Hip-hop star Kanye West's making blogging headlines - again.  Last summer, I was just one among hundreds of bloggers with stuff to say about Sandra Rose's claim that Kanye uses a ghost blogger.  A professional ghost blogger myself, I understood Rose's question ("How the h--- does Kanye have time to update his blog so often?") only too well, because most business owners I meet don't have time to keep up with blogging. As I explained (see Does Kaye West's Ghost Blogger Say It For Him?) in my blog, that's exactly why the demand for ghost bloggers is growing.

By my lights, Sandra Rose's latest accusation is a lot more serious. "Is Kanye West A Ghost Jacker?", she says in her own blog, claiming the singer uses content and graphics from other blogs without crediting the source or linking to the source.

No hip-hop fan myself, I have no inkling whether there's even a grain of truth in any claim of plagiarism on the part of Kanye West. In an earlier blog, Ties That Tell The Truth In Blogging, I stress the important of attributing content to its rightful owners, explaining that search engines actually reward this citing of sources through linking and back-tracking because it creates online "traffic" to and from sites.  So, even if you're convinced you've added your own unique twist on material, you can link to the websites that gave you the original idea or that have other things to say on the subject.

As I've pointed out before when discussing comments posted to blogs, even critical comments help blog rankings.  Whatever Sandra Rose may think about the quality or the honesty of Kanye West's blogs, there's no doubt she's done much to enhance Kanye's search engine rankings by keeping all the controversial conversation about him alive!

 

"Hula Hoop was the granddaddy of all fads," says the V.P. of marketing for Wham-O, the company that in 1958, its first year in business, sold more than one Hula Hoop for every two Americans alive at the time.  Fad's the right description  for that early rush of success, because sales of Hula Hoops plummeted so rapidly from there, Wham-O took them completely off the market until 1965.

Chapter Two, The Comeback, began in 1965 and is still happening, and this is the chapter of Hula Hoop's history most interesting to me as a professional blogger.  Wham-O's co-founders came up with a new twist, inserting ball bearings into Hoola Hoop cylinders to make a "swoosh" sound.  Interest in the toy revived, and the toy was back in production.  This week, as we ring in the New Year, it will be Hula Hoop's 51st anniversary.

Blogging for business is enjoying its own heyday just now.  Blogging maven Terry Philpott comments that blogs have evolved into low-cost advertising and marketing platforms that no business can afford to ignore.  Millions of blog posts enter the blogosphere day in, day out, begging the question of whether, one day, blogging will be relegated to the ranks of marketing "fad-dom".

That's not likely to happen any time soon, is my take.  But, just as with Hula Hoop, inserting new "ball bearings" will be what keeps business blogging in the "now".  Search engine rankings reward recency, a.k.a. new content.  That, by the way, is the key reason traditional websites just can't compete with corporate blogging, according to Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware.  New information, new commentary, new insights, new stories - those are all ball bearings for blogs.

Happy 51st, Hula Hoop!  We bloggers plan to be around quite awhile ourselves!

Weekly music showcases are becoming quite the rage around Indianapolis.  For funk and hip-hop, it’s Wednesdays at the Jazz Kichen. Thursdays, it’s folk music at the Big Roots Show at Locals Only.  At Melody Inn, you can find Hillbilly Happy Hour on Fridays or punk rock on Saturdays.  As a professional ghost blogger, I can’t help thinking of these showcases as living blogs.  That’s because, as David Lindquist puts it in the Indianapolis Star, “they help musicians and their fans find each other.”

As I explained in one of my earliest Say It For You blog posts (see Won’t You Please Come In To My Blog?), business owners are always looking for ways to introduce what they offer to new customers of the right kind.  Those three words are the key, right there – “of the right kind”.  Cliff Snyder, co-founder of the Big Roots Show, says “The showcases are letting people know what the thing is.  If you’re into this thing, then come support the series.” 

Isn’t that exactly what a corporate blog is designed to do?  Through the search engine optimization process, potential customers, the ones who are searching for your type of product or service, get to your blog.  When they read the relevant information you’ve provided, they are led to your website and might just decide to do business with you.  By definition, these are customers of the right kind.

