Once upon a time there was a small business that started blogging in hopes to increase its website traffic. After spending many hours, months, and even years of consistent blogging, the business grew. The blog turned into a great marketing tool for the business. It became a marketing machine, generating leads, setting the small business apart as an industry leader.  

Small businesses are always looking for opportunities to grow their network and build strong lasting relationships. Having a solid network helps to increase awareness and build your brand, which can help bring in more website traffic.

Have you been noticing the pictures of people that are appearing next to the search results in Google? Do you click on those results, as opposed to results with no pictures? Are you wondering how those pictures appeared, and how you can have your picture show up too? All of this has to do with Google Authorship. Google Authorship is set up by adding a “rich snippet,” a special code and link, to your site. 

“There are more than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.” (Source)

How to Use Your Blog to Attract Customers [Customer Story]

RIDE Adventures is in the motorcycle touring business, a type of adventure travel that many avid motorcycle enthusiasts don’t even know exists. When we recognized that few potential customers would be searching for “guided motorcycle tours in South America,” it became obvious that we’d have to find another way to draw people to our website. If motorcycle riders weren’t searching for “motorcycle tours,” what were they searching for? Hubspot’s Keywords and Blog Analytics tools made this easy to discover, and we’ve been blogging accordingly ever since.

It happens to all of us. We open up a blank document and stare at the empty page for what seems to be an eternity. You have an idea for a blog but don’t know where to start. Or maybe you don’t even have the idea yet. Either way, that blog post is not creating itself.  So, how do you overcome this obstacle and create exciting and engaging content? Follow these four simple steps and you’re on your way to developing an A+ blog.

The following is a guest post from Frank Belzer, a sales development expert and Senior Sales Strategist and VP of Corporate Training at Kurlan and Associates. Frank is a regular contributor to the sales and sales management training curriculum at Kurlan and Associates and is the host of the weekly Internet Radio Show, Sales Talk Live.