Recently I read an article on 7 good reasons for companies to start blogging. For today’s post, I thought I’d include some of the ideas that I learned and expound on the seven good reasons a little.
Blogging helps your search engine optimization. Google finds new content daily when you blog. Each post contains more keywords that the search engine can pick up on.
In a blog, you are better able to engage your customers. You can post daily promotion. It is possible to get instant feedback from your customers. Blogs have the ability for readers to post their own opinions about products. Companies can easily find out through these postings whether their product is doing well or whether they need to make improvements.
When you update daily, you are seen as an expert in your field. You are viewed as someone on the cutting edge. However, this does require you to be on the top of your game and learning new ideas so that you do have something to write about.
Great content gives people a reason to continue to visit your site. If I posted daily about how much money I was making, but you couldn’t figure out what I was doing to copy that there would be no reason to continue reading my blog. I am not providing value to your life or giving you any way to improve. However, by sharing the ideas that I learn from books and articles that I read or products that I try, you have gained some insight from the time you spent reading my blog posts.
People tend to trust blogs more than company press releases and official company public relations. They are interactive and written by everyday people with whom they feel they can relate. Most of the time, people are not being paid to post comments, so when you do read a comment, you know that someone has felt stongly enough about the topic to spend a few minutes writing down their thoughts to share with others.
When customers trust you, they will buy things from you. At some point people will part with their money when they find someone who has similiar likes and dislikes. A recommendation from a trusted person goes a long way.
By writing, you are learning. When you have to write about something, you suddenly realize the depth of your knowledge base. You find the holes where you need to learn more and you start to research to fill them in.
I received an email yesterday letting me know I had comments on the Hubpages article that I had written to promote my blog. That means, someone actually took the time to read what I wrote and let me know what they thought about it. I was pretty nervous to read the response. Constructive criticism is always a good thing, but your ego does get bruised in the process. Luckily, he complimented my article first and then told me social media internet traffic was not real good conversion business. That is his opinion and I don’t have much authority on the subject just yet. He could be correct or dead wrong. I should find out in the coming months as I read and experiment with social media marketing. There is nothing like personal experience to boost your credibility.
I’m very far from my goal of 1,000 page views in one month. While a couple people have found my site, only 57 people have viewed my Hubpages article, and I’m sure even fewer clicked on my blog link at the bottom. I thought I’d let you take a look at some of my work. Here is the URL of the Hubpages site that I wrote to help direct traffic to this blog. http://hubpages.com/_3cwang0qes2a/hub/increaseinternettraffic
One great way to drive quality traffic to your website, although you might find it to be a small amount on a daily basis is by forum marketing. Forums are organized into topics and people are already sharing their ideas on them. On one of my trial blogs, I went to a forum to let everyone know that I would be writing about my experiences with alternative medicines. I provided a the website. Before I knew it, my trial blog had 128 page views.
The huge benefit of forum marketing is that you’re talking with others in your already in your niche. At the same time you’re driving traffic to your site, you are conducting market research. You’re finding out the biggest problems in your niche, so that you can provide solutions in the form of an info products or website content.
Forum traffic is quality traffic. One hit quality traffic is often worth as much as a few hundred hits from a non-quality source. What makes it of quality is you’re getting traffic based on what you say in the forum. Your audience is already interested in what you have to offer based on the comments you post in the forum.
Your first step is to locate a forum and join. Create a profile with pertinent information about yourself and something to make you stand out a little. For example, you might label yourself a cheese afficionado. That will spark other people’s interest and make you stand out from other people who are just listing their professions.
In your signature, provide a link to your site along with a catchy quote from your website to get people’s attention.
Build your reputation as an expert in your niche. Provide quality information. Make sure you reply to comments and posts. Users of a forum will only click on the link in your signature if you’ve sparked their interst. One stratedgy you can use is to create a new thread with new ideas.
Do not link to your own site within content of threads. Only place a link to your website within the signature of the post. Almost all forums prohibit afiliate links in your signature or within the comments. Be sure to read forum rules and regulations before joining any forum. Do not spam a forum. You will be blocked.
