Blogs are like having your own media channel where you can talk in an informal way about things going on in your business or in your market. They can also bring a lot of traffic to your website.We can teach you how to apply these tools, and many more to your business structure, and help you grow your business.Learn More...
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Internet Marketing: A Successful Online Business
This is a key point when thinking about creating a website to build a business online:
Build a content website for your profitable keywords which overdellivers to the user that you are targeting. Remember an Internet user is looking for information and not sales talk. So use your content to show her your expertise in your area. Write your content in such a way that your user stays and browses through your site instead of hitting the 'back' button. Talk to your user through your content and pre-sell to them the product you want to sell - information/product/your offline business etc. Pre-selling using content builds confidence in your user.
Most of the "rules" about writing for ezines and newsletters apply to writing posts for your blog, but there are some important differences. Keep these 10 tips in mind and you'll be publishing great blog content that attracts prospects and clients in your niche market.
1. Write with the reader in mind. Remember WIIFM? It’s marketing jargon for What’s In It For Me? That’s what you should be keeping in mind. Your reader will read your post looking for what’s in it for them.
2. Make it valuable and worthwhile. Don’t waste people’s time. If you don’t have anything to say, no problem, plenty other people do. So share their articles, do an interview, review a book.
3. Proof-read for typos and glaring grammatical errors. You wouldn’t go out of the house with dirty hair or missing a sock, so why would you publish spelling mistakes? Respect your readers by polishing up your stuff.
4. Keep it short and simple, sweetie. (KISS). Most people are scanners. You may have a lot to say and think it interesting, and it may be. But people are reading online and out of time. Get to the point quickly. Publishing short posts more frequently is a better format than publishing lengthy articles every few weeks.
5. Keep it lively, make it snappy and snazzy. Even if you aren’t a natural born writer, you can write for your blog. Just write like you’re speaking to your friend…or to yourself! Remember though, get to the point quickly. Keep in mind the journalist’s rule of 5 W’s in the first paragraph: who, what, why, when and where.
6. Link often. This builds credibility and positions you as an expert in your field. People don’t have time to know what others are doing, you should tell them. Linking to other blogs and websites also helps you build a network of associates who will in turn link to your blog.
7. Use keywords often. This will help you stay on purpose, and the search engines will love your blog. Your rankings will go up. This is one of the reasons we have you write out your purpose statements before beginning your blog. The clearer you are about your purpose, the more consistently you will deliver messages that are on target. And the more often your keywords show up, the better your search engine results.
8. Write clearly (short sentences, only one concept per sentence). No double speak or jargon; no more than one idea in one sentence- don’t make your readers have to think about your meaning. Spoon feed them. Use commas and dashes liberally.
9. Write like you talk. It’s okay to use common expressions from speech.
Examples:
Go figure.
Don’t even go there…
Now, I ask you…
Gotta love it…
(And, remember the age group of your readers…)
10. Use a clear headline, and don’t be afraid to make bold statements (but don’t mislead people either). Make it snazzy and use key words. Example: Ex-Techno-Weenie Masters HTML Code
BONUS: After you write a post and BEFORE you hit the save button
Use this checklist to ask yourself a few questions as you are reading through for typos and grammar:
__ Is the topic clear to someone who only reads the headline?
__Does the lead paragraph tell who and what the story is about and why the reader should care about it?
__ Is the angle you've used likely to seem newsworthy?
__Would someone who knows absolutely nothing about this topic understand this post?
__ Is the post free of jargon?
__ Is it written in journalistic style and does it make an effort to be objective?
__ Have you peppered the headline and the post with keywords and phrases that will be attractive to search engines?
__ Did you remember to ask your readers a question at the end, or something to stimulate readers to comment?
__ Did you remember to write with the reader in mind, always keeping in mind WIIFT? (What’s in It for Them?)
Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, and Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.coachezines.com, http://www.bizbooknuggets.com and http://www.biztipsblog.com
Yesterday I attended my favorite event of the year, the Cuisine Unlimited Sizzlin Summertime Soiree. It is not my favorite just because of the food, which I love. It is my favorite because it is just a wonderful way to market a business and position yourself in the market and it is done to perfection. Cuisine unlimited is a catering company. Every year they use their facility to put together a networking event. Business owners come, enter the place, and in every room they find a room decorated with a specific theme and with samples of dishes. For example, yesterday the first room had a theme of deep sea. the walls showed videos with fish, the tables were on top of aquariums, there was music, ice sculptures, performers and even a mermaid. Another room had China as a theme, with typical food, music and Dragons performing. There were several different rooms. You go around, taste the food, enjoy the performances, meet people, talk and network about business. The attention to details is really great. You leave the place feeling really good about everything. Cuisine unlimited puts the event together with some strategic partners every year. Everyone gets the chance to promote their business. Smart! Now, for all the people attending, who do you think they will call when they need catering or performers, ice sculptures, flowers etc? This is using marketing is a wise way, partnering, creating an experience for the attendees and impressing their minds with the fact that you are the expert and leader in your market. How can you turn your business into an great experience for your customers and prospects?