It makes sense. If you’re into folk music, you won’t be attracting Wednesday night hip-hop and funk seekers – it’s the folk music lovers that show up. As Steve Hayes, bass player at Punk Rock Nights puts it – “These audiences are willing to give you a chance. Then it’s sort of up to you to keep their attention.”

Online searchers have found your blog precisely because they’re looking for information on your subject, or a product or service you sell.  There’s your chance!  From there, it’s up to your blog and your website to keep searchers' attention and convert them into customers.

In an earlier blog post (see Buildings, Like Blogs, Can Be Interactive)  I  explained that one of the special things about blogs is that they're available not only for reading, but for acting and interacting.  Good blogs invite readers to post comments and make it easy for them to subscribe to the blog.

As a professional ghost blogger, I'm a member of each client’s marketing team.  One of the things we discuss is comments that we hope will be posted on their blogs.  However, the topic of comments is one that elicits different responses from clients, largely because of fear those comments might be negative or critical . It’s interesting that a recent Indianapolis Business Journal article called "Critic Cutback Panned" addressed the same concern when it comes to local arts organizations; the reporter offered what I thought is the perfect answer: "As much as people in the arts wince at a critic's stinging words, there is one thing they dread more than an unfavorable review:  no attention at all!"

I heard from humorist and author Dick Wolfsie that it takes two to make a joke funny.  The listener or reader needs to figure out the punch line of the joke in order to find it humorous. If a reader posts a comment to your blog, even if that comment disagrees with what you've said or is critical of your product or service, the fact is, now there are two in the game, and you're getting bang for your blog with the search engines.   
 
As theater and concert producers would apparently agree, even bad reviews help ticket sales!

Likewise, even critical comments help blog rankings!

The Indianapolis Star "Careers" section posed an interesting question for job seekers: "Would you hire you?" Writer Michael Goss advised that seeing ourselves as others see us is a good way to prepare for interviews. Goss added a caution: Making a good impression with an interviewer might be the least of your worries if no one grants you an interview in the first place! The real question, he admits, is "How can I get someone to look at me?"

When I thought about it, I realized that's precisely the challenge I help my business owner clients face in the world of online marketing. While there are different sorts of blogs for different purposes (see Cat Blogs And Boss Blogs Are Fine, But Viral Blogs Mean Business), the overriding purpose of the business blogs I help my clients write is to attract consumer traffic to that business' website.

Businessowners who are not yet on board with blogging have heard all the buzz about blogs, but may be wondering whether they need a new marketing initiative.  And that's exactly when I pop the question "Would you find you?" I challenge business owners to imagine someone seated at a home computer, or perhaps navigating the Web on a laptop at the corner WiFi coffee shop, searching for information about the kinds of information, the kinds of products or services their business has to offer.  Except, I add, you have to remember - that customer has never heard of your business name!

"Go ahead", I say, "assuming you don't know the name of your business, type into Google (or Yahoo, or MSN) what you as a customer need. Does your website come up?  On what page of the search engine?"  (Are you a mortgage broker? Search under "mortgage rates in Indianapolis" or "qualifying for a mortgage in Morgan County" .)  (Are you a home health care provider?  Type in "home healthcare for mom in Indiana" or "nurses at home for parents".) Try many different combinations - how easily would you find you?

Posting content on the Web is the best form of marketing there is, says David Scott in his book "Cashing In With Content". With blogging, Scott explains, content is not forced on people - they access it because they want to.  Search engines organize the content, and direct people to it.

A business blog targets organic search. Simply put, that means people who don't know your name.  They don't know that you have exactly the information, the products, and the services they're looking for, and they won't know that until they're "introduced" to you by the search engine through your blog.  So, if you were in those customers' seats right now, the question is, Would You Find You??

Monday following Thanksgiving, a radio talk show host offered listeners a prize if they could name the #1 product purchased in the stores on Black Friday.  The correct answer (alas, not from me!) was Blu-ray high definition disc players.

Later that week, USA Today helped demystify that answer in an article called "10 top discs and questions". Blu-ray got its name, I learned, from the fact that it uses a blue laser beam to read data from discs, rather than the older-style red lasers used by DVDs.  What's more, Blu-ray discs hold up to 50 gigabytes, compared to the 10 gigabytes a DVD can hold.

