Blogging Tips: Why You Should Blog!

I have been writing blog posts for a little over two months at this point. Blogging is something that a good number of the students I mentor want some guidance on.

Because I do not yet feel as though I “know” very much about blogging, I have been hesitant to teach very much about it so far. When I teach about topics that I am familiar with, I am much more at ease.

Well… When I checked Alexa earlier today, I saw that this blog is getting close to breaking into the top 10,000 most visited websites on the Internet right now.

Many of the strategies that are specific to blog promotion have been producing positive results for me recently. I thought it was about time that I wrote a post about how to promote your blog… BUT… WAIT! I have not even begun to explain the purpose of this blog thing that I have.

Without first explaining why I keep a blog and why you ought to do the same, I can’t really begin to discuss how to increase the number of visitors to your website, can I?

Let’s review some of my past, shall we? I “made it” online without the assistance of many of the tools that I now provide for others. I did not have any products.

I was completely incapable of copywriting. My data on where I stood in various search engines was the primary factor in my early success on the internet.

I would simply establish high-ranking websites for a particular market and then sell the traffic generated by those websites directly to individuals or businesses that possessed both the ability to Copywrite and products. Obviously, I do not recommend doing that any longer.

When it comes to knowing how to get traffic, having your own product and having the ability to write copy are both multipliers.

These days, I put equal importance on the three facets of your Internet business, and I advise you to do the same thing.

Having said that… make sure you don’t undervalue the traffic business.

Consider the following. Who is the wealthiest individual in the entire world? Right.

It was Bill Gates. It’s software that he sells. The software industry is very profitable.

Having said that, consider this. Which three websites currently dominate the online space? If you are unsure, you should check with Alexa. OK; you don’t need to check. I’ll just tell you:

1. Yahoo

2. Google

3. MSN (Microsoft)

Now, look at that third one I asked you to look at.

It was Bill Gates, who at the time was the wealthiest person on the planet, who founded that company.

Now, in the third position, he can be found goofing off on the Internet.

Let’s make a dash for it here, shall we? What kinds of products do these three websites sell? Ok; take a minute on this one. A test is going to be given.

You got that right. They sell traffic, or at least the majority of what they sell is traffic…

Yahoo and MSN offer a little bit more variety than that combined. That certainly is fascinating, doesn’t it…

The software that got him to this point in his career made him the richest person in the world, and now he wants to sell traffic.

It’s all good; that was just a distraction.

That topic will be revisited at a later time. My experience in the field of selling traffic was what I wanted to discuss with you (which is still the largest part of my business).

I made a mistake. I sold traffic while remaining anonymous by using the names of corporations.

Nobody who uses my traffic services is familiar with my identity. Simply put, they purchase traffic from XYZ Corporation in the hope that it will result in sales for them.

The XYZ Corporation does not have a distinct identity. In point of fact, it is entirely automated, and the vast majority of my clients appear to prefer it that way.

Several years ago, I made an effort to effect that change.

I began educating them on how to make the most of my traffic service by sending them emails showing them how to do so.

I arrived much too late. They did not know who I was, and they had no interest in communicating with me.

After that, I decided to give it one more shot (and I’m glad I did), so I offered them a discount on the traffic for that particular month.

I believe I took advantage of a two-for-one deal or something along those lines. Over twenty-five percent of my clients made a purchase of a new campaign on that particular day.

With just one email, I was able to make more than sixty thousand dollars in one day. That blew my mind, that’s for sure!

I still do. I only need to send out one email to make several thousand dollars in a single day using this strategy.

I believe that is appealing to a good number of marketers.

Your list of past clients has incredible potential as a business asset.

If you can use a sales page to convert 2% of people who are completely new to your business into paying customers, you can convert 25% of your current customers into paying customers of another product using the same sales page. That really packs a punch!

I gave it a shot with a different product.

It was a product of high quality. It belonged to me.

The research conducted in search engines was actually what led to the traffic that those customers were buying.

I was, in effect, offering to teach them how to generate the same traffic that I was selling to them so that they could compete with me in the market.

It was a complete and utter failure. Nobody made a purchase.

I also experimented with a few other products. Nothing. Why?

Almost all of the responses confirmed my suspicions right away.

