Blogging | Small Business Marketing & Business Acceleration

3 Simple Ways to Turn Your Website Archive into Profitable Books and eBooks

Posted on 17. May, 2012 by Joel Friedlander in Blog, Featured, Paid Content, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of vintage archive

Attention Bloggers: I’ve seen the future, and you’re missing it.

Oh sure, we bloggers think we’re the most up-to-date, leading-edge, tech-savvy people on the planet.

But one of the biggest changes in the long history of content creation is taking place right under your feet, and I’m afraid it may be passing you by.

Yep, the ground is shifting, fortunes are being made, and some of the people who could best profit from this tectonic shift — content producers — are mostly sitting on the sidelines.

Okay, what am I talking about? The revolution in book publishing …

Maybe you’ve heard some of the success stories of the authors who’ve been selling a ton of paranormal romances, thrillers or other genre novels on Amazon’s Kindle platform, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

You may have also heard about big-time authors like Barry Eisler, Steven King, Seth Godin and others leading the way in self-publishing. That’s not it either.

What I’m talking about is something bloggers are already expert in: niche publishing.

Bloggers vs. authors

Let’s back up for a minute. Have you ever thought about the similarities between self-publishing and blogging? Probably not, why would you?

But as a blogger who writes about indie book publishing, I think about this stuff all the time. And here’s what I see at this amazing moment in publishing:

Self-publishers and bloggers each have only half the equation for success in the new world of book publishing.

Take authors for example. Most are really good at things like producing long content (long as in 80,000 words), staying with a project for months or years without losing focus, and planning a complex project using freelance contractors.

The problem is, many authors are notorious loners, are often non-technical, they can go years without any contact with their readers, and their mindset may be completely rooted in the 19th century. Not only that, the typical author has no idea of what marketing actually means in the real world.

That might make a blogger feel pretty good about herself.

It’s true that bloggers stay in constant touch with their readers, know how to publish on a schedule, get constant feedback from readers, love to experiment via agile content, and are highly networked with other bloggers in their niche.

But niche market bloggers have obstacles to overcome, too.

They can fall into the trap of thinking 500 words at a time, with disjointed subjects littering their archives. After blogging for a while, they may lose sight of any overarching theme they started with.

Not only that, many bloggers treat their blogs as a “hobby”, or they’re focused on Adsense, affiliate sales and special promotions. Bloggers like to chase the “shiny new object,” fall into the social media time-sink very easily, and all too often rely exclusively on metrics as the measure of their success.

Why book publishing makes sense for bloggers

Here’s what you’ve been missing: you don’t have to be Amanda Hocking or Joe Konrath or John Locke (all of whom have sold a ton of ebook fiction) to get major, potentially life-changing results from book publishing.

This is the dirty little secret behind self-publishing that we’ve been hiding from the big publishers for years:

If you’re a writer with ready access to a niche audience, you’re probably much better off financially publishing your own book.

If you blog on a niche topic and know how to reach the people in that field, why give 85% of your profits to a big publisher in New York?

(If you’re Chris Brogan or Tim Ferriss writing for a mass consumer or mass business market, you might be better off with that big publisher. But if that’s not you, read on.)

The blogger’s unfair advantage

Okay, so you know how to meet deadlines, you publish on a schedule and you’re in touch with your readers. You’re already miles ahead of most self-published authors.

Is it really worth going through the trouble of learning how to publish books? Here are some outcomes that might stimulate you.

Authority — There’s a reason all those guests you see on TV are introduced as “author of …” There’s nothing that will supercharge the authority you have in your niche the way a book will, especially one with lots of testimonials from people your readers know and respect.
Passive income — It’s better than ads in your sidebars, better than pay-per-click, and once your book is for sale in either print or ebook versions, the whole process is completely automatic.
Status — Having a book to your name will spread your profile far beyond the circles you can reach with your blog.
More opportunities — You are likely to get more offers for speaking gigs, joint ventures and co-authoring opportunities once you’re a published author.
Stand out from the crowd — Is there another blogger in your niche who is also a published author? No? What’s stopping you?
Back of the room sales — Another underutilized way to make money from your blog is by selling your book at live appearances, workshops or other events.

But how do you make the leap from blogger to author? It can seem overwhelming when you compare the pile of posts in your archive to a neat and cohesive manuscript ready to publish.

Don’t despair; I’ve got three methods you can use, so read on to see which one appeals to you …

1. The site archive method

Lots of bloggers ignore their archives, which is a shame.

We’re so concerned with the next post that we forget all the value we’ve built up over the months or years we’ve been blogging.

In this method you explore your archives for themes that keep reappearing, or for posts you wrote to answer the most common and compelling questions people keep coming up with in your niche. Your “pillar” or “evergreen” or “foundation” posts are going to come into play here.