Aside from my own holiday shopping needs for electronics, I found the information in USA Today interesting from my point of view as a business marketer.  (In my work as a professional ghost blogger, I become part of a business' marketing team, and I'm always on the lookout for ideas that can bring "higher definition" to blog posts.) 

Truth be told, including more "bytes" of information on any one blog post is not a good idea; blogs, by definition, should be concise and focus on one aspect of the business only (see Enuf Is Enuf In Blogs).  But one technical detail about Blu-ray explained in the article is that its video resolution is called 1080p.  The "p" stands for "progressively", and signifies that the Blu-ray technology constantly (progressively) redraws 1,080 lines across the screen. 

Here's how that's highly relevant for blogs: many company blogs include information that could be covered on a traditional website.  What lends blogs their "laser focus", though, is frequency of posting new content.  In other words, in executing a successful blog strategy, lines of information are "progressively being redrawn" - across searchers' computer screens!

USA Today remarks that Blu-ray "faces strapped consumers worried about investing in still-pricey players".  A blog strategy, by contrast, can be started with very little money and lots of "sweat equity".  That allows a business to begin to attract some of those search engine "blue laser beams"!

Plagiarism's a big, bad word on college campuses.  As an Executive Career Mentor at Butler University College of Business and an English Tutor at Ivy Tech Community College, I hear a lot of talk about preventing - or punishing - plagiarism. Then, last week the Indianapolis Star carried a fascinating story about "plagiarism" of a different sort.  The St. Louis Art Museum acquired a 3,200 year old mummy mask.  Now Egypt's antiquities authority is claiming the mask was stolen and transferred illegally to the U.S.. Our Department of Homeland Security is looking into the case. While academia and the arts wrestle with plagiarism issues, in business, protecting "intellectual property" has become a concern of monumental proportions.

Since, as a professional ghost blogger, my arena is the World Wide Web, I can't help but be awed by the fact that the Internet has become the largest repository of information in human history.  Trillions of words are added to it daily, and literally anyone with access to a computer or cell phone can add content to the mix at any time. Blogging activity has become a rapidly growing part of this oceanic information swell.

Remember the old "Telephone" game we played as children?  Kids would be seated in a row.  The first child would be given a phrase or sentence to whisper in his neighbor's ear.  That child, in turn, would whisper what she heard to the next child, and so on down the line.  The object of the game was to faithfully pass on the message so that the last child could repeat it exactly as the first had whispered it.  Never happened that way, did it?  By the time that message had traveled down a line of ten or twelve kids, it was unrecognizably distorted.

Blogs, as I stress in Blogs - Between Crafted and Cranked Out, are more casual and conversational than other marketing pieces.  The fact is, though, people read blogs to get information.  My college students are taught to use citations and reference pages to show where they got their information.  That way, they avoid plagiarism by properly attributing statements to their proper authors.  In your blogs, you can give credit to the sources of your information as well.  The blogging equivalent of citations is links.  So even if you're putting your own unique twist on the topic, link to websites from which you got some of your original information or news.

On the Internet, the rewards for honesty are both psychic and practical.  Electronic links actually enhance search engine rankings for your blog by creating back-and-forth online "traffic". And, of course, doing the right thing is always its own reward. 

 

Since word tidbits tend to make my professional ghost blogger's heart proud, I can't resist mentioning a seed commercial I heard on the radio the other day.  The announcer was urging farmers to order their seeds now for next spring's planting, explaining there'd be more time for the seed company's agronomists to custom-design exactly the right seed mix for each farmer's needs. The tag line went like this:  "Right time.  Right seeds.  Two rights make a right!"

Now, I concede that, of the thousands of radio listeners who heard that tag line, I'm probably the only one to make a mental leap from seeds to search engine optimization.  Seriously, though, I sense a metaphor here.  More often than I'd like, when I'm enthusiastically explaining how the blogs I write for my clients help them "win search" and get to Page One of Google, Yahoo, or MSN, the response I hear is "Oh, so you're fooling Google?" (NOT!) 

