Improving Your Customer Relationship Management by with Blogging Technology

Before I address the following questions: What is a blog? and What can a blog do for your business?, let me pose a few "What if . . ." questions to you.

Keeping in mind that before your prospects and customers buy from you, they need to know you, like you, and trust you. In other words, they need to know, whether overtly or covertly, that they have a trusting and ongoing relationship with you. What better way to accomplish for them to get to know you, trust you, and like you than with a blog?

Now, here are my "What if . . ." questions:
* What if less than two minutes after creating and publishing your blog, it were to be promoted to thousands of prospects without any extra effort or cost on your part?
* What if your blog gave you immediate access to hundreds of international prospects?
* What if you had immediate access to hundreds of prospects in your city, state, or country who had interests and hobbies similar to yours?
* What if every time someone clicks on a hyperlinked keyword in your Profile that describes your hobbies, occupation, industry, favorite books, movies, music, or artist, your blog pops up?
* What if every time you left a comment on someone elses blog, you could leave a hyperlink to your website, blog, or email? (a mini no-cost commercial!)
* What if whenever someone enters your name or business name (completely or partially) into a major search engine, your website or blog pops up in their search results?
* What if every time you post content on your blog, it would bypass the spam filters and instantaneously appear on your subscribers desktop without any extra effort or cost on your part? (- an excellent opportunity to get your sales, special messages, or time-sensitive announcements into their hands, or actually in front of their eyes!)
* What if your satisfied customers had the opportunity to place their self-generated testimonies on your blog? (Although some will take the initiative to do so, others might need encouragement. That's all right. Just make an incentive opportunity of it! Offer some incentive for their efforts.)
By now you should be beginning to see the powerful marketing potential a blog offers you. These are just some of the powerful customer relationship management features a blog offers you.
But wait! There's yet more!
* What if you were to combine these powerful features with other online and offline efforts such as a blogathon, teleseminar, webinar, online articles, and others?
* What if doing so would enhance your customer relationship management?
* What if doing so would decrease returns and refunds?
* What if doing so would increase sales?

Think about it! I realize that successful marketing and sales are still high-touch entities; however, I also realize that when you combine your high-tech efforts with your high-touch efforts, you're bound to be successful!!!
Now to answer the original questions, What is a blog? and What can a blog do for your business?:

A blog, short of web log, is an interactive web-based journal that encourages participation from viewers. It looks like and does everything a website does and more! A blog serves as an excellent supplement to your website and other marketing efforts. Entries, called posts, are published by date on the page according to your predetermined quantity and are archived in the margin according to your predetermined frequency.
A blog offers your business countless marketing options. Specifically, a blog:

* gives viewers, prospects, customers, and subscribers who might have had difficulty in the past immediate access to you.
* helps to reduce your time spend distributing emails and other messages.
* improves your content delivery rates by 100%.
* improves your search engine rankings.
* publishes constantly fresh content.
* bypasses spam filters completely.
* improves your online visibility.
* enhances your web presence.
* generates more visitors.
and more . . .

So, if you don't already have a blog, I only have one question for you: What are you waiting for? !?

Don't let this cutting-edge technology, this powerful marketing tool, pass you by. Online companies are popping up all over the internet offering you free blogs. My recommendation is that you grab one, or two or more! Most, if not all, are extremely easy to create, but may be time-consuming, according to your already hectic schedule, to maintain.

If that's the case in your situation, you might want to call in outside help. Consider the high school computer techie next door, or the college-age computer-major son or daughter of a friend who could always use a few extra bucks.

I leave you with this wish: May you always be successful in looking for and using new and creative ways to maximize your earning potential.

Remember: When you maximize your potential, we all win! When you dont, we all lose.

Manage Your Business’ Blog

 

In the learning center today, we’d like to re-introduce a few business tips to help you manage your company’s blog.  As you know (or heard), an effective blog that is filled with high quality content can significantly drive website traffic and revenue into your business.  However, without efficient and strategic plans to manage your business blog, your target audience will not develop the relationship with your company that you truly deserve.
With all of that said, successful blogging has helped countless businesses develop an impressive and immediate line of communication between the employees and clientele (both current and prospective). We talk a lot about driving traffic to your blog and/or site with quality content and interesting topics. We have talked (and will talk more) about how to track your sites statistics. However, the most basic key to having a successful blog is effective management.
Managing a blog, in a lot of ways, is like managing a business – start with a solid base and branch out. Take a look at these 10 quick tips to manage your blog:

