By Christopher Knight
Bloggers blog. That’s what they do. A blog is short for ‘weblog’ and it’s really an online journal that can be updated easily and frequently without any knowledge of HTML code.
Traditionally, article marketing has been used by authors who are promoting their books or information products. Lately, I’ve noticed a growing trend of bloggers using article marketing to grow the traffic to their blog and you should too.
Three reasons why it makes sense for bloggers to engage in article marketing:
1) You’ve already got a lot of content produced in each of your blog posts. 200 words should be your floor for each article that you produce. In some cases, you already have enough words per post to create 10-50 articles instantly. If you don’t, then stitch posts together of a similar theme until you have 200+ word articles to put into article marketing distribution.
2) A blogger has the same traffic building problems that any typical website has, and therefore article marketing can help your blog in the same ways it can help a non-blog website.
Benefits include qualified traffic coming to your site year round, quality backlinks being built without any messy recip-linking campaigns, and you’re expanding your reach to other experts that might not otherwise have found your blog.
3) Bloggers by nature are more Internet savvy than your typical author. With this said, most bloggers already understand how to create revenue with pay per click (PPC) advertising programs.
As such, you already know how to produce keyword intelligent titles for their articles. This guarantees maximum traffic impact for each of your articles.
If you are already a blogger and are new to article marketing, here’s how you get started:
1) Produce a cache of 10-25+ articles from your existing blog content.
2) Submit them to the major article directories and any that are niche-relevant to your field of expertise. You may also wish to submit them to ezine publishers directly from your niche.
3) Rinse and repeat until you have 250-1,000+ articles in distribution this year. Hire a college student or editor if you don’t have time to get this strategy into practice as it’ll be well worth it.
4) Watch your traffic counter slowly rise, day by day as your articles work hard for you delivering qualified traffic to your website year round.
Article Marketing as a strategy will not break your traffic counter on your first month of investing in this strategy… but, I guarantee if you engage in this strategy, your blog will grow in traffic and popularity beyond the traffic you were already creating by simply blogging.
You knows, you might even increase your sales, land a new job, or improve your rank in the search engines as a side-benefit from your article marketing strategy.
About The Author:
Christopher M. Knight invites you to submit your best articles for massive exposure to the high-traffic http://EzineArticles.com/ directory. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links in tact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit your article, setup a membership account today: http://EzineArticles.com/submit/
Sunday, December 9, 2007
How To Profit From Your Home Business Blog
By Ian Canaway
A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers should be utilising to explode their affiliate sales.
I set up my blog in about 15 minutes at http://www.blogger.com it’s a completely free service, and it’s really easy to set-up. I followed directions on an excellent article on getting a new website listed in Google in 48hrs check it out here,. I just followed the advice in the article and got started with no problems in no time.
I've been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! So clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, but they do take time to grow and build up a readership. Treat your blog as a marathon not a sprint, because it will take time.
Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times over ‘content is king’ in the search engines eyes and if you can provide high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.
By providing fresh, high quality relevant content you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors, they will come back to check out your new content. Providing it’s interesting, relevant and useful to them. You will begin to build relationships with your readers, increasing your credibility and building their trust in you.
These repeat visitors will be exposed to your messages more and begin to trust you and your recommendations. This in turn will fuel sales and referrals. Just make sure you don’t recommend a product you haven’t tried because if it is bad you will lose all credibility!
Never recommend something you haven’t tried and tested your self.
You want to send traffic directly to your blog, do it through multi-dimensional strategies. Have a subscriber box for your newsletter to build your list from your blog. Use it as an exit pop-up from your main site or thank you page for new subscribers, directing them to relevant content immediately. As once your prospects have got to know you through the blog they are much more likely to explore your website and check out whatever you are offering.
Whenever you sign-up for an affiliate program or buy a product, review it in your blog and be brutally honest, your readers will love you for it. Take a completely unbiased view point and talk about both the positives and negatives of each product. In essence you are providing more of an insight into the product than the sales page itself, almost a sample, this will help convert those prospects that are ‘sitting on the fence’ so to speak. Obviously when you review your affiliate products, make sure that you use your affiliate links.
It has been shown that prospects are 7-10 times more likely to buy from a blog recommendation than from other sources!
Other ways that you can generate extra income through your blog are through the Google ad sense program, selling banner/link space as your traffic increases or as I mentioned earlier by adding you own opt-in sign up form to which you send your newsletter or other targeted offers.
Your blog can be syndicated using RSS, which I won’t go into here, that’s another article. But savvy webmasters can use your blog content on their web pages. This benefits them as they have regularly updated fresh content for their website and benefits you through increased exposure and free targeted traffic.
Be passionate about your blog, love your blog. If you do not then it will become obvious through your posts and you are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as you could be.
Add to your blog regularly provide good quality content and reviews and you will be on your way to blogging success.
“A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one at all would find fault with what he has done”. -- Cardinal Newman
Get that blog started today!
