You seem to have enough people commenting these days :-).

I wondered where you have been. I haven’t seen a comment from you in quite a while. I was beginning to think you no longer enjoyed what I wrote. :-)

Thanks for the informative post (including the links).

On the self-promotion issues, I think there is a place for this on a blog. Obviously, if every post is a sales pitch, you’ll never gain a readership, but if you build a community, accomplishment announcements are generally appreciated. I’ve done videos of foals born on the property (I’m a breeder, among other things), provided book excerpts for the Horse Sense and Cents ™ series and offered updates on authors and books coming into the mix. Interestingly, these seem to be the posts that get the most comments. Of course, it depends on how you do it, but I think you can provide readers with updates on business matters (with a nudge to refer/buy) without being labeled a self-promoter.

That being said, I agree with what you say about blogging. Honestly, I don’t even waste much time with promoting my sites separately any more. i outsource some link building, but 90% of my traffic is funneled through my blog.

Also, length is relative to what your customers need. I have seen some blogs that the short posts are only 1000 words long, while others consider a 500 word post too much.

It all comes down to knowing your target customer, and giving them what they want. If your target is looking for quick information, or you want to focus more on reader generated content, then short posts are great.

However, if your readers don’t mind sitting a spell, then go for a longer post. Personally, I have a mixture. I don’t limit my writing to a word count. I also don’t write for search engines, I write for my readers. If you use social media and leverage other blogs by guest posting properly, then what traffic the search engines give you is just an added bonus. Take what they give you, but you don’t really need them.

Focus on writing to your readers. Cover your topic well, and try to engage them in the conversation. This way, everyone wins.

Personally, I mix a little soft promotion about every once in a while, but for a hard sell promotion, I put that on my website, and funnel traffic to it through my blog.

Thanks for the great post. Found you through BlogZone on LinkedIn

I have often heard that the ideal post length is 200-300 words. Ideal for what? I find it very frustrating when I am searching for information and I have to wade through many short posts that only skim the surface of a topic and do not give me the real information I seek. On the other hand, I have had to read through very long posts (2,500+ words) to find the nuggets I sought. This too is frustrating. The ideal length in my opinion is how ever long it takes to publish something of real value to the readers… some readers wish to link to… something readers wish to share… something that makes readers want to subscribe to your blog.

How long is that? Well of course that depends on the topic. Good writers tend to embellish because that is what makes them good writers. Any novel could be shortened by taking out all of the embellishment. But then it wouldn’t be a good novel. If you can cover the topic in 200-300 words (just your comment was 170 words), that is great but I believe the most important thing is the quality and value of what you write rather than the length.

Mark, thanks for reading and commenting. I too have heard from clients that fear social media in general (including blogging) that their competition may hear what they are doing. I think that is silly. If a competitors wants to find out what you are doing there are many ways to accomplish it. And even if they know what you are doing, it doesn’t mean they can emulate it. I have often said that if I were document step by step what I was doing and gave it to my competition, they could not implement it, because it is not their vision… they are copying my vision. And unless it is your own, most of the factors necessary to pull it off (e.g. full-understanding of destination, the culture, other moving parts that effect implementation, etc.) will not be present and they will fail. Besides, I don’t view my competitors as my enemies. I have been friends with many of my competitors and we have worked together for common objectives.

Libby, thank you for reading and commenting. I see no problem with what you want to add to a blog post if the rest of what you have written is valuable information that people want to read. If you look at the last sentence in all of my posts, it is dedicated to self promotion. But it is just one sentence after a fact filled article and it is not a hard sale or close. So I see nothing wrong with what you wish to do. On top of that, you should have an obvious link to your website so it is easy for people to visit when they desire to do so. However, if every time I came to your blog to read something you had written, there were pop-up ads, etc. I would stop coming to your blog. That is what your website is for (well, maybe not pop-up ads). Does that make sense?

How do you effectively direct people from the blog to your website?

Is a short line at the end of a blog post too much self-promotion? For example, after a post on the benefits of exercise, is it appropriate to write “to structure your own personal exercise program, visit (website link here).

Thanks,

Libby

I liked your post and have a couple of comments.

When I got started with blogging, like many others, I was focused on self-promotion and you’re right to point out that overt self promotion in the blog is counter-productive.

The Blog is really about sharing the quality of your ideas to build mind-share…if your ideas are worth sharing then you will build followers…and they will link through to your Website static pages and landing pages.

What I also find interesting is the fear of blogging, I have met a number of prospective clients that are afraid of either giving away too much to competition in a blog or making mistakes in blogging….making it too technical or too marketing oriented. My advice, feel the fear and blog anyway…your competitors probably are and if you are not blogging then you are at a competitive disadvantage.

All the best,

Mark

1. The ideal blog length is 200-300, should it truly take 3-4 hours?

2. What about SEO, titles and the like. Example, 70 Characters is the ideal length of a blog title and the beginning of the title should front loaded with your keywords you are trying to “get found” for.

3. Social Media Integration. I’m surprised you’ve settled into the two most popular ones. It’s important to take some time and make sure bloggers find a social media community where there is less noise and have the highest probability of being interested in what you are writing in addition to the mainstream folks.

4. The contrast between a blog vs a website. A blog is one aspect of a website and if a website is built for lead generation, it to should have many of the same qualities you associated with a blog.

Again, this is a good post, provocative and reinforces the importance of blogging.