All Entries Tagged With: "marketing"
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.
How Real Estate Blogging Should Be Done In A Down Economy
Real estate and mortgage companies are running scared, stopping their blogs, and cutting back on expenses. I understand. Things got rough out there, didn’t it? But why are you cutting your marketing budget when this is when you should be marketing your business the heaviest?
Did you know you can cut your marketing budget and still keep blogging daily? It’s true. And all you have to do is take a few partners.
Let’s say that you’re used to paying $400 per month for blogging (if you are then you probably have the wrong blog service provider). You’d think that by cutting that $400 expense out of your budget you’ll be saving money. In actuality, it will probably cost you money. How many of your phone calls come from people who read your blog? Have you asked? Chances are, if you are getting calls from your efforts online then your blog is playing a part in that. Why stop blogging?
Instead of cutting the expense out of your budget altogether, try partnering with complimentary businesses. You use a title company, right? Don’t you have a preferred mortgage lender? How about furniture rental companies? Moving companies? Real estate attorneys?
Think about all the relationships you have with complimentary services. Ask those companies if they’d be interested in partnering with you on a blog. If you took three partners (say, a title company, a mortgage broker, and a furniture rental company) and shared the expense for your blog then you’d only be paying $100 per month for the same service.
There are a couple of ways a blog partnership can benefit you as a real estate agent or broker. You can establish a mortgage and real estate blog, or something similar, and divide your posts up evenly between you and your partners, but that’s only partially effective. A second way to handle the blog partnership opportunity is to ask your partners to sponsor your blog. You promise then a banner ad on your blog in a highly visible location and one post per week with in-text links to their website to help them promote their service.
By taking sponsors this way you can stay in control of your blog and help out your business partners by having them pay you for their sponsorship, which you then turn and use to pay for your ghostwriting service. But don’t cut your blog out of your real estate marketing plan completely.
Does Your Business Really Need A Blog?
Blog Content Provider has maintained for a couple of years now that businesses of shapes and sizes would benefit from having a company blog. But is it really necessary? Yes, in today’s dog-eat-dog Internet marketing culture you gain a significant edge by having a company blog.
The following article shares five ways to improve your company blog. Where necessary, we will discuss our own differences with the author, but by and large, Terry Philpott has some good suggestions here:
5 Tips to Improve Your Business Blog
Do you have a business blog that seems to absorb all your efforts and still doesn’t perform up to your expectations? Many folks start a blog with the desire to make money online but often are guilty of misdirecting their efforts leading to frustration and a lack of success.
It is best when starting out to draw up a plan for your blog. It doesn’t have to be elaborate but you want to know where it’s headed. Do you want your blog to serve a specific niche? Should it address certain topics and stay away from others? What keywords will your blog focus on the most? It’s important to know as much about what you want your blog to do as possible so that you can measure the results and keep the blog moving in the right direction.
If this sounds like you let’s consider 5 points you may need to re-focus on to improve your results.
• Learn to give your readers with what it is they want or need. Many bloggers focus primarily making money and neglect the readers. Remember without readers THERE IS NO BLOG. Listen to their comments; in fact encourage them to leave comments. By responding and acting upon their concerns or needs you are creating an environment ‘tailor made’ for them. It was their input that guided the creation of this environment to begin with.
Don’t be afraid to take a reader poll and asking your readers what they want you to address through your blog. Getting your readers to interact with you is an important step in achieving your goals through the blog.
• If you don’t have anything to say in a post then don’t post. Feeling compelled to post every day or even multiple times daily could lessen the quality of your content. Emphasize QUALITY over QUANTITY when posting to your blog. If you post good quality content your readers will be willing to wait a day for it as oppose to reading shallow and pointless ramblings. If this occurs too often you can kiss your readers good-bye and say hello to a decrease in your blog traffic.