Copyright © Ian Canaway
Ian Canaway is a home business entrepreneur and the owner of http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com and also a home business based blog providing high quality information and resources. Check us out Now!
A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers should be utilising to explode their affiliate sales.
I set up my blog in about 15 minutes at http://www.blogger.com it’s a completely free service, and it’s really easy to set-up. I followed directions on an excellent article on getting a new website listed in Google in 48hrs check it out here,. I just followed the advice in the article and got started with no problems in no time.
I've been doing a lot of research with regards to blogging and came across a case of a 19 year old kid who was making something ridiculous like $50,000 a year with a blog on mobile phones, from his bedroom! So clearly there is a good earning potential through blogs, but they do take time to grow and build up a readership. Treat your blog as a marathon not a sprint, because it will take time.
Blogs provide a very simple, quick and easy means to add fresh content to your website. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times over ‘content is king’ in the search engines eyes and if you can provide high quality, regularly updated content your website should benefit with regards to your search engine ranking.
By providing fresh, high quality relevant content you will gain an increase of both first time visitors and repeat visitors, they will come back to check out your new content. Providing it’s interesting, relevant and useful to them. You will begin to build relationships with your readers, increasing your credibility and building their trust in you.
These repeat visitors will be exposed to your messages more and begin to trust you and your recommendations. This in turn will fuel sales and referrals. Just make sure you don’t recommend a product you haven’t tried because if it is bad you will lose all credibility!
Never recommend something you haven’t tried and tested your self.
You want to send traffic directly to your blog, do it through multi-dimensional strategies. Have a subscriber box for your newsletter to build your list from your blog. Use it as an exit pop-up from your main site or thank you page for new subscribers, directing them to relevant content immediately. As once your prospects have got to know you through the blog they are much more likely to explore your website and check out whatever you are offering.
Whenever you sign-up for an affiliate program or buy a product, review it in your blog and be brutally honest, your readers will love you for it. Take a completely unbiased view point and talk about both the positives and negatives of each product. In essence you are providing more of an insight into the product than the sales page itself, almost a sample, this will help convert those prospects that are ‘sitting on the fence’ so to speak. Obviously when you review your affiliate products, make sure that you use your affiliate links.
It has been shown that prospects are 7-10 times more likely to buy from a blog recommendation than from other sources!
Other ways that you can generate extra income through your blog are through the Google ad sense program, selling banner/link space as your traffic increases or as I mentioned earlier by adding you own opt-in sign up form to which you send your newsletter or other targeted offers.
Your blog can be syndicated using RSS, which I won’t go into here, that’s another article. But savvy webmasters can use your blog content on their web pages. This benefits them as they have regularly updated fresh content for their website and benefits you through increased exposure and free targeted traffic.
Be passionate about your blog, love your blog. If you do not then it will become obvious through your posts and you are unlikely to be anywhere near as successful as you could be.
Add to your blog regularly provide good quality content and reviews and you will be on your way to blogging success.
“A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one at all would find fault with what he has done”. -- Cardinal Newman
Get that blog started today!
Copyright © Ian Canaway
Ian Canaway is a home business entrepreneur and the owner of http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com and also a home business based blog providing high quality information and resources. Check us out Now!
Blogging for Dollars
By S. Housley
Blogging for dollars might sound like the latest game show or some new drinking game, but it's the latest craze to hit the Internet.
Bloggers began blogging for a number of reasons, but as the blog movement has increased in popularity, they have found ways to monetize their blogs and are seeing their commitment pay off.
Whether a blogger's focus is to communicate with customers or just to have fun, they have begun looking at ways to earn revenue from their blogs. The most popular ways for bloggers to earn some added cash for their pet projects are:
Google Adsense in Blogs
Google AdSense allows webmasters to dynamically serve content-relevant advertisements in blogs. If the visitor clicks one of the AdSense ads served to the blog, the website owner is credited for the referral.
Webmasters need only to insert a Google-generated java script into the blog or blog template. Google's spider parses the AdServing blog and serves ads that relate to the blog's content. Google uses a combination of keyword matching and context analysis to determine what ads should be served.
Affiliate Programs (Product Endorsements)
Affiliate Programs work when an affiliate web site receives income for generating sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant website. Generally, bloggers will mention or endorse specific products and if site visitors purchase the product, bloggers will receive a portion of the sale.
Product Promotion
Businesses use blogs to detail how specific features or product add-ons can increase functionality and save time. Content-rich product promotion will help with search engine placement.
Banner Ads
While less popular than in the past, websites with high traffic levels can still earn decent revenue by selling banner space.
As the Internet evolves bloggers will continue to seek out ways to monetize their opinions and thoughts. Daily journals and online blogs have become more than just a communication means to many.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for the NotePage and FeedForAll product lines. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.small-business-software.net
Blogging for dollars might sound like the latest game show or some new drinking game, but it's the latest craze to hit the Internet.
Bloggers began blogging for a number of reasons, but as the blog movement has increased in popularity, they have found ways to monetize their blogs and are seeing their commitment pay off.
