Although it is hard to quantify if blogging will help your website place better organically, I have to say that from reviewing four different clients in the same industry, blogging can definitely make a difference.

Here is one concrete example, we have four clients in the same state, three of which are located in the same general service area. Three blog, one does not. Monthly I review site placement and prepare placement reports for several of these clients.

One site we have been blogging for since 2006 has garnered top Google placement on many keywords, another site that we designed but just started blogging for is moving up in placement. One site we did not design, but blog for is now placing organically on terms it had not placed on before., and the other fourth site we designed, but is not blogging, placed well initially but now after three month is starting to drop in the search results. Of specific interest is the site for which we did not do the design for is now placing organically, but on the blog posts not the website pages.

From this I can unequivocally say that blogging does help your organic placement. When blogging is teamed with great SEO web design, you can definitely move up in the organic results. Additionally, we have found that when we blog heavily on specific phrases for over 30 days at a time, we can additionally garner placement on these terms. This is particularly important on location or geographic specific terms.

One big note however is to remember that the results you can receive are all based on on-domain blogging versus off-domain blogging. Blogging can be an excellent way to position your website organically, just do it the smart way.

We’ve just posted our June e-newsletter. You can read it here.

The topic this month about blogging off your domain and is that an effective SEO practice.

As professional blog writers, my team writes over 100 blog posts each week. We’ve used all the blogging platforms and even custom applications. Hands down my team prefers to use WordPress.

Our team members don’t like these platforms:

Movable Type
When we get a blog project that is using Movable Type, we all groan. This platform does not allow for pending and draft posts, has a very quirky publishing interface, and has a very strange HTML mutant link and writing interface. Typically blog writers are writers first and not usually HTML savvy so to add link or tag syntax can be highly confusing.

Blogspot
This used to be the platform that most of our blogs were done on back in 2002 and 2003 but as of 2010 not a single one of our clients is on Blogger or Blogspot. They have all moved to WordPress. Although you can add tags, you cannot sort posts into categories. Additionally the template selections are archaic and do not even allow three column blogs.

HubSpot
This is another platform when we get a client using this we groan. Although it is not as bad as Movable Type, the inability to see blog posts in a list by date and quick editing features for tags and categories make this a cumbersome choice to use.

The Best is WordPress!
Here’s why we love WordPress:

• Wonderful easy to install plug-ins that build SEO benefits into each blog post.
• Ability to choose tags PLUS categories to sort your blog posts into for easy navigation.
• Integrated search engine.
• Once click software upgrade and plug-in update.
• Excellent and rock solid publishing on future dates.
• Ability to set a post as pending or draft – they are different in our minds.
• Running word count that resides at the bottom left of the blog entry field screen.
• Outstanding template selections with many that are free downloads.

If you are trying to decide which blog platform to use for your blog. Use the one that professional bloggers like us love – WordPress!

If you want to build readership of your blog, consistency is key, but that doesn’t just mean posting on the same days, but at the same time, with the same quality, and on your core topics.

I have learned this from personal experience. There is absolutely nothing worse than building up a reader base and then due to your own inconsistency losing it. I had this happen in 2008. I had a number of writer related personnel issues. I had to step in and write consistently at the last moment for a number of client blogs. When you blog for other people, you can get tapped out and simply not want to or have time to write for your own blog.

I saw on my own blog, over a several month period, my traffic go from 40% of all visitors reading my blog to under 10%. It took me over one full year to rebuild my readership with consistent blogging three days a week. It was really tough to keep the momentum up to rebuild what I had lost. I have learned that to not blog is not an option for my own business.

For me, I blog every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My posts are published at 5:30 am and are consistently on-topic for what my readers are interested in knowing more about. The payoff has been huge. My RSS subscriber base is now over 220 readers and my website traffic has nearly doubled this year alone.

Blogging can be hard work to always be at the top of your game, but when you stop or get sporadic you can lose it all! If you need help staying consistent with your blog consider our blog writing services. You don’t want to have to rebuild your readership, as I did, if you can simply get someone to step in and help out when you need it.

