Have you ever wondered about the value of posting content to a business focused blog, like this one, during the weekend?  If you have, you might find my experience interesting.

Blogging on a Saturday

Reader numbers here drop like a stone on Saturdays.  I get around 50% of my weekday average, sometimes even fewer.  Yes, there are exceptions to this, but typically I see around half as many readers show up.  Even yesterday, when I published 2 blog posts, I saw only a very slight increase in numbers.

Blogging on a Sunday

Sundays are very different! Reader numbers on a Sunday are the same as a regular weekday.  In fact, I have had some of the busiest days ever here on a Sunday.

Based on my experience, if you write a business blog and you are thinking of publishing content on one day over the weekend, I would recommend a Sunday.  Not only are reader numbers higher on a Sunday, I typically see a greater level of reader engagement  too.  That is to say, a higher percentage of readers will comment here or email me.  Page view numbers (per reader) are also higher on Sundays than on Saturdays.

Do you publish posts at the weekend? Let us know your experience!

In order to make this post as valuable as possible, I would like to know what your experience is, of publishing weekend blog posts – in relation to reader numbers.  Are my experiences typical? Please share your feedback!

Related posts:

1. Response rates and timing
2. Blogging perfection?
3. Why bloggers post every day – Part 2

Are you interested in improving the regularity and value of your blogging?  If you are, you might find this post extremely useful!

I was recently asked how long I spent, writing my blog posts.  The answer I gave was that it usually takes me between 20 to 30 minutes; occasionally a little longer.  The guy who asked me, said that he often spends a couple of hours writing a single post.  This is something I hear about a great deal – people who love the idea of blogging, but who find it takes too long to produce great content regularly.  This makes it very hard to build a substantial readership or develop a community around the blog’s readers.

Blog posts do not need to be perfect

I’ve spoken with dozens of bloggers, who are only able to publish a post a handful of times a month or so, and in almost every case, their problem is that they are seeking perfection from every post.  The challenge with the perfectionist-blogger’s mindset, is that it stifles their creativity.  It clogs up momentum.  In my opinion, it also makes the blogger seem less natural or personable too – which is a BIG mistake, if you want your readers to identify with you as a person!

One of the great things about writing a blog, is that errors can not only be fixed (if you wish;) they often open up great debates in your blog’s comment section.  Yes, you should always strive to make what you write as good, valuable and clear as possible, but ultimately, you need to give yourself permission to be human.  This means allowing yourself the freedom to be just 99% right, occasionally

A blog post or a special report?

Another reason why many people find it takes them so long to write their blog posts, is that they write such LONG posts.  Some of these posts are so detailed, that they read more like special reports, than blog posts.  Now, for those people, who are happy with blogging less often and writing GREAT, long, detailed posts – this is perfect.  However, if you blog (like I do) as a way to market your services and you want people to regularly get involved with your blog and contribute – you may want to think about shorter, punchier posts.

I know that many people struggle with brevity.  Some find it hard to make their points in few words, others feel that the length of a post is a key determinate of that post’s value.  I can tell you from experience, that most popular posts on this blog, are usually the shorter ones!

Your blogging tips

I know that many of you are bloggers and I would LOVE to hear your tips, for producing great quality, regular content.  It would be great if you could share your ideas here, with your fellow readers and myself!

Related posts:

1. Why bloggers post every day – Part 2
2. Another reason why I love blogging
3. So, you want more blog comments?

Do you get emails from people you don’t know, asking you to do link exchanges with them?  If you do, before you decide to do the exchange, please consider the following very carefully.

Link Exchanges: A brief overview

The reason people want you to exchange links with them is simple: The more links pointing to a site, the higher it will rank with Google and Co.

In fact, the number (and quality) of links pointing to your site, is the single most important part of your SEO (search engine optimization).  So, SEO companies regularly send emails to thousands of people asking for links, hoping to increase the number and quality of links that point to their customer’s websites and blogs.  Usually, the higher your Google Page Rank, the more requests you will get.

