How to launch your business advisor blog | Finer Things Editorial

How to launch your business advisor blog

Blogging tips

How to launch your business advisor blog Blogging is a brilliant marketing strategy for women business owners, and business advisors are no exception. It’s often tricky to stand out on social media, but a blog can get you seen, and noticed, via Google. Plus, a blog can spotlight you as your industry’s go-to pro. Here’s how to launch your business advisor blog: 1. Define your niche. 2. Research and plan. 3. Design your business advisor blog. 4. Create compelling content. 5. Spread the word about your business advisor blog. 1. Define your niche Business advisory is a broad field, and business advisors can specialise in various niches based on their expertise and interests. You might provide business management services to women entrepreneurs, supporting them with marketing and growth strategies. Or you might offer industry-specific consulting for businesses in a particular sector, such as finance or retail. It’s important to define your niche before you start blogging. Once you know who your business advisor blog is for, you can start planning the topics you want to write about. Then you can research the keywords you want to target to appear in front of your best-fit clients. Aside from attracting ideal clients, blogging for a niche can improve your chances of becoming an authority in that specific area. Narrowing your focus allows you to compete more effectively within a smaller, less crowded field. Next, get clear on who your ideal client is. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine their pain points. Perhaps they want to grow their business but don’t have a clear strategy. Perhaps they’re struggling with time management and productivity. What impact are these issues having on their business and personal life? Truly understanding your ideal client’s needs will help them find and connect to the content you’re sharing on your blog. 2. Research and plan It’s time to get a plan together for your business advisor blog. Now you’ve identified your niche, you’ll need to find the words and phrases your ideal clients are Googling, aka keywords. By including these keywords in your blog posts, you’ll increase your chances of appearing in their Google search results. We use various tools to find relevant keywords for our blog clients. Some handy options for keyword research novices include answerthepublic.com, Ubersuggest, and the Google Ads Keyword Planner. Fancy learning how to do basic keyword research? Download our free power guide: ‘Attract ideal clients to your website (in five easy steps).’ Get your free power guide Once you’ve found the keywords your ideal clients are Googling, pop these into a spreadsheet. Congratulations! You’ve just made a content calendar for your business advisor blog. With one topic and associated keyword per week, you’ll never be stuck for ideas. Quick tip: don’t worry if you’re not the spreadsheet type. Your content calendar can be as simple as a list in your phone’s notes app. You can also add more blog topic ideas to your content calendar over time. Have a snoop at your competitors’ blogs – are they covering subjects you’re also positioned to talk about? Are there any holidays or upcoming dates you can theme content around? For example, Small Business Saturday or International Women’s Day. Lastly, you need to decide where to blog. The obvious choice is your business website. However, if you don’t have a website, blogging platforms like Medium or Substack are good alternatives. Quick tip: you don’t have to choose between your website and these platforms. Cross-posting your website blog posts on, say, Medium can get even more eyes on your content. 3. Design your business advisor blog Have you ever clicked on a link to a blog post or article in Google but: The website took so long to load that you give up? The writer took ages getting to the point, so you ended up clicking away? The content was poorly laid out, and you struggled to find the info you wanted, so you returned to the search results to find info elsewhere? You’re not alone. The average bounce rate for consulting and professional services websites is 49.47%. That means around half of the people landing on business advisor blogs are leaving five seconds later. To improve your bounce rate, your business advisor blog should be as visually appealing and user-friendly as possible. Do this by: Increasing your website’s loading speed. There are various ways to shave valuable seconds off your load times, such as reducing the size of unoptimised images and videos. Designing your blog with the reader’s experience in mind. Make navigating your blog posts a breeze with contents tables and links that let readers jump between sections. The easier it is for them to find the exact information they need, the more likely they are to stay on your blog. Optimising your blog for mobile users. Over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, and 63% of Google searches occur on mobile in the U.S. It’s safe to say lots of people are reading blog posts on their mobile phones. So it’s crucial that your website and blog have a responsive design that can adapt to any screen size. Quick tip: check how your blog posts look on a mobile device in case elements that work on desktop are off-putting on a smaller screen. For example, pop-ups or large images above the fold. 4. Create compelling content It’s time to pop your writing hat on and populate your business advisor blog with high-quality blog posts. You’ll need to post at least once a week to attract visitors to your blog. If you can’t set aside a regular time slot to write and upload a blog each week, consider writing in batches. Remember to incorporate the keywords in your content calendar into your posts. Pick one primary keyword per blog post and make it 1-2% of the overall word count. For example, if your blog post is around 1,000 words, you should include this keyword 10-20 times. This is just one technique to optimise your blog…

Why do you need a blog? | Finer Things Editorial

Why Do You Need a Blog?

