Holistic Business Center» community

Other People’s Blogs

The Passion Diva — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:07:54 +0000

Companies are often surprised by the amount of time and effort it can take to produce one good blog. Blogging software makes the writing and publishing process easier, but responding to reader comments, finding time to write regularly, and creating links and multimedia components can take some time. For this reason, many companies place all their effort on creating their own blogs, sometimes to such an extent that they ignore other blogs in cyberspace. This is truly a mistake, since in many cases, other blogs can have as much impact on your marketing as your own online efforts!

What Are Other Bloggers Saying About Your Company?

One of the first steps you will want to take when marketing using other blogs is to find out what others bloggers and online writers are saying about your company and your blog. Other people’s and companies’ comments are read by readers and potential customers, too.

Many blogging software packages allow you to search for links to your blog or company website in other people’s blogs. You can also run a goggle check on your blog name, company name, and URL addresses to see what others are saying about you. Regularly checking online to see what is being said can help you get a sense of how your efforts are working. Remember: blogging is a community effort, with links in other blogs and comments in other blogs affecting how readers see you. You need to keep track of how you are doing to understand how your online presence is affecting your business.

Responding to Other Blogs

Once you begin reading comments about your company and online presence, you may well wish to respond to the comments others have made. Before you do so, do take some first:

•Read and reread the comments you wish to respond to and make sure that you understand them. Make sure that you understand the tone as well as the words – you will look and feel silly if you respond angrily to a post that turns out to have been written in a teasing or tongue-in-cheek manner.

•Calm down. In cases where comments are negative, especially, it is easy with blog software to respond at once. It is better to calm down first and allow yourself the time to respond in a clam manner.

•Stay clear and on topic. When you respond to a posting or blog, make sure that you are clear and that you stay on topic in order to prevent an out of control name-calling exchange. Clearly state what you are referring to, what comments you have about it, and what actions (if any) you are going to take or want to see taken.

•Decide how to respond. You can respond to a person directly, through their blog commentary, or through your own blog. If you respond to a blogger or commentary directly, be aware that other readers who have seen comments about your company may not read your comments. Plus, your email or response may eventually end up online, anyway, possibly edited or cut from context. Responding via someone else’s blog gives you more control, but still has you remain on someone else’s space. Commenting on your own blog gives you the most control and ensures that readers will come to your blog to read your comments. Of course, you can also choose to not respond at all.

Get More Readers for Your Blog, Get More Customers

The Passion Diva — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:05:04 +0000

There are several ways to make your blog one of the “hot” blogs online. Traditionally, those companies that have the largest star-power have had the most popular blogs, since everyone loves to read about celebrity or success. However, a great many smaller companies and individuals are developing large followings on the web. You can, too, with this simple lesson.

Keep it Rich

Keyword-rich, that is. Blogs are a great way to generate keyword-rich content, especially if you update your blogs each day. In fact, for some smaller businesses, blogs make more sense than hard-to-create web pages. Blog software makes creating a blog almost automatic while the spiders on search engines seem to favour high-quality and often updated keyword-rich blogs.

Steps to take:

•Keep keyword content high with plenty of keywords. As you write your blog entries, do try to use not only keywords having to do with your topic, but also synonyms for your keywords. This will help your readers find you more easily on the Internet. For example, if you offer discount fashions, use a variety of keywords, including “discount fashions,” “cheap designer wear,” “discount clothing” and others.

•Provide quality, often-updated content.

•Specialize. The best way to make use of the search engine optimisation of blogs is to narrow your focus. Rather than developing a hodgepodge of ideas and themes, write with one theme in mind. It will help ensure that people looking for information on your topic will always find you through a search engine.

Join the Community

Make sure that you promote your blog by joining the blogging community. Creating a larger presence for your blog online will result in more blog readers and possibly, more customers:

•Add the address for your blog to email signatures and include mention in any ezine or email newsletter you have to let readers know about your blog.

•Mention your blog on appropriate forums. For example, if your company offers resume writing services, consider writing about your blog in job-hunt forums.