Link exchanges: The risks

Link exchanges and the old “Switcheroo”: Increasingly, people are building what look like regular websites and asking for link exchanges.  Then, after a set number have been gathered, the site is transformed into a scam site.

This switch tactic is starting to gather pace and as I will explain in a moment, it’s not a good idea for you to link to sites, which Google considers “spammy”, as they call it. If you HAVE already offered links to people you do not know, it might be worth checking their site out again.

Link exchanges into bad neighbourhoods: Linking to the wrong kind of sites can also see YOUR site penalised (see below.)  Bad neighbourhoods exist on the Internet, just like they do in the off-line world.  In online terms, a bad neighbourhood is a site that is considered by the search engines to be spammy or dubious in some way.

Google does not like link exchanges: If you want to attract visitors from Google, you need to know that Google considers link exchange schemes as a violation of their guidelines and that they will penalise sites, which they believe are involved in them.  You can learn about Google’s policy on link exchanges here – Along with a link that you can use to resubmit your site, if you are already being penalised.

Why is Google so strict on these exchanges?  It sees them as a way of deliberately trying to manipulate their page ranking system.  This system is how they deliver search results, and those results are what keep people using Google – and allows Google to make the BIG advertising bucks!

Legitimate linking?

The general consensus is you should link to people, when appropriate for what YOU want to achieve.  If you want to share other sites, posts, articles or online resources – link to them.

Where do I stand on this?

I get link exchange emails at least half a dozen times every day and I delete them.

Why?

Because I refuse to associate my name or reputation with someone I don’t know.  I don’t really care what Google thinks about my blog, but I DO care passionately about the 15 years I have spent building my business and my brand and I won’t risk negatively impacting that.

Ultimately, you need to do what you believe is right for what YOU want to achieve.  I just think it’s useful to have some additional info, so the next time you get a link exchange request, you can make the right judgement for YOU – NOT the other guy!

Your thoughts on link exchanges?

It would be good to know what you think about them and what your experiences are.  Please take a moment to share your feedback with us.

Photo: DC John

Related posts:

1. Google, social media and SEO
2. Why your Google ranking may soon start falling!
3. Why Google means so little to me (and you mean so much!)

Have you ever noticed how powerful it is, when someone talks to you about something they are passionate about?  It makes a massive difference to the effectiveness of their message and the energy created can be really infectious.

So, why do so many business owners totally fail to inject REAL passion into their communications with people?

Marketing and passion

Whether you are speaking with people, recording a message or writing about your product or service, you should be doing it with passion.  After all, how the heck do you expect other people to be interested in you or your business, if you don’t sound like you are?

I decided to write this post, after watching a video presentation on a guys website, where the guy sounded half asleep.  There was no energy or passion when he spoke.  He talked about his services, like he was reading a shopping list.

Marketing and motivation

Equally, I read copy every day on websites and blogs, which is supposed to motivate the reader to take action – Yet the copy is pedestrian and lacks impact.

The bottom line: If you want to compel people to take action; to buy from you, call you, email you or click a link – you need to inspire them to do so. You need to motivate your site visitors, so they go from being a reader (passive) to a being a participant (active).

So, before you prepare YOUR next marketing message, use your passion to energise what you are saying and get your visitors, readers or listeners to take action!

Photo: Caitlinator

Related posts:

1. Focus, focus, focus!

Fact: Very few small business owners who blog, generate anything like the results they could.

Why?

This is the easiest question I have ever answered here! The reason so few bloggers attract the volume of sales, leads or enquiries they should, is that they copy what they see other bloggers doing.

Here’s what I see all day every day:  I see bloggers writing a valuable, correctly optimized blog post, before heading off to their preferred social networking sites to try and get the post noticed.  Sound familiar?  If it does, I hope it’s not because you are using that same approach.  If you are, you are missing the most important elements – those rare, additional steps that make all the difference and get people spending money with you!

I was explaining this to a new client of mine yesterday afternoon.  She’s intelligent, charismatic and a specialist in her profession.  However, like many specialists who use blogging as part of their marketing mix, she had been using the same approach that I outlined above – which failed her (which is why she hired me.)