Whether a blogger's focus is to communicate with customers or just to have fun, they have begun looking at ways to earn revenue from their blogs. The most popular ways for bloggers to earn some added cash for their pet projects are:
Google Adsense in Blogs
Google AdSense allows webmasters to dynamically serve content-relevant advertisements in blogs. If the visitor clicks one of the AdSense ads served to the blog, the website owner is credited for the referral.
Webmasters need only to insert a Google-generated java script into the blog or blog template. Google's spider parses the AdServing blog and serves ads that relate to the blog's content. Google uses a combination of keyword matching and context analysis to determine what ads should be served.
Affiliate Programs (Product Endorsements)
Affiliate Programs work when an affiliate web site receives income for generating sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant website. Generally, bloggers will mention or endorse specific products and if site visitors purchase the product, bloggers will receive a portion of the sale.
Product Promotion
Businesses use blogs to detail how specific features or product add-ons can increase functionality and save time. Content-rich product promotion will help with search engine placement.
Banner Ads
While less popular than in the past, websites with high traffic levels can still earn decent revenue by selling banner space.
As the Internet evolves bloggers will continue to seek out ways to monetize their opinions and thoughts. Daily journals and online blogs have become more than just a communication means to many.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for the NotePage and FeedForAll product lines. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.small-business-software.net
How To Make Money With Blogs And RSS
By All Blog News Formerly Marketing Basics
Are you confused about blogs And RSS? Guess what? You're not alone. Most people are, even if they don't want to admit it.
Well, it's time to clear up that confusion. It's time you learned about the awesome potential of blogs and RSS. And once you discover how simple and easy it really is, you're going to kick yourself for not trying to profit from this technology sooner!
First of all, what's a blog? Well, According to the dictionary, a blog is:
"A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links."
In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write content on an ongoing basis. As you add content to your blog, new posts are automatically positioned on top of previous posts, so your visitors can see "what's new." Then they can comment on it or link to it or e- mail you if they choose to do so.
A blog can be a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts.
Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
Next, what's RSS? "RSS" stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, web publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings.
Consumers use RSS reader applications, or one of a growing number of online services to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place. RSS content from a publisher, viewed in one of these readers, is often called a "feed."
For consumers, RSS makes it possible to review a large number of sites in a short amount of time.
For publishers, RSS allows instant widespread distribution of content updates to consumers.
And here's the most exciting part: You can actually have your own blog up and running in less than 10 minutes, and you can create an RSS feed in about the same amount of time--plus, have your site indexed and crawled by Yahoo within 24 hours.
Speaking of Yahoo, did you know search engines and directories love blogs and RSS feeds?
Yes, the secret's out! Search engines love blogs and the content of RSS feeds. Why? Because blogs and RSS feeds provide fresh content to search engines.
As long as you keep posting relevant content and update your blog which you can turn into RSS feeds, search engines spiders will visit your site again and again.
Do I still have your attention? Good! How would you like to learn:
* The 3 easy steps to create your blog.
* 9 ways to make money with your blog.
* How to create a blog on your own website with a few simple mouse clicks.
* How to brand yourself as an expert with blogs.
* How to increase your search engine ranking within 24 hours by putting a blog on your website.
* Discover what a "ping" is and how you can use it to instantly let the world know when you post a message or new content.
* Learn the difference between a blog and RSS feed.
* Announce your blog to millions of people with just one click of your mouse.
* How to post photos to your blog with a few simple mouse clicks.
* How to create your RSS feed in less than 10 minutes...Guaranteed!
Aren't you tired of sitting on the sidelines year after year, watching other people get rich off of the latest technology, when you could easily be getting rich yourself?
Well, here's your opportunity to finally do something about it!
Discover how anyone can easily get more sales, leads and subscribers using blogs and RSS feeds! Do it today!
Make Money With Blogs And RSS! Confused About Blogs And RSS? Discover How Anyone Can Easily Get More Sales, Leads And Subscribers Using Blogs And RSS Feeds!
Are you confused about blogs And RSS? Guess what? You're not alone. Most people are, even if they don't want to admit it.
Well, it's time to clear up that confusion. It's time you learned about the awesome potential of blogs and RSS. And once you discover how simple and easy it really is, you're going to kick yourself for not trying to profit from this technology sooner!
First of all, what's a blog? Well, According to the dictionary, a blog is:
"A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links."
In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write content on an ongoing basis. As you add content to your blog, new posts are automatically positioned on top of previous posts, so your visitors can see "what's new." Then they can comment on it or link to it or e- mail you if they choose to do so.
A blog can be a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts.
Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
Next, what's RSS? "RSS" stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, web publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings.
Consumers use RSS reader applications, or one of a growing number of online services to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place. RSS content from a publisher, viewed in one of these readers, is often called a "feed."
For consumers, RSS makes it possible to review a large number of sites in a short amount of time.
For publishers, RSS allows instant widespread distribution of content updates to consumers.