Gather the posts you find that meet your criteria into sections, each one for a separate subject. These will eventually become the chapters in your book.

This is the method I used last year when I published A Self-Publisher’s Companion. Then I wrote an introduction for the book, added an up-to-date resource section and the book was done. How cool is that?

2. The series method

This is the opposite of the Archive method, because it means you’ll be writing the book as a series of blog posts or, more likely, as several series.

You’ll outline the book first. This doesn’t have to be difficult, just pick the subjects you want to cover and then divide them into chapters.

For example, your book might have 12 chapters, and each chapter could be about 5,000 words.

Create a blog post that looks at each aspect of your chapter. You’re now looking at a series of five 1,000-word articles. And don’t forget, blog post series are a great way to keep readers involved and coming back for more, so you’ll win both ways, as a blogger and an author.

Just keep writing those series of blog posts, and pretty soon your manuscript will be finished and ready to go.

3. The big edit method

In this method you’ll treat all posts as potential first draft material.

Although this takes the greatest amount of work, it has the potential to produce the best book from the copy you’ve already written.

Look through the content you already have, selecting the parts that work within the scheme of your book. You’ll be doing a ton of cutting-and-pasting as you assemble the bits you want to use.

Undoubtedly, you’ll need to write new material to create an effective manuscript that flows well from one subject to another. To use this method, you’ll probably also need to hire an editor to help shape and smooth out the manuscript.

The truth is, in the book world, hiring an editor is always a good idea.

Your book editor can be a powerful ally when it comes to creating a book people really want to buy.

What’s next?

Now, you’ve got a real book manuscript.

When I did this last year it took about 40 blog posts and a new introduction to create a 222-page trade paperback that sells for $14.95 (print) or $4.99 (ebook).

What’s the profit look like from those books? On sales at Amazon.com — after all discounts and manufacturing costs — my profit is $8.00 per paperback and $3.75 per ebook.

Getting interested? Want to know how to get started turning your archives into books? Here are some tips:

The fastest way to get a book up for sale without the complications of formatting for print production is with an ebook.
These are ePub and Mobi ebooks, not PDF ebooks like the ones you give away on your blog.
You can convert your own files to ebooks with free software like Calibre or with a tool like Scrivener, used by many ebook authors. Apple’s Pages outputs to ePub, and more tools like this are coming online constantly.
Smashwords will convert your book for free if you follow their formatting guidelines.
BookBaby offers great deals on ebook conversion and distribution to all major retailers at very low fees.
Become part of the book scene by getting familiar with some of the big reader communities that are growing like crazy online. Goodreads, Shelfari, Wattpad, and Scribd are all new communities with millions of members that most bloggers have never even heard of.
Use your blogging schedule to plan out the article series that will become your book manuscript. For instance, you might want to have a special focus on your blog for the month, encouraging lots of discussion and interaction while you’re creating that specific part of your book.
Leverage your blogging network when it comes time to launch and promote your book. After all, you establish these connections to help market your blog. When your book comes out, it’s a great opportunity to “tour” the other blogs in your niche, exposing you to tons of new readers.

The time is now

Well, there you have it.

No group of people is better situated than bloggers RIGHT NOW to take advantage of the historic movement to digital books and the exploding popularity of self-publishing.

Will you join the revolution?

About the Author: Joel Friedlander (@JFBookman) is an award-winning book designer, a blogger, and the author of A Self-Publisher’s Companion: Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish. He’s been launching the careers of self-publishers since 1994 and writes TheBookDesigner.com, a popular blog on book design, book marketing and the future of the book. Joel’s also just about to launch a new online training course, The Self-Publishing Roadmap.

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5 Non Spammy Ways To Get a Blogger’s Attention

Posted on 14. May, 2012 by John Jantsch in Blog, Duct Tape Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media

Everyone, from PR firms to individuals with a product to sell, pitches bloggers these days. Getting coverage or exposure for your business by way of a number of highly read blogs should be a foundational element of your PR approach.

So, I thought I would share of few of my thoughts on the most effective ways to get a blogger’s attention and stand out in a way that gives your pitch a far better chance of garnering coverage.

Sadly, it would much easier to write a post on what not to do, but I like to stay on the positive side here.

Whether your goal is to land a guest post, get a review of your product or just advance an idea you’ve got to put in the work to personalize your pitch and build relationships by demonstrating you’re a resource and not a pest.

Make non-spammy comments

One of the best ways to get on the radar of a blogger is to join their community by making relevant comments. Don’t drop in just to add a comment about your business or point to your recent blog post about some unrelated idea. Add to the conversation like someone who actually cares about the conversation and you’ll start to build a relationship based on trust.

