As we discussed last time, there are many things you can do for your business by blogging.
Again, a Blog is one of the simplest and most effective ways to catalog your business.
I’d like to share from my own personal Blogging experience.
For a couple of years I maintained a personal Blog about my life, the things I did, and the thoughts I had. It was a lot of fun at times, even when I felt like I had to post, but didn’t feel like it. Sometimes I would sit tapping my fingers wondering how to word my thoughts. And at other times Blog posts would just fly off my fingers 2-3 times a day. I learned as I went and met all kinds of cool people from around the world.
That’s the thing about Blogs- the world is a smaller place. You get to connect to other people on different levels. Whether I was posting about sitting in rush-hour traffic or about the latest political elections, people responded. I would check out their Blogs and comment on their posts as well. Before you know it I was making friends and acquaintances 2-3 levels deep, and sometimes more! Simply by posting on my Blog on relevant and semi-relevant topics of the day hundreds of people viewed my blog, left comments, and kept the dialogue going. There was a stretch where maintaining my personal blog felt like a part-time job! The amount of people you can connect to is mind-boggling.
Through my personal Blogging experience I’ve seen what being active online can do. I discovered new thoughts and ideas, new music and art, and even made true-real life friends through my old Blog. It’s a really powerful medium, and it can be just as effective and important for a business. Even yours!
Now for a few tips that I’ve learned.
Blog Tips and Tricks.
- Write now. Can’t over emphasize this!
- Be relevant. With my personal blog at times I was accidently relevant. But by being relevant to your topic or niche you can really build traffic and communication with readers/customers.
- Be consistent. Don’t let more than a few days go by without posting. If you post daily, post daily. If bi-weekly, bi-weekly. Readers/customers will anticipate your regular updates. As will search engines!
- Respond. Can’t repeat this tip too much either! Sometimes you can be buried under an avalanche of comments, and that’s okay. Try to respond as much as you can and keep the convo going. People love to talk about things they’re interested in, especially if they’re interested in your product or service.
- Link. Link, link, link, link, link. It’s always important to link to other sites. Your sales site, other sites of your company, customers sites, business-related sites, even random sites that you talk about. For example, if you’re discussing a topic you can mention Wikipedia.org about the topic for the reader to find more information. People, and search engines, love links. The more you link, the more backlinks to your Blog and site you may find.
Another trick is just to write the post. I took my ideas I had for this Quick Tips and Tricks series and began this post. More ideas popped in my head, and this entry turned out a little longer (and better I hope!) than I intended. Another beneficial aspect of constant Blogging. You get used to it, and you find yourself easily writing posts!
For more on blogging check out Posts By Larry for excellent content and strategy.
We’ve been a bit Blog themed lately here at The Max Pro Blog… which makes sense, as this is a blog, but it’s also good for many other reasons.
A Blog is one of the simplest and most effective ways to catalog your business.
You can keep track of ideas, drop announcements, discuss promotional material, keep people up-to-speed on the doings of what you do, discuss: content, sales, customer service… and much more.
In our post-modern 21st century world the Blog becomes the store Greeter, the Customer Service rep and the likable Sales-person all at once. It’s a great way to share, connect, and sell to the customer.
Blog Tips and Tricks.
- Write now. Write often. (As in person, you have to engage the reader/customer.)
- Be professional. Be yourself. (We all like genuine people.)
- Learn your niche. Present your knowledge or service that the customer learns something.
- Interact. (Dialogue on a Blog is crucial. Else it’s just a regular website, not a Blog.)
- When a Blogger, Do as the Bloggers Do. (Visit other blogs and forums in your niche and interact!)
- Have fun. If you’re not having fun Blogging, likely readers/customers won’t either.
Once you have a basic understanding of what the Blogging world is like and you’re writing consistent Blog updates it will really grow on you. Before you know it, you’ll have quite a bit of material, active commenters, and increased traffic and sales.