I think a blog without comments is like having a BLT sandwich without the bacon or tomato. Comments on a blog show that an active community is watching and interacting. When you disable comments on your blog I personally feel that you are missing out on important interaction with your readers.

That being said, it is important to know that I allow commenting on my blog, but I do moderate comments. I don’t post comments that are blatant advertisements for other people’s business, and I do not allow search engine “follow” links on my comments until you have posted comments a certain number of times. Once you comment to hit my threshold, comments on my blog that you leave will be followed by search engines.

I use a WordPress plug-in called Lucia’s Linky Love to control the follow nofollow attribute on links left in comments on my blog and in the commenter’s signature block. I have found that by allowing comments, within my parameters, that I have increased the amount of commenting on my blog and have actually quadrupled my RSS feed subscription readership.

If you are so tightly controlling interaction on your blog by either not allowing comments or deleting any comments don’t match your personal point of view, I feel like you lose what a blog is all about. In any one community not everyone will agree on everything, but if you as a business owner allow interaction between yourself and even between commenters you allow for an overall “richer” experience for every blog visitor.

Okay if you’ve read the posts this week, this is the solution if you can only blog off-site. First, based on our case study, we just don’t recommend blogging off-domain at this point. If you can only blog off-domain, I strongly recommend you evaluate organic placement for your off-domain blog separately. If your blog shows for your keyword on Google.com then I would consider continuing to blog off-domain and point links to your parent website. You may actually be able to place organically with your off-domain blog if you have been blogging for a while and you are not in a competitive industry.

If your off-domain blog does not place organically for your keywords then I would stop all blogging efforts there. I would instead take the money and time that I had invested in blogging and use it to start building on-site on-domain content. That content might be in the form of

• free downloadable white papers
• feature articles
• monthly press releases
• online newsletters
• additional website pages

You can do double duty with some of these types of items by disseminating them on Google Knol, American Chronicle, GoArticles, and article syndication sites in order to get inbound links.

I would strongly recommend that you review your current off-domain blogging approach as all blogging is not equal. Blogging is really only a good, rather a great SEO strategy for you when you are blogging on-domain. If you just can’t blog on-domain, I would use the time and dollars to build parent website content and value instead of spending that on off-domain blogging at this time.

If you need on-domain blog writing, remember we are the blog experts in the industry. We invite you to visit our blog writing services page for information on pricing and to review writing samples.

If your blog cannot be built on-domain what should you do? There are some situations where you just cannot build an on-domain blog. Some situations may be where you are using a template driven website and you really do not have your own server space and so cannot install WordPress, you have an e-commerce site and just cannot include the technology to run a blog on the server, or you are hosted on a Windows server and cannot install PHP which is needed for WordPress.

If you have any of these scenarios, isn’t off-domain blogging still good for you? I used to say yes, but let’s look at a case study done recently for a real estate firm.

This client could not install an on-domain blog as their website was a template driven website and they did not have “real” server space. We set up a GoDaddy.com domain and hosting to house their off-domain WordPress blog. We blogged for almost six month using keyword dense phrases. At the end of the study period, we evaluated. Did the off-domain blog bump up the parent domain due to one way inbound links and keyword dense blog posts pointing to their parent domain?

What we found was that the strategy of off-site blogging was not workable. The parent domain got no “SEO juice” from our blogging efforts. Not only did organic placement not improve, but the off-domain blog itself was not showing for the keywords we were using either.

You can run some searches yourself on this website yourself to see that we started out no where and ended up no where. The parent domain is www.MarcoIslandLuxuryEstates.com and the blogsite is www.Marco-Island-Luxury-Estates.com. If you look, you will see that the blog domain is not in the top 100 results. The parent website has been slowly moving up in the SERPs but when analysis is done on links to the parent domain, Google is not recording the links from the blog as a factor.

The key take away from this post is that unless you heavily promote and create a link strategy for your off-domain blog to build it up in Google, the site has no “authority” on Google and the other search engines and so one way inbound links from the off-domain blog to the parent website mean nothing to Google in regards to organic placement.

If you are going to invest time and money to promote, create links and push placement for an off-domain blog in order to help the parent domain, wouldn’t the investment and time be much better spent on the parent domain instead?

