Jeff Rose is today's guest blogger on AdvisorBlogger.  I met Jeff via Twitter and really enjoy reading his blog and how he is using technology to help his clients.  He is a great social media resource (not to mention he lives in southern Illinois near my hometown).  Enjoy his post and please share your comments and thoughts. 

About Jeff Rose

Jeff Rose is an Illinois Certified Financial Planner and co-founder of Alliance Investment Planning Group. He is also the author of Good Financial Cents, a financial planning and investment blog. You can also learn more about Jeff at his website Jeff Rose Financial.

When I first started my blog Good Financial Cents, I initially had only two goals with it.  1.  A unique way to stay in contact with existing clients 2. An even more unique way to market myself.  The only problem is that when you've never really blogged before, starting out can be extremely challenging.  Emphasis on EXTREMELY.  Speaking to another CFP®, Art Dinkin whose authors the blog Moment on Money in Iowa gave me the motivation that I needed.  According to Art, his blog had gotten him more business than all previous marketing efforts combined and through his blogging efforts, had reached his site to #1 in Google for "Financial Planner Iowa".  Unfortunately, Art is just as inexperienced about Search Engine Optimization as I, and didn't even know how he was able to get his blog there.  I, of course, wanted to duplicate Art's achievement, except for "Financial Planner Illinois". 

As I got more into blogging, I started to pick a few trick here and there.   I joined a few forums and through help of some other what I would call professional bloggers, they gave me the insight I needed to make my goal happen.  The funny thing too was that I was approaced by a supposed "SEO" expert who told me that I would never be in the top 10 of Google for that search because my state was too big and there was too much competiton for those search keywords.   Hmmm, we'll see about that.

My Strategy

First, I needed to create a landing page.  A landing page is a separate page on your blog that is created solely to welcome a certain reader.   Many people have created landing pages through their Twitter profiles (here's mine) or through their Google Adword campaigns.  Basically, you want a page that reaches out to the readers and says, "Welcome, it's pleasure to meet you.  This is how I can help you".  I mirrored my landing page off of a pretty prolific blogger named Darren Rowse who runs a blog called Problogger.net.   I figure a guy who excels at blogging might not be a bad guy to replicate. 

Guest Writing

Creating a landing page is the equivalent of building a static web page- it looks really good but if nobody sees it, what's the point? One way to add credibility to a web-page is to get back-links to that page. (I'll explain what a "back-link" is in a bit) Getting a back link is easier said that done.  The strategy that I implemented was writing articles for a variety of other personal finance blogs.  I'm sure your asking yourself, "What does writing for another blog do for your site and landing page?"  The keyword is "back-links".  A "back-link" is when another website or blog links back to a page on your site or blog.  The more back-links to your site or blog, the more relevant Google finds you and the higher in search engines you are.  So each time I wrote a guest articles, I would always include the following bio:

Jeff Rose is an Illinois Certified Financial Planner and co-founder of Alliance Investment Planning Group. He is also the author of Good Financial Cents, a financial planning and investment blog. You can also learn more about Jeff at his website Jeff Rose Financial.

Look familiar?  Of course, it does.  It's the same bio that's included in this post. Yes, I just got another back-link :)  The most important part of the bio is the words "Illinois Certified Financial Planner".  By getting another website to link to those keywords to my landing page, that has what's helped push my page to the top 5 of Google for "Financial Planner Illinois". (I thought I would drop in one more link for safe measure).  I will usually hover at the #2 position, and sometimes #1, but FPA of Illinois usually beats me.  But since I was told that I would never be in the top 10 by an SEO expert, I'll take it.  What is also neat is that my personal business page Jeff Rose Financial is also in top 10.   My hopes is that when a prospect in the state of Illinois goes to search and they see my name in two of the top 10 of Google for that search, that will add some credibility to myself.  

The Results

Obviously cracking Google's top 10 is an impressive feat, but that doesn't guarantee success.  I had been blogging consistently since December of 2008 and besides getting into local media outlets, I hadn't actually got any direct business.  That was until last month that is.  I had a lady contact me via my blog who was needing a financial planner.  Turns out she was looking for an "Independent Certified Financial Planner in Illinois" and that's what she searched in Google.   And what did the results show......you guessed it, my blog.   The story ends with her bringing in just over $2 million and officially making my blog a success. I have a strong feeling that this is not the last successs story, too.

How about you?  If a prospect was going to the web in hopes of finding a financial planner, would they find you or your competitor who is Google-able?

If you enjoyed Jeff’s post, read more of his stuff at Good Financial Cents, and subscribe to his RSS feed.