Whether your Blog is driving massive traffic or if it’s just a nice PR/Customer Service arm of your business, or simply a way to chit-chat with customers, it will be an important part of your business in our rapidly evolving electronic society. Exciting huh?
We’ll be updating the Max Pro Blog more on this topic – Quick Tips and Tricks. And look for future Blog related posts from our excellent Blog contributers.
Part 2 to the first post I made recently. I know it’s taken me longer than I hoped to write this, but here it is!
In the last post I talked about how Reading and Writing will help you not only overcome writer’s block, but also make you a better writer overall. And this isn’t just with Blogging, but with any type of writing.
I really can’t reiterate how important this is.. but I’ll try.
Read and Write. Write and Read. And Save.
That’s all. Just keep reading other people’s Blogs for ideas (and read anything in general) and keep writing. Even if you feel it’s not that great, write it anyway. Keep a Word file or Notepad file of ideas and posts you don’t wanna publish that you’ve written to combat Writer’s block. You’ll have a collection of random ideas and rough drafts. And once in awhile, go through these files and you may discover future post ideas as well!
Patronize Don’t Plagiarize.
Another tip to get through Writer’s Block is to read other blog posts, articles, forum posts, stories, etc and take their idea and base your post on it. Don’t rip off other posts! No no no. But you can take the topic, write it in your own words, add your own thoughts, ideas and stories, and post it.
This method can also teach you more about certain topics, and even writing techniques, that you can slowly (or quickly if you’d like) incorporate into your own Blogging. It’s a good way to get around blocks and get around times when you have no idea what to Blog about anymore. (Hint- Sometimes you just run out of steam and feel clueless about what to post. Good news is, once you push through it, you’ll find it easy to post again for quite awhile!)
You can even sometimes approach other Bloggers and ask them (via comment or email) if you can repost their post on your blog. They’ll usually say yes. You can even copy 2-3 paragraphs of their article (crediting them of course) and write something like, “To continue reading, visit John Doe’s excellent Blog post ‘Example Here’” providing a link back to his Blog. That way, you have a Blog post! And links between your two blogs!
Some Other Tricks.
Just believe in yourself. Read, Write, Save, Incorporate Ideas By Others, and Do It. Don’t let a few moments or days of frustration lead to letting your Blog die, and perhaps your business as well.
Writer’s Block does fade away. It truly does. Just believe it fades, and half the battle is already won!
Look forward to future posts from me about Writing Techniques and Tips in General.
Also see the Posts- By Larry Category on this Blog for excellent Blogging related posts by our Article/Blog/Writing expert Larry Smith! And drop by to see any new posts we may have made each day and week!
What will get you traffic in the blogging arena, is the quality and consistency of your blog posts. Create a regular blogging schedule and make sure you and any authors that blog for you, are following it. This will create a sense of anticipation in your readers and encourage other thought leaders in the blogging world to interact with you.
Get passionate about blogging and start writing regular content, making sure it is authentic (be yourself). In order to engage with potential leads, industry leaders and other bloggers you need have a blog that encourages conversations. Brian Rogers wrote, “Without interesting content to link to, you’ll just be sharing other people’s content on your network which is important for growing it, but it won’t get you traffic.”
Many “Newbies” in the world of marketing are drowning in a sea of information. Data, data, data and more data coming from every direction is so overwhelming that they become literally dizzy or even comatose and could drown in the deluge. It is also so sad because so much of that data is misinformation. Data problems manifest themselves in many forms causing Internet business slow-downs and failures.
Individuals as well as companies can suffer from too much data, or data that is hard to comprehend, sometimes confusing and frequently untrustworthy. The ability to take appropriate action and meet with marketing success depends on getting through the data “menagerie”. Getting through this accumulative data mess is imperative. One must find the strategic information that is needed so that the correct information can be delivered to the right person(s) at the right time and in the right format.
