Dec
16
Want to know the secret to getting massive amounts of traffic to your blog, have people follow you no matter what you write, make contact with you daily, and turn into clients instantly?
When it’s written in a sentence like the one above, you start to become a little leery. Nothing can be THAT good. Right?
Yet every week I meet with people that have heard me talk about blogging, and they always bring up the statement, “I want to use a blog so I can quit other forms of gaining leads”.
When I hear that statement, my next question is, “how quickly do you want your blog to work for you?” Because a blog is a great tool In fact, I can’t imagine my marketing plan to be without several at the moment. But I’ve also been using blogs for over eight years now.
Blogs are just like any other form of marketing.
- You have to use it regularly to make it work for you.
- In order to bring clients to your blog, you have to give out content that makes them want to come back again and again.
- Traffic will come from a variety of sources; you have to keep trying and do what works.
- People will sign up for and buy different things. You have to make more than one offer to gain clients.
- You have to be patient. A blog will only work after you’ve dedicated yourself to it for a while, and you have the traction of several things working together.
- You won’t be number one in Google immediately. Like everything else it takes time.
So let me ask you a question. Will you be in business five years from now? If so, then you have plenty of time to start up a blog, dedicate yourself to it as one of the best forms of marketing your business, and just do it.
Dec
7
One of the things a blog is best at is allowing you to connect with your customers all the time.
This holiday season I’m seeing a lot of giveaways and specials built around the Christmas concept.
Last week in my One Great Idea feature I wrote about a photographer who’s giving her readers specials in her 25 days of Christmas promotion. Every day she’s releasing specials to her followers (on a limited basis of course) and allowing them to purchase right on the spot. Over 25 days, she could easily have one of her best December’s yet – all just by selling certificates and deals that will be used sometime in 2010.
Today I found an Appvent Calendar. Every day leading up to Christmas, you can head to the Appvent Calendar and receive one free download of a game directly to your iPhone. Presented by BlacksmithGames, their concept is to release 24 games, all avaialbe only the day it is released, requiring you come back every day for your new game, and to build your understanding of their products.
This is a great promotion to introduce a whole new set of app users to BlacksmithGames. In the technology world, this type of promotion can go viral quickly. People will only promote a new product if they really like it – and then it would only be in the form of a review. But a free giveaway is something to write about – and tweet about. Getting people back to your site again and again is key – and this will do just that.
Jun
9
Tweak Your Blog To Get More Traction
Filed Under Bringing In Clients | 1 Comment
Why do you have a blog?
Chances are it’s to communicate with prospects and customers. Which also means that you’re hoping to grow your list of prospects and customers down the road. 
The problem with most bloggers is they rely on a person to find their blog, and come back to it again and again in order to keep in contact. Think about that for a minute. Do you go back and visit blogs on a regular basis? I’m sure you have your favorites. I have about six I visit several times per week just to see what’s new. But the vast majority I may have found an interesting article at, but rarely head back to visit.
Your visitors are the same way. They may have found interest in your information, but after reading down the page, they found something else of interest, clicked around, and exited out of your blog.
How can you prevent that in the future?
May
26
I was listening to the radio today. The DJ was talking about a great artist he
had found, and absolutely loved her work. He linked to her website from his home page, and contacted her to do an interview for his show. So that’s how I found out about this artist, and of course was intrigued. So I wrote down her web address, and looked it up when I got home.
During her interview, she revealed that business was slow a few months ago, so she decided to try gaining some exposure in the press. She did a great job – and landed on a major talk show. The DJ found her by seeing her on this major talk show. So for her, business has been pretty good the past couple of months.
But when I went to her site, I noticed that business could be even better for her if she implemented just a few things. She went after the press and the national exposure without having the marketing behind it to truly capture the attention of her visitors, and turn them into sales.
Here are 7 things she should be doing to grow her business even further.
May
18
I’ve been writing for many years now. I have hundreds or articles and posts 
between three different sites, and over the years, they all fall down into the depths of my sites.
If you are a blogger, you know what I’m talking about. Each day you sit down to write on a new subject that’s pertinent to today and to your market. But if you’ve ever searched back through your categories, chances are you’ll find something similar from several months before.
How can you use old information to help you gain clients today?
Let’s look at three strategies.
1. Instead of sitting down with an entirely new idea, choose a category instead. Then click over to that category on your blog and start reading some of your posts from the past few months.
Are there any posts that would make an interesting topic today?
Are there several posts that you can combine together to make a new point?
Start writing your new post, linking back to the old posts as reference. It will give your old posts traction (people click through to read your point) and will help you dive deeper into a topic you have a lot of knowledge in.
Apr
16
What makes a blog post more readable?
In many cases it’s the images that accompanies the story.
Blogging tends to be all about writing up an article, and posting it to speak to different target audiences in your niche. But even if people do come to your blog for your content, adding graphics and photographs can actually make things more readable. And more memorable.
1. Add an image that complements the article.
This is 
probably the most common way of mixing images and text. After a post is written, the writer heads out to a stock photo site and finds an image that fits the view of the story. There are a variety of ways to find photographs. For a small fee, you can use sites like IstockPhoto.com and ShutterStock.com. Or try one of the many free sites for stock photography – here’s a good list.