Google has a new tool that is really cool. You can check it our here. It is called Google Webmaster tool.
With this tool, you can learn:
Which other sites share similar content to your site. The most common words people use to link to your site How many sites have links to the various pages on your site The exact date of the last time the Googlebots crawled your site Whether or not your site is indexed in Google - and how to get it indexed if it's not Your overall Google page rank The most common words on your web site and your last-checked rating for that keyword
When we talk to small businesses about internet marketing and using internet advertising we don't talk about technology, we talk about possibilities. Let's face it, for a smaell businesses, traditional advertising is not always a possibility, it can get really expensive. Internet on the other hand is still very affordable. I found this video that shows you some facts about that:
We had a great time yesterday speaking at the Salt Lake County about social media. Every time I speak about this though, some people come and talk about the end of newspaper or tv. I try to explain that we are in a morphing stage more than anything else. I like to quote the guys from Biztrat:
While it's true that blogs and wikis and user-generated content seem to be consuming the net, there is no danger of losing our print publications.
We need to be aware of all of our options - using the Internet, reading books, subscribing to blogs and magazines. The citizens of the world need to express themselves - online and in print; on TV and on the radio; in whatever form is best suited to their message. Most often - it's many forms. It's a variety of platforms.
If you are in Utah today, come see our presentation at the County. We'll be talking about how the media has changed and how you are the media today.
Check it out: Alexa recently added some incredibly useful new features to its traffic details page! Now when you use Alexa to analyze a website, you can find out where its traffic is coming from geographically -- and you can see how the site ranks in different countries. Alexa has also changed the way it expresses a website's reach. Before, it talked about "reach per million" -- but now it expresses reach as a percentage of the entire Internet population. This makes it a lot easier to figure out how many people you're reaching online. To give Alexa a spin, simply go to www.alexa.com and type a URL into the search bar. (Try your own URL or a competitor's.) Click on "Overview" under the site you want to check and then on "Traffic details." You'll get a huge amount of information on that site -- for free! Alexa is such a powerful tool that I recommend you download the toolbar right into your browser. That way, you'll be able to access valuable website analysis info with just one click of a button!
I like to read Biztrat Blog because you always find very good information. Like this post below by bizstrat How RU? GTG. BRB. TTYL8R. Do these terms mean anything to you? Maybe so, but, will they mean anything to the individual to whom you are writing? It’s likely they won’t. Writing in—and for—business communication is a delicate (and lost) art. Individuals—yes, even business professionals, and maybe even your colleagues—have lost touch with the fine art of business letter writing. Whether writing an e-mail, or putting together a letter on a piece of paper and dropping it in the mail, put your best words forward. Begin with a salutation: a Dear Sue, Good morning John, or even a Dear Mr. Doe. Organiza your thoughts. What is the purpose of the missive? A follow-up to a prior conversation? A request for information? Consider your audience. Are you writing for the first time to a potential client? Corresponding with a long-time business colleague? Regardless of the audience or how well you know it, be professional. Words, once put to paper, cannot be taken back. As author Robert Whipple wrote in Understanding E-Body Language, individuals need to learn how their words will be "understood" by the recipient when body language isn't part of the equation. Proofread, edit, and re-read before you either hit send or the print button. Make sure every word counts and conveys the message you want it to. Close your letter with a “Sincerely” or a “Best regards.” Sign it and send it. Go back through your past correspondence, does it make you cringe or are you proud of your efforts? Remember, professionalism in business communication trumps shortcuts and shorthand e-lingo. Robbi Hess
We just attended a great talk about how Google sees media and consumer relationship. The talk was given by Vince Chirico, Mountain States Regional Manager Google.
In a nutshell he showed the basic differences between traditional media and digital media and how important it is today to understand that the basic need in marketing is to connect consumers and engage them using social media tools.
He showed one campaign done by Office Max using online video among other tools that increased their results in 22% during the back to school season.
The event was organized by the Utah Advertising Federation and was very well attended. Not a lot of people from internet marketing though. There was a small group from Woma, Wasatch Online Marketing Association. I don't know much about them. I attended one of their events once, and when I asked to join the group I was told they didn't see my company as Internet Marketing. That took me to an existential crisis that still lasts. What Am I?
