In the past three days I have had three conversations with three separate business people who represent three completely different industries. In every case there was a common theme. Why blog? Each of these very bright people who are leaders in their respective buisnesses are convinced that blogging is not right for their industry. They are convinced that nobody they would gain as a client would ever read a blog post so writing blogs would be a huge time suck that would gain them little or nothing.

As we opened our emails this morning we experienced a first here at Half a Bubble Out – our first negative blog comment. Not just negative – hostile, harsh, rude, ignorant, irrational, ridiculous – are other words that come to mind. It’s ironic actually, because we’ve been discussing blog comments around here a lot lately, asking questions like: Do they matter? Should we care? How should we moderate them? How long should we leave comments open? Do we respond to every comment? But we haven’t yet had the opportunity – yes it’s an exciting opportunity! – to respond to a very negative blog comment until now. So we of course had to share these internet marketing tips with you about how we responded.  

To give some brief context, one of our company owners, Kathryn, wrote a blog post last week about how she disagreed with a commercial for the Cadillac ELR because it essentially proclaims that the achievements and greatness of America rests in the fact that we don’t take time off, and if we do, it diminishes our earning potential. Read the blog and see the commercial here: The Makers of the Cadillac ELR Commercial and I Simply Disagree.

We are firm believers in blogging. Sometimes we can’t believe that some people are still asking the question “Why blog?” As an inbound marketing agency we have seen first hand the positive effect that blogging can have on your business.

Blogging is not scary. I repeat: blogging is not scary. Anyone can do it – yes, even you! The first thing you should know is that you are not alone. Even big time bloggers wrote a first blog at some point. If you are just starting to get your feet wet with an online strategy for your business, here are some internet marketing tips for a first time blogger.

There’s no doubt that blogging consistently is an effective internet marketing strategy to help produce informational and helpful content on your website. However, it doesn’t end after you’ve finished posting a blog. You can’t expect people to just stumble upon it. That’s why we push it out to social media and share the content with friends, colleagues, industry leaders, clients and so on. But, why stop there? To fully get the benefit of your blog posts you should be sharing them more than once on social media. Continue reading to find out why blog posts should be recycled.

Why blog? How often should I blog? What should I blog about? How do I know what my potential customers are looking for? These are questions we are asking and answering every day as we work with clients in their internet marketing. The first step of any internet marketing campaign is generating traffic to your website. A solid inbound strategy is founded on writing good content and writing it consistently and in a compelling way.

Yesterday marketers and bloggers all over the internet had a mild freak out. Why? All because Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, announced that guest blogging was dead and you would no longer benefit from having them, in fact you may even be punished by Google.

Blogging can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. As an inbound marketing agency we are always trying to set the right expectations for our clients. Especially when it comes to blogging. If you're starting to ask the question, "why blog?" don't give up yet. First identify your frustration, which may be coming from one (or all!) of the reasons below.

Throughout 2013, as part of our Inbound Marketing strategy, we have been blogging and creating downloadable content in ebooks, not just for our clients, but for our own agency. You can find out how blogging has affected us this year here at the Bubble by reading our blog, but here is a little snapshot into our world through the eyes of our faithful office dog, Backup. Backup really does think we all are here to work for her, to open the door so she can come in or out, as well as throw her toys or chase her around the office. So, with that in mind, I wrote an Inbound Marketing version of the traditional poem The Night Before Christmas. Enjoy!

Santa’s busiest day of the year is almost upon us, but what do you think Santa is doing with the other 364 days of the year? He has elves for making the toys and gifts, and Mrs. Claus takes care of the meal preparation so Santa is all about learning the rest of the year. He is looking for valuable information that he can pass on to his friends and neighbors. Recently a small business owner asked Santa the question “why blog” and he had to research a good answer. Since then he has signed up for our blog and he is deeply interested in internet marketing.