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I've been blogging now for about 2 years, and I'm amazed at the amount of traffíc that I get from my blog and the number of people who tell me that they first heard about me from my blog instead of my website. The word blog is derived from the term "web log", or an online diary or journal. If the HBO series "Sex and the City" were being filmed today, Carrie Bradshaw would be a blogger as well as a columnist, I think. Why? As she experiences her revelations about life, love, and relationships, she could post them to her blog for the world to see and comment upon. Blogging has opened website creation to almost everyone, as it takes very little know-how to get a blog up and running. In fact, many service business owners are using a blog platform as their primary website, with some of them creating static pages as you would find on a traditional website, while others are using the platform as a blog and are posting updates regularly. There are several advantages to using blogs instead of ezines or traditional websites: 1. Search engines love blogs. The strategy that seems to be attractive to search engines today is regularly updated content. I can log-in to my blog at the beginning of a day and submit a post. Within 24 hours I'll get a notification from my Google alerts account that Google has indexed that post. 2. Content can be distributed quickly. If you instruct your visitors to subscribe to your blog via updating services like Bloglines or Feedblitz, they'll be notified within hours of any new posts on your blog. 3. Little web programming knowledge is required. Once your blog is set up, it's simply a matter of logging into your account, typing the info for your post, adding graphics or photos as needed, and publishing your post to your blog. 4. Reader feedback. Your readers can give you comments and feedback about your posts almost immediately after you log an entry. Blogs are a great way to engage your audience. How do you begin to blog? Here are 10 simple steps you can follow: 1. Blogging platform. The easiest way to get started is to use the frëe service found at Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. The ability to customize your blog is limited with the frëe services, so I urge my clients to subscribe to Typepad.com, which will host your blog for you on their servers, or purchase a hostíng account where WordPress can be installed. The downloadable version of WordPress is located at Wordpress.org and is frëe of charge if you need to install Wordpress yourself on your hostíng account. I use Typepad for my blog, so many of my examples will relate exclusively to blogs hosted on that platform. 2. Name. What do you want to call your blog? Blog names tend to be attention-getting and off-beat. However, for service businesses, I encourage my clients to use keywords important to their business when naming their blog. You will also want to acquire the .com version of your blog's name or your blog's name with the word "blog" attached as your blog URL. After you have set up your blog, your blog provider can give you more info about how to map your domain to your blog. (Note: You don't want to simply forward your blog to your domain name, as that impacts the URLs of your individual blog pages). 3. Look and Layout. How many columns do you want to display? Do you want links to static pages? What colors do you want to use? How about a signup box for a frëe giveaway? Should you use one of the templates provided or have something custom designed? Do you want your blog archives displayed? Do you want to be the only author or do you want to permit others to make posts, as well? There are many questíons you'll be asked in the startup phase about the look of your blog. A Typepad blog permits you to change your mind about your layout at a later date. The best way to determine the look of your blog is to look at the layout of other blogs and determine what appeals to you. 4. Widgets. There are a number of widgets, or add-on programs, that you can incorporate into your blog. Chëck your blog software's site for more info about what features you'd like add to your blog. At a minimum you'll want to give visitors a couple of ways in which they can receive blog updates through various updaters, or feeder services, as mentioned earlier. 5. Comments. The newest sp*am making its rounds online is comment sp*am. Don't these guys have anything better to do? Set your comments to moderated, which means that you have to approve any comments to your blog before the post goes live. You'll save yourself a great many headaches and time by choosing to moderate the comments. Once you've gotten this far, you should have a basic blog established and are ready to begin to blog. 6. Blog content. The time has arrived -- your blog is ready to accept posts. What do you write about? You can post content rich articles of interest to your target market, comment on a current event, answer questíons from your visitors, present a before and after case study outlining how your business helped someone, etc. Keep your eyes and ears open for information relevant to your audience. I use my blog to bring forth info that doesn't fit well into my newsletter format or something that arises between newsletter issues. I post my ezine content to my blog, as well. 7. Posting frequency. Blogs are just like gardens -- they need watering regularly and require some care and attention. For maximum effectiveness, you need to post several times a week to your blog. I try and post 4 times per week in my blog -- 2 posts are items I run across or comment upon as noteworthy in the moment, and the latter 2 are the contents of my ezine posted over 2 days. And, respond to reader's comments when they arrive -- blogs provide a great forum for ongoing discussions. 