And here's the most exciting part: You can actually have your own blog up and running in less than 10 minutes, and you can create an RSS feed in about the same amount of time--plus, have your site indexed and crawled by Yahoo within 24 hours.
Speaking of Yahoo, did you know search engines and directories love blogs and RSS feeds?
Yes, the secret's out! Search engines love blogs and the content of RSS feeds. Why? Because blogs and RSS feeds provide fresh content to search engines.
As long as you keep posting relevant content and update your blog which you can turn into RSS feeds, search engines spiders will visit your site again and again.
Do I still have your attention? Good! How would you like to learn:
* The 3 easy steps to create your blog.
* 9 ways to make money with your blog.
* How to create a blog on your own website with a few simple mouse clicks.
* How to brand yourself as an expert with blogs.
* How to increase your search engine ranking within 24 hours by putting a blog on your website.
* Discover what a "ping" is and how you can use it to instantly let the world know when you post a message or new content.
* Learn the difference between a blog and RSS feed.
* Announce your blog to millions of people with just one click of your mouse.
* How to post photos to your blog with a few simple mouse clicks.
* How to create your RSS feed in less than 10 minutes...Guaranteed!
Aren't you tired of sitting on the sidelines year after year, watching other people get rich off of the latest technology, when you could easily be getting rich yourself?
Well, here's your opportunity to finally do something about it!
Discover how anyone can easily get more sales, leads and subscribers using blogs and RSS feeds! Do it today!
Make Money With Blogs And RSS! Confused About Blogs And RSS? Discover How Anyone Can Easily Get More Sales, Leads And Subscribers Using Blogs And RSS Feeds!
Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog to Publish Your Ezine
by Denise Wakeman
Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a delivery medium. Here are 10 reasons why you should deliver your ezine articles via a blog.
1. A blog is web based so you can update and post new articles anywhere, anytime. It's a dynamic medium that can be updated on a moment's notice.
2. Subscribers can subscribe to your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed and have your content delivered straight to their desktop. This delivery system bypasses spam filters and readers get exactly the content they want.
3. No web site to mess with. It's very inexpensive way to set up a web presence for your ezine. There are several sites where you can set up a free blog and others are very reasonably priced for the massive exposure you can get.
4. You can set up links for ads and your affiliate programs in side columns so you don't have to include them in your ezine format.
5. You can set up a subscription form and send emails to your subscribers when new content is added.
6. Blogs link to other blogs which helps you create a viral marketing system and increases your exposure in search engines. Search engines LOVE text based, fresh content that is highly focused (key word rich).
7. You can use your ezine blog to become a trusted expert for your subscribers, by filtering content for them so they don't have to visit hundreds of web sites.
8. You have an instant archive of all your articles. When you post an article, a new page and permalink is created. People can share that link with others and be sent directly to the article being referenced.
9. Readers can comment on your articles, which creates rapport and trust between you and your subscriber. Comments also add rich content to your site and again, helps your ranking in the search engines.
10. The bottom line is this: using a blog can help you attract more visitors who become subscribers and then eventually become clients.
For an ezine publisher, a blog compliments and can significantly ease the delivery of your ezine content. Essentially, like any web site, you have to promote it and encourage people to add your site to their RSS reader or subscribe for updates through a subscription form.
That's why I put a subscribe form on my site - subscribers and get updates in anyway they want. You still need to submit to search engines and directories to drive traffic.
If you already have an ezine subscriber database, my advice would be to post everything on the blog and then send a weekly email, or whatever your normal publishing schedule is, informing your subscribers when new content is posted.
Marketing is done in a conversational way and via the links on your blog. Announcements can be posted on the blog and to one's list.
I see the blog and ezine database as complementary... working together to increase your exposure and make it easier for people to get your information and build relationships.
(c) Copyright 2004.
About the author: Denise Wakeman is Chief Implementor of Next Level Partnership, a company dedicated to partnering with you to take your business to the next level. Visit Denise's blog at http://www.biztipsblog.com to get tips and tactics for taking your business to the next level.
Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a delivery medium. Here are 10 reasons why you should deliver your ezine articles via a blog.
1. A blog is web based so you can update and post new articles anywhere, anytime. It's a dynamic medium that can be updated on a moment's notice.
2. Subscribers can subscribe to your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed and have your content delivered straight to their desktop. This delivery system bypasses spam filters and readers get exactly the content they want.
3. No web site to mess with. It's very inexpensive way to set up a web presence for your ezine. There are several sites where you can set up a free blog and others are very reasonably priced for the massive exposure you can get.
4. You can set up links for ads and your affiliate programs in side columns so you don't have to include them in your ezine format.
5. You can set up a subscription form and send emails to your subscribers when new content is added.
6. Blogs link to other blogs which helps you create a viral marketing system and increases your exposure in search engines. Search engines LOVE text based, fresh content that is highly focused (key word rich).
7. You can use your ezine blog to become a trusted expert for your subscribers, by filtering content for them so they don't have to visit hundreds of web sites.
