Check out my top posts from the last quarter!
They’re a mix of practical tips on marketing (#1), writing (#2, 5), blogging (#3), and social media (#4). The top post draws heavily on my personal experience. I learned some lessons the hard way.
Looking for good blogs by registered investment advisors or financial advisors? An impromptu Twitter exchange in February yielded the following recommendations, with thanks to @QuonWarrene for providing the first reply to my question:
You’ve probably seen some of these names on my blog before, in the following posts:
If your blog focuses solely on your own content, perhaps it’s time to change. Consider incorporating links to other people’s content.
High quality links reflect positively on you. “…The ability to aggregate really strong links helps bloggers’ credibility,” as Sara Quinn says in Naveed Saleh’s The Complete Guide To Article Writing. A section of Saleh’s book, which aims at aspiring journalists, inspired this post.
Links to good resources help your readers by explaining things in detail that isn’t appropriate for a blog post. Links can also address concerns relevant only to a small subset of your readers. You avoid alienating your mainstream readers, while satisfying the appetites of the few.
I often link to articles to give examples of the points that I make in my blog posts.
It’s not nice to quote someone’s words without giving them credit. These days it isn’t enough to simply name them, if a relevant link is available.
However, a link alone doesn’t give you free rein to use other people’s material. Check out the resources for understanding “fair use” in my blog post, Legal danger for financial bloggers: Two misconceptions, three resources, one suggestion. By the way, the “Legal danger” post is a good example of enhancing credibility to linking to resources.
Do YOU link to resources outside your blog or corporate website? What’s your rationale for your policy? I enjoy learning from you.
Disclosure: If you click on the Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I only link to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.
Check out my top posts from the last quarter!
They’re a mix of practical tips on investment commentary (#1 and 2), white papers (#3 and 7), writing (#4, 6, and 10), and marketing (#8). One of the posts features insights from a guest expert, Dave Grant (#5). All of my 2014 guest bloggers appear in #9.
I put a lot of thought into #1. I’m glad to see that my readers found it helpful.
This rule is made to be broken, I thought when I read about the “3-S rule” of Marella Agnelli, wife of Fiat’s Gianni Agnelli in “Marella & Me” in The New York Times Style Magazine (Sept. 28, 2014). According to Marella, you should never discuss in public the three Ss of sogni (dreams), salute (health), or soldi (money).
Discussing dreams is taboo? That surprised me. Regardless of your thoughts about the appropriateness of these topics for face-to-face chitchat with strangers, I think you’ll agree that they’re suitable for discussion with clients—and on your blog.
Here are some blog post ideas for financial advisors that relate to each of the three Ss.
Everybody has dreams for what they’d like to achieve during their lives. If your blog can help people to identify or attain dreams, that’s powerful.
Here are some potential blog topics related to dreams:
Health is a serious concern for many clients. Even if they’re healthy now, they can expect to spend a big chunk of their retirement savings on health care costs. Here are some potential blog post topics related to health care:
Money is a big topic, so let’s focus on money taboos.
If you have great blog post ideas related to the three Ss, please share them.
Looking for marketing and writing tips from diverse experts? Check out the posts from my 2014 guest bloggers listed below!
Check out my top posts from the last quarter!
They’re a mix of practical tips on writing (#2, 4, and 10), email (#3), investment commentary (#5 and 8), and lessons I’ve learned from painful experience (#1 and 6). Two posts feature insights from guest experts (#7 and 9).
Michael J. Evans of The Cogent Advisor in Chicago is the latest participant in my Q&A series with financial advisors who blog. Advisor Tim Maurer suggested Michael for this series, saying via Twitter, “@CogentAdvisor stands out as a recovering commodities trader serving traders through evidence-based investing.”
I was interested to learn how Michael manages the burden of regular blogging by mixing his own substantive posts with a strategy of highlighting other people’s content with his quick takes on that content. This is a technique more blogging advisors should consider.
If you enjoy this Q&A, check out others in this series, which started with a Q&A with Michael Kitces.
Q. When did you start your blog?
A. The Cogent Advisor Cogent Conversation blog grew out of my monthly e-newsletter. Clients and prospects had mentioned how much they enjoyed the educational information I was sharing in our monthly newsletters, and urged me to write a blog post and share insights more often. My first post was in March 2012.
