Want to Start a Blog About Marketing?

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With the current economic downturn, marketing is increasingly important. Whether you’re a mom selling crafts and crocheted hats, or a start-up company looking to increase your brand recognition, effective (or ineffective) marketing can make or break you. Unless you have a marketing degree, however, this can be a confusing process.

Not everyone can afford to hire a marketing firm to promote their business; this is where blogs and how-to articles come in handy. The Internet provides easy access to thousands of articles and blogs intended to educate and enlighten readers, and is a veritable font of information. If you are a writer interested in marketing, here are a few suggestions for writing posts that will draw readers to your site and keep them there:

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT
Don’t waste your time or that of your readers by writing about a topic that you are clueless about. If you are exploring new territory, take a few minutes to research, so that you can speak with a voice of authority. Your readers will assume that your information is valid and will likely follow your recommendations, so be sure to do it right the first time.

HAVE A GOAL BEFORE YOUR START AN ARTICLE
Unless you are a seasoned marketing guru and author, it is unlikely that you will be able to sit down and start writing off the cuff. Jot down the topic you would like to explore, a few important key points, and then start writing. This will give your article a more polished feel, and you will be able to be more concise, which is always good when writing a blog.

KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
If you are writing about deals for dads, or money-making ideas for teens, make sure you are clear about your audience. A trick that writers are taught is to imagine someone reading their work. Imagine every detail, including clothing, hairstyle, facial expression, etc. Then, tailor your writing for that particular individual. This gives your writing a more personal feel, and will appeal to whom it should, thus guaranteeing loyal readers.

STAY UP-TO-DATE
Marketing strategies are constantly evolving, based upon the needs of consumers, advances in technology, changes in the economy, and other factors. Subscribe to newsletters, read recent articles and blogs, and be aware of changes that may affect the advice you are dispensing. Make sure that your writing always reflects current trends and ideas.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE
Once you have your blog up and running and are writing quality content, spread the word and draw readers to your site. This can be done through the use of social media, word-of-mouth, creative advertising, or other methods. Since you are writing about marketing, there’s no reason not to use some of the tools you are writing about, in order to gain readers and popularity.

The Internet has made authors out of unlikely people. The quiet kid in the corner now has an outlet for his ideas, without ever having to say a word; the know-it-all now has a platform from which to educate the masses. Everyone has strong opinions on at least one topic (if not more), and blogging enables people to gain an appreciative audience for their expertise. Why not make this work for you?

Blogging - The Latest Business Marketing Tool

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Blog happens to be an internet journal. These are employed like brief form of internet logs, meaning a listing of writings over the web. Generally, a blog could be a collection of current information, content pieces, personalized journal pages, photos, video clip, business details, item to be marketed, their promotion, etc... Well, the listing really is limitless.

Blogging, the latest buzzword within the business enterprise, is ultimately given a serious attention because of its use, works out well as an efficient marketing tool and as a publicity instrument. Right from the experts in the field of blogging to SOHOs, "how to blog" is the question asked by all with regard to business marketing.

Among the most famous blogs which happen to be business blogs, use their reach in order to market their goods plus establish a business enterprise. Right from the comfort of building towards the ease of connecting with achievable clients, blogging offers a fresh technique for entrepreneurs to accomplish the best promotional approach with regard to their product, so the company should learn all about "how to blog". So, in this article we'll be targeting the business elements of a blog. Moreover, we'll provide you with  tips that can be effectively utilized to advertise various solutions together along with your business.

1. Low-cost online marketing technique: Starting a blogging account over the Blogger happens to be absolutely free. Nevertheless, you should host your personal blog despite the fact that it utilizes a totally free blogging software program. Enrolling your personal domain name plus getting the blog upon your personal server area provides you with effective exposure within the search engine ratings. This suggestion is applicable to all - not specifically for newbies alone.

2. Develop your item or perhaps company image: It is possible to develop your company image by making use of your own blog. Individuals looking at your blog might be intrigued to be aware of exactly what you do and that is the reason, you should include your business button towards your blog. Publish the item information or perhaps submit an infomercial that will be beneficial, not for newbie individual only but for everyone, to reap benefits.

