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When and Where Bloggers Blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for When and Where Bloggers BlogMost bloggers write their posts during business hours and do their blogging from home, according to research from Orbit Media Studios.

The report was based on data from a survey conducted in 2016 of 1,055 bloggers from around the world who create content in a wide range of verticals.

Most respondents (64%) say they write blog posts during business hours.

Some 35% write blog posts at night; 35%, on the weekends; 29%, in the early morning; and 29%, after business hours:

Some 79% of respondents say they blog from home and/or in a home office; 41% blog in an office outside their home; 21%, in coffee shops; 6%, from co-working spaces; and 16%, from other locations:

Some 36% of respondents say none of the posts they create are guest posts; 6% say more than three-quarters of the posts they create are guest posts:

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey conducted in 2016 of 1,055 bloggers from around the world who create content in a wide range of verticals.

[“Source-marketingprofs”]

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Blogging

5 Ways a Blog Can Help Your Business Right Now

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

5 Ways a Blog Can Help Your Business Right Now

There are many benefits of blogging for business today. In fact, blogging is critical.

However, bland, run-of-the-mill blog posts won’t cut it. These are lazy and ineffective.

So what is effective? Publishing informative, well-written articles that are created with strategy and customer engagement in mind.

Blogging helps to:

  • Draw online traffic.
  • Nurture and convert customers.
  • Keep current customers engaged.
  • Differentiate you from other similar businesses.
  • Grow demand and interest in your products or services.

Better yet, blogging is relatively simple and blog posts can continue to provide these benefits long after publishing.

Here are five real ways a blog can help your businesses, plus some examples of companies with blogs that are helping their business right now.

1. Increase Traffic to Your Site

A blog gives people a reason to regularly visit your website, especially if you post frequently and deliver quality content that’s entertaining, useful, or both.

Both B2C and B2B companies see business benefits – more traffic and leads – when they blog frequently, compared to companies that blog infrequently or not at all, according to Hubspot,

Hubspot Graph

Obviously, more people on your site can only mean more potential for reservations/bookings, more submissions to your contact form, and more potential client inquiries.

More website traffic is good for any kind of business, as long as those visitors are likely to purchase your product or service. Be sure to create content that speaks to your target audience’s pain points, and make sure the headlines accurately describe the content to follow.

2. Attract New Customers

Think you don’t have time for a blog? If that’s true, what do you have time for?

Think about how you do research online before buying a product or service. You probably use Google or other search engines to research just about every kind of purchase or buying decision, whether big or small. Finding informative, engaging blog content on the subject can help sway your opinion and ultimately play a factor in where you purchase from.

While creating a blog strategy may take some time out of your day, it’s going to be worth it. An informative blog allows your potential customers to research a solution on their own time and contact you when they’re ready to make a purchase. Here are a few examples:

  • A small clothing boutique could post weekly or monthly style predictions and outfit tips per season.
  • A home contractor could write about home improvement tips and feature before and after pictures of work they’ve completed along with descriptions of the projects.
  • A tax consultant’s business could benefit from the predictable and considerable upturn in tax-related searches at certain times during the year and provide keyword-optimized tax advice (see the Google Trends screenshot below for the phrase “tax help”).

Google Trends

Create blog posts with SEO best practices in mind from the beginning and be diligent about promotion. This will ensure that your blog acts as a round-the-clock tool for nurturing customers and potentially bringing in leads.

Make sure every blog post inspires action of some kind or another. Depending on your business, you might want people to read another related piece of content, fill out a form to get a quote, or call you to set up a consultation.

Industry Example: Legal Blogging

Ninety-six percent of people who need legal information use search engines to find it, according to statistics curated by the National Law Review. If you work at a law firm, there’s no question that potential customers are looking for legal services online and many of them are primed to move forward as soon as they find what they’re looking for. A blog with optimized posts containing legal advice and topics related to your area(s) of practice can attract people to your website at precisely the right moment and up the chances that they’ll choose to work with you.

This example from the Joye Law Firm shows a well-designed blog with a wealth of useful information and plenty of opportunities to contact the firm.

Legal Blog

3. Turn Your Website Into a Destination

One strategy for business blogging is to create a site that people want to read at their leisure. While some business blogs are going to be need-based (think legal, financial, or tax-related blogs), plenty of businesses can create want-based blogs that people will be interested in reading during their spare time.

While need-based blogs focus on providing answers and immediately connecting readers with solutions you can offer, want-based blogs may focus more on stimulating demand for something your readers didn’t know they wanted at first (think clothing, food, and beauty products).

The key is to make your content interesting and engaging enough that people will want to read them for fun. Over time, you can create a connection with your readers through the tone and content of the blog and foster brand loyalty.

Here are some examples:

  • Plato’s Closet Style Blog
  • William’s Sonoma: Taste
  • 24 Hour Fitness 24Life Blog

None of the products or services (trendy clothes, cooking supplies, gym subscription) sold by the companies above are really needs. Because of this, their blogs are lifestyle-based and meant to create and nurture a community and show how their solutions could enhance people’s quality of life.

Industry Example: Restaurant Blogging

If you’re a restaurant owner and you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.

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While people may read legal and real estate blogs when they need advice, people read about food for fun. The hashtag #food is on over 200 million Instagram posts. “Food and Drink” is the top Pinterest category.