An hour into our meeting, I showed her what’s possible when you use the right approach.  I quickly checked the email account, which gets all the enquiries generated from this blog.  In that hour alone, there had been 3 emails, including an enquiry for my services.  By the end of business yesterday, that enquiry became a confirmed, new client and I’m really looking forward to helping them achieve bankable results too.  I’m not telling you that to impress you, but to impress upon you just what’s possible, when you use the correct strategy.

Of course, there are 2 major problems with trying to achieve success, by copying what you see others doing.

1. You might be copying what does not work.  It’s easy to see a blog with lots of comments or lots of retweets / facebook “likes” etc – and assume this means the blog is also commercially successful.  It doesn’t!

   All those measurements show you is that there are people who commented there or retweeted the post.It tells you zero about how commercially effective that blog is at generating new business for it’s owner.  Many of my clients come to me with large social networks and active blogs that they have worked really hard on, with nothing to show for it.  You know what?  People will have been copying THEIR approach too, because it looked successful from the outside!

2. Not only may you be copying what does not work, but even if you found a blog that was doing things right, the untrained eye will miss it completely.That’s because the many differences between a blog that’s an income generating machine and one that’s not, are extremely subtle.

   For example, I don’t know much about golf, so when I see a golfer hitting a golf ball, that’s all I see.  When a professional golfer sees that same guy hitting that same ball, they can identify exactly what’s happening – what’s failing, what needs removing and what needs to be added to the golfer’s swing etc.

When it comes to marketing, a blog is like any other tool.  If used correctly, it can easily become your best source of new, targeted business.  However, just like every other marketing tool, only a tiny fraction of small business owners use blogs correctly, for what they want to achieve.

The rest just dabble and as a result, it costs them a fortune in lost business and YEARS in wasted time.

In short, if you want to enjoy better results you need a better strategy.  You need an effective strategy that’s been developed for; you, your business, your industry, your unique resources and what you want to achieve.  Whatever you elect to do, if you are not currently getting the regular stream of new business from your blog that you deserve, please change course.

As I have said here many times before; if you are rowing your boat in the wrong direction, no matter how hard you row, you will simply end up further and further away from where you want to be.  You deserve far better than that!

Related posts:

1. So, you want more blog comments?
2. Blog announcement!

I wrote a very popular post recently, about getting more blog comments.  This post is all about how to get more blog readers and it starts with a question:

“Have you noticed how some blogs and websites are really difficult to read for any period of time?”

You know the blogs I mean, right?  The blogs where you find yourself just skimming the content because after a glance of the page layout, you just don’t feel like reading the whole thing?  If you want to attract more blog readers and increase reader engagement on your blog, you need to make reading your posts a comfortable experience.  Otherwise, people will just skim your content and miss what you have to say.

There are already millions of posts that explain how to get more readers via SEO / social media etc.  This post offers you some easy, yet super-effective ways to massively improve the readability of your blog and by extension, it’s reach, impact and readership.

So, let’s go!

Column width

There’s a lot of research, including my own, which suggests that once the width of a content column (that’s the part of the blog you are reading now) goes beyond a certain limit, it becomes less and less readable.

Although some have said that the maximum width should be just 65 characters (including spaces) I have found that there’s almost no difference until you go past 85/90 characters.  I did a test a while ago, where I increased the width of the content area on one of my blogs to 100 characters and had to stop after just a week, because of the massive drop in every reader-based metric!  I saw a huge drop in the average number of pages per reader, fewer comments and a drop in the number of times a post was shared.

So, if your current blog layout goes beyond 95 characters – consider reducing it.

BTW: The content area here is 502 pixels wide and I use a 15px Arial font, which equals a limit of around 85 characters.

Fonts

If you want people to be able to comfortably read your blog content, they need to be able to see what you’ve written without squinting!  Many blogs use very small font sizes and as such, are way too hard to read on normal monitors and almost impossible to read, on smaller laptops and netbooks etc.

I use a 15px font size here, similar to that used by many other marketing and social media bloggers.  You may want to use something a  little smaller, but I strongly advise you not to go too small.

