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brushmasters

Is anyone out there writing for or using a blog for their contracting business?

If yes or no, what are the best blogs out there for subcontractors? Which blogs do you read?

StairJunkie

Are you looking for blogs to follow or tips on writing your own?

As for writing your own, it can be a good idea if you plan to keep it updated, at least once a week these days and more if possible. You'll naturally gain search engine optimization as your writing mentions various keywords. I look at it as an ongoing series of topics so if you miss something in one blog post, you can always come back to it in another. You don't have to be formal as in a newspaper article, I believe people expect a more casual read with blogs. Think about what categories to organize your topics into to. Identify what topics people most likely to read your blog would be interested in, repeat customers. This is just a rough overview, do a search for blogs on this forum and you'll find more threads discussing various aspects of blogging.

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brushmasters

StairJunkie,

Thanks f[PHP]or the reply. We have started a blog for our business - I guess I am only allowed to post URLs to other sites after making 15 posts or more.

Our "categories" are:

• Design (trends, tips, knowledge)
• Paint (FAQ's, trends, tips)
• Drywall
• Getting to Know Us

I haven't found to many local companies using blogs for a subcontracting business like ours. So, I was wondering if people on this list would recommend some good blogs that contractors write that they read.

Any suggestions?

silvertree

I have 2 blogs, just go to my signature.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

karunnt

I don't think you need to find another contractor's blog to see a good one. Look at many different blogs and see how they write, what they focus on, how they look.

People like to be informed but they also like to be entertained. So you need to look like an interesting person. If you talk like an accountant describing new tax laws the general public is not going to tune in.

Here are the top blogs in marketing.

http://adage.com/power150

And just like the cutting edge in auto technology is at the racetrack, the bleeding edge in marketing is with the marketers.

brushmasters

Nice find. Thanks for the feedback and link. From the list http://adage.com/power150/index?star...rder=desc&kwd=

Which of these blogs do you read and find interesting?

karunnt

I haven't read most of them but I look at these regularly. I'll have to look at the rest when I have more time.


Seth's Blog (probably best pure marketing blog)
Search Engine Land
Sugarrae SEO Blog

SelfContract

E-Blog = Electronic Diary = Online/Personal Journal.


In order to keep it fresh, active, & lively, these are conditions:

1. Daily or at least Weekly content update with new posts, comments, stories, etc.

2. More pictures will bring more readers & attention.

3. Regular responds to readers' below comments or emails is the must for keeping blogs lively, famous, Google active, & serving your purposes.

StairJunkie

top blogs i enjoy; most are not related to construction but you don't want to be in a bubble, gotta get info from many areas
search engineland
pro blogger
tech crunch
life hacker
wired
readwritelab
stair****.org (it's legit, fully work safe, the name made me want to check it out... good marketing)
zen habits
xkcd.com - cartoons for when you need a quick laugh or break

found this guy through twitter... http://www.sawdustislife.com/

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karunnt

I saw this and thought it would fit here.

http://www.shoemoney.com/2009/04/06/blog-or-news-site/

karunnt

I found these construction blogs recently. BOTW Blogs usually only lists higher rated blogs. Once your blog is established, getting listed there would be like gold.

http://blogs.botw.org/Business/Construction/


http://blogs.botw.org/Home/Home_Improvement/

Hammer_Nail

I have a Free Wordpress Blog, I don't take it that seriously, but it seems to elp my SEO allite.

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renet2

Well. I use Wordpress blog. the free version works fine as well as blogspot also works. However, I prefer to not use the free version so all my blogs are domains I own and are hosted on the server space which is rented.

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George Z

Ok here is my Painting Toronto blog.
Just started, still don't know how to work a lot of it, but it should get easier.
Apparently I have to post about seven times a month, or more.
Do you ever run out of topics?

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silvertree

George, one way to get content is to share articles, I have 2 blogs and have learned a few things after 40 articles.
400 to 500 words is plenty.
Good content with 300 words is great.
I have a somewhat serious blog on my website, and a kind of edgy one on my dedicated blog site, the edgy one gets me traffic.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

George Z

To be such a prolific writer...
You have so much good stuff,
I will have to spend sometime in your blogs

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silvertree

You can borrow my articles, just add a link after my name, you could just say something like "Paul Lesieur in Minneapolis says" or "another contractor I know", anything like that.
Sharing is good for both blogs, we both get recognized. Check it out and think about it, I do 2 or 3 articles a week, but I send some off to Ezine.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

George Z

Thanks, I will quote you for some content (with a text link) when I ran out of ideas.

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MattCoops

I don't think blogs serve that great of a purpose for contractors in particular. If you're using it merely for search engine marketing, then coming up with articles that are compelling, offer insight of information, and maybe have a bit of humor, and then linking to those articles within the text of your main web site pages, will significantly help "optimize" your site.

Let's say you're a painting contractor, and within the body of your interior.html page you have a paragraph that ends: "and ABC painting can help you choose just the right color for your walls and trim."

And within that, the word color is hyperlinked to an article page describing things like color theory, lighting, and the affects color gives on mood. Now, not only are you building great content within your site, but you're giving your site "link juice".

If you do a good job in writing this article on your site, you may be so lucky to have other people around the internet link to that article as well. Now you're building even more of that link juice I was talking about. And we all know how the search engines loves seeing naturally aquired inbound links to your site.

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Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

George Z

You mean like this one on office painting colours

I agree.
I am not too sure about the blog thing yet,
I am just exploring it by doing it.
People that know more than me (like Paul here)think there is merit to it,
so why not try.

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