Find regular features

Take some time to dig around in the archives of a blog and you’re likely to find some regular features just like you might in a magazine. Then, when it comes time to pitch your idea, you can suggest that it would be a good fit for a certain feature. This will always give your pitch more relevance and offer proof that you know a bit about the blog and that yours is not simply a bulk pitch.

I’ve run a Saturday post for several years now where I feature three services or apps that I call my weekly favs. Smart marketers have picked up on that and often pitch their product for a feature in that post. It’s a little thing, but it suggests a lot.

Look beyond the blog

If you buy that this is a relationship building game, then why not employ a few tools outside the blog to help. Build a Twitter list of your targeted bloggers and pay attention to what they tweet and what the retweet. Look at what they favorite on Twitter for some real meaty clues about what they like,

By monitoring what they do beyond their blog and in social networks you can often find angles that won’t be apparent on a simple media list.

Connect with guests and get referred

Many blogs run guest posts these days and one of the best ways to get your content on the list of potential guest posters is to study and connect with those that are already posting. In fact, you might go as far as to target these folks as suggested above and reach out to a few and ask for introductions.

A guest post on a highly read blog may be one of the most effective marketing tools you can employ so don’t just blast guest post requests, build a case for your post by becoming a part of the community and creating a network within.

Ask for an interview

Many bloggers, even well known bloggers, still work on building their awareness and will jump at almost any opportunity to spread the word about things they are working on. Many bloggers have business interests beyond their blog that need exposure. Many bloggers are also authors and have books to sell.

Consider interviewing some of your targeted bloggers for your own blog or podcast or connect them with other journalist or even customers of yours that might have a reason to want to interview them. An interview might consist of a twenty minute phone conversation or it might just be one well thought out question that you send via email, either way, this a great approach for building both content and relationships.

It warrants repeating, if a mention or link or review in your favorite blog is a worthwhile objective for your business, then put in the work required to get it done right.

Today I Think I Shall Blog in My Underwear

Posted on 23. Apr, 2012 by John Jantsch in Blog, Hugh MacLeod, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Vision

Odd as it may sound the title to this post isn’t really odd at all. In fact, most days I blog before the sun comes up and most days I wear whatever I feel like while doing so.

One of my favorite bits of Hugh MacLeod inspiration

Now, that doesn’t mean I’m not serious about my blog. It is quite easily the most important business asset I’ve built. Today’s post title, however, is a nod to the freedom that my blog and the Internet in general have created for my business over the last ten years.

This week, my friend and long time blogger, Hugh MacLeod releases his 3rd book, Freedom Is Blogging In Your Underwear, a sharp tongued tribute to the freedom we now have to work how we want, where we want and with whom we want. Hugh’s humor and wit, expressed through his unique characters and drawings, is one of the most inspirational romps anyone in the world of business can enjoy.

Hugh credits his blogging habit with altering the course of his business and personal life and creating the flourishing business that allows him to work at his craft.

A few words from Hugh:

I wrote the book as a love letter to the blogging, as it were. Blogging matters. Sure, the apps are good things. Sharing photos and finding out new restaurants is a definite positive. But as an artist, I come from a background where getting your work seen and heard was REALLY HARD. Gatekeepers galore. Had blogs existed back when I was a kid, a lot of my creative peers wouldn’t have given up their dreams in order to go do some bill-paying government job.And what’s true for artists is also true for ANYONE who gives a damn about their work. Too many voices, lost unnecessarily.

I too would make a similar claim. While some are quick to rush in and hail the next new online tool as the death of blogging, I would suggest that blogging is never going away. Blogging is the underpinning that launched a revolution of sorts in business and the only thing that will kill that off is a radical retreat in our desire to work in ways that allow us to control our destiny.

See, it’s not really about the tool; it’s about the behavior it unleashed. It’s about the fact that anyone, with any roots, experience, or desire could freely publish information directly to the audience they wished to influence. And that the stories, images, opinions and ideas shared would stand on their own merit and be consumed and shared by others regardless of what the established media, gatekeepers and experts said about it.

And for me it’s not even about the exposure my ideas enjoy. I wrote my first blog post in 2003 and knew immediately it was something important. It’s not that I knew blogging would become an essential tool, but I did sense that the act of blogging would change my business forever.

There are a few about blogging I did not know at the beginning, however, and it is these things that have produced the most profound and lasting benefits.

