Chambers of commerce, also known as business associations, are groups of business people that gather to "protect and promote business interests." Sometimes these groups are the primary resource centers of communities while others are citywide or international organizations. Regardless of their size or location, all chambers need to promote their organizations and communicate with their members regularly. Blogs are a great way to do both. Thus, following are seven reasons why chambers of commerce should have blogs.
1. Increased credibility Chambers are THE resource centers for the businesses they support. Their members look to them for information that directly and indirectly impacts their businesses. Blogs allow this information to be posted quickly and accurately, thereby increasing the credibility of the organization.
2. Maintain relationships Conversations on blogs help associations maintain relationships with members. Providing information starts conversations; answering questions and getting feedback from members keep dialogues going. Also, responding promptly to inquiries and negative comments will positively affect members' customer service experiences, which contribute to quality relationships.
3. Publicize organization and services Blogs help to spread the word about associations and their benefits and services. Since the internet is worldwide, people in other communities, states or countries can learn about different chambers and inquire about membership. Â This may also lead to more members.
4. Enhance the technical knowledge of business owners Chambers can use blogs to help increase the computer know-how of business owners that have little or no technical skills. This can be done by offering member-only benefits and information that would require them to visit the blog or offer computer tips to help them with commonly used software. Keep things simple and be sure to include clear step-by-step instructions.
5. Create FREE media coverage Newsworthy chamber events and causes that would never make it to TV and radio can be promoted through blogs. In addition, these sites can be used to report things as they are happening or shortly thereafter, and to let audiences know the results of those events.
6. Educational Marketing Associations and their members can provide personal and business growth tips on blogs. The organization can maintain its reputation as a resource and members can share their professional expertise. This is a win-win for all involved.
7. Generate Revenue Advertising and exclusive member-only specials are the two main ways to generate revenue with blogs. Â Neither has to be really expensive, but they both have to appeal to most of the members to be effective.
Above are seven reasons why chambers of commerce should have blogs. If implemented correctly, they will maintain their positions as primary business resources; gain more familiarity through promotion; and build and maintain relationships through effective and consistent communication.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Online Education Blogs
It is a burning truth that students in all parts of the world, today are hardly realizing that writing is a skill. The need to make children and your students aware of the necessity of writing skills has lead to evolution of the online education blogs.
A majority of today's school children are reluctant to make the efforts with a pen and a paper. Even if in the elementary years, they are somehow compelled to practice writing, the task gets almost impossible once they grow up. Unlike the yesteryears, the world of modern children now occupies a whole lot of different things. They can efficiently juggle between studies, sports, computers and mobile phones. Internet, social networking and chatting have effectively captivated children all over the world. Excess technicality is also taking its toll on their imagination. Children now-a-days are most likely to write only for the purpose of chatting and mailing. At this stage, the traditional classroom literacy, failing to meet the demands of the age, is losing to online education blogs.
Children have learned to associate the only fun of writing with chatting and mails. In the classrooms, writing seems to them a bothersome task. For today's technology-dependent students, letting them use technology is the only way to teach them learning. The surging interest of the students in writing can be counteracted by introducing them to an exciting world of writing through the technical media. Thus the online education blogs gained significance.
Children must be encouraged by the parents and teachers to compose their own blogs on a regular basis. Online education blogs, besides the networking websites, is considered to play a major role in motivating children to write. Surveys reveal that students who do not regularly access online education blogs have shown lesser writing expertise and improvements than those who have their own blogs. With better performance in schools, the children, referring to online education blogs are showing more interest in writing. This is again helpful in building their confidence, helping them to excel in writing.
Maintaining online education blogs helps the children to develop a positive attitude towards writing and learning. Not only stories, poems or online diaries, in their online education blogs, the children can also express their opinions. With the classroom teaching literacy and addressing serious sections of education, online education blogs are an interesting alternative to keep the children motivated.
A majority of today's school children are reluctant to make the efforts with a pen and a paper. Even if in the elementary years, they are somehow compelled to practice writing, the task gets almost impossible once they grow up. Unlike the yesteryears, the world of modern children now occupies a whole lot of different things. They can efficiently juggle between studies, sports, computers and mobile phones. Internet, social networking and chatting have effectively captivated children all over the world. Excess technicality is also taking its toll on their imagination. Children now-a-days are most likely to write only for the purpose of chatting and mailing. At this stage, the traditional classroom literacy, failing to meet the demands of the age, is losing to online education blogs.
Children have learned to associate the only fun of writing with chatting and mails. In the classrooms, writing seems to them a bothersome task. For today's technology-dependent students, letting them use technology is the only way to teach them learning. The surging interest of the students in writing can be counteracted by introducing them to an exciting world of writing through the technical media. Thus the online education blogs gained significance.
Children must be encouraged by the parents and teachers to compose their own blogs on a regular basis. Online education blogs, besides the networking websites, is considered to play a major role in motivating children to write. Surveys reveal that students who do not regularly access online education blogs have shown lesser writing expertise and improvements than those who have their own blogs. With better performance in schools, the children, referring to online education blogs are showing more interest in writing. This is again helpful in building their confidence, helping them to excel in writing.
Maintaining online education blogs helps the children to develop a positive attitude towards writing and learning. Not only stories, poems or online diaries, in their online education blogs, the children can also express their opinions. With the classroom teaching literacy and addressing serious sections of education, online education blogs are an interesting alternative to keep the children motivated.
The Kodak Zi8 is Perfect For Video Blogging!
The internet buzz about all the viral marketing, social marketing, and video marketing is not just a fad. This is a trend that we see growing rapidly and will be here as a means of communication and marketing for years to come. With the increasing access to new technology the world has all the information they need at their fingertips. Many people are choosing to have online businesses and stores. Practically everyone has bought something online. It is amazing how much more a video or even a picture can do to sell an object. Text alone is dead. There is not a better way to build relationships with people online other than blogging. Video blogging helps people to understand you and your business with clarity and trust.
Everyday business owners are sometimes intimidated by the word blogging. But little do they know that is it essentially recording a video and posting information about their business online. Blogging is just a technical term. By the way, it is very powerful and will transform you business to the next level.
Now the Kodakzi8 is the camera that most easily facilitates this process. The Kodakzi8 is a HD camera and has image stabilization for shooting on the go. To upload these quality videos, just swing open the USB port and upload to whichever platform for sharing. Shoot, upload and share. This camera is amazing and perfect for making quality videos and online interacting. It comes with a rechargeable battery and is small enough to fit in your pocket. For example, a great use would be when you are out with a client, ask their permission to shoot a quick two minute testimonial of your services to post to your blog and send to your subscribers. Happy blogging!
Everyday business owners are sometimes intimidated by the word blogging. But little do they know that is it essentially recording a video and posting information about their business online. Blogging is just a technical term. By the way, it is very powerful and will transform you business to the next level.
Now the Kodakzi8 is the camera that most easily facilitates this process. The Kodakzi8 is a HD camera and has image stabilization for shooting on the go. To upload these quality videos, just swing open the USB port and upload to whichever platform for sharing. Shoot, upload and share. This camera is amazing and perfect for making quality videos and online interacting. It comes with a rechargeable battery and is small enough to fit in your pocket. For example, a great use would be when you are out with a client, ask their permission to shoot a quick two minute testimonial of your services to post to your blog and send to your subscribers. Happy blogging!
Should My Business Have a Blog?
Blogs are a unique way to add a personal touch to your online presence. While originally just for personal purposes; blogs have now gone mainstream. Businesses now use them as websites or to add features to their websites. The format allows for easy changes which makes it easier than ever to add information quickly and easily.
But does a blog add to my business?
People are comfortable with reading a blog format because it is a less formal way of sharing information. This gives your business a way to communicate with visitors, potential clients or customers. A blog helps your business discuss matters such as updates, future business ideas and other matters that can help influence people interested in your business. The personal touch gives your visitors reason to feel comfortable with you and your business.
What information should be on my blog?
This question is actually far more complicated than it sounds. Your business blog can have just about anything on it. Anything that relates to your business, local news or even something that is related to you personally. The most important thing is that your blog contributes to your business by getting readers back to your blog and your business.
Can I put anything on my business blog?
Just about anything could be on your business blog. Typically you want something related to your business. However you do have room for variations. You can have special posts about different subjects. You can have posts about your personal life as it relates to your business.
What are some ideas?
Companies that are food related may share recipes regularly. If you have a child related business you could easily share kid activities. Cleaning businesses could add tips on how to de-clutter the house. If you have tips or hints that can help your customers then you have something great for your blog.
How does this help my business?
If you regularly add information to your blog, readers have a reason to come back to your website. The more often they visit the more likely they are to do business with you.
But why does a business blog help me make money?
People like to do business with someone whom they feel comfortable with and trust. Because your blog regularly shares valuable information, they feel like you are someone with whom they can relate. Your visitors also see your business regularly and will come to think of you as the source or the business to go to when they need your niche.
But does a blog add to my business?
People are comfortable with reading a blog format because it is a less formal way of sharing information. This gives your business a way to communicate with visitors, potential clients or customers. A blog helps your business discuss matters such as updates, future business ideas and other matters that can help influence people interested in your business. The personal touch gives your visitors reason to feel comfortable with you and your business.
What information should be on my blog?
This question is actually far more complicated than it sounds. Your business blog can have just about anything on it. Anything that relates to your business, local news or even something that is related to you personally. The most important thing is that your blog contributes to your business by getting readers back to your blog and your business.
Can I put anything on my business blog?
Just about anything could be on your business blog. Typically you want something related to your business. However you do have room for variations. You can have special posts about different subjects. You can have posts about your personal life as it relates to your business.
What are some ideas?
Companies that are food related may share recipes regularly. If you have a child related business you could easily share kid activities. Cleaning businesses could add tips on how to de-clutter the house. If you have tips or hints that can help your customers then you have something great for your blog.
How does this help my business?
If you regularly add information to your blog, readers have a reason to come back to your website. The more often they visit the more likely they are to do business with you.
But why does a business blog help me make money?
People like to do business with someone whom they feel comfortable with and trust. Because your blog regularly shares valuable information, they feel like you are someone with whom they can relate. Your visitors also see your business regularly and will come to think of you as the source or the business to go to when they need your niche.
Build Your Brand With Guest Blogging
Blogging is such a big business these days. It is a great way to communicate with other business people as well as customers or even just friends. As an online business owner or professional blogger, writing for others can get you noticed and build your reputation.
What is a brand?
It is your unique stamp. With big product companies like Pepsi-Cola or Nike, it is their trademark product and tag lines. But, they didn't start that way. No one knew who either of them was or that they were solid products until they were marketed and that brand reinforced with endorsements and such from people we did know.
So, how can guest blogging help? Well, first of all you have to have a blog or website of your own. You can't establish a brand unless you have a place to showcase it in the first place. It may take a while, but your blog can establish a loyal following you can count on to follow you other places.
Bloggers are smart people. They will know if you are just after them for their name. Before you approach them with your request (probably one of hundreds more popular bloggers get), get involved in their blog. Post comments on a daily or weekly basis. Pose thought-provoking questions.
All of this shows that you are attempting to understand what has made them such a valuable brand on the Internet. Also, they get to know your "face" as it were because you are always around. The only thing that works better for a new blogger trying to establish them self is nepotism (and it is always welcome!).
Okay, so there is one thing that is almost as good - offering free services. If you ever want an endorsement for your brand later (and you will), offer the blog owner a free product or a trial of your services. Doing so is a courtesy that will pay off for you in the end.
Writing for another blog gives you a chance to talk about other topics in front of a new audience. If you talk about the guest spot on your own blog, many of your loyal fans will pop on over for a look see. And, through your bio blurb, the existing audience on that blog will know where to find you. This is not to steal their readership but to share it since you are not necessarily in a competing market.
In an effort to put your stamp on the world of Internet business, try guest blogging. When done correctly, you can gain increased traffic and new business connections that will serve you well into the future.
What is a brand?
It is your unique stamp. With big product companies like Pepsi-Cola or Nike, it is their trademark product and tag lines. But, they didn't start that way. No one knew who either of them was or that they were solid products until they were marketed and that brand reinforced with endorsements and such from people we did know.
So, how can guest blogging help? Well, first of all you have to have a blog or website of your own. You can't establish a brand unless you have a place to showcase it in the first place. It may take a while, but your blog can establish a loyal following you can count on to follow you other places.
Bloggers are smart people. They will know if you are just after them for their name. Before you approach them with your request (probably one of hundreds more popular bloggers get), get involved in their blog. Post comments on a daily or weekly basis. Pose thought-provoking questions.
All of this shows that you are attempting to understand what has made them such a valuable brand on the Internet. Also, they get to know your "face" as it were because you are always around. The only thing that works better for a new blogger trying to establish them self is nepotism (and it is always welcome!).
Okay, so there is one thing that is almost as good - offering free services. If you ever want an endorsement for your brand later (and you will), offer the blog owner a free product or a trial of your services. Doing so is a courtesy that will pay off for you in the end.
