Apr

23

How To Harness The Marketing Power Of Blogs

April 23, 2008 |

If you are reading this, I’m sure that you have read your fair share of blogs. I’m willing to bet that many of you even have your own blogs set up. But how many people understand how to unleash the marketing power of blogs? Many online user have heard about the power of blogs but few know how to drive cash through them.

Before I get too deep into it, let’s set up the basic first: A blog (stemming from the term “web log”) is a form of website but has three key differences:

1. They are easy to add information to. You just log into it, type your information like normal word processor, post it, and you’re done.

2. The blogging world has created great tools like RSS (Real Simple Syndication), Digg (a blog post rating system) and Technorati (a blog search engine). These tools are built to automatically tell other websites and user every time there is an update on your blog.

3. They can be effective tools in helping your website reach thousands of search keyword terms that your home page would not be able to reach.

You don’t need to be a computer professional or bug your IT department to have it updated. They are accessible to everyone and blogs are free or inexpensive to set up. There are free service option like Blogger or Wordpress that have pre-made templates and are easy to install and use.

I prefer to use Wordpress because it is an open source code service and has a lot of template that you can easily plug in. You can even have your own template just like my blog which I use Alvin Phang’s Atomic Blogging to redesign it.

Blogger is owned by Google which allows you to receive all of the benefits and resources that Google offers. But there are limitations to what you can and can’t do. Recently I came across a site call Weebly that has a free drag and click website creation with a blog feature. If you have never used a blog or would like to see how they work, I recommend starting with weebly or blogger and then moving up to wordpress. If you want to start to get serious with blogging you can get Alvin Phang’s Atomic Blogging.

An Effective Blog Can …

* Drive laser targeted traffic to your main website

* Generate more sales for your own products

* Create an additional steam of advertising income from Adsense or affiliate marketing

* Be a great customer service tool and reduce overhead

* Effectively deliver your attractive character to your audience

Blogs have an informal and conversation style to them which gives you the chance to communicate and open up to reader without having to have a corporate tone. You can be chatty, informative, opinionated, or funny. Most user respond the best when you’re ‘real’ and don’t take a salesman’s approach.

I like to think of blogs like a room in your home or the waiting area in your office. You’ll want to make entries that reflect your personality but you don’t want to decorate the walls with fluff that distract from your overall goal.

How Blogs Can Accelerate Online Success

The fact is, blogs are no longer just online diaries of people’s personal lives that are filled with fluff. Both online and offline businesses use blogs to take their products and services to a wider audience, increasing their traffic, leads and sales.

Below are some extremely powerful ways your business can benefit from a blog. With an affective business blog, you can:

* Humanize you business. Because a blog is much more informal then other websites, you can write posts in your own voice and give your business more of a human face. This helps reassure prospective customers that there’s a “real person” behind the website who’ll take care of their needs. It also allows you to inject more of your personality into your online business than your main sales site could do.

* Improve your customer service. You blog can act as a kind of interactive FAQ, allowing your customers to submit questions and you can answer them. You can also provide product updates, how-to-articles, and other information of relevance to your customers. Prospective and returning customers who see your blog will be encouraged by your commitment to good customer service.

* Give your target market the information they’re looking for. With its automatic archiving feature-by date and category-a blog is a fantastic content-management system. Its easy for you to post new information on a regular basis, and it’s easy for your visitors to find the information they want. With a well written, regularly updated blog, you can become a reliable resource in your industry and build a following of loyal readers who depend on your content. These people will be your best potential customers.

* Drive traffic to your sales website. If you already have a website, a blog can give your traffic levels a real boost. For starters, your blog will attract new visitors that you can then redirect to your main sales website through links and special offers. But an even more effective technique is to use strategic keywords and links to specific sales pages to dramatically improve the search engine rankings of both of your blog and main website.

* Build your credibility and establish yourself as an industry expert. You can give your credibility a real boost by regularly posting valuable and relevant information on your blog. It’s a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your subject area, and allow your visitors to feel much more comfortable buying from you.

* Promote your products or services. You can sell products directly from a blog, or you can use your blog to mention new products and direct visitors to your sales website.

* Generate extra income. There are now several advertising programs available, such as Google Adsense, that allow you to monetize your blog and generate an extra revenue stream.

* Affiliate or product reviews. Because of the easy nature of blogs you can either take the time yourself or hire someone to review all the products that are in your category for about $5 to $20 per review.Set up a rating system then have your affiliate links available so your readers can place an order easily. This will not only give you income on the affiliate sale, but also give your site depth and ability to reach many long term keywords that will drive additional traffic.

Why everyone Isn’t Blogging

If it is so easy and valuable, how come everyone is not making a fortune on blogging? Well, many people are missing the key points. These are:

* Great content. If your content isn’t interesting and relevant to your target market, your blog won’t work. It’s as simple as that. You’ll be surprise, however, how easy it is to find topics to write about if you put your mind to it. It could be news articles about your industry, product updates, interviews, personal insights into topics of importance to your target audience, and much more.

* Regular updating. I won’t lie to you, there are some days when I find it hard to find time to post a new article. But if I don’t post, no one will come back. It’s like subscribing to a daily newspaper but only getting a copy delivered now and then stop. So post often and your audience will keep coming back. Regularly adding fresh content to your blog also gives you a boost in the search engine rankings.

* Your own distinct voice. It’s important that you write in your own voice. A blog is no place for formality and corporate speak. It’s more of a forum, a place where ideas can flourish and topics of current interest can be debated. You don’t even need to be able to relate to your audience and give them good content.

Starting a blog can take as little as five minutes. Of course, starting a blog is the easy part, turning your blog into strategic tool that drives traffic and sales to your online business is completely a different matter.Building a truly effective blog that keeps people coming back again and again takes more then just five minute. It takes time and dedication to develop a blog that keeps your audience coming back for more. But is it worth it? The answer is a big, fat YES!

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