Why It Took Me So Long To Blog
Copyright © 2004 Linda J. Bruton
When I saw my first blog, I wasn't impressed.
The first blogs I ever read were embarrassing tales of teenage
angst better left private, political diatribes from both the rabid
right and the rabid left, and jargon-filled tech rags that made
my eyes glaze over.
And yet everyone was talking about blogs and that I would soon
be left behind if I didn't have one. But they never gave me a
simple explanation of how it would benefit me.
They talked about RSS - you know, the obligatory
"real simple syndication" - followed by a long, boring,
techie article filled with jargon that wasn't simple at all. They
talked about syndicating my site, but not how that would benefit
my business.
No one ever told me, "Hey, fool, listen up! How would you
like a 3 or 4 line text link to your site on thousands of other
sites getting you tons of traffic and backlinks like crazy on
all the SE's?"
If they had, trust me. I'd have been blogging my heart out!
Eventually I did start a blog simply because it was getting harder
and harder to get my ezine delivered. This particular ezine delivers
tips to network marketers.
Now if you've had any experience with spam filters,
you know that any email with the "M" word (MLM) or the
"N" word (network marketing) practically lights up the
scoreboard!
I even tried using "MLM" or "network
marketing." But that got old real fast. Trying to sound like
a halfway intelligent professional while writing like a first
grader on their first day of school just didn't cut it. I was
starting to confuse even myself!
So I decided to start a blog, and then just email my list with
the link to the article every week. Not only has that greatly
increased the day to day traffic to my site, but I discovered
a couple of interesting benefits along the way.
One big bonus was how easy it was to publish to my site. Doing
things the old way, I wrote and delivered my ezine. Then I converted
the article to html and FTP'd it up to my site.
Then I had to download and update my article archive
page. Then I had to download and update my sitemap. Then I would
download my index page and add a little blurb about the new article
to get it indexed faster. All told, several hours of mind-numbingly
boring work.
Not so with a blog. I just write my articles in NoteTab, then
copy and paste them into my Blogger control panel. It adds all
the HTML and places it into my chosen template, FTP's it to my
site, and updates my archives - all in the blink of an eye! Talk
about an easy-to-use content management system. Even a 10-year-old
could have done it.
After I posted my first article on my new blog, I realized I could
get some new backlinks to my site by submitting the blog to some
of the many blog directories. So I spent a few hours sumbitting
my blog.
But my eyes didn't really open until a couple of weeks later.
I started realizing I was making more sales than usual and popped
in to check my web stats. To my astonishment, I realized I was
getting 50-100 more visitors per day. I checked my referrer logs
and then my backlinks on Yahoo and found over 100 new traffic
sources and links!
I clicked through on some of those links and then a big lightbulb
lit up in my head. Those new referrers were from the many people
using RSS feeds on their sites. And their site visitors were actually
clicking on those links and finding my site.
Now I was hooked!
Think about that - 50-100 more visitors per day, and 100 new backlinks.
All from one article that I posted to a brand new blog that took
5 minutes to set up on Blogger.com for free!
How many free marketing techniques get those kind
of results right out the door? And how much better would my results
be from regular posts to my blog and submitting it to even more
blog directories? Or from simultaneously posting those blog posts
to article directories?
That was 2 months ago, and I'm discovering that the answer is
every bit as exciting as I had hoped! Not only that, but I'm discovering
more and more ways to improve my results. And ways to use blogs
in new and exciting ways that I don't hear other people talking
about.
I know that many marketers are under the impression that blogs
are just for geeks, or that blogs are just some new toy everyone
is getting but no one knows what to do with. If that has been
your belief, I hope you'll take a second look!
For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging,
be sure to visit my "Why
Marketers Should Blog" weblog
