, but ones that can provide regular updates and informative posts will benefit the most.
It is very easy to setup a blog for a local business. Many webhosts have a push button install of all the popular blogging platforms or you can use an online hosted version. Maintaining a blog with a host takes a little more work, but gives you more control. A hosted version can shut down a blog for any reason and then the local client will be without a very valuable asset. Once the blog is setup then a theme can be installed to give it a nice look. There are many themes available to download for free or you can hire a designer to create a custom look for your client. Sometimes the blog can be the only web presence for the local professional or it can be a supplement to their main website.
It is important to train the local business owner on how to post content to the blog. Create an account separate from the admin account, so they don't accidently change any of the settings you have configured. Show them how to save a draft and then publish it for all to see. Once they understand how it works you can let them go on their own.
The local business professional should make regular posts to get the best result from the blog. The search engines love fresh content and it will help with their SEO rankings. The posts should be informative and give a reason for the reader to stick around. The idea is to show the professionals knowledge and establish credibility as a local expert. Many times a prospect will search the web first to find information about their situation. If they find a lot of information from a local source then they are more likely to hire them.
This is a great service for you to offer and can be highly effective in the right situation. Just remember that not every local business needs a blog and only suggest it for the ones that can provide regular and informative posts.

WordPress Blogging Checklist

Got a WordPress blog set up? Check and ensure these steps have been completed.

1. Latest WordPress version

When you log into your dashboard check whether there is an alert for you to update your blog
If you see an alert like this, you need to update your blog.

2. Similarly if you see a message next to the plugins you need to update them.


3. Check the plugins page to ensure you have got "Google XML Sitemaps".

Affiliate WordPress Theme

Top 3 Ways to Come Up With Topics for Blog Posts

The more you blog, the more difficult you might find it to come up with new topics to write about. You may start to feel burned out -- like there is nothing more you could possibly say about this niche topic. Thankfully, that is never true! Here are the three top ways you can always come up with fresh topics to blog about.

1. You might want to turn to Google first. Google has a great real-time search engine built into its regular search engine. Search for your keyword or niche, then click the "show options" link at the top. Then, you can sort the results by those that have happened with them last instant, 24 hours, week, and so on. Take note of the things people are talking about when the results appear. You can even sort by blogs, news outlets, and others. Take note of the latest news that has sparked some interest and debate. If you are interested in an article, blog post, news release, etc., read it and try to generate ideas for your own blog post.

2. Another way you can come up with topics is to head on over to Amazon.com and search for books in your niche. One of the great things about books on Amazon is that they often have a "search inside" feature. Look for the table of contents after you've selected to search inside. Publishers have spent a lot of money to research exactly what the table of content should include! These topics are what are of interest to those in your niche. Doing this can definitely spark some ideas for topics you might want to blog about, or even help you think of whole categories for your blog.

3. Finally, niche forums are amazing for idea generation. Look for forums within your niche and sort them by the most viewed or the most replied to posts. Take notes on what people are talking about -- think about why they get heated up, and why they are discussing this particular topic. Then, you can address some of these concerns on your own blog. In fact, this is an excellent way to generate some ideas for link bait topics!

Coming up with content ideas is not always easy on your own, but thankfully the Internet makes it simple. It's always a great thing when you can use the tools at your disposal to make sure you're covering the best topics for those in your niche.

Make Money By Setting Up Blogs for Others

The chances are good that you have learned a lot about blogging by now -- so much that you feel like you are an expert! There are many people out there who do not have the training that you have had. They think of the word "blog" and feel very intimidated about running one themselves. That means that you can make even more money by offering to set up blogs for people and businesses!

There are a few different ways you can make this happen. You can actually do all of the work; choosing a domain name, doing the market and keyword research, setting up the script, writing the content, and setting up the monetization. You can even maintain the blog on an ongoing basis for your clients. This can net you quite a bit of ongoing work and income! It all depends on how you present your offer, and what type of clients you go after (for instance, you will probably make more setting up a blog for an "offline" client than you will for someone who wants a blog geared toward affiliate marketing).

If you find that you enjoy writing the content but not the technical aspects of it so much, you can earn money by writing blog posts for people. You can even outsource this writing to others, and act as a middle-man. It's definitely possible to earn some excellent income as a ghost-blogger.

You may be wondering how you would go about setting up this type of business. First, people are going to want to see examples of your work. You might want to showcase your own blog so they know what you're capable of. Make sure they understand that you will take their wishes into account, and that your own blog is reflective of your personal style. Then, you may want to make a website offering your services. You can drive traffic to this website by putting it in your signature file on Internet marketing and business forums, and by talking about what you do on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

As you start to get some clients, they will hopefully be so pleased with your work that they refer you to other people. It's a great thing when you become a blogging master since everyone wants to run their own blog these days! You can even purchase reseller hosting and offer hosting packages for people so their blog is completely hands off for them. The sky is truly the limit when you take this on as another stream of income for yourself.

The Importance of Backing Up Your Blog

It can be very easy to get caught up in how fun it is to run your own blog. People do not want to think about the chance that something could go wrong. Unfortunately, sometimes servers crash, files get messed up or lost, or something else inconceivable happens. That is the main reason why backing up your content and your blog as a whole is extremely important.

