Blogs - Diamond in the Rough for your Marketing?
By Richard Zwicky
Blogs are a potential goldmine of insights for readers,
provided by business leaders, market leaders, innovators, philosophers,
marketers, political commentators, and many other opinion makers who
never before have enjoyed such easy access to a simple and unmoderated
public forum in which to share their opinions, ideas and insights.
These leaders have taken to using the Internet to
publish their thoughts for the same reason they make public
speaking appearances; to build credibility for themselves and
for their company, and to become recognized as a resource, usually
with the expectation that it will lead to sales.
Blogging presents them with an easy, non-time
consuming, and inexpensive way to quickly reach thousands of
interested parties all around the world.
The effect that these leaders have had in posting
their thoughts and musings online has helped evolve blogs into powerful
viral marketing tools. Blogs allow you to quickly and easily reach
people who are not in your direct network, and greatly expand the
number of people you and your company reach.
Are you an expert in your field? Do you know things
about your favorite subject that you would like to share with others?
Do you write articles for newsletters, like this one, and want to
help the publisher expand their reach? Then blogging may be right
for you.
Have you never looked at a blog? Are you sure? A lot
of articles and content on web sites is currently blogged. But if
you are looking to see what a blog is, here are some interesting ones
to look at.
Blogs.Sun.com
SemanticBlogging.org
BlogHerald.com
If you want to start your own, and your company doesn't
offer one, try these tools, and link to them from your site:
Blogger.com
Blogware.com
While sometimes you can find blogs that are interesting,
some of them simply are not. This happens when the author / contributor
either has nothing of interest to say, or has nothing to add to the
facts they are recording.
However, blogs that are maintained for extended periods
are usually filled with interesting and often humorous commentaries.
That's to be expected; the person blogging is enjoying seeing the
world, and allowing you to share in their vision; it reflects a joy
for living.
So how are blogs a diamond in the rough, ready to
be polished and turned into a gem, capping a marketing goldmine?
You might be surprised, but many people have found
ways to make money off their blogs, just by making sure it's up to
date, interesting and relevant.
Just like any other web site, blogs allow for traditional
Internet revenue streams such as affiliate programs and banner advertising,
etc... Now, I don't know that you can add a Google adsense banner
or any other banner for that matter to your blog if it's third party,
but if you are hosting your own, the possibilities are enormous. But
that's just one way to earn money from a blog. The best way, is to
have it lead to new sales for you and your business.
But for any of these monetary systems to work, you
need people to find your blog first.
How Visitors Find Your Blog i.e. How You Can Make Money Off a Blog
As you are building your blog, you need to be conscious
of other web sites, and blogs. Remember, yours is not alone. If you
read something interesting somewhere then "blog it." In
more traditional terms, just link to it. Link to a lot of other blogs
and news sites. The people who run blogs, also tend to read their
own web site traffic reports, and will notice the traffic your blogs
are sending. They will read your blog, and if they find it interesting,
they will blog it. If you see a news story in another blog, link to
it as your link to the article.
Some people maintain a list of their favorite blogs
within their own blog. It helps paint a picture of what the author
finds interesting, and also helps your blog gain goodwill from other
blogs.
When I first created my blog, one thing I did was
submit it to a bunch of blog search engines. I used:
Blog
Search Engine
Daypop
Blog Catalog
Feedster
Ice Rocket
Bloogz
blogstreet
Blogwise
Some of these tools crawl the blogs hourly - so your
content will get out there quickly. Others take longer; just like
the mainstream search engines!
Many independent blog tools, automatically offer RSS/XML
feeds of your blog. You just need to ensure that they are turned on.
They make it easy for you to get syndicated.
I saw a note recently that there are now over 4 million
blogs around the world with a new blog being added every 10 seconds
or so. By comparison, there are 10 million new web pages being added
to the Internet daily - or 116 a second. This means that blogspace
is less crowded than the rest of the Internet.
So, what are the disadvantages to building and maintaining
a blog? Well, they vary from individual to individual, and company
to company. But here are my thoughts:
1) You need to contribute regularly. I notice some
people make updates many times a day. That's wonderful, but it's also
a time commitment.
2) You better have something relevant to say. If you
don't keep it interesting, people will not keep coming back for more!
3) Does the person writing your company blogs have
good writing skills? Are you happy with the quality of grammar and
vocabulary?
4) Are you, or is the person writing the blog for
your company, representative of the company's perspectives? Do they
enunciate a coherent vision of, and for, your company? That's a risk
you take when you assign a blog to someone else. If it's your own
blog, are you the right person for the job?
5) Does the blog offer a valuable perspective, or
just some ramblings?
In the end, the value proposition in a blog is the
same as in any other content you or your company publishes. Is the
content valuable? Is the information worthwhile? If not, if you have
nothing to say, or add to a conversation, don't speak. Do you enjoy
the company of people who just speak to hear themselves? Probably
not. If a blog leaves you with that same feeling, then it's probably
not going to be successful.
But, if you consistently maintain an interesting blog,
people will recognize it, and you. That's where the real value proposition,
and the opportunity to make money off a blog lies. The real value
in blogs is in getting your word out. If you have something meaningful
to say, and the better you do it, the more likely someone is to reference
your blog, and eventually your corporation's web site. This will lead
to increased sales. Just don't expect it to happen overnight.
I would highly recommend that you have some sort of
publishing strategy for your business. Whether it ends up being a
blog, or writing newsletter articles as I have done here, sharing
good, coherent information with interested parties will help you and
your business build credibility. Publishing will go a long way towards
building your professional reputation, one word at a time.
Richard Zwicky is a founder and CEO of Metamend
Software and Design Ltd. Metamend's cutting edge Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) technology and software has been recognized globally
as a leader in its field. With successful clients on 5 continents,
and over 50 countries worldwide, the company has experience in a broad
range of markets and marketplaces. Metamend's client web sites rank
near or at the top of the search engines for their respective search
terms.
