Using a Blog for Business

 A blog can also be an effective and inexpensive way to market a business, large or small, through blog marketing. Marketing a business with a blog may mean not only posting new, fresh content on the business' own blog, but posting comments on other blogs where the business' customers may frequent and linking back to the website or blog for the business. In this way, a blog can not only bring increased traffic to a company's blog or site, it can help improve search engine rankings and can be an effective search engine optimization tool. Finally, a blog can be a business in itself by earning revenues with advertising programs, like Google AdSense, affiliates or both. You can join every affiliate site that the web has to offer, but unless you extend yourself and your blog to other people then you are not going to really get the idea of how to make money with a blog online.

This is going to take some time. First of all you are going to have to get noticed. Noticed by Google, and noticed by other bloggers. Provide them with information that says you are going to be here for the long haul. Making money through blogging doesn’t happen overnight.

In all actuality, you need to get “making money” out of your head. Change your priorities on your blog. If you continue to create great content and reach out to other people then you are on the road to success.

How to make money with a blog is not important. Relationships are important, interacting is important, connecting and making friends is important. So get out there and start making a name for yourself!

Consistency is the key to any good blogger that has became successful.  So before you go out there and purchase that “program” that promises you money, just think about it first.  Perhaps it is a good product, but nothing is going to work unless you have a blog that is on people’s radar. Here are strategies that could turn your blog into a moneymaker.

Sell advertising.

This is likely the most common means of leveraging a blog to generate income. If yours happens to become a well-known blog, or one that is well-received in a particular niche, it's always possible to sell ad space on your own. For Bing Blogs and services such as Google's AdSense or BlogAds, bloggers can establish ad programs. AdSense's — which lets you select several ads that are consistent with the content of your blog — pays you based on how many readers click on the ads for further information. Even better, it's free. BlogAds, on the other hand, hooks bloggers up with would-be advertisers and levies a commission in return for any ad placements that result. "The nice thing, too, is that the ads are relatively unobtrusive," says Scott Allen, co-author of The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online.

Help sell others' products.

Here is another click-through opportunity. Affiliate programs enable your blog to serve as a conduit between readers and online sites offering various goods and services. One popular choice is Amazon.com. If, for instance, you offer book reviews or even just mention a book in passing in your blog, an affiliate program provides a means for your readers to click directly from your blog to Amazon to obtain further information about the book. If they break out the checkbook or charge card, you get paid as well.

Solicit contributions.

Not every blog-related income opportunity involves hawking goods or services. As Blanche DuBois said in A Streetcar Named Desire, consider relying on the kindness of strangers. Ask for contributions. If, for instance, your small-business blog supports a cause or issue in some fashion — say you repeatedly mention tax reform, health care or some other topic — you can always ask for reader support. Even if you've attracted a group of regular followers who simply enjoy reading what you have to say, they may be willing to underwrite their loyalty with a little financial help. Programs such as PayPal make it easy to establish a simple on-site contribution collection button. "There are lots of worthy 'cause' blogs that would qualify for donations from grateful members of the blog community," says Las Vegas communications consultant Ned Barnett. 

Market your services in your blog.

 Many people associate blogs exclusively with a cyberspace-based soapbox — a place to shout your opinions and little more than that. Granted, blogs are an ideal venue to share your thoughts with others, but don't overlook their capacity to generate new business as well. When appropriate, work in references to what you do and, in turn, what you may be able to offer any would-be client or customer who may be reading your blog. That can spread your opinion and your business moxie at the same time."Instead of short commentaries that begin a dialogue with readers, as many blogs do, I write the equivalent of journal articles that demonstrate my abilities, strategies and perspectives on specific issues," Barnett says. "When it resonates, it means money. Since starting this approach, I have generated three new paying clients and brought in about $10,000 on revenue — directly attributable to specific blogs."

Use a blog to deepen your existing customer relations.