At Blog Content Provider, we are advocate of posting every day. The more often you post to your blog, the more likely you are to get the attention of the search engines and get more pages indexed and ranked. That translates into more traffic and readers. If you have trouble coming up with topics for your blog then you probably need to consider hiring a ghostwriter.
• Be careful to not become ‘anchored’ to your blogging duties. A blog is born out of the passion the blogger has for the blogging material itself. By investing an over abundance of time to your blog you run the risk of burning out. Push back from time to time to re-energize. Fresh, invigorating, and insightful blog posts are what the readers want and it would be difficult to deliver this if you’re overworked.
Again, a blog ghostwriter or consultant can help keep you focused and on track.
Business blogs are a fine balance between a blogger passionate about the topics they post on and a desire to make money online. It is important to remember you always need to put your reader’s FIRST. Introducing any aspect of your marketing strategy should be secondary to this.
• Conduct a blog search for sites that offer content related to yours. By visiting these sites you can pick up new ideas not only for your content but also for the blog layout itself. Also don’t be afraid to participate at these blogs by leaving a comment when appropriate. Leaving a comment that is useful, humorous, or insightful will catch the eyes of other participants. With a link back to your site in your signature file you can usually expect an increase in your blog traffic. Once again however your comments should appropriate!
We encourage bloggers to subscribe to a good number of RSS feeds from other blogs in their industry. Our ghostwriters subscribe to the influential blogs in the industries that they cover and will use trackback techniques and other blog writing tactics to draw attention to your blog. If you’re going to write your own blog then you should get familiar with these types of strategies as well.
• In addition to a blog search find forums and other online communities that contain niches within related to your blogging theme. Once again your participation and interaction at these sites can help you boost your blog traffic. This should be part of your overall marketing strategy due to the strength of networking.
Focusing on building relationships and building links is the way to keep your blog balanced between quality content and social media marketing.
Although a business blog is established for the purpose of making money online it is essential to remember the readers come first. They arrived at your site for the content not the merchandise. Your primary responsibility is to supply good quality content whether it’s informative, humorous, or insightful. Always set aside your blog marketing efforts until your readers needs have been met first.
We do not focus on making money. We focus on delivering quality content that will attract readers and deliver that traffic to your website where you will close the sale. It is important to think about your blog as a marketing tool and not a sales vehicle.
T.J Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For more information on succeeding in blog marketing and to receive a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit: http://blogbrawn.com
Sales is an important part of any business, but our experience has shown that most blogs are better equipped to be marketing tools, not sales tools. That’s why we take a long-term approach to blogging and not a short-term sell it now approach.
For more information on blog ghostwriting services that deliver targeted traffic, visit Blog Content Provider today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_Philpott
Run A Business? Why Not Start A Local News Blog?
Seth Godin is a genius. He thinks like I do.
A couple of weeks ago he wrote a blog post encouraging real estate agents to start a local newspaper online. Then he went on to say that anyone in any kind of business could do it. Of course, I’ve been saying the same thing for over a year now.
Seth’s idea is a good one. It’s really a community blog. We’ve got clients that run something similar in their communities. You can too. In fact, there are several ways that you can tap into your local market to gain more influence and to attract more customers. Here are a few ideas for you to ponder:
- Live in a tourist town? Start a blog telling tourists about places they can visit in your local area. Don’t just stick to the well known places. Also share ideas about out of the way places that most people don’t know about. A good example of this is the Gettysburg Pennsylvania Blog. Make sure that your readers know that you sponsor the blog and that you provide a link back to your business site.
- Sponsor a local charity blog. Approach a charity that you support and and ask them if they have a blog. If not, offer to sponsor the blog. Dedicate someone to write the blog daily or ask if the charity has someone who can do it. Either way, you can place your business logo on the blog as the sponsor. If neither your business nor the charity have someone who can write the blog, hire a ghostwriter to write it for you. Just make sure everyone in the community knows that your business sponsors the blog.