Blogging would make me a better thinker – (understand that better is relative!) In an effort to create content for a blog that is succinct, reveals new ways to look at common things, or apply simple solutions to seemingly complex problems, I believe I now think about business much differently.
Blogging would make me a better listener – When I engage in conversation or listen to radio interviews, I listen with a writer’s ear and often find my head filling up with blog post ideas by simply listening to others discuss sometimes unrelated subjects.
Blogging would make me a better writer – The fact that I practice writing daily has made me a better writer. It doesn’t mean I’m the world’s greatest writer, but practicing something makes you better at it – hard to deny that. Of course writing publicly like this also allows for community reaction to help you get better faster.
Blogging would make me a better salesperson – I write like I speak and often I write to sell an idea or even a very specific tactic. It’s amazing, but I find that clearly stating idea pitches in writing has improved my ability to quickly articulate them in a selling or interview setting. It’s like you build up this reserve bank of pre tested discussion points.
Blogging would make me a better speaker – This one falls nicely from the previous point but I’ll also add that working through blog posts on meatier topics, those that readers weigh in on, has produced some of my best presentation material to date.
Blogging would keep me focused on learning – The discipline required to create even somewhat interesting content in the manner I’ve chosen requires that I study lots of what’s hot, what’s new, what’s being said and what’s not being said in order to find ways to apply it to the world of small business.
Blogging would allow me to test out ideas – I’ve made some incredible discoveries about some of my ideas (okay, and had a few flops too) based on the immediate and sometimes passionate response from readers. Many of the ideas in my upcoming book were tested and molded here.
Blogging would make me a better networker – I have developed hundreds of relationships with other writers that provide me with ideas, tips and resources to share and who willingly pass on my ideas, tips and resources. Some of these relationships remain professionally on the surface, but some have evolved into very strategic and fulfilling personal relationships as well. (Sharing a beer at a conference helps that along)
Blogging would allow me to create bigger ideas – This one is related to testing out ideas, but the habit of producing content over time also affords you the opportunity to create larger editorial ideas that can be reshaped and repurposed for other settings. I’ve taken a collection of blog posts on a specific topic and turned them into an ebook more than once.

So Hugh, thanks for the inspiration and to all the bloggers, readers, commenters, linkers, sharerers and grammar defenders that stop by, thanks for collaborating on the canvass that gives me the freedom to practice what I feels like art.

Top UK Internet Marketing Blogs 2012

Posted on 12. Apr, 2012 by Lee Odden in Blog, Marketing PR Conferences, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, uk blogs, UK Marketing Blogs

UK Internet Marketing Blogs Last year we ran a poll to identify the top Internet Marketing blogs in the UK which ended up getting a little spicy. There were over 3,000 votes cast (both human and bot) plus a ton of lively discussion (60+ comments). Many long time online marketing folks know of our famous BIGLIST of SEO blogs and so there was a lot of awareness and interest in getting on the UK list.

A lot has changed in the past year so I think it’s worth revisiting that list.

Blogs continue to represent highly effective content hubs for integrated SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing programs for all kinds of companies and industries, not just internet marketing. I’ve traveled to the UK many times and between my discussions with practitioners at conferences and the clients TopRank has in London, it’s clear that while there are many amazingly talented internet marketers in the UK, many companies are not as progressive in their approach.

Blogs are a great way to draw attention to solving that disparity and I’d like to draw attention to these useful internet marketing blogs covering everything from SEO to Social to Analytics to the intersection with other marketing channels.

Here’s that list of 35 UK internet marketing blogs below, organized alphabetically, for your consideration and comment.

Are these still the top blogs on digital marketing topics for the UK? What would you add? Which would you take out? This post is also an open invite for the authors of these blogs to do a review of Optimize.

I will be in the UK again next week 4/18 at the ionSearch conference in Leeds, which has a great line up of speakers ranging from Matt Bush of Google to Kevin Gibbons of SEOptimise to Ralph Tegtmeier of, well, if you have to ask it’s better that maybe you don’t know

Dave Snyder from the U.S. will be there as well as Andy Atkins Kruger from WebCertain in York. There will be plenty of folks from Blueclaw Media, who is running the conference there as well.

At ionSearch I’ll be talking about the evolution of SEO in the form of Optimize (of course). I’d like to invite bloggers in the UK that are attending to do a review of Optimize. We’ll feature any reviews on our book site with links and all. To do review of Optimize, just contact us at mail at optimizebook dot come for details.

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Redesigning Your Blog to Drive Reader Behavior

Posted on 10. Apr, 2012 by Jay Baer in Blog, Blogging and Content Creation, content marketing, Convince & Convert News, Convince and Convert, corporate blogging, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Soon, you’ll be seeing an all-new version of Convince & Convert.

It’s undergoing a full makeover, led by the amazing Rafal Tomal from Copyblogger Media. We’re of course staying with the Genesis Framework that provides enormous customization capabilities with unmatched ease-of-use. Here’s an almost-ready preview:

The design is based on the new Streamline child theme that is successfully being used by Danny Brown of Jugnoo – who has forgotten more about blog optimization than I’ll ever know.

