All Entries Tagged With: "search engine marketing"

How Many Sales Does Your Blog Make?

Speaking to some blog owners you’d think that sales was the most important thing. You’ll hear them say things like, “I haven’t made a sale in months” or “I get a lot of traffic, but it’s not converting.” The issue might not be your blog.

Keep in mind that a blog is not necessarily your best sales tool online. Your website is. A blog is often better used to drive traffic to your website. One advantage that a blog has over a static website is the ability to get crawled by search engines and ranked more quickly. That’s because every time you update your blog post you invite the search engines back to your website to crawl it and every blog post is a separate web page. Those are great benefits.

But within every benefit lies a burden. The downside to every blog post being able to rank faster is that they also become irrelevant much faster. Most people don’t read every blog post of every blog they subscribe to. They read the ones with the catchy titles and that cover the topics in which they have an interest.

That said, instead of focusing on hitting home runs with every blog post, instead try to just get on base with each blog post. Sometimes you’ll strike out (Babe Ruth struck out more often than he got hits but look at how many home runs he had). Sometimes you’ll walk or hit a single. Other times you’ll hit a double or triple and, yes, sometimes you’ll hit that coveted home run. The key to blogging, however, is long term permanence. If you effectively use your blog to drive traffic to your website and you aren’t making sales then it may not be your blog’s fault. It could be your website’s.

Blog Partnerships: How To Have A Ghostwritten Blog For Less $$

In a downward moving economy like today’s companies begin to look for ways to scale back on the budget. It’s a shame because one of the first things to go is marketing and there is no more important a time to market your business than when business is slow or declining. If you find yourself in the situation where you have to cut your marketing budget and you think your blog is going to be one of the things that you cut, let me tell you three reasons why you don’t want to do that:

• Search engine marketing – A blog is one of the most powerful search engine marketing tools you can have. One blog is far more effective than five static websites with no blog promotion. Yes, it’s a monthly expense, but it also keeps you in the forefront of search queries and without a blog your static site will just slide into oblivion.
• Branding – A blog is not only a good search marketing tool. It’s also a great branding tool. There is no other tool on the planet that can do as much to brand your company for less money than a blog.
• Credibility and Authority – A blog also gives you greater authority – with the search engines and with your human visitors. It’s a shame you might consider throwing that away for a few measly dollars each month.

But, hey, a budget’s a budget, right? We understand that. We really do. That’s why I have a suggestion for you. Instead of cutting your blog out of your budget altogether, why not take in a couple or three partners? By sharing the expense of the blog you can also share the benefits and your blog still will get posted to every day. It costs less than one dedicated blog, but it will still provide you with most of the benefits of a daily blog. Each blog post can be optimized for and link to either you or your partners and all of you can have sidebar links on your blog. It’s a win-win for all.

If I were to go the partnership route on a blog I would make sure of two things:

1. No. 1, don’t partner with your competition. Instead, choose complimentary services and products that can benefit by sharing the marketing expense.
2. Get your agreement in writing. Plain and simple. All parties should understand the nature of your contract.

Another way to go about the partnership plan for your blog is for you to take care of all expenses and seek sponsors. Ask your sponsors to pay a few dollars (RE: $10, $15, $25, or even $50 or $100) per month for the privilege of placing a banner on your blog and an occasional promotional post. I’ve done this on my blogs and it works like a charm. You don’t have to stop blogging altogether.

Business Blogging: Product, Service, Or Consulting?

Business blogging is a marketing technique whose time has come. Whether your sell a product, provide a service, or perform consulting services, you can maintain a blog as a form of marketing. Keep in mind that there is more to blogging than mere marketing. You are also branding yourself.

The branding comes in three different formats:

• Search Engine Marketing – Your blog should be optimized for the most important keywords that you want to capture. By sticking to a niche within your business specialty you ensure that your blogging is narrow enough in scope to achieve an effective targeted effort through the search engines.
• Image Projection – With every word you utter and element of design you promote an image of yourself. This image is what others will think about when they think of you.
• Dialogue With Readers – A blog is a dialogue. You want your customers to visit your blog and provide feedback. You may also call it networking. By distributing your blog posts through RSS and various social media outlets you encourage more participation. There is more to business blogging than mere writing. You must also connect.

When you approach business blogging with these three goals in mind you ensure that you enter the marketplace of ideas within your niche with respect and authority. It works whether you have a product for sale, provide a service, or act as consultant.