Blog Marketing - Tips and Techniques for Success - Webinar
Today I had the opportunity to sit in on a Webinar regarding Blog Marketing - Tips and Techniques for Success. At first I was wondering what type of information we would be talking about seeing I have never seen anything like this but the topics were all relevant and informative to Business owners and bloggers.
So today I will discuss most of the techniques I learned and try my best to pass on the same information that was given to me from our Webinar host, Bernie Borges.
The Webinar started off with the basics of blogging including the understanding of Web 2.0 and using this information to find and convert leads on the web. The basics of Web 2.0 are something I never understood until today. The ideal of Web 2.0 is to develop interaction between individuals on the web. In this case it’s being developed from blogging and blogs. Overall Web 2.0 is a read and write web and no longer consists of simply reading. Individuals have the opportunity to voice their opinion and not simply read the content.
What is a blog?
The general idea of a blog is to share, maintain and add content easily to the World Wide Web. This can be done using Audio, Music, Video, Pod casts and more which is then displayed on a blog.
Blog Components, what makes a blog?
RSS Feeds - (Really Simple Syndication)
Blogging Platform – The software in which your blog will run off. This normally consists of free software from word press, drupal and other free open source software platforms.
Blog Authors – These are normally the people that will share, maintain and add content to your blog.
Permalinks –
Categories – This would normally consist of targeted and specific site categories. These categories should normally consist of subjects that are related to the product or service in which your blog offers.
BlogRoll – This is used to share other related and interesting websites your readers might like that again are similar to your own.
Tags- Tags are used as “keywords” explaining what the topic article is pertaining to. The tags should be very specific to the article and not the blog site. Don’t get these tags mixed up with Meta tags there’s a difference!
Social Bookmarking- Social Bookmark sites allow yourself or others to submit your article to be shared with other people or individuals that might have an interest in the topic you’re writing about. Specifically the one I own for bloggers, Blog Engage.
Blog Strategies
Begin with research- don’t think you can simply install blogging software and start writing about anything. You must do the research and ensure your target audience is appropriate and your content remains consistent to your niche blog.
Build a list of relevant blogs- Create a list of similar blogs that Share, Add or write content that you will also be writing about. Research the topics, categories and content they write about. This will give you some ideals on what direction you should, or in some cases shouldn’t go with your own blog.
Study them- Have a look at these blogs and try to find what has created the most buzz from the readers. If you’re specific niche market is ERP Software look at the topics that have comments on them or topics that appear more popular. These are the topic you might consider adding to your very own ERP blog.
Select a theme or topic- understanding the topics and theme your blog will be about will help determine your categories and or subject you will eventually write about.
Stay focused- Remember when you pick your theme and or topics to stay focused on this niche and write article pertaining to them. As a quick example if you have a sports related blog don’t start blogging about Paris Hilton and her dog. Honestly your readers don’t care and surely didn’t come to your blog to see that information.
Don’t launch unless you’re committed- Ensure your company is willing to invest the proper time and money into launching your blog successfully. There’s nothing worse than a company that creates a blog and simply lets it sit there with no updated content! Make sure you appoint an individual to write the articles, I would even consider adding the blog activities to their job responsibility within the company.
What type of blog do I create?
Technical/Product – Will the blog be technical and regarding the products?
Thought/Leadership- Will the blog demonstrate thought and leadership?
Tips/Best practices- Will the blog consist of Tips for end users and or Best Practices?
Opinion- Will the blog be opinion specific?
Contrarian- Will the blog consist of article relating to the different point of view?
Controversy- Will the blog create and stir Controversy to its readers?
Marketing- Will the blog promote marketing ideals and or ways of advertising products or services?
Benefits of starting a blog
Low Cost – The software is free but you still need a writer!
Build Loyalty- Create loyalty from readers who can be potential clients or current customers
Marketing/PR- help market your products and create Public Relationships.
Viral Impact of Conversation- This is an example of word of mouth which spreads fast
Research- Allow someone to do research on your target product using your own information.
Competitive- Keep track of your competitors and their activities from user’s comments and more.
Value added information- Generate the ideal of added value to specific products and or services.
SEO- Create more back links to your main company website and develop leads from SEO friendly URL’s linking to website and company pages they would never have seen before you added that blog.
Blog Marketing Tips
Write Often- try and maintain a consistent flow of written articles! Your readers are loyal but when there’s no blog to read and one was expected look out! You might loose more readers then you can get without remaining consistent!
Use Keywords- Develop keywords related to your site. Use these keywords in the article, tags and topic title!
Link to other blogs- Link to other blogs your reader will be interested in. Trust me this work and they might even link back to you!
Share Content- Use social networking website to create more back links to your article! Try and keep the topic title similar but change it a bit so Google doesn’t think its duplicate content.
Ping Google and Technorati- use these services when you update your blog allowing the information to be cached faster.
Overall I couldn’t remember all the information regarding what Bernie said and something I missed but really wanted to know about was these Centric URL’s he talked about!
Does anyone understand what they are and how to implement them properly into our websites?
Hope you can use this information and a big thanks goes out to Bernie who delivered an outstanding performance on Blog Marketing - Tips and Techniques for Success.
Thanks
Brian
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Add it to your blog too!
Brian,
Nice summary of my webinar. The main point I made about the URLs is that you can control the name of your permalink (the URL of your blog post). By using keywords in your permalink you can rank well for those keywords. For example, this blog post has driven a lot of traffic to my website because of the URL: http://www.findandconvert.com/blog/2008/the-risk-factors-in-social-media-marketing/.
I hope that clarifies it. BTW, you have a nice blog! Keep up the good work.
Bernie
Bernie Borgess last blog post..Static or Dynamic URLs Best for SEO?