1. Make A Plan — It’s important that you start out (or continue) your blog that you establish a viable plan or schedule. Some things to consider as you create this organizational tool is: (1) how much time is needed to be consistent with the blog, (2) who is going to be involved in writing/editing the blog content, (3) what is the overall goal.
2. Be Flexible — As important as it is to stick to the plan, it is important that you can adapt that plan to achieve the same overall goal. For example, if you are getting lots of traffic and interest on a specific topic, stray from the original schedule to elaborate on that topic for your audience. Remember that this blog is not just for you to get your name out, but you are providing quality content that your audience/clientele want.
3. Categories and Tags — One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make is using categories and tags inappropriately. Categories should be broad descriptions of what your blog post; think about them as a handful of navigational drawers for your blog posts. Along with this, only use one or two categories per post. Tags are additions to your categories, and you should always try to use the same tags repeatedly to help searches for specific topics. Typically, under ten tags are suggested per post to maximize search possibilities.
4. Use Your Blog Stats — It’s important for you to check your blog stats daily. I will, however, preface that statement with don’t just sit there and stare at your stats. You have great information in your stats through the blog as well as through Google Analytics. Take advantage of the reports and adapt your current plan to take advantage of the knowledge you have in front of you.
5. Create Time for Social Networking — The bottom line is that blogging isn’t just about writing posts; it is also about networking through other sites. Set aside some time for you to visit these sites (like Twitter), and spread the word of your blog by adding quality networking experiences with the rest of the blogosphere.
6. React to Positive or Neutral Comments — Obviously you are going to want to respond to your comments if they are positive…after all, it’s a pat on the back for you. However, let those positive comments build off of each other and you can respond to all of them as a group at the end of the day. The only time that I would suggest you respond to a comment immediately is….
7. React to Negative Comments — It’s almost inevitable that you will receive some sort of criticism during your blogging experience; you can’t make everyone happy, right?  Respond to this type of feedback immediately and efficiently. Make sure that you remain positive (don’t get defensive), clarify and unclear points that are pointed out by the comments, and assure the visitor that you will look into the issue and respond if you do not know the immediate answer.
8. Links to the Chain — Inbound and outbound links are some of the most important aspects of running (and managing) a blog. How you link things can significantly alter a visitor’s experience with your site, though. Make sure that all of your internal links (links that connect to other pages or posts in your site) stay within the same page while the external links (links that connect to other sites) open in another browser window. Allowing external links to open in a separate browser allows your visitor to easily maintain their experience with your site.
9. Spread the Word — As a blogger you need to stay abreast to the top industry blogs out there. They will show you all of the industry trends and deliver some of the most relevant up to date news that is pertinent to your clientele/audience. However, don’t try to reinvent the wheel – repost or post about the wheel and link to the source. I will emphasize this point – link to the source. Your audience will appreciate that you took the time to relay information that you have found to them. You have just made their lives easier.
10. Be Consistent — Managing a blog can be a very daunting task. Between sticking to the plan, altering that plan, reading other blogs, maintaining your links, and everything else you will have to be very consistent with your blog. This will also help you establish and maintain a solid audience that will keep returning for more.

While effectively managing your business’ blog is a difficult task, it’s not unreachable.  In fact, if you implement the ten tips listed above, you can realize success fairly easily.  However, if you don’t have the time or patience to manage your company’s blog, make sure you hire the right marketing and branding partner that will enhance your online (and offline) image to your target audience.  In fact, contact us for more information on how we can walk with you hand-in-hand down the path to blogging success.

Blogging Goals : Specific Targets vs Sustained Growth

“When you started blogging for money, what amount of traffic were you aiming for?”
This was a question asked of me recently in conversation by a newer blogger. The reason they asked was that they were wanting to come up with a number to aim for, at which they knew they could become a full-time blogger.
As I reflected on the early days of my own entrepreneurial blogging, I realized that I never had a goal like that. My goal was never a certain amount of traffic, or even a certain amount of money.
My goals were always more about growing my blog’s readership (and income) by a certain percentage each month. The percentage that I was aiming for varied a bit over time, but the goal was sustained growth over a long period of time.
I realized early on that, even though my first blogs had relatively small readerships and income levels, if I could increase traffic and income by 10-20% per month over a year—or even longer—the idea of ‘exponential growth’ would take over.

The calculations

Here are the calculations that were behind my goals.
Early on I was earning $10 per month. It didn’t seem like a lot but I realized that if I could increase that by 20% every month over a year, I’d be earning $89.16 per month at the end of 12 months.
That’s still not a massive amount (as much as a part-time job in those days, perhaps), but do the calculations on 20% growth each month over another 12 months, and at the end of that time you’re earning $794.96 per month.
Do it for another 12 months and you’re up over $7000 per month.
Do the same calculations on 30% growth and after three years you’re earning over six figures a month.