The Case for Redesign

Even though WordPress (especially with Genesis) is exceptionally easy to work with compared to old skool Web design days, it’s still a major undertaking. Lots of blogs out there rarely if ever change their look and layout. Why bother?

In addition to the power of self-expression and the organization of your thinking it mandates, blogging for business has one primary outcome: it triggers desirable behaviors among readers. Identifying, measuring, and optimizing those behavior patterns are key elements of your blog strategy.

Very few bloggers (especially in the business category) are blogging strictly for eyeballs, as advertising revenue is typically a minor benefit, at best. Instead, the blog is an emcee, not just a vessel for your musings. It’s a public manifestation of your knowledge, and encourages readers to act in ways that help build your business over the long haul. It’s symbiosis. You trade what you know in exchange for readers’ time, attention, and advocacy.

Convince & Convert is growing and changing constantly, and the current design isn’t set up to emphasize the behaviors we are focused upon in 2012. The redesign is intended to address these informational and behavioral objectives:

Emphasize that Convince & Convert is a company, not a guy. There are 5 of us on the team, with a half dozen other collaborators.

Desired Behavior: Increase ratio of visitors viewing About Us.

Better explain our social media and content marketing services.

Desired Behavior: Increase ratio of visitors viewing services pages.

Showcase our new Social Pros Podcast.

Desired Behavior: Increase ratio of visitors viewing Podcast page and conversion rate for Podcast subscriptions via RSS and/or iTunes.

Increase Email Sign-ups. Considering many of us at C&C have a background in email marketing, our subscription rate is embarrassing. Time to fix.

Desired Behavior: Conversion rate for email subscriptions.

Spotlight speaking capabilities. My jaybaer.com site is dedicated to social media speaking, and was also built by Rafal Tomal. It’s terrific, but we need to drive more referrals from C&C over there.

Desired Behavior: Increase referred traffic to jaybaer.com

Increase depth of visits. High bounce rates are common on blogs, especially those that have a high ratio of new visits and visits from search. However, I want to see our bounce rate drop by making it easier to browse and by implementing a more compelling related posts feature. For the record, our bounce rate is 69%, our new visitors ratio is 70%, and our traffic from search is 29%.

Desired Behavior: Reduce bounce rate among new visitors (71% currently)

Once the new site rolls out and we have some data, I’ll write another post with some before and after statistics.

A New Target Audience and Approach

The presumed audience for this blog since its founding in June, 2008 was corporate and agency marketing professionals, with a side order of small business owners – especially on tactical posts. This year, however, we have tweaked the audience focus for Convince & Convert, and our objective is to write for social media and content marketing professionals. We don’t want to be Social Media Examiner, Social Fresh, or Content Marketing Institute and try to answer every conceivable question. Nor do we want to be a blog like TwistImage, BrianSolis.com, or SideraWorks that’s anchored in thought leadership and what comes next. There is a content chasm between those two types of blogs, and we want to fill it (along with Social Media Explorer, {Grow} and SpinSucks).

With the blog and podcast, we talk about what all of this means in practice, and how you can leverage the constant upheaval in social media and content marketing to the advantage of your organization. We’re innovative, interesting, hype-free, and approachable. Our objective is to give you advice and opinion you can’t get elsewhere.

A New Editorial Calendar – and How I Blog

Last week, Mitch Joel wrote a fascinating post about his blogging process (read it) that stemmed from an equally interesting post from Chris Brogan (read that one, too). I discovered that I write almost precisely the opposite of Mitch. He writes every day, and publishes whatever and whenever the mood strikes him – which is pretty much always! I am far more structured. For years, I have written three posts per week here, and typically have topics (or at least ideas for topics, which I keep on the notes section of my iphone) set up weeks in advance.

I write on a schedule, not when I feel the need to write. I have come to the conclusion that this is somewhat unusual for bloggers. For at least two years, every post I’ve written has been done on a weekend or on a plane. When I have the luxury of not being interrupted by phone or email or DMs or SMS, I write. Sometimes, I’ll write five posts in a row. Other times, just one. Incidentally, I did The NOW Revolution the same way. I wrote 1,500 words per day for 21 straight days. Amber Naslund is more like Mitch, and is a “flow” writer. During the book process, she’d have nothing, nothing, nothing then bust out 8,000 brilliant words. Interesting (at least to me) how different these processes can be.

I mostly write in WordPress, unless I’m on a plane with no Wi-Fi, in which case I write in TextEdit and then move to the blog. I always write on my MacBook Pro. I once tried to write a post on my iPad, but it felt too foreign. A post usually takes me an hour or so.