Adam Sandler warns that "You Don't Mess With The Zohan", and I'm sure the same is true of Google.  Aside from that reality, however, I'm tempted at that moment in the conversation to offer a review lesson in Economics 101:  When two parties each possess something the other wants, and they make a fair exchange, that's called commerce, not "fooling". Search engines, I hasten to explain, are in the business of providing content.  The reason so many online searchers return to a particular search engine to find products, services, and information, is that they've found what they were looking for on that site before. Because Google provides the content people want, it is able to draw visitors, and thus sell more ads. 

Bloggers provide Google with what it needs - content.  Google rewards content providers by indexing their blogs and moving them higher on the search list towards the top of Page One.  Bloggers (or in my case, my business owner clients who've hired me to post business blogs) who provide relevant content frequently and over sustained periods of time are rewarded with the highest rankings.  Meanwhile, online searchers are the real winners, finding exactly the information, products, and services they need.  Everybody wins.  Two rights may make a right in seeds, but three rights make one very big right in blogs!

 

An avid reader of James Patterson's novels for as long as I can remember, I find every one of his mysteries a page-turner.  Now that I've made a career out of professional ghost blogging, I'm interested in James Patterson for another reason as well.  Back in 2005, the New York Times carried a feature story highlighting the fact that Patterson has created an entire studio of co-authors and ghost authors.  Patterson offers a very matter-of-fact explanation for his "ghosts": He's more proficient, he says, at creating the story line than at executing it. "I found that it is rare that you get a craftsman and an idea person in the same body", Mr. Patterson was quoted in the article, adding that he wants the final say before any book goes to press.

When, last year, Sarah Weinman wrote in the Los Angeles Times (April 15, 2007), "Commercial fiction has always had its share of ghostwriters toiling in the shadows", she used James Patterson as a prime example, "Just look at the writers who have worked with James Patterson, brand name extraordinaire," she gushes, adding "One need only check the copyright page for confirmation that he is the author of his novels," (I was paying particular attention to this part), "no matter who may have written the actual words."

Weinman sums up her own view of the Patterson system for mass-producing novels as follows: "His modus operandi may be mocked by the literati, but his ability to think like a packager brings in millions of dollars a year."

In my earlier blog  Who Really Writes The Songs That Make The Young Girls Cry, I quoted writer Elaine Glusac: "Writing is generally acknowledged to be an individual sport.  But in Nashville's culture, they work as a team."  That is an exact parallel, I pointed out, to the way a business uses a ghost blogger to bring its message and tell its story to as many customers and clients as possible, using the power of the Internet.  Whether it's country music song, novels, or blogs, marketing a business or practice involves spreading the word.  Since so many professionals and business owners lack the time or the inclination to compose blogs, that's where a professional ghost blogger handles what Patterson calls the "execution phase". No mystery, higher search engine rankings.

 

There's a new book out about home designer Darryl Carter's "New Traditional" style of home decorating. Since professional ghost blogging's my third professional career (teaching and then financial planning occupied a number of decades) Carter's story is one that resonates with me - he started out a lawyer, then found himself in demand as a designer (after his D.C. apartment landed on the cover of Metropolitan Home magazine).
Indianapolis Star reviewer Claire Whitcomb describes Darryl Carter as "an accidental - and successful decorator, who has risen to the top of his profession."

A number of the things written about Carter's style are especially apropos for business blogging.  "In his hands, a little does a lot, partly because the furniture that he chooses does double duty." In my earlier blog, Get Tammy Dancing With Elvis In Your Blog, I advised including unusual combinations of things in your blog posts, offering readers a new, fresh perspective on your topic. At the same time, offering readers a taste of the history behind your field or behind your own business helps personalize the message (Carter likes to include worn vintage rugs when furnishing a room).

Carter "has no patience" for elaborate crown moldings, preferring simple moldings that "enhance ceiling heights without overwhelming a room." Keep in mind that your blog is not either your brochure or your website.  The purpose in each blog post is to highlight just one aspect of your company's products and services, inviting the visitor to click on to your website to learn more. 

