e-Start-net | Start Business, SEO and Internet Marketing

Archive for the ‘Blog Advertising’ Category

Having a blog can be a great way for you to practice your writing and to allow others to find out more about you and to get to know you better. Moreover, in this day and age of Internet businesses, a blog can be a great way for you to make money.

In a system called affiliate marketing, you can get commissions whenever people click on ads that are posted on your site. In this way, you not only enjoy writing, you also get to make money from it. Of course, the only way that you can get money through this method is to get more visitors to your blog, and to have great content that everyone will want to avail of.

One way for you to get more visitors is to find an email group that you can use to promote your blog. An email group or mailing list is a great marketing vehicle: you can get in touch with a lot of people who have the same interests as yours, you can find a lot of people who may even have the same attitude as yours, and you can get the word out faster on a product or service that you like. In this same manner, you can get the word out much faster on your blog, and you may be able to spread the word if you know how to talk to people in your email group.

But how do you find the email groups? Here are a few tips that you may want to use as you search for a mailing list that will allow you to talk to a lot of people, keep in touch with people with whom you share interests, and have a lot of fun in promoting your blog!

- First, what are your interests?

Many email groups are built around common interests, be they movies, music, crafts, or even romance and love. List down all your interests. You can start with your hobbies, then your favorite songs, artists, movies, books, authors, and actors. You can use these interests as keywords when searching for email lists. Nearly all email list networks have a searchable database that you can use when looking for groups for you to be a member in. This way, you can be more sure to find people who have the same interests as yours.

- Second, what is your blog about?

Use keywords about your blog in order to find more email groups. For instance, if you have a blog about pets, you may want to look for email groups that talk about pets, feeding pets, grooming pets, veterinarian and vet visits, and just animals in general. You can be as specific as you like: there are whole mailing lists for proud owners of certain breeds of dogs, or for people who like a certain kind of reptile. You can also be as general as you like. However, you may have a harder time with large groups, as they can be filled with people who do not read carefully through all the posrs.

- Third, spread yourself evenly, but not too thin

The disadvantage with having too few mailing lists to be a member in is that you will also have fewer contacts in your network and a smaller range, as though you were putting all your eggs in one basket. The disadvantage with having too many mailing lists, however, is that they are much harder to manage on your part, and you could end up getting a lot of emails but not getting to respond quickly enough.

Email opt-in lists are very important. They provide you a legitimate way to keep in touch with your customers, not to mention a way to ensure that you don’t lose them to the competition as well.

Subscription Software

Choose the best software that will allow you to automate the registration process for would-be subscribers. Once you have this up and running, visitors of your blog can automatically opt-in to your email list even without your physical supervision. As the settings for these programs are configurable, it’s up to you to choose whether approval of subscriptions would be automated or manual.

Offer and Link

Use an attention-catching image or decorative text when inviting people to join your email list. Be sure to place it in a prominent area of your homepage. As for other pages, just choose a spot where it’s highly visible and which you could maintain for your entire website.

As for the link, just keep it simple and remember to make regular checks in order to ensure that it’s always in good working order.

Call to Action

Since building your email list is your current goal, it’s best to end every blog entry you write with an invitation to join your email list. Your call to action for now should offer strong encouragement on joining your email list.

For an effective call to action, just keep your sentence short but powerful. Use action-packed words and if possible, try creating a sense of urgency with your words.

Deadlines

Speaking of urgency, one way of making people even more aware of the need to join your email list is by offering an incentive with it. This can be special discounts, membership privileges, or free ebooks and the likes. Whatever you end up offering, just remember to place a deadline on your promotion.

With the clock ticking, your blog readers are sure to experience just how necessary it is for them to avail of your offer.

Benefits

Besides those incentives you’ve mentioned, there must also be other benefits for a customer to enjoy once they do sign up for your email list. Explain to them what you hope to accomplish with your email list and how they’ll benefit from it at the same time.

Signing up with your email list, for instance, will allow them to receive regular updates about the latest additions to your blog. They may also be able to receive newsletters containing special members-only data.

Safety and Confidentiality

Another way to encourage people to sign up for your email list from your blog is by giving them the assurance they need when it comes to safety and confidentiality. Purchase and register for what you need in order to provide your customers as secure platform for the registration process. A secure platform is one that keeps customer data safe from getting hacked.

As for confidentiality, you should also give your solemn word not to share any information they submit with other parties.

Overall Improvement

Of course, the real clincher is your blog itself. If you consistently work on providing the best content for your blog, you’re giving them the best reason to sign up for your email list. If you don’t prove to them that there’s something to look forward to in your blog, they will never think there’s any reason for them to join your email list.

Assuming that you already know and appreciate the benefits of posting comments on other people’s blogs, here are a few tips to help you choose the best blogs to leave those wonderful comments of yours on.

Similarity in Interest

There is rarely a point to leave a comment on blogs that have nothing at all to do with the main theme of your blog. A direct connection is unnecessary but preferable. If you are, for instance, maintaining a vitamin supplements, you don’t always have to restrict your comments on blogs that tackle the very same topics. You can also visit a beauty blog, for instance, and post comments regarding the benefits that vitamin supplements offer with regard to one’s physical appearance.

A quick way to determine the nature of any blog is by checking out its blog description. If there is none, just browse through its content and see if you’re targeting the same keywords.

Popularity

Likewise, it’s senseless to leave comments on little-known blogs. With such a small readership base, you won’t be able to justify the amount of time and effort it could take you to post the best comments. If you’re going to use comments to promote your blog, it’s better to post them at blogs that are equally popular or more so than yours.

You can use the blog’s page rankings to determine the popularity rating of other blogs and compare it with yours.

Likelihood of Reciprocity

Naturally, it’s best to concentrate your efforts on blogs whose owners are likely to reciprocate your action. Whether or not you’re the first to make contact, as long as the other party benefited from the comment you posted then it’s only good business for them to reciprocate.

To determine the chances of having comments left on your blog and link exchanges, try reading the previous entries in other blogs. Follow the links of those who posted comments on their blogs and see if the favor was returned. You know what to do next.

Similarity in Target Market
Blogs need not have the same interest in order to benefit from comment exchange. With careful planning, traffic can be generated for two different blogs with just a couple of comments posted on each other’s entries.

A dance blog and a food blog may not have anything in common at first glance, but if you look more closely, you’ll realize that both of them may target the same age group. Two different blogs may also have target the same geographical area.

If you can find a major connection between both your target markets, beneficial comment exchange is very much possible but only with careful planning. First, you’ll need to think of a topic that could link your interests together. Just concentrate on your target market, and you’re sure to find one.

If we go back to the food and dance blog example and assume that both are targeting teenagers, articles that could require the blog owners to exchange comments would be about the best food for dancers during competition and the best dance workouts for those on a diet.

Of course, it’s not bad at all to leave a comment on someone else’s blog just because you want to. If you have the time and the inclination then go ahead! There may be no way for you to benefit from such an action now but this small act of generosity and goodwill could turn out good for you in the long run.