8. You have an instant archive of all your articles. When you post an article, a new page and permalink is created. People can share that link with others and be sent directly to the article being referenced.
9. Readers can comment on your articles, which creates rapport and trust between you and your subscriber. Comments also add rich content to your site and again, helps your ranking in the search engines.
10. The bottom line is this: using a blog can help you attract more visitors who become subscribers and then eventually become clients.
For an ezine publisher, a blog compliments and can significantly ease the delivery of your ezine content. Essentially, like any web site, you have to promote it and encourage people to add your site to their RSS reader or subscribe for updates through a subscription form.
That's why I put a subscribe form on my site - subscribers and get updates in anyway they want. You still need to submit to search engines and directories to drive traffic.
If you already have an ezine subscriber database, my advice would be to post everything on the blog and then send a weekly email, or whatever your normal publishing schedule is, informing your subscribers when new content is posted.
Marketing is done in a conversational way and via the links on your blog. Announcements can be posted on the blog and to one's list.
I see the blog and ezine database as complementary... working together to increase your exposure and make it easier for people to get your information and build relationships.
(c) Copyright 2004.
About the author: Denise Wakeman is Chief Implementor of Next Level Partnership, a company dedicated to partnering with you to take your business to the next level. Visit Denise's blog at http://www.biztipsblog.com to get tips and tactics for taking your business to the next level.
Can Blogs Be Useful Marketing Tools?
by Rick Hendershot, Linknet Marketing Resource Library
Blogs (web-logs) have become very popular. If you are not up to speed on what "blogs" are, just think of them as online journals.
The owner of the blog makes regular posts on whatever topics he/she chooses, and readers are free (or not) to make comments.
If you think blogging is symptomatic of a youth culture enamoured of brainless activites like "reality" TV shows, text messaging and endless cell phone chatting, you are only partially right.
Like your typical teeanage cell phone conversation ("Hi. Where are you now? I'm at the mall. We're gonna hang out for a while. Got to go...") blog content can be nothing more than navel gazing:
"Well, I'm back after a couple of days. Don't really have much to say, because not much has happened. Think I'll go for a drive to the mall and wander around for a while. Need some underwear and might pick up a pizza. G2G..."
It is probably true that the immediacy and regularity of blogging lends itself to this kind of empty content...
Ooops. Time to make my blog entry. What's that? Can't think of anything to say? Well then, I guess I'll just talk about that... OK... "Here I am again. It's time to make another entry in my blog, but I can't think of anything to say. I hate that. Life can be so boring. Don't you agree? Well, G2G..."
Writing about nothing
That reminds me of the time back in Grade 12 English when I couldn't think of a topic for an essay due the next day. Out of desperation, that became my topic.
The title was something like "An Essay About Nothing", and it started out more or less like this "I'm suppose to hand in an esssay tomorrow, but I can't think of anything to write about, so that is what I am writing about."
I thought I was being pretty clever, and it was probably as good as most of my essays. But the teacher, expecting the usual earnest effort handed in by Grade 12 students, wasn't amused.
On the other hand, Jerry Seinfeld, turned this concept into the best sitcom ever produced (quite a few years later, I might add). Which only goes to prove that writing about nothing isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Sometimes it can be much more.
So it is with blogs. Blog content can be empty and pointless, or it can be interesting and thoughtful.
Just like ezines and those things we internet marketers pass off as "articles". Some of my content for this and other sites comes from submissions made to article newsgroups.
Everybody who joins the group can send out their "articles" to the entire group. So I receive a hundred or so articles every day. Some of them are interesting, original, informative, and very well written.
But, alas, most of them harp on the same old boring marketing themes: "10 Ways to Super Charge Your Response Rate", "5 Tips for Writing Dynamic Sales Copy", "How to Find the Perfect Work at Home Business", on and on it goes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This stuff would be right at home in most mind-numbing blogs.
Good things about blogs for marketers
On the whole, from the publishing and marketing points of view, blogs have a lot going for them.
First of all, everything gets posted right away in a blog, so they have a sense of immediacy and a more conversational tone than even your typical online forum or newsgroup. This also makes them much more "interactive" than many other web communication media.
Certainly blogs are more interactive than traditional websites. And they make email-based ezines seem downright old fashioned. But are blogs likely to replace traditional websites and ezines as the go-to formats for online marketing?
No and Yes.
There are things we can do with ordinary static websites that are not suited to blogs. Catalogue or reference material, for instance, must continue to contain reliable, stable and therefore relatively static detail. The same goes for much product description material, legal mumbo-jumbo, and technical information.
But blogging is ideally suited to ongoing communication with clients, customers and prospects. And it is particularly useful for "excerpting", "citing", or commenting on other articles, blog posts, or websites.
Blogs are at their best when the posts are short and they link to some other resource as a point of reference.
That is why blogging is particularly important for internet marketers. For instance, say (like a client of mine) you are a Waterloo Ontario real estate agent. And say you want to make new listing updates available to subscribers.
