These are great tips, Erica. Thank you! 

Do you have any tips for a blogger who is just starting out? How do I let others know about my blog? I already have very active Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook accounts where I link my blog posts. Is there something other than commenting that will ensure growth for my site?

Thanks, Kneale! I really had to pare down the original ‘take away’ list I had in order to get to the most important ones! Now that it’s up, I think those 3 are doable for the small business owner and that’s what’s key…if we set folks up to fail with unrealistic expectations, we’re not helping anyone. 
Thanks also for the correct link…hopefully, folks will figure it out if they don’t see your link.  Can’t wait to see your post!

Absolutely right, Kneale! Should have peeked first…before speaking in general terms.  Irene, I agree, Those donation requests have the potential to drive people away, rather than keep them there.

Great video (as always), Erica! So glad to see you here. These are fantastic tips, especially for someone just starting out. I think goals and a realistic posting schedule are SO important. I think too many times people don’t know where they’re going when they start out and it becomes haphazard. And, equally as bad, people often bite off more than they can chew. When you do that, it’s easy to burn out…and fast!

Hunt,
Thanks for stopping by and glad I could give you some ‘homework’ for your flight time! Hope you can draft some goals that will work for you! 

You’re right, the link has a type-o! Just remove one of the w’s and it should work – although I like your description quite a bit!  http://www.allisondevelopmentgroup.com  You can also find me on twitter @ericamallison:disqus 

Leo,
Thank you and nice to meet you!  I’ve seen your name over here before, so I feel like I know you a little bit!  Goals are really important to me and as a small business owner I feel it is my duty to have them or I’m wasting my time and my client’s time and that’s not ok. 

This is excellent advice which I can pass along to small biz owners I mentor. It’s always good when they can hear about the value of blogging from someone else who presents the case as well as you do. The biggest issue is time to get started blogging when following leads, closing sales and keeping cash flow positive is looming over your head as a business owner. Sometimes to get started I’ve advised a quarterly newsletter which eventually morphs into a weekly blog. Yes, start with something manageable!

My personal goals for my monthly “Designing Success” blog were what I cal client reinforcement; old, existing and potential clients who enjoy my eclectic series of what my readership usually calls articles. Yes, they are often long but I’ve had a slow steady increase in my readership, and of course some subjects hit the jackpot. Another blog I either edit or write is strictly a product marketing blog which will have a finite series of posts (14) and eventually be designed into an eBook “Barn Find Riva”. I also have started a blog for Bank-On-Rain a small non profit I co-founded, and have found the greatest impact is when I keep up the blog on a weekly basis, and now with a savvy intern this summer we will see if expanding the posts to twice a week will have measurable positive impact? My personal blog “images of life” is written whenever the spirit moves me and though was never designed to do anything more then amuse me and my friends has perhaps driven the most traffic to my websites and other blogs; and in essence is often the gateway to people discovering me online.

I find the information Google Analytics gives me both fascinating and illuminating….. but I don’t get exclusively focused on just writing posts that I know will bring up the Google numbers

You have an excellent video presence. Congratulations. 

Ha! Everywhere…if only! I would seriously go crazy if I had to post daily! To answer your question, no I don’t think you need a schedule for normal posts, but I do think there should be some regularity. 

For example, I don’t post on a set day, I typically post as time allows or as I have inspiration.  I strive to do a video each Friday and as you mention, have my Sundays are for Sharing series (that will eventually end), but for my weekly post, it’s ideal if I do it by Wed, but sometimes it doesn’t happen until a Thursday.  When that happens, it seriously impacts my Friday post and reader comments (unable to share as I normally would…reader fatigue .  So, for me, my ‘weekly post’ would be sometime between Monday and Wed.  I usually accomplish this and when I do, I feel like I’m maintaining regularity for me and my readers.

Erica, this was so well done (nevemind the edits in your  mind) and so articulate and organized. I’ve been blogging about the same amount of time as you (I thought you were here for-ever – you’re such a pro) and I have seen similar changes. At first I posted three times a week but now I do two. You wouldn’t think there would be that much difference between 3 and 2 – but wow! 
I use Post Rank and Analytics too – great tools.
Thanks for this,
Lori

Loved your “Happy Place” suggestion Erica!

Unrealistic goals are an easy way to shoot yourself in the foot! Especially when doing something you’re not ninja at quite yet. Especially when you’re a small business owner who’s more likely than not wearing all the hats in the business.

In every business there’s what’s called a “Good enough is good enough” spot. If you’re in charge of doing EVERYTHING in your itty biz, this “Good enough is good enough” spot has to be adhered to less you wallow in perfection paralysis.