Restaurants are the perfect entities to run food blogs that can be a destination in and of themselves.

This screenshot from the blog of Tupelo Honey Cafe, a popular brunch spot with locations throughout the South, shows a highly shareable copycat-recipe blog post complete with an image that’s optimized for reposting on Pinterest.

Recipe

The blog also features information about new meals at the restaurant and roundups of customer pictures from Instagram.

This blog succeeds because it’s not only a visually stunning and useful blog that’s perfect for browsing, but it’s also a low-key, non-aggressive advertisement for Tupelo Honey’s delicious-looking food.

4. Show and Tell What Your Business Can Do

A blog can also act as a dynamic, attractive portfolio. For companies where proof of past success is everything, it’s important to have an easy way to show potential clients what kinds of results they can expect. Some examples of these types of businesses might be:

  • Home contractors
  • Personal trainers
  • Graphic designers
  • Beauticians

With a blog and a few high-quality photos of your work, you can easily create a portfolio to direct potential clients to.

While it may take more effort to update your whole site, depending on how it was created, blogs on content management systems such as WordPress are generally easy to update, even if you don’t have a lot of technical knowledge.

If you can publish a Facebook post, you can publish a blog on WordPress.

If you need help, there’s no shortage of free advice (another example of the usefulness of blogs!).

Once you’ve started cataloging your work on your blog, you have a simple link to send to people who want to get a sense of the quality and efficacy of your work.

Industry Example: Home Improvement Blogging

With the popularity of home improvement and DIY shows, you know that people love a good home renovation story. If you’re a home contractor, using your blog to show off impressive projects you’ve completed helps people visualize what their homes could look like after a remodel.

Home improvement company Haskell Interiors’ blog includes case studies of past client work and home improvement tips. The effect of the high-quality before and after pictures and the detailed project descriptions is compelling enough to make anyone consider a remodeling project.

Home Improvement Blogging

5. Give Your Business Results Long After the Initial Post

Even months after a blog post goes live, it can continue to attract new leads and customers and help you increase sales.

More than three quarters of their blog views are for old posts, according to Hubspot. Even better, those old posts help to collect the vast majority (90 percent) of their leads.

While it’s still important to create new posts, older posts can remain relevant to your readers for a long time.

Not only that, old blog posts that have gained authority/ranking over time and are bringing in a good amount of organic traffic can be easily updated to serve current campaigns/goals. Sometimes all it takes are a few small tweaks for the blog to retain its usefulness and bring in qualified leads.

Start Blogging Effectively for Business

Clearly, blogging is beneficial no matter where your customers are in the purchasing process.

Try adapting one or more of the examples here for your own business. Be sure to track and measure your results.

Effective blogging will help you start attracting and nurturing leads, then capturing and engaging new customers.

[Source”cnbc”]

 

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Blogging

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

How the heck do they do it?

You know who I’m talking about. I’m talking about those successful small business entrepreneurs who get tons of business and engagement online.

Sure, they hustle just as much as you do. They attend the same networking events. But there’s a difference.

They seem to have much more business than you do. They’re closing more deals. They’re generating more leads through their website.

So what’s the difference between you and them?

They’re probably blogging. They’re probably using their small business blog to build an online audience that is engaged with their brand.

If you’re a small business entrepreneur or solopreneur, you have probably heard of content marketing, right? No doubt you’ve heard of the importance of creating valuable content for your website. But maybe you haven’t taken that first step yet.

A small business blog is one of the most-used and effective content marketing tools at your disposal. Simply put, if you’re not blogging, you’re leaving money on the table.

Here’s some stats for you:

  • Marketers that use blogs get 67 percent more leads than those who don’t.
  • 81 percent of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
  • Companies that blog have 97 percent more inbound links.
  • 61 percent of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  • 60 percent of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to consider how you’re connecting with your audience. Since you might not have the huge marketing budget of a mega-corporation, you will have to use other means to build and connect with your audience.

One of the best ways to do this is by blogging. It’s been shown to be highly effective at generating quality leads for your business.

Many business owners overlook the potential rewards that blogging can provide. But you’re a savvy entrepreneur, so you’re not going to make this mistake, are you?

This post is going to give you ten benefits that a small business blog can provide for your business. When you read through this post, you will learn various ways you can use your blog to generate more business, earn more credibility and make it easier for prospects to find you online.

Why You Should Have a Small Business Blog

1. Market Research

Having a blog with many articles allows you to more effectively understand what your audience really wants. From the back end of your site, you can spy on what pages people are viewing the most, and this gives you an idea of where their interest lies. When you know what types of content perform the best, you know what types of content to continue to create.

Also, you can use your blog to request feedback from your audience. If you have an engaged following, it’s very likely that they will be happy to answer the questions you have.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As you probably know, there’s not much of a point to having a killer website if nobody can find it. One of the biggest keys to getting more traffic is making sure that people will find your site when they use search engines. As a  matter of fact, search engines are the no. 1 driver of traffic to content websites! SEO is something that you can’t ignore if you want to have a viable online presence.

The more relevant content you have on your website, the more likely it will be that you will rank for certain keywords. This is where a small business blog comes in. Consistently publishing high-quality content on your blog will do wonders for your search engine optimization efforts.

