Thursday, December 8, 2011

How to blog effectively?


How to blog effectively? Honestly, I’m not really in the mood to answer this question today. You see, I’m in dilemma. Something ‘interesting’ is about to happen and my mind can’t just snap out of it. Happy? Not really. Sad…definitely. Anyway, being your host in this blogging journey, I have a responsibility. To keep you reminded of the tenacity that is needed in building an effective blog, I made a point to myself to at least post an article once a week. These ‘lessons’ may not mean much to most of you but,
I have to remind you about the marathon part and by being here with you at least once a week means that I’m still in the match.
effective blogging
Alrite, to be able to blog effectively, you need to do the following…
1. Set your blogging vision. Nobody knows this better than you. What do you hope to bring out from your blog? For instance, do you want your blogging to introduce your service globally, or do you want to directly make money blogging. If it’s about your service, for example, your law practice, what kinda customers do you target and where? Realize this…you can’t just target every Tom in the world! Maybe you just want to extend your reach to a certain part of the US…Los Angeles perhaps, Miami, etc. You could actually kill two birds with one stone…use your blog to reach your geo-audience and make money from it,even by putting Adsense. In this case, you would still have some earnings when your practice is still new. Remember, your blog is working 24 hours for you.
On the other hand, if you your main objective is to make money blogging, then determine a profitable niche. However, I have to remind you; blogging for money is just a small part of the domain of home-based online business and it is by no means the most lucrative. There are other online business that might bring in the dough faster. If you are interested, you could try this alternativewhereby you will earn without having to wait too long.
2. Identify keywords. Do yourself a favor. Take 2 days to brainstorm on keywords to use for your blog. How about “LA lawyer”, “Los Angeles law practice” etc. Check the stats in Google Adwords Keyword Tool and determine at least 5 keywords that best describe your business.
3. Shop for a good domain name. Let me tell you something. Many lawyers would aim for their firms’ name…”Lee and Associates”, “Keever and Partners”…
Let’s put all these in proper perspective. An online presence is different from a brick and mortar setup. You can set up your firm in the center of Los Angeles and with the proper advertisement, potential clients will find their way to your doorstep.
However, the way you position your blog or website has to be different. The location in our world is synonymous with Search Engines in the net; prime location is equivalent to being in the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing; real world advertising is synonymous to SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Pay Per Click advertising, press release online. In summary, if you can get hold of LALawfirm.com, you will save yourself at minimum 3 years of hardwork paying an SEO firm to get your site found on the first page of Google for the keyword “LA Lawfirm”. The domain name may set you back by 10 grand today, but you will achieve near immediate exposure when people hit LA lawfirm in Google’s search box.
Therefore, put on your thinking cap as an online businessman when someone offers to sell you a domain like LALawyer.org, LALaw.net, LALawPractice.com, AttorneyInLA.net. He may be just be your Guardian Angel in disguise ;)
4. Contents. Laser-focused contents with the right keywords. Get your partners to chip in an article once per week no matter how busy they all are. Put this in as the KPI (Key Performance Index).
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Success is no guarantee even if you managed to get a killer category domain name. Candy.com was recently dislodged from the no.1 spot of Google by CandyWarehouse.com in certain locations. Work hard in building backlinks. Listen here, there are 3 SEO Tricks that must be done:
a. Keyword domain-name. Get a .com, .org or .net if possible if you are targetting the global audience. Recently, the .co is not bad too. If it’s just about Los Angeles, and if you can’t get the three tlds I mentioned, get the .us like LALaw.us. Try not to use .info and .biz though.
b. Topic focused contents.
c. Backlinks. You can do directories submission and also articles submission. If you have little time to do all these tedious work, you can opt for thisto help you. Use your time for better use instead like writing unique contents and interacting with your readers.
6. Avoid linkfarms. There are firms online that offer ferocious link-buildings. Avoid them like a plague for God’s sake. I know of a fellow blogger who used to have a blog ranked highly in Googles with a few keywords about phones. His income…USD 4000 per month just from Google Adsense alone. Lately, Google did two things to punish his aggressive link-building pursuit. He lost the page-rank some 5 months ago, from PR 4 to PR 0. Then, the real nightmare came about a month ago. His blog got demoted from no. 2 for two powerful keywords to no. 50 to 60. Talking about an online limbo!!
Therefore, blog wisely. Know thyself and build on your knowledge for a profitableblogging experience.

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