Nor does any marketing material inserted in blog content have to be limited to bringing in completely new business. By using a blog to regularly communicate with existing clients as well as other readers, you can take advantage of the opportunity to fully inform them about everything your business does. That may expand your readers' understanding of the full scope of your products or services."My blog has helped existing clients determine the range of my skills and services," says Ted Demopoulos of Demopoulos Associates, a Durham, N.H. consulting and training concern.

 "One client who had only used me for training in the past was surprised at my range of expertise and is now using me for a consulting project. Another who only used me on technical projects is now considering me for a more business-oriented project." 

There are most important things about blogging, First you have to understand that,

Readership comes First, the revenue later.

Making money through blogging is not an instant process. You need to focus on readership first and revenue after you start to develop a readership. Am I saying you should launch a blog with no idea how to monetize it? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Unless “back pats” and comments pay your bills, you need to have an idea of how you plan to monetize your blog before you start building it. But it can’t be THE focus from day one. Start with a plan regarding what niche your blog will target, what demographics your blog will serve and what topics and programs you’ll be able to turn to in order to monetize it.

That said, understand that in MOST cases you’re going to work on your blog for months before you start to see even an insignificant amount of revenue coming from it. Results will vary based on any “personal brand” you’re starting out with and how hard you work at PROMOTING your new blog. The Primary concern was building my personal brand and not creating a revenue stream and NO ads on it. I’m not saying you should IGNORE monetization. I’m just saying you need to understand it is on the back burner compared to building an audience in the beginning.

Blogging for Money has Overhead Costs.

Expect to pay for hosting (I use Netwisp) – I’ve been over why you shouldn’t use free subdomains like WordPress.com, etc if you’re really planning to make blogging an income.

You should also plan to spend a few bucks on a design (assuming you’re not CSS and PHP savvy). I use the Thesis theme framework (you can find out why here), but also have my Thesis framework skinned. I’ve been doing this a long time, so I’ve obviously invested into my design (Proof Branding did the current one)… but you can find great low cost templates to alter (if you’re using Thesis, you can find some nice custom skins at Themedy) if you’re just starting out. It doesn’t need to be a custom design, but it shouldn’t look like a plain generic template either.

Choose a Niche

There used to be a time where to choose what will make money versus choosing what you love. For instance,  With Google’s love of “brands” – large and small, you’ll need to be sure that whatever niche you pick is one you can write passionately about – and regularly. It needs to be a topic you can become an authority on – and therefore build a brand on. And for most bloggers starting out with their first blog, the only way you can achieve that kind of authority and STICK WITH IT is to be blogging about something you are :

1. knowledgeable about and,

 2. something you’ll enjoy blogging about. blog about affiliate marketing, entrepreneurship and Internet marketing – topics you obviously passionate about and – think anyway – it comes across in your writing. Figure out what your hobbies are, what the things you enjoy are – then check the larger affiliate networks and ensure there are products that relate to your niche with affiliate programs.

Setting Up Your Blog

WordPress is free, and despite its security loopholes and constant updating, it’s my preferred platform. You can install WordPress in under ten minutes (they say five, but if you’ve never done it before, it might be more like ten). Next up, ensure you make sure you do basic SEO for your WordPress blog so it will do as well as possible in the search engines once you follow through on all the steps below. Get that design (and framework like the Thesis Theme if you can) and you’re ready to go.

Be Real

Before you write a single post, I’d like to offer up some advice. BE REAL. Don’t be who you think readers want you to be. Don’t be just like the person writing for the most popular blog in your niche. BE YOU. Being you may not get you the most readers, but it will get you PASSIONATE readers.

I was talking with a very popular blogger a while back. His subscriber list trumps mine many times over. When I made a joke about that, he said, “Yeah, but your readers trust you, they listen to you – because you never bullshit them – you are what you are. I may be more popular in numbers, but your entire audience LISTENS.” I’ve long said I’d rather have 5K READERS vs. 50K subscribers. And it’s true. You may not be everything to everyone, but by being real, you will be “real” to YOUR audience. And that’s the goal. If you plan to make money online, it’s not about “numbers” but rather about a following. And people can see right through “fake” – so be REAL.

