Niche Marketing Sucks
Blog Vs. Website … Which is Better For Promoting Products?
Which is the best way of advertising and promoting products on the web? Should I build a blog or should I build a website. Here’s the big question I hear over and over. So let’s first define what a blog is and what a website is.
A blog or a weblog is a type of website. Blogging is the dynamic choice for someone who has something to sell, say or portray. Once you start a blog it is best to try to update it every day. That way you can build a readership and potential customers since that should be your objective. You want to keep to the subject matter as much as possible. Put a link to anything you find that is pertinent to your content. The entries can be commentary or news about events that interest the visitors to the blog. The readers ability to leave comments to the posts make it an interactive dialogue for all.
A website is the same as a blog, except it is static, it is not dynamic like a blog. This is where you actually describe your products and/or services. You can update a website as often as you like, but this is usually only done if you change your products. You should have a link to your Blog on this site to allow customers to get updates as often as you post them. People can’t just type in comments for everyone to see. Also with a website there are no posts to update. With the new blog software out now, it can be very difficult to tell whether it is a blog or a website.
Advantages of a blog:
1. A huge advantage of a blog is that blogs allows you to post written text, audio and video and have it online within minutes, unlike traditional static websites which can take hours to update and cost a lot if you’re not familiar with building or editing web sites.
2. To me, the biggest advantages of having a blog is you get the site up quick, write your first post and you are ready to do business online.
3. Optimizing your site for the search engines is far easier with a blog. Ever time you write a new post (new content) on to your blog, you do something called “pinging” the update service. You are notifying the search engines that you have new content on your site. The search engines will visit your site and index your site more often than a static website. Blogs will also show up many times more often in organic searches than a regular website.
4. It is much cheaper to set up a blog and maintain the site than it is for a static website.
5. Bloggers build credibility far faster than someone running a static website. The blogger is always posting and adding new content. The blogger is actually building a relationship with the readers, and the readers have the ability to comment back.
6. When you want to make a post on your blog, you enter your back office type your post and it is sent out instantly. With a static website, you have to open up your editor, write the article, update the page properties before uploading that page to your site using FTP software. Once you’ve done all of that, you have to wait until the search engines to visit your site to get it indexed again.
There are many more reasons that I could still add to the argument for a blog site, but I hope I’ve given you enough reasons here, that you can make an informed decision on blog vs. website. The best way would be to have a blog where you can post and a website that has your products; where you can link the to sites off each other to increase sales.
Blog Marketing Holds 3 Distinct Advantages
Blog marketing has taken the internet by storm and for good reason. Compared to using a ‘conventional’ website a blog platform offers many advantages. But it is fair to note that with those advantages also come drawbacks that discourage many from getting involved in the blogging business. Seasoned online entrepreneurs know that becoming one of the most popular blogs in any niche requires commitment and an abundance of patience. In a society dominated by an ‘instant gratification’ mindset the patience required in the blog building process is not what many are looking for. Nonetheless the blogging business does hold definite advantages for those with the patience and work ethics required to succeed.Here are 3 incomparable and very distinct advantages associated with using a blog platform as your primary marketing site online. Search Engine FriendlyWhether you are a fan of SEO or not ranking higher in the search results is a definite advantage for anyone with an online ‘presence’ they are trying to promote. Blogs are ‘naturally’ search engine friendly due to the fact that the content is updated more frequently than it is on a website.As you post new information for your readers to view you are also inviting the search engines to come crawl your site. The more often they find updated information relevant to the site itself the higher your ranking will climb.Blogs Are InteractiveReaders have the ability to leave comments about your site which empowers them insofar as they feel more involved with the blog itself. Their comments may be in regards to the layout or a post but having the opportunity to participate in this way is a satisfying feeling. In fact it is always a good idea to encourage this activity since it breeds more participation which is a chief contributing factor to the popularity of a blog.Easy to BuildBlog building is a relatively easy thing to do that requires little or no technical skills. Formerly technology was a barrier for many wanting to get more ‘involved’ online but blogging has really helped to ‘bridge’ that divide. Now it is possible to start a new blog site on a whim since the investment of time or skills is no longer a factor.Blog marketing is obviously not a way to do business online that will soon reveal it to be just a passing fad. Both online entrepreneurs and customers acknowledge that the unique ability to interact and share in the blog building process makes the overall experience more gratifying and rewarding for both sides. Ultimately the need for the blog owner to possess the patience it will require to build the blog must exist. Additionally allowing the readers to participate in the building process by responding and reacting to their comments will only help in accelerating the growth of your blog. In the end the net result will be your site becoming one of the most popular blogs in the niche.