When you produce useful content, Google’s algorithms will rank your site higher. Over time, your site will make its way to the front page of search results. Not only that, but when people read high-quality content, they’re more likely to link back to it. Earning quality backlinks from other high-authority blogs will do wonders for your SEO efforts.

3. Customer Engagement

Engagement is immensely important for any online business. It’s not enough to just create great content. You also need to interact with your audience as much as you can. You can’t have any success by just talking at your audience. You need to have ongoing conversations with them. It will help you know your audience better. It will help your audience know you better.

That’s what you want.

If you enable comments on your small business blog, you can discuss topics and get feedback directly. This can tell you a lot about your customer base. Not only that. It shows your audience that you are interested in interacting with them. This will increase loyalty and help you form a deeper connection with your audience.

4. Communicating Your Mission

One of the most important components of effective branding is purpose. Connecting with your audience means embracing a unique brand perspective that can give your audience something they can connect with on an emotional level.

This is where blogging comes in.

Your blog is a place where you can communicate your brand purpose. This is important because establishing a strong brand is an important part of encouraging customer loyalty. When you communicate a brand purpose that goes beyond what you sell, it helps you stand out from your competition.

For example, if you are a business that sells vegan meat substitutes, you can express your brand’s purpose by posting animal welfare material on your site. This shows your audience that your company is focused on something more than just making money.

5. Communicating With Customers

If there’s something going on with your service — for example, there will be a planned outage or lack of availability — you don’t have to keep your clients in the dark. Having a centralized place to post announcements is extremely important because people don’t always read their email.

6. You Can Offer Promotional Material

A small business blog is also a great place to offer occasional promotions. If you already have an engaged audience that consumes your content, they will be able to see what discounts or promotions you are offering. It’s a great way to keep your customer base informed.

Sure, you can spread your coupons around Facebook, but it’s better to get into the habit of compelling your audience to visit you at your own site, especially if it’s an ecommerce site. Keep them coming back for more by posting your promotions on your blog.

Here’s a caveat: you don’t want to overdo this. While blogs can be great for offering promotions, it shouldn’t be used solely for this purpose. Most of your content should focus on offering informational value to your readers. If you only post promotional content, your audience will not continue to visit your blog.

7. Showing Your Human Side

People want to know that there are actual human beings behind the business that they buy from. Post some personal stories and talk to your customers through your blog.

This is an opportunity for you to let your personality shine through. When you’re writing blog posts, don’t smack your reader in the head with a bunch of “corporatespeak.” Nobody wants to read that. No really, they don’t!

It’s much better to write in an informal style that people can relate to. When it comes to blogging, it’s not just about what you say, it’s about how you say it.

8. You Can Become a Source of Value

The key to effective blogging is providing value. Nobody is going to read your content unless they get something out of it, right?

If you want to build influence, you have to be valuable. You can do this by providing helpful information to your readers through your blog.

Arjun Reddy, the founder of Super Baby, builds credibility with his website’s “resources” section by giving actionable tips to his visitors.

“Our visitors are parents who are looking for fun ways to help their children become smarter. The advice we give in our resources section is designed to provide helpful parenting tips for our readers.”

The reason Reddy is enjoying success is because he’s providing value up front. When you do this, you show your potential clients that you are valuable to them. That’s why content marketing works. When you’re creating content, you should be asking yourself what your reader is going to get out of that particular piece of content. Each piece of content should be designed to inform, educate, or entertain. If possible, you should do all three!

9. Networking!

When you have built an audience and gained some notoriety, it can attract other entrepreneurs to you. For an entrepreneur, networking is important, isn’t it?

If you’re able to grow your readership effectively, you will gain more credibility. This will attract other influencers in your niche. You never know who might be paying attention right?

This could lead to other opportunities for your business. You might be able to take advantage of the key relationships that you form through your small business blog.

10. Building Credibility

Having a small business blog gives you a presence in your niche. A blog is a record of quality value and experience that you are bringing to your audience. This will give you instant “street cred” when someone finds your content.

Lissette Palencia, CEO of Sleeping Angels has built a steady stream of clientele by using her blog to provide valuable information to her website’s visitors.

“As you can guess, when you run a nanny agency, your clients are parents who are concerned about the safety of their children. They want to do the research first. When they visit our website, they find tons of valuable information that helps them make the right decision for their family. Not only does it inform them, it makes them more comfortable with doing business us.”

This is essential for your business. Your blog is a tool that you can use to establish credibility in the minds of your potential clients. Prospects will read your content and gain value from it. Then, they will become far more willing to buy from you because you have already given them a significant benefit through your blog.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing. If you’re looking to expand your online presence, you need to be creating high-quality content on a consistent basis. A blog is one of the best ways to do this.

These are just a few reasons to keep a blog if you’re an entrepreneur, but there are much more. Just remember that anything that can bring value to your audience is something that you should consider adding to your business.

Blogging Photo via Shutterstock

[“source-smallbiztrends”]

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Blogging

Why Starting a Blog is Better Than an MBA

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Is earning an MBA worth it? Each year, thousands of students ask this very question, yet find conflicting advice.

