I've been in the middle of a speaking and traveling whirlwind, all good things of course. When I spoke at the Intuit conference 3 weeks ago, giving service providers tips for driving demand through online engagement including blogging and SEO I heard myself say "be sure you can blog at least once every two weeks" but was thinking in my head "oh shoot I haven't blogged in a month!". So when I said it again to someone today and thought, "OH SHOOT I haven't blogged in 2 months!" I realized I had to practice what I preach and commit to blogging once a week or at least once every two weeks. I expect all of you to hold me to that, especially you solution providers!

Blogging helps with Channel Marketing.

What better way to get back in the groove then to write some key tips on blogging? Here you go, 5 tips for better blogs:

1. It's a blog, not a text book! People don't like reading super heavy text blogs unless they are technical in nature and then they still want to see pretty pictures. People love numbered lists (you see what I did there?) so they know how much information they're about to receive. Big hint: the shorter and sweeter the better!
2. Links, links, links! Another thing I probably don't do as much as I should but it's so important to give some link love. If you're reading a great article/post that backs you up or shows a different perspective, link to it. For instance, linking to this great post on 5 Blog Commenting Best Practices is a way for me to show some link love.
3. Don't know what to write about? I wish I had this problem, mine is more getting things out of my head and onto the screen. If you are having a bit of bloggers' block then simply look at your email. What have people been asking you about the past few months? How did you tell them to solve that problem? Throw it in a blog!
4. It's not yet another sales pitch! Your blog is not about promoting yourself or your company, well not directly anyhow. It's about giving away valuable information in the hopes that if someone needs your services in the next 6 /18/24 months they'll know you exist because you have a great blog they've been following for however long OR they did a search for that pain point they were trying to solve and found you.
5. Promote your blog! Get out on all those wonderful social platforms and talk about your blog post. As for feedback, as a question. Simply writing the blog and hoping people find it isn't going to do much for you. You need to amplify your post.

So what did I miss? Any other suggestions for those thinking of writing a blog? (see what I did there again...you see, I said in #5 to ask a question then I asked a question. Get it. Okay, time for Heather to maybe stop typing.)