6 Steps For Link Building And Driving Traffic With Social Media
Everyone knows that link building is important for organic ranking in the search engines. As Social Media has evolved rapidly over the last two years, I’m now asking myself, ‘Can Social Media be leveraged to increase my website’s authority’ Three questions naturally fall out of this question:
I have been investigating these questions and have come to the following conclusion:
From my experience I have found 6 Main Steps In Implementing A Project That Drives The Right Type Of Traffic And Simultaneously Builds Quality Links.
Before discussing these steps, I would like to put them in context by reviewing some background information on social media.
Why is Social Media So Valuable?
Links obtained from social media are completely organic and highly valuable.
The more social media sites that link to your site, the greater is the authority of your site with the search engines.
Getting keyword rich backlinks from social media sites is directly related to how much credibility you’ve built up within the various social media websites. This credibility is linked to the quality of your articles/feedback/discussions. The more you engage people with consistent, quality content, the more likely your chances of getting linked to by other sites, blogs, forums, press releases and rss feeds.
It is the diversity and volume of these secondary links that will be critical in helping your site climb up the rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
So What Type of Social Media is Relevant for Link Building?
I would suggest you focus on the following:
Blogging
By owning a blog you get to share your thoughts, ideas and business with a huge audience. If your content is useful enough you will get links and loyal followers too.
Your blog can be used for the twin objectives of building links and at the same time driving traffic.
Some good blogs for understanding SEO are Matt Cutts, SEO Book and SEO Scoop.
Forums
These involve discussion threads and you can build links from these sites by commenting and leaving a link to relevant content on your site. Some sites have rules that insist that you post several comments without links before permitting you to add links.
Start threads that will entice people to reply or click the link in your signature, when you reply, reply with something helpful. Ask your own questions. Using forums in this way builds a good reputation for you and your brand, earning traffic as well as links.
Follow the golden rule of all comment placing on social media sites. Do not insert spam links or engage in direct promotion.
Spam links consist of links to irrelevant content. Engagement in excessive self promotion using your profile on various sites will get you reported and your account can be terminated.
A couple of good forums are Webmaster-Talk & Web Pro World
Article Submission
There are many online article submission sites you can use to showcase your articles. As with blogging, if they are interesting and helpful enough, they will earn you links and traffic.
Most of these social media sites require an article length of around 500 words – this is to help to ensure that the articles that are submitted are worthwhile reading.
There are many free article submission sites online such as eZineArticles and ArticleBase.
Social Networking Sites
These sites put you in touch with people of similar interests. You are able to create groups that you can send updates to, network with other members and on some sites post articles that the members of the groups may find interesting. Some examples are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, & Reddit
Twitter is not good for creating SEO links, but Linked in and Facebook are excellent.
If your user profile is properly constructed it will enable linking back to your site
Here Are The 6 Steps:
1. Build a Blog
My recommendation is to use Wordpress since that is free and is designed for rapid indexing by the search engines. Be sure to install it on your web server and not use a copy hosted on wordpress.com.
Set up an RSS feed to enable visitors to sign-up for notification of future blog topics. At the end of each post you should insert the following call to action:
“Liked this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!”
2. Create High Quality Relevant Content
High Quality Relevant content can be defined as content that your target market is going to find interesting and engaging. Part of writing good content is knowing what keywords your target market use. Do some Keyword Research and be sure to include a keyword in the title of each blog post that you create. Also use the tags for relevant keywords used in the first paragraph of the post. Use categories to help visitors navigate and find topics that interest them.
3. Research Social Media That Is Relevant For You
This will be social media that attracts the type of audience that are likely to be interested in your blog topics. The best way to research this is to look at each social media site and see if there is an interest category or group that deals with the type of service or products that you are selling.
4. Open An Account On Relevant Social Media Sites
Be sure to take a lot of time to build your profile. Make sure to choose sites that allow links to be followed and avoid sites with “No Follow” for external links.
