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 Today has been a fantastic day.  I was able to drive traffic to my site using 5 traffic sites, I took my son for a 3 hour bike ride and I watched a movie for the first time in months.  Was a nice relaxing day.  Once I put the children to bed, I found myself back at my computer looking for ways to update content and I came across this great article about blogging.  In my last blog post, blogging your way to success was number 4 on my list of  9 Methods to Drive Traffic to Tour Website posted on Sept. 1st, 2008.  I hope you enjoy Gavin’s article as much as I did.

Is Blogging A Viable Sales Tool?
Copyright © 2008 Gavin Ingham

As an author, sales motivational speaker and sales force development consultant, it is very important that I walk the talk and continue to learn and develop myself.  One activity which I am always recommending to clients, friends and everyone alike is to keep reading new, old and interesting ideas to keep yourself stimulated and on top of your game. My personal favourite subjects for reading about are personal development, sales training, sales force development, motivation and mindset, general business and marketing.

Nowadays I read a lot of blogs and am subscribed to several via RSS feeds. One blog which I read regularly is Trish Jones’ blog. She recently posted two interesting posts on blogging as a sales tool and whether blogging can sell services or just products.

These are great questions and ones which every sales person, business owner and entrepreneur needs to consider and as with all great questions there are probably several answers but first a little “sermon” about blogs and blogging…

Many blog marketeers have an inherent interest in positioning blogs as the second coming, as the only marketing required in your mix, as all you need to succeed in selling your products, services, or indeed anything  that you want to sell.

For most people and for most businesses this is, at best, misleading and, at worst, dishonest. Blogs are a great form of marketing but they are only one form of marketing. Even if your business is your blog you still need to understand how to market your blog in the same ways that you might market a normal website.

Blogs do not market themselves!

What’s worse is that you can market a brochure style, static website and if you do it well people will visit and when they do they may well buy from you. When you market a blog site people will read your blogs first, before they buy anything. This means that you have to write well if want to make any sales. For you to make sales on a blog site people have to want to read what you write, see value in what you write and like the way that you wrote it too.

And they still have to like, want or need your product or service enough to buy it or to make that call!

If your blog is not well written and people do not like it they will not buy anything off you even if they do come to your blog!

If you only market in the “blogosphere” and your target prospects and clients are in the “real world” you are not going to bring in shed loads of new customers. Many of my clients do not even know that my site is a blog, they just like reading it! They don’t post comments, they email me and I respond!

Blogging also needs to be consistent. It is not a quick fix. Indeed it is probably one of the slowest routes to market and requires far more effort than many other instant fix marketing options (think Google adwords).

In my opinion, blogging also needs to be personal. Your content needs to be yours if you want to sell your services and you need to read and respond to your “community” on your blog. This is all very time consuming.

So why would anybody blog?

To demonstrate expertise… To share a passion… To promote long-lasting marketing content… To build a following… To set themselves a cut above everyone else…

But it’s not easy.

Everyone and their dog seem to be setting up blogs these days. Blogging is highly competitive. Whatever your industry is there will already be good blogs with reader bases up and running. To compete with this you need a good subject, a passion about your subject, real knowledge, good writing ability, a strong message, design skills, marketing skills and a connection with your audience. Perhaps most importantly you need to be able to add value for your readers constantly walking the line between interesting and factual. This is the minimum that you need (or need to buy in) to even get you off the starting line…

But can a blog sell a service?

Well… After converting my website at www.gaviningham.com to a blog some 18 months ago I have blogged consistently and on theme. Traffic has grown, readership has grown, enquiries have grown and conversion ratios have upped.

But does my blog sell my services?

Partly.

Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. I think most times my blog pre-sells people on the idea of working with me. They read my blogs and they know what I am about. They get my message and they like it. I guess that those who don’t, never call.

But those who do are pre-sold to a certain extent. You still need to know how to sell. You still need to solve their pains with your solutions. You still need to position your solution effectively. You still need to do all of the other good stuff.

