When you make comments on other blogs, really get into the content you are talking about in the current discussion going on with those blogs. Darren says too many bloggers are lazy and simply “copy and paste” other blog content and never take the time to share quality feedback and contribution to other blogs.

Make a real effort to give back to the conversations and in turn you will get more people going to visit your site.

The first thing is to discover whether their site is indexed with the search engines, then take a look at the HTML source code underneath their site to make sure the headline tag, the description, the keyword and keyword phrases is fully included in the code. Next, I wanted to make sure they had a Google local business Places registration and if so, that it is fully filled out.

Of course I received many questions and was more than happy to answer them. One of the most pressing questions is what is the best way to get to the highest rank in the search engines. Answer: backlinks.

I will go over the techniques I use to get legitimate backlinks to my sites.

What I love about this event is you can meet so many other bloggers who have the same passion as you regarding blogging online. The trade show is a must see. There are several hundred booths that cover everything from podcasting, SEO, blog platforms, social media, website templates, article writing, and so on.

Check out this event this year if you can.

If you set up a blog on these platforms, you have a quick way of “testing” the waters whether you have the patience, acumen, and creativity to blog. Now I am not stating that you have to be professional publisher to start and keep up a blog.

Make note, though, that when you set up blogs on these free platforms, you run the risk of having no control of it because the blog host can delete your blog for any reason they see fit. Although I can’t state a specific instance of how your blog on these platsforms can get deleted, the most common one is if you violate the “terms of service” of the way you use the blog. Some free blog platforms do not allow you to sell products or services from the blog. Other platforms do not allow you to slander or libel other bloggers, people or organizations.

I can’t stress enough the value of being able to “test drive” the blogging process if you do set up blogs there. I would suggest that you blog, for a while on the free platform when starting out, just to get experience if you want to learn on your own. Then, when you get fairly comfortable, you can set up a “paid for” blog and take it seriously into the future.

What is a “paid for” blog system? Simply, it is a way where you buy your own domain name, “rent” webhosting, and download the blog software to the webhost. Domain names nornally cost about $10 and monthly webhosting costs as low as $5 per month. But the benefits are huge. You can sell products or services, and you can just about do anything you want on your own blogging platform that is legal and moral.

Since you control both the domain name and webhosting, there is little chance of being “shut down” from outside sources.

On the other hand, a blog has a very user friendly administration area where they can add their own content. Yes, the learning curve is still there to add content, but it only takes maybe days, at most to learn.

You can find so many resources on the internet, whether through video or articles that you can find out for yourself that can teach you how to manage a blog.

For the long run, blogs are your best bet because, not only can the owner of the site manage it, but they can also grow the blog, with gaining more knowledge of how to creatively add features to it. Some of my clients who knew nothing of how to manage a blog, learned how to insert a post, moderate a comment, and add a picture in less than a week. From there, they will learn how to insert videos, add their own widgets and change the layout of the blog.

What is a relationship? It is developing trust and gaining favorable reputation with your customers. This takes time. No one wants a “relationship” thrust upon them in a short time. Japanese businessmen have a ritual where they have to know you for quite a long time before they will do business with you. They have inner patience to “give and take” within this relationship and make it in their best interests to do business with you. It is not because they got “burned” from some unscrupulous business scammer, rather, it just makes sense that they feel comfortable doing business with you after judging from your actions that likely to prove you are worthy to do business with.

It makes good sense to keep your blog content consistent to “prove” to your visitors that you are real and have value to offer them. If you sell at all, it comes down to how people buy. They buy from people they “like, know & trust.” It has been written in many creditable sales books that the relationship is the key to successful selling.

So, when blogging, keep this principle in mind. You should take the time to lay out consistent and relevent content that you know your visitors will appreciate and use. Don’t waste your time, and their time, in content that has no value. Also, keep asking your visitors and customers what they want to see in your blog. Let them have a “voice” in what they want to see from you. I guarantee that you cannot second guess your customers  on what they want from you. Asking what they want in content, what kind of additional service or product your business can provide, will be very important to your business.

Your blog’s sole purpose is truly a collaboration between your business and your customer.

I found a great video here that shows what kind of equipment he takes with him when he travels the world and still manages to post  regularly on his blog. Remember, just because you are away from home doesn’t mean you can’t keep up your blog! Enjoy.

As with any marketing website, you always should have a call to action, a way to guide the visitor to opt in to a newsletter, or sign up for a trial membership or click on an affiliate link to a product or service that your readers would be interested in.

The “call to action” is the oldest, but most effective way of marketing your business. Since you are online and have a blog to complement your marketing efforts, every effort should be made to tell the visitor what to do.

A simple thing like asking people to make a comment on your blog, will dramatically increase  your blog comment count.  If you position your newsletter opt in box to the upper right or upper left column will increase your opt in rate. Better yet, putting the opt in box all the way up in the header will make even more opt ins’ happen.

Facebook currently has over 500 million users online around the world. There are approximately over 100 registered users of Twitter and there are over 126 million blogs in the world.

Just with the Facebook and Twitter use alone, you have many possibilities of getting people to come to your blog to visit and become your “followers.” Now it can be a challenge if you are attempting to attract a local following to your business physical location, but that doesn’t have to stop you there.

When I teach people how to blog for their business, I also tell them that once the blog goes online, it becomes “worldwide.” This is something that should get your creative juices flowing with making digital products in the form of info products to sell to your “following” outside your local area.

Just think, if you owned a golf equipment shop. You originally intended on putting up a blog to get an online presence and to drive people, through local search of your blog, to visit your physical location. Well now you can think of serving two types of customers, the local market and the rest of the world!

This marketing of both the local and worldwide audience presents an opportunity to get the attention of everyone who visits your blog from being referred from Facebook or Twitter. With the blog software out there now, you can enable your Facebook visitors to go to your blog, your blog visitors to go to Facebook, and Twitter to do the same. Now at first, people coming in from these social media sites would not be “targeted,” in other words, it will have no value to your business. But eventually, there will be the type of people that will be interested in your product or service. These people will become your recurring visitors and eventually become cash paying customers.

So, although social media is a valuable resource to get customers, remember that, since the internet is always changing, what could be popular today may not be as popular or effective a year from now. Be ready to change when the trends to market your business change.