While it’s true that, on paper, MBA graduates earn more (a recent study from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which advocates for leading graduate business schools, showed that median starting salaries for MBA graduates were almost twice as much as bachelor’s degrees), graduate school can cost six figures or more to complete. And that doesn’t even count the time you’ll spend out of the workforce pursuing your degree.

And really, I would argue that you could pretty much create your own MBA program with an entirely different path — one that might cost as little as $100 per year.

What path, you ask? Let’s talk about blogging.

 

Starting a Blog vs. Earning an MBA

First, let’s start with a disclaimer. I didn’t earn my MBA. In fact, I actually dropped out of a MBA program.

Instead, I earned a regular ol’ college degree, became a financial advisor and eventually acquired the certified financial planner designation. Then, instead of pursuing more college after starting my career, I jumped directly into entrepreneurship by starting my own blog, GoodFinancialCents.com.

While I never sat in a classroom, I learned all about business the hard way — through trial and error. For example, blogging taught me how to:

Network, not in person, but online.

Since networking in an online space is totally different than traditional networking, this one was hard. Eventually though, I learned how to reach out to other bloggers through cold emails to get guest posts and backlinks to my website.

Get my business (my website) where people could see it.

Through trial and error, I learned to use social media to connect with journalists and reports who would interview me and link back to my site. Because of these connections I’ve also been quoted in major media such as Fox Business, USA Today, and CNBC.

Educate myself.

Since I knew nothing about blogging at first, I had to figure out which resources could help me learn about search engine optimization (SEO), HTML, Wordpress, and other intricacies of blogging for profit.

Learn to monetize.

While I started my blog to serve as a resource for my customers, I wanted to earn money, too. Over time, I learned tons of ways to earn money and how to implement them myself.

Grow my reach.

Financial websites are a dime a dozen, and you have to find a way to make yourself stand out. I learned to expand my reach by creating movements people could get excited about, then getting other bloggers on board. With my Roth IRA movement, for example, I was able to get 140 bloggers to write about the value of the Roth IRA as a retirement vehicle, then link back to me.

Make my website presentable, and thus more profitable.

Not only did I learn which type of headlines did and didn’t bring eyeballs, but I learned how to test colors, types of affiliate links, ad placements, and various ad networks. In a lot of ways, blogging is like an artform; it takes the right combination of ingredients to make everything work well together.

Could I have earned all of this is a classroom? Of course. But, by not getting an MBA and building a business instead, I learned nearly everything I needed to know about business by doing. And now I have a blog that earns hundreds of thousands of dollars each yearinstead of hundreds of thousands of dollars of MBA debt.

Should You Earn an MBA or Start a Blog?

While it’s true my situation isn’t exactly typical (not everyone makes a million dollars blogging), lots of bloggers earn a full-time income.

Take Jill Stanton from Screw the 9 to 5, for example. Jill and her husband Josh started a niche website in 2011, then turned blogging into their full-time careers. Now the couple teaches others to do the same. But Stanton claims they learned the bulk of their skills through trial and error, not homework.

“No amount of traditional education can ever prepare you for what it is truly like to run your own business online,” she says.

That’s because an MBA is not designed to teach you have to be a great businessperson, says Omar Zenhom, the host of the $100 MBA podcast. Instead, MBAs are “designed to prepare you for entry-level management.” While MBA programs can teach you plenty, they cannot possibly teach you how to be an effective leader, innovator, or entrepreneur, he says.

On the flip side, starting a blog forces you to cultivate an opinion on your subject matter and back it up with research and experience. “We learn by doing,” says Zenhom. “A blog forces you to do with a publishing schedule.”

Another key point from Zenhom is this: Don’t forget your blog is public. Running your business idea through some pretend scenarios in your MBA program is one thing, but your blog is much more than an experiment. “What you create on your blog is real and in the real world.” he says.

Blog or MBA? Learn How to Decide

Of course bloggers think blogging is amazing, and you know I do. But to get to the core of this issue, I decided to talk to people who blog for a living but also have an MBA.

Michelle Schroeder — Gardner is one blogger who fits the bill; she earned an MBA in finance before finding work as a financial analyst. Along the way, she started Making Sense of Cents, a millennial-focused blog that brings in more than $100,000 per month. With those profits, she no longer works as a financial analyst, and just blogs instead.

Is this a feasible path for everyone? Michelle says no.

“Some people think that starting a successful blog is easier than it really is,” the blogger says. “There is a lot that goes into running a website, most of which you can’t really see unless you are behind the scenes.”

Schroeder-Gardner notes researching, writing quality content, advertising, and marketing as some of the tasks you’ll need to master on your own. If you’re someone who needs a lot of hand-holding, blogging may not work out so well.

It’s also important to note that most MBA programs teach the background of business, along with business theory. These lessons played a huge role in Schroeder-Gardner’s business success, she says.

Robert Farrington is MBA graduate who started a blog called The College Investor. He says he learned a lot from both his MBA program and blogging, but the reality of “doing” with blogging was much more profound.

“I don’t want to dismiss my MBA experience,” he says, “but learning something in a classroom or group versus going out and trying it is very different. My MBA program really tried to emphasize experiences, but the classroom just doesn’t compare to the real world.”

Farrington suggests figuring out your ROI before pursuing an MBA. The program he was in rang in at $80,000 when he graduated, yet costs more than six figures now.