Blogging tips, The Finer Way

Why Do You Need a Blog? There are so many reasons why you need a well-optimised, well-written blog for business growth.  If we listed all the benefits of the Finer Blog Copy package here, you’d be reading for hours.  So, let’s focus on the top five advantages that this package offers. Show me the Finer Blog Copy package. 1. Get your time back The best thing about entrusting us with your blog? You won’t have to do anything. Writing, optimising, editing, and uploading a high-quality blog post takes around five hours. As you typically need to publish at least one blog post a week to see results, you’ll need 260 hours a year. That’s nearly two working months. A whole sixth of your year. Whether you’re launching a new blog for your business or you’re currently managing your own, you don’t have to spend this time. Leave your blog in our hands, and we’ll work its magic for you. 2. Land ideal clients Many marketing strategies leave you trapped in a feast-and-famine cycle. You complete one client project. You spend ages securing the next. You complete that client project. You spend ages securing the next. A well-optimised blog opens the door to a stream of ready-to-buy website visitors. As your online reputation builds, projects start rolling in. When your ideal clients search for phrases and questions related to your expertise, and you show up in the top Google search results, you become their go-to solution provider. Congratulations, you’re now an industry leader! Speaking of which… 3. Become an industry leader You are unique at what you do. But your market is likely flooded with competitors. With all these competitors lining up, who are your ideal clients turning to for support? If it’s not you, don’t worry. This can change. A blog is a sure-fire way to position yourself as an industry leader. When you show up in Google search results with the answers to your ideal clients’ questions, you become the go-to provider. You can use your blog to get even more well known by repurposing your blog content across all of your marketing channels. More on that next… 4. Create content for all of your marketing channels Don’t let your marketing efforts drain all your time and energy. Instead, use your blog as the central hub for all your marketing channels. Here’s how: You can repurpose your blog posts into conversation points or scripts for your podcast. You can turn each point made in a blog post into a bite-size email newsletter. You can bundle a series of related blog posts into an ebook or downloadable guide. This ebook or guide can serve as a lead magnet for attracting new clients. You can transform each blog post into around a week’s worth of social media posts. You can do this by pulling out key lines, takeaways, and promotional sections and adjusting these for your social media platform of choice. 5. Make customer service a breeze Launching a blog with us? Your customer service is about to get so much easier. When prospects email you with questions and you’re short on time, you can direct them to the relevant blog post. They’ll get a highly useful resource, you’ll save time, and they’ll have access to even more of your insightful content. Let’s use our client Sam as an example. We wrote Sam a blog post every three days for two years. Their blog became their customer service team’s ultimate knowledge hub. Every customer query had an answer in our carefully crafted blog posts. And if we hadn’t covered a question, we added it to our blog queue, ensuring that anyone searching for the same answers stumbled upon Sam’s wisdom and irresistible solutions. Hint: These solutions involved buying from them. Your business can benefit from a blog too Want these five benefits for your business? Enter: Finer Blog Copy. Get the details! About Finer Things Editorial Finer Things Editorial writes for businesses that help others achieve abundance, whether in the form of profit, self-love, or physical health. Our content helps these businesses attract their dream clients, so they don’t have to chase them. Having taken businesses from 0 to 1,000+ primed-to-buy website visitors per day, we take businesses from unknown to really known.

Blogging vs website: which will get you more visibility? | Finer Things Editorial

Blogging vs website: which will get you more visibility?

Blogging tips

Blogging vs website: which will get you more visibility? Many entrepreneurs know a website is important for getting discovered online by potential clients. But perhaps you’ve heard about blogging for business, and you’re wondering which will get you more visibility: blogging vs a website? Here’s the good news: you can get the best of both worlds for your business with a website and a blog. Read on to find out how. Blogging vs website: the key differences First, let’s get clear on what a blog is. When most people think of blogs, they think of a type of website where someone uploads regular journal-style entries or ‘blog posts.’ Conversational, relaxed entries that offer glimpses into the person’s lifestyle or interests. These more personal blogs still exist. They usually belong to influencers rather than businesses. However, businesses are also blogging nowadays. 80% of businesses use blogs as a marketing tool. We’re also consuming blogs differently these days. We’re more likely to skim blog posts for solutions to problems we’re Googling than we are to read through someone’s online journal entry. Businesses use this to their advantage. For example, someone might read a blog post about the importance of healthy fats in a balanced diet. Finding this incredibly valuable, they discover that the business behind the blog post offers personalised nutrition coaching services. How convenient! Meanwhile, a website is a collection of web pages that represents your business. It tells visitors everything they might want to know about you and your services. It lists important information, like your pricing and contact details. You don’t tend to change your website once you’ve created it. You may add a new web page now and again or make edits to reflect business updates. But your website content will mostly stay the same. In contrast, blogs are typically updated frequently with new content. Active blogs upload new posts anywhere from multiple times a day to once a week. You can also have a blog on your website. Many businesses have a blog section where they upload content to inform and attract clients. WordPress is a great option for creating a website with a blog. (We have a WordPress site for this reason.) Blogging vs website: the winning combination Either a blog or a website could help you get more eyes on your business. But having a website and a blog can seriously boost your online visibility. Why? Well, the more you blog, the more fresh content you’re adding to your website.  Google loves fresh content. As we’ve seen, you’re unlikely to change your other web pages that often. So blogging is the best way to tell Google that your website is active and offers up-to-date information. On average, businesses that blog have 434% more indexed pages than businesses that don’t. They also get 55% more visitors. If you’re a service provider, you probably have up to seven pages on your website. Aside from your homepage, about page, and contact page, you might have a few service pages or a page for testimonials. A weekly blog adds 52 pages to your website every year. Way, way more than seven. That’s 52 more opportunities to rank in Google search results for the phrases and questions your ideal clients are Googling. After all, people are almost certainly not Googling questions related to ‘contact’ and ‘testimonials.’ These common web pages, while important for other reasons, aren’t going to get you found. Each time you upload a new blog post, you’re inviting Google to crawl and index your website. This improves your website’s visibility. Simply by uploading new content regularly. Good business blogs get updated regularly with enlightening, insightful content. The best blogs have search engine optimised (SEO) content to improve the business’ chances of appearing in Google search results. The shopfront and the sales team: getting found via Google If you’re struggling to visualise the relationship between blogging and a website, consider the analogy of the shopfront and the sales team. Think of your website as a digital shopfront for your business. Once you’ve got it looking its best, you want to attract as many people as possible inside. However, your shopfront is hidden away down one of Google’s many, many side streets. You might put up signs in your window that let passers-by know what you offer. Using certain key phrases, like ‘graphic designer’ or ‘business coaching,’ could encourage people interested in those services to notice you and stroll inside. But that’s about all you can do to get found. Mostly, you’re hoping people stumble across your shopfront in Google search results. Then you add a blog to your website. A blog is like a sales team that wanders the streets of Google 24/7, chatting to potential clients and answering their questions. A blog tempts people into your shop. It encourages them to stay a while, get to know you, and peruse your offers. The more blog posts you have, the more salespeople you add to your team. That’s because every new post is an extra opportunity to appear in Google search results and tempt potential clients to visit your website. Bear in mind, this only works if you use keywords in your blog posts (and in your web copy, for that matter). Harnessing the power of blogging for visibility To sum up, a blog is a powerful marketing tool that you can use in conjunction with your website to get more eyes on your business. Not only can a blog open the door to a steady stream of ready-to-buy website visitors. When used as a marketing tool, a blog can also: Position you as a leader in your industry or niche. Provide the basis for your entire marketing campaign. Simplify customer service. Need help with your blog? Check out our done-for-you blog package. Get the Finer Blog Copy details About Finer Things Editorial Finer Things Editorial writes for businesses that help others achieve abundance, whether in the form of profit, self-love, or physical health. Our content helps these businesses attract their…

