Your Virtual Wizard : Good evening Virtual Assistant Forum members. Welcome! This is Janine Gregor, of Your Virtual Wizard and I will be your chat moderator for tonight. Grant discussed ‘How to build a better blog foundation’ in his December 2009 chat. Tonight’s chat will cover ‘how to find blog topics for your blog’ and ‘how to target your blog toward your audience’. A little about Grant (you can find Grant on Twitter at http://twitter.com/grantgriffiths): After moving his law practice to his home in January 2005 Grant Griffiths not only eliminated his long commute from his daily trek but he had more time to spend with his family. However this change in venue was not without trial and error as he learned to make the most out of his office time without feeling overworked. These experiences prompted Grant to share his home office start-up and successes with his colleagues and thus his blog, Home Office Lawyer was born. As this topic grew to be his passion, Grant expanded his blog writings to reach a broader audience resulting in a blog called Home Office Warrior http://www.homeofficewarrior.com/.

Your Virtual Wizard : As there are over 20 million professional home workers in the United States, Grant quickly recognized an enormous opportunity to reach small business owners and those who support small businesses. It is of special interest that Grant's blog also reaches out to virtual assistants. He has strategically placed a Virtual Assistant tab on the navigation menu on the Home Office Warrior site. Grant no longer practices law and now blogs full time at Blog for Profit http://blogforprofit.com where he discusses the benefits of using a blog to promote and market your business. Grant is a busy blogger so it is with great appreciation that he has taken time from his schedule to share his extensive knowledge with our VAF members. Now without further delay, I am pleased to announce the return of Grant Griffiths, blogger extraordinaire to Virtual Assistant Forums.

Grant Griffiths : Thanks and good evening everyone.

Grant Griffiths : Here we go with the first part of this evening chat.

Grant Griffiths : Align Your Blog To Your Business in Three Easy Steps

Grant Griffiths : You understand the power of blogging and you want to just get started, but hold on! The game can be won or lost before it’s played. Once you have bought a domain name, set up your blog, and begun writing, you don’t want to find out then that you didn’t make the best decisions. In helping you get set up correctly, you have to take one very important step: You have to align your blog to your business.

Grant Griffiths : What your blog is called and what it’s about need to match your business, niche and/or market. If you don’t do this, you’re not going to get the amazing benefits we talk about.

Grant Griffiths : Objectives - Understand why it’s necessary that you align your blog to your business

Grant Griffiths : Learn the three easy steps you need to take to align your blog to your business

Grant Griffiths : Discover the formula for naming your blog for search traffic success

Grant Griffiths : One of the biggest perceived issues with blogging is subject matter: what are you going to blog about? And how are you going to sustain this subject over the long haul? We emphasize the word perceived, because once you’ve aligned your blog to your business, it’s hardly an issue at all!

Grant Griffiths : You can align your blog to your business in just three steps. They are:

Grant Griffiths : 1 Decide What to Blog About 2 Naming Your Blog and 3 Deciding a Domain Name Decide who Should Write the Posts? Passion is Key Why did you enter into business for yourself? Most of us have a passion for our area of business, but this isn’t always the case. Generally, you will find that blogging about the area you’re most passionate about and in which you want to increase your clientele to be the winning strategy. If you’re not passionate about a part of your business, don’t blog about it. It will become an arduous chore and you will stop blogging. And no blog at all is better than a dead blog where the last post is over a year old!

Grant Griffiths : The Search Angle

Grant Griffiths : Whatever you blog about, that’s what you’re going to be found for online through search. So, to turn that around, you want to blog about what your clients are searching for. That sounds simple enough, but how do you know what people are searching for? People search according to what they need. They have a problem, and they’re searching for a solution. They have a question, and your blog needs to be the answer.

Grant Griffiths : More on this in the next section, because this relates to your blog’s name and domain name.

Grant Griffiths : The “Secret” Formula for Naming Your Blog and Deciding a Domain Name

Grant Griffiths : When it comes to naming your blog and choosing a domain name, there actually is a formula. We’re even daring to call it a “magic” formula, because it seems to work like magic. In naming your blog, you need it to communicate three things to potential clients:

Grant Griffiths : Where you are

Grant Griffiths : What you do

Grant Griffiths : Who you are

Grant Griffiths : This where, what and who is one of the keys I have found to having a successful blog

Grant Griffiths : Questions so far?

MIM Enterprises : Hmmmm that sounds a tiny bit difficult with the naming the Blog though

Grant Griffiths : It really isn't

Grant Griffiths : Think of the name as containing keywords that people use to search for what you do and who you are

Global Virtual Support : Hmm... what do you mean by "where you are"? Like your physical location?