I wish I could write every day like Mitch and Chris, but I can’t. Scott Stratten consistently pays me a very nice compliment in his speeches, saying that he stops what he’s doing whenever I publish something new, because every post is rock solid. He’s a liar. I came to the conclusion late last year that I was worrying too much about quantity, and quality was starting to suffer. The growth of the consulting side of the business was impinging on my ability to create truly first-rate content. So with encouragement from Ann Handley I made some changes and we have implemented a new editorial calendar over the past 60 days, which has the dual benefit of freeing up some of my time, and providing more and better content to our shifted target audience.

Here’s how it works now:

Sunday/Monday – Long post from me where I can dig deep and hopefully make you laugh, cry, think. It’s like Cats.: you’ll read it again and again.

Tuesday – Guest post from someone awesome. This piece from Anthony Juliano last week on 5 Reasons Linkedin is Boring – in a Good Way was delicious. Sometimes I write a second post (like this one) instead of a guest post.

Wednesday – Innovative post on tools and tactics from one of the members of the C&C team. Chris Sietsema’s post on content marketing Bricks vs. Feathers was rock solid, and clients are already starting to use the “bricks” and “feathers” descriptors.

Thursday – Social Pros podcast. We run full-text transcripts of the podcast every week, so even if you’re not a podcast listener you can get all the insights from the weekly show I do with Eric Boggs from Argyle Social. that features real people doing real work in social media. (this week: Vanessa Sain-Dieguez, head of social for Hilton Hotels).

Saturday – (coming soon) One Social Thing digest. We’ve rolled out an all-new email product that brings you the single best thing in social media and content marketing every day (more on that next week). Soon, we’ll have a post every Saturday that recaps our picks of the
week – just in time for your weekend catch-up reading.

The 2012 Facebook Advertising Report INFOGRAPHIC 300x120 Redesigning Your Blog to Drive Reader Behavior

Because we have more authors on the blog now, we’re also going to be changing the layout of individual posts. This is primarily to increase readability and to have more consistent real estate to describe and promote the authors, similar to how Social Freshdoes it.Traffic is up 20% since we moved to the new calendar, even though I’m writing less personally. That’s good news for business, and bad news for the ego.

So there you have it. That’s where we’re headed with Convince & Convert. In the immortal words of Spinal Tap, “We hope you enjoy our new direction.”

Case Study: How to Breathe New Life into Your Tired Old Blog

Posted on 03. Apr, 2012 by Susan Daffron in Blog, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of rusted truck

Remember how fun it was when you first started your blog?

Writing great posts was effortless, and connecting with your audience was a pleasure.

In a classic scene in the movie Drop Dead Fred, Phoebe Cates and her imaginary friend Fred build a colossal mud pie on the dining room table.

They revel in the messy joy of creation and the fact that it’s going to infuriate her mother (aka the “Mega Beast”).

Starting a blog is like making that massive mud pie. It’s a major undertaking, yes, but an exciting one. Everything is fun and interesting. Your creativity is soaring and you predict your blog will astound and awe the online world.

Unfortunately, we creative people get bored easily and sometimes that new-blog luster wears off. Time passes, and you get sick of writing about that topic you used to love.

You move on, and now you want to write about something totally different. So what do you do about your old blog?

Well, you have three options:

Take down the old blog and start over with something new
Sell the old blog to someone who will give it the love and attention you once did
Reposition and revive the old blog

If you’ve put years of work into a blog, you may want to give option three some serious consideration. You can leverage that existing content and your site quality to build something new and amazing.

Your content legacy

If you’ve been online for a long time, you have a content legacy attached to your name.

Google knows what you’ve been up to. The content you have posted to your blog is part of your online history.

Completely erasing your content legacy and starting over is daunting. When faced with this problem, people often can’t decide what to do, so they do nothing at all and let the blog languish.

That was my approach for quite a while. People who do a Google search on my name probably think I have some sort of multiple personality disorder.

I used to write a lot of articles about how to use computers. Until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

My most popular computer-related site, Computor Companion, was a multi-author site I started as an archive for a print magazine that I published starting in 1999.

Although we stopped printing the magazine in 2001, we continued to publish online issues of the magazine through 2009. Needless to say, after publishing for 10 years, the site was large. With hundreds of articles and millions of visitors, Computor Companion was a content Mega Beast.

In fact, even after completely ignoring the site for more than two years, I still get feedback on the articles almost daily and remain in contact with many of the authors.

I never could let Computor Companion go. So many memories and online friendships are associated with it, I couldn’t part with the site.

Up until recently, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it either. After the Google Panda update, the traffic started falling off because Google noticed that the site hadn’t been updated in a while.

Clearly, I needed to do something.