which blogs get the most traffic | Finer Things Editorial

Which blogs get the most traffic?

Blogging tips

Which blogs get the most traffic? Do you dream of getting more eyes on your business? Blogging is a brilliant way to bring more visitors to your website. But not all blogs are created equal. Some blog posts get seen by waaay more people than others. Let’s take a look at which blogs get the most traffic – and why. The secret to boosting blog traffic The blogs that get the most traffic use various tricks to optimise their posts. As a result, search engines like Google are more likely to give them prime positions in search results. Why are prime positions important? The higher your blog posts appear in search results, the more likely people are to click on them and arrive on your website. Ideally, you want to show up in the first 10 results, if not the first 5. On average, the first result in Google (that’s an organic result, not a paid-for advert) gets clicked 28.5% of the time. Compare that to 15% for the second result, 11% for the third result, and just 2.5% for the tenth result. So, if you want to get more people on your blog, you need to give Google good reasons to prioritise your posts. Thankfully, there are many ways to optimise your posts so they rise higher in search results. Emulating blogs that get the most traffic The blogs that get the most traffic are the ones that: Cover topics people are searching for. Include phrases that people Google (aka keywords). Use subheadings to break up the text (aka header tags). Build trust with search engines by including internal links and links to reputable sources (aka improve domain authority). Are easy to read (aka follow readability practices.) Polish how blog post previews look in Google results (aka optimise meta titles and descriptions). If you’re keen to learn how to emulate the blogs that get the most traffic, keep reading. Don’t have the time or inclination to learn all this yourself? Get the blogging experts to do it for you. Learn about the Finer Blog Copy package Cover topics people are searching for Your blog will never rank amongst the blogs that get the most traffic if you don’t write about topics people are Googling. You can find these topics by using a tool like Ubersuggest. Enter a general word or phrase related to your business into Ubersuggest. For example, if you’re a wellness coach, you could enter the phrase ‘sleep hygiene.’ Then choose your language and the location you want to target and hit ‘search.’ Ubersuggest will find phrases related to your topic that people are searching for online. (The official name for these phrases is keywords.) Next, choose phrases relating to that topic that have a relatively low SEO difficulty (SD). The lower the SD, the less competitive that phrase will be. However, you also want to choose phrases that have a search volume (SV) higher than zero. A keyword’s SV tells you the average number of times people search for that phrase each month. If it’s zero, that means no one is searching for the phrase, so you’ll be wasting your time writing a blog post on that topic. Let’s look at two examples relating to ‘sleep hygiene’ from Ubersuggest: The phrase ‘sleep hygiene for mental health’ has a low SD of four, but its SV is zero. Meanwhile, the phrase ‘sleep hygiene techniques’ has an SD of 17, which is still fairly low, and its SV is 40. A wellness coach would be much better off writing a blog post on this topic. Include phrases that people Google If higher blog traffic is your aim, it’s not enough to write a post on a topic people are searching for. Blogs that get the most traffic include the phrases people are Googling in the text of their posts in the right amount and the right places. Let’s continue the wellness coach example. You would need to include the keyword ‘sleep hygiene techniques’ enough times in your blog post to show Google your content is relevant for queries related to that topic. Here’s how to optimise keyword use in your blog posts: Include keywords in the body of the blog post. For the best results, pick one main phrase to target (aka a primary keyword) and make sure it’s 1–2% of the overall word count. (Here’s a handy percentage calculator to use.) Don’t force phrases into your blog post, even if they’re relevant to the topic. Keyword stuffing makes your posts read like spam, and Google doesn’t like it! If Google finds you guilty of this, it won’t rank your blog posts well. Include your target phrase in the blog post title. (That’s the first heading right at the top of the post.) Use subheadings to break up the text Let’s look at another technique that blogs that get the most traffic use: header tags. Header tags (H2, H3, H4 etc.), or subheadings, help Google understand your blog posts’ content. In turn, this improves your chances of appearing higher in search results rankings. (As we’ve seen, the higher your position, the better for web traffic, as you’ll get more clicks on your blog posts.) Header tags also benefit readers by breaking up posts and signposting readers to the information they need. Let’s face it: no one wants to trawl through a huge wall of text. If it’s taking ages to find answers, people are going to leave your website and look elsewhere. Build trust with search engines The blogs that get the most traffic build trust with search engines. This is also known as improving domain authority (DA). DA is like a measure of how trustworthy or important a website is. It’s based on various factors, like: How many other websites link to it (aka how many backlinks it has). How long it’s been around. How often people visit it. The higher your blog’s DA, the more likely it is to show up higher in search engine results…