They were unaware of who I was, despite the fact that I was writing under the company name. I’m going to say that again.

They were unaware of my existence. They were familiar with my company. They were aware that my company generated high-quality traffic that converted well, but they were not familiar with me personally.

It doesn’t really matter if one company recommends another; it doesn’t carry much weight.

It does not carry nearly the same weight as the recommendation of a single person.

After that, I participated in the Freedom Events. You are aware of how things turned out.

They were successful in selling everything due to the support of a number of well-known Internet marketers.

What a fool I once was. You need either of the following in order to arrive at that 25 percent figure:

1. To market to your customers as a company and to sell a special offer on a product produced by your company that your customers are already aware of.

2. To market yourself as a person to your customers and to sell a special offer on any product that you personally endorse… and have never in the past given a negative endorsement or review of a product to any of your customers.

I did not want to do the latter with the customers of another Internet marketer, but rather with my own customers.

Which approach is the most effective one to take? As I look around, it seems like the most appropriate vehicle for that would be a blog.

I promote this blog in addition to selling products, which I do by cross-promoting them on the pages owned by the company.

It’s something I take care of very early on in the process.

It is mentioned not only on the page belonging to the proprietor but also in the very first email that the majority of customers receive after buying one of my products.

They purchase the product from an unknown party, but I quickly introduce myself as the creator of that product by directing them (and you) to this blog.

Because of this, I don’t try to conceal the blog behind any kind of corporate image.

You do purchase my goods from a corporation, but are you even familiar with the name of that business? Who cares what the thing in question is called? I would like for you to become familiar with me.

That is why I started writing in this blog.

Now, there are some individuals who are discovering this blog before they buy one of my products. That’s fine with me too. A lot of people make their purchasing decisions based solely on the sales page. Some customers do so because they are aware that the author does not produce junk. Some people’s circumstances involve a mix of these factors.

You really ought to start a blog; that much is clear. It is recommended that you launch your blog somewhere between the third and fourth product that you offer in your primary market.

That’s when I decided to start writing on this blog. At this point, you should also begin cross-promoting your three to four products on the pages owned by those products’ respective owners.

The following are some additional things that I believe to be significant:

1. Register your personal name as the owner of your blog’s domain.

2. Make sure that your name is at the top of the page, rather than some cutesy blog name.

3. Give some of yourself to others. Do not make posts to your blog in the tone of a customer service representative who is fielding calls for a large corporation… by keeping everything about yourself a secret… only the script provided by the company.

Engage in friendly conversation with your customers as if they were old pals. You shouldn’t give out your home address or phone number, but in the context of the blog, what exactly are you afraid of? Give the readers of your blog a chance to get to know you.

4. Make frequent posts. It is not difficult for people to form the habit of doing something on a daily or even hourly basis.

It is much more challenging to establish a habit that occurs on a weekly or monthly basis. If you want people to read your blog on a regular basis, you should try to post at least once per day.

5. You shouldn’t be concerned about disclosing trade secrets regarding your products.

One reason why I only sell software, videos, and mentoring products at the moment is because of this reason. Your blog’s text cannot, under any circumstances, inadvertently reveal more information than is appropriate.

Text is a less robust medium than other types of media, such as software and video.

I could spend all day explaining how to do something in words, but it would still be beneficial for you to purchase the software that will automate that task and/or purchase the video that will show you how everything actually works.

6. Include a link to subscribe to your blog on your website (and all of your content sites). Some people will be interested in following your blog, but they will forget to do so.

You need to provide them with a method that enables them to receive reminders via email whenever you post new content.

This will, over time, result in a significant increase in the number of returning customers.

Okay, I believe that covers the question of why I maintain a blog, why you should maintain a blog as well, and how you should organize your blog.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the specific ways that are unique to blogs and don’t apply to any other kinds of websites.

I’ll get around to doing that in a subsequent post.

You should go ahead and register your name and get WordPress set up on that domain for the time being.

Put up a link for people to subscribe. Create a post and send it in to be published on your blog… after which you will need to send it in using Artemis Pro, ensuring that the resource box includes a mention of your blog.

That’s how I got started a little more than two months ago, and as of right this moment… I’m getting close to being one of the top 10,000 most visited sites on the entire Internet. Challenge: In the coming weeks and months, see if you can outdo me.