Anatomy of a Blog Post

I do blogs for several of my clients. I find a lot of people may think that it is as simple as writing and placing an article. That of course is a major piece but there are a lot of working parts that people don’t see…

There are steps that you must go through to have a professional blog post one that stands out and will

be listed in the search engines as well as build your readership.

Below is a step by step guide.

Anatomy of a Blog Post…

Phase I

• Pick the subject you are going to write your article about.
• Start writing; don’t worry so much about punctuation or spelling you will be editing it. The main thing to worry about is getting your idea across in a well-written concise way.
• Keywords are important; make sure you have placed keywords throughout your article.
• Proof read - Read it out loud I find that when you do this, it will be surprised at some of the mistakes you will find. Sometimes I even go back the next day and have a fresh look. It does make a difference…
• Run it through spell check and make sure the article has all the right grammar and punctuation. If you don’t it will reflect poorly on your blog.
• Break up the article into five sentence paragraphs. It makes it much easier for people to read when it is placed in bit size chunks.
• Pictures are important to create interest in the blog article. That picture can be posted and passed around social media sites and linked back to your blog.
• Name your pictures with keywords.

Once you have the article finished and the pictures you need here comes:

Phase II

• Make sure you have the proper SEO plugins for your blog the two most popular plugins are Yoast or the All in One SEO Pack.
• Once placing the article as a post, make sure you have a good title.
• Use headers in your article to help with the optimization (SEO) of your article
• When placing links in your articles – make sure they will open in a separate window. It will keep your blog in the background so your readers can easily return.
• The Tags you place should be reflected in the copy of the article.
• When you import your image into the blog put in keywords and a description that will bolster your article. Position it in the article to be aesthetically pleasing.
• If your blog allows you to choose a Permalink to take advantage of, put a keyword on the end of your link.
• The SEO plugins allow you to put in a separate title that will show up when people see your listing in the search engines. You will want a long-tailed keyword, I cannot emphasis this enough. Maximum of 60 characters for the title
• You will also have a place for the description. This will be a max of 160 characters, and I usually look through my article and find an intriguing sentence or two that will want to make someone read the rest of the article. This will also be on the search engine as the description.
• Unfailingly preview your post, if it doesn’t look like you want it to go back and fix it. It is a plus if you know html because, then you can go into the code and tweak it something I have to do quite often.
• Make sure and post articles in your blog at least once a week. The optimum is 2 times a week.

This article is a little longer than most but if you want success as a blogger you will need to put these steps into practice.

To success beyond measure and friendships that last a lifetime…

Driving FREE Traffic to your Website.

I am often asked “what is the best way to drive traffic to my website”. There are so many ways to market your website and get results some take a lot of time to cultivate and some can produce traffic right off the bat.

In order to drive traffic you need to know the options available – and then plan your strategy.

There are free ways – you don’t have to pay money but you do have to spend time to get where you want to go. Those of you on a shoe string budget may not have the cash to advertise or use Pay-Per-Click methods.

Remember even the best designed websites will not produce income unless there is traffic directed to it…

. Free traffic, as the term suggests, implies that you drive traffic to your website free of charge. The most common method of obtaining this involves using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. When you optimize your website, search engines view your site as being useful and relevant. This in turn, leads to increase in rankings for your keywords, key phrases.

One thing you must be aware of SEO methods are great for obtaining free traffic in the long term, but it might take as long as six months to a year to see full results.

Blogs

Search Engines love blogs – the fresh content that is placed in the pages will cause the search engines to pay attention, and it will allow you to gain more exposure for you website. Every business knows the best kind of traffic is targeted visitors – that is exactly what you will get from people who visit your blog and go on to access your website..

You can host your own blog – or use a free version. Just make sure you link back to your website and give plenty of links in your article to redirect traffic

Article Marketing

If you do develop a blog you can re-purpose those article and get them published at article directory sites that have high volumes of traffic. This works to bring in organic search engine traffic within a week (targeted the best kind).

However, as your article moves out of the main pages of the article directories, your traffic is likely to taper off in two to three weeks.

Writing and publishing articles once a week should keep free traffic to your site from dropping off.