Like a subtly designed room, a well written blog will be easy on the eye, with information that is relevant yet easy to understand.  As Claire Whitcomb writes of Carter, "In his hands, less is not just more.  It's comfortable and livable."  One of the reasons that's so, she explains, is that the designer uses colors that progress imperceptibly from room to room.

The maximum marketing effect from blogs, (almost by definition minimalist in both size and style), stems from the flow of consistent, regular posting of relevant information.  When potential customers come to your blog and find just what they've been looking for, that could prove as pleasing as the flow of colors in a Darryl Carter room!

 

The other day, I read something so interesting in Speaker Magazine! It's about  how our English language is very different from Asian languages.  Since I'm a wordsmith (what else could you call a professional ghost blogger?), the ways in which different people use words, especially for doing business, is something I find fascinating.

The article was called "Writing for Global Audiences", and the writer, Dr. Kathleen Begley, was advising professional speakers to be careful when communicating with people from other countries. She explained that English has twelve different tenses. As an example, she gave the following: "Today, I speak.  Yesterday, I spoke. I had spoken the day before yesterday.  Tomorrow, I will speak."  And (an example of a tense called future perfect conditional), "By 3 PM, I will have been giving this speech for thirty minutes."  Asian speakers, Begley explained, would use only one tense for all of these:  "Today I speak.  Yesterday, I speak.  Tomorrow, I speak. By 3 PM, I speak for 30 minutes." 

A couple of things about the use of language in blogging come to mind.  I'm always mentioning that blog writing is much more informal and conversational than other forms of business writing.  But, as I tried to bring out in In Blogging, Keep The Love, But Lose The "Like"!, this is your business and your brand you're putting out there with your blog.  You always want to be sure that poor grammar and misspelled words aren't distracting readers and taking away from the impact of your message.  Granted, 99.99% of business bloggers (and of their blog readers, I might add) wouldn't so much as recognize the existence of the future perfect conditional tense.  I'll bet, though, a few might be put off by shoddy spelling and lesser-grade grammar. ,"The devil is in the details", may be true of blogging for business, along with the one about "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Back to the subject of English language tenses..In blogging it's important to maintain consistency and frequency, since both of these are measures search engines use in ranking your blog.  "I used to blog", "I once was blogging", or "I had been blogging but I'm not blogging now" - none of these are phrases likely to capture respect in online rankings.  To "win search", you'll need to be saying "Yesterday I blogged.  Today I blog.  Tomorrow I will blog, and, by next year, I will have been blogging for a year and half."  By that time, you should be able to add, "And, I have been winning search!"

I had a conversation today with the person responsible for managing the interactive media for one of the largest healthcare organizations in Central Indiana. I cannot help but feel sympathy for this individual because her search engine optimization goals are so clear and simple, but implementing any marketing strategies and SEO tactics to reach those goals is such a long and complicated process, which involves so many layers of politics and egos, that I doubt she will ever come close to maximizing her opportunity for success.

And that is such a shame, because with a simple goal and set of niche keywords available, it would not be too difficult to gain high rankings for the organization's primary keywords.

To help get away from all of the politics and egos, I advised that any time someone in the organization states what they want on the website, that she should ask them how that directly applies to meeting the single most important stated goal of the site. If an answer cannot be supplied, then she should ask that all requests for site content  be supplied with an explanation as to how it fits either the primary or secondary goal of the optimized site.

Of course, you have to have all stakeholders buy into the stated goals of your search engine optimization strategy, but once that is accomplished then it makes it easier to stay focused and reject input that does not serve the goals of the organization. It is easier said (or blogged) than done, but it is the path to search engine optimization and marketing success.

Back in August, I used an advertising supplement to the Indianapolis Star named “Why 2 Buy Now” to illustrate the point that blogs are not advertisements, but more akin to “advertorials” (see "Why To Buy A Piano" Is Good Advice For Blogs).  I had cut out and saved another page from that Star supplement, this one about Segways.  These lawnmower-looking, two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transportation devices seem to be the all-the-rage way for getting around Indianapolis these days.

The article about Segways begins "Getting around more efficiently seems to be on everyone's mind these days," and concludes by pointing out that  "A Segway is more than a travel alternative.  It's a new way of thinking."