The fact that I work only with online tools, consult businesses all around the country on their internet marketing strategies every single day of the week, and have a degree in e-c0mmerce, minor in web design, am certified as affiliate manager, adwords manager doesn't seem to be enough. Guess, you just cannot please everyone!
Small businesses don’t understand that they first have to get into people’s minds. First they have to let people know that they are there, and then they advertise to remind them. This is called positioning when you position yourself in the mind of the consumer. This is the first thing, and this is done through promoting yourselfo in a way that people will remember you when they think about your product or service. This is done through promotion, then later when you are established in the market, you go and invest in advertising. Don't go spending money on advertising if you haven't positioned your business yet. You need to start thinking about your story, what makes you and your business unique. Your business is not unique because it offers good customer service or good price. That is basic to any good business. What really makes you unique among the crowd. When you find that, you can start thinking how you should position yourself in the market.
by Shahar Boyayan Internet Strategist Shahar is the of the owners of BuzzBooster.com a company dedicated to empower people online. She created a system that helps people position,brand and promote themselves in a way that increases convertion and helps create evangelists for your business.
The popularity of blogs had been increasing around the world. So, why are we using blogs? Easy to get started Traditionally, building a website is no easy task. Even if you’re using web-building tools such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver, you’ll need a certain skill of html to handle it. Now back in those days, you’ll need to have more advance skills to have extra features on your web.
With the help of blog, it is much easier to implement. You don’t need any sort of web building skills to build a blog. If you know how to use MS word, that’s it! Because most of your time will be typing articles and press the submit button. Blog is actually very user-friendly software.
Easy to maintain
Let’s say if you want to categorize your articles, there’s a lot of work to do if you’re using the traditional web building tools. You’ll need to create separate pages and link these pages to your index page. Keep track of all these file names and links can be quite annoying. As I’ve mentioned before, most of your time spend in blogging is to write article and submit it. For the same scenario, if you want to create several catalogs, all you’ve to do is to click a few buttons. Next time, if you want to assign an article to a certain catalog, you just have to select the appropriate one and click it. It’s pretty simple. You can forget about all those file names. Blog will also automatically post you most recent article on the top of the page and archive your old ones so you don’t have to bother handling those files.
Post your article anytime, anywhere In the traditional way, you’ll need ftp software to upload your new created pages to your website. Under some circumstances, you may have problem installing the ftp software for example in the office they may not allow you to install software in it. One of the great advantages of Blog is that Blog allow you to post online. As it is web-based, you can post your article anytime, anywhere as long as you can connect to the Internet. So, absolutely you don’t have any problem when you want to write some articles during your lunch hours.
Freeware
Blog software such as Wordpress is free of charge, which means you can use it without paying any cost. Basically, it already contains the core components for you like auto archive, comments module (the age of guestbook is over), search module and more. Unlike FrontPage and Dreamweaver in which you’ve to pay for it.
Free hosting
There are a number of websites providing free hosting service for blogs. The most famous one is Blogger. WordPress.com is also another good choices. You can also host it in other hosting companies as well like me. So, you may ask what’s the difference between free hosting and host it yourselves in other hosting companies. I’ll explain that later. Easy to roll out new features and its free again! After using it for a while, you may become familiar with it and want to have more features, for example the polls feature which allows reader to vote. All you’ve to do is to download the related plug-in and installed in your blog. In this case, you’ll need to download the polls plug-in. Just to remind you, these plug-in are all free and this is many different plug-in that you can download and set in your blog. All free!
Search Engine Friendly
Blog is not only user friendly but the technical aspects behind it also make it search engine friendly. Traditional, URL for each post is hard to read either by human or machine. But with a few clicks in the option settings, you can change all your post’s URL into this. http://moneybloggers.net/this-is-an-example-posts.htm It turns out to be much more meaningful and search engine friendly.
Of course there are still many reasons out there, but I think the reasons above already represent most of them as well as to give you an idea why we use blogs.
Alfred Aquino is the webmaster of http://moneybloggers.net/ which focus on various methods to monetize a blog or website.
Every time we have an event coming we do a lot of research. Since we have the Blog Webinar coming, we've been reading a lot about blogs. When we find good things, we share.
If you use the internet regularly, you surely have seen an increase in internet journals known as blogs (web logs) over the last few years. Currently, there are millions of blogs on the Internet. There are many reasons for this and we can expect this trend to continue.
The popularity of blogs is continuing to grow. According to recent statistics from the blog-tracking site Technorati, the blogosphere has doubled every six months for the last three years. That's 175,000 new blogs per day worldwide. Technorati added its fifty millionth blog on July 31, 2006.