2. Add an image that has its own voice. 
In some cases you actually build your post around the image itself. On one of my other blogs, I have a series in which I find marketing examples from different photographers’ blogs. I start with a screen shot of their blog page, and write the post around why they have a great marketing idea. The concept is called One Great Idea, and its very detailed and provides my readers with one takeaway idea they can apply to their own businesses. So the photograph becomes the purpose, or the overall center of the blog post.
3. Use an image as a training tool. 
Some posts become step by step guide to getting something done. In that case, one, two, or even more photographs or screen shots may be used to teach people how to do something. Do this, then that. A great example is in my post Using A Blog To Get To The Top Of The Search Engines. Through a series of screen shots, I share with my readers how I created a series of posts to capture a high ranking on Google, and then follow it up by showing screen shots of Google with the rankings in place. The graphics support the article, and help the reader to make more sense of the information.
Apr
10
When a new potential customer contacts you for more information, do you find out how they heard about you?
If not, start asking immediately.
If you do, what are their answers?
In the land of brick and mortar, potential customers can find you simply by driving by. 
If you’re on a busy intersection, and someone drives by you ever day to and from work, they may eventually stop.
You can help motivate people to stop by sending out coupons to the surrounding neighborhoods and office buildings. You can advertise in local papers. Or you can put an ad on a local radio station.
In short, there is a ton of ways to reach out to your local community.
The key here is you’re reaching out. You’re motivating people to take the next step, and come into your location.
Now lets talk about your blog. You can’t put it up and have drive by traffic instantly. It exists in cyberspace along with billions of other pages. And no one is going to notice it unless you make the effort to share it with others.
Your blog alone will not get you known. It won’t bring in customers. It won’t create sales. And its not going to keep you in business.
However, it is the channels you use around your blog that will get you known. They will bring in customers. And they will help your business profit over time.
Mar
16
What Happens When Twitter Goes Away?
Filed Under Blog Marketing, Social Sites | 2 Comments
Facebook is now the number one social networking site.
Twitter is taking the Internet by storm.
It seems everything in the media is about s
ocial networking, and how you can use it either in your personal or professional life. Just this past weekend I found stories about Twitter in 3 mainstream magazines, and “What The Tweet Are We Doing?” was a full page article in Sunday’s The Denver Post.
So with the sudden rage that’s exploding all around us, its natural for everyone to wonder what Facebook and Twitter are, and how they can use them.
But does it REALLY matter how to use Facebook and Twitter? Or is the more important question, “How is this technology going to impact me in the future?”
I have been speaking throughout Denver to PTCO groups on security issues for teens. And at the middle school level, a large amount of parents have no concept of Facebook, social networking, or what any of today’s top technology tools do.
Yet technology will have a huge impact on our children’s lives. And without the support of parents, many children today will become lost in the possibilities. Or worse, lost in the “wild west” and getting into all kinds of trouble.
Mar
3
You blog regularly. And you have a fair amount of traffic to your blog.
But what motivates them to want to become faithful readers?
Content
People usually find you because of your content. They may even stay around awhile if you have enough to look at. But the only thing that will bring them back is quality. If they know they can look to you as a resource – as an expert – they will come back.
What makes you different?
I have a ton of blogs in my RSS feed reader. Some I click on and read more faithfully then others. Ultimately it comes down to what they offer. If I know I can read through their material and gain “aha” moments, I’ll be back regularly.
What do you have of value?
Five to ten years ago, many websites made an offer to sign up for a free ezine, or newsletter. That worked well then – not any more. I’m on a ton of ezine lists now, and not a lot of time to go through them day after day. What matters now is relevant information. If you offer something that people can use and process immediately, they’ll be back.
Personality
People still love doing business with people. They like to build up a relationship and give their business to people they feel comfortable with. While that doesn’t mean someone you can have a one-to-one with anymore, it is important that you get a flare of their personality. Showcase your personal photographs. Talk about your vacation. Share your weekend adventures. Everything in moderation. But it is important for people to see the personal side of you.
Mar
1
Blogging Gives You Power Online
Filed Under Blog Marketing | Leave a Comment
Two days ago, on February 27th, I wrote a blog post Using A Blog To Get To The Top Of The Search Engines to show how easily you can get high rankings by using your key phrases in blog posts, and how quickly they will notice and rank you.
Today I happened to head back out to Google to do some research – and as of today, the Growing Pink Roses In Colorado post is number one, and the Using A Blog To Get To The Top Of The Search Engines is number three.
Once again, this proves the power of blogging, and how you can easily rank and capture attention quicker than you ever could with a website.
Creating a blog post provides you the ability to choose your keywords, use them in your blog title, and throughout the content. You can also choose your tags based on your keywords, giving your blog post the most search engine friendly information possible.
In the past, people have used SEO for each page on their websites in order to optimize it and make it noticeable to the search engines. But with a blog, you can do it all yourself – without hiring a firm to run the SEO for you. Saving you time and money.
Is SEO completely dead? No, not yet. But with so many tools easily accessible to you a small business owner, why not use everything you can to get recognized by your prospects and clients?
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