8. Blog traffíc. In the same way that you publicize your website URL on everything that you do, you can similarly publicize your blog. Submitting your blogs to blog directories is another way to get traffíc. A very comprehensive líst of blog directories, RSS Top 55 has been compiled by Robin Good. Searching out blogs that appeal to your target market and making comments to those posts will also drive traffíc to your blog. Another trick is to post your blog on social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us. 9. Measure the results. Some blog programs, like Typepad, have built-in statistics so you can view details of your blog traffíc. Some of the feed/updater programs have built-in statistics as well, or you can install a metrics program as an add-on to your blog. Review your statistics regularly to determine how much traffíc your blog generates. 10. Rinse and repeat. Don't let the novelty of blogging wear off. Blogging is effective only if you continue your blogging efforts regularly over a long period of time. I know of several individuals who have gotten book deals from their blog and radio and TV interviews as well. Just think -- your blog might be your ticket to fame! Every service business can benefit from blog technology. Few other marketing strategies provide the quick immediacy that blogging provides. About The Author Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more Frëe tips like these and claim your Frëe gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com. Labels: blog, blogging, business, coach, marketing, online, resource, search engines, social bookmarking, strategies Special offer for those interested, of course you are interested, in search engine optimization from the Internet Marketing Center:As you're reading this, your competition is squashing you. It doesn't have to be that way, but they know something you don't. They understand one of the best-kept secrets in Internet marketing. They're getting thousands of free visitors each day from the search engines. And I bet you think it's too hard to figure out. Well, it's not. It's easy. I'm going to show you the strategies that one guy used to get his brand-new website to #2 on Google... in less then 30 days. Skeptical? Here's proof. Just follow this link: http://www.moxie-drive.com/SearchMarketingLab I have to admit, this really drives me crazy. I've seen hundreds of entrepreneurs like you completely stagnant because they never learned what you're about to discover. And the best part is that it's not hard. And it's definitely not rocket science. Find out why: http://www.moxie-drive.com/SearchMarketingLab Labels: internet marketing, internet marketing center, search engine optimization, search engines, secrets, strategies I'm going to do something different. Instead of discussing just one aspect - such as teaching you how to set up an email marketing campaign or give you an email marketing template - I'll be sharing some tips and tactics that I've learnt over the years while managing my newsletters.Not all strategies are created equal. For example, implementing Tip #1 might not increase your bottom line by much if your newsletter doesn't integrate the tips very well. On the other hand, if your current crop of subscribers were acquired from those cheap holiday mega-giveaways, you might be surprised to learn how much an effect Tip #4 can have on the profits generated through your newsletter. You might already know a few tips from this list - that's good, because now you know you're on the right track. In essence, these are the specific aspects of your newsletter strategy that you should "check" regularly to see if you're doing them (and doing them right). And make sure you monitor your own results to find out what works and doesn't work - you are bound to learn something every time you send out an issue (assuming that you're continuously plugging away and testing things). Below are my Top 10 practices and tactics that I've picked up over the years: 1 - Readers Come First People care less about you and more about themselves. In each issue, review each section with the specific criteria of usefulness to the reader. If it's not at least a 3 out of 5, either ditch it or push it to the end of the issue. In fact, you might try to structure your newsletter by sticking in what you think is most useful to the reader at the top, and working downwards from that. 2 - What Have I Done for You Lately? Depending on how frequent your newsletter issues are, you will