The same kind of innovative technology that produced the Segway has also revolutionized the way in which businesses market themselves.  And, just as with Segways, whose "early adopters" you can see touring White River State Park on wheels or speeding through the mall, early adopters of business blogging are each staking out their own little corners on the Web, helping customers navigate with ease to their blogs and on to their company websites.

The Segway/Blog parallel is less labored than might at first appear.  A Segway takes one rider at a time, taking her exactly where she wants to go. In Won't You Please Come Into My Blog? I likened the Internet to a big trade show.  (Now, imagine each person at the show is not walking around, but driving around on a Segway!)  These potential customers are navigating around the Web, looking for information, a product, or a service.  If you have a "booth" at the show (your blog), customers stop their Segways there. It's not by accident they've found your blog, but precisely because they are seeking information about something you know about, a product you sell, or a service you provide! As Yentl said in Fiddler on the Roof, "It's a perfect match!"

Segways are still a novelty in the Circle City, and, although more and more people are catching on to the Segway advantage every day, the jury is still out on whether they will turn out to have been a passing fad.  Blogging, on the other hand, is no fad.  Bloggers post millions of items per day, a dozen every second.  Business owners that can "hop on board", providing relevant, recent, and frequently updated blog content, will be positioned to "win search", and, even more important, win business!

Can a small business, serving a niche market, benefit from having its own blog?  You betcha. According to Chris Anderson, Internet marketing is absolutely different from anything that came before it.  Anderson coined a phrase for blogging and other forms of digital marketing - The Long Tail.  Originally the idea applied to the selling of music.  A traditional music retailer, he explained, has only limited space to stock CDs and DVDs, so a store would probably choose to carry only the blockbuster hits it knows will move quickly off the shelf.  But a digital music store, he explains (think i-Tunes or Napster) can keep all  the tunes in the catalog, even obscure songs no one's asked for in years  What Anderson found was that digital music stores were actually selling as much of these less widely known songs than the "blockbusters"!  (Anderson's term The Long Tail refers to a chart showing sales figures for each song.  The chart "tails off" as the list gets down to the less popular numbers.)

The whole idea, says Anderson, is that, in the digital world, you don't need big numbers to make a big impact.  When I thought about it, I realized that, if your business is targeting a certain niche, there probably aren't a whole lot of other blogs being regularly posted about your subject.  The competition for those top spots on Page One of Google, Yahoo. or MSN isn't likely to be very fierce.  And remember, the people who find your blog are exactly those people who are looking for your kind of product or service in the first place!

Regular, high quality content, posted consistently on your blog, can have a huge effect in a small market.  As Chris Anderson might put it, your short blog posts can give your business a very long and powerful tail!

The Home Economics section in the Indianapolis Star a couple of weeks ago offered the welcome news that "Just because a dish is basic - or better yet - easy and affordable, doesn't mean it can't be fabulous."  The Star went on to offer a list of 13 ways to cut energy costs.

How-to lists, by the way, are a good way to offer helpful information to your blog readers, especially if there's a unique slant to your list or unusual suggestions.
Three of the items on the Star's how-to-save-energy-costs list are unusually apt advice - for bloggers:
 
Check your tires often and keep them inflated.  (Fuel efficiency dropped 1.3 miles per gallon when the tires were deflated 10%, in a test of a Toyota Camry) Often's the operative word here - your blog content may be wonderful, but if your last post was sometime back in May, you're losing  efficiency in a big way when it comes to "driving" traffic to your website.  It's well-nigh impossible for once-in-a-while blogging to "win search".

Don't overload the dryer, advises the Star. (Clothes will take longer to dry and come out wrinkled.)   The Quamut blogging guide, after explaining that "good writing is the bedrock of blogging", hastens to add that "Web readers have a very limited attention span."  Keep it informative, but keep it short. ('Nuf said on that one!)

Open blinds and shades on cold days.  (Solar heat can raise interior temperature significantly.) You can "open up" your blog by inviting comments and answering them promptly, and by linking to other blogs that you find interesting or informative.

Thirteen's a little long for a blog list; three may be just right.  Inflate your blog with frequency, don't overload the content, and you'll do just fine. Just because your blog is about basic business marketing, doesn't mean it can't be fabulous! 