“You need to know the cost of your MBA,” he says. “Can you get a scholarship? Do you get tuition reimbursement from your employer? Are you going to have to take out student loans?”

All of this is important if you want your MBA to be profitable, or at least justifiable.

H. Luke Landes, one of the bloggers behind Adulting.tv, has his MBA but has also started several successful and profitable blogs. Landes looks back on both his blogging beginnings and his MBA experiences as positive, with different lessons learned in each. In his MBA program, he says, he gained a better understanding of financial management and risk management — both lessons that aren’t necessarily easy to learn as a hands-on business owner.

Blogging, on the other hand, has been “a real-world application of organizational management theories and techniques” he learned during his MBA studies.

Is an MBA worth pursuing? Landes says it all depends on who is paying. “Find someone else to pay for it,” he says, “or just don’t do it.” Landes also says that, if you’re so concerned about the cost of your MBA, you might not be a good candidate anyway.

Final pro tip, and this is a good one: Don’t start a blog with the idea you’re going to get rich overnight. As Landes and others note, the idea that blogging is some huge money-maker is popular these days.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of scams out there promising suckers they’ll get rich quick by starting a blog,” says Landes. He notes the painful truth that there are thousands of abandoned blogs out there whose owners gave up after their financial expectations weren’t met.

“And where do those expectations come from?” Landes asks. “Seeing other people succeed without knowing the kind of work that goes into it, whether they’re selling people on the idea of making money blogging or not.”

Blogging can be rewarding, but it’s not the get-rich-quick scheme people sometimes make it out to be. MBAs pose a similar challenge; you can learn a lot for sure, but the investment may or may not pay off.

Whichever path you choose, place a bet on yourself…then go for it.

This post was originally published on entrepreneur.com

[“Source-huffingtonpost”]

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Blogging

A beginner guide before starting a blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Blogging can be incredibly valuable to a variety of people and for a variety of reasons. It’s a great way to express yourself and also a fantastic way to share information with others. It does not only benefit others but also a great approach for you to becoming a better communicator, writer, and a thinker. Not just that. Blogging is an alternative way for creating opportunities. Among those opportunities include engaging into business, meeting new people and establishing authority. Yes. Blogging could mean money. If you want yourself to be called a ‘blogger’ and want to inspire other people, you might as well start creating your own blog.

Know why you want to start a blog

People say, know your destination well because finding your direction will become easier. This saying is true in knowing why you really want to start a blog. People start blogging for different reasons. They want to become a better person in the form of being good at communicating with intentionality and somehow it helps them think clearly. Maybe you want to start blogging because you want to meet new friends or engage more into peer interactions and socialization. You might also want your voice to be heard and express yourself the way you want or let your voice be the voice of the voiceless and make a difference. If you are business-minded, then you would use blogging as a way of making money and become a big-time entrepreneur. Also, if you’re an author, you can use blog as an alternative way to get your books published and get noticed. Now, why do you want to blog?

Decide what your blog will focus on

Blogging comes in many forms and styles. The type of blog you are creating depends on your way of life and things. Ove the course of life, people engages into different hobbies where they find themselves loving it. Same goes to your blog. You have to be very flexible in choosing a topic of your choice. Blog about something you enjoy. Blog about something with plenty of room for discussion. Most importantly, choose a niche in which you can establish yourself as an authority. The best is to choose a niche you are passionate about. There’s fulfillment in connecting and blogging with others and providing helpful information to them. You’ll experience this joy if you’re passionate about what you blog about. Another thing to remember is, create a blog that is on trend and gives a great impact to others.

Choose your host and blog domain

A host provides server space for your site. This allows other to find your site on the internet. You can search feedback and reviews online to help you choose a WordPress Host. There are thousands of them that you can easily grab from the internet. But remember, there are self-hosting where you have to apply for premium plans or in other words you have to pay for it and there are also free alternative hosts. These free alternative hosts might have limited features compare to the premium ones. It’s your decision by the way.

[Source:-tGdaily]

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Blogging

2017 Masters Live Blog: Final Round from Augusta National

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Who will triumph on Sunday at the 2017 Masters? Follow along .

Who will triumph on Sunday at the 2017 Masters? Follow along .

The final round of the 2017 Masters at Augusta National is upon us, and numerous storylines are hanging over the action. Can Rickie Fowler or Sergio Garcia win their first major and green jacket? Or will Jordan Spieth overcome his demons to take home his second Masters title? GOLF.com is live blogging the Sunday finale beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. Follow the action below.

LIVE SCORES: Follow Round 4 of the 2017 Masters

[“Source-golf”]

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Blogging

Osayi Emokpae Lasisi: 5 Reasons You Need Blog as an Entrepreneur

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

When I wrote my first book, many people thought it was a miracle. They couldn’t imagine how I had the time to write the book, especially since I was a practicing attorney at the time. They would always ask me how I even decided to write about that topic, and how I knew that people would read it.

Well, all of that came about because of blogging; and not only was I able to launch my first book internationally through blogging, but I was also able to launch an online business and slowly build it off and on over the years.

So why do I think that blogging is important for your business?

First of all I want to bust a few myths.

Myth 1: You need to write a blogpost every single day
Depending on your audience, you may not need to blog everyday, but you need to be consistent whenever you decide to blog.