•Allow for readers’ commentary on your blog. Many online blog publishing programs already allow this. If your readers can post their comments and read the comments of other readers, they are more likely to return to your blog regularly, and so keep your company name in mind.

•Make your blog searchable through your interests. Many blog programs allow you to create a user profile, which allows readers to search for you and your blog by interest topic and locations, in many cases. Do not overlook this simple way to draw readers. Simply fill out your profile, taking care to use many “interests” to attract more readers and browsers.

Blog Marketing Ideas That Sell

The Passion Diva — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:03:48 +0000

Once you develop a blog, you will want to use the best blog marketing strategies you can to sell your company. However, marketing blogs are different from personal blogs and blog marketing or advertising is very different than other forms of marketing.

Make Your Blog a Customer Draw

In order to make your blog a powerful marketing tool, you need to get your customers and clients to see it. That means that you will need to advertise and provide content that gets attention:

•Make your blog visually exciting. Choose an attractive background colour and provide photos or images. Consider sound. Develop your blog as you would a web site, with the same visual appeal. Some bloggers even add video and sound to their blogs. There is no need to spend many hours composing art works, but know that simple text on a white background may simply not draw as many readers as you like.

•Make sure that your customers know that your blog exists. Providing some targeted advertising on the Internet is not hard. Try some link exchange programs with web sites, blogs, and ezines that have similar content to your blog. In many cases, simply providing a link to another web site can convince that web master to provide a link to your blog.

Make Your Blog a Company Pusher – Without Being Pushy

Your blog needs to promote your company. However, if you are too heavy-handed, you will not be terribly exciting and may push customers away. That’s why you should aim for only a small amount of content that actively pushes your company. Do suggest newsworthy items that will lure your readers in. For example, writing “today we launched a new division – now expecting mothers can take advantage of our fashions” is much better than sales copy such as “buy our hot new maternity fashions now.”

Give Your Readers What They Want

Studies suggest that as many as a quarter of Internet users tune into blogs. That means that if you can give your blog readers what they want, you can be reasonably sure of having a decent audience. Among the content that you may want to include in your blog:

•Tips and advice. Many successful marketing blogs are much like successful consumer magazines – readers tune in to read content that is useful. A computer company can offer computer tips and advice, for example, while a writing service blog can include daily ways to boost writing skills.

•Interest. If your personal or business life is fascinating, then great. There are many successful marketing blogs that detail the exciting lives of company presidents who are also hobby racecar drivers or skydivers. This sort of material can ensure a steady audience.

•Humanity. One of the things that blog readers are most interested to see is the face behind the company. Many blog readers like a company run by people who have similar concerns. Building humanity into your blog by detailing your company’s efforts to help the community, for example, is a great way to build credibility and customer loyalty.

•Style. Many readers just love to see a gorgeous, well-written blog. Plenty of marketing blogs simply provide interesting content and nice graphics and do quite well in drawing readers and customers.

5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back

The Passion Diva — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:00:00 +0000

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox

When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

What makes a Blog different from a ‘regular website’?

The Passion Diva — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:17:57 +0000

Let’s assume that a ‘regular website’ is a static HTML site, it is the database driven content that really sets it apart.

The lines between blogs and other types of websites are blurring as more business owners choose to build their site with a CMS. While many blogs are designed to look like a web journal, more and more are being designed to look like a regular website.

Because the content you enter into the blog is stored in a database, it can be distributed as a data feed. RSS is the feed that most blogs employ. With RSS, your content can be viewed through any RSS reader or aggregator on another website or on a computer or portable device.

You might be wondering what RRS stands for:

Another benefit to being database driven is that the script can accept and display comments on specific posts and can detect when other sites link to one of your blog posts.

For a business blog, a common choice is WordPress.

WordPress is feature rich. It is an Open Source script. This means that anyone can take the source code and edit it. A community of creative and talented people are constantly improving the code and releasing updates for free use.

WordPress is flexible. It works with a variety of ‘plug ins’ which are like hacks for the base code of the scrip. When uploaded and activated, they make the blog script work differently.

