Lead Generation with Blogs is a popular topic that can be very effective.

The fact is, you can draw very targeted people to a blog via seach engines if you do a combination of simple things.

1. You need to write regularly because content freshness improves performance.
2. SEO with Blogs is fairly easy with some special plugins, using tagging and knowing what keywords you are targeting.
3. Clear call to action – For Client Acquisition you will want to make sure you have an effective and focused call to action (offer) to encourage more visitors to take action.
4. Linking is also critical, but linking to blogs is often easier and more natural than linking to traditional websites that never change.

This is just a brief summary of why blogging for lead generation is so effective and simple.  As long as you set up the blog from the beginning with an emphasis on lead generation, you are going to find it very effective.

If you want to get the best SEO results with blogs you are in luck.  SEO with blogs is easy because blogs lend themselves to good results.

One important item when trying to get better SEO results is to publish frequently.  With a static website this can be difficult.  With a blog it is very natural and easy.

Inbound linking is another important part of SEO and if you write interesting blog posts, people are far more likely to link to them vs a static website that only focuses on sales.

Blogs can also get improved SEO results because they have RSS built into them and you can use this RSS link to integrate your blog content into other tools that link back to your blog.

In your business, the Purpose of Blogging should be lead generation. Getting good search results with your blog will get the right people to your site and create more good leads.

Be sure to look at the different blog plugins as well, such as the All in one SEO plugin for Wordpress.  These tools are often free and you can get great results with them.

Using SEO for Lead Generation is not new. What we do that is new is that we have a very clear strategy that automates most of the SEO, includes basic link building and focuses on lead generation so that clients can measure ROI quickly and maximize their investment of money and time.

The tricky part is in the word automation. We do not automate article writing. We have a system that automates the targeting of keywords at a very affordable price point. You still need to either write articles or pay someone to write articles. And yes, we have a team of inbound marketing writers that you can work with.

But if you want to do the writing yourself, how long will it take?

This is an excellent question and not easy to answer because every industry and website is somewhat different.  I have seen people get results in one week and I have seen other people take months to build up momentum and see a good return.

The key to remember is that just because we have automated the SEO targeting, we are not automating the content creation, and the more content you produce the more results you will get – faster.

A professional SEO Expert will spend 8 hours per week working on one website with a set of 20 keywords.  They know that is what it takes.

A business owner might feel like they have done their duty by writing two or three articles in a month for inbound marketing, but really that is minimal.  You might be able to get by with that if you have a well established site, but chances are you could do much better by doing more.

I recently started to post more articles on SEO and SEO Speakers.

The reasons are simple.  One SEO Speaker is not ideal for all audiences.  I teach SEO with Blogs and Social Networking.  Also, I drill home the importance of lead generation and ROI for your effort.

My article: Hire the Best SEO Speaker can help people that are doing an event and want to hire an SEO speaker that is a good fit with the audience and their goals.

Take a look at those articles and think about what is best for you.  SEO is a broad set of skills, not one set of established skills.  Some people excel at link building while others use SEO with Blogs to get results.  Just make sure you understand what your goals are and find someone that can help you get there.

Measuring your Business Blogging ROI  is much like measuring the ROI on your business referral efforts.

You give out business referrals, you get business referrals back, and some of those turn into great leads.

With blogging, you link out to people and some people will link into your business blog.  This then results in more traffic, more people on your email list and eventually more sales.

Much like referrals, your business blogging ROI may not be easy to measure because it could take months for that link to actually generate business for you.

What things can you meansure to know if business blogging is working for you?

• Lead Generation
• Inbound Links
• Blog Comments
• Email Subscribers
• RSS Subscribers
• Twitter Followers

Business Blogs are also excellent for SEO with Blogs.  This can be measured by your SERP Ranking in Google for your blog and your organic search traffic.

Keep the metrics simple and understand which numbers actually lead to more money for your business.  While measuring your business blogging ROI may not be an exact science, you can become closer than you thought.

Why does Corporate Blog Software improve your SEO?

The blog software itself should greatly enhance the search engine optimization because corporate blogging software should only have a few goals – one being search results and another being lead generation.

But how well your corporate blog software improves your results also depends on the research and implimentation of the site.   Here are some things that you should consider when setting up a corporate blog.

1. Keyword research – are you targeting keywords that have traffic but do not have too much competition?
2. Optimization – does your corporate blog software automatically optimize based on your keyword targets and does it keep content fresh?
3. Multi-author – Does your corporate blog have the ability to allow many people to do Blog Writing?
4. Is the corporate blog an Inbound Marketing engine that will get you a good return on your investment?

