Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Blog Marketing Today: Doing Whatever it Takes
Blog Marketing Today: Doing Whatever it Takes: "DOING WHATEVER IT TAKES Have YOU ever had a deadline to complete an important task...and wondering to yourself...'Am I ever going to get th..."
Doing Whatever it Takes
Have YOU ever had a deadline to complete an important task...and wondering to yourself..."Am I ever going to get through this?" Of course you have, we all have at one point or another. Whether it is completing an assignment given to us by our boss, or learning new job skills, or even finishing a class report.
We all have gone through the trials and tribulations...wondering "How the heck am I gonna get this done?" unfortunately, even in the business world, we have days trying to figure out how we are going to pull something off.
Well I am going to help you discover a few ways that you can simplify your task, and find a way to solve your problem, or at the very least make it more manageable.
The main reason many of us come up short at the end of the day, isn't because we're not smart enough, it's usually that we aren't focused enough, and asking ourselves the right questions.
First, let's talk a little about focus. I am sure your saying "Gee Curt, I am giving it my all...what else can I do?"...what else indeed! I am sure many of you have heard the saying "you can't see the forest because of the trees"..right? Well this is typically the case when it comes to problem solving, sometimes we are focused too much on the problem and not the solution.
Let me give you an actual problem that I had to help a client overcome. I had a client...(let's call him Rich for privacy purposes)...I approached Rich, and had no clue he had a business, at the time I was just starting out with a website design/marketing business. We talked for a little while and I gave him my card...to make a long story short he called me and asked me to help him with his problem. His problem was he had a successful business, but it was stagnant, and slowly decreasing. His work was incredible he had photos and testimonials from past customers. I saw the pictures and was awestruck. His problem was advertising, for years he relied on word of mouth, and some small advertising in local newspapers and yard signs. Well, I told him that my company would create an online presence for him, he was skeptical, but at the time he had no other options, so he agreed.
To make matters more interesting, his was a seasonal business, but I helped him create an online presence and told him, not to expect too much, at the time I was learning as well. I had just started dabbling in SEO and blogging at the time, and hoped, because his was a small business, that my efforts would help him.
After 12 months, he called me out off the blue, and wanted to meet with me. Well I checked his stats, his traffic to his site was minimal, and I thought, OK Curt, we will figure something out. Well to my surprise, he thanked me for doubling his business, and had more work for me to do. Was I relieved, and excited. He told me, all the new business he had received came from his website and blog. Although his was a very small niche, his blog and site brought him serious buyers for his service.
The point I am trying to make, is that we all forget to focus on new or tried solutions and remain befuddled with our dilemma. The other problem many of us have, is not seeking help, or asking the right questions.
First, you need to define what is your problem?
Second, you need to do a little research, or ask questions about what is expected?
Third, you need to figure out what solutions are available?
Fourth, you need to ask which solution is going to work best for my predicament?
Finally, you need to focus on implementing your choice.
Remember you are only human and may make poor choices...this is why it is extremely important you research available solutions. if you make a choice that is not acceptable, then redouble your efforts and try again. After all, life is a learning experience.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Blog Marketing Today: Getting the Most From Your Blog
Blog Marketing Today: Getting the Most From Your Blog: "Image via WikipediaThere are many people who blog, but aren't maximizing the available resources to make money with their blog. There are 7 ..."
Getting the Most From Your Blog
Image via Wikipedia
First of all, you need to ask yourself what niche or market am I targeting? If you are into fitness, then your content should have information about your topic. This is a huge mistake that many bloggers make. They think that ok, I like fitness, I will target every fitness product out there to make money...WRONG! Fitness encompasses many things, like diet, exercise, sports, nutrition etc. You will need to narrow it down a bit more, let's say you choose diet, well again that is a huge market and not very specific to your audience. So you can narrow it down further, what kind of diet? Atkins? Jenny Craig? or whatever is popular? So let's choose Atkins diet, what do you know about Atkins? is there a variation of Atkins diet? You will need to do some research, and discover what exactly is the Atkin's Diet, and what are people doing to make it work, or have they adopted to something easier to follow? Ok so now you get the idea, that you need to break down whatever niche you are in.
Second, is where can I find products to promote that deal with low-carb, or eating healthy. Well, there are a variety of ways you can do this, you can go to Click Bank or Commission Junction, or some other affiliate company and see what they offer. There are also affiliate programs from the manufacturer's or producers themselves. Check out their sites and see what they offer. You can also look into CPA - (Cost per Action) offers, these companies either pay you to either get people to give an email address to them, or phone number, or address; some require all information be filled out. The way they work, is they pay you for information about the customer, the customer does not need to purchase, like in affiliate programs.
Third, if your blog has quite a bit of content, you can sign up with companies like Kontera, they embed hyper links to a few words on your page, and you are compensated for advertising for them.
Fourth, if you don't have a Google Adwords account you can set one up fairly easily, and monetize your site, you may not make a lot of money, but every little bit helps.
Fifth, is promoting and pinging your blog to the blog directories, like technorati, bloglines, etc. In blogging, ping is an XML-RPC-based push mechanism by which a weblog notifies a server that its content has been updated. Many bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic, which pings multiple proprietary ping servers.
Sixth, is adding a graphic, picture, video or links in your posts to get attention from your reader as well as the search engines.
Finally, make sure your content is orignal, if you have problems with original writings, the utilize services that will supply you with fresh content, or if rewriting a piece, make sure you abide by the guidelines and copyright laws surrounding your article or post. There are article directories out there where you can use their content, as long as you don't edit anything, as well as companies that supply master resell rights, meaning you can edit their content for your purposes.
For more news and ideas about writing, blogging, and marketing your site, you can visit Blog Marketing Today and get free resources and ideas to help you generate an income online.
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