MANY YEARS AGO I spent $100,000 in advertising in one year. But I didn’t make truckloads of money and became utterly exhausted with the sales process. Yet I still see companies using this approach today: Selling short courses for over-inflated prices to recoup the money they spend on advertising.

When I spent that exorbitant chunk of money on advertising, I then had to hire more people to sell the courses. I had to train these people about what was in the courses, and train the trainers and, well to cut a long story short, spend so much more on resources and overheads that I didn’t make a huge sum of money out of the whole venture at all.

More to the point was that the advertising spend equated to eyeballs (traffic) but not necessarily the follow through (conversion).

Yes, the advertising did generate exposure. People recognised my name and my business name, but did this equate to more money in our pocket? I liken this exactly to website traffic versus conversions. I got a whole lot of traffic, but by the time the outgoings were catered for, the conversions weren’t enough to sustain it.

There is a better way

I thought to myself there has to be a better way — and years later, I’ve found it. I knuckled down to simply helping people; no strings attached. Give people useful, free information and see if they grow to like you and follow what you do, recommend you to others, use you in the future etc.

Help people; no strings attached. Give people useful, free information and see if they grow to like you and follow what you do, recommend you to others, use you in the future.

In turn, this basic desire to help people, helped my business get discovered for free on Google. Yep, the answer seems too easy to be true. But it isn’t and I’ll cover how.

Is there really that much you can write about bookkeeping?

I created a fairly fancy website using WordPress (yes, 10 years ago it was pretty sophisticated to create a WordPress website) and started writing a business blog. When it began, I was mainly writing about accounting courses and bookkeeping — and yes, there is loads you can write about for the right audience!

This digital marketing system is referred to as “Content Marketing” because you need to generate “content”, but let’s just call it “blogging”.

I should confess that, at the time, I didn’t realise how important AND time consuming blogging would and could be. Every blog post takes at least an hour!

I know, how could one simple little blog post take that long?

In reality, a well-researched blog post (including topic research, finding images, finding the right page(s) to link to, calls to action positioning and strategy) can take several hours.

It’s this that we’ll share with students in our soon-to-be re-launched Content Marketing Course and Services.

Any Google Search using Google Trends will show you just how popular it’s become to use blogs and/or content marketing as an SEO strategy. However, anyone can do it. And the blogs don’t need to be perfect — they just need to be done!

Here’s some research that supports our beliefs.

Google Trends Proves that Blogging is in DEMAND

Google Trends is a great tool for showing whether there’s a demand for search terms you use, or even the services you offer.

It’s an awesome and easy way to tweak the digital marketing you’re already doing to make it more effective.

The important reason to start a business blog is that you’ll help people find the information they want. A bi-product of this is that you’ll get discovered by people willing to pay to have it done.

The important reason to start a business blog is that you’ll help people find the information they want. A bi-product of this is that you’ll get discovered by people willing to pay to have it done.

It all Starts with WordPress

What’s WordPress? WordPress is like a Word Processor and Presentation software program in one. With WordPress you can give your customers information using words, videos, images and animations. It is YOUR place online.

How do I build an online following? If you do a good job with your blog, you’ll build readers. These readers will keep coming back to learn more from you and read what you have to say. They’ll also likely tell others to do the same.

How do I get free, “organic” rankings on Google? Google measures your readership and loyalty. Google rewards good websites by showing them in the free “organic” search results. As more people go to you and spend time at your site, you get higher in the rankings (closer to the top).

You receive our full range of WordPress Training Courses for one, low price.

There are 4 WordPress courses in total. You receive all of them. Beginners’ through to Advanced, which includes administration and hosting information and much more.

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