3. Keep a consumer dialog: Blogs need to be interactive, meaning that the visitors should be able to connect with you for your published remarks, and queries. It should facilitate advanced level queries, in certain cases.

4. Obtaining new clients: Several readers might suggest many others to read your blog providing you with new business opportunities. This will be considered useful, not for newbie individual only but for everyone, and will provide them with new clients.

5. Interaction along with other related businesses: Every business operates on inner and exterior networks. Checking up on related blogs, in addition to their posts can, provide you with a way to discuss their articles or blog posts whilst giving importance to these delivering your understanding about the subject. A viewer considering their blog might click-through towards your blog in order to study more. These types of click-through tend to be totally free and produce increased traffic towards the blog.

6. Excellent publicity outlet: In the event, your business suffers from some undesirable pressure, then your blog could be your probability to display a nice and clean standing. It is possible to take a position or perhaps question a public viewpoint.

7. Immediate Feedback: The additional essential feature of blogging is that it allows you to get immediate feedback plus evaluations upon your goods or provide you with suggestions concerning how to make required modifications. This quick, immediate feedback can help you tweak plus react better towards the sector you are hoping to aim. Yet again, keep in mind your followers tend to be your best lead.

Blogs, nowadays, have grown to be a fundamental element of any business. In case you examine best organizations, they have launched a blog to specifically connect with their potential audience. Furthermore, it is the convenient way of educating clients that attract most companies and entrepreneurs. Thus, do not wait and write a blog today to reap the maximum benefits offered by the web.

Two Great Social Networks For Group Marketing That You May Not Have Heard Of

Social-Networking
When it comes to marketing your website or blog, social networks are an invaluable tool. Most of us know about the social media juggernauts like Facebook and Twitter but there are a few other social networks that are relatively new but, already have enough of a following to worth a look. Here are two examples of social media sites besides the most popular options that are still great for marketing your blog.

TUMBLR
Tumblr
Tumblr is a micro blogging service that was designed to be a sort of middleman between that super short tweet and the full blog post. Users create their own website using a bunch of provided tools and they then follow other peoples websites similar to the way you would follow someone on twitter. They then use their Tumblr dashboard to share links, blogs, photos and video with one another. 

What makes Tumblr a great place to do some self-marketing is how easy it is to build a following. Many users simply follow anyone who follows them making it easy to build up a huge network and then share links to your latest blog post or other website update. Tumblr like most social networking sites is completely free to sign up for.

FORMSPRING
Formspring.me is a social media website designed around questions. Anyone can ask anyone else anything either anonymously or logged in using their Facebook account. The nature of the site lends itself really well to letting users answer the questions however they wish. A blogger can then write a blog post around the questions that are asked and provide links for anyone who views their profile back to their website.Using Formspring in this way assures you’ll get lots of link back especially if your followed by a good number of people.

Formspring is completely free and extremely easy to use. New users can even choose to bi pass the registration process completely and just connect their Facebook account. Since by default every question you answer is shared on your wall it may even save you the time of having to put out a Facebook update for some new posts. Riddle Answer

How to Use Search Engines to Find Golden Keywords to Promote your Products?

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There are some little known methods you can use to build a highly-optimized keyword list and increase your online sales. I’d like to share four of these methods to help you find keywords your competition has missed – some novel methods that will help you catch extra search engine traffic. Following these four steps will put you on the right path to building your internet business.

KNOW YOUR MARKET

Research your niche market thoroughly – knowing your buyers well is key to forming an effective keyword list. While researching,

1. Make notes on potentially effective keyword phrases.
2. Join special interest groups online and offline.
3. Subscribe to the newsletters of your competitors.
4. Visit forums relevant to your market niche.

Once you have thoroughly acquainted yourself with your niche market, it will be time to make up a seriously effective keyword list.

 MAKE A LIST

With pen and paper, brainstorm possible keywords and keyword phrases. Just let your mind run free and capture all you possibly can. The list can be narrow or broad – anything from one word to six word phrases relevant to your product niche. An example in the weight loss niche would be “weight loss products” as a broad keyword phrase, and a narrower phrase like “diary-free weight loss products”.