Is it realistic?

I can only really speak for myself, but this approach certainly worked for me—particularly early on in my blogging.
Each month my goal was to see increases in my traffic and income. I never really set a specific monthly goal, but in the back of my mind, I was always looking for at least 10% growth as a bare minimum—though I was aiming much higher.
Some months I scraped in at the 10% level, while other months it would be a lot higher—some months early on saw my income jump up over 100% in a month!
Of course, there were also occasional months where things went pear-shaped, and for one reason or another traffic and income fell. The key in these months was to not give up—to keep aiming to get things back up to where they were previously.
Today, things are a little different. After a number of years of blogging, this kind of growth can get more difficult from month to month. I’m still aiming for growth each month but due to the nature of blogging, my income is up and down depending upon what products are being launched and what we’re promoting.
Having said that, over time my goal is still sustained growth. I’m just looking less at month-by-month figures, and focusing upon quarter-by-quarter and even year-by-year results to see that upward trend growth.

What’s your approach?

How do you approach goal-setting with your blog? Are you looking for specific amounts of traffic and or income, or do you approach it some other way?

How to Get Backlinks - 3 Easy Ways That Will Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

Easy Backlinks That Will Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

Ranking high in Google is mostly a matter of two things. A good title tag for your page and quality incoming links that have your keyword in the anchor text. Tweaking your titles is easy, but where do you get some easy backlinks that will boost your search engine rankings? Here are a couple of places to start.

1. Social Bookmarking
An easy way to make sure all your best content is quickly indexed and gets a few decent backlinks is to bookmarking via a few strong social bookmarking sites. As an added bonus, doing this regularly will also result in quite a bit of traffic.
For one of my niche sites, StumbeUpon is one of the top referring sites, right after Google and Yahoo, sending me thousands of qualified visitors each month.
You can start by submitting your pages to sites like Delicious, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Mixx, NewsVine, Digg, and Yahoo Buzz.
Whenever possible I also like to find a few niche specific bookmarking sites. For example, if you have a site in the finance niche, take a look at Tip'd.

2. Asking For A Link
Another great strategy to use is to simply ask for a link. Create a "link to me" page that explains to your readers that it is ok to link to your content and that in fact you appreciate it. If you have an article section, you may want to let them know that they are welcome to reprint your articles.
I also like plugins like "Sociable" that allow readers to bookmark, tweet and email your content with the click of a button. If you are using WordPress to manage your website, this is as easy as installing and activating the plugin.

3. Blog Commenting On Do-Follow Blogs
Another simple backlinking strategy is to find various blogs that do-follow the links in their comments. Blog commenting is always a good idea to gain traffic, expertise and a great way to connect with bloggers in your market. By intentionally looking for do-follow blogs, you have the added benefit of building a backlink with each comment you leave.
You can search for "do-follow blog" plus a main keyword for your market and will likely find lists of those sites for your niche.
Another option is to search for popular blogs in your market and then find one of their posts with comments on it and look at the source code. If the link back to the commenter's site includes "rel=nofollow", the link does not count as a backlink. If the "nofollow" attribute isn't in there the link does count.
Find a few do-follow blogs and make it a habit to comment on them a few times per week.
By implementing all three of these strategies, you can quickly build up quite a few backlinks without spending a lot of time, effort or money.

five Benefits To Guest Blogging

Blogging is becoming more and more popular as time goes by. What once started as somewhat of a fad has turned into a full fledged marketing technique. While blogging itself is extremely popular – there are currently over 112 million blogs being tracked, guest blogging is not quite as popular. There should be no reason for this, as guest blogging comes with a long line of excellent benefits. With the current importance of Social Media, SEO and other forms of marketing, more and more bloggers are going to realize all of the potential that comes when you guest blog.

Free Exposure and Increased Traffic

This could actually be the only reason you choose to guest blog, and it would be well worth it. Guest blogging not only allows you to gain free exposure, both to your blog and yourself, but it also allows you to build increased traffic to your own blog. While you won’t be able to turn-in huge site numbers immediately, the fact of the matter is that if you continue to guest blog on other sites, your own site will start to get more and more traffic.

Set Your Reputation

You need some sort of reputation online to be more successful. Whatever you want your reputation to convey can be accomplished by guest blogging. More and more people will see your stuff, and in turn, they will be able to judge what type of reputation you are building for yourself. This is even more important if you are trying to sell certain goods online, as what you say may directly affect what people buy (or don’t buy) from you.