I curse like a sailor… I very regularly offend people. But I also don’t bullshit on Sugarrae. What I say is what I’m thinking and not who I am “trying to be” to please the masses. You want the audience who likes you as you truly are, not as you try to be. A bullshit personality can only go so long before it’s found out.

Figure Out Your Point of Difference (POD)

The need to have a POD in affiliate marketing and blogging since the mid-2000′s. “Treat your affiliate site like any ‘real business’ and develop a point of difference. Sorry guys, it’s up to you to figure out how to do this. But, spending some time on doing this, on creating a POD, will be the single biggest thing you can do to keep your resume dusty and on your hard drive.” it is important to find a POD – or a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), depending on the terminology people wish to use. In short, this equates to figuring out how to STAND OUT among the top competition in whatever niche you’re in.

A lot of the online marketing blogs were doing their best to appear super professional and politically correct when I started. And, keeping in line with “being real” above, When it comes to my reviews, so many people were going the lazy route… here is the product, here are the generic screenshots of the product and here is  500 word overview of the product. Find out how you can leverage your “real” to be different than the top competition. When we launched a Blackberry blog, we noticed the top blogs catered to the tech geek crowd with news, scoops, etc. So we decided to cater to the not so tech crowd – focusing on teaching people simple things and give them understandable and simple solutions to their problems. 

Check out the competition and figure out your POD. It will likely be a big factor in your “make or break” when it comes to blogging. Whatever the topic is of your blog – if you look at the top sites you’ll be competing with and find what they’re MISSING, you can likely get some inspiration to help in finding that POD.

The Beginning: Blog Like Everyone is Listening

If you “wait until you have readers” to begin posting awesome content, then you’ll likely be waiting a long time. You need to blog as if everyone is listening from the moment you launch because when someone happens upon your blog, what will turn them into a READER vs. a VISITOR is said awesome content. Not everything needs to be a work of art – but you need to show readers you have a lot of awesome to share and give them a reason to keep returning. Look at other popular blogs in your niche to see what kind of content is resonating with readers. Check Google Suggest for what people are searching for… start typing your topic and see what appears in the drop down – this is likely the exact information that people are searching for. All you have to do is start providing them with it. Keep adding a letter to find more suggestions. For instance, might type “affiliate marketing a” and see what drops down… “affiliate marketing b” and see what drops down, etc.

You’ll read a lot of advice on blogging frequently. I’m more in the “blog when you actually have something to say” camp. I personally would rather post 1 hope is a truly helpful post a week than 6 “so-so” posts. But I will say that while you don’t need to be blogging daily, you do need to be blogging consistently – especially in the beginning.

Build Your Mailing List From Day One

Mailing list? I fully admit that I used to think of a mailing list as a “days of old” marketing technique. But Derek Halpern (one smart SOB) gave me a [headdesk] moment a while back. I knew he was an email marketing nut and we were discussing WHY he was one. I didn’t get the focus, because I got plenty of word of mouth and search engine driven traffic. And he looked at me and said matter of factly, “if Google or any other traffic source decides to stop sending me traffic, my mailing list ensures I have the audience I built via them STILL ready to listen to me.”

After Derek said that, I resurrected my old mailing list (which meant starting from scratch as far as subscribers since I’d let the old one I’d never put any effort into lapse) and began to actually put some focus on GETTING subscribers. I’d recommend that you do so as well. Lynn Terry offered up some great advice here as a guest post on starting your first email newsletter which you can read for more detail (that said, I second her recommendation of Aweber).