Tear it apart and build it back up

In Drop Dead Fred, during the last moments of that mud pie scene, Fred breaks open a Jack in the Box toy and plops Jack’s head on top of the messy creation.

He says, “You see, when something’s not working right, the best thing is to tear it apart to make it better.”

If you want to reposition an existing blog, that’s what you have to do too. You tear it apart and build it back up.

That’s exactly what I did to relaunch Computor Companion.

Find a new angle

Determining a workable way to reposition your blog is arguably the hardest step. You can salvage most of the content if you don’t opt to go in a completely different direction. (If you absolutely can’t stand the topic at all, refer to Option 1 above and just start a new blog.)

The idea of repositioning Computor Companion had been on my mind for months before I finally arrived at a new slant that would work. I kept dwelling on the old tagline, which was “How to use computers effectively.” But the idea of doing technical writing or editing was unappealing at best. (Read: not going to happen.)

To arrive at the new direction, I looked at the readers’ problems differently. Most of my clients and many Computor Companion readers have used the information for business purposes. Then the new tagline hit me: Smart Ideas and Advice to Grow Your Business with Technology.

I could write (and edit) articles about small business. Almost everyone uses computers in business, so the existing articles could still work within the new framework. But the software focus could be deemphasized in future content.

To find a new angle for your blog, ask yourself: What problems — other than my central topic — does my content solve for readers?

Set new goals

Coming up with a new idea is great, but implementation can be challenging. If you’re going to go to all the work of revamping a blog, you should think about why you want to do it.

Think about your goals for the site and whether all the work will be worth it. In our case, our goals were to:

Expand our content marketing into a different area
Make money from advertising initially and products in the future
Capture leads from people interested in small business issues

Our goals affected how we redesigned and rebranded the site. Think about what you want your blog to do for your business before you embark on any changes.

Update the design

Obviously, a site that hadn’t been updated since 2009 needed some design attention. I didn’t want to completely throw away the old design, so the site will keep a similar color scheme.

Redesigning the site was relatively simple. For a blog, you can easily replace the theme to totally change the look. It’s amazing what a few color changes and a new header can do.

In our case, I created a new logo that is reminiscent of the old site/magazine. We also added more white space and I rewrote all the static pages (About, Home, etc.) to reflect the new direction. I came up with an idea for an autoresponder and we added sign-up forms to capture email addresses.

Reorganize the content

Our next trick was to recategorize all the existing content, so it would make sense going forward. In the prior incarnation, the site focused on how to use software, so that’s how the articles were organized.

Now, with a small business focus, the articles are categorized into subject areas like Getting Clients, Developing Your Business, and Productivity. We deleted a few articles entirely and imported a few articles from another old site we were shutting down. At this point, some of the categories don’t have many articles, but there’s a lot of room for growth.

The key to setting up categories is to think about how you want people to find the content. We had the technical expertise to dig into the databases and reassign categories. If you don’t have a resident geek, you may need to resign yourself to some rather tedious work reorganizing your content.

Launch!

Once we had the new site design in place and the autoresponder set up, we launched. When you launch a blog, it’s easy to get mired down in perfectionism, but the problem is worse when you’re retrofitting an existing site.

You’ll undoubtedly have to compromise on a few issues. In our case, some articles aren’t perfectly categorized and there are a couple of articles we probably should have deleted, but didn’t because of the author.

At this point, Computor Companion isn’t perfect, but it’s far better than it was. We have a new platform for great content that I can enjoy writing and editing going forward.

The best part is that I have a site that’s no longer dragging me down. The prospect of adding new articles doesn’t scare or depress me.

As Fred would say, “I’m not afraid of the Mega Beast!”

How about you?

Ever take a blog or a website all the way to the ground and build it back up again? Ever think about doing it with your current site?

Let us know in the comments.

About the Author: Susan Daffron, aka The Book Consultant owns a book and software publishing company. In addition to relaunching ComputorCompanion.com and teaching aspiring authors about book publishing, she is putting on the Self-Publishers Online Conference May 8-10. Use the special “friend of Copyblogger” code CB12 when you register to get a discount.

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Practical Tips to Make Your Blog More Useful & Interactive

Posted on 29. Mar, 2012 by Lee Odden in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, tips

blogging tips It’s amazing how a meme can turn into a stream of content when it resonates well with a community. Recently I was sent a set of interview questions and one of the questions asked about building blog community. I took my response to that one question and turned it into a blog post, “How to Increase Business Blog Readership, Traffic & Community” that was well received. In fact, that post prompted two different social media chats to ask if I’d be a guest host on the topic: #smchat and #nptalk. Thank you for inviting me!

Now I’m turning the questions from those chats and my answers into yet another (unique) blog post full of practical tips.

