All Entries Tagged With: "business"

What’s The Most Important Aspect Of Blogging?

What’s most important when it comes to writing and marketing a business blog? Is it brand? Traffic? Design? Social media? SEO? Or none of the above?

Actually, it could be all of the above, but there is a deeper answer. When it comes to business blogging, there are a lot of factors to consider. But the most important aspect of your blog is your audience. Who are you writing for? Think about it for a minute and when you’ve defined your audience, write it down. Because that’s who you should write every blog post for.

Don’t write for the search engines. Yes, make sure your posts are SEOd, but don’t focus so heavily on SEO that your forget your human audience. Instead, write with your audience’s needs in mind and market your blog, write your blog, design your blog, and promote your blog with that audience in mind. It’s the most important thing about blogging.

Should You Join The Blogosphere?

There are two types of blogs. The blogosphere blog and the commercial blog. Blogosphere blogs get the most attention, but make the least amount of money. There are, of course, the superstar blogs that fit into the blogosphere category – Problogger, ArsTechnica, Dosh Dosh … I could go on naming many more. But the great bulk of blogs that fall into the blogosphere category don’t make a dime. That doesn’t mean they’re bad blogs; they just aren’t making any money.

You know a blogosphere blog when you see one. They love to link out. The idea is to be “connected” to the broader web. To converse with other blog owners. To share. Touchy-feely, you know.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but not every blog has to be a blogosphere blog. Commercial blogs are different.

What Is A Commercial Blog?

A commercial blog’s primary purpose is to promote a business. It can be on the business’s website or on another website and link often to the business site it promotes. Either way is fine. But a commercial blog exists primarily as a promotional tool.

There are two types of commercial blogs: The strictly promotional blog and the social blog. The promotional blog is there just as a promotional tool. Nothing fancy. The social blog is a bit more than a simple promotional tool. It is more versatile and flexible. In many respects it resembles the blogosphere blog. The primary difference is that it’s not an engagement blog in the same manner than a blogosphere blog is; again, the social aspect of the blog is designed to be self promotional while providing maximum user benefit.

Which blog is right for you is largely determined by your goals. You can use any of the blogs for specific purposes related to marketing your business. But you always want to use your blog to drive traffic to certain parts of your website so that you can drive that visitor into your sales funnel. The goal of a commercial blog is always to gain a new customer.

Procrastination Kill A Business Blog

I love testimonials. While the following comment isn’t a direct testimonial for Blog Content Provider, it is a testimony to the power of a good business blog.

(Source) Procrastination kills business and success. I have wanted to start Prevential.com for more than 2 years and for some reason I waited. Now instead of competing with 200 business blogs, I’m competing with 2,000,000. I’m fighting a war with a pellet gun and it is my own fault for waiting. So, don’t make the same mistake as me.

Do you feel like you’re fighting a war with a pellet gun? You don’t have to. And if you’ve been thinking about starting a blog for marketing your business, the time is now. Don’t let anything be your excuse. The economy isn’t going to destroy your business, but not investing in your future right now may.

I believe a blog is one of the most powerful business marketing tools ever. To learn more about how you can make blogging work for you, consult with a blogging pro.

Why Companies Are Starting Online Marketing

Advertising is expensive. But it is necessary. And many companies that have been in business for a number of years are starting to feel the crunch from the economy. They can’t maintain their expensive advertising budgets but they know they need to advertise to keep their businesses flowing. What do they do?

Well, many of these businesses are migrating their advertising budget to online advertising products and services. Instead of running ads in local newspapers, they are converting their budgets to PPC advertising or other forms of online display advertising. I highly commend this move on the part of these businesses.

Even in a down economy, people buy. They may not buy as much, but they buy. The question is, can you convince them to buy what you offer?

The key to selling online is to get people to ask you to sell what you have. Traditionally, advertising worked just the opposite way. Advertisers went to the consumer and asked them to buy what was being sold. No more.

Today, consumers are savvy and know what they want. They rely on Google, Yahoo! and MSN to help them find it. When they search for information on products and services they are hoping to buy you’ll find them in various stages of the buy process. Your job is to get them to buy from you, but without sounding like you are begging for business or badgering them into submission.

The most effective SEM tool that you can have is a blog. It is the only online marketing tool that consistently delivers free information to consumers about the products and services in which they have an interest. Companies that use blogs for marketing purposes see anywhere from 25% to 100% increases in traffic within 90 days.

If you are knew to online marketing and want to know more about how a blog can benefit your business, check out Blog Content Provider and ask for a free consultation.