Here are some tips on profile creation:
5. Post Discussion Topics To The Social Media Sites With A Link Back To Your Blog
You should pose a number of questions that relate to your blog article and ask for opinions. Give a link to your blog article that gives your views and ask for comments.
6. Use Google Analytics To Track Traffic From Each Referring Site
This will tell you about visitor volumes to your blog. Look for traffic from sites that you have not posted to as these secondary links will be due to content syndication by readers of your original post. If you can generate enough of these secondary links you will see an increase in your rankings by the search engines.
6 Steps For Link Building And Driving Traffic With Social Media
Everyone knows that link building is important for organic ranking in the search engines. As Social Media has evolved rapidly over the last two years, I’m now asking myself, ‘Can Social Media be leveraged to increase my website’s authority’ Three questions naturally fall out of this question:
I have been investigating these questions and have come to the following conclusion:
From my experience I have found 6 Main Steps In Implementing A Project That Drives The Right Type Of Traffic And Simultaneously Builds Quality Links.
Before discussing these steps, I would like to put them in context by reviewing some background information on social media.
Why is Social Media So Valuable?
Links obtained from social media are completely organic and highly valuable.
The more social media sites that link to your site, the greater is the authority of your site with the search engines.
Getting keyword rich backlinks from social media sites is directly related to how much credibility you’ve built up within the various social media websites. This credibility is linked to the quality of your articles/feedback/discussions. The more you engage people with consistent, quality content, the more likely your chances of getting linked to by other sites, blogs, forums, press releases and rss feeds.
It is the diversity and volume of these secondary links that will be critical in helping your site climb up the rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
So What Type of Social Media is Relevant for Link Building?
I would suggest you focus on the following:
Blogging
By owning a blog you get to share your thoughts, ideas and business with a huge audience. If your content is useful enough you will get links and loyal followers too.
Your blog can be used for the twin objectives of building links and at the same time driving traffic.
Some good blogs for understanding SEO are Matt Cutts, SEO Book and SEO Scoop.
Forums
These involve discussion threads and you can build links from these sites by commenting and leaving a link to relevant content on your site. Some sites have rules that insist that you post several comments without links before permitting you to add links.
Start threads that will entice people to reply or click the link in your signature, when you reply, reply with something helpful. Ask your own questions. Using forums in this way builds a good reputation for you and your brand, earning traffic as well as links.
Follow the golden rule of all comment placing on social media sites. Do not insert spam links or engage in direct promotion.
Spam links consist of links to irrelevant content. Engagement in excessive self promotion using your profile on various sites will get you reported and your account can be terminated.
A couple of good forums are Webmaster-Talk & Web Pro World
Article Submission
There are many online article submission sites you can use to showcase your articles. As with blogging, if they are interesting and helpful enough, they will earn you links and traffic.
Most of these social media sites require an article length of around 500 words – this is to help to ensure that the articles that are submitted are worthwhile reading.
There are many free article submission sites online such as eZineArticles and ArticleBase.
Social Networking Sites
These sites put you in touch with people of similar interests. You are able to create groups that you can send updates to, network with other members and on some sites post articles that the members of the groups may find interesting. Some examples are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, & Reddit
Twitter is not good for creating SEO links, but Linked in and Facebook are excellent.
If your user profile is properly constructed it will enable linking back to your site
Here Are The 6 Steps:
1. Build a Blog
My recommendation is to use Wordpress since that is free and is designed for rapid indexing by the search engines. Be sure to install it on your web server and not use a copy hosted on wordpress.com.
Set up an RSS feed to enable visitors to sign-up for notification of future blog topics. At the end of each post you should insert the following call to action:
“Liked this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!”
2. Create High Quality Relevant Content
High Quality Relevant content can be defined as content that your target market is going to find interesting and engaging. Part of writing good content is knowing what keywords your target market use. Do some Keyword Research and be sure to include a keyword in the title of each blog post that you create. Also use the tags for relevant keywords used in the first paragraph of the post. Use categories to help visitors navigate and find topics that interest them.
3. Research Social Media That Is Relevant For You
This will be social media that attracts the type of audience that are likely to be interested in your blog topics. The best way to research this is to look at each social media site and see if there is an interest category or group that deals with the type of service or products that you are selling.