.

 

As I drove home after a downtown meeting the other day, my eye was caught by four words on a billboard.  My first thought was that someone had designed the perfect ad for my ghostblogging business. But, no, it turned out to be a billboard ad for Indiana University: "More brain, less drain."

Talk about an effective "word tidbit"!  It wasn't necessary for I.U.'s advertising folks to use any more than those four words - Indiana's "brain drain" has been the stuff of headlines, talk shows, and even political rhetoric for decades, deploring the number of students who get their degrees here in Indiana, then take off to work out of state.  In one sense, while this was a billboard I was looking at, not a blog, the ad followed good blogging principles by keeping the message short.  Quamut, the "go to how to blogging guide", advises bloggers to get right to the point.

But, in making the connection between that billboard and blogging, I found the words "brain" and "drain" most important for business owners to keep in mind.  In my earlier blog post  In Blogs Or Tennis, Start Strong, Avoid Fizzle, I stressed the fact that many start out blogging with the best of intentions, only to find themselves unable to keep up with regular blogging while also keeping up with the demands of their own business.  Since frequency and recency play such a large role in search engine rankings, what a professional ghost blogger can add to the marketing mix is a discipline of consistently posting high quality content on behalf of the business.

Put briefly, hiring that extra "brain" relieves the "drain" on the business owner's resources of times and energy.  Business owners can devote themselves to taking care of business, rather than writing about it.

 

As of a few weeks ago, at least twenty major U.S. art museums were without directors.  Newsweek commented on just how difficult it is to fill these positions with anywhere near perfect candidates. The magazine's "Help Wanted: Museum Boss" article talked about some of the challenges of running a modern museum - dealing with huge staffs and groups of volunteers, handling budgets, running retail operations, attracting crowds to special exhibits, all amidst constant pressure to secure donations to pay for it all.  Museum trustees, Newsweek remarks, are looking for someone "who can collect like a connoisseur but compete like a CEO."

Museum directors apparently need to juggle the demands of both art and commerce.  Juggling different roles is nothing new for my business owner clients. In fact, in my earlier blog You May Be A Finder, Binder, Minder, or Grinder - Are You A Writer?, I discussed the four different and distinct roles that must be filled in order for any business to succeed, pointing out that it's very rare to find any one person who's comfortable and skilled in all four.

What I'm finding, as I deal with entrepreneurs of every ilk, is that most business owners are aware that having an online presence, complete with a regular business blog, is an indispensable thing in today's competitive - and digital - climate.  The problem, of course, is that, once Finding new business is accomplished, there's still the Binding, Minding, and Grinding to be done, leaving precious little time for composing blogs.  A big part of the challenge is the need to post blogs with frequency and consistency, minimum requirements for success in climbing the search engine ladder.

Newsweek doesn't suggest that finding multi-talented museum directors is an impossible task, only a near-impossible one, "like finding a lost Leonardo.  Everybody wants one, and good luck with the search."  We all know entrepreneurs who wear many hats with consummate skill.  But, for others who lack the time and inclination (and, as some of my business owner clients are quick to admit, the talent) to write, one of us professional ghost bloggers can be hired for behind-the-scenes help in staging online "exhibits" by posting the most artful of business blogs!.

Brilliant as he was, Albert Einstein still needed to get to the top of the scientific search list.  So, how did Einstein, who started his career as an obscure patent clerk, do it?  How did he come out of nowhere, I mean, to be known the world over for his Theory of Relativity? Well, recently I read a fascinating theory about that in, of all places, The Journal of Financial Planning.  (By way of explanation, before my Say It For You ghost blogger days, I wrote financial planning columns under my own byline and was a practicing Certified Financial Planner®. )

Journal editor Lance Ritchlin explained one secret of the Einstein success story - Albert Einstein spent a lot of time and effort reviewing other people's work.  In 1905, Ritchlin informs us, the same year Einstein's own writing changed the universe, he'd submitted more than twenty reviews of other scientists' papers. As a result of these connections, several people became aware of his work, most notably Max Plank, editor of the respected physics journal Annalen der Physik.  In short, Ritchin opines, Einstein got to the top by commenting on others' work, in that manner calling attention to his own research efforts.

