Blogging has absolutely transformed my business. I had blogged for SEO purposes over the last couple years but never blogged to build my own brand. It’s been over a year since I first launched my blog and it’s a long time coming. You can take a look at my very first video here. Be warned, I’m pretty stiff 
http://successfool.com/video-1/
Since I started blogging to position my brand out there in the marketplace, a lot of people ask me the question, “How do I start blogging,” How important has blogging been to your business.”
Well I’ll answer one of the questions today and then have my partner Justin Brooke answer you tomorrow nigh LIVEt on my Internet TV show SuccessfoolTV. Justin has been ROCKIN IT lately with his blog. Quadrupling his traffic for his already successful blog Site Fliiiiiiiiiiing! (you gotta say it that way with the exclamation mark!!!)
How important has blogging been to your business?
I tell entrepreneurs and small businesses all the time… “blogging is the nervous system…the cornerstone of your online presence.”
Because of the success that I’ve had with my blog, I’ve been given the opportunity to speak at conferences, coach others how to use social media to grow their business, ran my own conference and the list goes on and on and on.
Listen, there’s so much traffic on these social media sites, we’re talking a LOT of traffic. Twitter is the fastest growing social network on the Internet, Facebook is growing at over 700,000 new users everyday. If Facebook was a country, it would be the 6th largest in the world.
So the goal for businesses shouldn’t be just to communicate with folks on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and keep the conversation on those particular sites and try to offer products and services. The goal should be to start a conversation with these people, add amazing value to people’s lives, then funnel them back to your blog (NOT a lead capture page) where you can add MORE value to their lives. THEN, if you do a good enough job, you’ll have an opportunity to win over their business.
So has blogging been important to my business success, ABSOLUTELY.
Here’s some of just a few benefits of blogging for your brand or business:
- Brand awareness
- Traffic
- Research
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Building relationships with your customers, clients or prospects
- Can review products or services in your industry
- Lost cost marketing
- Positioning you or your company as the “thought leader” in your niche
- Reputation management
How important has blogging been for YOU? Would love to hear what your stories.
Just started my blog a few weeks ago, which was a long time coming like yours. I’m so excited about and already it has given people a medium to see inside my soul and share my knowledge with them. My favorite part is the connection with the readers. I look forward to next April, and seeing how the blog has grown. I’m just one short year behind your blog!
One of my goals is the increase reader interaction. Working on that now….any ideas, feedback YOU may have for me would be greatly appreciated! Cheers!
Check it out here: http://www.createyourgreatlife.blogspot.com/
Peace&Love
D
nice job d! you gotta start somewhere right?
here’s a few things you can do after you post:
- ping it to pingoat.com
- twitter it
- facebook status it
- digg it
- stumble it
- del.icio.us it
- reddit
- tell your friends about it
just some ideas to start you off. can you let us know what’s working for ya. we all wanna know what works best
thanks.
Wow…this rookie has ALOT to learn! Its great stuff though, I’m pysched.
I’m trying my luck at digg.com as we speak. I already use the Twitter, Facebook and tell EVERYONE I KNOW tactics.
Thanks for the help AR! Stay in touch.
I’d say blogging is the best thing that anyone can do starting off online. If you are taking your offline “brick and mortar” business online I would recommend that they blog. If you are looking to make money online… guess what I recommend… BLOGGING!
Blogging is the future. The future is “feeds” not static webpages.
I have learned a lot from blogging.
I am not too great of a writer so I have learned to become a better writer and get what my head is thinking onto a keyboard and into a blog post.
One of the things that I would add to your blog post is NETWORKING! it’s ridiculous how many people you can meet by having a high quality blog and being active in social media sites.
You can create a lot of connections just by being an established blogger and active in social media sites like twitter and facebook.
I create relationships in twitter as often as i can. That is my “free time” hobby!
Great post Alejandro! I’m starting my new blog that will be much better than my previous one with a whole new mindset and emphasis on delivering value.
I think it will do real well!
Have a great day!
Dbk
ya NETWORKING is big. 95% of all my success is related to the relationships i’ve made.
i can’t wait to see your new blog bro!
I would say blogging is one of the cornerstones of my business. I have made thousands from it as far as speaking engagements at Florida State University and another one coming up with the COCCA Council of the Arts here in Tallahassee. Blogs build my credibility and speaking engagements build it even more, thus the thousands of dollars reference. What would I have paid to get this exposure? That’s what the blog is worth. And much more.
It allows me a springboard for my ideas, thoughts, failures and successes.
Thanks for letting me share!
-Lawton
i liked what you said most at the end lawton…
“it allows me a springboard for my ideas, thoughts, failures, and successes…” <——- that's HUGE.
thanks for sharing brother. you're always welcomed here. you know that.
Personally I feel that every business should have a blog but especially people in service industries. Having a blog can do wonders for a business because of everything people do online. And social networking sites and blogs are growing monthly and probably aren’t going to stop anytime soon.
A blog is basically the foundation that your social media marketing efforts rest on. Without the blog all of your work could potentially crumble.
-Greg
that’s a bold statement but i like it.