5 Easy Ways Service Providers Can Connect with Potential Clients via Twitter

The Passion Diva — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:45:10 +0000

While Twitter can be used as a great social environment for making and staying in touch with friends, it can also be used as a source for self-promotion and gaining new clientele by those who own an online business. The popularity of Twitter makes it a valuable resource every service provider should add to their marketing arsenal. The amount of people who access the Twitter service on a daily basis is immense and the chances that some of those people will need your services at some point or another are high. Here are five simple ways that service providers can connect with potential clients via Twitter.

1. Users Searching for a Specific Service
One way to gain new clients through the use of Twitter is when someone searches for a specific service they need. If someone comes to Twitter and does a search for a ghostwriter the chances of their search term containing those words is very high, right? So, why not create a page just for your writing services? You can make the username something with the term “ghostwriter” or “writing” in it.

2. Overflow from other Service Providers
The second way you can gain clients via Twitter is to network with other service providers in your niche. By following and interacting with these individuals you are allowing them to contact you should they need assistance with a big project or any overflow work that they don’t have the time to handle themselves.

3. Service Providers Who Need Your Expertise
There are tons of business owners out there who are looking for your expertise to help them get their own business running smoothly. It’s not uncommon to see an Internet marketer on Twitter who has spent all afternoon working on their website and asking for advice or direction on what they need to do to fix this or that. They would probably have been more than willing to hire you to do it for them instead of spending all day doing it themselves.

4. Other Twitter Users Stumbling Upon Your Profile
When people start using Twitter they are looking for like-minded individuals to follow and connect with. When they come across your profile for whatever reason and see that you provide a certain service, it might just remind them that they need help with something. Make sure you have your link readily available to them when they see your page.

5. Word of Mouth
By far the most common way to gain new clients via Twitter is through word of mouth. If your past or current clients are members of the Twitter community, chances are at some point or another they will talk about you and/or your business. Now there is a kick here. As with any other type of service, if yours is bad it’s probably got a good chance of being brought up on Twitter. However, the same rings true for exceptionally great service. Provide your current clients with wonderful service and they will pass the word on about your business every chance they get.

When you are looking for a way to build your list and make your audience really sit up and notice you, you will find that Twitter can go a long way towards getting the attention your business needs and deserves.

5 Reasons Twitter is a Powerful Marketing Tool

The Passion Diva — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:38:54 +0000

Whether you are just getting started with an online business or you have been around for a while and looking for a new way to network, have a look at what Twitter. Part chat program and part tiny blog, you will find that the Twitter interface is one that can change the way you interact with your current customers and potential customers worldwide. Here are 5 reasons Twitter is a powerful marketing tool for online business owners like you.

1. It’s Short, Sweet & To the Point
Have you ever heard the phrase, less is more? You’ll find that one of the best things about Twitter is that it keeps all messages very short and sweet. You’ll have to give your customers and clients the gist of what is going on in short tweets (messages similar to instant messages) that allow their interest to be piqued in such a way as to make them investigate further. You won’t bother them with long-winded messages that make them yawn and move on. Instead, you will be able to catch their attention quickly and make them want to know more.

2. Immediacy
Much like a blog or an RSS feed, you can get access to the people that use Twitter regularly. In some ways, this is like making sure that you can reach them no matter where they are, and you will find that this is very important when you want to make marketing one of your biggest priorities. You are making sure that they have all of the latest updates to what you are doing and what’s going on by simply sending a tweet their way.

3. Everyone’s Doing It
In many ways, Twitter is a social program more than it is a marketing one, and you’ll find that using Twitter can help you feel a great deal closer to your client base and other’s in your online community. If you are looking to make sure that they see you as a person rather than as simply a company or service, you’ll find that Twitter encourages them to think of you as someone they can get to know. This can be very important when it comes to establishing a customer base and customer loyalty.

4. You Get to Hear a Lot
Remember that it goes both ways; you can put information out on Twitter and you can also learn a lot too. By following other’s Twitter accounts, especially if it looks like they have a lot to offer, you can keep in the know about various products, services, and other happenings online. This can be a great way to keep an eye on what is going on in order to keep yourself in the know of your industry.