19 blogging best practices to attract new clients | Finer Things Editorial

19 blogging best practices to attract new clients

Blogging tips

19 blogging best practices to attract new clients Whether you have a new or established business, finding clients can be challenging. We love blogging because it’s a brilliant way to attract people who want to work with you. A great blog will let you sit back and watch as you attract leads instead of chasing them. There is an art to blogging this way, though. We’ve put together 19 blogging best practices to follow if you want to attract new clients. Jump to blogging best practices in this guide: 1. Define your audience. 2. Use keywords. 3. Blog every week. 4. Create a content calendar. 5. Define the topic of every blog post. 6. Include robust, engaging information. 7. Include relevant, recent statistics. 8. Include internal links. 9. Make sentences short and easy to read. 10. Keep language clear and basic. 11. Structure your blog posts. 12. Use header tags effectively. 13. Include calls to action (CTAs). 14. Proofread your blog posts. 15. Ensure links open in a new window. 16. Optimise images. 17. Categorise your blog posts. 18. Optimise metadata. 19. Promote your blog. 1. Define your audience Identifying who you want to support via your blog is the first step to attracting clients. Imagine a blog post is the bait on a fishing line you cast into ‘Lake Google.’ To attract the right people, you need the right bait. You’ll struggle to attract dream clients with content they’re not looking for. (Just like you’d have a hard time catching a fish with a screwdriver instead of a worm… fish just aren’t searching for screwdrivers.) Your blog audience should be the same as your business’ target audience. For example, if your ideal clients are busy mums who need help finding their fashion style, you should write blogs those people want to read. 2. Use keywords When we have a question that needs answering, most of us turn to Google. (There are 5.9 million Google searches every minute.) Google tries to find us relevant solutions by matching the words and phrases we’ve searched with similar words and phrases on web pages and blog posts from around the internet. These words and phrases are keywords. Using the right keywords in your blog posts is a vital blogging best practice that can get your business in front of the right people. For instance, a dog trainer could include ‘friendly dog trainer’ in their blog posts. Most people Googling ‘friendly dog trainer’ (10 people every month – we checked) are probably looking for just that. So, using the keyword increases the trainer’s chances of attracting new clients. How do you find out what keywords your ideal clients are searching? Try free tools like Ubersuggest or Google Ads Keyword Planner. We use these and other tools to conduct keyword research for our Finer Blog Copy package clients. (Although we use the paid version of Ubersuggest to get as much data as poss.) Blogging best practice hot tip: Choose a ‘primary keyword’ and use this throughout your blog post at a density of 1–2% (use a percentage calculator to check this). 3. Blog every week You’ll need to post at least once a week to attract new clients to your blog and business. Posting less often than that (or posting inconsistently) is a major blogging mistake to avoid. This is because it’s difficult for your blog posts to show up consistently against competitors who are putting out three times the amount of content (or more). Posting weekly also lets Google know that your website is active. This matters because Google may crawl an inactive site less often. This could impact your rankings in Google results pages. Businesses that ignore this blogging best practice often start posting regularly and then abandon their blog a few months in. Commit to blogging weekly and, in time, more and more people will discover your posts in search results. 4. Create a content calendar If you struggle to post regularly, make a content calendar that lists weekly blog topics. A content calendar will help you keep your blogging schedule on track and stop you from running out of ideas. Blogging best practice hot tip: List all those keywords you found using the tools we suggested earlier. Write a blog post each week using one keyword as the main topic. Ta-da! You’ve got an instant content calendar. 5. Define the topic of every blog post You don’t want to confuse readers with vague, rambling content. This content turns readers off in seconds. To avoid this, define the topic of every blog post by: Writing content that reflects the statement you’ve made or question you’ve posed in your title. Staying on-topic and not drifting off on tangents. Always returning to the main point you’re making. 6. Include robust, engaging information Creating quality content is an essential blogging best practice if you want to attract new clients to your blog. Focus on writing robust, insightful, engaging information rather than trying to hit a specific word count. Suppose you’re reading two blog posts on the same topic from different businesses. One is over 2,000 words and hardly says anything of value. The other is just 500 words but packed with handy info. Which business are you more likely to work with? That’s not to say you shouldn’t write long-form content. But if you do, every word should count. Ensure you’re writing quality posts by: Including new information or genuinely valuable insights. Incorporating relevant facts and research. Cutting out any fluffy, repetitive sections. 7. Include relevant, recent statistics Back up your argument and strengthen your content with relevant statistics from trustworthy sources. Linking to authoritative sites can show readers that your blog is a reliable source of sound information. This will also tell Google that you’re using high-quality sources, which can help with your search rankings. Avoid using sources that are more than five years old. Ancient research can make stats (and your blog posts) feel outdated. On the contrary, lacing new research through…

Blogging vs social media: Which is best for your business? | Finer Things Editorial

Blogging vs social media: Which is best for your business?