Smart bloggers for business can take a tip from this 1921 Nobel Peace Prize winner.  It's not enough to write and post blogs (or to hire a professional ghost writer to do it for you); it's important that you also read what others are saying in blogs and in the press about your field.  "Review" those other blogs by posting comments.  Mention others' observations in your blog.  If there are bloggers whose writing you especially enjoy, create a mutual link between your websites.  Your own blog content will be all the richer for this back-and-forth sharing.  What's more, you're likely to win the wholehearted approval of the search engines; you'll notice that "approval" in the form of upward movement of your blog in the rankings!
Blogs calling blogs, moving from review to renown…what a win-win strategy, discovered by none other than the great physicist himself!

 

In the summer issue of Indianapolis Tennis Magazine, coach Spencer Fields writes, “It has always been interesting for me to see the player who picks up a racket right before season begins, and then to see how they perform for the next three months.” (Here’s the part that really grabbed my attention): “Often, they start out strong, but fizzle toward the end.” 

Funny, I don’t know very much about the game of tennis, but blogging’s something I do know about. Fields might have been referring to the many business owners who start out strong with their blogging, but months or even weeks later, begin to fizzle. Daily blogs become weekly blogs, and pretty soon, months go by between blog posts.

Fields lists the eight major strokes of tennis that great high school players must master, then goes on to say that’s not enough. Players, he adds, need a good sense of athleticism.  But what really separates the successes from the fizzlers, he points out, is that winners “must know how to play the game of tennis.  They must have ways to win, as well as ways to play defensively. They must possess knowledge of momentum and be able to alter tactics and strategy in order to gain an advantage.”

Business bloggers need ways to win, too.  Momentum comes from frequency of posting blogs and from building up longevity by consistently posting content on the Web over sustained periods of time.  As I explained in an earlier blog, The Blog Is Your Introduction Roof, a business can build equity through the steady and repeated use of search terms relevant to that business.

When it comes to blogs, altering tactics takes reading – news, other websites, other blogs – and commenting on current issues, relating what’s going on out there to the owner’s expertise and experience.  Effective tactics include linking to other blogs, posting comments, and responding to comments posted on your blog, in short, getting a two-way “thing” going.

Spencer Fields advises high school players to use the nine-month tennis off-season to advantage by practicing and strategizing.  That may be where the parallel between high school tennis and most small businesses ends. Down time is rare for a small business; business owners who can maintain the drill-sergeant discipline needed to increase web rankings are rarer still. The task of playing the kind of sustained game that “wins search” might fall, in many cases, to professional ghost bloggers.

In October's Southside Times, advertising guru Dr. Robert Montgomery talks about Elmer Wheeler's "Six Rules For Successful Salesmanship". Interesting; I'd actually been taught these very rules years ago, and, like Bob Montgomery, I find them every bit as relevant today as they were back then. 

Two pieces of Wheeler advice, I think, are an especially good fit for today's business bloggers (and, of course, for ghost bloggers as well). "We live in a 'my' world", says Wheeler, so "your sizzle must transfer the concept of ownership to your customer….Get people to like you before you introduce your product."  Blogs are made to order for this getting-people-to-like-you thing, because, done right, they're informal and allow your humanity to shine through.  In fact, as I brought out in How Say It For You Was Born, as a professional ghost blogger, working with you, the businessowner, I need to listen with my "third ear", capturing your passion and style in order to speak in your "voice" to your potential customers, person-to-person.

A second Wheeler principle business bloggers would do well to heed is, "Don't write -  telegraph!  Your first ten words are more important than the next 10,000."  Search optimization specialists explain that, for maximum impact on search engine ranking, a blog's title as well as its content should incorporate as many key search terms as possible.  Those key words are what help your blog get "found". From there, though, it's up to the blogger to engage the reader with relevant content that's up-to-date and interesting, starting with the opening words of the blog. 

Business owners who take care of blogging for business, posting frequent, relevant content, and doing it with passion and discipline, (or who, lacking the time or inclination to maintain such a prolonged effort, hire ghost bloggers), will find their blog helps take care of their business!