5. Make Them Laugh
You can also use Twitter to tease people a little bit, in a fun way, of course! When you use Twitter, you have to keep your messages short, and in many ways, a little mysterious. Pique their interest, joke around, and you’ll find that you gain a lot more followers and hopefully website traffic and customers as a result.

Be warned, just as with any other social networking site, Twitter can quickly become addicting if you let it. Don’t go overboard and get so involved in all the tweeting that it takes away from your intended purpose. Used wisely Twitter can be a great and powerful marketing tool to help create online business success.

Building Your List with Give Away Ventures

The Passion Diva — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:13:11 +0000

With the awareness of the importance of list building, comes a recent Internet Marketing trend which was started just a couple of years ago for the mutual benefits of all Internet Marketers and mailing list owners.

This method is more recognized as a “starting a Give Away venture”.

In a real sense, a Give Away event is much like a big time version of ad swaps. In a nutshell, a group of mailing list owners partner together and pool in their individual gifts in one limited-time event.

Each participating partner contributes a gift to the event. The gift can be a free product, membership pass or a product he is already selling (if he is kind enough to offer into the event).

The participating partner prepares a Lead Capture Page where he gives the gift in exchange for the subscriber’s email address. In other words, in order for a visitor to download the digital gift, he must opt in and subscribe to your mailing list.

When the gifts are pooled together into one event (site), every partner will then endorse the Give Away event to their own mailing lists.

The result: lots of visitors to one event as a collective effort of several participating partners!

With so many visitors downloading gifts from one focused event, it is a true win-win situation. This is because the visitors get to download several free gifts for their own use and every partner gets to build their own mailing list!

You can easily get notified about a Give Away event in the making by communicating with other Internet Marketers often or participating in Internet Marketing discussion and Joint Venture boards.

Ad Swap Magic

The Passion Diva — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:05:41 +0000

Here is a little used technique you can implement to build your mailing list for no additional cost. I call it “using subscribers to make subscribers” like much in the context of “using money to make money”.

This simple list building formula can be summed up in two words: ad swap.

Generally, you trade advertisements with other eZine publishers, preferably of the same mailing list size or bigger. You broadcast the eZine publisher’s advertisement to your mailing list while the eZine publisher endorses your ad to his list. Yes, you are actually cross endorsing or cross promoting each others offer to each of your mailing list.

Your advertisement’s goal should be to get as many subscribers possible from the other eZine publisher’s mailing list to sign up for yours.

The result: you grow your mailing list. This method does not require money, which means it can be done for free. And the return of subscribers? Infinite!

You only have to do this with one eZine publisher at least once, because his subscribers who are also your subscribers can now be followed up within the boundaries of your mailing list.

Perform ad swaps with as many eZine publishers as possible and soon, you will have a huge mailing list of your own – built free.

Tips for Using Google Adsense

The Passion Diva — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:04:13 +0000

Like anything else, you’ll get out of Google Adsense what you put into it. The following optimization tips can help you grow your Google Adsense dollars:

Write interesting content and write every day.

Have more than one site. The more sites you have, the more ads have the potential
to get clicked.

Set up channels and monitor your statistics across all sites. If one site is performing
poorly, consider changing the content or the ad layout. Experiment!

Change the ad layout and notice which layout works the best for you. There are
many different layout options and there’s no way you can know going in which
one will perform the best.

If you’re blogging, writingup.com has a list of profitable topics. They state that
you don’t have to write on those topics but you might give it a try or at least plug
some of them in to the search engines.

Google different key words and phrases and notice how much and what kinds of content and ads you see.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Holistic Business Center» community

Other People’s Blogs

Related Posts

Get More Readers for Your Blog, Get More Customers

Related Posts

Blog Marketing Ideas That Sell

Related Posts

5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back

Related Posts

What makes a Blog different from a ‘regular website’?

Related Posts

5 Easy Ways Service Providers Can Connect with Potential Clients via Twitter

Related Posts

5 Reasons Twitter is a Powerful Marketing Tool

Related Posts

Building Your List with Give Away Ventures

Related Posts

Ad Swap Magic

Related Posts

Tips for Using Google Adsense

Related Posts