Make sure to read my recommendations on Friday on what you should do instead of having an off-domain blog.

I used to feel that blogging anywhere was great, just get blogging. Now I have to say I really feel that blogging under your own domain name is the only workable SEO strategy.

First, let me explain a few things. When I say blogging off-domain I mean that your blog posts reside at Blogspot.com, WordPress.com or at a domain name you have set up separate from your website parent domain. The key is that the actual files that are your blog posts reside some where other than your real website.

Second, blogging on-domain means that you have WordPress installed in a directory that is part of your own website. The URL for your blog would be something like www.mydomain.com/blog. Here the actual files that are your blog posts are spiderable by search engine robots under your parent domain.

It is important to understand that subdirectory blog sites typically are not hosted at the parent domain, but are set up to look like they are, but the files do not typically reside at the parent domain. Blogspot allows you to do this with a bit of massaging of your domain name records. If your blog URL looks like this: blog.yourdomain.com most likely your website files do not reside at your parent location.

So, why is on-site domain blogging so important? There are a few reasons why you should only consider blogging on-domain.

• You get search engine capital for blogging on-domain. That means each blog post is considered by search engines as if they were new pages in your parent domain.
• Search engine spiders will index the blog posts that are created in on-domain blogging.
• You will build “web authority” and create keyword density on your topic for your parent domain when you blog on-domain for your parent domain.
• Links to your on-domain blog will help your parent domain place better on search engines and therefore help you place organically.

Don’t be confused if you have an off-domain blog and programmatically send the content in an iframe or with JavaScript to your parent domain pages, you do not get the search engine capital for your parent domain that you do with on-domain blogging.

Equally, if you have an off-domain blog and point to it in the navigation in your parent website, you get no search engine capital from it for your parent domain. You may get traffic, but not SEO juice.

Make sure to read Wednesday’s and Friday’s posts this week as I discuss more about on- and off-domain blogging and share with you a case study I have done for a company recently that illustrates these issues.

I have been toying with doing WordPress websites and so have done quite a bit of research on the topic this past week. What I have found is that I do not want to “re-invent the wheel” by creating my own as there are some really great ones out there now. But what I did find was an excellent WordPress website theme that is perfect for my customers.

I highly recommend the Small Biz WordPress website theme. We find that this template has built in resources that help you place on local keywords, have search engine optimization features built in and is very easy to use even for the novice. If you buy from our link we will be paid a small commission, but that is not the reason for our recommendation.

We like this WordPress template for several reasons.

• It is very easy to use and configure for your own personal needs.
• There are numerous videos that illustrate how to customize your WordPress site even how to add videos.
• Built on the back bone of WordPress this website allows you the site owner to add and change content at will with an online control panel.
• The application files are easy to find and not buried in code that is hard to find.
• It is one of the most user-friendly WordPress websites I have found to date.

I highly recommend this WordPress theme to you. If you decide to use it, we can install and configure it for you or just install it for you. The theme is not expensive and is available for $117 plus our hourly charge for installation. You will need to install it on a hosting plan that has PHP and MySQL. We like the Hostway Starter Plan for $168 per year as a very cost efficient resource for hosting for WordPress. Take a look at the Small Biz theme now and see what you think.

I think that you will agree that hands down it is one of the easiest yet robust themes that can be used for a website.

We’ve been busy selling and setting up new blogs. We would like to share a few of our newest ghost blogging customers with you so you can check out the writing.

Perfectory Web Design
This Canadian web design firm makes the most beautiful website templates I have ever seen and the prices are good too. We are blogging for her site on topics of interest to small business owners or web designers who would be buying her templates. Each Friday we feature one item from her assortment and on Monday and Wednesday provide great business and marketing tips. Visit the blog now.

Homes Buy Day
We’ve blogged for literally years for this client who then took a several month break while he was building a new WordPress based website and now we’re back blogging. His blog is chock full of interesting articles on Maryland real estate and showcases some of his listings and foreclosed properties. The owner John Day periodically blogs on the site as well and has a wonderful authoritative voice for his industry. Check out this great blog now.

