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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.

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Posted in Blog Traffic, Building a Website | Comments Off

3 Killer Ways to Write Quality Content Daily for Multiple Blogs

Monday, April 27th, 2009

If there’s one trait that all bloggers share, it’s this: OPINIONATED. We always have something to say, regardless of the topic (niche). For this same reason, we put up multiple sites, so we can categorize our thoughts.

Sadly, there are times when we just don’t want to write because we’re tired, we have a lot of other things to think about (like what’s for dinner and taking care of chores). But have you noticed that there are times when you just have so many ideas inside your head and you can’t seem to catch them fast enough?

How to Write Regularly on Multiple Blogs

1. Harvest Ideas While You’re In the Mood to Write

When you’re in the mood to brainstorm ideas, like when you just finished reading the papers, after work while sipping coffee or a drink, or while you’re watching television, JOT DOWN all the things you feel like blogging about later. Then, sleep. You can keep these topic lists and continue collecting ideas until you have the time to post everything on your blogs.

Split your opinions into different niches and post 300 words at a time. Next, schedule the posts so that they get published every two days or 3 times a week.

2. Grab one quality pack on a topic you like and edit one article at a time. I use a checklist to track how I use my bought articles. View the checklist: QualityPLR_Checklist. One article pack costs 12 USD, even less if you have a coupon (view the PDF document to get the coupon for this month).

Here’s how I edit my  documents to produce more articles from just one pack of quality articles:

  • Get the main points and use them as subheads on your article. Usually these are the first or last sentences of every paragraph.
  • Put 3 opinion sentences at the start, and another three at the end of your final product.
  • Fill your copy with bullet points. Use your own keywords as bullet points. (You can use google’s free adwords tool or get what I use, micronichefinder)
  • You can use the rest of the sentences in the article at will, but I recommend expressing at least a sentence of your opinion to personalize each section.

3. Create a Topic of the Week

You may have one good topic every week and run it across multiple niches. For example, you can write a post about Earth day on your parenting blog, and another on your gardening blog. Since the two niches are dissimilar, you can discuss the topic from different angles.

Writing for multiple blogs is fairly easy if you aren’t afraid of work, and if you’re opinionated enough (which you are; otherwise, you wouldn’t be blogging right?).

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Posted in Building a Website, Content Writing, Niches in Blogging | 3 Comments »

The Niche: What is Your Blog About?

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

First of all, what is a niche? There are various ways to define this term in the context of marketing and science, and because I am primarily a disciple of the latter, this is the definition I will refer to:

niche n. the particular area within a habitat occupied by an organism.

If the internet world were the ocean, you (the organism) will belong to a particular location in it, usually with a group that shares the same living area and activities. That’s your niche.

Niches in Blogging

When I first started blogging, I belonged to the niche of “Anything Under the Sun”, which isn’t really a niche at all.

Then, I realized that there are programs and blogger communities that require me to put in a blog description. I detested having to write ‘a blog about anything under the sun’ so I came up with ways to delineate which specific niche my blog belonged to.

Guide on How to Find a Niche for Your Blog

1. You start out by pretending that you are being asked to describe your blog in one sentence. Initially you start with the simplest statement:

“This is the blog of (a) who (b) .”

Where:
a = something about you. It could be your profession, a description of yourself, your dream profession.

Anything that will instantly tell the different money networks or blog visitors what’s unique about your website….
e.g. an overseas worker, an immigrant, a stressed employee, a Filipino, an aspiring musician, a successful business woman, a frustrated computer programmer etc.

b = likes and dislikes, favorite activity, dreams and aspirations, current situations, present locations, etc.

e.g. likes cars, likes to sing, wants to try again, loves to crochet, loves biking, lives in another country etc.

2. Your one-sentence blog description will give you an idea on what your niche is.

Basically, this means that the people most likely to visit and follow your posts are those who share the same interests or are intrigued by people like you. These are your “niche-mates”. They can be bloggers themselves or ordinary internet passers by looking to buy/sell something or simply read something about your topics.

3. Moneytize (earn money from) your niched blog by seeking out advertisers who belong to your niche.

These are merchants who have products that could interest you or people like you. Remember that your readers or regular blog visitors will always be the people who can relate with what you talk about frequently.

All you have to do is find advertisers who want to sell to these people and apply as an affiliate.

Where to find advertisers to promote

- Share-A-Sale

- Commission Junction

- NeverBlueAds

- Clickbank

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Posted in Building a Website, Niches in Blogging, Online Cash Sources | No Comments »

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