I have always said that blogging was a great way to build up relationships, especially if you take the time to comment on blogs that you happen to visit, it’s sort of like saying ‘hello’ to someone you pass on the street. Something that very few of us do. I know I get a brief shocked expression when I give a cheery ‘good morning’ to a passer by but it usually changes to a bright smile and a reply from the recipient.

Anyway it was through my interaction with bloggers that I met Mitch, a very intelligent blogger from America. Mitch had asked me to do a guest post for him and I was more than happy to to whip one up for him. I then thought how great it would be to have a person of his capabilities do one for me and so I tentatively sent out the request and Mitch was gracious enough to come up with this great piece of content.

Before I present the actual guest post I would like to add a few of Mitch’s other sites that he forgot to mention, Services And Stuff, Reviews Of Everything and Medical Billing Answers.  As you can see, Mitch likes to keep busy, which is why I am particularly grateful that he took the time for this guest post:

I got into helping small companies market their primary businesses on the web quite by accident. Back in 2006, I was giving a presentation on a health care related topic to one group, got home, and saw that my consultant’s group had its speaker back out at the last minute, and we didn’t have a topic or speaker for our meeting in two days. I wrote to the group offering to do a presentation on website presence, and they jumped on it.

The thing is, I don’t know why I said it, or what I was thinking at the time. I hadn’t put anything together. It was just an idea that popped into my mind at that moment, and I really didn’t think they’d jump on it the way they did. So now I had to scramble and try to figure out what I was going to do. This was on a Wednesday, and I spent the entire rest of the day and night trying to think about what I was going to do. It finally hit me at 2:45 in the morning, and I went to bed secure in the knowledge that I at least finally had a direction to go in.

The next day saw me spending 7 hours putting together a PowerPoint presentation, using the construction of one of my websites and a couple other websites I had at the time as background material. Suddenly it was Friday morning, and I launched into a presentation that I thought would last about 35 minutes, but ended up lasting 90 minutes because of the questions and enthusiasm on the topic. When it was over, I had two people immediately ask me if I’d help them with their websites, and SEO Xcellence was born.

I believe that most small and large companies have no real idea of what to do with their websites. Many people I talk to say they have a website because they want to be part of the 21st century, but other than that they don’t have much up on their pages. I tell people all the time that having a website is so much better than a brochure as a business tool because it not only gives them the freedom to express themselves and show exactly what their business can do, but it can be changed at a moment’s notice for very little cost, no cost if they know how to do it themselves.

I now have two business websites, two blogs (one attached to one of the business sites), and three other sites. Where my businesses are concerned, I have my website on my business cards; my business email address reinforces my business name; every email I send out has my business email address on it (though it may be for the different business or website at the time). If people go to either of my business websites they’ll see many pages of information, all written by me, and there can be no confusion as to what I do. And I continue adding more content all the time, because there’s always more I want to say. People spend a lot of time on my main business site, TT Mitchell Consulting, Inc., and that’s what I want them to do, because I want to reinforce my business name in their minds. As I mentioned, I also have a business blog Mitch’s Blog, which helps drive traffic to my site because it’s always creating new content, which helps keep websites fresh; search engines love that.

There are many things to consider, but the landscape can be very confusing. That’s why I wrote a small ebook on it titled Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool, which is for small business owners who haven’t quite figured out what to do with their websites. There are many advertising and marketing opportunities businesses are missing, and this low cost alternative is the perfect way to help enhance all business goals

I want to thank Mitch for that post that will only enhance this blog. I would also like to mention to those reading this that you should not be afraid to ask others to do a guest post for your blog or to be afraid to do one for another blog as there are many advantages for both parties, ones that go way beyond that of mutual promotion.

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