4. Open An Account On Relevant Social Media Sites
Be sure to take a lot of time to build your profile. Make sure to choose sites that allow links to be followed and avoid sites with “No Follow” for external links.
Here are some tips on profile creation:
5. Post Discussion Topics To The Social Media Sites With A Link Back To Your Blog
You should pose a number of questions that relate to your blog article and ask for opinions. Give a link to your blog article that gives your views and ask for comments.
6. Use Google Analytics To Track Traffic From Each Referring Site
This will tell you about visitor volumes to your blog. Look for traffic from sites that you have not posted to as these secondary links will be due to content syndication by readers of your original post. If you can generate enough of these secondary links you will see an increase in your rankings by the search engines.
blogspot layouts movie blogspot wordpress create blog
Hi folks. You may or may not know, but this website gets a decent amount of page views every month- somewhere in the 100,000 range, give or take. The blog here on the front page is certainly a huge chunk of that. Therefore, I’m inviting you to benefit from my traffic just a wee bit this week. How? Simply leave your website or blog in the comments section for your fellow writers to visit.
But wait, there IS a catch.
blogging, blogger,blogspot,make money from blog
One of the questions I get most often is How do I start a website? This question is a doozy for me, because I feel that it’s important for a writer to have an online portfolio, but I also know there are about a million ways to do so. Some people use their blogs to house their clips, others use an online portfolio service, and still others use a bona fide site. But how do they build it? Do they code it themselves? Do they hire a website service? Or do they use
I have experience building web sites so I bought a very inexpensive domain through Godaddy.com. I think it costs me something like $50 a year. I used Dreamweaver to put up a basic site.
blogging, blogger,blogspot,make money from blog
But… if I didn’t know how to build a site I would just build a Wordpress blog on my own domain and use the pages to put on the writer information.
Building a blog is still complicated, but there’s a lot of help on the web and it doesn’t add to the cost. Just the yearly domain cost is all you’ll pay.
Aileen
blogging, blogger,blogspot,make money from blog
October 19, 2008 at 7:16 pm
(2) Samar says:
Hi Allena,
I’ve been following your blog ever since I started out freelancing just a couple of months ago. No jobs in my kitty yet but I’m building my portfolio steadily by writing for market places.
The questions you’ve stated are ones I asked myself. Some of the answers I’ve worked out. For now, since I’m starting out and haven’t a gig to my name, I have decided to use blogspot for my writing blog and portfolio which are in seperate blogs. But I gave them uniformity by using the same template for both blogs so that when someone clicks on either, they’ll know it is an extension of the site they were just at.
I chose blogspot because you can tweak the template easily. And also because I know a bit of html and nothing about CSS which is why I didn’t choose wordpress. There are plenty of websites that have blog templates for free.
Setting up my blog and portfolio cost me nothing except time which I see as an investment in my business. I have decided not spend anything on my freelance business that I haven’t earned from it. For now, I am happy and satisfied with my writing blog and portfolio.
I hope this helps fellow writers who are just starting out.
October 19, 2008 at 9:21 pm
(3) B J Keltz says:
I was lucky enough to have a son that is into “all things web” and a very good friend with talent for building sites. If not for them, I’d have gone with a godaddy domain (I did) and their website tonight program, which is inflexible, but pretty much point and click. Our wymj website 2.0 will be up in a week or two and it looks so much better than the current!
October 19, 2008 at 9:26 pm
(4) Jessie says:
While I could build a fairly complex website, I chose vista print to easily match my business cards and have something customizable but easy to update quickly. For $20 a month I can put paypal buttons everywhere! I would advise looking into it for the busy writer, or the writer with no website building experience.
October 19, 2008 at 9:31 pm
(5) Rhetta Peoples says:
I think a great way to get some web presence is to join a site like Associated Content. Check it out! Visit me while you’re at it!
How to Get Your Blog and List Building Working in Harmony to Build Your Internet Home Business
For anyone who gets involved in an internet home based business, one of the first things that they are taught to do in order to build a successful online business is to get a website, a blog and an auto-responder. In fact these three things are the most important tools when starting an internet business.
What we are going to discuss here is ways to get your list building and blogging activities to synchronize in such a way that your marketing efforts will support both these activities at the same time. In other words, your blog will support your list building and your list building will support your blog.
Let’s begin by looking at how you can use your blog as a way to build your list.
