Don't put AdSense Google ads on a site with low traffic unless you figure out how to cash a check for 18 cents.
Create a site that portrays a successful and knowledgeable professional. That is what people will be looking for when they search your name to find out who and what you are. That is what people use the Internet for, not to search for "I want to buy some insurance" and end up on your site. That will never happen.
I have a blog on blogspot that is set up to get the opinions of Insurance Agents like you! Check it out at The Insurance Buzz. Please leave a moment too.
It is fairly new and I am learning. So far it is moderately easy to put together. I agree with one of the other posters that stated to but it on your site. With blogspot you can set it up there but have it added to your site.
I prefer WordPress because you can customize it to do so many different things. If you start your blog on Blogger (because it is extremely easy to do), that's alright. You can import your posts from Blogger back into WordPress when you get a little more advanced.
The great thing about using a Blog platform is that it is easy to get the Search Engines to pay attention to what you're doing. Most of the Blog's automatically PING the search engines to let them know when you've got new content posted.
If you have any questions, PM me and I'll try to give you more help.
It's clear that you are an SEO specialist because your right - Wordpress is by far better than all the rest. I've tried a few and I find Blogger to be very limiting. If you really know what you're doing, Wordpress can allow you to create a blog that doesn't even look like a blog - it looks like a website. I recently set one up and it is pulling up on Google over and over again under several different search terms. I was even able to get it to pull up for keywords that had nothing to do with my area (example: car insurance for students).
The only down side is that it is a little more technical and in order to take advantage of it, you need to know a little bit about SEO, HTML, and possibly have an advertising background. My suggestion to agents who have no clue about that stuff is see if the person who designs & creates your website is able to do some formatting on your blog for you. Or, if you pay for search engine marketing, see if the company there will give you suggestions or help you out.
I don't mind making suggestions on people's blogs if you want suggestions on how to improve it.
Wordpress has all the power you'll ever need... provided you put up content that provides value and entertainment... not the best place to do your hard-sell. Leave that for later.
I prefer WordPress because you can customize it to do so many different things. If you start your blog on Blogger (because it is extremely easy to do), that's alright. You can import your posts from Blogger back into WordPress when you get a little more advanced.
Mike
Sounds like good advice.
I think I'm moving to that more advanced state because I just started my first WordPress blog. I also have a Blogger blog on a different site.
Both Blogger and WordPress can be hosted on your site.
You will have to know a tiny bit about publishing a website to host a blogger blog. You will have to also know how to create an MySQL a database to get a WordPress blog to work on your site.
The need for the technical knowledge is just for the initial set up. After that they should be easy to maintain.
I just started my WordPress blog so I don't have any feedback, but I've noticed that whenever I put a long tail keyword on my Blogger blog it shows up in Google's SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) within 24 hours.
Keyword: "health insurance"
Long Tail keyword: "health insurance for left handed people in New Mexico with acne and claustrophobia"
Long tail keywords are keywords that have less volume but also less competition and that are actually being typed into search engines (unlike my ridiculous example).
You can save yourself the headache of learning MySQL by hosting your WordPress blog with a hosting service that will set it up for you and keep it updated. Look for a hosting service that uses Fantastico.
The hosted version is continually updated by WordPress. If you host WordPress yourself, you'll need to update it yourself or use a hosting service that will do it for you with a few mouse clicks.
No
To help with some of the confusion here
You can have a wordpress blog hosted on your own domain or hosted on wordpress.com
It is not generally a good idea to host a business blog on wordpress.com. there are too many limitations on the ways to customize or monetize the blog.
Adding adsense ads to an insurance blog is like trying to make money as a host to the neighbor kids lemonade stand.
Most web hosts provide c-panel fantastico which will allow you to install and update your wordpress code onto your domain incredibly easily. you dont need anyone to do it for you. 3 clicks you're done.
One important tip to setup and install wordpress on your domain.
If you already have an existing website, (home page,content, etc) make sure to create a folder to install the blog onto and do not let fantastico install it on the root domain.
For example
The install will ask you what folder to install on so just type "blog" this will proceed to create a separate part of your site that exists independently as your blog.
You can create link to it from your homepage and its existence wont interfere with anything previously created on your site
So if someone types in your site address like bobsinsurance dot com, they will still find you.
The blog will be reachable at bobsinsurance dot com/blog.
If you install into the root folder, the wordpress content management script will try and organize all of your content pages ( like your contact us, give me a quote,etc )and generally drive you nuts and possibly ruin any backlinks you have circulating out on the web.
An effective blog should be personal, interesting, engaging and especially optimized.
The best success will come from planning your posts to include relavent key search terms that your customers use to find your services, especially in the title and the tags. The posts have to be readable and entertaining enough for someone to want to come back, so stuffing "buy insurance, shop insurance and compare insurance" 75 times each into a 650 word post wont impress your customers or the search engines.
There are content creators that will write your blogposts , keyword optimized, for less than 15$ a post. some even lots cheaper, but english is their second language.
Basically blogging is easy
It will generate goodwill, networking and leads, and eventually cashflow if you stick with a well optimized plan.
Adding small video content to explain key points is also a great technique. keep home videos under 5 minutes, interesting, host em on you tube, and embed them into your posts. some of the complicated explanations about solvency, liability are more easily inderstood if they are spoken to someone rather than just left there to be read. talk like you're talkin to a buddy.
Person to person.
Professionalism is nice so dont cuss, but it dont gotta be perfect to get your point across.
Best to just do it.
A blog allows you to put a face on a fairly sterile and faceless topic.
Make it about people
Not policies, variables and percentages
And you will develop rapport.
More human, more rapport. more rapport more sales and more money.
Wow - lots of details there! Thanks - they're helpful. Wordpress.org is a program you have to download, Wordpress.com is an online-based program that is much easier to use (exactly like Blogger). You do all your posting and editing online and you can access it from any computer, like email. The Wordpress.org version is much better but you definatley should ask your web designer to help you with it or handle it for you.
Re: Blog site recommendation
Re: Blog site recommendation
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