need one new "big thing" to keep the publication fresh. Whether its in the form of a new service, a tool or a free ebook / report, make sure to provide something valuable (on a large scale) to your subscribers periodically (say every year, or every 6 months). You could even put the offering on a new website, and thus generate rapid publicity (and free links) to your site as a result of such a promotion. On a side note, be on the lookout for several new tools and services that I'll be announcing - a keyword tool (Keyword Elite) and an article writing service are just two of them. Stay tuned. I'm very excited to show you guys! 3 - Quality Source of Subscribers It's absolutely critical to the success of your email newsletter to figure out where your new subscribers will come from. Many subscribers to SEO Elite come from the thousands of inbound links to its home page, many more still arrive from the search engines and others are acquired through syndicated articles across a network of reputed sites. 4 - Keep It Simple, Very Simple That goes for layout, sentence structure, copy style and editorial guidelines. Readers in this medium need to "get it" fast. If you try to get them overly involved with complex schemes or hard-to-understand copy, you'll lose them. It's like radio, in a way. It's very easy to lose someone's attention in radio because there are no visuals. Online is a lean-in, rush-to-read-it medium. People lean forward into their computer monitors, usually with a very specific intention. Serve that intention or something very close to that intention - with speed. If you're building your online presence through podcasts (audio blogging) and/or vidcasts (video blogging), this advice applies in spades. Make everything easily accessible, and allow for a link to a page that helps out first-timers or people who are having any trouble. 5 - Pick Your Email Service Provider Carefully Read their white papers on email marketing and take it for a trial spin before committing resources. See which businesses similar to yours use a similar service - call them up and see what they have to say about that service. In short, do your homework before you leap. You don't want to be caught in a situation where you build up your list through one service provider before realizing that there's another email service that offers better terms, is more scalable and generally more suited to your needs. 6 - Show Your Face I'm guilty of not following this advice on the SEO Elite newsletter. However, understand that the Internet is (still) a pretty spooky place. Showing your face, rather than some slick graphic, is a good bet. People like to know there's a human at the other end of the line. 7 - Put the Subscriber First Even if your email newsletter is complimentary, first serve the subscriber as though he/she was paying for your product. If you don't, your readership will sense you have other agendas and lose their loyalty. Give your readers everything you have, and don't hold anything back. It's important you give MUCH more than you receive... so give them every ounce that you have in you. 8 - Make Your Newsletter Indispensable If your newsletter becomes a must-read, other sites will point to you, which will increase your standing in search engine results and bring you even more traffic and subscribers... but you must first be such a solid resource that other sites can justify pointing to you as that industry's "go-to" resource. 9 - Subject Headers Rule No matter who is in the "From" field, you know you need a compelling subject header. Keep it short, sweet and direct. No hyperbole or overly "sales-like" material. I've seen the very same solo email campaign draw 20% better response rates (and more) using a different subject header. BTW, I notice my subscribers love "How To" subject headers. It makes sense. After all, people who read an SEO newsletter are always interested in knowing how to do things or how to do things better. Never, and I repeat, never use the subject line: "Article 107 of 182" or something along those lines. Use something intriuging. Nobody cares if this is Article 107, or whatever the case may be. The purpose of the subject line is to get people to open the email. 10 - Never allow others to pay you to advertise in your newsletter Every once in a great while, it's ok to do a little advertising in your newsletter, but if you decide to do this, it had better be either for your own product OR for a product that you are a direct affiliate of. Wasting your 1 mailing containing an advertisement for something, on someone else's ad is a big no-no. You could earn far more money AND chances are you could be telling your subscribers about a much more helpful product if it's one you picked out yourself. Make sure that you review your publishing strategy and find out if you're not implementing any one or more of these tips - they could make a significant difference to your bottom line. Advanced Email Marketing Strategies Labels: affiliate, campaign, email, marketing, newsletter, strategies, tactics, tips
Bart The Bear Says - Leave me some comments please... 
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