Yippee I'm getting a Blog now what?

[candypam]

FINALLY after much teetering on the fence I am getting a blog area put on my website.
YIPPEE……. ( I love to talk) lol
The crew at Solid Cactus is busy working on setting it up and I’m both excited and nervous. I’m still trying to figure out how this will help my rankings?
Ok so I know I’ll gab away about new candy, nostalgic candy, and tell what tastes good and doesn’t, what melts etc. Then I can use links in it that jive with my website right?

Who sees all this chatter I do? What’s the do’s and don’t for having a good blog?
Are there any rules one must follow so you don’t hurt your rankings? I hate to sound stupid here, but I want to make sure I do this correctly… heck I’ve been wanting it for a long time so I want to make sure I do it correctly right off the bat!
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Pam

[cactus_donnat]

Hey Pam! I am sure the SEO gang can comment on the do's and don'ts as far as helping your rankings...

But from a reader's standpoint- I think some really cool things that you could blog about are:

1. New or Seasonal candies- tell us how excited you are about them- pics would be great here- candy is fun and colorful
2. Appearances & Press- write about your press-- telling your readers about your experience on NBC would be great- lots of pics too!
3. Visitors- do any online visitors ever stop by in person? Blog about that!
4. Cool customer stories- share some of your customer feedback on your blog- if you get a cool thank you letter or a customer shares a cool story about what they did with your products- share that-- you don't have to use names, but something like, "A couple from Kansas...."
5. Stuff about you and your family/staff

Also- when you are talking about products, you can always link back to your item pages- I know that will help with link building, and heck, even more sales.

I have a blog at www.dailydoseodonna.com if you want to see an example.

Good luck and I will be sure to visit!!

Donna

[cactus_donnat]

There are also some blog communities you can join- the names are escaping me now, but I have one on my site- used to have two...

[mattb]

Originally Posted by candypam

FINALLY after much teetering on the fence I am getting a blog area put on my website.
YIPPEE……. ( I love to talk) lol
The crew at Solid Cactus is busy working on setting it up and I’m both excited and nervous. I’m still trying to figure out how this will help my rankings?
Ok so I know I’ll gab away about new candy, nostalgic candy, and tell what tastes good and doesn’t, what melts etc. Then I can use links in it that jive with my website right?

Who sees all this chatter I do? What’s the do’s and don’t for having a good blog?
Are there any rules one must follow so you don’t hurt your rankings? I hate to sound stupid here, but I want to make sure I do this correctly… heck I’ve been wanting it for a long time so I want to make sure I do it correctly right off the bat!
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Pam

Hi Pam! I'm one of the blog programmers at Solid Cactus.

Your blog is a tool to connect with customers and help drive traffic to your site. You can give a more casual, personal chunk of insight on a particular candy variety, or you can simply give advice on which kind of candy is right for a particular person. Your blog is a great way to give your customers ideas about what they can do with your products and give them a path to travel directly to the cart page.

It's also a great opportunity to boost your search engine rankings by linking to your store. I've seen blogs end up on the first page of Google for their targeted products. Think of how you could drive traffic!

About half of your traffic will come from search engines, the other half will come from your site (through links). Try to keep the blog as personal as possible, make it seem like you're not a machine just typing in the info.

As you're typing, make it fun for yourself; keep your enthusiasm as you write. Don't fizzle out after the first month or so. Maybe set an Outlook reminder every day to write a quick post, even if it's just for posting a photo of the candy making process? Make it into something you want to do, rather than need to do. You're a celebrity on the internet with your blog, and people are only going to stay interested if you're interested.

In terms of keeping your rankings up, make sure you only link to things you would click on links to. Don't link to sites you don't like (for the sake of talking about them). Frequently post links to your store and your products. Use lots of keyword-rich phrases and words.

Donna's blog is a great example. You can do a lot with a little, and as you can see, her motivation is still with her.

Hope I've helped you out! Who's your EC and what stage is your project in? I can check around to see how your blog is coming.

[candypam]

Hey Matt -
My EC is Brian "spike" Emershaw, and sometimes my old EC, Matt " getting married soon" Kresge hee hee. So if you want to take a look and see how it's coming be my guest! ;o)
I read Donna's blog like 3 times, wow can she write. I hope I can be as clever.
Thanks
Pam

[vselin]

pam.....u are never at a lose for words.......i would not worry about ur blog

[Alicia Magda]

Hi Pam,
It's great you're getting a blog! Here's another tip: As you probably know, link building is an important part of an SEO campaign, and Google typically places more value on "one-way" links (where a site links to blaircandy.com without you having to link to them), over reciprocal links (where a site links to blaircandy.com and you also link to them). However, it's often difficult to get site owners to add your link to their site without giving them something in return. That's where your blog comes in - you can ask other quality, trusted sites to add a link to blaircandy.com on their site, and in return tell them you'll do a short review on that site and link to it...in your blog! This way, you're giving them exposure and a link to their site in return.

Good luck with your blog!
- Alicia Magda

[cactus_donnat]

Originally Posted by candypam

Hey Matt -
My EC is Brian "spike" Emershaw, and sometimes my old EC, Matt " getting married soon" Kresge hee hee. So if you want to take a look and see how it's coming be my guest! ;o)
I read Donna's blog like 3 times, wow can she write. I hope I can be as clever.
Thanks
Pam

Aw, Pam!! Thank you! I will have to blog about your blog!!

P.S. I love how all the ECs have nicknames, hehe.

Cheers,
Donna

[jeff.stolarcyk]

Alicia and Donna make some great suggestions, Pam.

One great way to establish a 'blogging voice' when you're starting out is to plan a few recurring features that you can post about. Sticking to those topics as a template is a good way to get a feel for blogging, and as you post more, you can branch out from that clearly-defined base with more confidence.