These are the four strategic keys to meeting with success in the “dizzy data” arena. First is getting the best information that is available. Too many businesses, sales teams and individual blog marketers settle for less than the best. Whether it is related to product development or statistical information pertinent to business positioning, the old inadequate data, will not work.
The second key is to get the best information to the right prospective customers. Paying the price in terms of choosing the customers one will work with, is both cost effective and makes for a happier business sales team (which will then not have to deal with dead-beat and time-consuming individuals).
The third important component is getting the sales message to potential customers in a timely manner. Good auto-responder systems will allow frequent and pertinent information to reach the customer base as well as reaching potential customers whom can be converted to purchasers.
The fourth and final key is having the best format for the information delivery. To put it in a nutshell, the marketing information must be simple to read, easy to understand and timely, to convert receivers into buyers.
I watched my employer turn a $1500.00 simple informational booklet into $25,000.00 in two weeks back in the early 1990’s, because she told a niche market how to make money using these four keys. Today she is very wealthy from continuing to repeat this process over and over again using both direct response and Internet marketing mediums. Get the data access and delivery right and success will follow.
Innovation has always been a key to business success and wealth creation. In the past innovation was primarily linked to new inventions like Walk-mans, I Pods, and yes, even pet rocks. Today in the Internet/Blogging arena, innovation has shifted to a global concept of ad campaigns and marketing strategies. A major marketing problem in the 21st century is “Invisible Constraints.” They can be as small as business meetings that start first thing on a Monday morning, to huge emotional barriers that prevent people from taking small steps to financial success.
Have you ever been around a circus or zoo and seen a huge elephant tied down to a very small stake. This is a great analogy of the invisible constraint problem. When the elephants are small they try to pull out of the stake and they fail. The attempts to get free are very painful to the small animals and when they get large, they never try to pull out of the stake again. This parallels the Internet marketing problem of limiting ourselves by what we have been in the past, instead of going for what we are capable of achieving. Like the elephant, which is anchored down and thinks it is impossible to be free, humans are also affected by such invisible constraints. They become emotional barriers that prevent us from being innovative in our blog marketing. This problem looks like an “Elephantal Constraint”, but action can be taken to overcome this dilemma.
Determine if there are any invisible barriers that cannot be crossed. Then take action to cross them. Break away from the invisible ropes and stakes. Do it! Get rid of those mental barriers. Crush those huge elephantal constraints. As they are destroyed we will begin destroying any physical constraints to our blog marketing success, like lack of capacity or lack of sales. We were created for success! Remember, our thoughts create our life.
Many blog marketers and even company marketing teams are failing to reach niche markets that enhance and speed up their marketing success. In the face of highly competitive business conditions and limited resources for marketing, leaders will need to know how to identify target markets that provide the fastest and greatest likelihood for success.
Segmentation marketing is the key to this problem. By targeting segments in the marketing arena, bloggers can develop a very competitive positioning and focus those limited resources most effectively. Markets need to be segmented by value. Prioritize your marketing based on the potential customer buying power. This will permit reaching potential customers with products that best serve their buying power.
Markets need to be segmented by customer needs as well. This can be real or perceived needs. Remember that buying is very emotional. If a person has a perception that something is good or right for them, they will take the steps to acquire that product because, it is in that time frame, a need for them. For example, how many weight loss or exercise products are purchased and really never used. All because of a perceived need to have the product that will magically make a difference, just like they saw it on television. I love the ads for Bowflex. The users, both male and female have perfect fat-free bodies that supposedly have been produced by using this machinery. The potential customer wants to look like this and will pay big bucks to get the miracle-working machine. Diet and other issues are not advertised as a part of this perfect body scenario. Get your Bowflex and in 90 days look like the paid models on that commercial. What amazes me are the number of Bowflex units that buyers purchased and now have advertised for sale by Craigslist, Ebay, newspaper ads and other media. These units are purchased frequently by perceived need and are purchased again (used) by the same process.