Myth 2: You can’t make money blogging anymore
While things have changed, truth is that you can still make lots of money blogging, and many people are doing so.

Myth 3: Nobody reads blogs anymore
Well, the fact you’re reading this on this site is proof that people are still reading blogs; and as a matter of fact, blogs are one of the top ways that people get their information today.

So let’s get into 5 reasons why you need to be blogging as an entrepreneur

Blogging shows your potential client what you’re capable of
It’s like the person that wants to help me build my Twitter list, but they don’t have any Twitter following. If you want people to believe that you know what you’re talking about, then a blog is a good way to share a few examples.

You can test what people really want to know
With your blog you can ask questions, see what people are resonating with, and what people don’t care about, so that you can create products around that.

Connect with people who care about what you care about
As an entrepreneur I’m sure you know by now that your business is not for everyone. Not everyone will like you, not everyone will care about you, but some people will, and your blog is a good way to attract people who care about what you care about and connect with them.

Your blog is you home and you can do whatever you want to do there
Social media is amazing, but it belongs to someone else, you have to run by their rules, but on your own blog you get to make your own rules and make decisions that are best for you and your business.

Of course you can make money from your blog
Because you’ve attracted the right people, and you’ve tested and you know what kind of content people are looking for, you can easily make money for your business with your blog.

What are your thoughts? Do you currently blog? What are your challenges with blogging?

Photo Credit: Olena Yakobchuk | Dreamstime.com

[“Source-bellanaija”]

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Blogging

Important Tips for Starting a Business Blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Today, blogging is getting more and more popular. If you are new in the blogging field you may not be able to identify where to start one or what to do with a blog once you have one. A blog is a platform utilized for people to promote, journal, write and make it publish almost anything they are involved in. If you are new in this field and like to earn money online there are some important tips you must know and you can click here for details.

Marketing through blog can be simple, if you have a proper knowledge about marketing. Some people start their blogging writing down their own ideas and thoughts much like a diary. You can select to make a blog confidential or let the world to take a look at it. These kinds of blogs are not generally set up to earn any profit. You may need to start a private blog first to get the clear idea of how to arrange a blog and get in the routine of blogging on a daily basis. When you are happy with blogging, then you can start to blog for income.

There are many beginners who have some start-up cash get pleasure from the ability to start a blog as places like Blogger.com permit you to have different blogs for without any cost. You will be capable to relocate your blog to your private server under your private domain name later on once you want full control over the content and look of your site. You can select to write recommendations of product, or write advertisements for your own products.

Marketing through blog doesn’t have to be complicated. There are some marketers who earn good incomes with blogs. It may be done. The difficulty is only, how. You begin with only one blog, create it up, work constantly on it whether you select to post on a daily basis, or just one time in a week. Then once you are all set you can start another one and do again the entire process, updating all of them on a regular basis until you start to get some favorable results. Once you get to the level where you have a lot to keep up manually, you may need to get some help. There are several freelancers available in the market that will be eager to work for you.

Marketing through blog is an amazing job to have. In case you sell products from a blog, you will have no troubles selling products from anywhere in the world. Earning money from blogging is very pleasing. You have to always remember that blogging for income is a just a pure business. You have to be regular and keep at it. It is a hard truth that you can’t earn money over night. If you work regularly on your blog, then it is sure that soon you will be able to see positive results and more money.
[“Source-thelibertarianrepublic”]

