If you are an entrepreneur, and you like writing, blogging could help grow your business. The Boston Globe published a set of "why blog" tips.
Here's one (of several) for entrepreneurs:
"5. Blogging makes self-employment easier.
You can't make it on your own unless you're good at selling yourself. One of the most cost-effective and efficient ways of marketing yourself is with a blog. When someone searches for your product or service, make sure your blog comes up first.
Curt Rosengren, a career coach, periodically Googles ''career passion" -- words he thinks are most important to his business -- just to make sure his blog comes up high on the list. He estimates that his blog generates at least half of his coaching business." More here.
Sometime Friday, 4.21.06, a new show, "How to market your business with a blog-1" should be live on the "Talking about Your Great Thing" Podcast. This one shows where and how to set one up. It takes time and interest, not money.
This is the first part of the teleseminar I did with the CEO of Jiggerbug, Ryan Azevedo, about 10 days ago. They're like Netflix, but for for CDs. And they even have my audio books for rent. :)
( Visit Jiggerbug's Network Marketing Page, hosted by Kim Klaver )
Ryan's finishing a little ebook on blogging and how to use it to help market yourself, and it will be available on the house on this blog, as soon as it is.
To be a fly on the wall as two well-known blog pros discuss "Can Bloggers Make Money?" check out their debate in the Wall St Journal 4.19.06
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10 Presentation tips from the Cluetrain
I've been rereading this little book, Cluetrain Manifesto, and the 95 tips it offered 5 years ago to people making sales presentations.
Network marketers: Before you make another presentation to even one more person, check it against this list of imperatives. That is, if you want to make your listeners feel special.
Top-10 Cluetrain Theses: Imperatives for presenters
NOTE: The list of 10 starts about halfway down the page.
P.S. Here are three:
3) "Already, companies [read: people-kk] that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone."
7) "Learning to speak with a human voice is not a parlor trick. It can't be 'picked up' at some tony conference."
8) "The inflated self-important jargon you sling around ? in the press, at your conferences ? what's that got to do with us?"
Amen.
It's not enough to just write content for your blog and expect people to come and buy. We can all wish that were true, but it takes a bit more effort than that. It's as much about marketing as it is about having great content.
One of the most important aspects of marketing your blog is making sure you take as many steps as you can to become perceived as an expert. "Expert" blogs tend to get a lot more visitors, a lot more comments, and a lot more sales! You definitely want to cash in on the expert status.
So, what do you need to do? The most important thing is that you make yourself known in the community. If there is a forum in your niche (there probably is!) create an account and start answering questions. People won't know you at first, but it will soon become clear that you know your stuff and you're here to help people. After enough time has passed you can usually include a link to your blog in your signature file. This is great for getting traffic directly from the forum posts, but it will also count as backlinks!
In addition to posting on forums you can also comment on other people's blogs. The more you comment with relevant information, the more people will be inclined to visit your blog. This is also a big part of networking. As you get to know that other big players in this niche you can strike up guest blog posting deals to make yourself even more well known.
Yet another way to market your blog is to write articles. The more relevant, quality content you have out there pointing to your blog, the more likely people are going to be to find you. As you know, the more people that find you the better your chances of developing a good readership and making some money.
Finally, you can even pay for your traffic through Pay Per Click like Google Adwords. You will definitely want to study the art of Adwords before diving in, and you'll need to create a blog post that is a review of some sort, or is asking people to sign up for your list. When you're marketing through PPC you need to clearly spell out what kind of action you want the people who are clicking on your ad to take.
These four tips may all seem very different to you -- that's because they are! This can seem confusing to someone who is new to blogging. It's important to understand that there are different marketing techniques you'll use to form an overall marketing plan. Pick and choose what will work fro you, but it really does take an army of techniques to become truly successful.
Both Kim Klaver & Moatazthewriter are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Kim Klaver has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Water Filters and First Date. Kim Klaver is Harvard & Stanford educated. Her 20 years experience in network marketing have resulted in a popular blog,