Survey your customer base or design a market research study to go after potential buyers. The key here is to identify profitable and reachable groups of customer segments. High quality list brokers have and can do this for you at a price. Learning how to do segmentation marketing and replicate the process time and time again is far more advantageous to bloggers. This should also help the company to better design products and service offerings to meet customer needs.
Help in identifying targeted markets is not difficult, nor expensive. Go to Google on your computer and put in Segmentation Marketing Courses and do a search. Myriads of course offerings online at as little as $30.00 can empower a business or individual marketers to meet with success in the marketing game. IIP also offers ongoing webinar training and Zoomica training strategies that can assist in segmentation marketing. Go for it!
In the world of blogging marketing, it is frequently the little things that kill momentum, hinder achieving goals, or impeding home-based business growth. Having a limited business mindset is not a small thing and is one of the most destructive problems to marketing success. By limited mindset we are talking about the issue of listening to the wrong people.
There are so many gurus, so many magic buttons, so many perfect programs and so many marketing strategies, all designed to make everyone instant millionaires. In most cases the only one getting rich is the creator of the “program” itself. It is amazing the testimonies of blogging marketers who are making astronomical sums of money from these programs and when closely examined, they spend almost as much (on marketing) as they earn. Thank goodness there are tried and true courses and programs like IIP that can help blogging marketers and other Internet business owners meet with real financial success. Mindset is ninety percent of the equation for success in every area of life. The limited mindset will wreck havoc with business success.
Individuals who listen to the wrong people will spin their wheels with “false efficiencies” and not target real success. Hours will be wasted in front of a computer but only a small fraction of capabilities will be achieved. The marketer will get stuck dealing with the same problems over and over again holding him/her back from making any real progress. I have watched these scenarios take place time and again because the business mindset has not been established.
Rectifying the limited mindset is not difficult for most aspiring business entrepreneurs. The answer is to get rid of the “stinking thinking” and actions that cause the blogger to do the same things over and over again and not meet with success. There are good CD’s and books on the business mindset. The Internet is loaded with articles and materials that can help the limited mindset problem. I am blessed, as my employer for about eight years, my daughter, is so gifted in this area of helping people. Her book, “When You Can Walk on Water, Why Take The Boat”, as well as other motivational material turned me and many thousands of others around. I encourage you to win the battle of the mindset, and you too, can walk on the water of success.
If you’re anything like me, writing a sentence can sometimes feel like digging a ditch in Southern Florida or running a marathon outside of Phoenix, Arizona: Long, frustrating, and leaving you with nothing but a desire to sit in front of the TV with a cold drink. And for beginning writers, it can be like running a marathon (and digging ditches along the way) in Dubai, in the Middle East, which has the desert heat of Phoenix and the humidity of the Everglades. Intimidating. You don’t know where to begin.
But luckily for us blog writers, we have saving graces that can really help us in our desert like writing blocks. We have our oasis water holes, shades, lemonade and Gatorade, and attendees holding posh umbrellas over our heads.
Here’s where my writer’s block inspired desert-humidity metaphor fails (woo-hoo!) and we get right down to business.
Reading and Writing (No Arithmetic.)
The best cure I know of for writer’s block for beginners is… reading and writing. If you have no idea what to say, or how to say it, simply Google related blog topics and peruse away. After you see how it’s done and get a few ideas going, the next step is simple. Just write it. Really, that’s it.
Read. Novelist Stephen King says one real insiders tip to writing well is to read. Read a lot. He says to read not only well written books, but poorly written ones too. Then you get a sense of middle ground, and often you find yourself there. So Google away, read this blog, other blogs, blogs related to your topic and unrelated. You’ll begin to see things you can write about in your own blog entries.
Write. Your first entry or three may not be Pulitzer material, but it’s something. Something that gets better with repetition and experience. And one of the coolest things about the Blogosphere is that people don’t want brilliantly written blogs. They want blogs written by real people just like them.