Top 10 Article Submission Sites

1. Ezine Articles 2. Article Alley 3. Go Articles 4. Article Dash board 5. Search Warp 6. Buzzle 7. Article Base 8. Article City 9. Idea Marketers 10. Web Source

Social Media Sites

When you do it right Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites can give your blog and website a lot of exposure. You need to post your links, give helpful advice and don’t be afraid to be a giver.

This gives you back links to your website – advertises your business and builds business relationships.

One of the great things you can do to help with time management is to set up your blog article to feed into your social media sites. Showing others (through your articles) that you are a professional gives you credibility.

Back-links

Having highly positioned sites link to your website will cause Google and other search engines to pull you up higher on the search engine pages – and give greater exposure to your business.

Banner Exchanges

There are also banner exchanges that allow you to post your banner advertisement on the other website when you post one of them on your website. I personally don’t want banners on my website, but if I hada niche site or blog’s that I was using for an affiliate commission I would take advantage of this tactic.

Forums

Don’t under estimate what joining the appropriate forums can do. When you join forums that are of interest to your business – it is important to place a link in your signature file. Answer questions – watch posts this goes for others blog’s as well. Post your comments and they usually always link back to your website.

For questions or help please feel free to contact me pamela@artistadesign.com

Check out my website Artista Design

Blog or Website? Which one do I need...

Many moons ago websites were the only thing that a business or person had to showcase his business or expertise (on the Internet).
Now with the advent and explosion of blogs many people have chosen to use blogs over websites
.
Depending on your business and what you are trying to achieve most businesses need both.

There are exceptions to every rule, however, using both will give you a big advantage over using one over the other.

What is the difference?

There is a big difference – a website is a carefully thought out and executed store (for lack of a better word). It is like a corporate office or an exclusive piece of property. The look and feel of the interfaces are branded to attract your perfect clients and to create an experience for the visitor. The domain name is an important piece of your branding as well and should be an extension of the business.

A blog on the other hand is more of a social networking site. A blog can brand you as the expert in a certain field or gradually help you to become a well known personality. It has constantly changing content and is made to interact with visitors.
It is like inviting someone into your home or to a coffee shop to chat or to tell them about things they find interesting or useful. A blog can have its own domain name but it is of less importance – that it be named a business name.

A website and a blog go together hand in hand.

Well built websites selling services and/or products will stay pretty static. While a blog will back link to your website and provide the communication so vital to keeping in touch with your clients and potential clients, it also helps push up you rankings on the search engines.

A website will provide stable communication – on task messages about your product and/or service as well as various other items such as online portfolio, testimonials, e-commerce store, ability to accept payment through merchant accounts, policy and warranty information etc. Anyone can set up a blog, sometimes it can be a challenge to make it look professional.

A website takes a lot more time, work and money. This works in your favor if you are trying to portray a successful image (or you are successful and want them to know that).

I hope this clears up your confusion – and helps sort out the debating; I see going on in cyberspace – to blog or not to blog:

Should I blog? (YES BLOG)

Is a website the same as a blog? (NO IT IS NOT).Do I need both? (MOST PROBABLY!)


Pamela Jacob - Artista Design
801-910-4825

Why I Do What I Do

Initially I envisioned this blog to be a series of articles about what you need to design an attractive website, market it, optimize it etc. It has become so much more than that. A client or potential client will email me and ask me a question, or I read something that sparks a view/reaction in my mind and I write about it. This information is something that is invaluable to you my reader – this type of pertinent information you may not be able to find so easily in a structured article. This type of information gives you the nuances that make a business successful… I am telling you this because so many times people don't start blogs because they genuinely assume they have nothing to say – well if you have nothing to say then I suggest you don't even start your business until you understand it fully. And once you understand your product/service then you will have tons to say on the matter. Blog's are powerful connections for your business. In developing this blog I truly found out why blogs are so powerful when promoting business. It gives you credibility – it allows people to see you are who you say you are. It is true that you need more than a blog to be successful. You need to ping your blog – you need to submit to blog directories, and most of all you need to know what you are blogging about!! Search engines love blogs because it gives them new fresh material all the time and that is so important when trying to stay on the top of search engine listings. As I always say there is so much to know and then so much more… That is the one thing, I love about my business – I am here to help businesses detangle and understand what they need to have a successful online business… Helping clients and watching them grow gives me so much satisfaction – it is why I do what I do.. Pamela Jacob