Staff Advantage
This new blog for a virtual assistant offers wonderful marketing and business productivity tips. Although we only blog two times a month for this client, the content is interesting. Andrea Dwyer the owner is also available to help with a wide variety of virtual assistant services. Check out this blog now.

We’ve got a few other blogs getting ready to start this week and the first part of May so we’ll make sure to point those new ones out to you as well. To find out more about our ghost blogging or blog writing services, I invite you to visit our blog writing services page. There you’ll find pricing, samples, and links to other blogs that we are writing for as well.

It used to be that if a business did not advertise in the Yellow Pages, you were out of the game.,Now there are new “must haves” for business owners to consider to be a part of our new “connected” global business marketplace. These new “must haves” are a blog, a Facebook presence, and a Twitter account.

If you look at each of the three items I mentioned, they have one thing in common, they allow a connection with users who want information fast and to connect with and interact with the real you versus reading  a brochure-like website. It is important to note that I am assuming that you have a website already by this point. If you don’t have even that, then instant remediation is needed quickly.

The Web has changed our world and how we do business drastically, but social networking is now changing how we interact on the Web with each other. So let’s talk about these three important components briefly and why you should have each.

Blogs
There are so many SEO benefits that are derived from blogging that to not now have an on domain blog puts you at a competitive disadvantage. As a blog is written in a more conversational style and allows for comments it is a wonderful way to start interacting with prospects and get tangible organic search benefits at the same time.

Facebook Presence
Facebook has gotten so big that you just cannot be using it at this point in time. It is like how a  website was considered a few years ago. If you didn’t have one you weren’t in the game. This is the same now with Facebook. Many businesses will start out with a personal profile, as I did myself, and then move to expand interaction through a Facebook Fan Page. Whichever direction you take it’s important to get in the game at this point. Recently, Facebook even eclipsed Google in user activity. Facebook  is a huge sleeping giant that can be harnessed to drive traffic, interact with customers, find prospects, and share information about yourself and your business. When Facebook finally figures out how to monetize itself properly the returns will be huge.

I have gotten quite a bit of business from Facebook over this last year and that was just from my personal profile. I have sold and closed a several thousand dollar custom website project, and in the last two weeks alone, I have gotten a new ghost blogging client and a press release client. So, if you take the attitude that Facebook has too much “fluff” and is just full of games, think again. Serious business is being done through Facebook interaction.

Twitter
Twitter has grown tremendously in popularity with 300,000 new users each month and over 10 million using Twitter already. This application has potential written all over it. Twitter is not about spamming others with what you sell, but about interaction, answering questions, providing information, and sharing information. It is not as rich as an interactive environment as Facebook, but its viral marketing potential is stronger than that of Facebook.

Big business has flocked to Twitter. Say anything in Twitter about Kohls, and a real person will direct message you. Say you have a problem on Twitter about Network Solutions, and a real person will chat you up to make sure that all is well. Using mentions and search queries you can monitor what is being said about your business on Twitter and interact with others with similar interests. Twitter is growing so fast that it makes sense to get in “before the curve” and not “after the curve”.

I am always watching for the next big thing to check it out for our own business and our clients early. I’ll let you know a secret, the next big thing I’m watching is being tested by Google Labs in India. It is SMS Channels. This new application allows you to set up a channel of content and allow subscribers to receive your information directly to their mobile phone. That should be a biggy. I’ll let you know when it comes to the US.

This last week a client that I help on occasion who has one of the highest traffic blogs that I have seen lost his MySQL database that runs his WordPress blog. The crash was devastating to his blog and to his business. What is even worse is that he did not have a recent backup of his blog post; lost were 6 months of blog posts and comments.

To prevent this from happening to you, I recommend that every WordPress owner install a WordPress plug-in called WP-DB-Backup. This simple to use and configure blog post database backup allows you to email yourself a backup of your blog posts in MySQL format on a schedule you select.

I routinely backup my blog posts weekly and recommend that all clients and WordPress users do the same. Although you can tell the application to store your backup on your web server, I like the additional security of saving the backup to my own hard disk.

