Todayâs interview features business journalist professional, Mike Consol âŚ
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Iâm a lifelong newspaperman and have spent almost my entire professional career working for business journals, and the last 17 years with American City Business Journals, publisher of 40 business journals across the United States.
When, how and why did you get started with blogging @ MikeConsol.com?
After being laid off because of the economic slump I decided to start my own corporate training and Social Media strategies practice. The core of any good Social Media program is a blog.
How long did it take you to get you to where you are now, and what would you say to our readers who are already tired and frustrated of not seeing any results from their blogging?
I always tell people to not expect results for at least six months, and a year is probably more realistic. The truth is I started to see results in just three months of blogging twice a week. Those results came in the form of feedback from people I didnât know and improving search results. For example, when I Google my name the first result that shows up is my website; the second result is my blog. It didnât used to be that way. Before my LinkedIn profile was the first result.
What are the TOP areas I should concentrate on when blogging?
1) Make sure you blog is integrated into your website, not separate. (I know many people operate blogs only that look like websites. Thatâs fine.)
2) Blog at least twice a week to get real results.
3) Make sure your blog posts offer value to readers or you wonât accumulate an audience.
Do you have a formula for attracting traffic to MikeConsol.com ?
1) Create accounts at 20 or more Social Media sites to distribute your blog postings and drive traffic. Donât just go with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. There are dozens more and you can hit them in one fell swoop by creating an account at Ping.fm.
2) Join the appropriate LinkedIn groups and seed them with your blog postings. I find this to be most powerful.
3) For your longer posts, 500 words or more, post them to magazine sites such a iSnare and ezinearticles. This gets you wider distribution.
4) If you have the time, post comments on other blogs, ones that are similar to yours. If you make smart comments people will visit your blog to see what you have to say.
What would you say is the one most important thing you’ve learned about blogging?
When you shine light on others they will shine light back on you. Blogging is not a zero-sum game. Direct your readers to other great content and theyâll come back to you for more.
What’s the biggest mistake you made getting started in blogging?
When I first started uploading my blog posts to magazine sites like iSnare, ezinearticles and Article Dashboard, I was posting the exact same article as appeared on my blog. This was a mistake. Be sure to change your article so itâs not an exact replicate of whatâs on your blog or Google might not give your blog credit as the original source. I simply add one new sentence to each paragraph for the magazine version of my blog postings.
So how do you make money online with your blog?
I offer corporate training and Social Media strategies, so when people discover me it gives me a chance to turn them into clients.
Who are your favorite bloggers and why?
Seth Godin, because his stuff is short, frequent and insightful.
What are your blogging plans for the near future? And what do you expect others do once they finish reading your interview?
Keep on keeping on. Blogging is for the long haul. I expect to keep coming up with subjects of value to my readers and deliver them in an easily digestible format. My expectation of others is to learn from what I do â and to learn from many other bloggers, just as I have.
Thank you for sharing your blogging advice with us.
P.S. If you have any questions or suggestions on todayâs interview, comment below [I want to hear from you]âŚ
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