John Bonini says, “Blogging can feel a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy at times, am I right? Think about whether this sounds like you: “I know this topic will do well.” Sure it does. Sounds like me, too. Following intuition like this is fine — it’s only when it isn’tfollowed up with analysis that we find ourselves in trouble. It’s how bad habits form, and before you know it, we’re blogging for ourselves rather than our intended audience. The challenge isn’t so much measuring our efforts, as there are enough tools out there that make this easy. It’s more about... [...]

Chow says, “You’ve likely never heard of some of the most successful people on the Internet, just as you’ve likely never heard of some of the most successful business people in the offline world. These are the kind of people who miraculously work their magic and watch as millions of dollars coming pouring in through their front doors. Being rich and being famous don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand. However, this can change dramatically based on the kind of business you are in. If you want to be a hugely successful actor in Hollywood, you certainly want everyone to know who you are. If you... [...]

Pamela Vaughan says, “With blogging, success doesn’t happen overnight. I know, right? How many times have you heard that little nugget of blogging wisdom? But seriously — a B2B business blog is a huge time investment. It can take a while before you’ve grown it into a truly valuable marketing asset. In the past, we’ve written about the blogging metrics you should be tracking to report on your blog’s success. But we’ve never really talked about the strategy behind blog measurement”. Why You Should Measure New and Mature B2B Blogs Differently HubSpot... [...]

Chow says, “You think you’ve got a great blog. You update it with killer content on a regular basis and you have this great-looking theme that really expresses what your brand is all about. You’ve worked on your monetization strategy, you have your social media channels in check and everything seems to be on the up and up. Unfortunately, your blog takes forever to load and this could be driving visitors away. They are quite literally taking their money and attention out the door and they might not ever return. Even if your blog isn’t the slowest site on the Internet, its page load time... [...]

Pamella Neely says, “Blogs are one of the best ways to get free traffic, engage your customers and grow your business. You know that. But while many local businesses are trying to make headway with their blogs, a lot of them aren’t seeing much for their efforts. Here are nine ways to turn that around, fix common blogging mistakes, and get more results from your blog. 1. Your Blog Is Not Hosted on Your Site Whether it’s on WordPress.com, or Blogger.com, or Blogspot.com, having a blog hosted somewhere besides your site (as in “YourSite.com/blog/”) is a major mistake”. The 9 Most... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Congratulations! You’ve published a blog post. After brainstorming a topic, doing a whole lot of research, writing a few drafts, adding a couple sweet images, picking a call-to-action, having a buddy edit it, and tightening up your title … the hard work is all done, right? Right? Not so fast, my friend. While we all wish we could just sit back, put on a pot of tea, and watch the traffic to our posts come pouring in, it doesn’t quite work that way. To get more eyeballs on your new blog post, you need to do more than just hit “publish.”... [...]

Susan Gilbert says, “Working with authors and small business owners, I’m often asked, “What should I l blog about?” I find that it’s hard for most people – even authors – to add this task to their marketing agenda. Most people don’t know what to write about or how to get started. Like it or not though, blog writing is still a vital component to online marketing, and has evolved to become the main vehicle to build trust and establish you an an authority in your niche. Having a great landing page is not enough to attract and convert new leads. You need great content to keep your... [...]

Chow says, “Whether you take a look at larger, commercial blogs like Mashable or you turn your attention toward a “humble” personal blog like John Chow dot Com, you’ll find several key elements that all the successful blogs have in common. While these elements will hardly guarantee any sort of real success for any given blog, it becomes infinitely more challenging to rise to the top of the heap if you are missing any of these pieces to the puzzle. 1. Custom Blog Design WordPress is a wonderful and powerful platform. Better still, it’s completely free for you to download, install and use... [...]

Pamela Vaughan says, “These days, I spend a lot of my time on blog optimization. I’m constantly trying to figure out how we can fill the top of our funnel with more blog visitors, and how we convert more of those visitors into subscribers and leads. Because my role is focused on optimization and growth, I try to make sure we’re always testing something. After all, if we only do what we know works, we may see growth, but it will only ever be incremental growth. And we have ambitious goals here at HubSpot, so we need to be focused on achieving exceptional growth. That’s... [...]

Steve Richards says, “Earned media is becoming an ever important aspect of the modern marketing mix with recent research showing blogs as one of the most trusted digital sources guiding consumer decisions. Given that 92% of global consumers value word of mouth recommendations over all forms of advertising, it’s clear that marketers and advertisers have a lot to learn before they can reliably win consumer trust.”. Five lessons for effective blogger outreach ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]