So, yeah, maybe you’re not gonna be on the cover of a magazine immediately because you only post once a week and what you post isn’t epic beyond epic! But if you have your measurable goals set in place and this “Good is good enough” strategy is getting you results, you can rejoice in THAT!

And just believe that consistency is a key attribute in all the famous people who make an impact, if fame is what your little heart desires. Keep showing up and taking action it will be hard for you not to improve and become more confident.

Caroline,
So nice to meet you and your many endeavors! I checked out your About Me page and love it. Very clever.   

I think you’re right to advise clients on a quarterly newsletter that can morph into a blog.  Making it manageable and re-purposing existing content is a win-win all the way around.  As I’ve found both online and off, not everyone can read everything all the time.  Give them multiple opportunities.  I have slowly begun to retweet old posts and find that incredibly enlightening, especially with my handy-dandy analytics tools installed.  Like you, I find the results fascinating, but I don’t get tied too much into writing posts to drive up numbers.  I write what I know when I know it and that’s about all I can do!

Thanks for the feedback and the comment!

Hi Marjorie! I’ve of course seen you around here lots and ventured over to your blog as well; it’s a pleasure!

Funny how we can start with no real plan in mind and then suddenly realize wowza, time for some goals! With something so new (for me) it would have been a huge shot in the dark to write them in stone early on.  Even if we do set goals, we of course must reevaluate them and adjust as the climate, our business, and our results do as well.  

Thanks for the comment and support!  Looking forward to your post this week!

Or, as @twitter-217554480:disqus said, the worldwidewobblyweb! An extra w never hurt anyone!
Thanks, Todd.  I really appreciate it!

Clear, straightforward, realistic, actionable tips: great vlog post Erica!

Thanks, Kaarina! Glad you liked it!

I save Fridays for posting my videos. Since they tend to be a bit more ‘fun’ than my regular programming , I think Friday suits them best.  However, with my summer schedule approaching (Fridays are wild cards), I may record on Thursdays and post on Fridays.  Or, shoot them at home…

Re: your idea, I like it!  I have often wondered if my videos might work best on another day of the week…let me know what you do!

Biting off more than I could chew has happened to me, but I managed to swallow (finally), and now that I know just how much I can handle, it’s much easier to stay in rhythm, and to get back into that rhythm, too. Thanks for the reminders, Erica.

Hi Erica, that’s a great video with some great advice for the beginning blogger. The importance of using Twitter to get going is key, esp. since many beginners may also be new to Twitter and not see the connection right away. (This is a point Mark makes in “Tao of Twitter” also). I’m not sure yet how much video you’ve done, as we’ve just “met,” but you should do more. You have the inner calm the camera loves (and that many of us lack!)

Hi Erica- After 12 years in business, and passing on being a Mommy Blogger (great crew, but I just wasn’t laughing enough to join them), I have just last month decided to start a blog (still a Mum and I’m laughing a whole lot better now!).  Your three simple steps, laid out, then summarized….just my speed.  Thank you very much.  

Thanks, Howie! You’ll have to stop by my place on Fridays- I do a video post each week over there! 

My analytics are about as basic as you can get, but they give me enough insight to know where folks come from, how long they stay there, and what content hit home for them (or not).  I don’t always listen to that, since well, it’s my blog , but I do notice!

Re: roping those folks in, I still like to think I do that, but now I do it with a bit of a road map and an understanding of what they’re looking for if they’re ‘window shopping’.  I’m sure you do just fine!  I think you need to guest post over at my spot sometime soon.  I don’t do much of anything on the topic of sales and I have clients and readers that I’m sure would love to read more about it! I’ll connect soon!

Looking forward to those Daiquiris!

Nicely done Erica. Might I suggest that new bloggers consider developing an editorial calendar for themselves. It doesn’t need to be complicated, just a simple outline of posts that they plan on writing. 

It helps to provide a road map that business people can use to see if their content is in line with the overall goals/objectives of the blog

Great suggestion, Jack! And yes, you *can* suggest it! I wish I could say that I maintain an editorial calendar, but (whispers) I don’t! I did for my original small business marketing vlogs, but with my written posts, tend to go with the ideas that pop up and if I get more than one at a time, then I jot down the outlines for the concepts on a legal pad or in a word doc.  Scary, isn’t it?

Not scary at all. I compose on the fly and have for as long as I have been blogging. But an editorial calendar really does make a significant difference and if my blog was tied into a different business I would use it.