When setting up your blog make sure that you add an opt-in box to your auto-responder and place it in a prominent position where your visitors will see it on arrival at your blog. Near to the top and either on the left or right hand side is good. You could offer a free report or e-book as an inducement to sign up to your list.
Whenever you make a new post to your blog, sign off with your name and a link to your squeeze page. Encourage your visitors to sign up to your list so that they will be notified every time you make a new post on your blog.
Another way that you can promote your blog is by inviting people to comment on your blog posts. The advantage for them is that their comments can link back to their websites when they enter the URL field on the comment form.
If your business is internet marketing then make posts about this and teach your subscribers about the benefits and etiquette of commenting and linking back to their sites from the blog comments. Make sure that they understand that spamming is not an option.
Whenever you make a new post about something controversial or a review on a product or service, email your list and ask them to give you their opinions on whatever you have blogged about and include a link to your blog post.
You should see a significant increase in traffic to your site from your email list if your post is well targeted and also a big increase in the number of comments that you get to each article.
Offer your readers the opportunity of using your posts on their own blogs provided they include a link back to your site and acknowledge you as the author of that post. Also submit your articles or posts to other peoples’ blogs for possible inclusion on their sites. Invite your email list to submit articles for possible inclusion on your blog with a link back to their sites and inform them of how guest blogging will help to increase their own profiles on the internet. This will help to keep your blog loaded with fresh content at all times.
By adding these tactics to your list building and blogging efforts you will be creating a well synchronized and effective marketing strategy for your internet home based business.
Help and Advice in List Building Marketing
Email marketing has become an important part of marketing strategy of every business web site. For email marketing that is targeted it is desirable that you have a list that is targeted. Here are nine steps for list building marketing
The first step to list building marketing is to obtain email addresses of the consumers to sell your products and services. It is always a good strategy to keep them your customers updated of any changes or additions in your products and services. Your present consumers have a great probability of being your future clients too if they are satisfied with your services.
For list building marketing, you can collect email address from your family and friends of people who may be interested in your products and services. There are a number of web sites that sell email address for a small cost.
For list building marketing you can purchase the email addresses from such web sites.
For list building marketing, you can take help of social networking web sites such as Squidoo and My Space
For list building marketing, blogs are important source. You can collect email address of bloggers on subjects that are related to your products and services. You can start a blog on your web site also.
Forums are also a good avenue for list building they attract many people with a similar interest.
You can go for opt in email list. There are people who are genuinely interested in your products and services and land up on your web site. They want to know about your products and services. They will subscribe to your emails. They have the greatest probability of becoming your consumers.
You can build a list by giving free down loads from your web site in exchange for their email address.
There are companies that agree to provide email addresses of their employees if your products and services are of their utility. You can get in touch with such companies.
How to Have a Blog That Can Make You Money
Having a blog of your own is a big step forward – letting the world know all about you and what you care about – communicating with your “fans”. Broadcast to the world what’s on your mind. How to have a blog to make you money though?
Its all fine and good to get the blog going but if you want to monetize it, if you want to earn some cash that is another thing altogether. Its great to write and write and write some more and then upload your writings for the day to the internet with the desire and “knowledge” that people will flock to see it.
Does that really happen though? No matter how good your writing is, will you get traffic? No matter how great your blog is presented, will you get traffic? No matter how many “pings” you send out, is your blog going to be flooded with traffic? No matter that you have chosen some really excellent keywords – search volume each day is high and competition is quite low. Search volume is around 300 a day while competing websites on Google are around 200,000. Are you going to get traffic?
Its great that if you are using WordPress you are also utilizing some excellent plugins such as WP PageNavi, Sociable, Google Sitemaps Generator and All in One SEO Pack or if you are using Squidoo lenses to build a blog, you have it highly optimized with your choice of keywords and you’ve joined lots of Squidoo groups too. Its all looking real good – you’re on your way to a flood of traffic now!
But, does the traffic materialise? This is all fine for a while – sure thing – you get traffic – perhaps 4 people a day visiting your site when you first get it up and going. Two weeks later and you are getting less than 4 people.Are you really going to make many sales from 4 people or less a day visiting your blog?
So, with this in mind – how to have a blog to make you money – what do you really need to do to bring in the traffic to your blog?