Writing for another blog gives you a chance to talk about other topics in front of a new audience. If you talk about the guest spot on your own blog, many of your loyal fans will pop on over for a look see. And, through your bio blurb, the existing audience on that blog will know where to find you. This is not to steal their readership but to share it since you are not necessarily in a competing market.
In an effort to put your stamp on the world of Internet business, try guest blogging. When done correctly, you can gain increased traffic and new business connections that will serve you well into the future.
Why Blogging Helps Search Engine Optimization
Blogging is fast becoming one of the most popular past times with millions being created each year. There are many reasons why people blog personal, social, or for business reasons. However if your looking to increase your main websites visibility online there is simply no better tool than creating a blog. If you are looking into search engine optimization and are not sure where to start, a blog is an excellent idea and let me tell you why.
A blog allows you to continually add new pages to your site. These new pages can be used to target new longtail keyword terms. Each page can have a new topic which makes a blog more diverse to a static site.
The new contact can be written in an intriguing manner which will make it more link worthy. A blog helps you create a community that your static sales site cannot, write in a relaxed manner, give quality industry updates and let your readers see the real people behind the business. This encourages readers to bookmark your site and link back to it, enhancing your search engine optimization efforts.
Your blog posts are also a great place to link internally back to your homepage, anchoring the link with the text of preference. This helps PageRank to flow around your site and increases the relevance of your homepage. Increasing content on a domain is one of the many Google ranking factors and simply updating your blog on a regular basis could see you rise in the search results page very quickly.
Once you have a blog in place and you have begun to write articles on it, you can then head over to a blog carnival and submit your stories for consideration. This not only helps drive targeted traffic to your site but you will also get a backlink for your troubles. Blog carnivals also allow you to influence your own anchor text making it the perfect linking solution.
The ultimate element a blog will add to an SEO campaign is it's ability to gain links quickly through social media and the linkerati. A static site selling a product or service is never going to attract many links, if any at all. However your blog provides the ideal place to show your visitors some real quality content, content that can be classed as reference worthy, content that will receive links. If you have not got a blog up and running already then you have already fallen behind, best get started.
A blog allows you to continually add new pages to your site. These new pages can be used to target new longtail keyword terms. Each page can have a new topic which makes a blog more diverse to a static site.
The new contact can be written in an intriguing manner which will make it more link worthy. A blog helps you create a community that your static sales site cannot, write in a relaxed manner, give quality industry updates and let your readers see the real people behind the business. This encourages readers to bookmark your site and link back to it, enhancing your search engine optimization efforts.
Your blog posts are also a great place to link internally back to your homepage, anchoring the link with the text of preference. This helps PageRank to flow around your site and increases the relevance of your homepage. Increasing content on a domain is one of the many Google ranking factors and simply updating your blog on a regular basis could see you rise in the search results page very quickly.
Once you have a blog in place and you have begun to write articles on it, you can then head over to a blog carnival and submit your stories for consideration. This not only helps drive targeted traffic to your site but you will also get a backlink for your troubles. Blog carnivals also allow you to influence your own anchor text making it the perfect linking solution.
The ultimate element a blog will add to an SEO campaign is it's ability to gain links quickly through social media and the linkerati. A static site selling a product or service is never going to attract many links, if any at all. However your blog provides the ideal place to show your visitors some real quality content, content that can be classed as reference worthy, content that will receive links. If you have not got a blog up and running already then you have already fallen behind, best get started.
Marketing With Blogs - Part 4
In earlier parts of this series on marketing with blogs, I discussed the reasons why blogs are excellent tools for marketing, and provided some tips on using your blog to brand yourself, boost your reputation and sell your products and services online.
In this article, I provide specific tips on using your blog help you boost your marketing ROI and visibility online.
Use Good SEO Practices
Besides using keywords appropriately, take the time to learn about using trackbacks, pingbacks, good linking practices and basic SEO techniques.
Remember that in blogging, public relations equals PageRank. The more you link to others, the more they will link to you.
Submit your blogs and feeds to directories and search engines.
Track Your Results
Keep track of your sales, inbound links, citations by using tools like adtrackers, Blogpulse and Marketleap. Also offer your readers incentives to participate in surveys.
This information is very valuable because it will help you understand what your market needs and how to give it to them.
It will also help you understand how much your blogging is helping your marketing efforts so you can tweak your methods and get more out of them.
Listen And Learn
When we're blogging we usually stating our opinions openly. As bloggers it's all right to be controversial and frank while blogging.
But what happens when a potential customer posts a nasty or rude comment? Some bloggers think its OK to be rude right back, and even go so far as to call that person names.
I don't believe that's the way to treat someone who take the trouble to sign-in and post a comment on your blog. For all you know they may have a genuine problem and could be speaking for others who have experienced the same.
Being rude will not only lose you a customer, it will also expose you as someone who is too immature to handle customer complaints.
Granted, some customers can be a pain in the butt, but everyone deserves to be heard. And handling nasty or rude comments with restraint will not only demonstrate your maturity, but build your customers respect for you.
People prefer doing business with someone they like and trust. So if you want your blog to be a place where your potential customers can interact freely and openly, I suggest you learn how to handle brickbats as well as bouquets with grace and maturity.
It used to be said that the internet was the great leveller because it empowers small businesses to compete with big businesses. But blogs have completely levelled the playing field for marketers.
Anyone with an internet connection can now sell their products and services solely on the basis of the quality of information they provide.
And that's the reason blogs are creating a revolution in marketing online.
In this article, I provide specific tips on using your blog help you boost your marketing ROI and visibility online.
Use Good SEO Practices
Besides using keywords appropriately, take the time to learn about using trackbacks, pingbacks, good linking practices and basic SEO techniques.
Remember that in blogging, public relations equals PageRank. The more you link to others, the more they will link to you.
Submit your blogs and feeds to directories and search engines.
Track Your Results
Keep track of your sales, inbound links, citations by using tools like adtrackers, Blogpulse and Marketleap. Also offer your readers incentives to participate in surveys.
This information is very valuable because it will help you understand what your market needs and how to give it to them.
It will also help you understand how much your blogging is helping your marketing efforts so you can tweak your methods and get more out of them.
Listen And Learn
When we're blogging we usually stating our opinions openly. As bloggers it's all right to be controversial and frank while blogging.
But what happens when a potential customer posts a nasty or rude comment? Some bloggers think its OK to be rude right back, and even go so far as to call that person names.
I don't believe that's the way to treat someone who take the trouble to sign-in and post a comment on your blog. For all you know they may have a genuine problem and could be speaking for others who have experienced the same.
Being rude will not only lose you a customer, it will also expose you as someone who is too immature to handle customer complaints.
Granted, some customers can be a pain in the butt, but everyone deserves to be heard. And handling nasty or rude comments with restraint will not only demonstrate your maturity, but build your customers respect for you.
People prefer doing business with someone they like and trust. So if you want your blog to be a place where your potential customers can interact freely and openly, I suggest you learn how to handle brickbats as well as bouquets with grace and maturity.
It used to be said that the internet was the great leveller because it empowers small businesses to compete with big businesses. But blogs have completely levelled the playing field for marketers.
Anyone with an internet connection can now sell their products and services solely on the basis of the quality of information they provide.
And that's the reason blogs are creating a revolution in marketing online.
A Few Stories to Illustrate the Power of Blogging
We all know that blogging to promote your business is a good idea, but you've also probably had an experience with putting tons of energy into a blog and then seeing the traffic languishing at 40 visitors a day. This article isn't about making a success of a blog that exists for its own sake - a monetized entertainment or informational blog that is designed to be its own source of income.
This is about a few examples of how using a blog can save your business, be it web-based or brick-and-mortar.
Cookie Store's Blog Post Saves it from Bankruptcy
Our first story comes from a cookie store owner in St. Paul, who already had a blog that was used for personal posts and general news. You wouldn't imagine a cookie shop's blog to have a large following, but when faced with a serious financial crisis and staring bankruptcy in the face, Katie Novolny's single blog post made all the difference.
She posted on her blog that she needed to get a lot of people buying cookies, fast, in order to make it through the month. Because she was active on various small local and specialist social networks, and had built up a number of contacts in these networks, her post started to make its rounds. It was forwarded, shared and emailed, and printed in a local newspaper.
The result was that enough people came around to buy cookies that they managed to pay their bills, stay open, and grow their customer base to a level that made the business sustainable.
Toronto Lawyer Casts Wide Net With Blog
A Toronto employment and human rights lawyer, Lisa Stam, gives us an excellent example of how using your blog can do more than just increase your customer base and generate revenue. Stam is an "old school" commercial blogger - rather than use clever SEO tricks and spamming forums and social media, she has built up a fan-base the hard way: by consistently producing good content and putting it in front of a relevant audience.
Stam says, "Being a Canadian and blogging helps eliminate national borders and helps (me) connect with people all over the place and I like that. It is the neat thing about blogging - it truly is a global activity." Lisa is one of the only female Toronto-based lawyers in her field who blog, so she has attracted a strong niche following. This following has led to a number of career and business opportunities, including agency-appointed client referrals, speaking engagements and a recent interview with the prominent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation talk show Currents.
Her advice for people wanting to use their blog to promote their business? "You have to read more than you write and listen more than you talk, that's critical."
Well said, Lisa.
This is about a few examples of how using a blog can save your business, be it web-based or brick-and-mortar.
Cookie Store's Blog Post Saves it from Bankruptcy
Our first story comes from a cookie store owner in St. Paul, who already had a blog that was used for personal posts and general news. You wouldn't imagine a cookie shop's blog to have a large following, but when faced with a serious financial crisis and staring bankruptcy in the face, Katie Novolny's single blog post made all the difference.
She posted on her blog that she needed to get a lot of people buying cookies, fast, in order to make it through the month. Because she was active on various small local and specialist social networks, and had built up a number of contacts in these networks, her post started to make its rounds. It was forwarded, shared and emailed, and printed in a local newspaper.
The result was that enough people came around to buy cookies that they managed to pay their bills, stay open, and grow their customer base to a level that made the business sustainable.
Toronto Lawyer Casts Wide Net With Blog
A Toronto employment and human rights lawyer, Lisa Stam, gives us an excellent example of how using your blog can do more than just increase your customer base and generate revenue. Stam is an "old school" commercial blogger - rather than use clever SEO tricks and spamming forums and social media, she has built up a fan-base the hard way: by consistently producing good content and putting it in front of a relevant audience.
Stam says, "Being a Canadian and blogging helps eliminate national borders and helps (me) connect with people all over the place and I like that. It is the neat thing about blogging - it truly is a global activity." Lisa is one of the only female Toronto-based lawyers in her field who blog, so she has attracted a strong niche following. This following has led to a number of career and business opportunities, including agency-appointed client referrals, speaking engagements and a recent interview with the prominent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation talk show Currents.
Her advice for people wanting to use their blog to promote their business? "You have to read more than you write and listen more than you talk, that's critical."
Well said, Lisa.
How to Build Your Business With a Blog
Blogging is an immensely popular form of social media marketing. It's highly accessible, easily set up, and very effective. Businesses are joining the blogging ranks at a rapid pace- and it's no wonder with all the benefits a blog can offer small and large businesses alike. In addition to the more technical benefits of blogging, such as increased traffic and higher search engine ranking, blogging provides powerful and fundamental marketing benefits. So, how can a blog help build your business?
Exposure
It really comes down to getting the word out. The more people who know about you and your business, the more customers you're likely to gain. Blogs are hugely popular with consumers. Most of your customers and prospects are already reading and following a number of blogs. If you have something useful, valuable, or fun to say, they will be happy to listen. Because blogs (when written and maintained properly), are so easy to access and consume you will be exposing your business to a virtually limitless audience.
Image
When a business produces a well-written, value-added blog, people are interacting with your company in a positive way. They read your blog and walk away with valuable information, new insight, or at least some good entertainment. This means you're not only exposing your business to countless consumers, you're exposing yourself as an expert, a thought leader, and a valuable part of the business world. You're building a positive image for your business that readers will remember.
Interaction
A blog is an interactive media. You put out a thoughtful, informative, or provocative post, and readers respond with comments, questions, and thoughts of their own. This opens up a line of communication with your customers and prospects that reinforces a relationship. Engaging with consumers on your blog in a positive way makes you a known entity- you're no longer a faceless corporation with no personality. Now you're a real individual who cares and participates with your customers. People like to do business with people they know.
Reach
Blogging helps to create a community with your prospects and customers. It's an exchange of ideas, opinions, and advice that helps build report between you and your readers. But unlike other community efforts, blogging has no boarders. You can reach customers who live down the street, and at the same time reach prospects in different time zones, countries, and continents.
