Sail The 7 C’s Of Better Blogging

Aspiring blogger? 
New to blogging?

Wondering if you have what it takes to blog successfully?
Experienced and looking for tips?

If the answer to any of these questions is YES, read on.

The HOW of blogging is simple and at the same time tricky.  Understanding the 7 C’s of Blogging can get you on track.  This overview is the first of a short series where we will explore each of the 7 C’s in more depth.

For me, this topic is critical since Lead Generation is my primary focus and blogging is arguably the number one tool for generating leads online. Blogging is certainly one of the very few tools that you own and that can’t be taken away from you.

The first C is something you do BEFORE you start blogging.

The first thing you need to decide is: “WHAT is my blog is going to be about?” and “WHY am I blogging”

If your WHY is to create an online diary, you may not care if you have any consumers.

If you want to share your passion or if you want to cash in on your passion then you do want consumers.

Assuming that you want to talk to a growing list of consumers, the CORE is actually made up of two parts – your Center (passion) and a Crowd that is Starving for something related to your passion.

Discovering your CORE requires you to look in two directions at once (inward and outward).

Looking in two directions is a tricky task, to say the least, so we will take them one at a time.
First, look inward, inside yourself. 

Find something you love or have always been interested in and would really like to learn more about.
Then look outside yourself.
See if there is a crowd with a hunger for something related to your passion. 

Once you have both parts, you have a CORE for your blog.  This step is critical to successful blogging.  You won’t last unless you are talking about something that really interests you AND there is a crowd starving for your material.

Once you start your blog, CONSISTENCY is probably the number One task for better blogging.  It is a BIG C.  You MUST publish regularly if you want to gain a following of consumers.  We’ll cover this in more depth in a subsequent post.  The other side of consistency is your “voice.”   You need to pick a role (expert, friend, investigator, exposer, reviewer, etc.) and consistently use that voice.

CONGRUENCY is another BIG C.

You need to stay on topic or at least loosely relate you topic to your CORE.

For example, if you are blogging about Building Kites, you need to talk about the various aspects of building kites.  You may stray into the
kinds of people who build kites or something about you AND why you like building kites.  Talking about something totally unrelated – like politics or planting flowers will actually drive your followers away.

The bottom line is that if you can’t tie a post back to your core and aim it at YOUR crowd, don’t put it on your blog.  Write an article and submit it to an eZine if you REALLY want to write about it.

You can also Guest Blog on someone else’s blog that might be more related to what you want to talk about.  Information posted on YOUR blog should always be CONGRUENT with your CORE.
One way to stay congruent is to pick 4 to 7 categories for your blog. 
Make sure each of your blog posts fits into one of these categories.  (Yes, you can have an “Other” or “Fun Things” category.  Just make sure that the vast majority of your posts are congruent with your CORE.)

“Content is King!”

I’ll have to admit, this phrase annoys me. It is 100% accurate and if you know what it means it make perfect sense.  On the other hand,  if you don’t know what it means, you  get nothing but a feeling of “I need to write well.”

Writing well is important, but it is not the whole story by a long shot.

Here is my take on what the phrase means.   The search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) are in the business of feeding their users the absolute best answers to the implied questions the users are asking when they search.

For example, if I search for a specific network marketing company, I DO NOT want to see 6,000 entries that are almost exactly the same. This would be a bad user experience.  The end result is that the programmers for the search engines go through some contortions to try and deliver the best content to the searchers.

This means that as a blogger, it is your job to provide content that would meet the current definition of “best content for the searchers” – in other words Content is King.

Key words and SEO are far beyond this short post, but it is critical to remember that your first job is to provide content that someone will find useful when they read it.  Useful may mean “how to” or “that was interesting” or “That was funny” or “now I know that writer better and I like them more”.  It can mean lots of things, but somehow the content must be useful.

In addition to being  useful, readers expect multi-media today. Readers expect and demand to see Videos, Pictures, or  Infographics.
There is another side to content. And that is the question of where to find good content to write about.
This is a very hot topic for bloggers.  You always start with “what do MY readers need?”, but it is possible to run out of ideas.   There are lots of posts on where to find ideas.
My three favorites for finding topics and ideas for blog posts are as follows:

Go to a book store and pull books about your passion.  Look for bullet lists.  Give credit where credit is due and argue, agree, add to, or subtract.  There is usually something there to talk about.Pull books on your topic off your shelf and ask yourself “Why did I buy this book?” and then “Did it give me what I wanted?”Look at the titles of past posts on other  blogs about your topic.  The titles themselves will spark ideas.

