Getting Started: Blogging

Recently, I have been approached by 3 different companies looking for tips on how to get started blogging for their business. Being a freelancer and always looking for the up-sell, I, of course, suggested that they could outsource the blogging to me through a contributor feature or even ghost blogging. While one company agreed with the idea, the other two want to be hands on in the process. If you are looking for a ghost blogger or contributor to keep your blog updated, you can always hire me (yes, I would like a side of cheese!); there are also a number of content writers and bloggers who specialize in specific niches and industries, so if you don’t have the time to focus on your blog, outsource it to someone that can.

The biggest gripe I have heard from small business owners about blogging is that they don’t have enough time to write posts and they are afraid that they don’t have enough ideas. Pish-posh, I say!

Last week, I wrote a blog about motorcycle insurance for a company. I do not own a motorcycle and can’t say that I’ve even ever been on one. The blog article took a little bit more research time on my part, but the end product was quite well received by the readers of the blog. Score!

On my own blogs, the tool that works best for me is an editorial calendar. Using Zoho Sheets (similar to Excel), I decide the editorial calendar for a month out on each of my blogs. As I’ve mentioned before, I have fourteen blogs. Not every blog is updated on a daily basis, though. Based on the popularity of the website, I have a daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly posting schedule. This blog, for example, has a Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule at minimum. My two most popular blogs, on the other hand, have a daily posting schedule.

My editorial calendar looks a little like this:

 

Column A lists each day and date of the month, while Row A has each blog listed out. I fill out column A first, compiling a month’s worth of posts per blog. I don’t do any research quite yet, only fill in the topics that I want to focus on for a particular blog post. For this blog, I filled in each Tuesday and Thursday row with a topic that I want to cover. Once it comes time to write the post, I’ll do any required research or link to any supporting materials. The editorial calendar above is just a sample mind you, so the topics for each post would include a keyword or two that I would expand on. If I come across any links or resources that I may want to reference in a post, I’ll also add that to my editorial calendar in the notes section.

Why is an editorial calendar important? It keeps you in check. If you’re new to blogging, it’s easy to write a post, lose momentum, and not return to your blog for days, weeks, or months. How do you expect to grow traffic if you don’t have a steady posting schedule? I check my editorial calendar every day, shading out the cells once I have completed and published the post for that day.

The editorial calendar also comes in handy when it comes to conjuring up ideas. When you have your mind set on one topic and map out a schedule, it’s easy to branch off to sub-topics or break subjects off into smaller posts that go into greater detail. When you’re posting on a whim, unless you have an idea that immediately strikes you, it can be a little more difficult to come up with a topic that you’re passionate about.

When it comes to thinking of ideas for posts, mind mapping has been one method that has worked for me. Whether you use software or just a piece of paper, write down a vague topic and break it into sub-topics. Those sub-topics may even have sub-topics. Once you’re done, you may have 2 months worth of posts right there. Take this mind map, for example:

In less than 10 minutes, I came up with 21 potential blog posts, all related to Internet Advertising in some way. Many of the topics can be further expanded, but when it comes time to think up new posts, I have a great start. Mind maps come in handy in a number of other ways, as well. I use Mind Maps on a daily basis in order to figure out marketing ideas, website taxonomies, project management needs, business ideas, even vacation plans. There are a number of free mind mapping tools available on the internet – check out Mashable’s list of the 30 top Mind Mapping Tools.

So, to those small companies and sites trying to figure out the best way to approach blogging, the only true answer is to, well, start blogging. A little bit of planning and brainstorming can go a long way, but it’s up to you to take the first steps.

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Wordpress Plugins

I have been using Wordpress on a few of my blogs for a little over a month now. The thing I like most about Wordpress is the ability to customize it with Plugins. Since I’ve been using Wordpress, I’ve installed the following Wordpress Plugins on each of my blogs. Here are a few of the plugins I think are necessary, or at least beneficial, to any small business looking to optimize their website, make use of analytics, or test out interactive tools:

• AdSense Manager: This plugin is useful to any company looking to monetize their size. While you can manually insert the AdSense script for each size, AdSense Manager simplifies the process by managing all AdSense codes in one module, outputting a smaller script (ex: [Ad=468]) that you can insert within your theme or on a per post basis.
• All in One SEO Pack: Although Wordpress allows you to tag and categorize your posts, not all themes are Search Engine friendly. To encourage the search engines to pick up your posts, install the All in One SEO Pack and fill out the module every time you post. This plugin allows you to define the title, description and keywords for each post. Figuring out the keywords is your responsibility : ) (sidenote: Check out Aaron Wall’s Keyword Tool to find the popularity and variations of any keywords you are trying to target. A general rule of thumb, which I’ll go into further detail later, is to include the keyword you are targeting once in your title, once in a H1 header, once bolded and once italicized. You can also use other tools, such as the keyword density analyzer, to determine the keyword density of any post or content you have written. A keyword with a density of 1.9% to 2.8% is more likely to be picked up by the search engines.)
• Contact Form 7: Great for those who aren’t familiar with code, don’t have Dreamweaver to fall back on, or just need a simple form and don’t want to waste time figuring out how to configure it. While there aren’t any bells and whistles with Contact Form 7, it does provide the basics for anyone looking for a “Contact Us” form that goes straight to email (similar to the mailto: function, but in a form presentation). If you’re looking for a contact form on the snazzier side, including ecommerce options, dropdowns, required fields or confirmation receipts, check out WuFoo.com. Also made with the non-developer in mind, WuFoo allows customers to make 5 free, customizable forms.
• Google Analyticator: For those interested in tracking their analytics without paying exorbitant fees, Google Analytics is the way to go. Similar to AdSense, you can alternatively apply the Google Analytics code to each page or Theme file in Wordpress, but the probability of screwing something up, to put it lightly, is high. Trust me – I’ve been close to kicking my computer more than once after a few hours of figuring out a new theme. Google Analyticator allows you to place your Google Analytics ID number in a specified field, then it does the hard work and distributes the code to every page of your theme. Voila! You can now track all of the people stalking, I mean visiting, your site.
• Google XML Sitemaps: To put it in layman’s terms, a sitemap notifies the search engines every time you update your site, or on a weekly/monthly/yearly basis. You set the crawl rate, then, *hopefully*, the major search engines will spider your site for new information, based on the frequency you set. Google XML sitemaps simplifies, and I mean REALLY simplifies, the process of creating a sitemap.
• Ad Rotator: Another tool for those looking to monetize their site, Ad Rotator allows you to place multiple lines of code to show up in selected banner positions. Have a 728×90 banner spot on your page and want to switch the ads to display both AdSense and Display Advertising from an affiliate marketer or Ad Network? Need to do a test to see which ad performs better in your coveted 300×250 spot? Can’t decide whether to scrap the 160×600 in lieu for a module? Ad Rotator doesn’t perform miracles, but it does make your life easier if you have multiple ads you want to display or belong to a variety of Ad Networks and Affiliate Marketing programs.

You can also search the Wordpress Plugin Directory for additional plugins.

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Starting Out – Joomla VS. Wordpress

After having this website for a little over a year, I’ve finally installed a blogging platform.

My main homepage, rachelkuptz.com/home, runs on the Joomla platform, a basic Content Management System (CMS). While Joomla has worked nicely for basic pages, the content does not rank well for basic keywords and it’s not easy to install third party plugins.

As of today, I now have 14 websites that I own and update on a regular basis. Many of them are hobby related sites that allow me to earn additional, mostly passive, income on the side through AdSense, Affiliate Marketing and Display Advertising. Joomla wasn’t able to handle many of the items I was adding, however, and the blogging platform that Joomla comes pre-installed with isn’t very user or search engine friendly. So – I’ve recently made the switch, for most of my sites, to Wordpress, and I couldn’t be happier.

While I’m not switching my main site, rachelkuptz.com, over to Wordpress quite yet, I do have two content management systems installed in the main directory now. My host provider, BlueHost, is quite easy to manage, and installing both CMS was even easier.

Pros and Cons of Joomla

Joomla is great for a basic, static website. You are able to add pages, link within your website, install basic plugins, and easily add iFrames. On the other hand, Joomla does not come with a great blogging platform and the third party installs aren’t anything to brag about either. The URL strings on Joomla also are not SEO or user friendly and the keywords and content don’t rank well in the Search Engines.

Pros and Cons of Wordpress

SEO wise, Wordpress is great. Within days, sometimes hours, of uploading a post, I will rank for the keywords I was targeting. Wordpress is also extremely easy to customize – both themes, pages and basic code and layout. I can upload my blog posts using Word 2007 without having to login to Wordpress. The plugins that can be installed with Wordpress are amazing – from SEO plugins to Analytics and Contact forms to AdSense. The only downside I see with Wordpress would be that if you are trying to make a static site, the pages have to be customized a little bit more; Wordpress is much more suitable for blogging purposes, although I do have a few sites that aren’t blogs that work well with Wordpress.

All in all, I’m happy with the switch over to Wordpress on my other sites, so this Joomla VS. Wordpress test on my main site will be interesting.

 

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