Internet Branding Step 3: Blogging
- Part 1: Internet Branding versus Personal Branding
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Part 2: Internet Branding Step 1: Understanding Your Goal & Assessing Your Digital distinction
A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners, especially women, who I work with have a bit of a mental block about writing for a blog…and they think so hard, trying to put out a professional image to maintain their “Expert” status.
Again, keep in mind the majority of readers are authors, writers, public speakers and consultants.
When you go to my blog, you will see that it does not always have a perfectly spelt check.
I might write, “Pleezz give me your comments on this.” I am very informal and conversational. That is not Best-selling Author
Its your job to share this approachable personal and personable voice on your blog.
I sell more books from my blog than from my www.Amazon.com and www.BarnesandNoble.com pages.
Don’t you see me as a friend?
Wouldn’t you agree that I write to you one-to-one? Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur?
Don’t you feel compelled to find out what the best-selling author has to say about this particular topic? (God willing 
)
And, you can do this too!
I consult with authors who have this mental block, which I call the “blogging block.”
“I want to position myself as an expert”. “I want everyone to know I am a bestselling author” as some of their remarks.
Many feel they have to keep up an image and talk the way they publicly speak or share expertise.
Blogs and authors have failed in blogging by doing this. They cannot keep that up, because it takes a lot of mental power to write at that level every single day.
If you blog, you should write three to seven times a week.
How can you maintain that level of expertise day in and day out? It is very difficult…and exhausting, quite frankly!
Another problem is that Your readers will come to expect of you.
You may let them down, or they will begin to think, “I don’t want to follow her anymore.”
If you just change moods…or worse, get burnt out and stop blogging altogether!
So, I recommend that just start off by being the
I write every day as though I am writing to my best-friend.
Many times, she tells me, “Ponn, you write over my head. I don’t understand what you’re talking about with social media, online networking, buzz, etc. BUT, I’m still with you! When I come online, I will hire you to do it. I know you know your stuff.”
And, this is ALL I care about! I’m on the top of her mind for my area of expertise…not because I write as an Expert, but because I write first as a friend, keep her interest…and she knows I’m here when she needs me.
That’s why blogging doesn’t just Brand you but it continuously promote you and your products and services!
You show other people you are an expert by keeping the conversation alive.
People are intrigued to stay with you through the process…your process.
It’s your duty to maintain and sustain the ability to have the two-way conversation and dialog in your blog.
If we make it conversational, they will be inclined to comment or ask a question.
And, the only way to successfully do this is by inviting YOU by writing in a personal or better-yet “person-able” tone in your blog.
A client said, “You have a really high comment-to-posting ratio. I have problems getting comments. Can you look at my blog?”
I looked and said, “I don’t want to say you talk down to me, but I feel like you aren’t talking with me. I don’t feel like I’m a part of your process. You’re not really talking down to me…but, I feel like you just write to share information and your expertise. I don’t feel compelled to comment or comfortable enough to ask a question. So, while I may continue to read…I may not now or ever comment or start a dialogue.”
A great way to share your expertise is sharing a case study of a successful consultation with one of your clients.
Show some success statistics with your public speaking.
Show success stories for others to be intrigued and know you are an expert.
Write to me woman-to-woman or entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur. This will enable you to maintain your expert status, but still build that conversation.
My response:
Blogging is basically just a different platform for your website. It is called a “contact-management system,” which allows you to update your website easily.
If you go to WordPress or Blogger, you can get one for free. You can update every single page with every post you make. When you update your website daily or three times a week, that is more juice for the search engines to see your website as an authority figure.
If you have a static website of only four pages, it will sit there. Google, Yahoo! and MSN can only crawl those four pages. The search engine spiders crawl every time you share a new web page.
So, yes a blog is critical to your internet branding.
At the very least, you can add it to your main home static web page to create more opportunities for the search engines to find you and brand yourself an expert in your specific field.
What better way than to write in a conversational tone and create a dialog with your ideal clients? But, a blog!
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Posted on May 19th, 2008 by Ponn Sabra
Filed under: Internet Branding
This post has come at a perfect time for me! I’m having “bloggers block” trying to be professional with every post. It IS draining.
Well then you’re doing better with amazon then me. I never sell anything…