Just make sure that once you install the plug-in that you review it to make sure that your folder is writable. You will access the plug-in control panel from your WordPress “Tools” navigation link. If the directory location is not writable, you will need to correct that to use the plug-in.

Although you may never have a situation when you will need your backup, what if you even do. Will you be wishing you had a backup plan in place like the client I mentioned in the first paragraph or will you be able to get back up and running quickly only losing a day or two of blog posts?

If you have a blog writer or are writing for your own blog, it is time to “think outside the box” when it comes to using your content. Here are just a few of my suggestions. Now before you start though, if you pay a writer to write for your blog, you must make sure you have the rights to use your blog content in the ways I am suggesting.

1. For well received blog posts consider taking them and posting them on Google Knoll or American Chronicle as well as a few well chosen article syndication sites. Your blog posts should be at least 275 to 300 words long and should not be just on selling your own products and services.

2. Consider using your best blog posts as content for a quarterly e-newsletter. Choose the posts you really like or check your website statistics to see which blog posts got the most traffic then consider expounding on that topic further in your e-newsletter. As many blog readers will not be e-newsletter subscribers and vice versa you are pretty safe with reusing some content, just try to add fresh ideas to your newsletter as well.

3. If you’ve had great traffic with a blog post think on maybe paying your blog writer to do a mini whitepaper on the same topic that you can offer as a free download on your website. Better yet provide the download only after you have gotten the readers email address to start creating your own list for your own marketing uses.

There are lots of ways you can creatively re-use your content, but just make sure you have the proper rights to do so before you start.

I’ve got a few blogs I would like to showcase, some are new clients and some we’ve been blogging for for a while.

Moon Costumes
This is a fun blog and our writer is having a ball writing for it. The client is a costume firm based in North Carolina. The blog posts are much more than Halloween oriented. Costumes are fun year round and you just would not believe the fun that adults have in dressing up for conventions and the like. Some of the blogs integrate YouTube videos. It’s a fun blog to read and one you should check out.

Kuno Creative’s Accentuate Within Blog
We write the content for this blog for the nice people at Kuno Creative in Ohio, they then optimize it and post it with an image. The combination has been working to help position the client in organic placement and provide real value for readers and visitors of this plastic surgery practice. Check it out and see what you think.

ChemTec Pest Control
We have written for this blog since startup, but took a break for several months and now we are back writing at a higher blog level. The client has been providing direction on insects that are prevalent in the month and tips from their technicians. The combination of our writing plus their pest expertise is making this a wonderful and informative blog to read and follow. Check out the Notes from the Green Truck blog today.

Natco’s Boatline Blog
This is a fairly new blog for us. We write for two other blogs for this particular client plus provide twitter services and e-newsletter content creation. Based on that we understand the client’s needs and type of audience he has. We think that this blog will be a winner just like the others the RV blog and Classic Car blog too. Visit the new Boatline blog today.

That’s right we do actually turn prospects away. We are simply not a good match for every prospect’s needs. What we do do, we do great. That being said in a nutshell, we have a passion for small to medium sized business owners who typically have a brick and mortar operation. We are typically also working with the business owner directly and not a corporate chain of command.

It bear repeating, but we do not work or provide any of our services for these business sectors:

Adult Content

Any site that has adult themes such as dating sites, soft core pornography, images of partially clothed women that are used to sell your products, lingerie, any sexual aids or products, we just do not provide services for regardless of whether it is blogging or even Google AdWords.

Stock Brokers, Day Traders, Forex Traders and Their Management Software

In this case we have simply found that the nature of your business is so complicated that the time it takes us to learn and be effective for you is just not cost effective for us. In many cases you are additionally governed by regulations making even blog writing a difficult operation.

E-Books and Products Sold by Squeeze Pages in Multi-Level Marketing Programs

We typically do not supply services for products that are e-books or online how to guides. Although you can still be successful with these approaches, we simply do not have a passion for working with products that are typically sold using these vehicles. This would cover e-books on how to make money in real estate, sell or trade stocks or use the forex, or how to sell multi-level marketing products.

No one likes to hear no, but it is by far better for you to find a supplier that has a true passion for what you do and what you sell. We can help many businesses, but just not all.