“Without the blog of all your work could potentially crumble.”
thanks so much greg for your post. look forward to seeing ya back here
I like the way you put that, absolutely agree. It’s been a great avenue for small offline businesses to establish online credibility. A must. I see the next trend in blogging is the video blog, will be an interesting year watching that explode! Not there yet, but definitely in my near future.
ya video is gonna be HUGE. i believe my first post was a video & have been doing video every since.
i think it’s because people get a little closer to the “real” you if that makes sense.
you get to see someone’s mannerisms, their tone, their eyes, their smile, all that good stuff.
it’s totally helped me with building trust with the folks that i connect with online.
can’t wait to see your videos susan!
I must say that blogging has hit me completely by surprise. I just love to share info that I know may be of benefit to others..
I didn’t start off to be a blogger .. but it just fits..
Cheers baba
i don’t think anyone starts of as a “blogger” but it’s something that you can definitely learn and become as time goes.
definitely takes some consistency.
When it comes to branding through blogging, there is no one I go to before Alejandro. He is just sick with this!
you’re ROCKING it right now with your blog.
can’t wait til tomorrow night when you share some great tips on the show
thanks bud
As a writer, I felt intimidated about blogging when I first started. I wanted to do it; but, felt that what I wanted to communicate would not be of interest to others. Blogging, consistently, opened my eyes to the fact that I could not only write about things that interested me…but, I could make an impact on others, through what I shared. I learned to use my “voice” to bring attention to issues that matter to me; and, to highlight things that impact the lives of others. Some of my most popular blog posts have been on things like triple negative breast cancer; and issues affecting families & individuals such as the government tax incentive checks & taking steps to preventing suicide.
No matter what your blog’s goals are…be consistent about posting, find your voice, and have confidence in what you blog about. You just never know the fullness of your reach. I personally love the interaction that comes from the people that react to the blog posts and comment on my blog…that is all the reward that I needed, initially, when i started my blog.
I have learned much, since I started blogging, almost two years ago (for one thing, if you want to monetize…don’t use a free blog service
). So, I will soon be transferring my blog to a hosted server so that I can monetize it; there is always more to learn. I have built up a large readership with my blog at: http://www.writeasrain.wordpress.com ; but now, it is time to grow and branch out. Blogs can serve many goals, figure out what you want to achieve through your blog and go for it!
hey that looks like jeff wellman in that picture
PHENOMENAL guy!!
loved your feedback:
- be consistent
- find your voice
- and be confident
i think that pretty much sums it up.
finding YOUR voice is huge. i see too many people trying to write about stuff just because it’s the “latest fad.”
if you wanna be successfool at blogging, be authentic, be yourself, and don’t try to be someone else.
keep blogging away
thanks for stopping by. i greatly appreciate it.
We will see. I have always enjoyed talking about what we do and how it effects the customer. A blog has been that platform for me. Tomorrow I will officially launch my blog. I am super excited and hope to take it to the next level.
can’t wait to see the new blog man.
definitely try to make it to the interview tomorrow i do with justin!
gonna ROCK.
i think having a blog is just 10% of the battle, the biggest thing is knowing how to get people to not only read it but go tell everyone about how great the content is.
can’t wait to see how you rock out the blog man.
you are soooooooo sexy alejandro!
Hi,
I,ve just started blogging but it is a great to be able to share information and to help people through your blog and a great way to start your business.
Can’t wait to see you two pull off an awesome show tonight. Alejandro is my mentor and friend, and just recently, I have started conversations with J-Man (Justin Brooke) – an
Blogging is your identity. It’s your voice. The secret sauce is found within your ability to make a commitment to producing content on a consistent basis. Something I have struggled with for a long time, but not anymore…
If it weren’t for blogging, my business could have taken a completely different direction. When I first contemplated taking my love for photography and making it a business, I decided to start off by simply sharing my latest work on a blog I created. I didn’t have any expectations of getting work from it, I just wanted to share. Within weeks, I started receiving emails from interested moms who wanted me to photograph their kids. I had no website…just a blog. Eventually I saved enough money to buy a website, but I still find that most of my clients find me through my blog. So at the end of last year (after using a blogger blog for 3 years) when the time came for me to make some decisions about how to invest in my business, I sat down and thought hard about what to do. I could have purchased a new lens…or maybe even a new camera, but I decided to hire a company (with a great reputation in the photography world) to do a whole new, customized, unique new blog…WHICH is currently being done right now!!! I can’t wait for it to be finished because I whole-heartedly believe that blogging is one of the best things a person can do for business. NOW, I need to start learning how to adding video to my blog
As a newbie to blogging as well as social media I’m about to get an idea how far-reaching this all is. It’s amazing the things you learn, the people you meet and in return find yourself going for higher standards to provide and live by. It’s like you become part of this matrix network, nourishing it as well as find nourishment. Case in point, I came to this blog because I stumbled upon Alejandros twitter profile and I really dug some of his titles. Nice word combo, eh?
At this point our blog has been more of an extension of our business. Much less about personality and brand. Maybe we’ll go back to the drawing board and rethink our blog a bit. Thanks for stimulating the brain cells!
My blog would be the back bone of my business if I would post more frequently. I have quite a few blogs that get good search engine traffic and bring some revenue. I just have to get over my issue of not posting regularly. I could have a huge potential income if it were not for that
I definitely agree that blogging is a key for business, but there are those organizations that (like you!) just can’t get regular posts up, and it doesn’t do much good to start a blog if it is perpetually out-of-date because of infrequent updates. For those people, a traditional website with novel trafficking tools, like linking from websites like travelhqr.com would be better than an expired blog, IMO.