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What a weekend!

I spent the last few days attending a blogging and social networking convention - the IZEAFest - in Orlando, and brought home a strategy of where I’ll be taking my blogs in the future. It was eye opening to me to discover I’m doing so much right [or at least doing what some of the most successful bloggers in the industry are doing] and also to pick up a few refining details that are going to make the next four months of 2008 even more successful.

So, if you have a blog, what are the basic strategies you should have in place to make it all a success?

1. Never settle for what you currently have. There are always ways to make what you have even better, work to achieve greater success, and find different more efficient ways of doing what you are doing.

2. Don’t be afraid. Unfortunately, much of what is out there today can seem a bit overwhelming. It’s easier to not do anything, and take no action than to try something new and risk failing. Failing is what brought many of today’s most successful bloggers their greatest successes.

3. Focus on your readers, not on Google. If you’ve ever worried about what makes Google happy, quit worrying. Instead find what makes your readers happy. Give them the content they want, and the information they are searching for. If you can get readers to follow you regularly, Google will follow.

4. Create a strategy. Why are you starting this blog? What is its ultimate purpose? What is your exit strategy? The more you have in place up front, the easier it will be to create over time.

5. Become hyperconnected. Be everywhere. Instead of having one or two sites, and maybe one or two social sites you’re active on, be everywhere. Your clients have different likes, different interests, and different searching patters. If you have a presence where they are looking, you’ll gain clients. Its as simple as that. 

Above all, be true to your readers. Your readers don’t care if you make money, don’t care about your business, or care about off-topic issues. They look to you for one reason - what you started your blog on in the first place. Give them what they want, and you’ll find success.

What do you do when you spend your time writing a dynamic post [at least you think it is] and all of the sudden you start getting negative feedback?

The first one is always the hardest. How can someone not agree with you? How can they state their beliefs, and counter what you had to say - it is your blog under your control. Maybe you should delete the comment.

Think again.

Conflict isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, it can be good for business. If someone cares enough to counter what you have to say, at least they are reading. And it gives you a new way to think and respond.

First decide the true impact of the comment. Is it something that hurts you or your company, and reduces your credibility? Some hateful comments can do more damage than good. If you’re just not comfortable with it, by all means delete it.

If the negative comment opens up the opportunity for you to come back with your own comment, post the comment and put in your own two cents. Tell people why you differ from the person commenting. What is your belief, and how can you turn their negative into a positive for you?

Also understand that your true prospects and clients can read above the negativity to make up their own minds. In some cases a negative comment can reinforce someone’s decision to use you - they like your ethics because of the way you handled the situation.

Now that we’re well into September, let me ask you a question.

How are your yearly sales figures? Are they higher, the same, or lower than last year? Is your business doing everything you expected it to?

Everywhere you turn there is talk of recession, and how people simply aren’t buying what they used to. But that doesn’t mean you can’t keep your business sales growing. You have a choice.

You competitors may be making drastic cuts, offering tremendous sales, and doing whatever they can to weather the recession. They typically sacrifice quality customer service in order to maintain a small profit.

But is that the right choice? In the short run, that may seem to be the answer. But in the long run, it may cost you your customer base. Why should they continue doing business with you when there is no quality to your customer service tactics?

Instead, focus on changing your marketing.

How are you marketing now? What are you doing to attract customers? Is it working?

Many small business owners continue to market in the same way year after year because that’s what they do. Maybe they have a relationship with the place they are advertising, and feel guilty about canceling.  Or maybe they simply can’t think of any other way to advertise for their business.

Whether you are bringing in thousands of dollars per year or millions, your first step is to keep the marketing that’s working, dump what’s not, and add new techniques that will help you grow.

Start by analyzing what you’re currently doing to attract customers. How much do you spend on it, and how many sales does it bring in?

If you’re not at least breaking even, dump that way of marketing. There are many forms of marketing that exist today that probably won’t be around in the very near future. The quicker you abandon those techniques, and adapt new ones, the quicker you’ll see your business get back on track.

So, instead of costly methods such as Yellow pages advertising, why not set up a blog? If your goal is to reach out to the search engines, I guarantee there are many, very cost effective ways of reaching them - and Yellow pages isn’t one of them.

Or instead of spending thousands on a print magazine ad, why not advertise on a dozen or so complementary websites? [Websites that reach out to the same target market as you, yet sell different products and services.]

Imagine what you could do with thousands of dollars in the online world, and the target audience you could reach out to.

Bottom line is if its working, leave it alone. And if its not, make a change. With hundreds of choices for your marketing strategies, why not use some that help grow your business?

I’ve been on Twitter for several months now. And I must admit, Twitter is kind of an addition. I use Twhirl, a desktop application that allows me to see all the posts to my Twitter account as they happen.

But the question always remains, "Is this a useful tool, or a waste of my time?"

I’m also part of a beta social group Triiibes put out by Seth Godin. Inside the site you can create Triiibes of people, and one of the Triiibes I belong to is the Twitter group.

About a week ago we decided to run an experiment. If a group of people come together and use Twitter to try and increase traffic, what will happen? So everyone submitted their best blog post, one was chosen, and the experiment began.

The blog post was on net neutrality [which is worth reading/watching in itself if you have the time]. It was a new post, and had no traffic before the experiment. In the first day of the experiment, 50 tweets went out, causing 196 unique page views, with the average time spent on the page 3 minutes 20 seconds. Wow - very cool.

Traffic did drop off after that initial day’s spike, but it still isn’t back to zero.

There are a lot of different statistics/ideas related to this experiment that I won’t get into completely here. But the point I want to make is how the new social media sites can and do make a difference in your overall  marketing campaign. 