The questions and answers from those chats provide tips for bloggers that want to provide a more meaningful and measurable experience for their readers. These tips range from process and efficiency advice to ways of inspiring more user generate content, content repurposing and growing subscribers.

Q: Do you think blogs are influential in building community – in other words, if you build it, will they come?

A: Blogs as a hub surrounded by spokes of social participation are excellent for building community

A: The key is to empathize with what motivates people to discovery, engage & share content. Mesh that insight with your editorial & promotion

A: Great content isn’t great unless people read and share it. Blogs must promote content to grow community.

Q: How do you determine the niche solution your market needs to develop “go to” resources for that solution?

A: Developing resources for niche solutions can start by understanding audience pain points. Know your customer & make things that help them.

A: Monitor popular niche content in your category to see what topics are not being covered, problems not addressed, then make & solve for your niche.

A: Create a resource that you would want to use yourself & others will want to use it too. Be editorial not self promotional.

A: Niche list blog post resource example: 25 Women Who Rock Social Media (4,291 RTs)

A: Niche list blog post resource example: 22 Social Media Marketing Management Tools (2,599 RTs)

Q: A keyword glossary and editorial plan keep content on track, but does it create community?

A: Re: keywords and community – why make it hard for interested people to find your content?

A: Search keywords & social topics data come from real behaviors & conversations. They inspire editorial that resonates with readers & search engines alike

A: Bloggers writing purely for self expression with no monetization goals don’t need to bother with keyword glossaries and editorial plans

A: If bloggers have commercial & business accountability, then empathizing with desired audiences by creating editorial that speaks their language is good business

A: Two useful resources: SEO or Social for business blogging? & Dynamic Duo of Business Blog Marketing: Optimize & Socialize

Q: Is it better to gather a community on social media and drive to your blog or directly on your blog itself?

A: Where you gather community depends where they want to gather. Understand customers, implement & promote content accordingly. Adjust.

A: A hub and spoke mode allows both blog community & off blog community in social channels. Spoke communities help promote blog content.

Q: What other tips do you have for driving blog traffic/readership?

A: Create content people can’t find anywhere else

A Tips: Create comprehensive collections of resources – unique

A: Give to get. Praise others, give kudos and recognize others in your industry. Never underestimate the power of ego.

A: Engage – ask questions, respond quickly and qualitatively. Engage off your blog too – 10 min a day, every day

Q: What are some ways we can make their blogs more interactive for readers?

A: Interactions with blogs starts with interesting content. Empathize with audience interests, prompt them with ?s. Ask!

A: Collect the best comments and curate that into blog content. Spend time on other blogs too. 5-10 min a day.

A: Surface participation to recognize those who display desirable interaction behaviors. eg top commenters, top shares, etc

Q: What is the best way to go about sourcing user generated content?

A: To be efficient, I maintain 10-20 blog posts in development & add to them a few min at a time

A: As mentioned, guest posts work well. Create contests where content contribution is an outcome. Recognize “winners”.

A: Ask questions on social channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or G+ & compile the answers. Make it easy to answer.

Q: What is a good way to attract industry influentials to guest post on a blog?

A: Make valuable comments on their blogs, RT their tweets, get on the radar. Build your credibility & what you stand for.

A: Industry influentials tend to be BZ so make it EZ to contribute. If a guest post won’t work, offer an email interview.

A: Try asking 10 thought leaders 1 easy question and compile that into 1 post. Follow up with a guest post offer.

Q: Should you respond to all comments on your blog or only questions?

A: Responding to comments depends on opportunity to create value. Questions need answering. Adding to statements OK too.

A: I don’t think you need to reply to every “great post, thanks” comment, no. But when opportunity for opinion arises, take it.

Q: Do you find there is a difference in engagement if you ask more questions in your blog posts?

A: Asking questions does inspire more feedback in the comments – but only if natural & genuine vs. “gimmick”

A: A history of asking & answering questions with your blog community will create momentum, an expectation of conversation

Q: How can I get more social shares on my blog posts?

A: Make interesting content (defined by readers not just you), optimize for social share, promote it & shares will come.

A: It’s also worth asking “why” you want more social shares. Make a distinction between quantity (social proof) & quality.

Q: What types of posts typically get the most re-shares, comments, traffic, etc.

A: Reshares, comments, traffic are all different KPIs (key performance indicators) There’s no blanket “type” that hits all.

A: Start w/ content that solves a problem for readers, resonates with interests, trends & that’s easy to share.

A: People will rally around decisiveness, so take a stand. Be a leader on key points & your blog will attract shares & attention.

Many blog readers are bloggers themselves, so what are some of your best tips for creating a more meaningful and measurable experience for your blog audience?