I find that getting clients to write posts on their blogs is like pulling teeth with a pair of pliers.  It doesn’t have to be like a trip to the dentist. Think outside the box when it comes to content. Literally. This leads me to tip 1.

Tip 1. How to get content without having to write it.
Most of us have vendors or suppliers that we use to keep our businesses running smooth like office supplies, printers, accountants, etc. Why not ask them to be a ghostwriter for your blog. In return they will get credit and a link to their business. Both of you benefit and it seems like a win, win.

Tip 2. What is the Recipe for good Inbound Marketing?
Good content is key. Use your content wisely. In other words divide your content on your email campaign into segments that you can use to populate your blog and social media. I usually try to break mine into segments of five so that each day I have a post.

Tip 3. Make content everyone’s responsibility.
It is true you should have someone that champions the process of compiling content. But that does not mean they are responsible for writing all the content. Crowdsource your content. As you know I write “Coffee with Cliff” every week. One way that we are going to utilize copy is in an e-book. At the end of the year I will compile all my writings into a pdf that can be distributed. Just one more way to get the most from our efforts.

Tip 4. Why should I blog?
Companies that blog on a consistent basis generate 55% more visitor traffic to their website. As discussed in previous issues, blogging , for those of you who don’t know is an online journal. It allows for more targeted conversation, utilizes keywords for optimization, and if you enable the comments you can gather information and actually interact with the visitor. Great way to get ideas on content.

Tip 5. Optimize
Optimizing your content is critical. Not sure where to start? I would start with Google Keyword Tool.  This is a great tool for finding keywords and beginning the optimization process. You can even put your competitors website into the box and see what words they are using to optimize their site. Once you have your list of words I like to export them into an excel spreadsheet so that I can manage those words and cut and paste them into my copy. Don’t forget to utilize other SEO (Search Engine Optimization) elements that are at your disposal. Page titles, meta tags, descriptions and alt tags are still viable ways to optimize.  Note, Google and Yahoo are not putting as much emphasis on these tags but they are still utilized with other searches and can be useful in your efforts to drive traffic.