Baer says, “Last month, Google announced the creation of its new parent company, Alphabet, which will house the Google we know along with lesser-known experiments like Calico and Google Fiber. This isn’t news to you, but here’s what makes it interesting: If you were to search LinkedIn for “Google Alphabet”, you’d find a collection of articles written by CEOs, Presidents, and Ph.Ds. One titled “Google’s Alphabet in 2050 from A to Z” aims to predict future Google holdings. Another titled “Google’s Tragic Alphabet Soup” discusses why this decision will kill Google’s brand... [...]

Daniel Faggella says, “When we left off in Part 1, we were just getting into the brass tacks of generating consistent leads with your blog. Today, we’re going to go deep into the tactics, but I want to serve up a warning: If you haven’t read Part 1 of this series, you need to do that first. Tactics without the underlying strategy will not work nearly as well as having the complete picture. Let’s dive in. The Truth About Conversion When people come come to us at CLVboost (my employer), they almost always thinkthey need more traffic. It’s almost always not true. Traffic is like gas.... [...]

Tom Fanelli says, “Just how valuable is your blog in the array of marketing efforts you’re investing money in? It’s likely you’re measuring ROI for other efforts, such as PPC ads, but figuring out the return of producing original content for your blog is not as straightforward—and, for that reason, it’s often overlooked. But translating the value of your blogging efforts into an actual dollar amount can be incredibly useful. After all, how can you determine whether it’s money well spent or a waste of precious marketing dollars? How can you take steps to make... [...]

Corey Eridon says, “When I’m walking around the city and I have to cross the street, I do this thing where I start looking both ways before I’ve reached the intersection. If there are no cars coming at that moment, I like to run across the street immediately instead of waiting to reach the intersection — otherwise a bunch of cars will probably be there by the time I get to the crossing signal. Some people call that jaywalking. Law enforcement, for instance. I call it efficiency. The same can be said for a method of blogging my team has adopted: the crowdsourced Google Docs... [...]

Anthony D. Nelson says, “Over the years, you’ve certainly read something about how Google loves fresh content. Perhaps you’ve read that sometimes it takes its love of freshness too far. Now it’s the middle of 2015. Does freshness still play a significant role in how Google ranks search results? To find out, I decided to conduct a small experiment on a blog. Specifically, I wanted to see if my test could answer the following questions: If you update a blog post’s date, will it receive a boost in the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Can you fake freshness? Do you... [...]

Kieran Flanagan says, “Anyone who runs a business blog knows how much of a challenge it is. Developing a great blog with great content that attracts lots of readers and subscribers requires you to be consistent, resourceful, and creative on a daily basis. But with blogging’s challenges come its many benefits, often in the form of traffic, leads, loyal fans, and — eventually — customers. The key is nailing down the right strategy for publishing, optimizing, and promoting content so you can grow you blog into something spectacular. So what’s the “right”... [...]

Kaleigh Moore says, “You work hard to create blog content that people actually want to read. You know it’s an important part of your content marketing efforts that will bring in new customers over time. But there are a few topics that online readers have seen time and time again—and at this point, they’re just becoming noise. An Algoso survey found that 88% of people read blogs because they want analysis and opinions, while 74% wanted information on trends within a sector or to learn from others’ experiences“. 8 min read 5 Blog Topics You Need to Stop Writing About ‘Entrepreneur’... [...]

Mimi An says, “Did you know that there is a certain type of blog post that makes up 10% of a blog’s repertoire, but are responsible for generating 38% of total blog traffic? If you do the math, that means just one of these special posts brings in the same amount of traffic as six regular posts. In a recent study, we investigated these standout posts, which we call “compounding posts,” and discovered that they’re found in all types of business blogs. Yep, even yours — you just have to know how to find them. To give you some more information on what these posts... [...]

Jeff Foster says, “Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to drive sales and grow your brand online. That’s because people tend to trust bloggers they follow more than they trust you or your marketing. So, bloggers and other influencers can have a huge impact on your potential customers. However, getting bloggers to become your brand champions takes much more than a casual email: You need to take a structured approach to building a long-term relationship. The following nine steps should have you well on your way. 1. Identify your audience Before you dive into any blogger... [...]

Zac Johnson says, “Starting a blog is one of the most exciting things you can do as an internet user. While other people are online just to browse social networks or to see what’s new and exciting, bloggers are actually getting active and contributing to what keeps the internet running—original content. The concept of starting a blog might seem overwhelming to the average internet user, but it’s actually quite simple. All you need to do is register a domain name, setup web hosting and install a free copy of WordPress, which is the content management solution that powers the... [...]