Opening More Doors

Are you striving for your website, or something else in your personal life, to be more than it is? Guest blogging is an excellent way to not only mark yourself and your products, but to also gain a chance at other doors opening for you. Remember, it is all about building excellent relationships and always being willing to go the extra mile. Do this, and you never know what personal and professional doors may be opened for you.

Excellent SEO Benefits

Google continues to crackdown on keyword usage, as well as on paid click links. They also constantly change their algorithms, which make it nearly impossible to stay relevant 24/7. Guest blogging is a great way to build SEO relevance, even if Google (or other search engines) are severely cracking down on the way content gets distributed.

Social Media Standing

We were trying to get through an article without mentioning Social Media, but it is impossible. Guest blogging is even a form of Social Media, albeit not to the extent of some other Social Media and content related websites. You can use your guest blogging to bring visitors to your site, but you can also use it as a great tool helping you build all of your related Social Media content. The more you guest blog, the more content you have to play with and use.

Guest blogging is one of the very best ways to build online relevance. Whether you are new to the niche, or have been guest blogging for years, the benefits that come along with being a guest blogger are always worth any effort that you may put in.

Blog Updates by Email Wins By a Big Margin

The recent poll on email vs. RSS for blog update delivery generated quite a few votes and comments. As I mentioned in my previous post, I like to test the waters every year or so as Internet users become more sophisticated. Yet, with this sampling of savvy Web users, the results barely budged.

 

Email wins again with 75% of the vote. RSS follows with 23% and a new entry in the poll - audio (podcasts) garnered 2% of the vote. (Note: this is not a scientic poll by any means, but does give a good picture of how people are consuming blog content.)

You'll notice the poll looks rather odd with numerous individual entries. Something to note when you run your own Facebook polls is that you have the option of allowing or not allowing people to add more options for folks to select. I left it open and what happened is people put their comments in the options section instead of selecting one of my three options and then posting a comment in the actual comment area.

This really skews things and makes it a bit tricky sometimes to decipher what people are voting for. In the future I will disable the "anyone can add options" option so they stick with my poll and add comments in the correct spot.
If you click through to the poll and read the comments, you'll find a theme with the email users: most don't read or forget to check RSS feeds so they prefer email because they ALWAYS read their email.
What's the take-away?
Make sure your blog has multiple subscribe options so your audience can consume it their preferred way. Just because you're a savvy web user, don't assume that your audience all uses Google reader (or other feed reader) to get their content. Make sure you have an email option (check out Feedblitz, Feedburner, Aweber, Mailchimp for email delivery).
If you have an email subscribe option on your blog, what service do you use and why do you like it?

To Know Your Blog Audience

As a professional blogger, I would like to say that I know my audience well. I would like to say that I know their next move and can anticipate their every need. But the truth is: I don’t.

Most bloggers find themselves struggling to define who they are, what they stand for and what type of information they should provide. I’ve read that to know your audience, you have to put yourself in your readers’ shoes. That makes sense. If I’m writing for a shoe blog, then I know that shop-a-holic shoe lovers want to know the spring season’s newest trends, cheapest alternatives and comfiest footwear.

But, do you find that even when you mentally strain yourself trying to figure out what people want, you cannot come up with a single, original thought? That happens to me.

Some of the most successful bloggers around say that when you don’t know what your audience wants, just ask. Conduct a survey. Send out e-mails and tweets. Get feedback from your readers.

What if you don’t have a regular number of readers to ask? Then what? I asked the same questions.

The better way to know your audience

I started a new venture at the beginning of this year. The short of it is I am building an authority website. Gasp! It also has nothing to do with writing, blogging or business, the very topics I script and read regularly. Double gasp!

Why did I take on such a venture?

Because I am not only the creator, writer and designer of an authority website, I am a member of my own audience. I know what I want to see from other websites and blogs in this niche, and for the past five years since I have been researching it, I have not been satisfied with what I’ve found.

Why does this matter to you?

Because if you are a blogger, struggling in your niche, perhaps it’s time to shift to one that comes more naturally to you. Ask yourself:

• Do you have any hobbies you are currently pursuing?
• What kinds of blogs do you like to read?
• Do you have some hidden knowledge that would benefit others?
• Do you like to research a particular topic and share your findings?

There could be a hidden gem right in your own brain, and you’re not cashing in on it! When you are a member of your own audience, you inherently know what your audience wants to see, what they need and the best method to present this information. You know what you want. Then you can apply that insight to your blog.

This has got to be the easiest way to know your audience. No, it isn’t some earth-shattering secret you never heard before. It isn’t some mega-scheme guaranteed to get you thousands of followers. For me, it is a sure-fire way to build and promote a successful website and blog. It was an epiphany.