As with all areas of sales and marketing, blogging is not a quick fix super drug that will turn your business around over night but if you have time to commit to it, if you are passionate about it and if you make it part of your overall sales and marketing mix then blogging is a powerful weapon for selling whatever it is that you’re selling.

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Gavin Ingham is an author and motivational speaker. Find out more and join his free Success newsletter at http://www.gaviningham.com .

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So how was that for a good find?  Did you agree with what Gavin had to say?  I say totally.  Now let’s start blogging at least every two days.  I myself seem to have time to make a post only two or three times a month.  I am finding I have put too many tasks on my list to complete each week and this means blogging gets pushed down to the bottom.  I have post-its to remind me to keep posting regularly -  blogging creates natural traffic, the search engine spiders come to my site on a regular basis.  You can do this too, plus if you can’t find something to talk about, go to an article directory and pick up a short article to add some variety to your own blog.  I did it today to see how it would look here.  Dare to try something new once in a while, add a bit of spice to life.

Thanks for visiting,

Theresa, the TLCgirl

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Theresa Kannenberg is helping people around the globe be successful with their home businesses on the internet.  “Creating Profits for Life, One Person at a Time.”

Sign up for the TLC Profit Business Ezine and start profiting today.

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   After a month long vacation in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, I decided it was time to move my family back to Japan.  What great timing as Japan had record high temperatures this summer from the end of July to August 28th, something like 38 degrees everyday.  We just missed getting cooked in the heat and humidity of a Japanese summer.  Did you know that Japan has 5 seasons and not 4?  Yes, we have an extra one called the rainy season ‘Tsuyu’ which occurs in June, however in my books, there are 6 seasons.  Typhoon season is just about to start now in September.  We know exactly what New Orleans is experiencing right now with Hurricane Gustav.  Trees get blown down, rice fields get flattened and roofs get ripped off, pretty frightening for all.  Lets hope this typhoon and hurricane season will be more forgiving.

 Ok now on to our business topic for today.  I am going to give you a comprehensive list of methods to start getting FREE traffic to your site.

These methods are what I use to drive traffic to my website and are now the top ways to get top quality traffic and leads.  Let’s get to the meat.  Now this is where you have to start doing some work. What did someone say Work?  Well, we all know nothing is Free, right?  Think of this - ‘Do the work now, work for free, to reap the residual rewards later.’

For Guaranteed Success, Do these actions Everyday:

1.   Post in Forums 

Look for forums you like and start posting at least once a day to them.  First get to know the forum by reading around, and then write a ‘new member’ introduction and a worthwhile comment without promoting your business.  Remember forums are for sharing ideas and information and NOT advertising your opportunity, you will lose respect doing that.  Create worthy topics for discussion ask questions of other members and build a name for yourself as a trustworthy individual.  Make sure you add a signature and let that link do the work for your business.

2.   Article Marketing

Start writing articles about your niche which you think will interest your readers at least once or twice a week.  Write about your passion, tell them what you know and this will inturn create interest in what else you know thus they will click on your link in your information box at the end of your article.  This will create highly targeted traffic for you and your website for years to come.  Keep your articles around the 500 word mark and divide the article into readable chunks that can be scanned quickly by someone looking for certain information.  Submit these to article directories so they can be picked up by newsletter or ezine distributors.   You can do it manually, for instance www.articlemarketer.com or you can find a site to submit them for you,  for example www.articlesubmission.com . There are many more to chose from so use your google search bar to find more submission sites.

3.   Create a Newsletter & Ezine

 If you want to build your opt-in mailing list, you must create a newsletter or ezine for people to receive weekly or monthly.  These publications deliver fresh quality content to your subscribers’ email boxes.  Remember you are creating a community of readers.  Be friendly and use a conversational manner.  Listen to your readers and offer solutions to their problems, once you do this, they will become your customers for life.  Before you start your own, subscribe to another newsletter and observe how they are written, take a few notes of what you like and don’t like, then get started creating your own.  Try this one:  www.TLCProfitSolutions.com/newsletter-signup.html .  And just for signing up you can have your choice of 1 or all 6 ebooks.  That’s it.

