4 Lies Pro Bloggers Like to Tell” plus 1 more

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 09:00 PM PST

So I can’t claim any astonishing success like the Huffington Post, Perez Hilton, or Mashable. But I did run a past blog that garnered 6,600 visits per month and more than 700 subscribers.

And if I’d have kept working on it, it would have grown even more. It probably wouldn’t have made millions like those big names, but suffice it to say, it could have done quite well (and did in some respects).

So, what really makes me angry is how some very experienced and successful bloggers make it sound like a cinch to get your blog to the top.

…If you just follow their system (which surprisingly you have to pay for), they say, you can create an ultra-successful blog.

I don’t think that’s the case at all.

Here are some of the blogging lies I hear, and the harsh reality of blogging:

1. Anyone Can Do It

If anyone could start a successful blog, then we’d have thousands of blogging millionaires, right? Have you ever watched the show “Mad Money,” hosted by Jim Cramer?

He gives stock investing tips you’re supposed to follow to get super rich from the stock market. A joke article by The Onion had a headline that once read something like “Man Who Watches Mad Money Becomes Billionaire.”

Needless to say, that didn’t happen. And I think it’s the same case with blogging. The reality, in my opinion, is only a lucky few can be the big winners.

2. Promote on Social Media, Do Organic SEO, and You’ll Get a Big Audience

They tend to recommend the same old cookie-cutter tactics. If you just promote yourself on enough A-list blogs, get active on social media, and build some links, your blog will explode with growth.

The truth is that it takes long hours and hard work to get your blog growing. These guys like Jon Morrow, Darren Rowse, and Brian Clark put in 60+ hours worth of work every week into their blogs. And that doesn’t include the support staff they have helping them do all the work!

3. You’re Going to Make Serious Money

You might…and you might not. You certainly can, but remember that blogging is a business just like anything else. Not all businesses succeed.

Personally, I made a couple thousand bucks from a past blog, but I didn’t try to make money off of it all that much. The cash I have received is helpful though.

If you want to turn a blog into something that generates $4,000 – $6,000 per month though, you’re going to have to work very hard.

4. It Doesn’t Take That Long to Get There

Now some of these bloggers claim to show very fast success – just months or so. And it’s true. But in many cases they already had connections with other powerful people, so they could get the word out right away.

That cuts out a lot of time that it normally takes to grow your blog. With SEO Moz, which was grown from scratch, Rand Fishkin spent 80 hours per week working on the blog. It took him 2 years to get any real traction going, and he hit a debt ceiling of $500,000 before it finally got going in the right direction.

Now that’s not a typical story, but you get the point: blog success is tough to come by.

Pro bloggers make it sound “so easy that anyone can do it” because they have something to sell you…people only buy those things which make life easier, and not those which tell them the truth.

The Truth about Blogging

If you’re looking to make money off blogging, just don’t be looking for a fast dollar. And, keep in mind that most blogs never make more than a few hundred bucks each year.

I’m not trying to discourage you from pursuing your dreams (I’m all for that), but it’s important that you know what you’re getting into and to have realistic expectations if you choose to take the leap.

If you are going to blog to create a business, the safest way to do it is to have a part-time or full-time job going, and then doing the blogging on the side.

How do you succeed with blogging?

The best thing to do is to have either a unique idea, or an incredibly unique perspective on a given subject. SEO Moz, Mashable, Huffington Post, Copyblogger…they all have very unique perspectives, or at least they were unique at the time they were founded.

If you’re thinking about starting an internet marketing blog, good luck…there’s only about a million of those out there. It’s better to come up with a totally original idea.

And even when you have that idea, it could take 2-3 years or so before it really gets traction. Hard to hear, I know, but better to know the truth than to think you’re going to get rich overnight and then get hit by reality.

Why my Blog Doesn’t Have that Much Traffic

With my copywriting and SEO blog, I only get around 100 hits or so per month, and I’m totally fine with that. The whole point of my website is to convert copywriting clients that I contact by cold-call or e-mail.

Plus, to be honest, there are successful copywriters out there with 10+ years of experience, so I can’t really compete with them all that well at this point.

Plus, it’s not all that differentiated…yet. It’s just kind of another copywriting blog, with a little bit about SEO, although it does have some pretty good examples of what works and why that you don’t find on other blogs.

