All Entries Tagged With: "ghostwriter"

Should You Splog Or Blog?

There is a huge prejudice against commercial blogs in the blogosphere. And there’s even a racial epithet equivalent that seems to shut down conversations quicker than a Republican press conference. It’s called a splog. This blog may even be one.

According to Wikipedia, master of all knowledge (note the sarcasm), a splog’s main purpose is to increase the PageRank or backlinks of related blogs. In actuality, those benefits only go so far.

Another defining characteristic of a splog is that it is made up of “fake blog posts.” I’m not sure what a “fake blog post” looks like. I do know that this blog post is very real.

I think sometimes a legitimate blog is characterized as a splog because the person making the declaration doesn’t really understand the purpose of the blog in question. What if a blog is written by a real human being who writes original content yet uses keywords, links, and other SEO tactics typically associated with sploggers and their spammy creations? Is that blogger a splogger or a bona fide blogger?

Distinctions can sometimes be hairy. Or harrowing.

The problem with Wikipedia’s definition of splog is that it doesn’t allow for some middle way. Many professional bloggers with custom designed blogs and unique, original content in every post are fine bloggers and human beings. They are good business people who understand their business model and try their best to provide a good user experience. But they aren’t making any money. It isn’t because they aren’t writing good material. It isn’t because they aren’t targeting the right market. Primarily, it’s because they aren’t selling. And this is where it gets hairy.

Thanks to the uprise in social media and the inherent dislike of blatant marketing messages online, which are understandable by the way, it has come to be expected that blogs will not be used as direct marketing pieces. The problem with this thinking is you are running a business. You want to see a return on your investment, don’t you?

Whether you spend $10 or $2,000 on building your blog, you want it to earn you some income. And that’s the bottom line. The difference between a splog and a blog could be your ROI. If you are writing a blog the way that many professional bloggers tell you to write it and you aren’t seeing a return on your investment – counting your dollars and your time in your expense calculation – then you probably need to change what you are doing. I’m not saying you should become a spammer, but you might want to employ some stronger closing lines and use sales and lead generation tactics to get people to contact you for business. You might even employ a ghostwriter. But whatever you do, you want your blog to make you some money.

Where To Get Blog Post Ideas

Earlier today I posted an article on where to get article ideas from on the Article Content Provider Article Marketing Blog. You can actually use the same list to generate ideas for blog posts. Here are my top 5 recommendations for places to get blog post ideas:

1. Blogs – You should read and subscribe to as many blogs as you can within your niche. Read the top ones every day and scan the headlines of the rest. You can usually come up with good topics to blog on.
2. Search Engines – The search engines have great resources: Yahoo! Answers, Google Trends, Dogpile, and MSN Live all have resources that will help you get a good idea of what you can blog about.
3. Technorati – This isn’t on the list at the Article Marketing Blog, but it should be. Technorati has a top 10 list of most searched and blogged about topics. Good way to get ideas.
4. Old Articles – Pull up some old articles you’ve written and recycle them. Don’t print them verbatim, but with articles you can actually cut them in half and have two blog posts. Rewrite them so you don’t get dinged with duplicate content.
5. Blog Directories – This isn’t on the ACP list either, but I recommend joining Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog. Join neighborhoods and make friends. By networking with others in your niche you can get good ideas with hardly any effort at all.

If you just check these five resources once or twice a week you will never run out of blog post ideas. Of course, you can always hire a ghostwriter too. Let them come up with the ideas.

How A Blog Writer Drives Traffic To Your Landing Pages

Blog marketing is really nothing new. It’s been hitting the mainstream pretty hard for the last two to three years, however. But we’ve still got years to go before we saturate the Web with too many blogs. Every minute a new blog is started and probably three times as many are abandoned. What can you do to make sure yours isn’t one of those left high and dry?

For starters, you need a plan. You need to define your blog’s purpose and hit it strong. Who is your target market? What do they want? And how will you move them to being customers?

While a blog is not the answer to every problem, it can become an integral part of your online marketing strategy. But you shouldn’t miracles. A blog is a pre-sales tool. It isn’t your primary closer and you shouldn’t expect it to be. A blog can, however, be used as an SEO tool as long as you don’t overdo and use it to spam the search engines with useless content. First and foremost, you’ve got to provide your human readers with valuable and helpful content. When you do that you increase your visitor count and you can drive traffic to your most important landing pages. But first you have to capture the traffic.

That’s where a professional writer comes in. To make sure your blog attracts traffic and drives traffic to your most important landing pages, you need an experienced blogger who understands SEO and sales strategies to get your blog to perform its mission. Do you have one your team?

How A Blog Is Better Than Print Marketing

Blogging is virtually free advertising. For $10 per year for a domain name (or $0 if you put your blog on your already existing website) and the cost of a ghostwriter, you can have a great blog. Don’t want to hire a ghostwriter? Do it yourself for less. But a ghostwriter can make your blog special.

Here are some of the benefits of blogging that other forms of advertising don’t offer:

• More personal medium than print advertising because you can infuse your personality into a blog and your readers will appreciate that.
• You can write every day and gain loyal readers.
• Because of the way search engines rank and categorize information, you have multiple chances of reaching your target market.
• Your readers can help you market your services through social media like Facebook, BlogCatalog, and Digg.
• Due to the fleeting nature of information today, you can quickly respond to breaking changes in your industry through your blog.
• A blog is relatively simple and inexpensive to set up.

For more information on blogging and blog ghostwriting, consult with a blogging expert.