Black and white? Not quite!

Most new blogs use black text on a white background.  Although black text on a white background REALLY stands out, it can be harsh on the eyes; especially tired eyes!  That’s why it’s a really good idea to use a dark grey font on a white background, as used on many popular sites, like; The BBC, Chris Brogan’s blog, Seth Godin’s blog, Problogger and many other leading sites.

On this blog, I use the same shade of grey as The BBC, which is #464646.

Don’t let Bob or Mary screw up your blog

Whenever you make changes to the layout of your blog or website, you will get feedback from people, like Bob and Mary.  Bob’s a great guy and has a passion for blogs with really wide content columns and super-small fonts.  Mary’s also a wonderful warm human being, who loves those blogs that have jet black text on snow white backgrounds.  They are both entitled to their opinions, but you must not change the basics of your blog design based on what Bob or Mary might prefer.

The vocal minority will often unintentionally lead you to make piss-poor decisions about the look and feel of your blog.  As bloggers, we need to be a lot smarter than that.  We need to look at the facts – The metrics we can measure.  If after making a change, you notice; greater engagement, more comments, more people sharing your content, an increase in the number of pages the typical reader reads – then you are on track.  Even if Bob or Mary’s intentions were good, they were simply expressing their unique preferences.

Listen to all your readers, not just the vocal minority!

Some advice on making these changes

If you are like me and know nothing about HTML or CSS coding, it can be an expensive pain in the rear, to have to make changes to the layout of your blog.

This is why I recommend you consider doing what I did, and start using the Headway wordpress theme; which will allow you to make changes to your blog, without learning how to code.  Headway (affiliate link) lets you make the kind of changes mentioned here, in seconds.  In fact, I built this blog from scratch, with zero need for expert help, using Headway.  It’s given me total control over the blog and saved me a fortune.  It’s also the ONLY product I have ever endorsed here!

Summary

Ultimately the decision regarding the look and feel of your blog, is down to you.  However, there’s an old saying in business, which assures us that; “success leaves clues.”  There’s a reason why so many of the world’s most respected and popular blogs do things in a certain way.  They have already done the testing and measuring.  Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to the readability element of your blog, it’s a wise move to make the experience as good as possible for your readers.

I’d like to know what additional tips you have, for making content more readable.  Equally, do you have any experience of changing any of the elements mentioned in this post?

Let us know what you think!

Image: TEIA MG

Related posts:

1. Jim’s marketing blog – Now on Headway
2. Marketing blog experiment
3. The secret of a top 10 blog

One of the questions I get asked a lot by new bloggers, is how can they attract more comments from their readers.  So, that’s what this post is all about.

I have posts here with as few as 6 or 7 comments, many with over 80/100 comments and one post with almost 700 comments.  Here are a few of the things I have discovered about comments, which you might find useful:

1. You don’t attract comments, simply by inserting “what do you think” at the end of each post.
2. It’s a good idea to give your fellow bloggers a thank you for commenting on your blog.  For example, if a blogger comments here and they include their blog’s URL, they get a link at the end of their comment, which promotes their most recent blog post to all my readers.Check it out, it’s in that box at the end of each comment.  The software I use is called CommentLuv.
3. The posts I write that ask questions, typically attract more comments than those that give answers.
4. If someone is kind enough to comment on your blog, take the time to respond to their comment (if it requires a response.)  Many bloggers ask people for feedback, then pretty much ignore most of them.
5. The more heavily you moderate your blog, the fewer comments you get.  If all comments are held for moderation before they are published, your comments section will lose momentum.  It can take hours for people to see their comments published on moderated blogs and then hours longer, to see replies to their comments.
6. Some of my most read posts have the fewest comments.  This is interesting, as one of the reasons bloggers like to get comments, is to show how popular their blog is.  This is the most read page / post on this blog, BTW.
7. The more often I write blog posts, the more comments I get – Though the FEWER I get per post.  When I was getting 100′s of comments per post, I was only blogging 4 or 5 times a month.I get more comments these days, but they are spread over a lot more posts, as I currently write 4 or 5 times or more a week.  So, overall comment numbers are higher, but average comments per post are down.
8. Only a very small percentage of blog readers, actually comment.  So, even if you have the correct balance in place to encourage comments, you will need a sizeable readership before you get a high volume of comments.

