Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time - Softcover

Schaefer, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071811168 ISBN 13: 9780071811163

Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Launch a business and ignite a movement with a powerhouse blog! Born to Blog is filled with practical, street-smart techniques and ideas to help you create and manage a winning business blog. Learn how to attract a loyal following, promote your blog, and write powerful content that generates new business. "If your dream is to launch a business or publish a book, then read Born to Blog! You'll realize the blogger way is your fastest path to success." -- MICHAEL STELZNER, founder of Social Media Examiner and author of Launch "Born to Blog makes blogging accessible and fun for anyone. Read it, use it, and watch your business grow." -- JAY BAER, founder of Convince and Convert and coauthor of The Now Revolution "Read this book, then go blog like you were born to do so." -- JASON FALLS, founder of Social Media Explorer and coauthor of No Bullshit Social Media and The Rebel's Guide to Email Marketing "Blogging beginners and seasoned pros alike will find valuable advice they can put to use immediately." -- LEO WIDRICH, cofounder, Buffer

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MARK W. SCHAEFER is the author of the bestsellers The Tao of Twitter and Return on Influence. He is an internationally known speaker, consultant, and college educator who blogs at {grow}.

STANFORD SMITH is a digital marketing and social media strategist who created PushingSocial.com, a resource for business blogging.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

BORN TO BLOG

Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time

By MARK W. SCHAEFER, STANFORD A. SMITH

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2013 Mark W. Schaefer and Stanford A. Smith
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-181116-3

Contents

Introduction: Were You Born to Blog?
CHAPTER 1 The Common Traits of Successful Bloggers
CHAPTER 2 You're Not a Writer, You're a Blogger
CHAPTER 3 Yes—You Can Blog
CHAPTER 4 Storytelling
CHAPTER 5 Dreaming
CHAPTER 6 Persuading
CHAPTER 7 Teaching
CHAPTER 8 Curation
CHAPTER 9 Discovering Your Blogging Skills
CHAPTER 10 Why Your Business Should Blog
CHAPTER 11 Corporate Blogging's Most Common Questions
CHAPTER 12 The Minimum Viable Blog
CHAPTER 13 Unlocking Content
CHAPTER 14 Attracting Readers
CHAPTER 15 Attracting and Nurturing Blog Contributers
CHAPTER 16 Making Your Blog Pay
CHAPTER 17 Rocks in the Road
CHAPTER 18 Getting Personal
CHAPTER 19 Breaking Through with a Personal Blog
CHAPTER 20 Blogging Habits
CHAPTER 21 Coda
Index

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The Common Traits of Successful Bloggers

It got to the point that Raman Minhas hated his blog.

After four years of patient and consistent blogging about issues in hisindustry, biotech, Raman felt that he was spinning his wheels.

"I had built up a blog readership over that period of about 1,000 readers," theU.K.-based physician said. "And I was getting around 300 hits per month, butafter all those years of blogging, I hit a wall. There was no organic growth ofmy readership, and no real reader feedback, no matter how hard I worked. Afterfour years, I was disenchanted with blogging. Without any positive feedback, theblogging process became wearisome and I came to dread the 'time of the month' towrite.

"Once in a while, I would read an inspirational blog post that would keep megoing for a few more weeks, but I had to find a way to push through theseblogging barriers or it simply could not last.

"So, I took a time-out," Raman said, "performed an internal review, and decidedto refocus on a more interesting topic, medical technology. A subtle change, butI'd previously spent six years as an emergency room MD in the U.K. and was morecomfortable with the technology side of the business than the abstract chemistryof new potential drugs.

"With a clarification of my niche, my focus became much clearer and I wasreenergized. I found I could write more easily, and many more topics came tomind. Writing finally became enjoyable! Through the medtech theme, I was alsoable to connect to my interests in entrepreneurship and value investing. Thiswas such a breakthrough. Slowly, the page hits began to grow—perhapsreaders gauged more passion and a renewed sense of energy in my content? And theblog was starting to get NOTICED. I was invited to present at an industrynetworking event on the use of blogging in our industry. This was a smallaudience (around 60) but highly relevant. It was a milestone for me!

"Slowly I was finding my blogging 'voice,' and with this positive feedback, myconfidence grew. I decided I needed to work on being more consistent and that Ineeded to grow my engaged network of readers. As my blogging changed, myaudience changed too. I was now getting picked up by important medtech CEOs andinvestors. I decided that to grow the blog I needed to write at least weekly.This felt daunting.

"Here was another barrier I faced. Would I have the time to keep this up? WouldI have enough to write about? I decided that I needed to make the time and thisneeded to be central to my business. My wife and I decided together that I wasgoing to go for it, and I learned to make the time and started posting weekly,without much trouble, as it turned out.

"Consistency definitely helped. I could see the page views and readership grow!I also spent time systematically building my target audience on Twitter, usingthe advice in the book The Tao of Twitter. These people seemed to love mycontent. In a short period of time I tripled the number of page views on myblog, and it's still growing! I was energized!

"After all those years, my blog was finally starting to create some businessvictories:

• I was asked to attend an important two-day conference and moderate a panel oncommercializing medtech. This is fantastic exposure for me and my business.Another breakthrough! To be authentically helpful, I am using my blog to givethe conference exposure. I'm helping the organizers with sourcing medtech CEOsfrom my own network for other panels in the conference. It's a win-win-win forus all.

• One of my recent posts was picked up by an industry news organization, and itwas put up on the front page of their website as a news item. This wasincredible PR, and hits to my blog went up. It was so successful, they asked ifmy posts could be a regular feature on their site. Of course, I said yes.

• One of the CEOs from a high-profile company commented on one of my posts andsubsequently introduced me to one his VC investors (a very influential groupwithin my target audience).

• Another powerful CEO connected to me through my blog, and we are alreadydiscussing ways of working together. Things NEVER used to move this fast. It'sas if the blog is a noninvasive, trust-building relationship booster.

• At an event in February this year, I met another powerful industry leader forjust five minutes. But we have had the chance to continue to get to know eachother through the comment section of my blog. The blog community is loyal to meand is helping me succeed.

"I have learned a lot along the way. Patiently and steadily build rapport andtrust with your readers. Write about your passions. It takes time to find yourblogging 'voice.' Authentic helpfulness and reciprocity go a long way. It wasn'teasy, but today my blog is a fun and central part of my business."

Raman's story is not unusual—in fact, it's rather typical. There reallyare very few overnight successes in the blogging business. So let's dissect andexplore some of the traits we learned from his experience.

TENACITY

Raman never gave up, even when he became disheartened. It takes time to findyour voice, to connect with your audience, to learn how to appropriately buildand promote your blog, and to write in a manner that connects with busy readers(more on that in the next chapter). Chris Brogan, one of the most successfulmarketing bloggers on the web, famously said it took him three years to earn hisfirst 100 subscribers.

Using the ideas in this book will certainly lessen your learning curve and put arocket behind your opportunities. But we can't teach you how to blog. You haveto be committed, and you have to keep at it and learn by doing.

MARK: I often get asked the key to blogging success. My instinctive answer isusually, "Work like hell!" In a society conditioned for instant gratification,blogging can better be described in terms of an athletic...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071811168
• ISBN 13: 9780071811163
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 176
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland