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Posts Tagged ‘Blogs’

Many big companies build the blog as a complement to the company’s official website. The goal is to more easily interact with consumers, and with a more casual manner. Blogs are also a means to introduce the beginner businessmen products or services. If managed properly, a blog can attract attention to the business, in addition to reaching new customers, and convert existing customers into fans. Take a look at brands like Apple, BlackBerry, or Crocs, they not only make consumers use goods, but also affect people in the neighborhood to participate wear.

However, creating a blog for small business is still not easy. It takes hard work, ability to think creatively about your business, and develop a blog that is read by many fans. If you avoid the five mistakes in the following blog, your chance to build a successful business blog is not just a dream anymore.

Make a blog to announce your product or business, with an original way of writing and more casual. Then, use the blog to write things other than business. Share your thoughts about the industry, how the working life from day to day, and provide tips and tricks to do business based on your experience.

When having trouble finding an idea of what to write, you can invite your team to discuss, or a trip to the mall to observe the behavior of visitors. You can even lure customers to provide input on topics to be written.

Communication should go both ways. Therefore, respond to reader comments, both praise, give advice, or even criticize. Your willingness to be connected with the reader will develop a community, who are faithful will provide quality feedback. You also need to participate in the conversation on other blogs in the same industry. It’s useful to introduce blogging your brand, and reach new readers.

Blog Themes – How to Add Creativity to Your Blog

Themes are a sort of subliminal background to a blog. They provide a reading environment, and sometimes interesting, or not so interesting, features. The trouble with themes is choosing something which is right for your blog and provides a good platform for your SEO, article range and includes operational functions. Whether your blog is about car insurance or goldfish, the motto here is to stick to the game plan, and integrate the theme with the whole blog efficiently.

Simpler, home made content, or what, for your blog?

Templates have exactly one thing going for them- They’re functional. They provide a consistent background and built in features. Fine, but in terms of market image, many templates leave a lot to be desired. If you’ve seen some of the themes used by graphic artists, you’ll know what’s possible. Even basic web pages can have quite incredible backgrounds.

These backgrounds are simply slotted on as images and overwritten. They’re interesting, effective, and can also help in terms of the color scheme. Some color schemes are a bit too “corporate”. Others can best be described as staggeringly unambitious, very ho-hum non-efforts.

To give some idea of the issues, a basic scan of a good image, as a text background, can blow any monotone mess out of the water. Many themes include paper, solid color, wood grain and other features which look nice enough at first but become repetitive, un-variegated, and let’s face it, dull.

The business theme is fine for business. It says “We’re here to sell.” It has no particular claims to artistic or any other sort of merit, and is simply functional. For blogs, however, that’s often well short of what’s needed, particularly in very articulate blogs. Blogs are individualized by nature, and a “Me too” theme like a business theme can be exactly what people need to see to go straight back to their search and keep looking.

Theme madness?

Themes can be overstated, oversold and overcrowded with content. They can also be underdone to the point at which the reader decides the blog is uninteresting or that the blogger’s not trying too hard. (The difference between minimalism and bone lazy is also debatable, but if you’ve seen one of those “wastelands with text” you’d probably agree that visually those themes aren’t too encouraging.)

The trouble with conventional wisdom about themes is that everything is supposed to be solved with a theme. Not likely. Themes used properly are an asset, but as a sort of cure-all for blog content issues and antiquated features, they leave a lot to be desired. The problem is that themes, when standardized, tend to become one of the crowd. That’s lousy marketing, and having a few mindless graphic patterns swirling around doesn’t help a lot, either.

Getting out of the theme dilemma

There’s another person affected by themes- You, the blogger. “Great, terrific, exciting, whatever”, you have to look at these things. The line of least resistance, for once, is the line of greatest reward. Find something which really appeals to you strongly. Something you can look at forever. It can be a picture of your favorite film star, a series of cultural icons, just make sure you can look at it and love it.

The new rules of marketing include some pretty exotic terms.  News releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media are just few.  You might have heard of one or two of them but likely they are new terms to you.  They are all part of the new paradigm of internet marketing.  We will take a closer look at them and how they can help you make money online for your business internet money online opportunity.

Here are five terms you should understand to help your business internet money online opportunity to make more money online.

(1)  News releases.

News or press releases historically were public relations (PR) presentations or news articles to attract favorable media attention and publicity for products or events. They were for a closed door select group.  In the world of the internet they have changed. News releases can help your business internet money online opportunity. They should target your buyers.  They should utilize your keywords.  Whenever possible utilize links to your landing pages or web sites and press releases will help drive customers to your opportunity.

(2)  Blogs.

The word blog is a term that came from “weblog”.  It is a type of website that incorporates commentary by visitors and users at the site to exchange ideas, material, graphics or media. They are a very powerful tool to get customers to learn about your product or services.  They can be used as a landing page to drive your traffic to promote a sale.  Blogs are very effective in helping your business internet money online opportunity.

(3)  Podcasts.

We all have likely heard the term podcast.  A podcast is similar to a broadcast of information.  They can be downloaded to your computer, cell phone, or devices that accept electronic media.  They are very effective for providing a short and brief explanation of your product or service.  Years ago you would receive a cassette with information to market you a product.  In the world of the internet they have evolved to podcasts for you to provide an easy source of information about your product or service.

(4) Viral marketing.

Viral marketing implies something that is transmitted like a virus.  In fact, think of social networks such as facebook and twitter as the host and the exchange of information as the virus that spreads through the social networks. You now understand viral marketing.  Viral promotions include video clips, eBooks, brandable software, images and even text messages.  All these forms of viral marketing can be used to effectively promote your business internet money online opportunity.

(5) Online media.

Online media refers to information such as audio, video and other content distributed on the internet.  This form of information is transmitted very efficiently and effectively on the web.  For your business internet money online opportunity, online media can be a wonderful way to present product information and educate your customers all about your product and service.

Top Email Marketing Blogs

This article contains information on 3 of the top email marketing blogs. In no particular order, these blogs provide valuable commentary for critical challenges facing email marketers. Some content is suited for intermediate level marketers, while other posts will appeal to advanced email marketing practitioners.

1. http://email-marketing-strategies.com by Forest Bronzan

Overview: The Email Marketing Strategies blog provides analysis of email campaigns & strategies implemented by name-brand companies; mostly retail brands. The blog also provides tips and insight for a broad range of email marketing strategy.

About the Author (from the blog): Forest Bronzan is an internet marketing strategist and entrepreneur located in Redlands CA. Forest has extensive experience leading marketing and business development for international startups, along with developing strategic frameworks and deployment strategies for a wide range of email marketing programs.

2. www.banane.com/workblog by Anna Billstrom

Overview: The Adventures in Email Marketing blog covers a broad range of topics on email marketing, with additional discussion of SEM and SMM strategy.

About the Author (from the blog): I started this blog to talk about the issues and concerns surrounding ethical and effective email marketing. I’ve been focusing on email marketing since 1999. I have a background in OLAP datamart design, software development, integrated systems development, customer datamart modeling, and application integration. While I have done Web 2.0 and internet marketing consulting for startups, usually my contracts are with corporations that have large datasets.

3. http://blog.wordtothewise.com by Laura Atkins

Overview: The Word to the Wise blog has in depth discussion on a plethora of email marketing practices. Archived post topics range from authentication and deliverability to list management, feedback loops, and segmentation.

About the Author (from the blog): Laura Atkins is a founding partner of the anti-spam consultancy and software firm Word to the Wise. I have over seven years of experience in tracing Internet abuse and am a recognized leader in the anti-spam arena. At Word to the Wise, I advise clients on how to manage mailing risks, to respond to spam complaints, interact with ISPs, and navigate the ever changing and challenging world of email delivery. I also act as a neutral arbitrator during discussions with ISPs and blocklists.