Blogging tips

Blogging vs social media: Which is best for your business? Business owners often wonder which option is better for their business: blogging vs social media. Blogging and social media can both help you market your business, grow your audience, and attract potential clients. But they serve different purposes. This means you can’t choose between them like pizza toppings: Blogging is the jalapeño that brings fresh hot leads into your world via Google. These are the people you help when they turn to their phones to search their problems and find… your blog posts. Social media is the BBQ base on which you can build a shopfront and community. By sending streams of voice notes in DMs. Engaging every day. And getting your face out there. In an ideal world, you want both of these things working for your business. That said, many entrepreneurs don’t yet have the time or resources to blog and manage their social media. If this is you, we recommend starting with your blog and introducing social media later. Here’s why. Why blogs beat social media Blogging has changed over time. It’s no longer about writing an online journal. Unlike in the early days of the internet, people don’t sit down with a hot cup of tea to read an entire blog post. However, most of us Google our problems. And when we do, we find solutions in blog posts. Those solutions can lead us to work with or hire the business behind the blog post. Many businesses have become savvy about this. Sure, 77% of businesses use social media to connect with their customers. But 80% have a blog as part of their marketing strategy. These businesses have blogs that hand out VIP invites to dream clients in Google search results. Meanwhile, making social media work requires constant engagements and DMs to weed out randomers and find the people you can really help. Whether you’re new to blogging or your blog needs reviving, these juicy tips can help you work some magic. Let’s dive into: Content length. Content lifespan. Posting frequency. How much time you’ll need to invest in blogging vs social media. How quickly you’ll see results. Search engine optimisation. Targeting audiences. Content control. The key takeaways of blogging vs social media. Blogging vs social media: content length Blogging typically involves longer-form written content. Social media often involves shorter-form content. As a result, blogging is better for getting across more detailed information. For instance, if you wanted to write an in-depth guide to email marketing, you’d be better off sharing it on your blog than on social media. Some social media platforms impose character limits, so you’d struggle to convey the depth needed for a comprehensive guide. Longer-form content like blog posts are fantastic for showcasing your expertise. They can also help you stand out amongst industry competitors. Plus, the more wisdom you share with readers, the more likely they are to see you as their go-to source for knowledge and advice. Level up your blogging skills with our fortnightly content tips, sent straight to your inbox. Blogging vs social media: content lifespan You put a lot of effort into creating your content. Ideally, you want that content to reap rewards for as long as possible. Social media posts have a relatively short lifespan. You’ve got: 48 hours for followers to see your Instagram posts. 24 hours for followers to see your LinkedIn posts. 5–6 hours for followers to see your Facebook posts. 15–18 minutes for followers to see your Tweets. This means you’ll have to update your social media more frequently to stay visible. Blog posts have a longer lifespan, making blogging more suitable for long-term growth. Each blog post can appear in Google search results for years, staying relevant and driving traffic over time. Some top-ranking blog posts have sat at the top of Google results since 2001. That’s more than 20 years of lead generation from one blog post. Talk about a great return on investment (ROI). Blogging vs social media: posting frequency We recommend blogging weekly unless your industry has virtually zero competition. This is an easy way to increase web traffic and attract ideal clients. Blogging infrequently will give you minimal ranking opportunities amongst the businesses that are sharing a constant stream of high-quality info. Google won’t consider your blog a source of consistent, high-quality content compared to your competitors’ unless you prove your worth. (And you’re 100% worth it.) While we appreciate that blogging every week can feel a lot, social media best practice is also to post often. According to Hootsuite, the ideal number of times to post on: Twitter is between two and three times per day. Facebook is between one to two times per day. LinkedIn is between one to two times per day. Instagram is between three and five times per week (and twice a day on Instagram Stories). Blogging vs social media: time investment While we love blogging, we’ll be the first to admit that it can take quite a bit of time and effort. When you factor in the time spent researching a topic and writing, editing, and uploading each blog post, it can add up to several hours. That’s a good chunk of your valuable time, especially if you’re blogging once a week. (On average, we spend around three to four hours creating our weekly posts.) Social media posts can be quicker to produce (but not always). The amount of time you spend per post will vary hugely depending on the type of post and platform. For example, you might dash off a Tweet in under five minutes. But it could take you hours to film, edit, and upload an Instagram reel or YouTube video. And it can be disheartening when that video only gets a few views, likes, or comments. It’s also worth considering how posting frequency impacts the overall time you put into blogging vs social media. Social media requires consistent, frequent updates and engagement, whereas you only need to blog…

Is blogging still popular in 2024? | Finer Things Editorial

Is blogging still popular in 2024?