Blogging isn't an easy endeavor. It requires time, commitment, and creative energy. Whether you maintain your business blog yourself or hire someone to do it for you will have a huge impact on the type of commitment you will have to make. Regardless of how you choose to manage your blog, the results can have a great impact, helping you to build a credible image, reach distant prospects, build relationships, and grow your business.
Exposure
It really comes down to getting the word out. The more people who know about you and your business, the more customers you're likely to gain. Blogs are hugely popular with consumers. Most of your customers and prospects are already reading and following a number of blogs. If you have something useful, valuable, or fun to say, they will be happy to listen. Because blogs (when written and maintained properly), are so easy to access and consume you will be exposing your business to a virtually limitless audience.
Image
When a business produces a well-written, value-added blog, people are interacting with your company in a positive way. They read your blog and walk away with valuable information, new insight, or at least some good entertainment. This means you're not only exposing your business to countless consumers, you're exposing yourself as an expert, a thought leader, and a valuable part of the business world. You're building a positive image for your business that readers will remember.
Interaction
A blog is an interactive media. You put out a thoughtful, informative, or provocative post, and readers respond with comments, questions, and thoughts of their own. This opens up a line of communication with your customers and prospects that reinforces a relationship. Engaging with consumers on your blog in a positive way makes you a known entity- you're no longer a faceless corporation with no personality. Now you're a real individual who cares and participates with your customers. People like to do business with people they know.
Reach
Blogging helps to create a community with your prospects and customers. It's an exchange of ideas, opinions, and advice that helps build report between you and your readers. But unlike other community efforts, blogging has no boarders. You can reach customers who live down the street, and at the same time reach prospects in different time zones, countries, and continents.
Blogging isn't an easy endeavor. It requires time, commitment, and creative energy. Whether you maintain your business blog yourself or hire someone to do it for you will have a huge impact on the type of commitment you will have to make. Regardless of how you choose to manage your blog, the results can have a great impact, helping you to build a credible image, reach distant prospects, build relationships, and grow your business.
Why Should I Build a Blog? Will It Help My MLM Business Grow?
What are your goals? Do you want more income? More free time? Financial stability? A bigger, faster growing MLM business? What do we need to do to reach those goals, especially in network marketing and will a blog help you reach?
In order for your MLM business to grow, you need to be reaching thousands of potential leads every month instead of just a handful of people each month. You need to be training your team to grow their own business and duplicating what you are doing. You need to become a leader and expert to your team and others in the network marketing industry.
To become more successful as a network marketer you also have to have good, effective ways to communicate with others and you need to be able to convert people from your cold market to your friendly market. So, what can a blog do for me and how will it help my MLM business grow?
A blog will help you establish yourself as an expert in your field. It is an effective way of building your reputation as a "go to" person in the network marketing industry.This builds the image you want others to see, for instance, do you specialize in teaching others how to generate leads in your own special unique way, such as participating in events. This is where you can showcase your talents and get your ideas out there!
A Blog is a great way to personalize things and have others get to know you! This is Important both on and off the internet. By pointing people to your blog where they can follow you and what you are accomplishing, turning them from your cold market to your friendly market.
Your friendly market is not quite your warm market which are people you know or friends and family, but they are people who respect what you do, see you as an expert, and think of you as a leader who they want to duplicate.
A blog takes you from the unknown to the known and that makes people feel better about you! A blog establishes consistency both with your business builders, and potential leads who may be looking for a new team to join! For instance you can have weekly training videos or webinars for your MLM team. This will increase the incomes of those on your team because others can duplicate you when you are regularly training them! This, in turn, will increase your business and your income. You can also easily train many at once which frees up more of your valuable time! Those on your team who are located long distances from you do not have to miss out on the trainings, which is also important!
For potential leads, you can add your business opportunity presentation to your blog, which allows you to consistently and always be educating new people about how you can help them earn more income and reach their goals! Consistency develops repeat visitors and they begin to depend on your good advice. You emerge a LEADER. Leaders in life, usually become the high-income earners.
Blogs are a flexible marketing tool. You can upload new information whenever you want to and respond to others immediately. You can go to live trainings, or events for instance and upload great content that you get that you want to share with those who did not attend the event. Blogs also stay around a lot longer than a brochure, or a newsletter. The information will be there until you decide to take it off.
Finally, a blog is more affordable than a full-blown website. With the right instructional training, you can easily run your blog on a daily basis, or outsource many of the blog activities to other services. You can also develop your own blog yourself in many cases. These are just a few reasons you should establish your online business center, your blog.
Whether you are an offline or online network marketer, it is important to stand out and be unique, have your own brand and have an efficient way to convert leads to customers and other business builders on your team.
In order for your MLM business to grow, you need to be reaching thousands of potential leads every month instead of just a handful of people each month. You need to be training your team to grow their own business and duplicating what you are doing. You need to become a leader and expert to your team and others in the network marketing industry.
To become more successful as a network marketer you also have to have good, effective ways to communicate with others and you need to be able to convert people from your cold market to your friendly market. So, what can a blog do for me and how will it help my MLM business grow?
A blog will help you establish yourself as an expert in your field. It is an effective way of building your reputation as a "go to" person in the network marketing industry.This builds the image you want others to see, for instance, do you specialize in teaching others how to generate leads in your own special unique way, such as participating in events. This is where you can showcase your talents and get your ideas out there!
A Blog is a great way to personalize things and have others get to know you! This is Important both on and off the internet. By pointing people to your blog where they can follow you and what you are accomplishing, turning them from your cold market to your friendly market.
Your friendly market is not quite your warm market which are people you know or friends and family, but they are people who respect what you do, see you as an expert, and think of you as a leader who they want to duplicate.
A blog takes you from the unknown to the known and that makes people feel better about you! A blog establishes consistency both with your business builders, and potential leads who may be looking for a new team to join! For instance you can have weekly training videos or webinars for your MLM team. This will increase the incomes of those on your team because others can duplicate you when you are regularly training them! This, in turn, will increase your business and your income. You can also easily train many at once which frees up more of your valuable time! Those on your team who are located long distances from you do not have to miss out on the trainings, which is also important!
For potential leads, you can add your business opportunity presentation to your blog, which allows you to consistently and always be educating new people about how you can help them earn more income and reach their goals! Consistency develops repeat visitors and they begin to depend on your good advice. You emerge a LEADER. Leaders in life, usually become the high-income earners.
Blogs are a flexible marketing tool. You can upload new information whenever you want to and respond to others immediately. You can go to live trainings, or events for instance and upload great content that you get that you want to share with those who did not attend the event. Blogs also stay around a lot longer than a brochure, or a newsletter. The information will be there until you decide to take it off.
Finally, a blog is more affordable than a full-blown website. With the right instructional training, you can easily run your blog on a daily basis, or outsource many of the blog activities to other services. You can also develop your own blog yourself in many cases. These are just a few reasons you should establish your online business center, your blog.
Whether you are an offline or online network marketer, it is important to stand out and be unique, have your own brand and have an efficient way to convert leads to customers and other business builders on your team.
Tips For Starting a Blog
Are you thinking about starting a blog? Good planning and thought will go a long way when you decide to get started with your blog. Blogging can be fun and very informative for you and your subscribers. If you are ready then I have listed some tips for starting a blog from my own experiences.
Blogging unlike a website lets you interact with your visitors by leaving comments and post which can be accessed by others for their viewing pleasure. The first thing you must do is pick a niche, a subject that you can relate to. Do keyword researches to see if there will be enough interest in the subject you choose? Blogs do better if you stay focused on your niche and do not get caught up in wavering off the main subject.
Next think about which blogging platform to you want to use; WordPress, Blogger, or others are available. If you are serious about getting started then you will need to purchase a domain name with your keyword in the title. A domain can be purchased for around $8 per year and it can be hosted by a hosting company for around $40 a year. The other alternative is to sign up for a free Blogger account from Google© where name selection might be limited but still can get you started.
When getting started, check out some will established blogs online to see what they are doing and the format that they are using. It is better to follow by example rather than trying to re-invent the wheel.
To keep your site going you must continue to post, most people throw up a blog and quit posting after a few weeks, a sure sign for disaster.
Try to find a good template that is easy to use and looks good to your viewers. Keep it simple to start to see how your viewers will receive it, you can always ask them what they think of your format. Sometimes you can get an opinion from your friends and suggestions about what they would like to see.
Make sure you set up a RSS feed so your readers can get your post sent to them automatically. You should subscribe to blogging services like Technorati and submit your blog to directories. By doing these others will see your blog and become curious by visiting you site.
SEO optimization is a very important part of blogging; you want others to be able to find you when they enter certain search keywords. Make sure you use categories so when people visit your site they can quickly find what they are looking for.
I hope my tips for starting a blog help you to make a decision about setting it up and what format you want to use, good luck.
Blogging unlike a website lets you interact with your visitors by leaving comments and post which can be accessed by others for their viewing pleasure. The first thing you must do is pick a niche, a subject that you can relate to. Do keyword researches to see if there will be enough interest in the subject you choose? Blogs do better if you stay focused on your niche and do not get caught up in wavering off the main subject.
Next think about which blogging platform to you want to use; WordPress, Blogger, or others are available. If you are serious about getting started then you will need to purchase a domain name with your keyword in the title. A domain can be purchased for around $8 per year and it can be hosted by a hosting company for around $40 a year. The other alternative is to sign up for a free Blogger account from Google© where name selection might be limited but still can get you started.
When getting started, check out some will established blogs online to see what they are doing and the format that they are using. It is better to follow by example rather than trying to re-invent the wheel.
To keep your site going you must continue to post, most people throw up a blog and quit posting after a few weeks, a sure sign for disaster.
Try to find a good template that is easy to use and looks good to your viewers. Keep it simple to start to see how your viewers will receive it, you can always ask them what they think of your format. Sometimes you can get an opinion from your friends and suggestions about what they would like to see.
Make sure you set up a RSS feed so your readers can get your post sent to them automatically. You should subscribe to blogging services like Technorati and submit your blog to directories. By doing these others will see your blog and become curious by visiting you site.
SEO optimization is a very important part of blogging; you want others to be able to find you when they enter certain search keywords. Make sure you use categories so when people visit your site they can quickly find what they are looking for.
I hope my tips for starting a blog help you to make a decision about setting it up and what format you want to use, good luck.
How Blogging Helps Service Business Owners Answer 3 Tough Questions About Getting More Clients
Service business owners have many questions about growing their client base online. Three of the toughest questions I get are directly related to getting more clients:
How can I...
... choose a niche?
... get more traffic?
... demonstrate my expertise to prospective clients?
There's one way to answer *all* these questions and more: create a WordPress blog.
These days, your blog may become your website. You can learn to create an opening "sticky" page that introduces your business to visitors. As time goes on, you add additional pages that can be accessed easily from anywhere on the blog.
Blogging Helps You Choose A Niche
Because it's so easy to set up a blog, you can use your blog to help choose your ideal target audience. One way to choose a niche is to set up a blog for the top 2 or 3 niches you are considering.
For instance: you might have a blog on dog training, another blog on developing leadership skills and a third blog on creating energy with healthy eating. This diversity is not at all unusual, as most service business owners are equipped with a lively curiosity and a large number of skills and talents.
Even if you do nothing but blog, you will discover how deeply your own interest holds for each topic. You soon realize what kinds of posts and topics generate the best audience response. For instance, you may find yourself spending more time on the dog blog and almost no time on the healthy food blog. Now you've got a clue about how to direct your business.
Blogs Help You Attract Targeted Traffic
Blogs help attract targeted traffic, especially when you use keywords in titles and content. Search engines love fresh content and that's what a blog provides. You can also create social media posts to leverage your blog posts.
Your Blog Will Showcase Your Expertise
You get to demonstrate your expertise to prospects, so you come across as an expert who delivers value (and deserves to get paid). Every article shares some information, so readers get a sense of the range of your knowledge.
Blogs Are Fast, Easy and Cheap
Best of all, you can set up a blog in 15 minutes or less. The cost of blogging is minimal. You can download WordPress software and a free theme. Add a few dollars for hosting and domain name purchase and you're literally in business. Most people need some instructions or coaching to get started, but it is entirely possible to become a WordPress blogger on your own, even if you don't know a word of HTML.
How can I...
... choose a niche?
... get more traffic?
... demonstrate my expertise to prospective clients?
There's one way to answer *all* these questions and more: create a WordPress blog.
These days, your blog may become your website. You can learn to create an opening "sticky" page that introduces your business to visitors. As time goes on, you add additional pages that can be accessed easily from anywhere on the blog.
Blogging Helps You Choose A Niche
Because it's so easy to set up a blog, you can use your blog to help choose your ideal target audience. One way to choose a niche is to set up a blog for the top 2 or 3 niches you are considering.
For instance: you might have a blog on dog training, another blog on developing leadership skills and a third blog on creating energy with healthy eating. This diversity is not at all unusual, as most service business owners are equipped with a lively curiosity and a large number of skills and talents.