Grant Griffiths : It can be if you are more focused on a particular location

MIM Enterprises : okay

executive_assist : As for virtual assistants, I would take it you mean virtual for location, correct?

Grant Griffiths : If you are location-dependent for your business, you need to put location in the name if at all possible

Grant Griffiths : However, I know for many of you, you are not location dependent, but independent

moretime_cassi : Could you give an example of a blog name that answers those questions?

Grant Griffiths : I can for a law firm. My old blog was called Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer

Grant Griffiths : Where I was located, what I did and who I was If you are location independent, you can leave out the where

moretime_cassi : So go for the basics - not something catchy?

Grant Griffiths : Yes and no. and that is an awful answer I know

MIM Enterprises : that is a bit like using taglines for your blog name - good idea

Grant Griffiths : Some of it also depends on your target market. What do they expect

Grant Griffiths : exactly. if you can use keywords in your blog's name, that is exactly what you need to do

Grant Griffiths : and that leads right into my next thoughts.

Grant Griffiths : Although you may prefer the term virtual assistant, is that the word potential clients are going to use in a search, which is how you’re going to be found online. What word are they going to use or what phrase are they using to describe the services you provide. Resist the temptation to name the blog after your name or the name of your firm. Before people become your client, they don’t know your name, they only know what they need.

Grant Griffiths : Choosing a domain name with these considerations in mind will also help set the stage for your business’ success. You want parity between your blog name and your domain name. A blog called one thing should also have the same name as a URL (uniform resource locator or Web address) if at all possible.

Grant Griffiths : You can and should own all possible domains, such as your name or the name of your business. You want to own them so that nobody else can use them, but you can have them forward to your blog’s domain.

Grant Griffiths : And a side note, if you have children or grandchildren, buy their name domains before someone else does. It is like buying real estate and protecting your own interest.

Grant Griffiths : Any questions about domains?

Grant Griffiths : My position is this:

Grant Griffiths : Name it and Domain it

moretime_cassi : Can domains be purchased for an indefinite amount of time or is it just for a particular term?

Grant Griffiths : I think the longest you can go with Godaddy for example is 10 years

MIM Enterprises : Yes: can you set up a sub-domain?

Grant Griffiths : I am not a huge fan of sub-domains. But, please explain what you might want to use one for MIM

moretime_cassi : MIM - Depending on your web host, setting up a sub-domain can be very easy.

Grant Griffiths : The problem with Sub-domains is SEO

MIM Enterprises : Basically in case I chose a blog name following your 3 rules which differed from my current one

Global Virtual Support : You mentioned this -"A blog called one thing should also have the same name as a URL". So using your earlier example, "Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer", that should also be the URL name? is that what u mean?

Grant Griffiths : Well, I cheated. I called it KansasFamilyLaw.com

Global Virtual Support : Right, I hope the name i come up with doesn't become too lengthy then.

Grant Griffiths : Back to sub-domains. I do not believe there is really a good reason to use subs. But, I digress that could be a whole other chat session

Grant Griffiths : So you see, this really is like a magic formula. If you can get that kind of domain name and create that kind of title for your blog, you are setting the stage for authority. It will appear as though you are the preeminent virtual assistant in your niche or market.

moretime_cassi : So your blog doesn't need to be related to your website domain - just have a URL that can point to your blog?

Grant Griffiths : You blog should have its own domain

Grant Griffiths : People respond to this kind of “baked in” authority. It won’t be long before life imitates art, and you truly will be the preeminent “go-to” niche and market.

Grant Griffiths : Decide Who Should Write the Posts:

Grant Griffiths : For you all this should be easy. You should each write for your own blog. Let me first say I support the use of ghostwriters. However, you are all virtual assistants or in a related area. Writing is something you offer as a service. You should be writing your own blog post. The main points to remember when aligning your blog to your practice are:

Grant Griffiths : Decide what you’re going to blog about: follow your passion in this.

Grant Griffiths : Use the “magic formula” to name and domain your blog. This is really all about being found in search, which is where your clients (and other opportunities) are going to come from.

Grant Griffiths : Decide who will do the writing for your blog. Don’t sweat it if you’re not the greatest writer in the world (nobody else is the greatest writer in the world, either).

Grant Griffiths : The key reasons to have a great name and domain for your blog is to be found.

Grant Griffiths : Let me just touch briefly on a couple of SEO items as it relates to what we just discussed. I wasn't planning this, but considering the questions let's give it a shot

Grant Griffiths : First of all, SEO should not be overthought or worried about. And this is where a blog really kicks butt If you stop worrying so much about what Google is looking for and focus more on what the human search engine is looking for, you come out ahead every single time Write for humans, keep them happy, provide them with relevant, up-to-date, great content and you will be found What I find too many new bloggers focusing on is numbers. Google numbers. While they are important, they are not the most important.

executive_assist : Do I need to blog daily, or is just consistently good enough?