- Support a local little league or children’s organization. This is great if you have a child that plays baseball, soccer, or is in Cub Scouts. Check to see if the team has a blog. If not, start one and blog about the games during the season. Link back to your business website as the sponsor of the blog.
- Partner with a professional association in your area. If there are several other businesses in your area that target the same, or complimentary, market, start a joint blog and make sure a link back to your website is included in the sidebar or on the About page. Of course, the other partners will get a link too, but this type of blog shows that there is good will among your peers and you could see additional traffic from it (not to mention an inbound link or two)
- Write an activity blog. Join a local social club that is centered around a certain activity (ie racquetball, chess, Friday night card games, movie watching) and write about the group’s activities. Link back to your site as the sponsor
That’s only 5 ideas. I’m sure I could think of more (and so can you). These types of blog are called indirect marketing blogs. They appeal to a certain audience that might be segmented into your overall market. You build good will with your community by sponsoring these types of blogs and that’s great for PR, plus you never know what kind of business might come your way. On some of these blogs you could even sell advertising that pays for the expense and maintenance of the blog or the ghostwriting fees.
5 Featured Blogs
Take a look at the following blogs and tell me what you notice:
- Assistant for Real Estate
- SportsViews
- Red Hot Franchises
- Product Configurator Blog
- Gambling Tips Blog
Here’s what I see:
The Assistant for Real Estate blog is well designed and colorful. You notice it right away. The bright red makes the blog attractive and colorful, just like its owner. And the content is so well optimized and carefully crafted that Kandra Hamric, the assistant for real estate agents, has captured several of her key terms.
Sportsviews is a unique concept – a social website for sports fans. The site even allows members to start their own blogs and talk about what is important for them.
Red Hot Franchises is one of the most unique concepts we’ve seen in a long time. This company brokers franchise opportunities for the companies that hire it to promote them. A blog is the perfect promotional tool for such an endeavor.
The Product Configurator Blog reaches out to an entirely different market: Large complex selling organizations. Through simple optimization techniques and intelligent content, this company can reach its target market with one of the best marketing tools online.
How do you navigate through the difficult and competitive field of online gambling, particularly where gambling is legal – like in the UK? You start a blog and use it to promote your affiliates. The Gambling Tips Blog is very effective in promoting affiliates through search engine optimization techniques and brilliant prose.
Could you see you company profiting from any of these styles of blogging? Maybe you can consult with a blog marketing consultant today to see where you might take your blog.
Promote Your Blog Through Twitter
Twitter is fast becoming the best way to market your blog. Through Twitter you can promote your blog and your static website easily and widely. You don’t even have to spam Twitter to do it. Follow these tips for the best blog marketing through Twitter:
- Place a link to your blog in your Twitter profile
- Use Twitter Tools to post your tweets from your blog
- Set your Twitter Tools settings to create a new blog post for every tweet
- Have Twitter Tools provide a daily update of your tweets
- Put a widget on your blog promoting your tweets
- Link your Twitter profile to your Facebook profile so that your Facebook status changes on every Twitter update
- Set your Twitter Tools plugin to tweet every time you post a new blog post
- Tweet often, not just when you post to your blog
- Reply to tweets by others
- Use Twitter to establish and build relationships; that leads to new readers
Some bloggers have replaced their blog with Twitter. I say keep your blog and use Twitter to add new readers to your blog. Make Twitter a part of your marketing funnel.
Learn more about how you can use Twitter and a blog – consult with a professional blog consultant.
Can Your Niche Be Too Narrow For Blogging?
If you are looking for the right niche for your blog, you’re in luck. It’s out there. But can your niche be so narrow that blogging makes no sense?
The surest way to find out if your niche is too narrow for blogging is to do research how many people actually make searches for the keywords associated with your niche. Whether you are in real estate or sell apple-flavored toothpicks, you’ve got to find the right market for your product or service. But if only five people per month search for what you are offering you are going to have a hard time closing any sales.
