5 Ways to Use Your Blog
5 Ways to Use Your Blog
* Blog and Ping: when you post to your blog, you “ping” a variety of blog directories and search engines to let them know you have new content.
* Tagging: you associate each post with a variety of keywords, or “tags,” to help people find your posts in search engine results.
* Linking: your blog links to another blog who links back to you. This can be done within posts or in the “blogroll” function of blogging software.
* Social network linking: you link your blog to social networks such as Facebook or Twitter so that every time you post to your blog, a message goes out to that network.
And these few tactics are just skimming the surface.
Here are five practical ways to use your blog to promote your business and build a following of loyal prospects:
1. Tell Engaging Stories
Blogs are most effective when they attract a loyal readership. And the best way to do this is to entertain, inform and engage your audience. Write about things that are worth their time to read … be it on an emotional level or a professional level. Depending on your personality and your business goals, you might consider including events from your life and then move on to your marketing message.
2. Write Product Reviews
This technique is particularly effective when you want to promote affiliate links. But be careful with this technique. You don’t want all your reviews to be all sugar and roses. Let your readers know the faults of the products you review. Try to be objective. And don’t think narrowly about this technique — product reviews can include book reviews using your Amazon affiliate link! This is also a good way to give some love to your joint venture partners, and even your best clients!
3. Provide Excellent Customer Service
One of the unique properties of blogs is the ability to have comment boxes on posts and pages. This is where readers can leave their feedback regarding your posts. You can use this feature to gather questions, complaints or suggestions from your readership. Even better, you can post your answers as part of the comment thread!
4. Hold Contests
Want to challenge your readers to write the most moving testimonial for your products? Have them leave their submissions on your comment box. Want to hold a raffle? Have your readers leave their names in the same comment box. The possibilities for contests are limitless, and blogs make all of them possible.
5. Gather Valuable Feedback
Post surveys and polls on your blog. Encourage readers to post feedback in the comment box. The blogging platform truly gives you the power to gather instant and valuable feedback from your audience, and respond in a fairly quick manner.
5 Ways to Use Your Blog - To learn more about this author, visit Carma Spence-Pothitt's Website.
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We all know that blogs have emerged as powerful marketing tools, especially for the solo entrepreneur. This is, in part, because blogs fare so well in search engine results. This fact alone has led to the evolution of many marketing tactics using the blogging platform as their base. Some include:
* Blog and Ping: when you post to your blog, you “ping” a variety of blog directories and search engines to let them know you have new content.
* Tagging: you associate each post with a variety of keywords, or “tags,” to help people find your posts in search engine results.
* Linking: your blog links to another blog who links back to you. This can be done within posts or in the “blogroll” function of blogging software.
* Social network linking: you link your blog to social networks such as Facebook or Twitter so that every time you post to your blog, a message goes out to that network.
And these few tactics are just skimming the surface.
Here are five practical ways to use your blog to promote your business and build a following of loyal prospects:
1. Tell Engaging Stories
Blogs are most effective when they attract a loyal readership. And the best way to do this is to entertain, inform and engage your audience. Write about things that are worth their time to read … be it on an emotional level or a professional level. Depending on your personality and your business goals, you might consider including events from your life and then move on to your marketing message.
2. Write Product Reviews
This technique is particularly effective when you want to promote affiliate links. But be careful with this technique. You don’t want all your reviews to be all sugar and roses. Let your readers know the faults of the products you review. Try to be objective. And don’t think narrowly about this technique — product reviews can include book reviews using your Amazon affiliate link! This is also a good way to give some love to your joint venture partners, and even your best clients!
3. Provide Excellent Customer Service
One of the unique properties of blogs is the ability to have comment boxes on posts and pages. This is where readers can leave their feedback regarding your posts. You can use this feature to gather questions, complaints or suggestions from your readership. Even better, you can post your answers as part of the comment thread!
4. Hold Contests
Want to challenge your readers to write the most moving testimonial for your products? Have them leave their submissions on your comment box. Want to hold a raffle? Have your readers leave their names in the same comment box. The possibilities for contests are limitless, and blogs make all of them possible.
5. Gather Valuable Feedback
Post surveys and polls on your blog. Encourage readers to post feedback in the comment box. The blogging platform truly gives you the power to gather instant and valuable feedback from your audience, and respond in a fairly quick manner.
5 Ways to Use Your Blog - To learn more about this author, visit Carma Spence-Pothitt's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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