You developed your CORE before you started.

You have a reason for blogging and a target audience.

Now it is time to make sure that you have a CALL TO ACTION in your blog.

It doesn’t have to be there in every post, however there needs to be a consistent, congruent and frequent CALL TO ACTION where you tell your readers exactly what you would like for them to do.

I like the concept of a Persuasion Shell which is material that you cut and paste at the beginning and end of every blog post.  This consistent and congruent message is the same every time a person reads your blog.  The repetition carries a much stronger impact than you can achieve with the same message being delivered using different words every time.

In your posts you can have Calls to Action that are unique as you talk about different pain points, however the Persuasion Shell can be your best CALL TO ACTION tool.

A major part of Internet Marketing is checking your results and adjusting. 

Even if things are working, you try for something better.  If the “better”  doesn’t give better results, back up and then try again.  You need to be tracking when you change your offer and see how it affects the conversion rates.

Too many bloggers feel that once they press the “Publish” button they are done.  The best bloggers, the pros at better blogging, the ones with lots of people following them. have a routine they follow after they press  the Publish Button. This routine puts them in front of thousands of potential followers.

The cruise to Better blogging happens when you have identified your personal CORE topic and audience. 

Then your posts  must be CONSISTENT and CONGRUENT. 

You must deliver CONTENT your audience can use.  

For every post, you make sure your CALL TO ACTION is in place and CHECK (and Adjust) to achieve maximum results.

When you publish a new post then you must CONNECT with traffic.

The key to Better Blogging is handling ALL 7 C’s every time.

Now, print this post out and tape it near your computer so you have it to refer to. Also, please share this post if you found it of value. If you have questions or suggestions or want to add to your own ideas, please comment below.

With degrees in psychology and counseling and a doctorate in Ed. Administration and Research, Hale has a long history bf loving to teach and help. His background includes working for School Districts, Social Service Agencies, Universities and several small businesses. He has been involved in thousands of research projects and for the last forty years has been a software development systems analysts and project director. He has always been a teacher He loves helping people and learning new things. His current passion is network marketing and Internet marketing. Learn more about working with Hale by clicking the blog link below.

View the original article here

Sail The 7 C’s Of Better Blogging

Aspiring blogger? 
New to blogging?

Wondering if you have what it takes to blog successfully?
Experienced and looking for tips?

If the answer to any of these questions is YES, read on.

The HOW of blogging is simple and at the same time tricky.  Understanding the 7 C’s of Blogging can get you on track.  This overview is the first of a short series where we will explore each of the 7 C’s in more depth.

For me, this topic is critical since Lead Generation is my primary focus and blogging is arguably the number one tool for generating leads online. Blogging is certainly one of the very few tools that you own and that can’t be taken away from you.

The first C is something you do BEFORE you start blogging.

The first thing you need to decide is: “WHAT is my blog is going to be about?” and “WHY am I blogging”

If your WHY is to create an online diary, you may not care if you have any consumers.

If you want to share your passion or if you want to cash in on your passion then you do want consumers.

Assuming that you want to talk to a growing list of consumers, the CORE is actually made up of two parts – your Center (passion) and a Crowd that is Starving for something related to your passion.

Discovering your CORE requires you to look in two directions at once (inward and outward).

Looking in two directions is a tricky task, to say the least, so we will take them one at a time.
First, look inward, inside yourself. 

Find something you love or have always been interested in and would really like to learn more about.
Then look outside yourself.
See if there is a crowd with a hunger for something related to your passion. 

Once you have both parts, you have a CORE for your blog.  This step is critical to successful blogging.  You won’t last unless you are talking about something that really interests you AND there is a crowd starving for your material.

Once you start your blog, CONSISTENCY is probably the number One task for better blogging.  It is a BIG C.  You MUST publish regularly if you want to gain a following of consumers.  We’ll cover this in more depth in a subsequent post.  The other side of consistency is your “voice.”   You need to pick a role (expert, friend, investigator, exposer, reviewer, etc.) and consistently use that voice.

CONGRUENCY is another BIG C.

You need to stay on topic or at least loosely relate you topic to your CORE.

For example, if you are blogging about Building Kites, you need to talk about the various aspects of building kites.  You may stray into the
kinds of people who build kites or something about you AND why you like building kites.  Talking about something totally unrelated – like politics or planting flowers will actually drive your followers away.

