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.

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.

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?

Ask for people to sign up or subscribe to your list for future promotions. Not just at the top of the page, but throughout your blog, on different pages, and in different locations.

Let’s say you create a post “8 Tools For Busy Small Business Owners”. You provide reviews and links to great sites that can help out a business owner juggle the different aspects of running a business. At the end of the post, add another paragraph:

Liked these tips? Sign up and receive notification when we post more tips just like this one.

Your reader is already interested in what you’ve written. They’ve probably found value in it because they’ve read to the bottom. They may have missed the subscribe box at the top of the page – this gives them another opportunity when they may be even more committed to learning about you.

Don’t think of your blog as you would a traditional store. People won’t always come in at the top of your home page, look around, and enter out the same way they came in. They may come in through a reference in Google or from Twitter. They may enter a post that’s several months old. Always give them every opportunity to connect up with you, no matter how they find you and where they enter.

image source svilen001

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.

Your channels are the different ways you reach out to prospective clients. It’s the ways you connect with people out in cyberspace. It’s the ability to find your blog and the content you create, and use it to connect up with customers.

1. Search engine traffic. A good portion of your traffic may ultimately come from search engines. With over 31 billion searches performed in Google ever month, it is a powerful way to grow your following. As I wrote in How To Write A Blog Post For Your Reader And The Search Engines, it’s important to write blog posts for specific portions of your business. The more content you write, the more you’ll show up in the search engines. And the better traction you’ll have overall.

2. Social media traffic. You can’t look anywhere now and not see the buzz on social networking. Twitter and Facebook are just two of the many sites people are utilizing every day. But keep in mind its more than a specific social site that will bring you business. You have to be where your customers are. And you have to grow a list of great potential customers. Having 24 followers on Twitter won’t get you anything. It takes growing power, and the ability to reach out to thousands in the hopes a few will convert into clientele.

3. List building. It’s great to have 500 followers on Twitter, and 1000 on Facebook. But what will you do in 2 years when Twitter is no longer the hot site, and its something else? Do you really want to start building again from scratch? Yes, it’s important to have lists of followers on your different social sites. But don’t forget about your own list as well. Give away free information in exchange for an email list. Your own internal list will be you key to success over time.

With traditional marketing, you always think numbers. It’s no different online.

If it takes 1000 postcards to bring in 10 clients, you know instantly about how many postcards to create and send.

Look at your online strategies the same way. With 1000 friends/followers, you gain one new client a month.

However the one good thing about being online is you can connect with those 1000 friends again and again, every day through your posts and tweets. More may convert down the road.