Business blogs as helpful marketing

You have decided to take the plunge and set up a business blog.



Your only thought, as you click the button that makes the blog an official one, is what could possibly your blog's purpose.



There are many good reasons for establishing a business blog. Today, we are looking at the blog as a helpful marketing medium.



You want to sell more of your products and services, yet you lack the number of clients and customers you would really like. What can you do?



A business blog can help you.



As you post your regular articles on your blog, you are building a customer relationship for the longer term. You and they are just not aware of it yet. Your posts add to your credibility as an expert in your field. They also reveal a lot about yourself as a person.



People like to buy things from people they know. People also prefer to do business with those who they feel have a good idea what they're doing. Your blog has done its work if it establishes you and your business under both qualifications.



As you post good useful information, that is freely available to all of your readers, you show your potential customers that you want to help them with their problems. In essence, that is what all businesses do. They solve people's problems.



As a business blogger, you are not only solving their problems in the standard sales way, but also as a friend. Potential clients read your thoughts and ideas and apply them to their own businesses and personal lives.



You have successfully marketed your goods and services, in the best possible manner.



Without employing a lot of pushy sales hype and intrusive advertising, you have chosen to assist people instead. Rather than constantly selling to everyone, you have selected a better and far more pleasant method.



You have become a helpful friend.



For that, you can thank your business blog.



That is truly superior marketing!

Link trading benefits

One of the most difficult areas to improve your site is getting more incoming links.



You need to make link exchanges, with other blogs and traditional websites, to help yourself. Trades are good for everyone!



Those incoming links, or backlinks as they are often called, are important for several reasons.



First of all, links to your blog will get you more traffic. The more visitors to your site, the better. As with anything else, unless people know your great blog exists, they can't read it. Incoming links enable you to share readers with another blogger. They in turn enjoy visits from your readers who benefit from enjoying another great blog experience.



Google's PageRank is based on the number and the quality of your incoming links. For those unaware of their blog's PageRank, it can be seen as a green line on the Google Toolbar. Download one and check your blog's PageRank.



Google considers a link to your site to be a vote in its favour. The more votes the better, is one way to look at it. Another aspect of Google PageRank is it weights the links by importance of the linking page. For example, Google will give your blog much more PageRank credit, from a link from a PageRank 7 site, than from a PageRank 2 site.



More high PageRank incoming links raise your blog's PageRank considerably. Even if your current PageRank is fairly low, it will still assist your link trading partner to some degree, regardless of their ranking.



Besides, your PageRank and theirs, can also go up over time. If your link exchange partner has a low PageRank, you and they can help raise one another. That is real cooperation.



Incoming links are also important, in the placing of your blog in the search returns, for your chosen keywords. The more high ranking incoming links you have, the higher your blog will appear in the search returns. Along with those important backlinks, be sure to keep adding lots of keyword rich content to your blog. Google counts fresh content heavily too.



As you find link trading partners, who share your common interests, you will see your visitor traffic improve.



Your Google PageRank will get ever higher.



You will also rank higher in the search results.



All of these results are a result of cooperation with other blogs. They are the end product of mutually beneficial link exchanges.



Make some link trades today.



Assisting other bloggers helps you as well!

Analyzing your visitor counter logs

Your visitor counter logs provide valuable insights, into how well your blog is doing, in attracting and retaining traffic.



Whether you use a free counter like OneStat, Extreme Tracking, Sitemeter, or a paid version, their numbers and charts are important.



By closely examining the results, provided by your visitor counter, you can find out how your promotional efforts are working; or not.



On the first page of your counter results are found the raw numbers. One set of numbers is the total number of visitors for that day. That total is split into two component parts. One is the returning visitors. The other number represents the first time traffic to your blog.



The returning total (often labelled reloads) is important to track over the month; and then each month against another. By maintaining a steadily growing number of returning visitors, you can be assured you are providing top quality content, that keeps them coming back for more. If your numbers are falling, you need to start adding more fresh and interesting content, or face losing your traffic entirely.



The new visitor numbers, are the fresh traffic, your publicity and promotional activities have attracted to your blog. You must check how they arrived at your site, in the all important Referral logs.



If they arrived from a search engine page, click on that page, and check the keywords they entered to find you. You will want to use those chosen keywords even more in future articles. Heavy use of well searched keywords, will keep your blog high in the search engine results, for those terms.



The most popular keywords for your blog may even be ones you least expected.



