The blog is an essential step in moving your potential customers from Twitter, Pinterest, or other Social Media venues to your selling platform. In a lot of cases the blog itself is the place where you want to introduce your readers to your products. It is also a great place to begin developing a deeper level of engagement which can lead towards building a loyal network.

Before we start hitting our readers with product pitches, we need to provide them with something useful that is also free. When I say free, I mean without any attached strings. We are not trying to lure them into a creepy white van with candy as that never ends well. Don't think of it as luring them in as I will tell you now, that is the wrong train of thought. Ideally, your blog should only, at the very most, be 15-20% self-promotion.

Personally, I don't have to hit folks over the head with my book for them to know that I'm an author. The scary book cover over there on the right is kind of a dead giveaway and at the end of this article I will tell them a little more about it. That is enough and the rest of the blog should be quality content that people will want to read and share. I just said share and that is the key to your marketing platform. Quality content gets shared and that sharing brings in more people.

What exactly is quality content and how do you write it? It is not always easy to write quality material and some of your blog posts will be duds. However, if you adopt a personable writing style, you will get compliments even on the ones that didn't live up to expectations. Personable writing is just what it sounds like; it is writing from your heart and not trying so hard to be all rigid and precise in your style. Have fun and write with a little bit of looseness so the reader feels like you are chatting with them. It also doesn't hurt to slip in a little humor too.

Your blog should have a theme which you shouldn't wonder too far from. The readers who are interested in your theme will return if you are consistently putting out articles that they are interested in. For my blog, the theme is writing with a strong emphasis on marketing and social media. These are the articles that my regular readers expect and I can confirm this from looking at the statistics. If I put out an article that doesn't fit right with what my readers expect, the statistics clearly show it and I move back towards what they expect in the next article.

Your content should be relevant, accurate, and interesting. Before you begin writing, make sure you research your topic so that you have your facts straight. For example, Pinterest is a huge topic that everyone is buzzing about which is why I recently blogged about it (Stick a Pin in it: Marketing with Pinterest). It is interesting, relevant, and I spend quite a bit of time playing with it before I wrote the article so that I knew what I was talking about. Pinterest is so hot right now that every time you mention it you practically add a few readers.

Engagement is also very important. You want your readers to hit the comments and give their opinions, ask questions or even tell you that they disagree. The more they engage with you, the greater the chance they are going to subscribe to you and be back for every article. One great way to get some engagement is to ask for it with a question at the end of your article. Make sure you respond to what your readers say or ask. Whether or not a reader has purchased your product should never be a consideration. Treat everyone like they're important because they do matter. They are your guests and they chose to visit your blog.

Well friends, it is that time again where I must conclude the article with a few words on my product as we have entered that 15-20% self-promotion zone. I will, at this stage, introduce my product, The Daughter of Man, and mention a little something about it, such as the fact that it is an action packed paranormal thriller that will leave my readers with a sense of awesomeness. I will then softly point them in the direction of the selling platform, Amazon, and mention that there are great reviews they can read and also a free sample that they can download.  At that point it is up to them whether they want to pursue my product or not. My next concern is to engage them in the comments.

Please take a few moments in the comments to express your thoughts on blogging and creating quality content. Where do you find your inspiration?