All Entries in the "Blog Promotion Newsletter" Category
How A Blog Promotion Newsletter Sends Repeat Traffic To Your Blog
One sure way to ensure you keep a steady flow of blog readers is to publish a weekly blog promotion newsletter. This tool is real simple. Based on a company newsletter, the focus is a little different. The idea is to provide a synopsis of your blog posts from the past week for your subscribers. The newsletter goes out weekly and features one post from each day of the week. Each entry in the newsletter shows a summary of each blog post with a link back to that post on your blog. The blog promotion newsletter is great for driving repeat traffic to your blog.
One reason you want to publish a blog promotion newsletter is because many people today still are not familiar with RSS news feeds and feed readers. Giving those people an option to subscribe to your blog through your newsletter helps them stay on top of your most recent content without the hassle and inconvenience of learning new software. It’s perfect if your clientele consists of a large number of people who are not Internet or technology savvy.
For more information on the blog promotion newsletter, contact Allen or Theresa at 717-528-4005.
Traffic: The Single Most Important Thing To Do For Your Blog
You’ve set up your company blog and optimize every post to achieve high rankings in the search engines. Now what?
Don’t rest on your laurels. You need to market your blog. But how do you do that?
There are several ways you can market your blog and drive traffic to it. Here are a few that we recommend:
- Article marketing
- Social bookmarking
- Social networking
- Forum posting
- Pay per click advertising
- E-mail marketing
- Directory submissions
- Sending out link requests
Each of these methods of online marketing is effective in its own way. Article marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing online and is great for driving traffic if you do it on a consistent basis.
Chances are, if you have a blog with Blog Content Provider then we’ve talked to you about social bookmarking. If we haven’t then you should give us a call because this is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your blog.
Social networking is different from social bookmarking in one aspect – the emphasis is on building relationships with people with similar interests in order to bring them to your website so that they can see what you are doing. Social bookmarking focuses on the content; social networking focuses on the relationships.
Forum posting is also effective in driving traffic to your website. The idea is to simply join a conversation and be a contributor. When people see how valuable you are in giving contributions to the group they will trust you more and visit your website.
PPC click marketing, aka pay per click, is very effective, especially for the short term, but it’s the only method of marketing mentioned here that requires a fee beyond any service provider that you hire to act on your behalf.
E-mail marketing is still effective and even in this day many people use e-mail without being fully connected to the Internet. We always recommend marketing your blog through RSS feeds, but you should also have a way for people to receive notice of your blog through e-mail such as a blog promotion newsletter (be sure to ask about Blog Content Provider’s newsletter services).
Directory submissions and link requests are on the bottom end of the spectrum for blog marketing, but I wouldn’t leave them. You never know how people will find you so you should give them every opportunity to do so.
You can rely entirely on SEO for blog marketing, but why limit yourself. While most of your blog traffic will come from search engines, there is a lot more potential out there for getting traffic to your blog. Some bloggers report that Twitter, StumbleUpon, or another social media source is the biggest driver of traffic to their blogs. By focusing on marketing your blog, you can increase your traffic and your conversions. Don’t just leave it to chance.
For more information about blogging, talk to a blog consultant.
How Should You Monetize Your Company Blog?
One question that often pops up is “How can I monetize my business blog?” First, you have to understand what a blog is for and how best to use it. You are not trying to create a publishing platform where you sell advertising or pop on AdSense so that you earn five cents per click. If you are then you are looking at the wrong type of blog for the company blog model. It’s not that the publishing platform type of blog isn’t a good model. It is. But you can’t mix and match the concepts.
A good company blog doesn’t necessarily need a monetization plan of its own if it is done properly. That’s not to say you can’t make money with it.
First and foremost, your company blog is a marketing tool for your business. The idea is to drive traffic to your website and increase your search engine standing through optimized quality content on a regular basis. A blog is the best way to achieve those two simultaneous goals.
To measure your blog ROI, follow the traffic patterns. Are you getting traffic to your static site from the blog. If so, is it converting? If not, why not? Perhaps you nee more in-text links. Or maybe you need fewer. Maybe those links need the proper anchor text. Or maybe the problem isn’t with the blog at all.
The most common problem with websites that don’t convert is with the content on the website itself. If you’re getting traffic to your website from your blog, but you aren’t closing sales then it’s the website, not the blog. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
We’re firm believers in first things first. Get your website to where it will convert traffic to sales. Then use a blog to promote it. You can use other methods of promotion as well. Don’t just stick with one way (ever hear of not putting your eggs in one basket?). But realize that not every visitor to your site will buy something and not every visitor to your blog will visit your website. What do you do with that traffic that leaves?
Here are a few ideas for you:
- Sign them up for your newsletter
- Hit them with an exit “pop-up” window and sell them something; like, maybe an e-book
- Get them to subscribe to your RSS feed
- Sell them an affiliate product with a link in the sidebar
- Send to them a sister site
One important concept too many business owners ignore is the value of contact information, which can lead to future sales. Get the e-mail address, at least. Use your company blog as more than a repository for your “throwaway” content.
5 Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Blog
It’s important to keep traffic flowing to your blog. Traffic is what makes you money. Without traffic you are simply writing into a vacuum.
But a blog doesn’t necessarily have to be the place where you close the sale. You want to talk to people, if possible. Or at least get them to visit your web site. A blog post is really about getting them interested in you. Then, you and your sales team can close the sale.
We had a real estate agent who let us write her blog for a while then she left because we didn’t make her any sales. But she did tell us that we sent her more traffic to her web site than anything else she’d ever done. Still, she was disappointed that we didn’t close any sales. Sorry. That’s not our job. Our job is to drive traffic to your web site so that you can close the sale.
That’s not to say that we won’t ever close sales with blogs. Sometimes we do. But we don’t make that our primary effort because most people prefer to speak to someone and visit a website before they buy something. Especially in real estate. People aren’t going to buy a house from a blog.
So keep your expectations realistic. And keep in mind these 5 ways that you can drive traffic to your blog so that you can get their attention and close the sale:
- Search Engine Optimization – There is no substitute for SEO. Have a list of keywords that are important to your business and use those keywords in your blog posts. Link to your website pages in your sidebar using those keywords.
- Social Bookmarking – Pick some popular social bookmarking sites and make friends. Bookmark your blog posts and bookmark your friends’ blog posts. Be a social butterfly. It works.
- RSS Feed – Set up an RSS feed for your blog and invite your readers to subscribe.
- Use A Blog Promotion Newsletter - Not everyone understands RSS. But they will read your blog from an e-mail or newsletter. Offer them one. For free.
- Write Articles – Articles are a great way to drive traffic to any website, even a blog. Write articles and include your blog’s URL in your author resource box.