Blogging tips

Is blogging still popular in 2024? There’s always someone out there wildly shouting, ‘Blogging is dead!’ But is blogging really dead, or is this false information? Here’s the scoop: no, blogging isn’t dead. The way that we consume blogs has changed. But blogs are far from ghost-town relics. In fact, they’re breathing life into businesses all over the world. Blogs are still popular in 2024. When people say blogging is dead, they mean we’re less likely to make a cup of tea, sit down, and read a complete blog post than we were 10 years ago. But that doesn’t mean we won’t Google our problems and find a blog post with the perfect solution. A solution that leads us to work with the business behind that blog post. It doesn’t mean we won’t check out a service provider’s website and flick through their blog. And fall in love with them because they share so much useful advice. Because they create such a huge level of trust. Because they love what they do so much that they write post after post of passionate content about their niche. It’s no surprise that, as of 2024, 80% of businesses are blogging as a marketing strategy. When it comes to WordPress blogs / sites alone, over 409 million people read more than 20 billion posts / pages every month. With the ongoing popularity of blogging confirmed, here are nine reasons to blog for your business in 2024. You’ll get eyes on your business. You can earn bonus income by monetising your blog. You’ll become a go-to expert. You’ll expose yourself to media opportunities. You’ll enjoy a creative outlet. You’ll grow your confidence. You’ll get better at tech. You’ll make a difference. You’ll keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. 1. You’ll get eyes on your business In 2024, most businesses’ main goal for their blog is to reach ideal clients. If you do the all-important SEO, you’ll show up when the people you’d love to help Google their problems. For example, if you’re an email marketer, you could write a blog post entitled: ‘How to grow an email list from scratch.’ 20 people are Googling this every month, and the search term has a relatively low keyword difficulty score of 18 (according to Ubersuggest). Let’s take another example. If you’re a reflexologist who specialises in fertility, you could write a blog post entitled: ‘How to better chances of getting pregnant.’ 3,600 people are Googling this every month, and the search term has a relatively low keyword difficulty score of 17. 2. You can earn bonus income by monetising your blog SEO blogging (above) is the main way businesses use blogging to make money. That said, you can use ads, affiliate links, sponsored posts, and your own products to earn extra income via your blog. This leans more into the influencer side of marketing, but there are plenty of possibilities to explore here. Quick tip: Grow your blog organically before venturing into monetisation strategies. You need regular visitors before you can make this work at scale. 3. You’ll become a go-to expert Every industry is full of experts. Make your voice heard amongst these experts by writing an informative post about every nugget of wisdom you have to share. You’ll be surprised how quickly you become a knowledge source that your ideal clients turn to. 4. You’ll expose yourself to media opportunities As your blog posts rack up, your name will grow in the wider world of your industry. The more your position as a go-to expert strengthens, the more luck you’ll have when applying for: Book deals. Brand partnerships. Editorial features. Podcast interviews. Sponsored posts. Guest blog posts. And these opportunities will only lead to more visibility, lucrative projects, and more abundance. 5. You’ll enjoy a creative outlet Blogs aren’t the online diaries we used to keep. (This is the kind of blogging that’s now dead.) But while blogs aren’t spaces for writing letters to yourself any more, that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative. Your blog is your platform to say and do whatever you like. To put a message into the world that only you can. Have fun with it. 6. You’ll grow your confidence Blogging will remind you how much expertise you have to share. When you see all of your wisdom laid out in post after post, you’ll remind yourself how credible you are. Even better, you’ll show anyone visiting your website how credible you are. 7. You’ll get better at tech Lots of entrepreneurs love the idea of blogging but don’t want to handle the tech side of things. The good news is, once you’ve uploaded blog content to your website once or twice, you’ll have the skills pinned down for allllll the content you create in future. This will help you well beyond your blog. Next time you launch a new product or service, you’ll know how to add a new page to your website. Next time you want to add to your online portfolio or case studies, the same will apply. You’ll be set for life. 8. You’ll make a difference When you blog about your areas of expertise, you share your wisdom with the world. Just imagine how many people’s lives you can make easier by putting your knowledge out there.  Even if just one person reads your blog, you can improve their life. 9. You’ll keep an eye on what your competitors are doing This benefit only applies if you blog strategically, which we recommend you do. Before you start your blog: Research the phrases your ideal clients are Googling. Take one of those phrases for each blog post and Google it. Have a look at how the top three competitors have approached their content. You’ll see exactly what’s working for them to make them appear in Google search results. All you have to do then is write a better blog post. 😉 Share your blog on at least one other platform…

How blogging can make money in the well-being world | Finer Things Editorial

How blogging can make money in the well-being world

Blogging tips

How blogging can make money in the well-being world If you help your clients achieve transformation, there will be lots of other people who need your help too. They just don’t know it yet. Starting a blog is an excellent way to help these people find – and book – you, giving your income a healthy boost. Before we get started: Blog monetisation strategies usually involve third-party advertising, affiliate marketing, or sponsorship. These are all valid ways to monetise a blog and are usually more effective when you already have a high-traffic blog. However, we’re focusing on how business owners can make money by attracting clients through their blogs. (Because business owners are our people.) We’ll cover: Why a blog is a must-have marketing channel. How blogging can make money by attracting clients. How blogging can make money by boosting brand awareness. How blogging can make money through passive income. Why a blog is a must-have marketing channel Blogs (or ‘weblogs’) arose as online journals. Early bloggers wrote informal, diary-style posts containing personal experiences and opinions. Some people still use blogs for this purpose. However, many businesses and entrepreneurs now have blogs as part of their marketing campaigns. When used in marketing, a blog is any regularly updated website or page that shares information and brings in leads. There are several reasons why a blog is a must-have for your business. Most importantly, you can SEO-optimise your blog to attract loads more people to your website. A blog can also help you build your reputation as an industry leader. Plus, a blog can bring people closer to working with you. We help entrepreneurs who improve people’s personal and / or business well-being go from invisible to irresistible with Google-ranking blog posts that reel in clients.  (If you like the idea of receiving regular blogging tips from us, join our community of email subscribers.) Now, on with learning how blogging can make money in the well-being world. How blogging can make money by attracting clients Tired of wasting your precious time hunting for leads? Promoting your services through your wellness blog is one of the best ways to attract ideal clients to your business. A well-optimised blog creates a stream of ready-to-buy people to your website. As your blog and online reputation grows, projects start coming in. But how does it all work? Simply put, when your ideal clients Google phrases and questions related to your expertise, a blog can help you appear at the top of their search results. Imagine you’re a business coach who specialises in helping women entrepreneurs triple their income. Your ideal client Googles ‘business coach for women’ to find someone like you. Luckily, you’ve written a blog post about this topic. Importantly, you’ve included the phrase ‘business coach for women’ enough times for Google to know the post is useful and relevant. Google shows the post to your ideal client. They click on the link, land on your website, and discover: How brilliant / knowledgeable / friendly you are. How you could help them. The steps they can take to hire you. How blogging can make money by boosting brand awareness The most successful brands are often the most recognisable. Brand awareness is one of the most powerful ways to drive sales performance. A blog can help your target audience become familiar with your brand. The more blog posts you write about topics relevant to your ideal clients, the more likely they are to see you in Google search results. For example, your dream client Googles ‘nutrition advice for losing weight.’ One of your blog posts pops up in the search results. They read the post. Then, they click through to another. And another. And another. You become memorable to them. Someone will rarely visit your website and immediately book your services. On average, prospects need to see your brand at least seven times before considering you as a suitable choice for hiring. However, people can get to know you better through your blog posts. By sharing your industry insights, you can position yourself as their go-to info source. By showcasing your personality and unique brand story, you can connect with your ideal clients before they decide to work with you. How blogging can make money through passive income Another way that blogging can make money is by helping you generate passive income. You can use your blog posts to promote digital products like ebooks, guides, and online courses. You can sell these products alongside your in-person services to supplement your income. In 2020, two billion people bought at least one digital product. The eLearning market could be worth $325 billion by 2025. You could create any number of different digital resources depending on your skills and expertise. Many people generate passive income with educational resources, downloadable files, stock photos, and printable templates. If you’ve been blogging for a while, the chances are you’ve already written a good amount of insightful content. You can bundle a collection of related blog posts into an ebook or downloadable guide people can buy online. You can then promote your ebook or guide in future blog posts. For example, a life coach could create a self-help ebook with insights into professional and personal development. With a little tweaking, blog posts on subjects like ‘sustaining healthy relationships’ and ‘avoiding burnout’ could become the ebook’s chapters. Mastering the art of how blogging can make money There’s lots of advice out there on blogging. Why listen to us? Well, we’ve helped business owners like you attract thousands of daily website visitors with a blog. One client has gone from 0 to approximately 18,000 page views a month. That was within 18 months of starting their blog for them. We’ve also achieved 65 page-one Google keyword rankings within 16 months of starting a blog. These rankings include 22 keywords taking the top spot in Google search results (beating major brands). If you want to learn more from us, sign up for fortnightly content…