At the bare minimum, you'll want to keep copies of your blog posts on your hard drive. That way you can get up and running quickly should anything ever happen to your blog. This is especially important if you're using a hosted solution such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com, since they can take your content down without warning.

Unfortunately, doing this will not be enough as your blog starts to grow and you put more work into it. That is why you'll want to make sure you make constant backups. This very easy to do when you have a cPanel host. There is a special area where you can backup your blog and even have the backup e-mailed to you! Save this on your computer's hard drive as well as on an external hard drive so you will always have it handy. Make it a habit to do this! There are even plugins for Wordpress that can automate a lot of this for you, such as saving the files to Amazon's S3 server for safe keeping.

In addition to backing up your actual blog, you'll need to back up your computer. Imagine if something happened to both your blog and your computer! While it's not very likely to happen at the same time, it definitely could. There are sites like Mozy.com or Carbonite.com that will back everything up for you so you don't have to worry about a thing. This can be very automated so you have to do is set up and let it run.

Remember, you are running a business. It doesn't matter how many readers you have or how much money you are making, things can always go wrong. Backing up your content is just smart for your business! You need to know, without a doubt, that you can get your blog running again in no time at all should anything happen to it. Blogging is fun -- just don't let yourself get carried away without backing up first!

Using Your Blog to Promote Your Own Products

One of the best things about running your own blog is that you can use it to promote your own products. Hopefully, you have built up a good relationship with your blog's readers. They will likely trust you and want to see what you have to say when you decide to release your own product!

When people read your blog, they are doing so because there is something unique about it. There are other blogs in your niche, but they choose to read yours! This alone should give you enough confidence to start thinking about creating your own product in the first place. You can involve them in the process once you decide to make your own product. Survey them on what they want included in the book. Giving them some ownership of the decision-making process will likely lead to increased sales later on.

You can also keep them updated on the book's process. Give hints and sneak previews as to what it will contain. This will whet their appetite for more! It is often the buildup that leads to more sales in Internet marketing. Build up your product and you will likely get many sales very quickly when it comes time for the launch date.

All of this is called a pre-launch. You can even use your blog to get people to sign up for your notification list so they can learn exactly when the product is going to be launched. People will come back for more once they realize how high quality the excerpts and teaser content is! The prelaunch is just as important, if not more, than the actual launch and sales page so do not forget about it!

In the meantime, you will want to be writing (or hiring someone else to write) the sales page. A good sales page will directly call out to those who are most likely to purchase. Many people like to give a special launch price right away to make the offer even more enticing. Perhaps you can create a special blog post where the special price is only available to your readers. You can even have a "grand opening" sale that you launch to your list.

You can continue to promote your product on your blog even after the launch is over. Get some custom graphics created to use as a banner or sidebar ad. Make it very obvious to people who may not have been around for the launch that you have a product to sell and that it is extremely high quality. The chances are good that regular readers will snatch it up right away and even recommend it to other people in your niche if it is good enough!

There is nothing quite like owning your own products, and going through the pre-launch process right on your blog. It can definitely lead to some great sales and keep your readers coming back for more!

How to Gather Statistics for Your Blog

As a blogger, you'll definitely want to pay close attention to what the traffic numbers are for your blog. You will also want to know your conversion rates for affiliate marketing offers, CPA offers, and Adsense. The good news is that there are some easy-to-use tools that can help you track all of these statistics, and more.

One of the first things you'll want to know is what kind of traffic you are getting to your blog on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The most standard way of determining this is by using your Awstats in your cPanel.

Keep in mind that this level of tracking is only for self-hosted blogs. If you're using something like WordPress.com or Blogger.com you may not have access to this information, and will have to use other scripts or other methods instead. Awstats will give you standard information, such as how many unique visitors you're getting, how many hits you got total, when the search engine spiders visited last, and where your traffic is coming from.

Once you have this type of information, you can work on improving your rankings by focusing on the keywords you are already ranking for (sometimes all they need is a little push!). If you're not getting traffic from certain desired keywords, you will know to work extra hard on ranking for those as well. You'll also know where your referral traffic is coming from, and it's always helpful to know what is working and what isn't!

It's important to note that Awstats is limited in many ways. Many people prefer to use something like Google Analytics instead. This tool will give you wealth of information, including the top keywords used to find your blog in the search engines and how many people found your site using that keyword. You'll also get detailed information about your bounce rate, problems or issues with your site, indexed pages, and what actions were taken on your site by visitors.

Keep in mind that some bloggers do not like Google having all this information (many are worried it will affect rankings, especially if you're heavy into making affiliate sales). In this case, you may want to use a script called Piwik instead. This script works similarly to Google Analytics, but you host the script on your own domain so you know the information is safe and secure.

In addition to analyzing information such as your traffic and where the traffic is coming from, you will want to pay attention to your conversion rates. Note that in the back end of your affiliate admin area, you should be able to find how many sales you're making, what your click through rate is, which specific links are making you the most sales, and so on. You can find the same tracking information in the admin area of your CPA networks. You can even go deeper into tracking with products like Prosper 202 and Xtreme Conversions.

Analyzing this information can definitely help you to increase your conversions. It can help you determine what changes you might want to make if you're not making as many sales as you'd like. It can even help you decide when it's time to try another method of monetization.

If you manage this information well and pay attention to the statistics, you can become far more successful over time. There is definitely no reason to delay in starting to understand and utilize your statistics as early as possible for maximum success!