A guide to taking your blog to the next level
Topics covered include: blogging strategy, content creation & inspiration, techy adjustments and promotional methods plus loads more advice and tricks from me.
Download this great guide for free, and if you’re feeling generous say thanks with a Tweet 
The Olympic torch relay route will be hitting East Sussex by storm next year, the list of towns it will be passing through has been announced and locally the ones to mention are Eastbourne, Bexhill and St Leonards before stopping at an Evening Celebration in Hastings on Tuesday July 17, 2012.
The flame then continues through Hastings and Rye on Wednesday July 18, 2012 before continuing its journey to Kent and around the country.
The 70 day Olympic Torch Relay, will start at Land’s End, Cornwall on the morning of May 19, 2012. And as part of its journey through East Sussex, it will also stop at one of the country’s most iconic coastal landmarks – the Seven Sisters.
Sebastian Coe, chair of LOCOG said: “We are thrilled to confirm that several towns and villages in East Sussex will act as host locations for the Olympic Flame, extending an invitation to people to welcome the Olympic torch relay during its journey around the UK.
“This is the UK’s moment to shine and I want to encourage people across East Sussex to start planning how they can be part of this once in a lifetime opportunity and show their support for the inspirational torchbearers chosen to carry the Olympic Flame as we count down to the start of the Olympic Games.”
Hastings’ Time To Shine
With this confirmed announcement it’s an ideal opportunity, with the worlds eyes upon us, for the local businesses and residents of Hastings to come out and show just how great we are and how great our t0wn is. Hastings has such a mix of businesses from small to large, service providers, creatives, industrial and so on.
I’ve never come across a place like Hastings before for the kind of mixed “multi-cultural” -business scene. And it’s time to celebtrate it to bring in some much needed tourism and industry into the area – that we could all benefit from.
So come on Hastings, it’s time to shine
“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – Source unknown
Like the quote above? Me too, I love it. It begs to the question…
Are you running?
The great thing about the online world is that it even outs the playing field between massive businesses and small businesses. As most of the tools online are free, social media, seo etc it comes down to not how BIG you (lions) are or how much money you have, but instead it’s what you know and how you do it (gazelles).
If you’re a small business and you are running (online) and your massive competitor isn’t, who will get the online sales?
They key is, keep running!
So then, this is my very first proper blog post since moving over from Atkinsbiz.com to my shiny new site here at liamatkins.co.uk, re-branded and up-to-date. I will miss my time at Atkinsbiz – a family run affair, however I’m really looking forward to the future, it’s bright and…from my background and site colour scheme, a kind of electric blue, perhaps?
Anyway, on the subject of blogs, blogging, blog posts etc. I shall be getting back into the habit of posting regularly on this site, aiming for about 3-4 new blog posts a week, about everything from news and tips on using online marketing, to client case studies and event diaries. So do watch this space.
Will anyone read my blog? – Hopefully 
One of my top tips for all new clients is “get a blog” and update it as frequently as you can. Now I cannot stress enough the emphasis on the frequently part of that tip. No one will read your blog if it isn’t updated regularly, not even Google, they will drop it like a stone and we don’t want that!
Blogging = Communicating
Not so long ago massive corporations, nonprofit groups, and individuals all jumped onto the blogging bandwagon.
The more these entities adopted blogging as a viable communications tool, the more blogs were positioned as a silver bullet that would easily solve just about any marketing problem (which is not what I’m saying). For a few years, it seemed as though every director, small business owner, and granny had a blog.
But then a funny thing happened. People realised that blogs weren’t going to solve all their problems, so they grew disenchanted. Suddenly, people viewed blogs as a waste of time, and often a source of spamming. Owners ended up keyword stuffing the hell out of their posts and they lost all meaning and helpfulness. Views were going down and so owners decided they didn’t have time for blogs, especially blogs that nobody read.
But blogs didn’t die! They just evolved into something better and more useful. Instead of using blogs as press release distribution tools, business owners began using individual blogs as channels to have conversations with their prospects and customers. When the conversations happened, people began to recognize how to best use a blog.
Companies now realise that their blogs are channels that can create a link between a customer or prospect and a business. And when they build that link, they’re creating loyalty for their brand and their product or service.
So, to summarise, get that blog, start posting on a regular basis and start that communication going with your customers.
Top tip: To get some instant blog views and immediately open up the communication channel, send out an email to your mailing list telling those on it that your new blog is live. Create a post called “Your Opinions” (or similar), with a brief paragraph asking for their thoughts on your level of customer service, product range etc and ask them to add their thoughts as blog comments. You could even include a prize for the best comment. This will not only be a great exercise in market research, it will also give you some instant unique content and Google love.
Best,
Liam
We are pleased to say we are now featured in:
UK Web Designers – Directory of Web Design Companies in the UK
UK Consultants & Consultancies – List of independent consultants and consultancies.