Even if you do nothing but blog, you will discover how deeply your own interest holds for each topic. You soon realize what kinds of posts and topics generate the best audience response. For instance, you may find yourself spending more time on the dog blog and almost no time on the healthy food blog. Now you've got a clue about how to direct your business.
Blogs Help You Attract Targeted Traffic
Blogs help attract targeted traffic, especially when you use keywords in titles and content. Search engines love fresh content and that's what a blog provides. You can also create social media posts to leverage your blog posts.
Your Blog Will Showcase Your Expertise
You get to demonstrate your expertise to prospects, so you come across as an expert who delivers value (and deserves to get paid). Every article shares some information, so readers get a sense of the range of your knowledge.
Blogs Are Fast, Easy and Cheap
Best of all, you can set up a blog in 15 minutes or less. The cost of blogging is minimal. You can download WordPress software and a free theme. Add a few dollars for hosting and domain name purchase and you're literally in business. Most people need some instructions or coaching to get started, but it is entirely possible to become a WordPress blogger on your own, even if you don't know a word of HTML.
Top 5 Benefits of Gay Blogs for the LGBT Community Worldwide
In the information age, blogs have become important and popular tools that are instrumental to distributing knowledge and news to wide and diverse populations. As such, blogs are necessary tools for any group wishing to keep its members abreast of new information and developments. While blogs are important to any group, because of the way the LGBT community is spread out around the country and the world, gay blogs are even more important in making sure that all are kept up to date on items that are relevant and vital to LGBTs.
One important benefit of gay blogs is that they promote greater awareness of issues that are important to the LGBT community. While the struggle for marriage and civil equality has scored many victories in the past several years, it's important to all in the community that its members keep up to date on the progress of the fight on such issues and the ways that the issues are being advanced. Data about progress in one area could provide a way for others to push forward in another area.
Another benefit of gay blogs is that they provide a way for LGBTs to meet other people and to discuss trends that they see occurring within the community or greater societal happenings that could ultimately cause an impact on other LGBTs. Having forums where LGBTs can explore such trends means that they are better able to react to them and prepare responses to those items that could be harmful or embrace those that portray LGBTs in a better light.
While news about progress and trends are helpful, blogs can have an even more tangible plus. As LGBTs are still often victims of discrimination and violence, blogs can have the very real impact of warning others about specific incidents and rallying people to fight institutions that continue to promote discrimination. While the community cannot and should not live in fear, it can be helpful to be reminded that many struggles remain before LGBTs are truly considered full and proper citizens before the law.
However, news about the LGBT community should not all be about the challenges that still face it. That's why blogs can be important propagators of news of successes and events. Every day, LGBTs win more battles for equality and host more events that celebrate its members and their contributions. As a result, blogs can help spread news of these victories, which can serve as inspirations to others, and promote knowledge of and attendance at these events, so that they can achieve the greatest degree of success.
A final important advantage to gay blogs is to raise funds and support for gay causes and LGBT friendly politicians. Every success for the LGBT community requires money and manpower to drive it further. Blogs are vital tools in rallying these resources and increased readership of gay blogs can help to form a more vibrant and engaged social force.
Gay blogs have a vast potential to drive change, promote awareness, and mold a greater sense of family for LGBTs everywhere. Perhaps the greatest benefit of all is that gay blogs remind LGBTs that they truly are a community. The LGBT community is a strong and vital group that extends past political and social boundaries and gay blogs help to promote a greater awareness of that fact and a greater unity for the future.
One important benefit of gay blogs is that they promote greater awareness of issues that are important to the LGBT community. While the struggle for marriage and civil equality has scored many victories in the past several years, it's important to all in the community that its members keep up to date on the progress of the fight on such issues and the ways that the issues are being advanced. Data about progress in one area could provide a way for others to push forward in another area.
Another benefit of gay blogs is that they provide a way for LGBTs to meet other people and to discuss trends that they see occurring within the community or greater societal happenings that could ultimately cause an impact on other LGBTs. Having forums where LGBTs can explore such trends means that they are better able to react to them and prepare responses to those items that could be harmful or embrace those that portray LGBTs in a better light.
While news about progress and trends are helpful, blogs can have an even more tangible plus. As LGBTs are still often victims of discrimination and violence, blogs can have the very real impact of warning others about specific incidents and rallying people to fight institutions that continue to promote discrimination. While the community cannot and should not live in fear, it can be helpful to be reminded that many struggles remain before LGBTs are truly considered full and proper citizens before the law.
However, news about the LGBT community should not all be about the challenges that still face it. That's why blogs can be important propagators of news of successes and events. Every day, LGBTs win more battles for equality and host more events that celebrate its members and their contributions. As a result, blogs can help spread news of these victories, which can serve as inspirations to others, and promote knowledge of and attendance at these events, so that they can achieve the greatest degree of success.
A final important advantage to gay blogs is to raise funds and support for gay causes and LGBT friendly politicians. Every success for the LGBT community requires money and manpower to drive it further. Blogs are vital tools in rallying these resources and increased readership of gay blogs can help to form a more vibrant and engaged social force.
Gay blogs have a vast potential to drive change, promote awareness, and mold a greater sense of family for LGBTs everywhere. Perhaps the greatest benefit of all is that gay blogs remind LGBTs that they truly are a community. The LGBT community is a strong and vital group that extends past political and social boundaries and gay blogs help to promote a greater awareness of that fact and a greater unity for the future.
Blogging Benefits
More and more people are into blogging. Some use it as a hobby, some for business purposes. It can be used as a good tool in freedom of expression and voicing out sentiments. For some, it is used for gaining more visitors and income.
Today, we are going to discuss the benefits of blogging in a business perspective especially in terms of Internet Marketing. What are the benefits and how they make impact in business.
The first one among the many benefits of blogging is its simpleness and very easy to use. You don't need much knowledge in order to do your own blog. A few basic steps to learn and you are good to go in making your own blog.
Second, blogging has been used as an SEO strategy. Search engine optimization is very important in Internet Marketing. If you have a unique blog especially if it is keyword rich, has good quality content as well as titles that catches attention easily. It increases your visibility on the net and you are easier to find as long as you have the right niche keywords that would make your website easier to find.
Third, it increases web traffic. As we all know, web traffic is needed in order to increase income. You can put in links in your blogs that would redirect people to your site. Through blogging, you can increase web traffic therefore increasing your chances of landing in the front page of search engines.
Fourth, blogs are easier to post in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can do this by posting your blog feeds on the above mentioned social networking sites.
Fifth, it is more personal. You create a trusting and lasting relationship with your customers through blogging. It also helps in making you improve more your blog entries and at the same time more connection is established between you and your customers.
Lastly, blogging helps you established you and your product. Once you know what you want and what you are blogging about, you would be able to promote your brand more and let others know what it is all about through the help of blogs.
In blogging, you must know what you want in order to have a successful run. Once you are focused, know what you want to happen in your blogs and have a basic understanding of how it works then you are good to go. Have a more interactive, direct connection and accept whatever feed backs you've got from your visitors. Improve and make your blogs better. Blogging benefits would surely do you good. Just make it work.
Today, we are going to discuss the benefits of blogging in a business perspective especially in terms of Internet Marketing. What are the benefits and how they make impact in business.
The first one among the many benefits of blogging is its simpleness and very easy to use. You don't need much knowledge in order to do your own blog. A few basic steps to learn and you are good to go in making your own blog.
Second, blogging has been used as an SEO strategy. Search engine optimization is very important in Internet Marketing. If you have a unique blog especially if it is keyword rich, has good quality content as well as titles that catches attention easily. It increases your visibility on the net and you are easier to find as long as you have the right niche keywords that would make your website easier to find.
Third, it increases web traffic. As we all know, web traffic is needed in order to increase income. You can put in links in your blogs that would redirect people to your site. Through blogging, you can increase web traffic therefore increasing your chances of landing in the front page of search engines.
Fourth, blogs are easier to post in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can do this by posting your blog feeds on the above mentioned social networking sites.
Fifth, it is more personal. You create a trusting and lasting relationship with your customers through blogging. It also helps in making you improve more your blog entries and at the same time more connection is established between you and your customers.
Lastly, blogging helps you established you and your product. Once you know what you want and what you are blogging about, you would be able to promote your brand more and let others know what it is all about through the help of blogs.
In blogging, you must know what you want in order to have a successful run. Once you are focused, know what you want to happen in your blogs and have a basic understanding of how it works then you are good to go. Have a more interactive, direct connection and accept whatever feed backs you've got from your visitors. Improve and make your blogs better. Blogging benefits would surely do you good. Just make it work.
5 Benefits of Blogging For Small Business
Did you know that 77% of all adults research online before shopping for a local product or service (according to the Kelsey Group)? Did you know that 36% of US adults think more positively about companies that blog? (According to Universal McCann Wave3 research).
So really why does a small business, say the quaint gift shop in Downtown Fairfield, CA or the fence builder in Anytown USA really need a blog? Does it really make sense? Well, I'm going to give you 5 good reasons why every small business needs a blog.
1. Blogging helps you get found. The fact is, blogging helps with SEO - that big scary acronym we in marketing and social media like to throw around is simply "Search Engine Optimization". What does it mean in the real world? It simply means that every time you post fresh content to your website or blog, Google's site-crawling robots jump up and down like high school cheerleaders hyped up on Red Bull cheering, "New content, New content, Rah Rah Rah.. Let's Go!"
Search Engines love new stuff and their "spiders" will crawl sites with new, quality content more frequently. So the more you post, the more authoritative your site becomes. In the search engine world that means your chances of getting found when people start Googling "unique gifts in Fairfield, CA" or "fence repair in Anytown USA" will be greater.
2. Blogging builds trust. What is marketing? Marketing is getting people who have a need to know, like, trust, and want to buy from you. How are people going to get to know like and trust you if you hang out in your store or office all day and they never get to hear all of your wonderful and creative ideas, experience and expertise?
Blogging is such a great way to reach large numbers of people (yes even local people) that you would never be able to reach offline. By writing quality blogs about your industry, your customers, and your business - making it fun and informative (and without selling) your target market is going to start realizing that you know your stuff.
They are going to start turning to you as a trusted source and an educator. People like to buy from competent businesses. We as consumers want to trust our fence builder, chiropractor, or marketing coach before we work with them. How can we do that if we don't know them? Blogging gives us, as small businesses the perfect avenue for showing people that we know our stuff; we are knowledgeable, friendly, consistent, and maybe even kinda fun!
3. Blogging positions you as an expert. In addition to building trust, blogging allows you to show the world how much you know about your business and industry. Blogging is a way to tell masses of people all at once that you understand them; you know how to solve their problem or fulfill their need. By telling stories and sharing facts and tips and advice you are not only telling, but demonstrating that you are an authority in your field.
By writing helpful and thoughtful content, you are building trust and qualifying yourself as a go-to resource for information; creating that great top-of-mind awareness we all want when our prospects make the move to buy!
4. Blogging opens a dialogue with/engages your target market. What a better way to get your audience / target market engaged than by writing provocative and thoughtful blogs? You can use your blog to do research even. Ask a question and invite people to comment. Learn about what is missing in your industry or what your readers would like to learn about - and respond to those comments. Voila - you are engaging your audience - you are getting them interested in your subject matter. Even if they don't post comments, they have clicked on some link somewhere to come to your blog, so you have already engaged them. With an RSS feed on your blog, readers can subscribe, so every time you post something new they automatically get it. This is how you build a following.
5. Blogging broadens your audience. How many new prospects do you talk to on a daily basis? Really? Yes, you may belong to some networking groups; you may even do some cold calling. But what if you could get people to want to come to you? That is what blogging does. Again, writing relevant and helpful content will draw people that you would never be able to reach with your usual sales tactics. The great thing about social media and blogs is that people share them! Yes - if they read something they like, they'll post it to twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn - or in some cases all three. Think about how that expands your reach and broadens your audience. And the best part - it's free!!! Yes, you may need to spend an hour or so writing something a couple of times a week - but how many cold calls would you have to make to reach the same number of people you can reach online with great content (potentially thousands in seconds!)
So really why does a small business, say the quaint gift shop in Downtown Fairfield, CA or the fence builder in Anytown USA really need a blog? Does it really make sense? Well, I'm going to give you 5 good reasons why every small business needs a blog.
1. Blogging helps you get found. The fact is, blogging helps with SEO - that big scary acronym we in marketing and social media like to throw around is simply "Search Engine Optimization". What does it mean in the real world? It simply means that every time you post fresh content to your website or blog, Google's site-crawling robots jump up and down like high school cheerleaders hyped up on Red Bull cheering, "New content, New content, Rah Rah Rah.. Let's Go!"
Search Engines love new stuff and their "spiders" will crawl sites with new, quality content more frequently. So the more you post, the more authoritative your site becomes. In the search engine world that means your chances of getting found when people start Googling "unique gifts in Fairfield, CA" or "fence repair in Anytown USA" will be greater.
