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Google’s Shake Up: A View From the Beginning - Part One
Monday, December 16, 2003 It has been exactly one month since Google introduced its infamous Florida Update. As the Florida Update has brought about the largest and most comprehensive shake-up of Google’s listings ever, it has generated a great...
How to Quickly Create an Adsense Site That Brings in the Bucks
One of the hottest crazes for online marketers is Adsense sites. These marketers trade in information and build sites that are tightly focused around one small niche. To build an Adsense site, all a marketer needs is a Google Adsense account, a...
“If RSS is the Yahoo backdoor, is a Blog Google’s?”
Though the answer is in a book I wrote this July, the question is still asked of me repeatedly. Why does it work for some sites and not others? And how come some blogs get indexed in a day and then are dropped, and others stay in Google...
RSS is Not Only for Blogs
See Similar Information Here By Rok Hrastnik Contrary to popular opinion, RSS is not only good for delivering content from your blog, although blogs are what made RSS so popular. In fact, RSS can be used to deliver a great variety of content and content types. If...
Should Affiliates Really Use Blogging and Pinging To Get Indexed?
See Similar Information Here By Kurma Group
There seems to be a huge craze lately with everyone trying to blog and ping to get their websites indexed into the search engines. Although this can be a great tool, all marketers should first understand exactly what...
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Marketing With Blogs - Part 2
Copyright © 2005 Priya Shah
In part 1 of this article series on marketing with blogs, I discussed the reasons why blogs are excellent tools for marketing.
In this article I outline some tips on using your blog as a good vehicle for your marketing communications.
Tip # 1: Choose The Topic Of Your Blog Well
Make sure you are targeting the right audience for your products. You might love golf, but you can’t use it to sell your products unless they’re meant for golfers.
You generally wouldn’t write about something like golf on a marketing blog, unless you’re using it as a metaphor.
Pick the topic that will attract the right audience – people who are looking for your products, but more importantly, people who are willing to actually spend money on them.
If you’re not an expert on your topic, but are learning about it, blog about your learning process. There’s no shame in being a learner, in admitting that you don’t know everything.
In fact your journey could even teach others who are learning and help them relate to your experiences. Products you recommend would then be easy to sell to this group because you’ve established the emotional connection that makes selling easier.
Tip #2: Spend Some Time Learning The Basics Of Blogging
You need to learn how to use your blogging software, and which blog engine or service will give you the results you need. Decide how much time you want to spend on your blog.
Hire a blogging coach or buy a blogging tutorial. Spend some time learning about trackbacks, pingbacks, keywords and how to use them, linking, blogging etiquette.
When you know how to use the tools that are available to you, it becomes that much easier to focus on your goals and save time in the actual process of blogging.
Tip # 3: Don’t Sell
When you start writing a
blog, forget about selling. Too many people use their blog like a sales letter. Those people just don’t “get it.” That’s not what a blog is about at all.
Blogs are about communicating – connecting with your audience. Use your blog to build relationships with your audience. State your opinions whether they are popular or not. Politically-correct or not.
A while ago I wrote an article on this titled “It’s a Blog, Not a Sales Letter” in which I recommend using your blog for branding yourself, building your reputation and communicating with your audience - and not just for making a sale.
http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-sales-letter.htm
As marketers we aim to sell. But when you blog, you have to forget about selling and focus on sharing.
That doesn’t mean you give away all your secrets on your blog. But it does mean that you should not use your blog for in-your-face marketing.
Your readers will be very put off if all they read on your blog is one sales pitch after another. People are not stupid. They know when they’re being sold.
The most unobtrusive way to sell is to write reviews about products and link to them, mention products in passing, write articles or tips and recommend products (yours or other people’s) and services on your blog.
Part 3 of this article series discusses more tips on using your blog to market your products and services online.
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs3.htm
About the Author
Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360 http://www.ebrand360.com She writes the Marketing Slave blog http://marketingslave.com and publishes an internet marketing newsletter http://www.ebizwhiz.biz. Subscribe to her free Business Blogging eCourse. http://www.blog-maniac.com
This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
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