The Newbie’s Guide to Starting a Blog

Are you interested in starting a blog but have no clue on where to start with this process?

Don’t sweat it. Take a deep breath (seriously, inhale and exhale…slowly) because we’ve got a newbie’s guide to starting a financial advisor blog right here. This guide will teach you how to get your blog going and doing the things you ultimately want it to do – generate traffic to your website.

Blogs are a great tool to have on your website. A blog is what I like to call one of the essential building blocks to a successful website. Not only does a blog present valuable and informative content for your clients but also helps promote your website, increase your online presence and SEO rankings and of course, helps bring in traffic.

“A blog is one of the essential building blocks to a successful website.”

A blog is a “must-have” on your website and with these 3 steps you’ll be building a successful blog in no time!

#1. Have Good Content

The design of a website does the job of attracting viewers and ensuring ease of usability, but good quality content is what entices people to stay on your site. Actually, let me modify the last part there- not only stay, but return to your site.

Remember, prospective clients land on your website for a specific purpose, whether it's to learn more about your firm and services or to simply receive resources, it’s essential to provide content that gives you a competitive edge in a world where every corner is another advisor doing the exact same thing.

“It’s essential to provide content that gives you a competitive edge in a world where every corner is another advisor doing the exact same thing.”

So how does this apply to blogging? Good blog content won’t only lure readers on to your site but also encourages them to share your blog through various social media platforms.

If you are stuck on what content to place in your blog, AW offers a periodical content library loaded with many articles, presentations and videos about financial planning.  Click here to learn how to use the periodical content library and click here to learn how to add a blog entry!

#2. Organize Your Blog

Create a Main Blog Page

Now that you have added in your first blog entry,  you will have to create a main blog page. This means creating a page that automatically displays a list of all the blog entries created through the dashboard. It looks something like this:

AW Website: www.investsafeharbor.com

To do this, a blog list placeholder will have to be inserted onto a new page, possibly titled “blog” or whatever you want to name your blog really.

Afterwards, you can either link this blog page to a button or to a navigation menu tab.

AW Website: www.investsafeharbor.com

Categorize Your Blogs by Tags

Did you know you can add a categories menu on the side of your blog? This gives viewers the option of choosing which blog posts to read based on their topics.

AW Website: www.investsafeharbor.com

When you were creating your blog post, you may have noticed a “tags” field. This is where you categorize your blogs. For instance, if your blog post is about student loans, you may wish to insert the tag “loans”. This way, when someone clicks on the tag “loans” in the categories menu mentioned earlier, any blog posts with this tag will display.

#3. Promote It! 

Now it’s time for the fun stuff and my favorite part of all – promoting your blog!

There are several ways to do this. With Hootsuite, you can automatically post your blogs to various social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and many more.

You can also choose when should Hootsuite promote your blog. Heck, you can even do so while you’re asleep!

The second method pertains to the use of keywords. Keywords are the search terms that are inputted into Google (or any other search engine) that searchers use to describe what they’re looking for. This means that if you add keywords that are related to your blogs, there’s a higher chance that someone, who types in one of those keywords, will find your website through their searches. If you would like to read more on this, click here.

This is Just the Beginning

We have covered how to create a blog post, a main blog page and have even gotten you started on promoting it through social media and through the use of keywords. But the road to a successful blog doesn’t just end there; this guide to starting a blog contains just the basics.

Happy blogging!

Interested in learning more? Advisor Websites will be hosting a webinar on August 10th to share best practice strategies and solutions for digital marketing!

To learn more about Advisor Websites and the company's web building platform, visit the website: www.advisorwebsites.com or contact Nitesh Verma at niteshv@advisorwebsites.com or (604) 800-3307.