how_youcan_use

The fact is, blogs are no longer just online diaries of people's personal lives. Both online and offline businesses can use blogs to take their products and services to a wider audience -- increasing their traffic, leads, and sales.

Let's look more closely at a few of the extremely powerful ways your business can benefit from a blog. With an effective business blog, you can...

HUMANIZE YOUR BUSINESS:

Because a blog is much more informal than other web sites, you can write posts in your own voice and give your business more of a human face. This helps reassure prospective customers that there is a "real person" behind the web site who will take care of their needs. It also allows you to inject much more of your own personality into your online business than your main sales site could do.

IMPROVE YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE:

Your blog can act as a kind of interactive FAQ, allowing your customers to submit questions and you to answer them.You can also provide product updates, "how-to" articles, and other information of relevance to your customers. And prospective customers who see your blog will be encouraged by your commitment to good customer service!

GIVE YOUR TARGET MARKET THE INFORMATION THEY'RE LOOKING FOR:

With its automatic archiving feature -- by date and category -- a blog is a fantastic content management system. It's easy for you to post new information on a regular basis, and it's easy for your visitors to find the information they want. With a well-written, regularly updated blog, you can become a reliable resource in your industry, and build a following of loyal readers who depend on your content. These people will be your best potential customers!

DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SALES WEB SITE:

If you already have a web site, a blog can give your traffic levels a real boost. For starters, your blog will attract new visitors that you can then redirect to your main sales web site through links and special offers.But an even MORE effective technique is to use strategic keywords and links to specific sales pages to dramatically improve the search engine rankings of both your blog AND your main web site.

BUILD YOUR CREDIBILITY AND ESTABLISH YOURSELF AS AN INDUSTRY EXPERT:

You can give your credibility a real boost by regularly posting valuable and relevant information on your blog. It's a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your subject area -- and allow your visitors to feel much more comfortable buying from you.

PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES:

You can actually sell products directly from a blog using a service like PayPal, or you can use your blog to mention new products and direct your visitors to your sales web site.

GENERATE EXTRA INCOME:

There are now several advertising programs available, such as Google AdSense (http://www.google.com/adsense), that allow you to monetize your blog and generate an extra revenue stream. There are many small business owners who are using blogs to
benefit their businesses right now... with some spectacular results. We've come across farmers, PR consultants, tailors,
CEOs, and many more who blog with great success...

Three Key Tips for Starting Your Own Highly Effective Business Blog

Excited yet? You should be -- blogging's not just a winning strategy, it's also a lot of fun! I'm having a great time with my new blog, The Candid Internet Marketer (http://blog.marketingtips.com).

Like anything, it takes some time and effort to build a successful blog. (In fact, I didn't want to start a blog until I was sure I could devote enough time to keeping it updated.)

However, the beauty of blogging is that you can easily incorporate it into your daily schedule of tasks. You can even blog when you’re on the road -- which I am frequently! But what does it take to become a really successful blogger?

1. GREAT CONTENT:

If your content isn't interesting and relevant to your target market, your blog won’t work. It's as simple as that. You'll be surprised, however, how easy it is to find things to write about if you really put your mind to it. It could be news articles about your industry, product updates, interviews, personal insights into topics of importance to your target audience...

2. REGULAR UPDATING:

I won't lie to you: there are some days when I really find it hard to find the time to post a new article. But if I don’t post, no one will come back. It's like subscribing to a daily newspaper but only getting a copy delivered now and then! So post often and your audience will keep coming back. And regularly adding fresh content to your blog also gives you a boost in the search engine rankings.

3. YOUR OWN DISTINCT VOICE:

It's important that you write in your own voice. A blog is no place for formality and corporate speak. It's more of a forum... a place where ideas can flourish and topics of current interest can be debated. You don't even need to be a brilliant writer... you
just need to be able to relate to your audience and give them good content.

FINAL THOUGHT

At the start of this newsletter, I said that you'd be able to get your blog up and running within five minutes of finishing this newsletter. Well, that's how long it takes to start a free blog using Blogger. If you don't believe me, give it a try! Of course, starting a blog is the easy part. Turning your blog into a strategic tool that drives traffic and sales to your online business is a completely different matter.

If you'd like to learn how to drive traffic to your web site using a free blog, including strategies like...

>> How to rank #1 in Google, Yahoo, and MSN -- for the keywords MOST searched by your target audience!

>> How my team pushed a web page to a #2 ranking in Google for a highly competitive keyphrase -- with less than 60 minutes' effort! (And why we saw traffic and sales results in less than 14 days!)

>> How to use blogs to dramatically increase your web site traffic -- and add 1,000s of EXTRA dollars to your bottom line!

>> Which 3 critical steps you MUST follow to catapult your web site to the TOP of the search engine rankings -- for any keyword you choose!

>> How to attract 400% more repeat traffic than your static web page! Since blogs take just seconds to update (from
ANYWHERE in the world), it's easy to draw visitors back again and again with fresh news and postings!

... Then I highly recommend checking out my brand-new video, "Blogging For Dollars" at:

http://www.marketingtips.com/trafficsecrets

.. where you'll get access to all my case studies and test results that I spent over $79,583.28 compiling.

Building a truly effective blog that keeps people coming back again and again takes a lot more than five minutes. So you need to know exactly how to make the most of the benefits that make blogging an effective strategy for many businesses.

And you need to know NOW, because blogging is on the verge of becoming the hottest new moneymaking business tool, and
one of the key success drivers with any new tool is to be the first in your market to use it. Just like the Internet leveled the playing field for the little guys to compete toe-to-toe with the large corporations -- and win... Just like e-mail revolutionized
the way companies market to and communicate with their customers and subscribers...

... That's where blogging is right now.

It won't be long before this information spreads... becomes diluted... and you've lost this unique "first-mover" advantage to cash in. So don't put this off!