If they arrived from another website, check the link to that site. Find out why that website or blog is read by your new visitors. Perhaps some of your content can enhance or complement what is offered by others. if you are not getting any referrals from other sites, you need to step up your link exchange program.



You won't know any of those things without reading your Referrals.



Another section of the visitor logs to examine is Geography. Are your visitors local, national, or international? You want all three types of visitors. If you are not getting any one of the three, you need to add some content that will appeal to that audience. Place that new content on your blog along with your regular content. You will also need to find sites to link with, that enjoy the targeted traffic you are lacking.



An often overlooked section of the visitor logs is Technology. If you receive the bulk of your traffic from visitors using one type of browser, check to see if your blog loads cleanly in all other browsers. Often Internet Explorer is the most popular browser, but check Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla to see if they load your blog well too. If not, you need to make some adjustments.



If you run a photo and grahics heavy blog, check the screen size of your visitors. If they need a large screen resolution to see your photos, without that annoying side to side scrolling, it's time to reconsider the sizing of your photos. You don't want to lose potential visitors to that easily remedied inconvenience.



There is a gold mine of valuable information in your visitor logs.



Use it to help provide your visitors with the best possible blog you can create.

Blogs: An extra way to market

Your business requires marketing.



If there is no marketing of your products and services, your sales slump. That is not healthy for your company's bottom line. A lack of sales does not pay the bills.



Okay, you know that already. It's easier said than done, right?



What exactly can be done, especially if your marketing budget is....well....zero.



A business blog can help you.



To use a blog for marketing purposes, you need to discuss the problems your products and services address, in your regular posts. You must not blatantly advertise them, however.



I know that sounds like a contradiction, but really, it isn't one.



An example of a bad marketing post, in your business blog, would be to simply describe your product. The great features of your product might be entirely fascinating to you. You might enjoy writing and talking about them constantly. Unfortunately, they aren't at all interesting to your readers.



In fact, simply describing your products and services is not really marketing at all. It's an exercise in ego. Yours!



Marketing your product has to be customer based. Your focus has to be on the needs of your clients and shoppers. They don't care one iota whether your revolutionary new widget slices, dices, and tells time on every continent in fourteen languages, all at once.



Customers care about what the product can do for them.



They want to know if it will solve their problems. They desire happier lives, and whether your products can do that for them. It's not all about you. I know that sounds a wee bit harsh, but it's true.



Enter your blog.



In your blog, you can discuss the issues that cause pain to your clients and customers. You can objectively review various solutions to those problems. You can describe how life could be if some of those incoveniences of modern living were removed.



You can tell people about what your company is doing to research those very ideas. You can discuss news that is important in your industry. Without talking about your products directly, you can build a friendly relationship, with customers present and future. People enjoy buying from other people, who they know and trust.



Your clients will know you from your blog entries. Since you provide all sorts of useful information to help them to enrich their lives, your products, by extension, can do the same for them.



By blogging, you are marketing your business as a long term relationship. The last thing you want to do with a business blog, is turn it into a non-stop sales sheet. Should you ever do that, your readers will be long gone. They are assaulted with sales pitches every day.



Don't let your blog become a sales flyer!



Informative posts, written as a friend to a friend, are much more effective for the business blogger. A blog is part of relationship marketing. Since any relationship is built over time, and based on trust, that's what your blog is doing for you and your potential customers.



It's longer term marketing, but is marketing built on a firm foundation.



Best of all, a business blog costs very little in the way of budget.



A business blog can be a great free marketing device for your company.



Start one today!

Three quick ways to more visitors in one week

You just started a new blog. Perhaps you've had a blog on the go for awhile.



In both cases, you likely feel the need for more visitors to your blog.



If you think not enough people are reading your blog, you need to increase your visitor traffic levels. After all, you want everyone to read your brilliant posts, right?



Well, here are three ways to give your blog visitor counter a quick jolt.



Post messages on forums.



All you have to do is find some message forums that are related to your field of interest. If you are writing a travel blog, enter "travel forums" in your favourite search engine. Several good forum options should appear in the returned search results.



Go to a few that you find informative and read around a bit. Join a couple of the forums, that you find interesting and are of value to you, as a member.



Be sure to check out two things before joining any forum.



A forum must be indexed by the search engines, particularly by Google. If it's indexed, your posts will appear as backlinks to your site, raising your blog's ranking in the search engines. You can gain search engine traffic as a result.



A forum must also permit the use of a signature file. By creating a signature, that includes your blog URL, you have a link that brings forum members back to your blog.