7 steps to blogging in the wellness space | Finer Things Editorial

7 steps to blogging in the wellness space

Blogging tips

7 steps to blogging in the wellness space So, you run a business that enhances your clients’ personal and/or business well-being. You know that a blog is a great way to reach a wider audience. But  where should you start? Without following blogging best practices, your blog is unlikely to get seen at all, let alone by your ideal clients. Here are seven steps to blogging in the wellness space that will help you grow your audience: 1. Identify your niche. 2. Do your keyword research. 3. Write useful, reliable content. 4. Do your search engine optimisation (SEO). 5. Include internal links. 6. Post regularly and consistently. 7. Promote your blog. 1. Identify your niche Imagine starting a business without knowing who you’re serving. You wouldn’t know what services to offer, how to market your business, or who to share your offers with. That’s why many business coaches will insist you identify your niche before you take any other action for your business. We absolutely agree with this advice. If you start a blog with no goal or target audience in mind, you won’t know who you’re writing for or what topics to cover. If you’ve already identified your niche for your wellness business, you can use the same demographic for your blog. Are you helping women in their 30s who want to optimise their fertility? Are you offering wellness retreats for busy entrepreneurs? Keep your target audience in mind when writing your blog posts. This will help you address the issues your ideal clients want advice on. Knowing your niche will also help you write in a suitable tone of voice for those people. For instance, if you coach business owners you might want to adopt a tone that’s friendly but professional. 2. Do your keyword research Keyword research is a blogging essential. We can’t stress enough how a lack of keyword research can sabotage even the best-written blog posts. That’s why it’s an integral part of the blog package we provide. Keyword research tells you exactly what your ideal clients are Googling. You can target these phrases and questions in your blog posts to show up in Google search results when your ideal clients type in their problems. You can find the best keywords for your niche with free keyword research tools like Ubersuggest. These tools tell you two things: How many people are Googling each keyword per month (the search volume). How difficult it will be to rank in Google results for this keyword (the keyword difficulty score). We recommend making a list of keywords with a low SEO difficulty score and a search volume of at least 10. These will be easier to rank for than highly competitive keywords. For example, let’s compare the keywords ‘reiki’ and ‘reiki violet flame.’ ‘Reiki’ has a monthly search volume of 33,100, and its SEO difficulty is 74. Meanwhile, ‘reiki violet flame’ has a monthly search volume of 30 and an SEO difficulty of 18. ‘Reiki violet flame’s’ much lower SEO difficulty score means it’ll be way easier to get your blog ranking for this keyword than ‘reiki’ alone. 30 searches a month may not sound like many compared to 33,100. But what if you booked 30 new clients in a month? Trust us, 30 searches a month is plenty to make this keyword worthwhile for a reiki therapist. In short, using keywords with a lower SEO difficulty is more likely to get your blog posts ranking high in Google results. Only the biggest, most established businesses will show up for generic keywords like ‘reiki.’  If you skip keyword research, you’re likely to miss out on loads of website traffic. You’re also missing out on identifying a bunch of blog topics you could cover. Topics you know people are searching for via Google. Quick tip: Create a content calendar that contains all the keywords you want to target. A content calendar will help you plan all the blog post topics you’ll cover over the upcoming weeks or months. 3. Write useful, relevant content Each of your blog posts should *brim* with useful, reliable content that enriches your readers’ lives. This way, you’ll keep them engaged and coming back for more. Draw on your content calendar full of keywords to inspire your blog post topics. You can also create useful content by asking your clients or social media followers what they want to read about. Covering trending topics is another good way to serve readers useful content. If you’re offering health or well-being advice to readers, your blog posts need to be extremely reputable. Do your due diligence to ensure you only share factually correct information. Sharing beneficial, reliable content can help you establish a reputation as the go-to expert in your field. Building a trustworthy site that others link to from their own blog posts or websites also helps you climb Google rankings. Finally, proofread your blog posts before sharing them. Looking at content with a fresh eye can help you pick up on mistakes. You can easily lose credibility with spelling errors or misplaced punctuation. If you’re not the best at spotting these things, you might prefer to delegate your editing to a professional copy editor. Choose an editor who is a member of a professional body, like the CIEP. This way, you can be sure you’re hiring a professional editor, rather than a self-nominated editor. (Trust us, there’s a big difference between the two.) 4. Do your SEO You’ve identified your niche, researched keywords, and written your blog post. But there are still a couple of vital SEO steps to take before you hit publish. There’s no successful blogging without SEO. Sure, you might upload some nice writing to your website. But content that you haven’t optimised for search engines is unlikely to get seen in Google or attract readers. Imagine two people who dive into the deep end of a pool: one can swim and the other can’t. Who do you expect to rise to the surface…

Will ChatGPT Kill Blogging? | Finer Things Editorial | Shropshire | Shrewsbury | Oswestry

Will ChatGPT kill blogging?