Grant Griffiths : No you don't have to. Should you or do I wish we all could, yes Do we have the time to post daily, most of us don't I do encourage new bloggers to post 3 times a week for at least 2 months

executive_assist : I do 3 times weekly

Grant Griffiths : the more relevant, good content you can post the better you will do

Grant Griffiths : 3 times a week is great

[Continued in next post...]

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Grant Griffiths : And I love it when questions lead right into my next section. LOL

Grant Griffiths : Where to find ideas for your blog posts

Grant Griffiths : I thought it would be good to next tackle one of the most common concerns most new bloggers have. And that is where the heck do I find ideas for blog post so I have the material to post to my blog as often as I need to.

Grant Griffiths : Let me first say, I do feel your pain. Those of us who support and push blogging as an effective marketing tool for your business or professional service firm struggle with this too. However, what most of us do is, we over think the problem of where do we find topics to blog about.

Grant Griffiths : So Where?

Grant Griffiths : Social media is useful for promoting your blog and also for a source of inspiration. As a blogging tool, twitter is useful for not only promoting your blog. It is very useful as a way to gather blogging fodder. I use twitter almost daily for post ideas. And one of the best ways to do this is to just ask a question. I often ask questions on twitter days if not weeks before I write a pillar post for this blog. Before I even started to write the post, I asked a simple question on twitter to get me started in my thinking process. And continue the conversation on that question for a series tweets to flesh out ideas for the post. More times than not, using this method will give me more than one post idea. And sometimes leads to a short series of post. What is so great about asking questions on twitter to get post ideas is the fact you are taking your thought process to the “people”. You are actually asking the question to those who are more likely than not, reading your blog. By doing so, you are getting your readers or prospective readers engaged in your blog without them even visiting your blog. Once you get them involved in the research and development of your post, you are allowing them to become invested in your blog and your postings too. And asking questions on twitter, getting our readers and prospective readers involved in our posting process early, also gets those tweeters engaged in our blog and the conversation going on there. And we are empowering our readers to get involved too.

Grant Griffiths : Reader Comments is another great source If there is one thing I have found over the last 5 years of blogging, the readers of your blog give you some of the best post ideas you can find. Especially in the comments on your blog. The comments on your blog are a gold mine of ideas. And sometimes the comments on a particular post might be better then your actual post. You should not overlook taking the comments you receive on your blog and using them as post ideas. What is also great about this technique is the fact you can include the comment and the commenter in your blog post. If you use a comment as an idea for a post, give the commenter a link to their blog and even better, see if you can link to one of their post that is relevant to the post you are doing. Give the commenter some link love and they will remember that.

Grant Griffiths : Next are Forums I use to be on a few forums where I would take some time to answer questions involving what I did in my firm. Not only are forums a great way to get noticed and gain traffic to your blog. Forums can be a great source of post material. There are a lot of common questions you see in the forums. Questions which are asked over and over again. Why not take those common questions, make the question a post title/headline and then answer the question in your blog post. What you may find by doing this is that you are going to gain some good organic traffic from these “answer” post you are doing. The same can be said for the next source.

Grant Griffiths : Client/Customer Questions In any type of business, whether it be a business which sells products or a service business, you get questions every day from clients and customers. And if you publish a blog to promote or market your business you should be taking advantage of all those questions. When I first started my service firm’s blog, one way I was able to move up in the search engines so fast and so high was to take those questions and make a post out of them. What I soon discovered was the simple fact those questions I was getting every day either on the phone or in person from clients and prospective clients were some of the same search terms people were typing into Google and Yahoo. And, what I also found, they were basic questions. Questions which made great blog post and were easy to answer. Of course I never used names or anything that might identify someone in the blog post. And when the post would go up, I did notice my hits and placement improve in the search engines. Everyday you are getting questions and/or comments from clients, customers and prospects. If you are not taking those and making them into blog post you are really missing out on a great opportunity. Not only is it great post content, it shows you are connected to what is going on in your niche. Using those questions and/or comments also gets you involved in the conversation taking place in your niche or market.

Clerical Advantage : Is there a secret to getting comments on your blog?

Grant Griffiths : The key is to ask for them. And if you do get comments, reply to them. Comments are the conversation element of a blog. Comments are what separates a blog from a static website You should look at blogging as the first great social media tool out there.

moretime_cassi : Many times I will be flipping through a magazine and come up with blog ideas... Can you link to an article in your blog or do you need to get permission for something like that?