A blog is a perfect place to do this. You can post your regular listings on a daily basis, and mix in other news and promotions along the way.
Regular email messages can be sent out to your subscriber base reminding them to "check today's new listings in my blog".
You can even turn it into an "RRS Feed" and syndicate your blog information so clients can pick it up on a feed reader, or other webmasters can post it on their sites.
The blog experiment. I jump in up to my neck
But I must admit, my real interest in blogs has to do with their potential for influencing search engine rankings. Google thinks blogs are great. They seem to like the simplicity and down home "everyman" character of blogging.
And they certainly like three other facts about blogs: they are constantly changing, they are "content-rich" in a very focused way — even if that content isn't particularly profound. and they are often extensively interlinked with other websites and blogs.
In fact Google seems to be neutral towards the relatively mindless content presented in many blogs. And this has opened up an interesting "window of opportunity" for search engine optimizers.
Experiments have shown that it is much safer to "spam" Google with blog content than with other static web pages.
These experiments have shown that blog content that is essentially just a bunch of jibberish with hundreds of embedded links and strategically placed keywords is often given the royal treatment by Google.
The same sort of content in a "normal" website (for instance the kind generated by a program like Search Engine Cloaker) is absolutely verboten.
In a series of articles within the Linknet Marketing Resource Library I discuss other blogging topics, and share some of the tips and techniques I have discovered along the way.
Rick Hendershot is a writer and internet publisher whose major project is a series of Linknet Resource Libaries: articles and discussions on tightly focused topics such as Marketing, Linking, Search Engine Optimization, Real Estate, Golf, and many more. He currently publishes a number of blogs including Marketing Bites, e_Marketing, Trade Show Buzz, The WEG, and Inside Real Estate.
Blogs (web-logs) have become very popular. If you are not up to speed on what "blogs" are, just think of them as online journals.
The owner of the blog makes regular posts on whatever topics he/she chooses, and readers are free (or not) to make comments.
If you think blogging is symptomatic of a youth culture enamoured of brainless activites like "reality" TV shows, text messaging and endless cell phone chatting, you are only partially right.
Like your typical teeanage cell phone conversation ("Hi. Where are you now? I'm at the mall. We're gonna hang out for a while. Got to go...") blog content can be nothing more than navel gazing:
"Well, I'm back after a couple of days. Don't really have much to say, because not much has happened. Think I'll go for a drive to the mall and wander around for a while. Need some underwear and might pick up a pizza. G2G..."
It is probably true that the immediacy and regularity of blogging lends itself to this kind of empty content...
Ooops. Time to make my blog entry. What's that? Can't think of anything to say? Well then, I guess I'll just talk about that... OK... "Here I am again. It's time to make another entry in my blog, but I can't think of anything to say. I hate that. Life can be so boring. Don't you agree? Well, G2G..."
Writing about nothing
That reminds me of the time back in Grade 12 English when I couldn't think of a topic for an essay due the next day. Out of desperation, that became my topic.
The title was something like "An Essay About Nothing", and it started out more or less like this "I'm suppose to hand in an esssay tomorrow, but I can't think of anything to write about, so that is what I am writing about."
I thought I was being pretty clever, and it was probably as good as most of my essays. But the teacher, expecting the usual earnest effort handed in by Grade 12 students, wasn't amused.
On the other hand, Jerry Seinfeld, turned this concept into the best sitcom ever produced (quite a few years later, I might add). Which only goes to prove that writing about nothing isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Sometimes it can be much more.
So it is with blogs. Blog content can be empty and pointless, or it can be interesting and thoughtful.
Just like ezines and those things we internet marketers pass off as "articles". Some of my content for this and other sites comes from submissions made to article newsgroups.
Everybody who joins the group can send out their "articles" to the entire group. So I receive a hundred or so articles every day. Some of them are interesting, original, informative, and very well written.
But, alas, most of them harp on the same old boring marketing themes: "10 Ways to Super Charge Your Response Rate", "5 Tips for Writing Dynamic Sales Copy", "How to Find the Perfect Work at Home Business", on and on it goes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This stuff would be right at home in most mind-numbing blogs.
Good things about blogs for marketers
On the whole, from the publishing and marketing points of view, blogs have a lot going for them.
First of all, everything gets posted right away in a blog, so they have a sense of immediacy and a more conversational tone than even your typical online forum or newsgroup. This also makes them much more "interactive" than many other web communication media.
Certainly blogs are more interactive than traditional websites. And they make email-based ezines seem downright old fashioned. But are blogs likely to replace traditional websites and ezines as the go-to formats for online marketing?
No and Yes.
There are things we can do with ordinary static websites that are not suited to blogs. Catalogue or reference material, for instance, must continue to contain reliable, stable and therefore relatively static detail. The same goes for much product description material, legal mumbo-jumbo, and technical information.