Blogging tips

Will ChatGPT kill blogging? ChatGPT will change the way we create content. But it’s unlikely to kill blogging. ChatGPT can’t SEO-optimise your blog posts. It can’t create authentic content that embodies your brand. Plus, ChatGPT has spurred an influx of error-filled, outdated content online. Here are the four biggest reasons why ChatGPT won’t kill blogging: ChatGPT creates inaccurate content. ChatGPT creates outdated content. ChatGPT can’t SEO-optimise your blog posts. ChatGPT can’t create your perfect brand message. 1. ChatGPT creates inaccurate content In the health and wellness space, businesses using ChatGPT are churning out page upon page of incorrect content. This 2023 study from the National Library of Medicine investigated the authenticity and accuracy of 30 ChatGPT-generated medical papers. ChatGPT had generated 115 references for these papers. 47% were fabricated. 46% were inaccurate. Only 7% were correct. This is where the ChatGPT content creation process goes wrong: Someone writes an article about an important health topic, let’s say the results of trials for a new drug. They make a mistake about the results and publish this content. Someone else writes an article about these drug trials. They use ChatGPT to save time. ChatGPT finds the inaccurate information from the first article and weaves it into the AI content, not even providing a source. Another person writes an article about the new drug. They also use ChatGPT, because everyone’s using it now, so why not? And this incorrect information spreads like wildfire. Suddenly, we have a web of misinformation that could lead to crises in the health and wellness arena. 2. ChatGPT creates outdated content Another challenge with ChatGPT in the health and wellness sector is that the free version only uses information published up to 2022. So, you can say goodbye to including the latest research in your blog posts. I can guarantee that your competitors are using the latest research in their blog posts, immediately making your outdated blog redundant. This is a major issue in the health and wellness space, where new data is coming out all the time. But, to be honest, outdated content is a bit of a letdown in every sector. In short, if you want your blog content to be relevant and up to date, using ChatGPT is a blogging mistake to avoid. 3. ChatGPT can’t SEO-optimise your blog posts Let’s get technical now (but not too technical, promise). ChatGPT can’t do the crucial SEO that makes your blog posts appear in Google search results. What’s the point in creating amazing content (or even ChatGPT content) if no one is going to find it? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard business owners say, ‘I ask ChatGPT to do my keyword research.’ ChatGPT doesn’t know: How many people are Googling the keywords it suggests. How difficult it is to rank for the keywords it suggests. What your domain authority is and, by extension, how easy it is for you specifically to rank for these keywords. The result is this: Countless business owners think they’re saving time on content creation. But they’re actually generating random content that falls into the abyss when they post it on their websites. 4. ChatGPT can’t create your perfect brand message We’ll do anything to save our valuable minutes, and ChatGPT can feel like the gift that keeps on giving. It’s like you’re literally watching the weight coming off your shoulders. Words are flowing onto the screen. Words that would have taken you hours to write. But not all words are equal.  Slapping any words onto the page doesn’t mean you’ve created content with intent. Content with perfectly crafted messaging. The messaging that will make your ideal client think, wow, this person has stepped straight into my brain and understands me. And what about all those little anecdotes and stories that illuminate your point? Stories that only you can tell. (I’ve got one coming up in this very blog post.) ChatGPT doesn’t know your experiences. It can’t recreate those for you. It gets worse. Some people don’t even know what their ChatGPT-generated content says. They publish it online without reading it back. How often does that content attract a great-fit client? Rarely. Perhaps never. That time a friend brought a ChatGPT blog post to business coaching If you’ve used ChatGPT to create content in the ways listed above, you’re far from alone. I see so many examples of this in my business coaching and networking groups. One story in particular may resonate.  Imagine that you’re in a business coaching group of amazing ambitious women. We’re all looking to grow our businesses by supporting not just anyone, but the people who are the best energetic fit for us. It’s 3 p.m., which is coaching time, and we’re all on our Zoom call with a fruity tea or hot chocolate. One group member, let’s call her Jenny, has a blog post that she wants us to review. Jenny is a knowledgeable, highly qualified gut health specialist. If I needed to hire such a specialist, I would go for her without even looking for possible alternatives to compare. But let’s say I don’t know Jenny. If I’d Googled ‘gut health check,’ and her blog post had come up, I wouldn’t have felt she was the specialist for me after reading it. Some parts of the blog post writing were hyperbolic, with huge, dramatic statements. Other parts were full of passive voice and weirdly formal phrases. There was no personal touch. There were several missed opportunities to add a fun or interesting anecdote. And, worst of all, the writing didn’t sound like her. I knew straight away, after reading just one sentence, that she hadn’t written this blog post. ChatGPT had. The ChatGPT elephant in the room I wasn’t going to call Jenny out. I was going to highlight ways to improve the text and let her come to her own conclusion that ChatGPT couldn’t create on-brand content for her. But it turned out I wasn’t the only person who’d sniffed out…