2. Blogging builds trust. What is marketing? Marketing is getting people who have a need to know, like, trust, and want to buy from you. How are people going to get to know like and trust you if you hang out in your store or office all day and they never get to hear all of your wonderful and creative ideas, experience and expertise?
Blogging is such a great way to reach large numbers of people (yes even local people) that you would never be able to reach offline. By writing quality blogs about your industry, your customers, and your business - making it fun and informative (and without selling) your target market is going to start realizing that you know your stuff.
They are going to start turning to you as a trusted source and an educator. People like to buy from competent businesses. We as consumers want to trust our fence builder, chiropractor, or marketing coach before we work with them. How can we do that if we don't know them? Blogging gives us, as small businesses the perfect avenue for showing people that we know our stuff; we are knowledgeable, friendly, consistent, and maybe even kinda fun!
3. Blogging positions you as an expert. In addition to building trust, blogging allows you to show the world how much you know about your business and industry. Blogging is a way to tell masses of people all at once that you understand them; you know how to solve their problem or fulfill their need. By telling stories and sharing facts and tips and advice you are not only telling, but demonstrating that you are an authority in your field.
By writing helpful and thoughtful content, you are building trust and qualifying yourself as a go-to resource for information; creating that great top-of-mind awareness we all want when our prospects make the move to buy!
4. Blogging opens a dialogue with/engages your target market. What a better way to get your audience / target market engaged than by writing provocative and thoughtful blogs? You can use your blog to do research even. Ask a question and invite people to comment. Learn about what is missing in your industry or what your readers would like to learn about - and respond to those comments. Voila - you are engaging your audience - you are getting them interested in your subject matter. Even if they don't post comments, they have clicked on some link somewhere to come to your blog, so you have already engaged them. With an RSS feed on your blog, readers can subscribe, so every time you post something new they automatically get it. This is how you build a following.
5. Blogging broadens your audience. How many new prospects do you talk to on a daily basis? Really? Yes, you may belong to some networking groups; you may even do some cold calling. But what if you could get people to want to come to you? That is what blogging does. Again, writing relevant and helpful content will draw people that you would never be able to reach with your usual sales tactics. The great thing about social media and blogs is that people share them! Yes - if they read something they like, they'll post it to twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn - or in some cases all three. Think about how that expands your reach and broadens your audience. And the best part - it's free!!! Yes, you may need to spend an hour or so writing something a couple of times a week - but how many cold calls would you have to make to reach the same number of people you can reach online with great content (potentially thousands in seconds!)
The Benefits of Blogging For Business
As free advertising goes, a blog can be used very successfully to convey your personal opinion on any type of topic. The term "blog" is an abbreviated form of "web log" and is simply a means of writing what flows through your mind. In fact you can include just about anything that streams through your mind. In many cases the blog's discussion depends on the theme of a web site or web page that is linked to the blog.
Blogging has become a very popular means to efficiently market and advertise opportunities, services and products. They're a phenomenal promotional tool. Blogging on a subject reaches a worldwide audience. It can also be faster, easier and less expensive than managing a web site. In fact blogging is also one of the least expensive means to promote your business.
When you're creating a blog the emphasis should always be on providing informative content rather than blasting the reader with blatantly promotional material. Marketing your business by blogging is about as close as it gets to face to face marketing. The information and opinions that you share with your readers by blogging helps them to get to know you and ultimately will lead them to trust and like you. This is one key advantage in blogging, it's a personal thing.
When blogging for business your strategy should be to promote your message to an intended audience by getting visitors who have an actual interest in your opportunity, product or service. Another excellent way to utilize blogging is by encouraging your visitors to provide feedback or leave a comment. This can help generate new ideas for you and also lead to needed improvements.
Blogging for business should be all about optimizing sales by making the most of the relationship with your target audience. It will also boost your online presence very effectively helping to brand you. Talking about your opportunities, products or services, the industries related to them and any other related interests can establish you as an expert in your field and help increase your sales levels. It's important to remember in creating your blog that the search engines may not like unnecessary graphics as they tend to index text. Many of the search engines, Google included, will also rank sites by the number of links pointing back to it. By giving the reader not only interesting but helpful content as well you can increase the interest in your blog making it more popular.
Linking your blog to other interesting, topic related blogs and making sure to include relevant keywords can help increase readers. By linking your blog you'll be causing a viral effect which can result in a positive impact on search engine rankings. When blogging for business you also need to routinely update the content. Never leave outdated material but post updates as they occur. When business blogging the content needs to be clear and also easy to understand. Your older posts should be easily reached through the archives. Some key tips to consider in blogging for business: Create a theme and write in your own unique style to draw a strong, interested, loyal audience Use a proper density of keywords in the title and body in order to draw the search engine robots. The more posts that you publish will allow the search engine robots to come back and index your blog.
Use spelling and grammar checks for a professional appearance Syndicate with an RSS service to increase your blog's readership.
Blogging has become a very popular means to efficiently market and advertise opportunities, services and products. They're a phenomenal promotional tool. Blogging on a subject reaches a worldwide audience. It can also be faster, easier and less expensive than managing a web site. In fact blogging is also one of the least expensive means to promote your business.
When you're creating a blog the emphasis should always be on providing informative content rather than blasting the reader with blatantly promotional material. Marketing your business by blogging is about as close as it gets to face to face marketing. The information and opinions that you share with your readers by blogging helps them to get to know you and ultimately will lead them to trust and like you. This is one key advantage in blogging, it's a personal thing.
When blogging for business your strategy should be to promote your message to an intended audience by getting visitors who have an actual interest in your opportunity, product or service. Another excellent way to utilize blogging is by encouraging your visitors to provide feedback or leave a comment. This can help generate new ideas for you and also lead to needed improvements.
Blogging for business should be all about optimizing sales by making the most of the relationship with your target audience. It will also boost your online presence very effectively helping to brand you. Talking about your opportunities, products or services, the industries related to them and any other related interests can establish you as an expert in your field and help increase your sales levels. It's important to remember in creating your blog that the search engines may not like unnecessary graphics as they tend to index text. Many of the search engines, Google included, will also rank sites by the number of links pointing back to it. By giving the reader not only interesting but helpful content as well you can increase the interest in your blog making it more popular.
Linking your blog to other interesting, topic related blogs and making sure to include relevant keywords can help increase readers. By linking your blog you'll be causing a viral effect which can result in a positive impact on search engine rankings. When blogging for business you also need to routinely update the content. Never leave outdated material but post updates as they occur. When business blogging the content needs to be clear and also easy to understand. Your older posts should be easily reached through the archives. Some key tips to consider in blogging for business: Create a theme and write in your own unique style to draw a strong, interested, loyal audience Use a proper density of keywords in the title and body in order to draw the search engine robots. The more posts that you publish will allow the search engine robots to come back and index your blog.
Use spelling and grammar checks for a professional appearance Syndicate with an RSS service to increase your blog's readership.
Benefits of Blogging For Business - Oh, Please Give Me a Break
Are you hesitant to start a blog for your business? I would say, why not? There are tons of benefits of blogging for business owner. One of the most important benefits of blogging for business is low cost marketing and increase in sale. Specially, small businesses have very limited amount of money allocated for the advertising and marketing. Small business can setup and start a blog for very low cost and start generating traffic with fresh content and boost sale. As we know the overall benefits of blogging for business, let me tell you other benefits of blogging for business to prove the boost in revenue.
Fresh Content is King
Being a responsible person for your business blog, you will be the subject matter expert on the product or service. Considering the fact, you will be able to write content related to your niche market easily. That way you will provide insights on your product or service to your readers. Interesting topics and posts will attract new as well as old visitors on regular basis to your site. Not only that, search engine loves fresh and unique content. Regular unique and fresh content on your blog will improve your search engine reputation.
Build Customer Relationship & Get FeedbackOne of the benefits of blogging for business is relationship building and getting feedback on your product or service. Yes, blogging helps business to interact directly with customers through quality post. You will have an opportunity to get connected with customers and engage them into discussion about your product or service. That will help you achieving feedback and improve the product or service based on their comments. In other words, blog is the medium of trust building. Best part about blogging is that your customers will come looking for you rather than you looking for them. Good and informative blog post will bring readers who are looking for the product or service and turns into customer. Best way to get feedback on your blog is by leaving a question at the end of the post. Your question will encourage readers to leave comments on your blog. Not only that, readers' comments will help you decide the need of change or a new product or service.
A Focused Blog Creates Reputation & Brand
Keep your blog focused on your niche product or service which will help increasing benefits of blogging. Never ever deviate from your product or service niche market. Business will be able to build its own brand and reputation among customers through wealth of information through posts. There will be thousands of merchants selling same or similar products or service online. But, focused blogging will help you distinguish your business from others in your niche market.
Low Cost Marketing & Web Presence
Blogging is low cost medium for marketing. To setup a blog for your business does not cost much. You can start your business blog using popular software such as WordPress and applying appropriate theme for blog pages which costs less to nothing. Also, search engine loves good quality blogs. Unique and good quality keyword rich content will boost your search engine ranking and create web presence for your business. It has been proven that organic search engine marketing is the cheapest way of marketing on web along with high return on investment (ROI). If your business is not on top 20 search results on major search engines for your product keywords then your business will not do good. But, good news is that, blogging helps bringing your business online on search engine results. You must learn basic aspects of search engine optimization along with quality content to get the better ranking on web results. As a result, I could not agree anymore that low cost marketing and search engine presence are part of benefits of blogging for business.
As a whole, benefits of blogging for business are mouth watering. If you do not have blog for your business then consider creating it on your website. Keep your blog focused with good quality content and you will see the results. Your business will appreciate you for blogging.
Fresh Content is King
Being a responsible person for your business blog, you will be the subject matter expert on the product or service. Considering the fact, you will be able to write content related to your niche market easily. That way you will provide insights on your product or service to your readers. Interesting topics and posts will attract new as well as old visitors on regular basis to your site. Not only that, search engine loves fresh and unique content. Regular unique and fresh content on your blog will improve your search engine reputation.
Build Customer Relationship & Get FeedbackOne of the benefits of blogging for business is relationship building and getting feedback on your product or service. Yes, blogging helps business to interact directly with customers through quality post. You will have an opportunity to get connected with customers and engage them into discussion about your product or service. That will help you achieving feedback and improve the product or service based on their comments. In other words, blog is the medium of trust building. Best part about blogging is that your customers will come looking for you rather than you looking for them. Good and informative blog post will bring readers who are looking for the product or service and turns into customer. Best way to get feedback on your blog is by leaving a question at the end of the post. Your question will encourage readers to leave comments on your blog. Not only that, readers' comments will help you decide the need of change or a new product or service.
A Focused Blog Creates Reputation & Brand
Keep your blog focused on your niche product or service which will help increasing benefits of blogging. Never ever deviate from your product or service niche market. Business will be able to build its own brand and reputation among customers through wealth of information through posts. There will be thousands of merchants selling same or similar products or service online. But, focused blogging will help you distinguish your business from others in your niche market.
Low Cost Marketing & Web Presence
Blogging is low cost medium for marketing. To setup a blog for your business does not cost much. You can start your business blog using popular software such as WordPress and applying appropriate theme for blog pages which costs less to nothing. Also, search engine loves good quality blogs. Unique and good quality keyword rich content will boost your search engine ranking and create web presence for your business. It has been proven that organic search engine marketing is the cheapest way of marketing on web along with high return on investment (ROI). If your business is not on top 20 search results on major search engines for your product keywords then your business will not do good. But, good news is that, blogging helps bringing your business online on search engine results. You must learn basic aspects of search engine optimization along with quality content to get the better ranking on web results. As a result, I could not agree anymore that low cost marketing and search engine presence are part of benefits of blogging for business.
As a whole, benefits of blogging for business are mouth watering. If you do not have blog for your business then consider creating it on your website. Keep your blog focused with good quality content and you will see the results. Your business will appreciate you for blogging.
Importance of a Blog to Promote Yourself and Business
Starting up a business can be tough, especially if want to cater to the global community. Even for those who already have a business that's established and running, there is a need to take it to the next level. After all, most people today look to the internet to get information on the products and services they want to purchase.
A blog can be a great resource that can be molded according to your needs and used as a money making machine. For a business that is already established, having a blog can be a great business strategy to promote it as the leading provider in its particular niche. Anyone who is aware of the internet would know of internet marketing and how blogging is an intricate part of internet marketing.
Like any type of marketing, a blog needs a specific business strategy to lead it to a particular direction. The theme and the main purpose of your blog should be decided before starting up a blog and once a blog is set up you must stick to this theme.
Some of the most common types of blog models that are used by businesses are:
o Consultant models enables you to lend your expertise and provide useful information, tips and guides on subjects that are related to your niche.
o Feature blogs are mainly suited for those businesses that are in a creative field because this type of blog gives them a chance to share lots of pictures, videos and samples of their work.
o Travel blogs are beneficial for travel agencies, hotels and other travel-related businesses. A good travel blog helps these businesses reach out to people located all around the world and promote tourism to the places where they are established.
o Specialty blogs are for those who want to establish their specialty in one particular niche and provide detailed information on that particular topic.