 UNCOVER EFFECTIVE KEYWORDS

Try these different methods to expand and add variety to your keyword list: 

1. Misspellings - With a little lateral thinking, you can come up with possible misspellings in your market niche; misspellings like “loose weight” can pull a lot of traffic. 

2. Author or Product Names - By adding an author name or a product name to your list can garner a surprising number of searchers near the end of the purchase cycle.

3. Appeal to today’s “I want it and I want it NOW” mentality - Remember the reason many people use the internet is their desire to fulfill a need immediately. They can’t even wait till tomorrow so use immediate words like “stop”, “now” or “fix”.

4. Informative Wording - Know that not everyone going online plans to buy, but you want them to visit your site anyway. To attract this type of traffic, you might add words like “how to…”, “homemade” or “free guide”.

 SORT YOUR LIST TO FOCUS YOUR AIM

Start by dividing your keywords list into three types of visitors:

1. Buyers - the highest quality traffic available because they are at the end of the purchase cycle and are usually close to making a buy. It’s unfortunate this high quality is also the lowest volume. Words which buyers use are the money words referred to above and also product or author names. 

2. Product seekers – This type of traffic is greater, but is lower quality since they are not actually as close to buying as the group above. This group knows about your niche and is seeking a product which will improve their lives but don’t yet know which products are available. The keywords in this group are much like the information seekers but lean more toward solving immediate problems and acknowledging the need for help. 

3. Information Seekers – This group is the lowest quality traffic but it also has the highest volume which means it is easier to attract plenty of visitors. The keywords used here will be the broadest and most general. These shorter or broader phrases usually have more competition, so you should target the long tail keywords which are more focused but have less competition. With experience, you will be able to use your natural intuition to recognize “money keywords”. Spend some time studying the search engine ratings for your targeted keywords, monitor the traffic you attract by using stats tracking, refine, tweak and experiment.

SHARE YOUR VIEWS
I would be interested in knowing what works best for you in targeting your buyer traffic, which methods do you use to find the best quality keywords, etc. Could you take time to share your views?

Fatal Error Made By Marketers - Searching Products to Sell

This is a Guest Post written by Saksham. If you wish to write for EAB, check our guest posting guidelines - Write For Us. Many new Internet marketers who enter the fold follow a product orientated strategy. Basically, Internet marketers visit sites like Offervault or Clickbank and view the various affiliate products available. Later, they choose a product and begin to market the product.

This strategy is flawed and it places a limitation on the Internet marketer to expand their business in the future. Niche selection should be the first step to build an online business rather than product selection. This article basically highlights the flaws associated with product oriented strategy and includes the benefits of niche selection. 

PROBLEMS WITH PRODUCT ORIENTED STRATEGY 
The problem with choosing a product first is that, products in general go through a life-cycle. A typical product will enter the market and go through various phases that include:

[1]. Growth Phase
[2]. Maturity Phase
[3]. Decline Phase


When a product reaches the decline phase sales decrease considerably and the product itself may become obsolete. This means that the market demand reduces significantly and in turn your sales take a knock. The impact on you as an Internet marketer is that you are left in the lurch and your efforts to market your chosen product was done in vein. Imagine the amount of time, and money you could lose if a merchant suddenly pulls a product off the market? A product orientated strategy is a risky approach for doing business and it is a route, which I advise you, not to follow. 

ADVANTAGES OF NICHE ORIENTED STRATEGY 
A niche which is a specific sector in a market that displays similarities such as age, gender, interests, needs and wants will never become obsolete. That specific market segment will always exist. An example of a niche will be women aged between 40-50, who are overweight and are extremely conscience about their weight gain or successful men aged between 35-45, who are going bald and losing their self-esteem as a result. Niches of this nature are prevalent and the people within these niches will always possess a wide variety of needs.

If you target a niche, your options will not be isolated when marketing products to the individuals within your chosen niche. Besides offering hair loss treatments to balding men, you could offer shampoos, gels, and even nose hair trimmers. You could even market an ebook that teaches an individual to raise their levels of self-esteem. The possibilities are endless! A niche gives you a wider spectrum of opportunities and it is the best route to build a sustainable business.

Now can you see why choosing a product first is the wrong approach to marketing online? Share your experiences and thoughts via comments. We love to hear from you.
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