Making personal homepages was the trend of the past. Today, we are seeing more people make their own personal blogs. Some blogs are personal diaries of sorts which record a person's thoughts, activities and reactions and they can be made for any reason. Some make them to be a new form of a family news letter. And some make them to promote their personal hobbies. Another popular use of blogs is to build on-line communities of people with similar interests. These can be like a fan site for sports teams, or for celebrities or even for politics. During the 2004 Presidential Campaign in the U.S., Gov. Howard Dean was the first presidential candidate to use blogs to promote their campaign.
One of the most popular kinds of blogs are blogs that are used as a news source. Many believe that this is a factor in the decline of the popularity of newspapers. The major news agencies have noticed this and all have news blogs of their own.
One of the fastest growing uses in blogs is by webmasters adding content to their sites. Blogs provide quality search engine optimization (SEO) power by their very design. The power of the blog lies in keyword rich content and in imbedded links. It is also a great way for visitors of a site to communicate and leave feedback with the publishers of the website. Webmasters also can use blogs to test ideas or try and get feedback about new products from the sites visitors.
One thing seems to be for sure. Blogs are here and if you are not reading them or publishing one, you are soon going to be in the minority of people who use the internet.
Before you start your internet business, there are some things you should think about.. In order to be successful online, you need to think about a few things. The first thing is for you to understand that whatever you're going to do marketing-wise, the first step is to plan. Plan ahead what you are going to do. A mistake that a lot of people do is to try to do everything and to try all the things that are out there in the market. What happens is that they end up spending a lot of money and not getting a lot of results.
Most of the time they end up in that trap because they didn’t plan in the first place. They didn’t see what they wanted to achieve; therefore, they just tried everything and didn’t go anywhere.
So you have to start putting something on the piece of paper. This is important. What are your goals? What kind of budget are you dealing with?
What kind of things do you think that you could do as an approach to your target market? Can you afford it or not? Brainstorm with some friends. Ask what they think. Talk to some experts, and then decide what you're going to do.
Here I will present to you the top 5 mistakes that people make when they are starting off in the world of blogging. These tips are ordered in order of most important to least important. It really is important to look what mistakes other people make and try and avoid them as much as possible. You want to blog to be a success, so just read on !
No ContentWhen you start to blog, it is more advisable to have some content prepared. Have 4 or 5 articles that you can add at regular intervals. And once you are blogging for a longer time and have people visiting regularly have this number at 1 or 2. These posts will give you a two fold benefit. One, before you start to publish anything you already have 5 articles that allow you to get an idea on what style/format you will use. Do go back and look at the content once again and see if you are consistent. One thing with blogging is that you may have a slow news day, having these posts up your sleeve will allow your visitors to get their expect 'hit' of your content. No Sources GivenRemember you are now a journalist (of sorts) and therefore it is always appreciated by the reader when you cite a reference. This will allow them to go on and read more about your topic if they so wish. Adding references shows that you are coming from some a solid base and you have researched the topic. Don't be afraid to link to other blogs that are related. This brings me on to my next point.
Read Related Blogs & post commentsIt is quite likely that your topic of what you blog about is also covered on other blogs. Subscribe to their RSS feeds and check back often to see what others in the industry are saying. Also by leaving comments (with a link to your blog) people will see the link and may stumble on what you have to say in further. Too Many Ads (hidden or in you face)So many people start blogging in order to generate a quick buck. But if you start to hinder your readers experience with obtrusive popup ads or distract them with a flash banner, they may not return. Also having ads takes the focus away from your content and towards the ads. If someone clicks an ad, they have lost interest in your site and will be busy reading your advertisers content. Once you have a reader base going slowly integrate your ads and also offer to take feedback from your readers in a specific ad post.
Nothing DifferentDon't be afraid or hesitant to speak your mind. Remember that the more interesting and innovative the more like your readers will be to return. Try to present your topic of choice from your perspective and have add a little spice to what you are saying. If you are fiery and passionate in your posts then your reader is likely to find your blog more interesting.
We are just getting ready for another event! This time it will be a webinar about blogs: "Blogs Inside Out And Upside Down". The cool thing about this webinar tool we'll be using is that you'll be able to see everything we do in our computer. It is going to be really cool and packed with information as always.
I found this great article about blogs and decided to share it with you...