But blogging is ideally suited to ongoing communication with clients, customers and prospects. And it is particularly useful for "excerpting", "citing", or commenting on other articles, blog posts, or websites.
Blogs are at their best when the posts are short and they link to some other resource as a point of reference.
That is why blogging is particularly important for internet marketers. For instance, say (like a client of mine) you are a Waterloo Ontario real estate agent. And say you want to make new listing updates available to subscribers.
A blog is a perfect place to do this. You can post your regular listings on a daily basis, and mix in other news and promotions along the way.
Regular email messages can be sent out to your subscriber base reminding them to "check today's new listings in my blog".
You can even turn it into an "RRS Feed" and syndicate your blog information so clients can pick it up on a feed reader, or other webmasters can post it on their sites.
The blog experiment. I jump in up to my neck
But I must admit, my real interest in blogs has to do with their potential for influencing search engine rankings. Google thinks blogs are great. They seem to like the simplicity and down home "everyman" character of blogging.
And they certainly like three other facts about blogs: they are constantly changing, they are "content-rich" in a very focused way — even if that content isn't particularly profound. and they are often extensively interlinked with other websites and blogs.
In fact Google seems to be neutral towards the relatively mindless content presented in many blogs. And this has opened up an interesting "window of opportunity" for search engine optimizers.
Experiments have shown that it is much safer to "spam" Google with blog content than with other static web pages.
These experiments have shown that blog content that is essentially just a bunch of jibberish with hundreds of embedded links and strategically placed keywords is often given the royal treatment by Google.
The same sort of content in a "normal" website (for instance the kind generated by a program like Search Engine Cloaker) is absolutely verboten.
In a series of articles within the Linknet Marketing Resource Library I discuss other blogging topics, and share some of the tips and techniques I have discovered along the way.
Rick Hendershot is a writer and internet publisher whose major project is a series of Linknet Resource Libaries: articles and discussions on tightly focused topics such as Marketing, Linking, Search Engine Optimization, Real Estate, Golf, and many more. He currently publishes a number of blogs including Marketing Bites, e_Marketing, Trade Show Buzz, The WEG, and Inside Real Estate.
4 Ways to Profit From The Hidden Revenue In Your Blog
Copyright 2005 Tinu AbayomiPaul
Most webmasters and online business owners know that a blog can bring you additional revenue from advertising, and more traffic from search engines. Then there's the additional benefit of having a great way to spark productive dialogue between you and your prospects.
But did you know that your blog itself may be worth thousand of dollars to you in its present form?
The day I learned that my blog held such hidden treasure was one of those happy accidents that can make life such a fun adventure. All I wanted to do was find out why some of my newsletter subscribers had not crossed over to my blog audience.
In an informal poll, I found that many of the fans of my newsletter were overwhelmed with the amount of free information on my site, and felt that they'd never catch up to reading it all.
This led to several discoveries about how I could find a way to make the information more accessible to them without disrupting the enjoyment of my feed subscribers.
If your blog has export capabilities, you can use any of these techniques to generate revenue from your blog and make both your newsletter and blog subscribers deliriously happy.
Method One: Monitor Your Popular Blog Topics as Ideas for Future Products
As you begin to monitor which topics have the most responses, you'll be able to see a pattern that tells you what your audience likes the most about your site. These themes often give you clues about what your next product could be.
For example, as I continue to cover free Google tools, tips and news in my blog on Tuesdays, I've noticed that this is the day that I tend to have the most subscribers reading every entry. With that information I was able to create a free Christmas gift for my audience that they'll be able to use as a reference guide.
Your next best selling software idea, book or tool could come as a result of watching topic popularity, if you learn how to track audience response.
Method Two: The Subscription Model
When you're blogging daily, sometimes several times a day, and much of the information on your blog continues to be useful months after you publish it, your audience is probably aware of this.
Search engines may be doing a fine job of helping your fans find the information they're looking for at your site, but you'll also find that a cross-section of them would rather digest a periodic collection of your posts for use at a later time.
Should you find this to be the case, instead of purging your archives, you can create a "Best of" compilation on a weekly or monthly basis, and charge for electronic distribution.
Or you could charge advertisers to be featured in these periodicals the same way you would a newsletter, and offer them to your audience at a discounted rate, as a premium version of your present ezine.
Method Three: Turn Your Archives into an Ebook
With a blog that focuses on a narrow, popular theme, you could be sitting on a gold mine and not even be aware of it. Whether your blog contains tips for newbies in your field, expert advice for veterans, or success strategies that build on each other, you could be in the position to supply a demand for needed information.
There are a couple of tricks you'd have to learn to convert your archived blog posts into an ebook, but you'd be surprised about how easy this process can be.
Method Four: Make Your Entire Blog Into a Printed Book
I know what you're thinking. "Why would anyone pay for my blog as a book when it's free at my site?"
Under certain circumstances, you'd be surprised to find how many people would rather have a portable collection of your blog posts when the quality is consistent. The online version of your blog is the ultimate free trial. Many sites have been using this logic long before the web log came along to allow users to preview their services.