In your member profile, be sure to use a "signature" that includes a link back to your blog. Make certain the signature appears on all of your postings. Without that link, no new traffic can fnd you.



In a few days, your visitor counter logs will show traffic originating from your forum posts.



Place your link on your e-mails



When you send out any e-mails, either personal or business, be sure to add a link to your blog to each and every one of them.



With a quick and easy to click hot link back to your blog, many of your e-mail recipients will drop by for a look. While not everyone will check out your blogging activities, a few will. Another source of new visitors has been added, with minimum effort.



Tell everyone you know about your blog



When you go out for business or pleasure (and leave your computer behind)suggest to everyone you meet to visit your blog.



This old fashioned networking technique will bring a fresh batch of visitors to your blog. As you become more comfortable with talking to people about your blog, your traffic numbers will take a jump. Many of them will surf to your blog, to read what you have to say.



As you can see, there are a few very quick and easy way to get a boost in your blog's visitor traffic.



These three quick and easy methods of adding visitor traffic will pay off very quickly. You should see a new group of readers in just a few days.



By carrying out these very simple methods, you can double or triple your visitor totals in a week.



Don't forget to keep your posts interesting, informative, and up to date.



You want those new visitors to keep returning for more!

Blogs as publicity: getting your voice heard

Is your blog getting your business any free publicity?



In the past, the road to free publicity was heavily dependent upon having your company press releases turned into news articles. While the press release is still a tremendous promotional idea, which I highly recommend, the business blog has been added to the list of free publicity outlets.



In much the same way, as a press release presented your business to the waiting media, a blog showcases your thoughts and ideas to the world. A press release focusses on one newsworthy angle of your business. A daily blog entry can do much the same thing.



As you post in your business blog, you are telling your readers how you feel your business should be working. The idea is to show your readers, how you are solving their problems for them, as your clients and customers.



When you think about it, your business is really about helping people solve their personal and business problems. By doing so, you are making their lives easier and more enjoyable.



As the visitors to your blog read of the ways your business is operating now, and its plans for the future, you are creating a relationship with those readers. When they read of a great new plan for your company, they become part of that future. Your blog, as a publicity and public relations medium, makes that transition possible.



While your very important press releases are sent to the various news media, your blog speaks directly to your clients and customers. Both communications channels are important for your business. Press releases provide an external vehicle for your message. A blog provides an internal medium for your voice to be heard.



The more ways you can reach your current and potential customers, the better. Your company communications have to get out to your target market. If your message fails to be heard, above the almost overwhelming noise of the modern marketplace, your business can't reach its fullest potential profitability.



By adding a blog to your publicity and public relations efforts, you are creating one more voice speaking on behalf of you and your business.



Like another marketing and public relations representative, your blog is working on your behalf.



Add the business blog to your existing press release efforts.



You will get even more free publicity that way.

Blog marketing helps the bottom line

A business blog has been added to your company's marketing tool box. How can it possibly help you with marketing your business?



First of all, you must realize that marketing is a long term process.



Marketing doesn't just pop up out of nowhere one fine afternoon and say, "I think we should do some marketing today."



It doesn't work like that. Marketing is an ongoing activity, that never has a real beginning, and never truly has an end. The process of marketing, via a business blog is no different from any other marketing tools.



Your marketing goal, for your business blog, is to help the company bottom line.



That's all well and good and motherhood and apple pie and all of that, but how can a blog possibly help the business revenue stream?



For one thing, steady posting on your blog gets your site ranked higher in the search engines, like Google, for example. Your regular posts will provide keyword rich pages for search engine spiders to crawl when they visit your site. The more your chosen keywords appear, the higher your blog will sit on the search returns.



High search engine placements mean more people become aware of your business. That equals more potential customers for you.



Another way you can receive more business from your business blog is from your posted articles themselves. If you provide high quality information, that helps other people solve their problems, you will find your posts being linked to by others.



As more incoming links are added to your site, traffic will flow through those links to your site. Another large pool of potential customers is created. Once again, your bottom line will benefit.



A third possible revenue source will result as many people will regard you as an expert in your field. As someone who is knowledgeable about your business area, and who is helpful and informative to others, people will grow to trust your opinions. They will also trust your business to deliver the same high quality of product as your blog.



As your trust factor grows, so too will your business.



Using a blog as a marketing tool is an never ending process, as you can see quite clearly. A business blog is not something that you can expect to produce immediate results.