But simply “building” a list isn’t enough – you also need to send your list newsletters – which Lynn covers pretty well in the above post. I admit to being horrible at sending out newsletters even with my new-found effort to get subscribers, but that is something that I will be changing. Like with blogging, the frequency isn’t as important as the consistency – I know this because I utilize mailing lists on my commercial blogs (whereas Sugarrae is my personal brand blog). And like with blogging, try to do as I say and not as I do. ;-) That said, every time I send a newsletter, I get increased traffic, increased sales on products I recommend and increased social mentions. When the blog you’re working on is your primary focus, your newsletter can be an important revenue generating tool. Don’t wait to start building that list. For more email list tips and awesomeness, I’d recommend that you visit Derek Halpern’s site, Social Triggers. This guy is wickedly scary smart.You can check out Derek’s interview below with THINKTRAFFIC on how he built a 17K subscriber blog in under a year. While we don’t always agree on every aspect of blogging, he’s a source of very solid advice. The interview above is specifically about how he built his blog that centers around marketing – but you can use his tips to create a blog in any niche.

Get Social (or Network, Network, Network)

Let’s be clear – I don’t mean to sit on Facebook all day or to tweet your links incessantly on Twitter. What I mean by this is that you need to get involved in your off-site community. Why? Because people like to help, link, retweet and drive traffic to people they know and like. Look at all the things I’ve linked to above or people I’ve mentioned in this post. I “know” them all, except for one. Half of them, I initially “met” by interacting with them on social media. I communicate with people on a non business level through my social channels and the relationships I build ultimately help me promote my blog. Traditional brick and mortar businesses get involved with their chamber of commerce, attend local networking events, sponsor local youth teams, advertise in local papers… bloggers need to be involved in their off-site topic community with social media.

Interact with Your On-Site Community

Once you HAVE an audience commenting or sending you emails, be sure to interact with them. Don’t simply ignore the 12 comments on a post or the follow up questions readers might ask. Do your best to answer them and offer the additional help or advice they’re looking for. This is any easy way to help turn one time visitors into actual readers.

I’ll use an offline example to try and drive this home. My son plays youth football. Every year, he outgrows half of his equipment and we have to replace it. But I know nothing about how the equipment should fit, sizing, etc. One year, I happened to go to a local, non-chain store in our town. The prices were higher, I had to wait 30 minutes to get serviced… but it was because they used their specialty knowledge to ensure each customer was specifically helped, sized and fitted correctly. When I went to the big chain stores, I was pointed to an aisle. This non-chain store actually spends time fitting my child’s helmet specifically to him. So they are now the first store I go to for my son’s equipment and the first place I refer other parents to.

When you’re starting out – be that helpful blogger. People will remember it. They’ll return to your site, they’ll subscribe to your list and they’ll refer your site to friends. I understand this gets harder to do the bigger your blog gets – but if you’re reading this, you likely don’t have a big blog yet – and helping your internal community is a great way to help build your audience.

I was one of the first people to start using the Thesis theme. So when I started doing tutorials, I would have people frequently post questions about them and I did my best to help them figure their problems out. Even though my blog at the time had less than 10% content on Thesis, I suddenly found myself being linked to and mentioned on tons of sites as being a helpful resource on Thesis. My still small Thesis Tutorials category is now one of the most visited categories on my site – and those tutorials help drive people into other portions of my site, to my social profiles and to my mailing list.

Promote, Promote, Promote

Honestly, I find that this is the stumbling point for most people wanting to earn an income through blogging. You build it and wait for them to come.

In addition to being social and interacting with your on-site community, you need to LET OTHER PEOPLE KNOW YOU EXIST. And you do that with good old fashioned promotion and hard work. Find guest posting opportunities and work hard to promote your new blog. Create a few pieces of flagship content. Ask friends to help promote said (only the truly worthy) flagship content. Ask friends to link to you from their blogrolls. Hold a contest. Market, market, market. This is the toughest part of building a new blog – and an absolutely vital one.

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