Grant Griffiths : Link to it, you don't need to get permission as long as you give them credit

moretime_cassi : So does a paraphrase/summary and a link to an article constitute a decent blog post?

Grant Griffiths : Yes and no. You should do more. Give your take on the other article. Don't just give your readers the news. They can get that from ABC. Take that article and expand on it and add to the conversation.

executive_assist : I have a blog on my website, and the first paragraph of that blog goes into my ActiveRain blog. The agents will go to my website to read it and then go back to active rain to comment. is this a problem or should I stop worrying about it?

Grant Griffiths : Exe - I don't want to step on anyone's toes with my next comment, but I am not a fan of having a blog as part of a static website. You can do so much with a blog as far as relaying all of your relevant information You want them reading your post and commenting there. The fewer clicks they have to do the better

executive_assist : So what you are saying then is keep the blog in activerain for the agents and not to worry about them going to my site?

Grant Griffiths : You can send them to your site with a link in the sidebar. But give them even more information on your blog. Especially with WordPress you can have Pages in the navigation that provides lots of information

moretime_cassi : Should you link to your blog from your website? From a navigation bar perhaps?

Grant Griffiths : Yes, please do link to your blog. What you will soon find is your blog will get more traffic than your website if you do it right Cassi

Grant Griffiths : Another great source for blog fodder is Yahoo Answers

Grant Griffiths : Blogs you read are a good source too

Grant Griffiths : This one should be so obvious it should jump up and bite you on the butt. If you are using the F.L.E.E. technique (Find, Listen, Engage and Empower), you should be out there reading other blogs in your niche. Taking blog post you have read and applying them to your location or niche is a great source of blog topics too. And what is also great about this is the fact you can put an organic link in your post back to the source post you are quoting in your blog. This accomplishes two things:

Grant Griffiths : You are providing your readers with even more information. Not only are you quoting this source, you are giving a link to them. Your readers not only have your blog for information, they have this other blog too. Your readers will actually appreciate the fact you are not trying to just keep their attention on your blog. You are showing them you want to be a source of information.

Grant Griffiths : This other blogger is going to notice that you quoted and linked to them too. Remember one of the activities we need to do as bloggers is to get our own blogs noticed. Quoting and linking to other bloggers is a great way to do this. And the organic link you are putting in this relevant post of yours gets Google attention too. Placing organic links inside a blog post to other relevant blogs and their post, is a key technique to gain SEO.

Grant Griffiths : Current News Stories or Magazine Articles - another source for blog posts Finally, you should be and most likely are reading trade journals, news articles and other news sources in and around your particular niche or market. You should take the opportunity to show your readers you are keeping up to date on what is going on in your niche and market. Not only will you do this, you will once again be providing some great information to your readers.


MIM Enterprises : How long do you find it takes for comments to appear on twitter in answer to queries - for funnelling purposes for blogs topics?

Grant Griffiths : You mean your tweets you put on twitter MIM? Sometimes I get responses right away and sometimes it might be a matter of minutes or a couple of hours. The key is to ask it more than once. Remember, not everyone you follow on twitter will be on at the same time. It does not hurt to ask or tweet something more than once in a single day

dcloven : Does having a hyphenated domain name harm your search engine indexing?

Grant Griffiths : If you can get the domain without the hyphen, get it. Some feel Google looks at hyphened names as the second choice and don't get the .net if you can't get the .com, people are programed to type .com if someone has the .com and you use the .net, you are going to be sending all your traffic to the .com

Global Virtual Support : Would you recommend submitting your articles to other blogs to publish before you get your blog set up?

Grant Griffiths : It is not so much submitting them as you should be guest posting for other bloggers if you can

Global Virtual Support : So is guest posting recommended if you don't have a blog of your own just yet? Or should you wait till you're more established before you do guest posts?

Grant Griffiths : Global - you should guest post before and after you launch your blog

Global Virtual Support : Thanks, I've been considering guest posting, but I am afraid of running out of ideas for my own blog later on. But looks like there are heaps of places where you can get ideas from.

Grant Griffiths : You should never run out of blogging material Global. seriously, you will have file folders full of stuff

Global Virtual Support : Thanks for this Grant. I'm feeling much more confident already in starting my blog as well as getting ideas.

MIM Enterprises : I like the direct formula approach you set out thanks Grant!

Desiree : Thank you Grant. This chat was very informative. I feel a bit more confident now about blogging

executive_assist : where do I get your book grant? on your blog?

moretime_cassi : I've been planning out a new blog also - ditto perfect timing!

Grant Griffiths : You can get them on my blog, http://blogforprofit.com

RebeccaS : Thanks Grant for all the information and thank you all for posting your questions. I'm going to take this to the Bank.

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