Imagine if you could write a blog post, send it through your various social channels, and have almost 200 people read your information - the first day you had it out online. What could that mean to your business?

Now imagine you have the ability to do this several times per week. Would you spend a couple of hours a week creating fresh content, and releasing it to your network - to have up to 1000 people read it and be exposed to your business ideas?

I know I would - and I do it regularly.

It’s time to get busy creating content for my blog!

Do your visitors and customers know what to do?

You’ve put up your blog. You post regularly. But do your readers truly understand your purpose?

Sometimes its easy to get caught up in writing and connecting. You see your traffic rise and you start making connections. But the larger you become, its sometimes easy to lose sight of what your purpose truly is.

A few months ago I was talking with a customer I’ve worked with in the past. I’ve helped her with her online marketing, helped her build up her social networks, and even coached her on building up the business side of her photography studio. Then came a question that startled me:

Do you know anyone that could help me design a blog?

What? Didn’t she know we do that?

She didn’t because we didn’t do a good enough job letting her know our complete services. We constantly worked from an online marketing perspective - and she didn’t realize we could help her with the basic stuff, such as designing a website or blog.

Don’t assume your clients know what you do. Tell them. Drop hints and suggestions constantly to let them know how you can better serve their businesses.

You may be surprised where your next client comes from. 

image source svilen001

In the “old” days, it would take weeks to get a page indexed on a search engine like Google. Now you can have something indexed in hours, sometimes even minutes thanks to the new social media like blogs and video

Yesterday afternoon I posted my latest entry Micro Blogging By Email. First thing this morning I checked Google to see if it was indexed – there it was. In less than 24 hours, the entry was indexed and ready to work for me using my keywords.

Blogs work so well because you can quickly get information out to your readers, and get it indexed to gain potential readers.

1. Create an entry that’s targeted to your readers, and gives them specific information. Title it using your keywords, but don’t make the overall post keyword heavy. I once saw a blog wherever post was using keywords – it was boring and I didn’t stay around to read much. Think readers first, keywords second.

2. Tag your blog entry to match your keywords.

3. Post on a regular basis to index a variety of posts on a variety of topics – and attract new readers.

4. Repeat.

So you’ve created your blog. You post regularly. But you’ve also been hearing about other sites like Twitter and Plurk. Should you be doing more?

It really comes down to one question. Where are your clients? If your clients are using different forms of technology, you should be there as well.

I found a new micro blogging, Posterous,  site that makes posting even easier than logging in and writing a post. You simply send an email – and the post is instantly there.

I opened up my account today and created my first post, just to give it a try. I sent in 4 photos via email. By the time my email program sent the message, and I had returned to the site and refreshed, my post with the 4 photos was up. Cool!

You can use this anywhere. Out and about at lunch with clients, or at an event – simply send an email with your notes – and its instantly online.

Now its time to check into the RSS capabilities…

I was reading a report on a recent study by PEW Research Center, the 2008 biennial news consumption survey. While there were no huge surprises, I did learn a few interesting things.

 

According to the survey, 36 percent of respondents preferred to get some or all of their information from online sources. Print media continues to decline, Internet resources are rising, and television is remaining fairly constant. 

The study then divided up the population into groups based on how they receive their news.

The oldest population prefers traditional methods; the 35 and under group is moving towards online methods only. Online news gathers are more affluent, better educated, and have an 8 in 10 chance of having attended college. Fewer than half of this growing crowd watch television on a typical day.

Who is your target audience?

I constantly work with small business owners who set their target market towards the affluent crowd. If you’re not providing quality information online in a timely manner, how will you be reaching your target audience?

The affluent buyer is online many hours per day. They understand search, and can quickly find answers to their questions by doing a few searches. If you’re not there, they won’t find you.

You can blog every day, but if no one is reading, what’s the point?

How do you know if anyone is reading? Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can track what’s happening on your site.

1. Take a look at your statistics through your blog hosting company. Or set up a site statistics tracker to be able to see your results. [If you host with us, you have access to all of your stats - ask me how if you're unsure.] I’m excited to have had over 2400 unique visitors to my blog last month.

2. Check your signup rates. Whether you have an RSS feed signup, or you have a signup for an ezine or free report, watch how many people are signing up each day. We’ve been growing our signups at a rate of 45 percent per month. Your signups for RSS feeds can be through places like Feedburner. Or if you have an ezine system, you should be able to log in and look at your list statistics.

3. Search Engine Optimization - yes you can watch your blog to make sure you are achieving results. This blog currently has a pagerank of 3, and has 216 pages indexed by Google. Not bad for a blog started in April.

If you haven’t tracked your statistics before, give it a try. Just seeing how you’re growing and reaching out to new people can give you the motivation you need to keep blogging. 

Everywhere you look people are mentioning the benefits of using social sites for marketing your business. But what can it truly do for you? Is it really worth your time?

Here are 20 reasons why you should get on board with social networking:

1. Find new customers outside of your local market.

2. Teach people about your industry.

3. Showcase your expertise.

4. Connect with old friends and acquaintances.

5. Build up your list of prospective clients.

6. Build your brand.

7. Teach people about your product or service.

8. Share your opinions; having some controversy can get people talking.

9. Share case studies from current clients.

10. Gather testimonials and rave reviews.

11. Share your knowledge.

12. Share your advice.

13. Find new employees and new contracted help.

14. Connect with like minded business owners from around the world.

15.  Gain more traffic to your website.

16. Stay at the top of your industry.

17. Join groups that share common interests.

18. Niche your brand even further, making it stronger.

19. Connect your online and offline marketing efforts.

20. Find potential you never new was available.

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