Archive for September, 2009

Business Blogging Basics: What is a Blog’s Place in an Internet Sale?

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Landbased businesses should blog.

That’s what I always tell people when they ask me if blogging is for them. Whether your business blog is part of your main site or an individual entity (i.e. your business site is a dot com, and your blog is at blogspot), you should still focus your blog to help your business gain more customers. A centered blog must have a specific purpose. You’re blogging because not only because you live an interesting life, but also because you’re representing your business online.

Initially, I thought blogging was for those who had a lot to say about anything.

This was probably because my first experience blogging was in a social network. I think of blogs in relation to poems and snippets of wisdom from my daily life. What I didn’t realize is that most people use blogs to promote their businesses.

Even with my meager experience in selling (attending trade fairs, going door-to-door, direct sales, MLM etc.), I am able to understand how blogging can help with branding and promotion. Here are some of the things I learned about business blogging…

1. “What I say online can affect my business”

You will have to deal with a lot of different personalities online, and putting yourself out there through your blog will expose you to these people. White you cannot please everyone, it’s still advisable to stay within the boundaries of proper decorum so that you and your business will thrive. More often than not, you will be interacting with other bloggers, who can talk about you on their blogs. Bad press is bad press, even if it’s just a scathing comment on your or someone else’s blog.

2. “Some people buy because they like me”

Let’s say your business is not as big as you think, and you have more competition than you care to admit. Your prices might be a little higher than the rest, and you have no budget for advertisement. These don’t matter to some people. They will buy from you because they like you. What you share to the world makes people care. In a sense, every sale becomes personal to a person after they get to know the entity that’s behind the company they’re buying from.

While your business blog should include a lot of things related to your business, you must not disregard the fact that people visit your blog because of YOU. Some business blogs are too focused, like the owner has been avoiding sharing too much personal stuff. Your business blog should be written by a living human who sleeps, eats, rests and travels.

Namecheap Coupon Codes for September – For Domains and Hosting

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

It’s September! Welcome to another month of earning online. Hopefully, this is the best month for expanding your online business. Find a new niche, get a domain name for your new bright idea and set up your new blog! If you’re like me, you probably have a lot of ideas for domain names but you can’t find a reliable place to manage your domains, go to name cheap.

September’s Domain Coupon Codes on Namecheap is: DREAMTIME.
For domain transfers, you can still use the coupon code SWITCH2NC.

Hosting Discounts:

If you want to have your site hosted where your domains are, here are the codes you need:

SCHOOLTIME – 10% off any shared, business and reseller package
HOSTSWITCH – 15% off any shared package and business package
USE4VPS – 10% off any VPS package

What are these coupon codes for?

For those who don’t want to spend a lot on domains, you can open a free account on Namecheap, do a bulk search for suitable niche-related terms you can use as your site’s name, When you’ve chosen the names you want, proceed to check out and enter that month’s coupon code on the space provided and voila! Instant savings!

You’ll get an easy to use interface for managing your domains, editing your DNS and setting up your domains to point to your server so you can finally have MORE self-hosted wordpress blogs.