HOW TO BLOG

HOW TO BLOG FOR PROFIT. When I first started blogging, blogging for the most part was not looked upon as a marketing tool. A big part of what blogging was six years ago was still the personal journal or daily diary. While you still see those types of blogs with Posterous and Tumblr, there has been a ever growing movement for a blog to be the main Web presence for a business. Whether that business be online or offline. What I have seen over the last six years has been a shift in businesses understanding the importance of having a Web presence. More and more businesses, no matter what size, are realizing they need to be online. The problem is, even now with all of the how-to sites out there, most businesses still don't get the how. They don't know how to get online. They don't know where to even start to get a site up and going. But, while they may think they get it, I am not sure they really get it. At the same time, and this is where some of the blame needs to rest too, I am not sure most of these so called blogging and social media gurus get it either. What I have strived to do over the last few years with this blog is give an inside look at what I knew worked for me and what others used successfully to market and promote a business with a blog and social media. I tried to give our readers the tools they needed to be successful with their Web based marketing. And one of those successes is how to turn traffic into visitors, visitors into readers, readers into subscribers. And finally, subscribers or those regular readers into paying customers or clients. Over the last three plus years in the life of this blog, I do feel we have done a pretty darn good job of doing that too. I do think we cut through the bull crap and have been providing the straight talk on using a blog or social media to market and promote a business. But, we need to make some changes and grow with the demands of our readers and the community. We need to look at what we are doing and improve on things. And the first thing I personally need to do is get back to post on a regular basis. My family and I just got back from a week in Tampa, Florida. We got to spend some wonderful time with our oldest son and our daughter-in-law and I was able to really take a break. While I still did some support and answered some emails for the company my son Clay and I have. I also had a bit of time to sit back and think a bit. And really look at what I want to do with this blog. Change is good… First and foremost, regular postings. You might see a new series in April too. I am kicking around an idea centered around something I have been thinking about and that is, "The DNA of a Blog." And if I don't have it fleshed out for April, you will see it in May for sure. It is easy to get caught up in the belief that all of those businesses who are going to blog are already blogging. Seriously, such beliefs are really just stupid. We see more new bloggers and Web sites go online every single day. And every single day, these new bloggers are hungry for good, relevant and up-to-date information to help them use a blog to market and promote their business. We need to get back on track here providing that information. http://bloggingforprofit.fastprofitpages.com/?id=macias Don't be shocked if you see some of our older content get a facelift and a repurposing too. Even the stuff we wrote 3 years ago still applies today. The great thing about it, we have some cool tools and ways to get our message out there and bring readers to our sites. Second, I want to ramp up the guest postings here and the regular contributors. Over the last couple of years we have had some amazing contributors here on Blog For Profit. And some awesome guest bloggers. I want to continue that as we move forward. I also plan to use Gravity Forms to make that process easy for guest bloggers. Third, and this is more for me than you. I need to get out of the habit of always thinking I need to write such freaking long post. I need to practice what I preach to the new bloggers I talk to. Fourth, we are going to spend more time also discussing how you can use a blog to make money online. From promoting your own online products to promoting the products of others as an affiliate. There is nothing wrong with promoting and recommending products as an affiliate. I do it daily with products and services we use and recommend to our community at Headway Themes. Don't be shocked if we don't spend time talking about how you can make some serious cash selling Headway Themes. And why not? Plus, what you learn there you can take and use with other products you are promoting as an affiliate. http://bloggingforprofit.fastprofitpages.com/?id=macias Fifth, the Blog For Profit newsletter will get back in the swing of things too. Sixth, we are looking at starting a members' only forum for Blog For Profit. Seventh, there will be a completely new look and design coming sometime this summer for Blog For Profit. And that is all I am going to tell you on that subject. Finally, we are going to promote resources we feel you should be using. And yes, some of those products will have my affiliate link included. And yes, I will be promoting what we are doing at Headway Themes too. There is more, but this post is already a lot longer than I intended it to be. Final thoughts Leave comments and keep the conversation going. If anything, I want the changes we are going to do with Blog For Profit to reflect what our readers need and that is you. Give me questions you want answered. Tell me what you want and need to know to have a successful blog. Tell me what you need or tell me what you don't need. Let's discuss what is working for you and what is not. We all can learn by talking about all of this. So let's do it. I feel good about all of this and quite frankly, it is about time we get back in the swing of things here http://bloggingforprofit.fastprofitpages.com/?id=macias SO TO DO BLOGS IS AN ACTIVITY THAT WE MUST TAKE SERIOUSLY, SINCE CAN CHANGE YOUR STILE LIFE IN A GREAT WAY. by L. MACIAS