These are just some of the things you should consider to enhance the SEO with Blogs as well as produce actual corporate sales and lead goals.

For a small business that is looking for a cheap SEO service, a business blog is just the answer.

While a good SEO specialist is worth every penny of the thousands of dollars a month they charge, they are often out of the reach of the small business.

If you are a small business owner and you like the idea of getting great business SEO results, you really need to consider a business blog software solution.

What you need to know about your business blogging solution is that a normal blog will not get as good of SEO results vs a business blog that has been set up with search engine optimization and lead generation as the primary goals.  SEO with Blogs works best if you are planning that from the beginning.

What is your Marketing Target Market Profile and what are those people searching for?

If you want to get more lead generation with blogs you are going to have to know your target market and know what your target market is searching for.  To market to your target market with a blog, you need to know what kind of information they are searching for if they are looking for your product.

When Buzzoodle sets up a lead generation site that uses blogs, we begin by doing the niche keyword research figure out what words are being searched on and how hard it is going to be to rank well for those keywords.

SEO with blogs can be extremely effective.  And if you set up a blog as a lead generation tool, you are going to get a great Blogging ROI if your product is the kind of thing people do searches to find.

Your Marketing Target Market Profile can be a combination of what you already know about your target clients, a good look at your keywords that currently generate traffic for you, keyword research and even surveys where you ask your clients how they found you and what they would search for to search for your product.

For years I have been saying, “You can do this.”  and I stand by that.

You can create buzz yourself, but you can create more buzz faster with an assistant that really focuses on buzz.

I hear from people all the time that tell me they know they CAN create buzz, but they do not have the time or could not stick to it long term.

In the past, we did not really have options for these people because you either had to hire me, and I work on only a few projects at a time, or you had to train people in the organization, which many people did not want to do.

So here it is:  The Virtual Buzz Assistant Network

We find great people that want to work from home and be your buzz-only Virtual Assistant.

To do this successfully, we needed to work out a system where clients work directly with the virtual assistants.  So it is a placement system where we look at your project or need and forward you our best members for your consideration – and you pay them directly.  This keeps the cost low for the client and puts the pressure on the assistant to perform well or lose the client.

We stay involved if someone requests monthly oversite by us (yes, there is an additional fee) and we also do satisfaction surveys frequently to help everyone get the most out of the relationships.

Best Use – Clear Marketing Goals

The best way to use this service is to set a clear marketing goal, like “I want to increase my email newsletter subscription by 3,000 people.”  If you just say “I want buzz.” it is less likely to succeed.

If you already do SEO, Web Design or Traditional Marketing, you can either work with Virtual Buzz Assistants to offer new products, or you can join and add the services to what you offer personally.

Our current biggest need is to get more Virtual Buzz Assistants signed up.  It takes some time to go through the basic certification and we have several clients on waiting lists for when we have a bigger selection of Virtual Buzz Assistants.

If you have questions about either end of the program, feel free to contact me.  Thanks for reading.

If you are a regular reader, you know that our thing is creating a little buzz all the time with as many advocates as possible. Doing that can lead to a long tail effect for buzz and grow your organization.

I had a form up where you could sign up to get information on my book, Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing as it nears release. I have been promoting it in a variety of small ways, and the funny thing is that each different way gets me a little more results.

• My Network – My personal network is the only thing that has resulted in a lot of interest right away. Some people have pre-ordered copies for all of their employees already.

The rest are all about even. All of the following areas have generated 1-5 people interested.

• My Squidoo Lens – Had I not taken 15 minutes the other night in bed to update my Squidoo Lens, I would have lost out on a couple of interested people.
• This Blog – Even with 50-150 readers a day, this blog has underperformed with sign ups. Only a few.
• eNewsletter – I have not made the announcement in our eNewsletter yet, but it landed in someone else’s and resulted in someone being interested.
• Trackback on Seth Godin’s Blog – Making comments and doing trackbacks on popular blogs also generate interest, and has generated conversions.
• Google Search – Yes, even the traditional search engine is bringing in contacts, and I didn’t even pay anyone for SEO.
• The great unknown – Several people have personality flaws and refused to let me know how they found the page. I might delete them, but then again, I might not.

This is in about 10 days of working at it in my spare time. The real lesson here is that Buzz Marketing should not be about hitting a home run. It should be about creating a little buzz here, a little buzz there and building it into a roar that sticks around and grows.