There are many, many different blog comment strategies and the key is to find the right balance for you and whatever you want to achieve.

Members only

For example, a number of bloggers use a members only approach to comments.  You have to join their blog before you can comment, by registering your contact details (and getting them validated.)  This is sometimes called the velvet rope approach and is intended to create a feeling of exclusivity, whilst eliminating comment spam and trolls.

Seth Godin’s blog strategy

Some bloggers have copied Seth Godin’s blog comment strategy, to completely block his readers from commenting on his blog.  From a marketing perspective, this approach is not as crazy as it may first seem.  If you want to discuss something you read on Seth’s blog, you will probably do it on Facebook or Twitter etc; which spreads the word about Set’s blog and generates more new readers.  If you made that same point on Seth’s blog, only you and his existing readers would have seen it.

If you are a blogger: What are your tips for encouraging readers to comment and get involved?

If you are blog reader: What motivates you to want to leave a comment?

Related posts:

1. What’s your opinion on this?
2. A short comment on short comments

This is a quick post about content marketing and how to get great results from it.

Content marketing

Millions of small business owners (including me) use content marketing as a way to market their services.  They produce content for; newsletters, blog posts, articles, audio, video, social media sites etc.  The idea is that their content will engage prospective clients or customers and generate enquiries sales and also position them as an expert in their field.  Make no mistake, content marketing is extremely powerful when used correctly.

However, as many small business owners discover, there’s an enormous difference between producing content and producing content that actually helps them grow their business.

In marketing, we know that the messages that resonate with us most powerfully are those that make us think or capture our imagination in some way.  Generic messages do the exact opposite.  They pass us by, undetected.  They wash over us, because they’re predictable.  Yet these generic messages are the stock-in-trade of most of the content marketing pieces we see each day from small businesses.

Why?

I believe one of the reasons, is that it feels a lot “safer” to toe the line, follow what the crowd are saying and just blend into the background.  It takes courage for a blogger, for example, to offer their unique perspective on a topic or allow their personality to shine through their work.  After all, what if they are wrong?  What if their point of view generates negative comments?  It would surely be the end of their world as they know it!  So, rather than risk ruffling too many feathers, they opt to rehash generic ideas, which feel safer, because most people seem to agree with them.

Here’s the problem with that approach: It acts like camouflage and stops you getting the visibility you need!

To be visible, we first need to have something to say, which is worth listening to and sharing.  People only pass on content to their friends or network, if they find it useful or interesting and believe that others will too.  In short, people share the good stuff!  The most successful content marketers never seek a full consensus.  They just try hard and deliver content, which will be as valuable as possible to their target market.

Some important content marketing questions

1. Who am I writing to? You need to know your target audience and focus your content exclusively on what they will find value in.
2. Why am I writing to them? You need to know your desired outcome or outcomes, so that you can check if you are on course or not.  You can’t manage, what you can’t measure.
3. Does my content showcase my expertise? Give genuinely useful information to your readers for free (and do it with a smile)!  Don’t send a watered-down version of your expertise into the marketplace.  Why?  Because how on earth are your readers supposed to know that you are any good, if all they see is a half-assed, diluted version of how great you are?I give away tons of free information on this blog, which encourages my readers to share my work with their friends.  As a result, I get business enquiries every day, from people who want to work with me.  This post, for example, gives links to over 140 marketing tips and ideas.

So, what are your content marketing tips or experiences?

Whether you are new to content marketing or a seasoned campaigner, it would be great to hear your feedback.

Related posts:

1. Pay to enter? I don’t think so!
2. Quick Internet marketing tip!
3. What’s on the outside counts too!

How well do you handle criticism?

If you use blogging, newsletters and/or social media sites as a way to market your services, you will receive varying levels of criticism.  Paradoxically, the more successful you become, the more criticism you will receive, because your work will reach more people.

