Persistence and regular blogging are key to SEO success and effectively marketing your business, leadership coach and social media / blogging pundit Bea Fields said by way of introducing her six-week first-of-2013 Wild West of Blog Marketing workshop.
I signed on by way of a refresher, having learned loads from Fields’ Become a Blogging Maniac workshop series (which I last did back in 2010).

So here’s The List of 10 Top wisdoms gleaned from Week One of the interactive webinar — personal reflections and subjective interpretations included.

10: Recommended blogs about blogging relevant to our Week 1 class:

• Blogging Maniac alumnus Jeannette Paladino’s Write. Speak. Sell.
• Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger. Note his audio and video!
• Janine Elias’s Financial Freedom Coach site. Take note, especially. of her YouTube links.
• Added: Bea Fields Become a Blogging Maniac blog.

9: To hone down your niche (particularly challenging for some but regarded as a vital key to marketing and business success), ask the question: “Who is my ideal client? Who is the customer I want to attract?” Try to get inside their heads to gauge what it is they want and what it is you can provide by way of solution.

8. The typical client you work with (or want to work with): What does he or she want? “What problem might have your client tossing and turning at night?”

7. People go to YouTube to look for solutions to solve their problems. YouTube is a great marketing vehicle that can provide both information and credibility. People even like “talking head” videos. Share information. Create traction here around your expertise. Both audio and video are great tools. Look into the Flip and the Kodak Z18.

6. If you put up lots of blogs and videos, you will be rewarded by Google (with high rankings). Similarly, offer worthwhile rewards to woo people to your site and then back to it. You get, for example, a download featuring “60 ways to market your blog” if you sign into Bea Fields’ Blogging Maniac site autoresponder.

5. People looking to buy are keen to find an incentive, meaning the sort the arm-twist that makes them want to commit. Think special offers and promotions. Someone doesn’t just go out and buy a car. They want to test drive it first. Find a way to provide this opportunity. A 15 minute video (or equivalent) could give a taste that will have people wanting more.

4. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (and a blog) remain the social media sites with the most potential traction. You can now customize your YouTube, so look into doing that. People like tutorials. And a 30 minute teleclass might be broken into a 10 minute talk followed by question time. Have three questions prepared in case you don’t get any.

3. Plan your social media strategy and if you’re working with a client, help them plan theirs. Like most things, quality is more effective and worthwhile than quantity. A chunk of time committed just one day a week for blogging and engaging on Twitter and Facebook can prove immensely effective and valuable.

2. Be comfortable quoting your pricing structure. You might have a range of prices or a payment structure. Have your where-to-pay and how-to-pay structures in place. That is different from undercutting yourself, which is when your credibility goes down. It can be good to ask what’s blocking a person from committing. Be direct. For example: “What is your hesitation?”

1. If you can solve people’s problems, you will be in business.