Blog Marketing: 7 Small Business Blog TopicsBy Angie Pedersen
Web logs, or "blogs", have invaded the small business community. Just search Google for "small business blog", and you'll get over 7,000,000 results. Blogs offer an opportunity to communicate in a casual atmosphere with your customers, often for free. Once small business owners are convinced of the promotional power of blogs, they often struggle with the next step: what to write about. Or they don't blog about the right things to most effectively promote their businesses. Use the following list of topics to help guide your blogging efforts, and never worry about "Blogger's Block" again!
Keep an eye on what other small business owners/bloggers are blogging about, and link to related material in your own blog. Include your own thoughts on the topic, agreeing or disagreeing with the original poster.
Post excerpts/tips from a book or Special Report you've written (then link to where your readers can purchase/download it! That's a key marketing concept: make the customer aware of a product or service, convince her she wants it, then advise her where to get it. You can do all that on a blog.)
Post links to positive reviews and/or media coverage for your book/products/services.
Create your own version of an Editorial Calendar to combat Blogger's Block. An editorial calendar can keep your blogging on track throughout the week: pick a topic to cover for each day of the week and stick to it. That way, you always know what topic to write about on a given day. Figure out what works best for you -- choose certain topics for each day of the week, a certain category to post in, or a certain type of post format (interview, top 10 list, etc). Or if you plan to blog only three times a week, decide to blog on upcoming events on Mondays, company news on Wednesdays, and give a project idea on Fridays.
Post a review of the latest resource book – your "insider insights" can help position you as an expert in your field. Or consider reviewing a book that is not marketed to your industry, but has valuable applications.
Mention mainstream newspaper and magazine articles that relate to your field. Show how it is making an impact on general society. Provide your own commentary, then link to where readers can get more info on your books/products/services.
Blog about upcoming book signings, appearances, classes, workshops, seminars, articles, sales/promotions, etc. Describe what you're excited about, who you expect to see there, what topics you're going to discuss, and where people can go for more information. If you're blogging about a seminar, post a screenshot from your PowerPoint to lure people in.
This week we had our first event here in Utah: "Turning Knowledge into Products" and it was a great success. We had almost 200 people attending and the feedback for us has been amazing. We sure had lots of fun!
This is me, Shahar
Nash taking care of business
We had a great crowd there!
We also had the opportunity to attend an event where Robert Scoble was the speaker. He is the author of Naked Conversations a great book about blogs. He was on my list of people I must meet and I'm really happy I did. In the internet marketing arena it is really easy to find people calling themselves internet marketers that lack knowledge, or are all about pitching their next product, so when you find someone that is really full of content and is not afraid to share, it's like finding water in the desert.
Robert Scoble at the Slopecast07
Then I came home to my new toy that has the ability to make me feel really bad. Two weeks ago I bought a Toshiba satellite with Windows Vista. What was supposed to be a happy moment turned out to be a big frustration. Two weeks later we are still trying to make things work in this new system. Even the air card that we bought a week before had to be replaced for another one that is supposed to be compatible with Vista, but so far.....
Not to mention all my softwares that don't function properly with the system. Office is a software I've been using for so many years and now I have to re-learn. The interface is beautiful but things moved around.
I made a test. Asked 5 of my clients to save as... a document in this new Office. The two that were able to do it took over 15 minutes to find where "the save as.." was.
This frustation reminds me of the begining of last year when we bought a Dell LapTop. It had the new express card slot and came without a ilink port. There were no air cards to put there and no adaptors. The company said it would take "only" six months for them to come with the adaptor or new cards, which took a lot longer. Not to mention the battery. This is more than enough for me to never again consider buying a Dell laptop in my life. My clientes always ask me about which laptop they should buy and my first reaction is: never buy a Dell.
Well, Microsoft might think it was a great business decision releasing Vista, after all a lot of new softwares and upgrades will be sold, but the marketing department, what were they doing? Eating a donut?
Maybe business people and boomers are not their demographics anymore. Maybe just young people that can afford to spend the time to figure out everything that changed and that have the time to keep going to forums to find out how to fix every bug.
Let's think, $1500 for the new laptop, $500 for the office package, new air card, new whatever it is that you used before and you'll have to change. With this money, you can get a nice Apple that is a lot prettier anyway. What stopped me before was the fact that 90% of my clients used Windows, so it made sense that mine was also one, but since soon they will come to the same sad realization.......
BlinkList
Blogmarks
Connotea
del.icio.us
Digg it
Furl
Linkroll
ma.gnolia
Spurl
tagtooga
Wink
Yahoo MyWeb
a great book about blogs. He was on my list of people I must meet and I'm really happy I did. In the internet marketing arena it is really easy to find people calling themselves internet marketers that lack knowledge, or are all about pitching their next product, so when you find someone that is really full of content and is not afraid to share, it's like finding water in the desert.