4.   Blog Your Way to Success

Get a blog set up right away, stop heeing and hawing about it.  Action and practice is all it takes to be on your road to success.  I was afraid of blogging at first but it is getting easier the more I do it.  Get yourself a WordPress.com or blogger.com blog, they are fun and very easy to use…any newbie can use them.  Get your free blogger ebook here:  TLC Profit Solutions.   You can develop your own style as you blog, you can make it professional or you can make it personal or you can use both together like I do.  I prefer using both because I can add a bit about my life and I feel I can connect with readers as a real person.  I am real and my readers are too.

5.   Add RSS - Really Simple Syndication

A free marketing tool, RSS, if used correctly, can skyrocket your sales.  Do a read up on Wikipedia.com or google it to find more information.  If you have a blog attached to your website, then the RSS feeder can be part of the blog as well.

6.   Use Social Bookmarking as a Marketing Tool

Because of the high volume of visitors to Social Bookmarking sites such as MySpace, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook and many more, this is definintely an effective tool for marketing your opportunity.  These sites may not create immediate results but they do create visibility of your products to visitors who may later be converted into buyers.  Back links will be automatically created when other visitors tag your site.  Be careful with being too commercial, the social sites will bury you deep.  Read the rules and then start clean.  Hey, what are you waiting for?  Go Now and create your profile at the ones you like best and start getting free traffic right now.

7.   Send a Press Release

You can write a Press Release like you are writing a newspaper article, you have to have an edge and a catchy headline.   Capture the reader, keep them reading and then mention your product at the end.  One release read by hundreds of readers can mean sales by potential customers.   To read more about how to write a press release do a keyword search on Google or Yahoo to find tips for writing a good copy.  Or read pages 274-282 of Dotcomology.

8.   Use SEO and Keywords

This is more work and takes a bit of study to master Search Engine Optimization to get your site ranked on the internet.  Get a really good ebook and read up on it, as this will be the most effective form of online marketing for your business.   One of the first steps to SEO is selecting Keywords for your site.  Now one of the keys here is NOT to select highly popular words due to competition but less used longer phrases which you can use to rise to the top of the search engines with little or no competition.  Use a good Keyword search site such as www.wordtracker.com or try www.websitetips.com/seo/tools/keywords/ as this site is offering valuable information and they keyword search is instant and free….a good place to start. 

9.   Link Building

Links are the core of your SEO campaign.  Links are natural connectors based on quality not quantity of incoming links.  The best way to get quality backlinks is having good content on your site, the saying goes ‘content is King.’   Create a Blog and upload it to your website, by blogging every week with your insights and hot discussion topics, you will get quality visitors voluntarily linking to your site.  Add the articles you have written to the first page of your website, brand yourself as a trustworthy business person who is helping others be successful.  Those who help others first and foremost will create abundance beyond their wildest dreams.   Read up on other ways to get backlinks here:  www.seochat.com/c/a/Link-Trading-Help/Link-Building-Methods/  Make sure you stay away from Link farms they will destroy your ranking.  Links from other websites with similar content is the key to getting google to love your website.

   Hope these 9 methods help you on your road to success.  Remember stop getting ready to get ready.  Do one or two of these everyday and you will start seeing the fruit on your tree of success before you can count from 1 to 9.  Cheerio and thanks for visiting.

From Theresa

a.k.a the TLCgirl

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Theresa Kannenberg is helping people around the globe be successful with their businesses on the internet. 

Sign up for the TLC Profit Business Ezine and start profiting today.

Work From Home Online Opportunity

Get the Dotcomology as a complimentary gift from TLC Profit Solutions