I wrote a post in January, about the criticism bloggers receive, which readers never get to see – emails etc.  Today’s post covers other forms of criticism, and offers some ideas on why it happens and how to deal with it effectively.

I would also like to encourage YOU to add your tips at the end of the post!

Genuine, informed criticism

This is when someone, who knows the subject in question, believes they have found something in what you are doing or saying, which is incorrect.  Their motives are well intentioned and their feedback is often of great value, even though many people greet it with hostility or sarcasm.  In my experience, genuine, informed critics almost always tell you their opinion via email, the phone or face-to-face – Rather than via a social network or blog comment etc.  That’s because their intention is to help and nothing else.

Genuine, yet ill-informed criticism

Some people are going to tell you that you are doing something wrong or that you “don’t get it” and their intentions are good; yet their feedback is from an ill-informed perspective.  Like the people in the above example, these guys mean well, but unlike that example, their help is more likely to hinder you than it is to help you.

If we act on criticism that is factually wrong, we make bad decisions.  This is why it’s really important to check the source of the feedback we receive, before we decide to take action.  If someone with no expertise or experience in something is criticising you in that area, get some more feedback from an informed source.

Non-criticism, criticism

Just because someone disagrees with our point of view, does not mean they are being critical of us.  It’s easy to regard those who see things differently, as being negatively critical, when they are simply offering a different perspective.  This is especially the case with blog comments, where readers will often take a counter-point from the blogger or a fellow commenter.  The whole point of asking for comments and feedback, is to get different opinions and ideas.

Finally, consider the motivation behind negative criticism

People do what they do for a reason.  If we take a moment to consider why someone might make a critical comment about us or our work, it’s easy to see the point they are making in the correct context.

Some do it to attract “traffic”.  For example, the best-known bloggers often find less established bloggers writing extremely critical posts about them, in the hope that the popular blogger mentions them and in so doing, delivers a ton of traffic to the critic’s blog.  Some do it to get noticed.  Others do it because they just LOVE to look for the negative (I get lots of these, whenever I make a spelling error.)  Some do it just to have a little fun, at our expense.

The bottom line: There many reasons that people feel compelled to negatively criticise and many different types of criticism.  If you use (or plan to use) blogging, social networking sites and newsletters etc, as part of your marketing mix, negative criticism is all part of the feedback you will receive, as your audience grows.

Your tips on dealing with negative criticism

If you have any ideas, tips or experience of dealing with negative criticism (especially online), please share them with your fellow readers and myself, by leaving a comment below.

Photo: Johnny Jet

Related posts:

1. Stephen Fry, critics and a business lesson
2. Blogging and critics
3. Why bloggers post every day – Part 2

I switched my computer on this morning and was amazed with what I saw!

Last night, while I was sleeping, there were interesting conversations going on here; across 4 different posts and with dozens of comments.  That kind of feedback or interaction, is one of the things I value most about blogging and yet another reason why I believe blogs have a bright future, as a marketing tool.

Marketing and blogs

There are many reasons why blogs are extremely powerful as marketing tools.  One of these reasons, is that it is easier to build a targeted community around a blog.  For example, each of those 4 active conversations last night were directly relevant to the theme of this blog; which is marketing and business development for small businesses.

Now, some of the people involved in these debates, shared the debate on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, which saw a massive increase in new readers and blog subscribers.  In simple terms, if I had written those posts as traditional articles on a website, with no comments section and no way for readers to contribute, there would have been far less interest and far fewer people would have seen it or shared it.

My posts acted as a catalyst, but it was the interest caused by the reader comments, which created the real surge in interest.  In addition, the people who commented on those posts increased the value of those posts enormously, with their insights and ideas.  I will be writing a lot more about the marketing benefits of blogging in the future.  For now, I simply ask business owners that are not already blogging, to consider the opportunities.

Do you have a business blog?  What are the main benefits YOU see from it?

Photo: Lin Pernille

Related posts:

1. Blogging and critics
2. Why bloggers post every day!