For example, the sheer volume of the free traffic generation tips on my site was repeatedly described during my informal poll as "overwhelming". It's one thing to try and read 2000 web pages in front of your computer, but it's not as daunting to peruse a 400 page book in the comfort of your home.
Converting your blog into a yearly volume may be a viable solution if consuming the amount of data in your archives is a daunting task. And there are ways to accomplish this that have no start-up costs.
If you're still not convinced that it's not worth the set-up to convert your blog into a periodical, ebook or printed edition, consider this.
On Monday morning I issued a press release regarding the transformation of my blog to a book, as a test to measure interest. It's almost 4 a.m. Pacific time as I write this, and so far it has been read over 23,000 times, resulting in a distinct increase in general traffic, not to mention the best initial sales debut of any product at my site since this past summer.
Just imagine what that kind of interest could do for your site - and how much money you may be leaving on the table right now. Making your blog available in other formats is worth a look.
About the Author: You can learn low-cost ways to turn your blog into an ebook or preview Tinu's 400 page Free Traffic Tips printed edition and ebook
Most webmasters and online business owners know that a blog can bring you additional revenue from advertising, and more traffic from search engines. Then there's the additional benefit of having a great way to spark productive dialogue between you and your prospects.
But did you know that your blog itself may be worth thousand of dollars to you in its present form?
The day I learned that my blog held such hidden treasure was one of those happy accidents that can make life such a fun adventure. All I wanted to do was find out why some of my newsletter subscribers had not crossed over to my blog audience.
In an informal poll, I found that many of the fans of my newsletter were overwhelmed with the amount of free information on my site, and felt that they'd never catch up to reading it all.
This led to several discoveries about how I could find a way to make the information more accessible to them without disrupting the enjoyment of my feed subscribers.
If your blog has export capabilities, you can use any of these techniques to generate revenue from your blog and make both your newsletter and blog subscribers deliriously happy.
Method One: Monitor Your Popular Blog Topics as Ideas for Future Products
As you begin to monitor which topics have the most responses, you'll be able to see a pattern that tells you what your audience likes the most about your site. These themes often give you clues about what your next product could be.
For example, as I continue to cover free Google tools, tips and news in my blog on Tuesdays, I've noticed that this is the day that I tend to have the most subscribers reading every entry. With that information I was able to create a free Christmas gift for my audience that they'll be able to use as a reference guide.
Your next best selling software idea, book or tool could come as a result of watching topic popularity, if you learn how to track audience response.
Method Two: The Subscription Model
When you're blogging daily, sometimes several times a day, and much of the information on your blog continues to be useful months after you publish it, your audience is probably aware of this.
Search engines may be doing a fine job of helping your fans find the information they're looking for at your site, but you'll also find that a cross-section of them would rather digest a periodic collection of your posts for use at a later time.
Should you find this to be the case, instead of purging your archives, you can create a "Best of" compilation on a weekly or monthly basis, and charge for electronic distribution.
Or you could charge advertisers to be featured in these periodicals the same way you would a newsletter, and offer them to your audience at a discounted rate, as a premium version of your present ezine.
Method Three: Turn Your Archives into an Ebook
With a blog that focuses on a narrow, popular theme, you could be sitting on a gold mine and not even be aware of it. Whether your blog contains tips for newbies in your field, expert advice for veterans, or success strategies that build on each other, you could be in the position to supply a demand for needed information.
There are a couple of tricks you'd have to learn to convert your archived blog posts into an ebook, but you'd be surprised about how easy this process can be.
Method Four: Make Your Entire Blog Into a Printed Book
I know what you're thinking. "Why would anyone pay for my blog as a book when it's free at my site?"
Under certain circumstances, you'd be surprised to find how many people would rather have a portable collection of your blog posts when the quality is consistent. The online version of your blog is the ultimate free trial. Many sites have been using this logic long before the web log came along to allow users to preview their services.
For example, the sheer volume of the free traffic generation tips on my site was repeatedly described during my informal poll as "overwhelming". It's one thing to try and read 2000 web pages in front of your computer, but it's not as daunting to peruse a 400 page book in the comfort of your home.
Converting your blog into a yearly volume may be a viable solution if consuming the amount of data in your archives is a daunting task. And there are ways to accomplish this that have no start-up costs.
If you're still not convinced that it's not worth the set-up to convert your blog into a periodical, ebook or printed edition, consider this.
On Monday morning I issued a press release regarding the transformation of my blog to a book, as a test to measure interest. It's almost 4 a.m. Pacific time as I write this, and so far it has been read over 23,000 times, resulting in a distinct increase in general traffic, not to mention the best initial sales debut of any product at my site since this past summer.
Just imagine what that kind of interest could do for your site - and how much money you may be leaving on the table right now. Making your blog available in other formats is worth a look.
About the Author: You can learn low-cost ways to turn your blog into an ebook or preview Tinu's 400 page Free Traffic Tips printed edition and ebook
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