The bottom line is that if you can’t tie a post back to your core and aim it at YOUR crowd, don’t put it on your blog.  Write an article and submit it to an eZine if you REALLY want to write about it.

You can also Guest Blog on someone else’s blog that might be more related to what you want to talk about.  Information posted on YOUR blog should always be CONGRUENT with your CORE.
One way to stay congruent is to pick 4 to 7 categories for your blog. 
Make sure each of your blog posts fits into one of these categories.  (Yes, you can have an “Other” or “Fun Things” category.  Just make sure that the vast majority of your posts are congruent with your CORE.)

“Content is King!”

I’ll have to admit, this phrase annoys me. It is 100% accurate and if you know what it means it make perfect sense.  On the other hand,  if you don’t know what it means, you  get nothing but a feeling of “I need to write well.”

Writing well is important, but it is not the whole story by a long shot.

Here is my take on what the phrase means.   The search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) are in the business of feeding their users the absolute best answers to the implied questions the users are asking when they search.

For example, if I search for a specific network marketing company, I DO NOT want to see 6,000 entries that are almost exactly the same. This would be a bad user experience.  The end result is that the programmers for the search engines go through some contortions to try and deliver the best content to the searchers.

This means that as a blogger, it is your job to provide content that would meet the current definition of “best content for the searchers” – in other words Content is King.

Key words and SEO are far beyond this short post, but it is critical to remember that your first job is to provide content that someone will find useful when they read it.  Useful may mean “how to” or “that was interesting” or “That was funny” or “now I know that writer better and I like them more”.  It can mean lots of things, but somehow the content must be useful.

In addition to being  useful, readers expect multi-media today. Readers expect and demand to see Videos, Pictures, or  Infographics.
There is another side to content. And that is the question of where to find good content to write about.
This is a very hot topic for bloggers.  You always start with “what do MY readers need?”, but it is possible to run out of ideas.   There are lots of posts on where to find ideas.
My three favorites for finding topics and ideas for blog posts are as follows:

Go to a book store and pull books about your passion.  Look for bullet lists.  Give credit where credit is due and argue, agree, add to, or subtract.  There is usually something there to talk about.Pull books on your topic off your shelf and ask yourself “Why did I buy this book?” and then “Did it give me what I wanted?”Look at the titles of past posts on other  blogs about your topic.  The titles themselves will spark ideas.

You developed your CORE before you started.

You have a reason for blogging and a target audience.

Now it is time to make sure that you have a CALL TO ACTION in your blog.

It doesn’t have to be there in every post, however there needs to be a consistent, congruent and frequent CALL TO ACTION where you tell your readers exactly what you would like for them to do.

I like the concept of a Persuasion Shell which is material that you cut and paste at the beginning and end of every blog post.  This consistent and congruent message is the same every time a person reads your blog.  The repetition carries a much stronger impact than you can achieve with the same message being delivered using different words every time.

In your posts you can have Calls to Action that are unique as you talk about different pain points, however the Persuasion Shell can be your best CALL TO ACTION tool.

A major part of Internet Marketing is checking your results and adjusting. 

Even if things are working, you try for something better.  If the “better”  doesn’t give better results, back up and then try again.  You need to be tracking when you change your offer and see how it affects the conversion rates.

Too many bloggers feel that once they press the “Publish” button they are done.  The best bloggers, the pros at better blogging, the ones with lots of people following them. have a routine they follow after they press  the Publish Button. This routine puts them in front of thousands of potential followers.

The cruise to Better blogging happens when you have identified your personal CORE topic and audience. 

Then your posts  must be CONSISTENT and CONGRUENT. 

You must deliver CONTENT your audience can use.  

For every post, you make sure your CALL TO ACTION is in place and CHECK (and Adjust) to achieve maximum results.

When you publish a new post then you must CONNECT with traffic.

The key to Better Blogging is handling ALL 7 C’s every time.

Now, print this post out and tape it near your computer so you have it to refer to. Also, please share this post if you found it of value. If you have questions or suggestions or want to add to your own ideas, please comment below.

With degrees in psychology and counseling and a doctorate in Ed. Administration and Research, Hale has a long history bf loving to teach and help. His background includes working for School Districts, Social Service Agencies, Universities and several small businesses. He has been involved in thousands of research projects and for the last forty years has been a software development systems analysts and project director. He has always been a teacher He loves helping people and learning new things. His current passion is network marketing and Internet marketing. Learn more about working with Hale by clicking the blog link below.

View the original article here