How to drive web traffic by outsourcing business blogging to a ...

Tired of lackluster blog traffic? Is your business blog not performing as well as you like? Why not outsource your business blogging activities to a freelance blogger?

If you're sick of seeing other businesses' articles appearing on the front page of Google, and wondering how to get your business website rankings up, then outsourcing to an expert freelance blogger could be the answer.

This article will discuss why outsourcing your blogging activities is a good idea, what to look for in a business blogger, and how to implement a blogging relationship that meets your business objectives.

Why outsource a business blog

I have noticed that the vast majority of businesses I work with (in various capacities, not necessarily blogging and SEO) are either frustrated with their blog's performance, or have given up on the idea of blogging altogether after "wasting time", achieving little to no return.

Attributes of a good business blog

In essence, the business function of a blog is to help increase the visibility and rankings of the company website in Google search (as well as other search engines).

In addition, the blog:

1. must be relevant to the target market of the business, so that the visitors who come to read the blog, also convert into clients or paying customers
2. must be engaging and useful so that authority and trust is built up
3. must be thought-provoking and conversation-worthy so that readers share content socially to drive more traffic and engagement

Why most corporate blogs fail

Most companies understand the above points in theory. The problem lies in the fact that most companies are good at what they do - but they're not skilled bloggers who know how to write SEO enhanced, engaging and informative content that targets the right market and drives traffic.

This is why many corporate blogs fail to have the desired impact, and ultimately fizzle out. Blogging is time consuming, labor intensive and skilled work that is not financially sustainable without some sort of return.

But, the returns on a properly implemented blog can be substantial. Far in excess of the investment, if done correctly.

What to look for in a freelance business blogger

Finding a freelance blogger may take a bit of effort on your part. Here are some tips to help you find the right one:

• Have their own high quality blog: For example, Site prebuilder - SEO, marketing & development strategies for business is one of the top 20 "small business" blogs on Technorati.
• Write for authority sites in your industry: High quality bloggers will likely appear in other high quality news, article and blog sites like Business Insider or Social Media Today (Just a few Site prebuilder has appeared in).
• Have aptitude and intelligence: For example, an IT business will likely want someone with programming, development or Web experience.
• Implement killer SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Experienced bloggers go after certain highly relevant keywords and phrases in each article. This helps to capture first page results to build up traffic cumulatively.
• Possess excellent writing ability: All content should be well written, easy to follow and logically organized. Published authors who also blog are a good place to look.
• Be analytical: Professional blogging is about analyzing traffic and refining content and writing techniques to further increase engagement and ROI (Return on Investment).
• Be web savvy: Bloggers should know about changes in the search industry, social media marketing, and so on.

That's pretty much all you need from a freelance business blogger, but the value they can add from a sustained blogging effort using SEO and social media can start driving serious business your way.

How to work with a freelance business blogger

Naturally, there will be company specific content that you might wish to share on the blog. In this case, you can either add this directly or hand it off to the freelance blogger and ask them to research, understand, collate and summarize the information.

But, for standard company blogging, it is probably best to meet once a month (or Skype for remote bloggers - most likely) to do the following:

1. Discuss the previous month's traffic, engagement, ROI and general blog performance
2. Discuss upcoming blog topics, industry events worthy of coverage, etc
3. Agree on editorial calendar and publishing schedule for the coming month

With the right freelance blogger, an hour a month is the only administrative burden you will incur.

What to results to expect from freelance business blogging

A company blog should be updated at least twice a week. Assuming a few hours of research and writing for each, you are looking at taking on somebody for about 8 hours a week with skilled level pay. Remember, there is no point in going cheap here since, ultimately, the new blog will suffer the same fate through lack of proper SEO, quality and engagement.

It is hard to predict exactly when positive changes will come, because so much depends on Google, the industry, time of year, social media, and so on. However, blogging has cumulative effect. If web traffic increases by 5% one month, then (obviously this is a vast simplification) the same effort the following month should achieve an additional increase in traffic.

Look at blogging as a medium term investment. Monitor the quality of the content being published by your freelance blogger each month to ensure that only high quality content is going on your company website. Then, after 6 months, do a full assessment and make a decision on how to proceed.

A good company blog can make the all the difference for a relatively small investment. It just takes the right combination of skill, technical ability, writing ability, experience, and creativity. It's your job to find someone who brings that to the table.

Speak to me if you'd like to consider taking on a professional corporate blogging service.

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