But for now, the blog is enough to justify to clients that I know what I’m doing and can help them with their copywriting needs too.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and keep blogging your butt off and good things will happen!

Got a question? Let me know in the comments below:

Image Credit: http://flic.kr/p/e2PxF6

The post 4 Lies Pro Bloggers Like to Tell appeared first on Weblogbetter.

How to Improve Local Search Results

Posted: 22 Jan 2014 12:47 PM PST

Website owners face a dizzying array of tactics when trying to rank their sites in search engines. With the advent of more sophisticated search engines, firms now have two distinct algorithms to worry about.

In addition to the regular search results familiar to internet users, both Google and Bing have an entirely different set of results known as local search. Local search is completely distinct from regular search. High rankings in the regular search engine results do not necessarily translate to being visible in local search. As such, business owners looking to remain competitive online should create a unique strategy for local search.

What is Local Search?

Over the past three years, both Bing and Google have implemented distinct search algorithms for any search queries considered "local". The definition of a local search varies, but generally falls into one of the following categories:

A search which includes a specific geographic location such as "Honolulu Plumber" or "Plumber on Oahu"

A search which does not include a location, but is considered to be local in intent. A searcher looking for an "Irish bar" is not likely to be interested in a bar in a different state.

Most product or service searches conducted on a mobile device. Search engines treat queries from a mobile device differently as mobile searchers are different than desktop users.

Website administrators and SEO consultants should note that a search engine may treat a query as a local query even if it includes no geographical terms. As such, it is imperative for websites to provide information useful to local searchers in visible locations rather than simply targeting local search phrases.

How to Improve Local Search Rankings

Unfortunately for business owners, local search rankings are entirely different from normal search rankings. In effect, sites are competing in two entirely different algorithms. The tactics that work for a regular search result do not necessarily translate to success in local search results.

However, there are three specific factors that are both important for search engines and easy for businesses to improve:

Review Sites and Citations

Websites which are eligible to compete in local search algorithms are distinct from general sites throughout the internet. Notably, a website must be connected with an actual offline business for search engines to consider them for a local result.

Real-world companies generally appear in popular review sites like Google+ Local or citation directories like regional business associations. Thus search engines can use a firm's presence or absence from review and citation sites as one way to establish its legitimacy. These online listings are critical for a business competing in the local search rankings.

Name, Address, Phone Number

Always include the name, address, and phone number of your business. Make sure to be consistent with the information. Raj Verma, a manager at local SEO consultant Argon Marketing, notes one memorable example:

"One client had different variations of their name, address, and phone number on sites throughout the internet. Some sites listed their full business name while others used a common abbreviation. The company had moved to a bigger location so some references still used the old address. The company also had multiple phone numbers for different departments listed publicly.

After we spent a month consolidating the name, address, and phone information, the company saw a 200 percent increase in visitors from local search queries. Just having consistent data tripled the amount of visitors for the local client."

On-site Information

Many physical businesses have websites with little mention of geographical area. For example, many restaurants provide a street address without city, state, or zip code on their sites. The business owner and repeat customers may view it as unnecessary to have a city, state, or zip code listed with a street address. But search engines have no way of differentiating one "Main St" from another.

The more detailed the information on a website, the better computer algorithms can match a real-world business to its online website. This link, between the brick-and-mortar firm and its internet presence, is critical to competing in the local search rankings. Simply adding descriptive information about a city or relevant geographic area helps search engines to place a business within a particular region for search results.

Why Local Search Matters

Business owners are often reticent to invest additional resources in an online marketing campaign. Particularly if a business website is already providing adequate information to prospective customers, spending more money on further improvements seems wasteful. Ironically, as search engines gravitate toward an increased focus on local search, it is these currently successful business sites which have the most to lose.

Increased mobile searches, sophisticated local algorithms, and better search engine targeting mean a higher proportion of searchers will be funneled into local search results. Companies that do not adapt their online strategy to local search will see fewer and fewer visitors over time. Local SEO and a focus on local search is the new frontier in the battle for online customers.

By Nolan Kido

This article has been written by Nolan Kido. Nolan works in the technology industry in Honolulu, Hawaii.