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Blogging

How “Blog Mothers” Became The Unsung Heroes Of The Blogosphere

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

PHOTOGRAPHED BY ROCKIE NOLAN.
 Mothers keep the best secrets: They have the ingredient that completely transforms the family red sauce recipe, and are inherently aware of when any child lies. The best mothers know the power of secrets, too, and just the right moment to share them. And in the blogging community, there are plenty of secrets, and “blog mothers” are the keepers who pass down the keys to success — sometimes for a price.
“I didn’t really have any mentors as a blogger at all, which is why I feel strongly about being that person now,” Jill Smokler of Scary Mommy told us. Though Smokler doesn’t personally identify as a blog mother, she is part of a new class of mentors in the blogging community.
Blog Mothers are sympathetic — they too have been children of the industry, scared and naieve. They understand how hard it is to start without a clear picture of what the future holds. They are more than mentors, more than coaches; they are a guiding light offering support and guidance for young, aspiring bloggers.
“Even in the few years since I have been blogging, the industry has changed a great deal.” Jessica Smock, founder of School of Smock and co-founder of The HerStories Project, says. “Even the idea of a blog mentor is totally different now.” Five or six years ago, bloggers built communities through their sites. They read each other’s work, commented on posts, and created friendships through that continued interaction.
“I used to have two hours a day where my commitment was to comment on other people’s blogs,” Smokler explains. “I guess I kind of understood that if I’m expecting people to read my shit then I have to read their shit now.” But, blogging is different today. It’s faster, and there’s more to do beyond maintaining a website: There’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest accounts, and a whole lot of money at stake. It’s become a business.
“I had a full-time job —that’s where my income came from initially — and blogging was just a hobby,” Brandi Jeter Riley, of MamaKnowsItAll, says. Like Smokler, Riley helps mentor many young and inexperienced bloggers, and she’s found that the industry change has also changed the way people approach their work. “When I started, lifestyle bloggers weren’t making money off their work, they were just doing it for fun. But bloggers starting now are starting because they know they can make money.”
And because the community has changed, there are fewer and fewer blog mentors who work one-on-one. “I think it’s switched a lot into groups,” Smock explains. “Blogging Facebook groups are more popular and common than the relationships I had early on in my career.” It’s that type of group setting that has allowed these Blog Mothers, women mentoring five or ten or even dozens of other bloggers at a time, to become an integral part of the industry.
“In terms of blog mentorship, a friend and I started a local writing group,” Nina Badzin, a freelance writer and blogger, says. In the group, Badzin and her friend help new bloggers learn the basics: how to use Twitter, how to set up a Wordpress account, even how to hyperlink a phrase. “There isn’t an exact process,” she says. “People just kind of find us.”
A Blog Mother often provides practical advice to her children on how to make their blogs operate more professionally. Because the industry is more financially-driven than it was in the early days, Riley says, “finding a good mentor can be really difficult. Established bloggers don’t want to share their trade secrets.” Riley, because she started her career in non-profit jobs and working for a shopping networking company, understood more about the business side of the job. “I started coaching bloggers who had ten times as many views as me and weren’t making as much money as me,” she says. “I feel like it’s my job to help them. To give back.”
PHOTOGRAPHED BY BEK ANDERSEN.
Maybe Blog Mothers exist because blogging isn’t a standard industry. From the beginning, it’s been a place driven on relationships. “You’re part of a bigger community,” Badzin says. “If you act like you’re above all that, you’re not going to survive.” But the thorn in the side of that community, of course, is jealousy. Someone has a viral piece and it feels unfair, gets a sponsorship that feels misplaced, or makes more money per piece. “I think it’s very easy to get jealous,” Smokler adds. “It took me a long time to be able to realize that the Internet is a really big place, and I think that there is enough room for everybody to have their own space and their own story.”
In other sectors of the blogging world, like cooking and fashion blogging, there’s a perceived weakness in needing a mentor. Bloggers I spoke to in those fields preferred not to be named, because they felt the need to maintain a kind of independent success spirit. “I feel like everyone I know has an older woman helping her figure things out,” one told me over the phone, “but there’s kind of a shame about not being able to do it yourself or whatever.”
Unlike in many careers, where a mentor’s focus would be exclusively on the business aspects of a job, a Blog Mother must be able to look beyond profit margins and site traffic, to meet the blogger where they are. She must help them not only reach milestones, but grow as people along the way, which might be why most of them only charge a rate for skill training, which they consider separate from mentoring (Smokler notes she does not get paid for her assistance at all).
“What I have found is that mentoring is not even so much about the content or the technical stuff, the number one thing I have to work with them on is empowering them to recognize their value,” Riley says. “The foundation of if you want to be successful, you have to believe in yourself. I’m the person that’s going to remind them that you need to believe in yourself.”
Sure, mentorship looks different now, but the mentors are still trying to accomplish the same thing: “At the end of the day it’s still about connecting with people,” Smokler explains. “The biggest joy of the Internet for me is that it brings us together.”
[“Source-refinery29”]
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Blogging

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

10 Important Reasons to Work Seriously On Your Small Business Blog

How the heck do they do it?

You know who I’m talking about. I’m talking about those successful small business entrepreneurs who get tons of business and engagement online.

Sure, they hustle just as much as you do. They attend the same networking events. But there’s a difference.

They seem to have much more business than you do. They’re closing more deals. They’re generating more leads through their website.

So what’s the difference between you and them?

They’re probably blogging. They’re probably using their small business blog to build an online audience that is engaged with their brand.

If you’re a small business entrepreneur or solopreneur, you have probably heard of content marketing, right? No doubt you’ve heard of the importance of creating valuable content for your website. But maybe you haven’t taken that first step yet.

A small business blog is one of the most-used and effective content marketing tools at your disposal. Simply put, if you’re not blogging, you’re leaving money on the table.

Here’s some stats for you:

  • Marketers that use blogs get 67 percent more leads than those who don’t.
  • 81 percent of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
  • Companies that blog have 97 percent more inbound links.
  • 61 percent of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  • 60 percent of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to consider how you’re connecting with your audience. Since you might not have the huge marketing budget of a mega-corporation, you will have to use other means to build and connect with your audience.

One of the best ways to do this is by blogging. It’s been shown to be highly effective at generating quality leads for your business.

Many business owners overlook the potential rewards that blogging can provide. But you’re a savvy entrepreneur, so you’re not going to make this mistake, are you?

This post is going to give you ten benefits that a small business blog can provide for your business. When you read through this post, you will learn various ways you can use your blog to generate more business, earn more credibility and make it easier for prospects to find you online.

Why You Should Have a Small Business Blog

1. Market Research

Having a blog with many articles allows you to more effectively understand what your audience really wants. From the back end of your site, you can spy on what pages people are viewing the most, and this gives you an idea of where their interest lies. When you know what types of content perform the best, you know what types of content to continue to create.

Also, you can use your blog to request feedback from your audience. If you have an engaged following, it’s very likely that they will be happy to answer the questions you have.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As you probably know, there’s not much of a point to having a killer website if nobody can find it. One of the biggest keys to getting more traffic is making sure that people will find your site when they use search engines. As a  matter of fact, search engines are the no. 1 driver of traffic to content websites! SEO is something that you can’t ignore if you want to have a viable online presence.