A business blog is not something for the short term. You don't just start blogging about business issues and ideas; and then suddenly stop. That defeats the purpose of the blog, and how it can help your business to grow and prosper.



As a low cost marketing assistant, your business blog will pay off over the longer term.



That is not a bad thing.



After all, you are in business for the long haul, right?

Blogs as brand names

You are all familiar with brand names.



Everywhere in our lives we are confronted by the Nike swish, the Pepsi ball, and everything about the auto industry.



People wear brand names on their clothing. They proudly announce the purchases of their favourite brand name products. In short, brands are everywhere.



Blogs are beginning to become brand names as well.



Well known bloggers like Dave Winer, Doc Searls, and Andrew Sullivan, among others, are already well known. Their names are their brands. Their blogs are the carrier of those brand names.



Some other blogs are establishing some solid brand names.



Professor Bainbridge, Jeremy Wright's Ensight, and Deb Yoder's The Accidental Jedi spring immediately to mind. Many other rising brand name blogs are on the horizon.



How do you establish a brand name for your blog?



First of all, you must provide regular postings. If your blog is not updated on a regular basis, it will not be regarded as a reliable brand. In many ways, a brand is a promise. The brand promises reliable consistent quality, each and every time.



That brings us to our second branding requirement. Your blog must provide constant high quality posts. When writing your daily blog articles, you have to give your readers some help in solving their problems, or provide something to give them some interesting reading. Your information, whether personal or general, must add to their lives.



Your links to other blogs must not only be to helpful information, but also provide some insight into the thinking of the linked blogger. It goes without saying (okay I said it) your links have to work. Few things are more frustrating than broken links.



A third way to build your brand is to market it. You don't develop a name brand by hiding it. Use the name of your blog everywhere. Let people know who you are and what you offer to them.



Large companies understand the need to market their brand completely. Their brand names and logos are everywhere. They cram into our subconscious as to become part of our thinking. We don't think fast food. We think McDonalds, Burger King or Wendy's.



By working continually to provide a consistent reliable blog for your readers, you are developing your brand name.



Who knows, maybe your blog will be mentioned as a blog leader.



That's when you know your branded blog has arrived.

Sometimes you have to take a chance

In business, planning is very important.



A company needs to have an action plan in place to map out its future.



The same is mainly true for people. We need to have some idea what we ar doing on a daily basis. There is an entire industry built up on such concepts as time management and personal organization.



Sometimes, things drop out of the sky.



I have had a couple of writing jobs land in my lap. All I did was respond to some requests for writers, and suddenly, I had paying writing contracts. I never planned on them. I hadn't actively sought them out in a really serious way.



How then did I get the contracts?



I had a blog.



In fact, I have two blogs. There is this marketing, public relations and search engine optimization site, where you are reading. There is also my daily roller derby news and commentary site. Both are blogs that have new posts every day.



When I applied for the writing jobs, I merely pointed to my blogs for writing examples. The editors weren't concerned with the topics of my posts. Instead, they were interested in the fact that a) I write daily b) I showed a degree of committment to the writing craft and c) that my writing style was good enough to hire.



Had I not had a blog, I would not have been able to have applied successfully for those writing contracts.



Keeping and maintaining a blog often has unexpected side benefits, like earning money!



Making money from blogging is often a challenge for writers. Attempts have been made to sell advertising space, to get donations, and to add searches and affiliate sales features, to name a few. Some income ideas have worked for some bloggers. Different revenue concepts have worked for others. A few bloggers have gained income from almost all of them.



I'm happy to have gained some writing income as a result of my blogging activities.



Sometimes, you just have to take a chance and start blogging. You can never be certain where it might lead.



Occasionally, it leads to some added income!

Free Business Ideas

Jeremy Wright over at his tremendous Ensight blog, offers some great free money making ideas.



Jeremy offers a LAN party idea, for gamers to get together, and do whatever it is that gamers do. I am guessing they game. The LAN party idea is sound though.



Jeremy also suggests creating a Mid Market software directory. By charging reasonable fees, good yet relatively unknown software companies could list their products. Sounds like a winner.



A real estate agent promotional service is Jeremy's third strong idea. Since the highly competitive real estate field practically demands constant marketing, this concept might pay some real dividends as well. There is no shortage of real estate professionals. They all need some publicity and advertising.



Jeremy says all of his ideas are free for the taking, and none are under copyright protection.



By offering possibly very profitable business ideas, at no charge, Jeremy is providing a great public service.



And a chance for some of you to make a few dollars.



That's always a good thing!