Sub-niches are a great way to narrow the field for your product or service. I’ve seen this happen in many different niches. For instance, green building is one niche within the real estate niche that has become popular. The travel industry could have several sub-niches that are profitable. Many other industries can make room for a host of sub-niches as well. But you have to be careful not to narrow it down too far. Otherwise, you’ll be carving yourself out of the market.
6 Reasons Blogging Is a Good Marketing Strategy
We have our own reasons for believing that blogging is a great marketing tool, but Christine Imamshah shares a few good reasons herself:
6 Reasons Blogging Is a Good Marketing Strategy
Blogging is something that anyone can do. It is extremely popular now and there is no end in sight for its popularity. There are thousands of new blogs created every day. Now, initially when I first thought of blogging I felt is was not for me since I imagined it to be a difficult thing to do. Not so I have since found out. This article will cover six reasons why you should blog.
There are many reasons why you should blog, here are 6 of the main ones in my opinion;
1. Blogging is fast to get setup with. There are free hosts where you could get a completely free blog but it would be my recommendation that you at least get your own domain name and hosting to set up your blog. Then I would suggest you use the easiest blogging software which is WordPress to build your blog. Blogging is fun and it is relatively easy. These days with the elections upcoming there are many people political blogging and people enjoy it because it is like discussing current events with others online. The key to good blogging is unique and interesting content. You want to engage your readers so they keep coming back and interacting with you.
Yes, a blog is fairly quick to set up, but there are pitfalls. WordPress is a challenge for first time users. You can get around that by using a free blog host like Blogger.com, but I wouldn’t recommend that. You have no control over a blog on a free host. They set the guidelines and you have to follow them. Own your own domain name and you set the rules.
2. You can make money blogging. You can put a number of different types of ads on your blog, which, when clicked through and a purchase is made you get a commission. One of these would be Google AdSense ads but there are many others you can do a search for and see if they fit with your blog’s topic. You can also use your blog as a traffic director by having your affiliate links on it and directing your visitors to check those links out. Also, if you have your own products you can direct your visitors to those if you have them at a separate website or point them out at your blog.
Yes, you can make money selling ads, but if you are using a blog as a marketing tool for your business, I’d hold these types of advertising arrangements to a minimum.
3. You can build your list via your blog. If you are looking to build a list of subscribers to your blog, which you definitely should do if you are trying to make money blogging, then you can very easily do this by having an opt-in form at your blog.
I definitely recommend using your blog to build a list. Not only that, you can promote your blog with a blog promotion newsletter.
4. Blogging helps you to create your brand. Basically you are being yourself, or should be, at your blog and your readers begin to know you by this.
True. You can learn more about this at Blog Content Provider.
5. Blogging allows communication between you and your readers via the comments that they can leave about your posts. The world is all a buzz about interaction online and a blog is a perfect format to accommodate this.
Blogging is a good way to interact with the marketplace, but not all blogs necessarily have to approach it this way. It’s entirely up to you.
6. Blogging can help you keep up with a lot of the Social Networking communities as well as there are plugins that allow you to automatically update Twitter for one example. Social networking is growing rapidly these days as the new way to do online marketing. It is a different type of marketing than in the past but you definitely want to partake in some of these communities and you can also invite your friends at these places to visit your blog and leave you a comment.
Social networking is gaining in popularity and is a big benefit to blogging. If you use the Blog Content Provider basic blogging service then you’ll get daily social bookmarking thrown in.
The internet is all about interaction and blogging is a fun, fast and easy way to develop your own readership and interact with them.
To Your Success,
Chris
Christine Imamshah is a full time internet marketer. You should visit her blog here at http://www.christineimamshah.com and get a Free report about internet success. Please leave a comment also.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Imamshah
Blog marketing is still fairly new and there is no real definitive way to get it done. Learn more about using your company blog as a marketing tool.