So write, write, write. And read, read, read. And laugh too. Because sometimes we get so caught up in what to say or write it almost becomes comical and we need a mind-break to get started again. So throw on a Johnny Cash record (I assume everyone is a Cash fan) and read a few blogs related to your topic (making money, internet marketing, mindset, Phoenix Arizona, etc) and write. If you don’t think it’s the most winning blog entry, that’s okay. Post it anyway. In time you’ll get a little better and realize that you weren’t so bad to begin with.
I will write a 2nd part to this entry soon and go a little more into detail.
An excellent companion to this entry is by our Blog expert Larry regarding writing meaningful content:
20th
Blogging 101 – Quick Tips and Tricks (p.2)
Hello Max Pro’ers,
The 2nd part to my last last Blog Tips post!
As we discussed last time, there are many things you can do for your business by blogging.
Again, a Blog is one of the simplest and most effective ways to catalog your business.
I’d like to share from my own personal Blogging experience.
For a couple of years I maintained a personal Blog about my life, the things I did, and the thoughts I had. It was a lot of fun at times, even when I felt like I had to post, but didn’t feel like it. Sometimes I would sit tapping my fingers wondering how to word my thoughts. And at other times Blog posts would just fly off my fingers 2-3 times a day. I learned as I went and met all kinds of cool people from around the world.
That’s the thing about Blogs- the world is a smaller place. You get to connect to other people on different levels. Whether I was posting about sitting in rush-hour traffic or about the latest political elections, people responded. I would check out their Blogs and comment on their posts as well. Before you know it I was making friends and acquaintances 2-3 levels deep, and sometimes more! Simply by posting on my Blog on relevant and semi-relevant topics of the day hundreds of people viewed my blog, left comments, and kept the dialogue going. There was a stretch where maintaining my personal blog felt like a part-time job! The amount of people you can connect to is mind-boggling.
Through my personal Blogging experience I’ve seen what being active online can do. I discovered new thoughts and ideas, new music and art, and even made true-real life friends through my old Blog. It’s a really powerful medium, and it can be just as effective and important for a business. Even yours!
Now for a few tips that I’ve learned.
Blog Tips and Tricks.
- Write now. Can’t over emphasize this!
- Be relevant. With my personal blog at times I was accidently relevant. But by being relevant to your topic or niche you can really build traffic and communication with readers/customers.
- Be consistent. Don’t let more than a few days go by without posting. If you post daily, post daily. If bi-weekly, bi-weekly. Readers/customers will anticipate your regular updates. As will search engines!
- Respond. Can’t repeat this tip too much either! Sometimes you can be buried under an avalanche of comments, and that’s okay. Try to respond as much as you can and keep the convo going. People love to talk about things they’re interested in, especially if they’re interested in your product or service.
- Link. Link, link, link, link, link. It’s always important to link to other sites. Your sales site, other sites of your company, customers sites, business-related sites, even random sites that you talk about. For example, if you’re discussing a topic you can mention Wikipedia.org about the topic for the reader to find more information. People, and search engines, love links. The more you link, the more backlinks to your Blog and site you may find.
Another trick is just to write the post. I took my ideas I had for this Quick Tips and Tricks series and began this post. More ideas popped in my head, and this entry turned out a little longer (and better I hope!) than I intended. Another beneficial aspect of constant Blogging. You get used to it, and you find yourself easily writing posts!
For more on blogging check out Posts By Larry for excellent content and strategy.
Until next time,
Good Blogging!
- Ryan Travis, Blogger and Social Marketer
www.maxprosystem.com
Tags: Blog, Blogging, Blogging 101, comment, Commenters, Feedback, How To Blog, Max Pro System, maxprosystem, Mindset, Personal Blog, Relevant, Strategy, Tips, Tricks, Write, Writer's Block
Posted in Blog Marketing, Blogging - How To, Posts By- Ryan Travis | 1 Comment »