The more relevant content you have on your website, the more likely it will be that you will rank for certain keywords. This is where a small business blog comes in. Consistently publishing high-quality content on your blog will do wonders for your search engine optimization efforts.

When you produce useful content, Google’s algorithms will rank your site higher. Over time, your site will make its way to the front page of search results. Not only that, but when people read high-quality content, they’re more likely to link back to it. Earning quality backlinks from other high-authority blogs will do wonders for your SEO efforts.

3. Customer Engagement

Engagement is immensely important for any online business. It’s not enough to just create great content. You also need to interact with your audience as much as you can. You can’t have any success by just talking at your audience. You need to have ongoing conversations with them. It will help you know your audience better. It will help your audience know you better.

That’s what you want.

If you enable comments on your small business blog, you can discuss topics and get feedback directly. This can tell you a lot about your customer base. Not only that. It shows your audience that you are interested in interacting with them. This will increase loyalty and help you form a deeper connection with your audience.

4. Communicating Your Mission

One of the most important components of effective branding is purpose. Connecting with your audience means embracing a unique brand perspective that can give your audience something they can connect with on an emotional level.

This is where blogging comes in.

Your blog is a place where you can communicate your brand purpose. This is important because establishing a strong brand is an important part of encouraging customer loyalty. When you communicate a brand purpose that goes beyond what you sell, it helps you stand out from your competition.

For example, if you are a business that sells vegan meat substitutes, you can express your brand’s purpose by posting animal welfare material on your site. This shows your audience that your company is focused on something more than just making money.

5. Communicating With Customers

If there’s something going on with your service — for example, there will be a planned outage or lack of availability — you don’t have to keep your clients in the dark. Having a centralized place to post announcements is extremely important because people don’t always read their email.

6. You Can Offer Promotional Material

A small business blog is also a great place to offer occasional promotions. If you already have an engaged audience that consumes your content, they will be able to see what discounts or promotions you are offering. It’s a great way to keep your customer base informed.

Sure, you can spread your coupons around Facebook, but it’s better to get into the habit of compelling your audience to visit you at your own site, especially if it’s an ecommerce site. Keep them coming back for more by posting your promotions on your blog.

Here’s a caveat: you don’t want to overdo this. While blogs can be great for offering promotions, it shouldn’t be used solely for this purpose. Most of your content should focus on offering informational value to your readers. If you only post promotional content, your audience will not continue to visit your blog.

7. Showing Your Human Side

People want to know that there are actual human beings behind the business that they buy from. Post some personal stories and talk to your customers through your blog.

This is an opportunity for you to let your personality shine through. When you’re writing blog posts, don’t smack your reader in the head with a bunch of “corporatespeak.” Nobody wants to read that. No really, they don’t!

It’s much better to write in an informal style that people can relate to. When it comes to blogging, it’s not just about what you say, it’s about how you say it.

8. You Can Become a Source of Value

The key to effective blogging is providing value. Nobody is going to read your content unless they get something out of it, right?

If you want to build influence, you have to be valuable. You can do this by providing helpful information to your readers through your blog.

Arjun Reddy, the founder of Super Baby, builds credibility with his website’s “resources” section by giving actionable tips to his visitors.

“Our visitors are parents who are looking for fun ways to help their children become smarter. The advice we give in our resources section is designed to provide helpful parenting tips for our readers.”

The reason Reddy is enjoying success is because he’s providing value up front. When you do this, you show your potential clients that you are valuable to them. That’s why content marketing works. When you’re creating content, you should be asking yourself what your reader is going to get out of that particular piece of content. Each piece of content should be designed to inform, educate, or entertain. If possible, you should do all three!

9. Networking!

When you have built an audience and gained some notoriety, it can attract other entrepreneurs to you. For an entrepreneur, networking is important, isn’t it?

If you’re able to grow your readership effectively, you will gain more credibility. This will attract other influencers in your niche. You never know who might be paying attention right?

This could lead to other opportunities for your business. You might be able to take advantage of the key relationships that you form through your small business blog.

10. Building Credibility

Having a small business blog gives you a presence in your niche. A blog is a record of quality value and experience that you are bringing to your audience. This will give you instant “street cred” when someone finds your content.

Lissette Palencia, CEO of Sleeping Angels has built a steady stream of clientele by using her blog to provide valuable information to her website’s visitors.

“As you can guess, when you run a nanny agency, your clients are parents who are concerned about the safety of their children. They want to do the research first. When they visit our website, they find tons of valuable information that helps them make the right decision for their family. Not only does it inform them, it makes them more comfortable with doing business us.”

This is essential for your business. Your blog is a tool that you can use to establish credibility in the minds of your potential clients. Prospects will read your content and gain value from it. Then, they will become far more willing to buy from you because you have already given them a significant benefit through your blog.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing. If you’re looking to expand your online presence, you need to be creating high-quality content on a consistent basis. A blog is one of the best ways to do this.

These are just a few reasons to keep a blog if you’re an entrepreneur, but there are much more. Just remember that anything that can bring value to your audience is something that you should consider adding to your business.

Blogging Photo via Shutterstock

[“source-smallbiztrends”]

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