Even for those who are starting up a business, a blog can be a great way to reach out to the global market from the comfort of home, with almost no resources or investment at all. A blog gives you the opportunity to get your voice heard while providing you a space where you can showcase your expertise. It also gives you the opportunity to earn for your business.
For starting up a business that is based on blogging, you need to select a business model that you will like to work on. For example, you can start an affiliate blog where you can set up a blog to market and sell products and services of others for a good commission. It can also be an online magazine or just a blog that will provide valuable information on a particular topic to the readers.
For any blog to be successful it is important to make it visually attractive and posting relevant content that is informative and easy to understand.
A blog can be a great resource that can be molded according to your needs and used as a money making machine. For a business that is already established, having a blog can be a great business strategy to promote it as the leading provider in its particular niche. Anyone who is aware of the internet would know of internet marketing and how blogging is an intricate part of internet marketing.
Like any type of marketing, a blog needs a specific business strategy to lead it to a particular direction. The theme and the main purpose of your blog should be decided before starting up a blog and once a blog is set up you must stick to this theme.
Some of the most common types of blog models that are used by businesses are:
o Consultant models enables you to lend your expertise and provide useful information, tips and guides on subjects that are related to your niche.
o Feature blogs are mainly suited for those businesses that are in a creative field because this type of blog gives them a chance to share lots of pictures, videos and samples of their work.
o Travel blogs are beneficial for travel agencies, hotels and other travel-related businesses. A good travel blog helps these businesses reach out to people located all around the world and promote tourism to the places where they are established.
o Specialty blogs are for those who want to establish their specialty in one particular niche and provide detailed information on that particular topic.
Even for those who are starting up a business, a blog can be a great way to reach out to the global market from the comfort of home, with almost no resources or investment at all. A blog gives you the opportunity to get your voice heard while providing you a space where you can showcase your expertise. It also gives you the opportunity to earn for your business.
For starting up a business that is based on blogging, you need to select a business model that you will like to work on. For example, you can start an affiliate blog where you can set up a blog to market and sell products and services of others for a good commission. It can also be an online magazine or just a blog that will provide valuable information on a particular topic to the readers.
For any blog to be successful it is important to make it visually attractive and posting relevant content that is informative and easy to understand.
Why a Blog is a Great Asset
Are you one of the people that ask questions like, how would a blog help me with my business? or how do you make money online with a blog? Forget about asking questions just get a blog up and running and on the internet before you lose anymore valuable time and profits. My friend if you have not got a blog up on the internet at this moment you are missing out on a load of targeted traffic and potential sign ups and sales.
In my eyes a blog is just like a shop window that any visitor can look in and see if there is anything that they like. A blog when monetized properly is one of the best tools on the market for making substantial amounts of money, and face it setting up a blog and getting it up and running on the internet is not exactly hard work in fact in most cases it is good fun.
Once you have got your blog up and running on the internet make sure that you put good content and value in your posts, so that your readers will always want to come back when you write a new post. So many people tell me that they never know what to write about and it is always difficult to get started. I always tell them that everybody has got a niche that they like talking about so obviously this is what they can write about. I personally write down ideas that I have on a piece of paper and when I have enough good content and value for my readers I write a post or an article, other than that go and do some research on your niche and then rewrite it in your style.
When writing your posts never forget that search engines love good content, and when the spider search engines have picked upon all the good content on your site they will be more likely to visit your blog again. If you can manage to get a good ranking with the search engines quickly, this is bound to produce loads and loads of good quality traffic which in turn is going to get the money rolling in. As I said earlier the key factor to this is to enjoy yourself and like I said write in your own style, remember that you are unique.
Now if you have picked the niche that you enjoy talking about you will not find it hard to research and find good fresh content to keep your readers and search engines happy and if at a later date you are making good money with your blog you can always outsource writing your posts and keep the updates going at a steady pace to keep the visitors happy. I do believe that once you get to the stage doing posts on your blog and keeping it updated will become second nature to you.
Please believe me when I say that having a blog along side your business is without doubt the biggest asset apart from the business its self. So what are you waiting for get out there and start blogging.
In my eyes a blog is just like a shop window that any visitor can look in and see if there is anything that they like. A blog when monetized properly is one of the best tools on the market for making substantial amounts of money, and face it setting up a blog and getting it up and running on the internet is not exactly hard work in fact in most cases it is good fun.
Once you have got your blog up and running on the internet make sure that you put good content and value in your posts, so that your readers will always want to come back when you write a new post. So many people tell me that they never know what to write about and it is always difficult to get started. I always tell them that everybody has got a niche that they like talking about so obviously this is what they can write about. I personally write down ideas that I have on a piece of paper and when I have enough good content and value for my readers I write a post or an article, other than that go and do some research on your niche and then rewrite it in your style.
When writing your posts never forget that search engines love good content, and when the spider search engines have picked upon all the good content on your site they will be more likely to visit your blog again. If you can manage to get a good ranking with the search engines quickly, this is bound to produce loads and loads of good quality traffic which in turn is going to get the money rolling in. As I said earlier the key factor to this is to enjoy yourself and like I said write in your own style, remember that you are unique.
Now if you have picked the niche that you enjoy talking about you will not find it hard to research and find good fresh content to keep your readers and search engines happy and if at a later date you are making good money with your blog you can always outsource writing your posts and keep the updates going at a steady pace to keep the visitors happy. I do believe that once you get to the stage doing posts on your blog and keeping it updated will become second nature to you.
Please believe me when I say that having a blog along side your business is without doubt the biggest asset apart from the business its self. So what are you waiting for get out there and start blogging.
The Phenomenon of Blogging
Blogging as a phenomenon grew from the connectivity of the internet, and with internet access almost as common in homes and businesses as the phone, people are finding that it is a very resourceful tool. In fact, the internet is having the same type of impact on people's lives as the introduction of the telephone once did, broadening connections around the globe, allowing them to keep in touch, do business, and store data. And creating a blog sets up one of the most useful of the new internet tools.
Blog entries are more like a personal journal than anything else, even when used for business purposes. The word "blog" is a shortened form of "weblog," which is itself a combination of "web" and "log." So the blog is like a log of someone's thoughts on particular topics. The writer posts a blog entry, perhaps once a day, discussing everything from what the cat did that morning, to book reviews, to business information.
Blogging came from dissatisfaction with how the first internet websites worked. Initially, individuals and businesses created sites that were more like encyclopedia or dictionary pages than anything else. All the pages did was to provide information that viewers were to sit and absorb. Eventually, however, designers and viewers recognized that this did nothing to build relationships or to convey that the website owner cared what they thought. Something more personal and even interactive was needed. So the blog phenomenon began as an electronic diary, where people recorded their daily thoughts. Each blog post included a spot for readers to add comments, and eventually communities formed, comprised of people interested in the topics discussed in the blog.
Companies started to make blogs the place where customers would read the latest business news. Blogging presented the information in a much more conversational way, making the presentation more like a chat than a lecture with facts and figures. Those are still on websites, and if someone is interested, he or she can find them as needed. But business is no longer the authority on high, telling customers what is good for them.
Businesses also soon discovered that the other benefit of blogs was the Comments section, where customers could finally give concrete feedback. Through the response to bloggers, companies began learning what their customers actually wanted from them, possibly for the first time. They could eliminate or modify products, improve service, and add services that were in high demand. Customers, in turn, were impressed that they could influence the direction the company took.
Now most companies have recognized how useful and important blogging is to their public relations and prosperity. Whether it's a small business or a larger firm, learning from and responding to customers' comments on the company blog helps build loyalty and improve services. Individuals are also relating in new ways, sharing interests with people halfway around the world. If people really want to have an impact on the internet, then this is one of the most effective ways to accomplish that end.
Blog entries are more like a personal journal than anything else, even when used for business purposes. The word "blog" is a shortened form of "weblog," which is itself a combination of "web" and "log." So the blog is like a log of someone's thoughts on particular topics. The writer posts a blog entry, perhaps once a day, discussing everything from what the cat did that morning, to book reviews, to business information.
Blogging came from dissatisfaction with how the first internet websites worked. Initially, individuals and businesses created sites that were more like encyclopedia or dictionary pages than anything else. All the pages did was to provide information that viewers were to sit and absorb. Eventually, however, designers and viewers recognized that this did nothing to build relationships or to convey that the website owner cared what they thought. Something more personal and even interactive was needed. So the blog phenomenon began as an electronic diary, where people recorded their daily thoughts. Each blog post included a spot for readers to add comments, and eventually communities formed, comprised of people interested in the topics discussed in the blog.
Companies started to make blogs the place where customers would read the latest business news. Blogging presented the information in a much more conversational way, making the presentation more like a chat than a lecture with facts and figures. Those are still on websites, and if someone is interested, he or she can find them as needed. But business is no longer the authority on high, telling customers what is good for them.
Businesses also soon discovered that the other benefit of blogs was the Comments section, where customers could finally give concrete feedback. Through the response to bloggers, companies began learning what their customers actually wanted from them, possibly for the first time. They could eliminate or modify products, improve service, and add services that were in high demand. Customers, in turn, were impressed that they could influence the direction the company took.
Now most companies have recognized how useful and important blogging is to their public relations and prosperity. Whether it's a small business or a larger firm, learning from and responding to customers' comments on the company blog helps build loyalty and improve services. Individuals are also relating in new ways, sharing interests with people halfway around the world. If people really want to have an impact on the internet, then this is one of the most effective ways to accomplish that end.
Can a Blog Help Promote Your Small Business?
You may find it a bit surprising, but blogs are turning out to be a very effective method of promoting your business on the web! Not too long ago, lots of people thought of blogs as little more than a tool for teenagers to journal every mood swing online. But today blogs have become quite mainstream, and people from all walks of life are embracing the technology and finding value in using blogs, especially for business purposes.
So what exactly is a blog, anyway? A blog (short for "web log") is basically a simple web site with an interactive format that allows users to "post" comments and add new information (entries) to the site. This interactivity is really what differentiates blogs from other web sites. Blog entries are typically posted in reverse chronological order, with the oldest information appearing at the bottom of the page and the most recent information at the top.
There are blogs on almost every topic imaginable, and businesses are finding that having a company blog helps them communicate with customers, get better search engine rankings, and attract a much larger customer base. Here are a few highlights of how a blog can help promote your business online:
- Search engines LOVE blogs because the content is being updated constantly, resulting in higher search engine rankings for your business.
- Niche visitors are more likely to discover your business because blog entries can be very specific, often containing words that might not otherwise be in your web site text. This will attract customers that would not have otherwise found your business!
- Blogs can be organized by topic, making it easy for readers to find topics that interest them.
- Blog entries continue to bring in web traffic 24/7. Like many other forms of marketing on the web, blogs provide content and links that act like ripples in a pond - they continue to be shared, indexed, and published all over the web long after you have finished doing the work.
- Information on your blog can be easily distributed directly to your readers with an RSS newsfeed. RSS feeds automatically notify your readers whenever new content has been posted to your blog.
- You can differentiate yourself from your competitors with your blog. You may even find that your competitors don't offer this type of interactive communication with customers, which gives you an excellent opportunity to stand out.
So if you're looking for a low-cost marketing strategy that can help extend your reach, improve your search engine rankings, and give your business an edge with customers, then you may want to consider a blog!
So what exactly is a blog, anyway? A blog (short for "web log") is basically a simple web site with an interactive format that allows users to "post" comments and add new information (entries) to the site. This interactivity is really what differentiates blogs from other web sites. Blog entries are typically posted in reverse chronological order, with the oldest information appearing at the bottom of the page and the most recent information at the top.
There are blogs on almost every topic imaginable, and businesses are finding that having a company blog helps them communicate with customers, get better search engine rankings, and attract a much larger customer base. Here are a few highlights of how a blog can help promote your business online:
- Search engines LOVE blogs because the content is being updated constantly, resulting in higher search engine rankings for your business.
- Niche visitors are more likely to discover your business because blog entries can be very specific, often containing words that might not otherwise be in your web site text. This will attract customers that would not have otherwise found your business!
- Blogs can be organized by topic, making it easy for readers to find topics that interest them.
- Blog entries continue to bring in web traffic 24/7. Like many other forms of marketing on the web, blogs provide content and links that act like ripples in a pond - they continue to be shared, indexed, and published all over the web long after you have finished doing the work.
- Information on your blog can be easily distributed directly to your readers with an RSS newsfeed. RSS feeds automatically notify your readers whenever new content has been posted to your blog.
- You can differentiate yourself from your competitors with your blog. You may even find that your competitors don't offer this type of interactive communication with customers, which gives you an excellent opportunity to stand out.
So if you're looking for a low-cost marketing strategy that can help extend your reach, improve your search engine rankings, and give your business an edge with customers, then you may want to consider a blog!
