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Blogging for Creative Businesses
Mark McGuinnesswww.wishfulthinking.co.uk/blog
A talk for Create KX (www.createkx.org.uk)
at the British Library Business & IP Centre
(www.bl.uk/bipc) 8.5.07
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statcounter here
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What is a blog?
• A website with entries (posts) displayed with (usually) the most recent at the top
• Easy to update
• Easy to search - runs on a database
• Readers can interact via comments + links
• Readers can subscribe to receive latest posts
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So what is a blog?
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interface
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Good News
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Ken McCarthy’s Formula
Online Success
Traffic+
Conversion=
www.kenmccarthy.com
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Main Sources of Traffic
• Search engines
• Links from other sites
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loves blogsGoogle
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The best £8.57 I ever spent on marketing
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Why Google loves blogs
• Fresh content (regular updates)
• Relevant (keywords)
• Authoritative (links)
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Bloggers love links
• Bloggers link generously
• A link from a top blog will help your search engine rankings
• It will also send you quality traffic - people who are interested in your topic
• You gain status from having an influential referrer
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Conversion
Visitors to your blog can:
• Subscribe - via RSS or E-mail
• Leave a comment
• Refer other readers (word of mouth)
• Link to you (digital word of mouth)
• Buy! (maybe, eventually)
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MoreGood News
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Raise Your Profile
• Establish yourself as an authority
• Let people get to know you
• Build trust
• Develop your network
• Learn from readers, bloggers, customers, prospects and competitors
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Networking on Steroids
• Networking is key to success in the creative industries
• Blogging connects you with many more people than you would normally meet
• Combine online and offline networking
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It’s Cheap!
• Most blogging software free or low cost
• Lots of free blog templates available
• Start out low-cost - upgrade when the blog is earning its keep
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A Window of Opportunity
• Small proportion of UK businesses blogging
• Lots of niches up for grabs
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Fun!
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Bad News
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A blog is for life not just for Christmas
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Criticism
• People WILL criticize you
• You are expected to engage with them
• Sometimes it gets personal
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Technical Knowledge
• It’s a lot easier than building a website
• It’s a bit harder than using Word
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The Legal Minefield
• Blogs have same legal status as magazines and other publications
• Libel and defamation
• Copyright, trademarks
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A blog is not enough
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Good Blogs
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Be Yourself
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Don’t Sell
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Be Patient
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Good Business Blogs
• Focused
• Original
• Generous
• Useful / Educational
• Entertaining
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www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/kx
• All the links from this talk
• Information about blogging software and other tools
• An explanation of RSS!
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www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/blog
• More about creativity and creative business
• Free updates via E-mail or RSS
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Mark McGuinness
I’m a poet and a business coach specialising in work with creative professionals and their managers.
My blog about coaching, creativity and business is at www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/blog
and this is my poetry blog - www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/poetry
E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.wishfulthinking.co.uk