Have you ever wondered how the Google search algorithm works? Yeah, me, too.
No one really knows. Not even Google knows it all; so I’m told. But, time and time again, I have seen over and over again that properly blogging is properly rewarded by Google and it will make your phone ring.
For example, one of my businesses is practicing law at LifeCycleLaw.com. I published a post on that site about apartment roommates getting out of their joint leases on June 20th and had two calls about it by June 25th.
How did that post get that result? It followed the 4 Keys to Properly Blogging.
Those 4 Keys are:
- Pick a topic that people want to read
- Write right well
- Post it a few different places
- Repeat
How to find topics people want to read
Do not waste time trying to think up the “right” topic. Just follow a few online boards on the Internet where either your colleagues or your targeted customers ask them, pick the trending one about which you have knowledge and experience and draft a question and answer about it.
In this example, another lawyer asked for advice on how to help a prospective client get away from a bad roommate. I’ve done that for a client or two in 28 years of practicing LifeCycle law, so I wrote an answer to the lawyer’s request and then mushroomed it into a post on my LifeCycle Law Blog.
How to write right well
Write like you are talking intelligently to a neighbor whom you are not trying to impress. Blogging is not about perfect word choice, grammar, and syntax. Spelling is certainly important, but you can leave a preposition or two dangling at the end of a sentence right where they end up at, if it makes the point you need to make.
Open with either a question or a statement about the subject of your post, then lay out the issues that get involved in that subject, then discuss the issues and how to manage the issues, then leave a tripwire and an invitation to contact you.
Use relatively short sentences, unless you are known for a long, flowing, brook-like style. Leave lots of white space by using bullets or numbered lists and subheadings.
Post it a few different places
If you took your question from an Internet board, cross post your blog post as answer to that board as well as your own website. If there are public postings allowed on your local newspaper, post your stuff there, as well. Good content in such places sometimes leads to editors either wanting you to write something officially for them or wanting to do an article on you.
Repeat
Don’t expect your first blog post to generate your first phone call immediately. Regardless of whether or not you get calls in the beginning, keep on posting as often as you can afford the time. If you’re not busy enough doing what you do for a living, then spend more time marketing by welcoming attractions putting your blog posts on your blog and other places. Then, write another one and post that one. And then, ….
Track where your customers/clients come from
(See? Leaving that “from” at the end didn’t kill anybody.) How do I know the two calls came from blogging? Because I ask every person who calls me, “How did you find me?” In these two cases, both prospects told me the Googled “Roommate Attorney” or “Roommate Lawyer” and several of us lawyers came up in the local box and my firm’s name “LifeCycle Law” seemed catchy and inviting (Fine! They said “Interesting,” but I think it’s catchy and inviting.)
This stuff actually works
Like I said at the beginning. This one blog post on breaking up with roommates brought me two new prospects the same week I posted it. I know, because it was a fresh topic for me and I verified how they found me.
Anyone with almost any sense can set up a WordPress website blog, post on it properly, and get known by doing so.
If you want help with your own WordPress website blog, let me know, because I’m happy to help. Most of the time, almost all of the time actually, I’ll help you for free. Why? Because I have no competitors, only colleagues. And I want us all to be Great! All the time!
In the meantime, how many of you blog on your own sites already? Drop a comment below and leave us your example.