Five Ways A Blog Helps You To Market Your Business
Want to advertise online without spending a fortune? Get a blog.
If you're an Internet marketer, you need a blog, because:
* a blog helps your site to rank higher in the search engines; and
* a blog expands your customer base.
Blogs are often called social marketing tools, because they let you interact with your readers via comments and permalinks (see the glossary below.)
What's a blog? Get up to speed here:
* http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g
* <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs</a>
Let's look at five ways a blog helps you to market your business.
One: A blog helps your site to rank higher in the search engines
In 2003, when Google bought Pyra Labs, the company which developed Blogger, the reaction was Huh? At the time, blogs were seen by most as online journals, primarily maintained by the demented and teenage girls.
How times change. In 2005, companies small and large are using blogs to promote their businesses. This is because Google and the other search engines love blogs because of their constantly updated content.
Blog often, and you'll get more visitors and a good search engine ranking.
Two: A blog expands your customer base - you'll reach people you could reach in no other way
A blog helps you to reach people you can reach in no other way because your frequent updates mean that you'll automatically get niche visitors - those people who have no clue about you or the product that you're selling, but who happened to type in a search engine query that mentioned words you used in a single post.
Those niche visitors can become buyers, and this means that you don't need to struggle to get top listings in any search engine. Write (or link to) quality content, and your visitors will find you.
Three: A blog helps your site to differentiate itself
A blog is a form of stealth marketing. Therefore a blog doesn't need to be about the products you're selling. A blog can be about any topic that you're passionate about. Blog about your passion, and mention - in passing - the products you're selling. You can also link to them, but don't bother selling heavily - that's not what a blog is about.
Four: Like a diamond, a blog is forever
Although the most-visited blogs update often, some of them several times a day, that doesn't mean that you have post more often than you can fit into your schedule. Your permalinks (see below) mean that since your blog items are standalone pages, they're indexed by search engines in the same way that any HTML or other page is indexed - your blog items/ pages will continue to bring traffic even if you don't update very often.
Five: A blog attracts new opportunities
A blog makes your business visible. Your stealth marketing efforts will attract the attention of people who may become joint venture partners, or who will have other opportunities for you.
The time and energy that you invest in your blog can bring results beyond your wildest expectations. Create a blog - it's your hardest-working, and most cost-effective online marketing option.
GLOSSARY:
Blog = Web log.
Permalink = permanent link, an URL for a single blog post.
Comment = blogs have a comments section, where readers can interact with the blogger and others.
Copyright 2005 Michael Murray
If you're an Internet marketer, you need a blog, because:
* a blog helps your site to rank higher in the search engines; and
* a blog expands your customer base.
Blogs are often called social marketing tools, because they let you interact with your readers via comments and permalinks (see the glossary below.)
What's a blog? Get up to speed here:
* http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g
* <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs</a>
Let's look at five ways a blog helps you to market your business.
One: A blog helps your site to rank higher in the search engines
In 2003, when Google bought Pyra Labs, the company which developed Blogger, the reaction was Huh? At the time, blogs were seen by most as online journals, primarily maintained by the demented and teenage girls.
How times change. In 2005, companies small and large are using blogs to promote their businesses. This is because Google and the other search engines love blogs because of their constantly updated content.
Blog often, and you'll get more visitors and a good search engine ranking.
Two: A blog expands your customer base - you'll reach people you could reach in no other way
A blog helps you to reach people you can reach in no other way because your frequent updates mean that you'll automatically get niche visitors - those people who have no clue about you or the product that you're selling, but who happened to type in a search engine query that mentioned words you used in a single post.
Those niche visitors can become buyers, and this means that you don't need to struggle to get top listings in any search engine. Write (or link to) quality content, and your visitors will find you.
Three: A blog helps your site to differentiate itself
A blog is a form of stealth marketing. Therefore a blog doesn't need to be about the products you're selling. A blog can be about any topic that you're passionate about. Blog about your passion, and mention - in passing - the products you're selling. You can also link to them, but don't bother selling heavily - that's not what a blog is about.
Four: Like a diamond, a blog is forever
Although the most-visited blogs update often, some of them several times a day, that doesn't mean that you have post more often than you can fit into your schedule. Your permalinks (see below) mean that since your blog items are standalone pages, they're indexed by search engines in the same way that any HTML or other page is indexed - your blog items/ pages will continue to bring traffic even if you don't update very often.
Five: A blog attracts new opportunities
A blog makes your business visible. Your stealth marketing efforts will attract the attention of people who may become joint venture partners, or who will have other opportunities for you.
The time and energy that you invest in your blog can bring results beyond your wildest expectations. Create a blog - it's your hardest-working, and most cost-effective online marketing option.
GLOSSARY:
Blog = Web log.
Permalink = permanent link, an URL for a single blog post.
Comment = blogs have a comments section, where readers can interact with the blogger and others.
Copyright 2005 Michael Murray
Setting Up a Blog - What Are Your Options?
Blogging is growing in popularity every day. People are using blogs to connect with faraway family and friends, promote businesses, or just to express themselves. If you are interested in starting a blog, you have quite a few options. There are really hundreds of options to having your own blog, but the following options are some of the more common and more popular methods to creating and getting your blog online.
One of the most common blog options is to set up a blogger blog. Blogger is a Google application and will require a Google account to use. For the most part this system is fairly easy to get started and use. You have probably been to hundreds of Blogspot blogs and not even realized it. The benefit of this is that there aren't really any advertisements that you find in other blog platforms, although you do have the option to add the ads you choose if you are interested in generating income from your blog. The downside is that at times if you become a bit too promotional or have content that gets flagged the blog will go away.
Another popular and free option is to have a blog on the WordPress website. The nice thing about a blog hosted by the WordPress site is that you will end up learning how to use WordPress which is the most popular blogging software. The downside to this is that you are very limited on what the blog can look like and can't actually use some of the thousands of quality plugins to make your blog better. Also on these blogs if there is any commercial intent, they tend to disappear. So you cannot use this option if you have a blog that promotes a business or product.
If you want to make sure your blog doesn't go away on you, then you need to get a domain and some hosting. For most this won't be required but it is an option. Once you learn how to set up a domain and a hosting account, you can get your blog installed. The easiest way is to get a hosting account with Cpanel so that you can use an application called Fantastico which will install WordPress for you almost automatically. Then you can use this software like you please without limitations.
Although the last option sounds difficult, it is actually a simple process. Even a web design novice can create a WordPress blog that is freestanding. Blogs such as these allow you to have your own domain name, with no blog extension added. They also allow you to promote your blog as you see fit and give you the freedom to express yourself the way you want. Blogging is a great way to connect with others, both personally and for business purposes. How can a blog help you?
One of the most common blog options is to set up a blogger blog. Blogger is a Google application and will require a Google account to use. For the most part this system is fairly easy to get started and use. You have probably been to hundreds of Blogspot blogs and not even realized it. The benefit of this is that there aren't really any advertisements that you find in other blog platforms, although you do have the option to add the ads you choose if you are interested in generating income from your blog. The downside is that at times if you become a bit too promotional or have content that gets flagged the blog will go away.
Another popular and free option is to have a blog on the WordPress website. The nice thing about a blog hosted by the WordPress site is that you will end up learning how to use WordPress which is the most popular blogging software. The downside to this is that you are very limited on what the blog can look like and can't actually use some of the thousands of quality plugins to make your blog better. Also on these blogs if there is any commercial intent, they tend to disappear. So you cannot use this option if you have a blog that promotes a business or product.
If you want to make sure your blog doesn't go away on you, then you need to get a domain and some hosting. For most this won't be required but it is an option. Once you learn how to set up a domain and a hosting account, you can get your blog installed. The easiest way is to get a hosting account with Cpanel so that you can use an application called Fantastico which will install WordPress for you almost automatically. Then you can use this software like you please without limitations.
Although the last option sounds difficult, it is actually a simple process. Even a web design novice can create a WordPress blog that is freestanding. Blogs such as these allow you to have your own domain name, with no blog extension added. They also allow you to promote your blog as you see fit and give you the freedom to express yourself the way you want. Blogging is a great way to connect with others, both personally and for business purposes. How can a blog help you?
Why You Need to Start Business Blogging Today
Much has been said about the demise of blogging. But if you market on the Internet, or you market offline blogging is one of the best ways you can reach out to your customers - past, present and potential.
Here are 7 reasons you should start business blogging today.
1. Build long-term relationships - Blogging is one of the best ways to build long-term relationships with prospects and customers. A blog helps create a community of users - marketers can connect with their entire community of customers and talk to them as if they were talking with each of them in person. Visitors will feel they belong to the online community growing around your blog.
2. Branding - the Web is an extremely competitive marketplace. To stand out you must differentiate yourself and with social media, including a human touch is paramount. A blog puts a human face on your business. By engaging visitors in online dialogues, a blog helps you establish rapport and build relationships with visitors. With a blog you can separate your product or service from the competition... especially the competition that doesn't have one.
3. Feedback - Forget customer surveys, a blog is ideal for gathering feedback from prospects and customers. Blogging creates the opportunity for instant feedback. I can think of many blog threads and comments both on mine and other blogs that told me more about my customer's needs and desires than any expensive and boring marketing survey.
4. Word of Mouth - Blogs create word of mouth by giving readers useful information and tips. When you blog to help visitors solve real problems, people will tell their friends about you and in most cases they will also send your link. This has been one of the ways both my blogs have become visible. That means every person who reads your blog and finds it useful becomes a potential marketer for your business, just because they find it useful. This is far more powerful than any paid promotion; it is a vote of confidence.
5. Search Engine Optimization - Useful content is the key to search engine ranking. Blogs are far and away better for this because they are regularly updated. Each time they are search engines (of which Google is still King) detect the updated content when they crawl your blog. Continually updated, useful content is good for your visitors... after you have been blogging a while your visitors will look forward to new, fresh content and will come back for it.
6. Social networking - Make your blog part of your social network. As an online marketer I direct people first to my blog before my website. Remember what we said about presenting a human face? Do this for your business with your blog whenever you can. A blog is about connecting and sharing. Social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube prove the popularity of online communities. It's because they provide a space where people can share common experiences. As you build your own social network, your blog can be a central hub of that network and community.
Once you have a community of users excited about your product they will feel connected and will tell their friends about it. You have an opportunity to create a niche market around them. You can invite your customers to submit their own video or audio testimonials to publish on your blog. People love to comment on video feeds making them excellent for starting comment threads.
7. Engage hearts and minds - I recently came across a blog post via a social networking site. It asked 3 simple questions about photography, one of my hobbies. Within hours passionate visitors had added their thoughts to the thread. Result? Not only did I and several others learn a lot from the comments, I learned new ideas to build community and share content. I made new connections and powerful tactics to share with others.
It's just one example of how blog threads can engage the hearts and minds of your visitors. Every business must aim to do this or their potential for doing business in a web 2.0 world will be limited at best.
Make blogging the core of your customer relations strategy and increase your chances of building solid relationships with your customers.
Here are 7 reasons you should start business blogging today.
1. Build long-term relationships - Blogging is one of the best ways to build long-term relationships with prospects and customers. A blog helps create a community of users - marketers can connect with their entire community of customers and talk to them as if they were talking with each of them in person. Visitors will feel they belong to the online community growing around your blog.
2. Branding - the Web is an extremely competitive marketplace. To stand out you must differentiate yourself and with social media, including a human touch is paramount. A blog puts a human face on your business. By engaging visitors in online dialogues, a blog helps you establish rapport and build relationships with visitors. With a blog you can separate your product or service from the competition... especially the competition that doesn't have one.
3. Feedback - Forget customer surveys, a blog is ideal for gathering feedback from prospects and customers. Blogging creates the opportunity for instant feedback. I can think of many blog threads and comments both on mine and other blogs that told me more about my customer's needs and desires than any expensive and boring marketing survey.
4. Word of Mouth - Blogs create word of mouth by giving readers useful information and tips. When you blog to help visitors solve real problems, people will tell their friends about you and in most cases they will also send your link. This has been one of the ways both my blogs have become visible. That means every person who reads your blog and finds it useful becomes a potential marketer for your business, just because they find it useful. This is far more powerful than any paid promotion; it is a vote of confidence.
5. Search Engine Optimization - Useful content is the key to search engine ranking. Blogs are far and away better for this because they are regularly updated. Each time they are search engines (of which Google is still King) detect the updated content when they crawl your blog. Continually updated, useful content is good for your visitors... after you have been blogging a while your visitors will look forward to new, fresh content and will come back for it.
6. Social networking - Make your blog part of your social network. As an online marketer I direct people first to my blog before my website. Remember what we said about presenting a human face? Do this for your business with your blog whenever you can. A blog is about connecting and sharing. Social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube prove the popularity of online communities. It's because they provide a space where people can share common experiences. As you build your own social network, your blog can be a central hub of that network and community.