Q. How has your blog brought you new business or improved your existing client relationships?
A. It’s been an interesting and unfolding experience! I started to blog to further my passion and mission to educate investors in an additional forum. As I started to post ideas targeted to my niche of financial professionals and other high-end professionals, I found I was being contacted by followers from wider circles about a variety of subjects ranging from wealth management to money challenges in their relationships and more. While I appreciate the business connections, I’ve also enjoyed serving as a connector among intelligent and inquisitive people. Some of them have become clients, but all of them help me think and grow as a wealth advisor and a person.
In terms of specific business growth results, I’ve heard many anecdotes from clients who have shared specific posts with others they believed might benefit. I’ve also heard from prospects who have accessed the blog to learn more about me and my firm’s culture. By combining blog posts with related supporting tweets, LinkedIn announcements, and periodic e-newsletter “best of” distributions, our overall social media presence continues to develop as well.
In a report we compiled last year-end, our LinkedIn connections and e-newsletter open rates remained relatively consistent in 2013, but we found our Twitter followers and LinkedIn impressions were up 27.0% and 4.5%, respectively, between Q3 and Q4 2013. It’s admittedly difficult to directly connect specific social media stats with client growth. However, given the blogging benefits described above and the general health of our firm, we’re convinced that our blog plays an important and integral role in our overall business development efforts. Besides, it’s fun!
Q. What blogging techniques or topics have most helped your business?
A. My mission is to educate successful professionals to build durable wealth. Everything in my blog relates to sharing content that my readers can use to enhance the quality of their lives and to Free Their Wealth for Something More®. To be effective and efficient with our mission, we aim to produce one more substantive Cogent-authored post each month (which is then republished in our e-newsletter), and then regularly serve as a “content curator,” by sharing others’ posts along with our brief take on them.
I try not to sell anything on my blog. If I do my job and produce or share others’ ideas that help readers visualize a better future for themselves and their families, I’ve accomplished my goal. I’m convinced that the business development will flow naturally from there as I share my Cogent content.
Q. What are three of your favorite—or most effective—blog posts? Provide the titles, URLs and a comment about why you included them.
Q. What’s your best tip for advisors who blog?
A. Write from the heart, on ideas of relevance to your audience (which assumes you have identified who your audience is)! It enhances the quality of your readers’ lives, positions you as a subject matter expert, and makes the effort more enjoyable and personally rewarding – financially and emotionally.
“Identity content should explain your company’s values and standards,” write authors Mark W. Schaefer and Stanford A. Smith. Getting concrete, they suggest that you “Use identity content to explain policies that guide your decision-making process. Identify the policies that your customers may encounter and explain the reasoning behind them.” For example, an investment manager might explain her preference for active over passive management. Or, an advisor could go into how he builds a financial plan.
The authors made me wonder if I have enough identity content on my blog. The only post that explicitly addresses my process is “How I ghostwrite your financial white paper.”
On the other hand, my many posts about writing give readers a good sense of the values that drive my writing. You, too, may find that sharing your values in your posts lessens the need to blog specifically about your corporate values.
I wanted to love this book, but I couldn’t. I had a hard time finding content that made me say, “Yes, I must do that.”
Perhaps this book is best for the person who’s thinking about starting a blog. It will help you decide whether blogging can work for you. It’ll also give you some ideas about where to start. Established bloggers will have a harder time finding value in this book.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from McGraw-Hill in return for agreeing to write about it. If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I only link to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.
My blog readers sometimes ask questions that could help you. For example, a reader asked me about having an assistant help her with research for a blog post.
Here’s what my reader asked. I’ve removed information that might identify the questioner.
I’d love your opinion on something. I have a gal helping me with my blog. She will be giving me an outline of points for an article about what they are looking for in a specific service. Then I will complete the writing. My question: Will I be shooting myself in the foot if I ask her to do one or two phone interviews with these folks? Any idea what the etiquette is here? Will they be wanting to hear from me directly if I don’t know them?
Here’s what I said:
It depends how you position her interviews. If you position her as a good researcher who’ll ensure their thoughts are conveyed accurately, that could work.
Actually, I think they may be more concerned about the following issues:
- How will your blog post benefit them? What are your monthly unique visit statistics or other metrics that reflect your influence? Will you provide links to their websites so they get a little link love? Will your post help them because they can use it to educate people who contact them?
- Will you give them the opportunity to check that their thoughts are communicated accurately? While journalists don’t do this, it’s not unusual for bloggers to do this.
Have you ever had an assistant interview a source for your blog? How did you handle it? Did it work for you?