Once you have a community of users excited about your product they will feel connected and will tell their friends about it. You have an opportunity to create a niche market around them. You can invite your customers to submit their own video or audio testimonials to publish on your blog. People love to comment on video feeds making them excellent for starting comment threads.
7. Engage hearts and minds - I recently came across a blog post via a social networking site. It asked 3 simple questions about photography, one of my hobbies. Within hours passionate visitors had added their thoughts to the thread. Result? Not only did I and several others learn a lot from the comments, I learned new ideas to build community and share content. I made new connections and powerful tactics to share with others.
It's just one example of how blog threads can engage the hearts and minds of your visitors. Every business must aim to do this or their potential for doing business in a web 2.0 world will be limited at best.
Make blogging the core of your customer relations strategy and increase your chances of building solid relationships with your customers.
Weight Loss - How Can Blogging Help You Lose Weight?
Bloggers are all over the world wide web. Some write about crafts, others write about work. It is becoming more and more popular every day. If you have never blogged before, you may find it overwhelming or intimidating, but it is very simple and can help you to reach your weight loss goals.
How?
o It makes you accountable. You can set out your long term goals in a summary paragraph or opener. Each day or week you will make a new entry about your successes and challenges for the week. You may even gain a following, and those people will be looking in on your progress and posting comments to keep you motivated.
o You can understand your emotions more easily. Our emotional state has a very big influence on how we eat, what we eat and whether we carry out our plans to work out. If you can add in comments about how you are feeling on a particular day or week, you can gain support from your friends and family when they read your blog. You can also gain an understanding of how your emotions affect your weight loss efforts.
o Patterns emerge. As you write about your progress and setbacks, you will be able to see a pattern or trend. Perhaps you were stressed at some point and this caused you to have a session with a bag of chips on the couch. There is no better way to spot these types of patterns than to write about them. Once you start to review your entries, it will all become more clear to you.
o Get the support you need. Many people find that when others leave comments on their blog congratulating them or encouraging them to move forward from a set back, they have the courage to carry on. Support is a very strong tool and when you receive an outpouring of comments and emails, you will find the courage to carry on.
o Celebrate success. Sharing your accomplishments with your readership is a good feeling. Writing about your accomplishments will help you feel great about all of your hard work and to share it with others. Maybe they need to see that you have accomplished this and they can too!
As you move towards a healthier lifestyle, sharing your roadblocks and successes along the way can provide you with all of the motivation you need to reach your goals and be successful.
How?
o It makes you accountable. You can set out your long term goals in a summary paragraph or opener. Each day or week you will make a new entry about your successes and challenges for the week. You may even gain a following, and those people will be looking in on your progress and posting comments to keep you motivated.
o You can understand your emotions more easily. Our emotional state has a very big influence on how we eat, what we eat and whether we carry out our plans to work out. If you can add in comments about how you are feeling on a particular day or week, you can gain support from your friends and family when they read your blog. You can also gain an understanding of how your emotions affect your weight loss efforts.
o Patterns emerge. As you write about your progress and setbacks, you will be able to see a pattern or trend. Perhaps you were stressed at some point and this caused you to have a session with a bag of chips on the couch. There is no better way to spot these types of patterns than to write about them. Once you start to review your entries, it will all become more clear to you.
o Get the support you need. Many people find that when others leave comments on their blog congratulating them or encouraging them to move forward from a set back, they have the courage to carry on. Support is a very strong tool and when you receive an outpouring of comments and emails, you will find the courage to carry on.
o Celebrate success. Sharing your accomplishments with your readership is a good feeling. Writing about your accomplishments will help you feel great about all of your hard work and to share it with others. Maybe they need to see that you have accomplished this and they can too!
As you move towards a healthier lifestyle, sharing your roadblocks and successes along the way can provide you with all of the motivation you need to reach your goals and be successful.
How Blogging Helped Me Turbocharge My Credibility and Attracted Network Marketing Prospects
In this article, I will share with you how blogging and writing articles have helped me attract other network marketers.
How Does A Prospect Come to Trust You?
Let's first talk about the two major reasons why people go online to read your content(s).
For the most part, your prospects come online for one of the two following reasons. People go online to...
1. Look for specific ways to solve a problem
2. To meet a pressing need
Did you know 92% of people go online to look for information? So in the scenario of network marketing prospects, people primarily go online not to spend money, but rather to save or make money.
But the sad reality is...
If you Google about any network marketing company, the majority of websites you land from the search results will want you to join their company, program, downline without you first having the chance to get to know about them.
In fact, the majority of these websites assume everyone needs their products and services, and go straight into sales pitch, failing to realize that this hard-sell is what turns off most prospects.
On the web, you meet people who tell you that they built a great downline organization in their previous companies while hiding behind the Internet.
But the fact of the matter is your prospects don't know you unless they avail to your expertise. So what can you do to build and maintain credibility with your stranger prospects? - write articles.
In fact, people read your content because they want to know you personally -- everything about your challenges, results, concerns. They want to know as much results as you can share with them, hoping that your experiences would cut their learning curve.
Think of these two major reasons why people go online again...
1. Look for specific ways to solve a problem
2. To meet a pressing need
So to effectively use your content to pre-sell your qualification, your content should first provide ways for people to satisfy their needs.
Second, you begin gaining trust as your prospects receive answers to their problems.
Third, through their own application of your answers to their needs, you allow prospects to realize that they need YOU -- your prospects begin to seek you, instead of you having to push your ideas to them like everybody else.
By providing useful content, you let your articles pre-sell your business opportunity because your prospects seek YOU as the only viable solution for their challenges, and your business opportunity becomes the sub department of the ultimate solution called YOU.
Instead of selling your company first, your prospects primarily become sold on you through your leadership and strategic marketing.
So to help you start blogging and building a brand called YOU, I will share with you a very easy method to gather content ideas for article writing.
One method I use is visit forum.richdad.com/forums/ and visit the Network Marketing section of the Rich Dad forum. There you will find questions people asking other network marketers. You can see the current trend of the industry and you can provide answers on your own website.
You don't need to necessarily find the right answers. But what matters is that you share your leadership skills while your competitors don't take time to write.
After adding a new content on my website(s), I first wait for search engines to crawl my domain. After a few weeks, I begin reviewing my own blog articles to submit to article directories such as EzineArticles.com
I rewrite my articles with the purpose of submitting to Ezine directories while keeping the target audience in mind. Potential readers are either article publishers or other network marketers who browse articles for ideas.
For article publishers, in case my article gets added to their websites, I leave my URL within the author resource signature instead of using anchor text link (Very important). It's tempting to use anchor text in author resource signature for the reason of search engine optimization, but my experience has shown not every publisher uses HTML to publish author resources, and unless I use my own URL within my author signature, anchor text may never link my domain. So I use the actual URL within my author resource section.
Then for network marketers who come to browse articles, I use the same signatures to by redirecting to my newsletters published on my own domain. Once they opt-in to my newsletter, I use Auto Responders and sell my credibility to them first by writing generic but useful network marketing tips.
Many of them seek which company I belong and begin communicating. While majority of prospects never join my business opportunity but stay subscribed to my newsletters. I promote other people's products and services in the back-end using my newsletters, monetizing every lead that comes through the pipeline.
To summarize, this whole process works like this,
1. I write articles on my own websites
2. I then re-write my articles and submit to article directories
3. The more articles I write, the more they get picked up and published on websites
4. Because I use actual URL and not anchor text link within the signature, every website that publishes my articles redirect prospects to my own URL where people opt-in for my newsletter
5. Prospects browse my own website, which heavily promotes newsletters and they opt-in
6. Some prospects contact me
7. Some never contact but stay subscribed to the newsletter
8. Some never contact but they buy other products or services I promote relating to Network Marketing
9. Some resonate what you do and ask you to joint venture with them
It seems like a long process, but the beauty is that there are enough publishers who need your articles and enough prospects who opt-in for your newsletters. So once it's set up, it gets all automated, thanks to the Internet.
If you just repeat this process, soon you'll have enough prospects contacting you everyday and this is one way to generate your own leads. It all begins with writing useful articles and getting your name out.
Instead of hard selling your services and products, your prospects foster credibility about you, come to know you and like you. Even if they don't join your business, you'll monetize every lead comes through your pipeline.
You can then sell your products, joint venture, earn money from recommending affiliate products, or whatever you can because you own every lead who stays on your newsletter. This way, no matter what happens to your downline retention, you'll always generate more prospects than your competitors.
How Does A Prospect Come to Trust You?
Let's first talk about the two major reasons why people go online to read your content(s).
For the most part, your prospects come online for one of the two following reasons. People go online to...
1. Look for specific ways to solve a problem
2. To meet a pressing need
Did you know 92% of people go online to look for information? So in the scenario of network marketing prospects, people primarily go online not to spend money, but rather to save or make money.
But the sad reality is...
If you Google about any network marketing company, the majority of websites you land from the search results will want you to join their company, program, downline without you first having the chance to get to know about them.
In fact, the majority of these websites assume everyone needs their products and services, and go straight into sales pitch, failing to realize that this hard-sell is what turns off most prospects.
On the web, you meet people who tell you that they built a great downline organization in their previous companies while hiding behind the Internet.
But the fact of the matter is your prospects don't know you unless they avail to your expertise. So what can you do to build and maintain credibility with your stranger prospects? - write articles.
In fact, people read your content because they want to know you personally -- everything about your challenges, results, concerns. They want to know as much results as you can share with them, hoping that your experiences would cut their learning curve.
Think of these two major reasons why people go online again...
1. Look for specific ways to solve a problem
2. To meet a pressing need
So to effectively use your content to pre-sell your qualification, your content should first provide ways for people to satisfy their needs.
Second, you begin gaining trust as your prospects receive answers to their problems.
Third, through their own application of your answers to their needs, you allow prospects to realize that they need YOU -- your prospects begin to seek you, instead of you having to push your ideas to them like everybody else.
By providing useful content, you let your articles pre-sell your business opportunity because your prospects seek YOU as the only viable solution for their challenges, and your business opportunity becomes the sub department of the ultimate solution called YOU.
Instead of selling your company first, your prospects primarily become sold on you through your leadership and strategic marketing.
So to help you start blogging and building a brand called YOU, I will share with you a very easy method to gather content ideas for article writing.
One method I use is visit forum.richdad.com/forums/ and visit the Network Marketing section of the Rich Dad forum. There you will find questions people asking other network marketers. You can see the current trend of the industry and you can provide answers on your own website.
You don't need to necessarily find the right answers. But what matters is that you share your leadership skills while your competitors don't take time to write.
After adding a new content on my website(s), I first wait for search engines to crawl my domain. After a few weeks, I begin reviewing my own blog articles to submit to article directories such as EzineArticles.com
I rewrite my articles with the purpose of submitting to Ezine directories while keeping the target audience in mind. Potential readers are either article publishers or other network marketers who browse articles for ideas.
For article publishers, in case my article gets added to their websites, I leave my URL within the author resource signature instead of using anchor text link (Very important). It's tempting to use anchor text in author resource signature for the reason of search engine optimization, but my experience has shown not every publisher uses HTML to publish author resources, and unless I use my own URL within my author signature, anchor text may never link my domain. So I use the actual URL within my author resource section.
Then for network marketers who come to browse articles, I use the same signatures to by redirecting to my newsletters published on my own domain. Once they opt-in to my newsletter, I use Auto Responders and sell my credibility to them first by writing generic but useful network marketing tips.
Many of them seek which company I belong and begin communicating. While majority of prospects never join my business opportunity but stay subscribed to my newsletters. I promote other people's products and services in the back-end using my newsletters, monetizing every lead that comes through the pipeline.
To summarize, this whole process works like this,
1. I write articles on my own websites
2. I then re-write my articles and submit to article directories
3. The more articles I write, the more they get picked up and published on websites
4. Because I use actual URL and not anchor text link within the signature, every website that publishes my articles redirect prospects to my own URL where people opt-in for my newsletter
5. Prospects browse my own website, which heavily promotes newsletters and they opt-in
6. Some prospects contact me
7. Some never contact but stay subscribed to the newsletter
8. Some never contact but they buy other products or services I promote relating to Network Marketing
9. Some resonate what you do and ask you to joint venture with them
It seems like a long process, but the beauty is that there are enough publishers who need your articles and enough prospects who opt-in for your newsletters. So once it's set up, it gets all automated, thanks to the Internet.
If you just repeat this process, soon you'll have enough prospects contacting you everyday and this is one way to generate your own leads. It all begins with writing useful articles and getting your name out.
Instead of hard selling your services and products, your prospects foster credibility about you, come to know you and like you. Even if they don't join your business, you'll monetize every lead comes through your pipeline.
You can then sell your products, joint venture, earn money from recommending affiliate products, or whatever you can because you own every lead who stays on your newsletter. This way, no matter what happens to your downline retention, you'll always generate more prospects than your competitors.
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