Blogging For Marketing
Blogging is a great way to increase your marketing reach. So how do you use blogging for marketing? Let’s look at ways you can create a blog to help market your website or business.
Blogging became known in the late 1990s. Blogging as a term came from the name weblog, as it was originally known. The original weblogs later became known as blogs.
Blogs started out a way for people to share their thoughts and ideas with others. Bloggers began sharing their thoughts and snippets of their lives with their growing audiences. As blogging grew it became apparent that bloggers could make money by advertising products or services to their readers. As blogs have become more numerous, so have the ways to use blogging for marketing.
Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging for marketing your business or service:
1. Blogging is simple. The simplest way for you to get your message out on the internet is to start a blog. Blogging doesn’t require any special skills like designing a website or coding an app. In fact, if you can use a word processing program you can write a blog post. Although it’s important to have some writing skills, there are tools such as Grammarly which can help with grammar and spell checking. You simply write about your thoughts, ideas, experiences or new products and then post them on your blog. If you own a computer and have an internet connection you have everything you need to start writing blog posts.
2. Blogging is authentic. When you write a blog post from your experience or thoughts it doesn’t usually sound like the hyped advertising speak we so often run into on the internet. When real people share their actual experiences through a blog post, it has much more impact as being authentic than a high-pressure squeeze page. Reading a blog post written by someone with first-hand knowledge of a product by having used it, you get a much more authentic feel for the product. Others are more likely to try a product that is recommended by a person they trust. Your blog will build that trust.
3. Blogging is free. If your business already has a website then blogging for marketing is basically free. You can simply add a blogging platform like WordPress to your website and begin blogging. Obviously, if you decide to outsource your blog post writing then there can be a cost involved. However, the return on that investment will more than pay for itself. However, if you choose to write your blog posts yourself you have free content to use on your site. The opportunity to receive free exposure for your business is obviously inviting if you are just starting a new business.
4. Blogging builds credibility. As you write more blog posts about your business, product, or service you become known as an authority on the subject. Your readers come to trust and depend on your information to learn something or solve a problem they are having. Once you are seen as an expert on a subject your readers will be likely to share your posts with their friends, gaining you even more readers. As you have more people reading your blog posts and more bloggers linking to your content, other companies will notice your blog. This may result in them wanting to advertise on your blog, offer you affiliate marketing opportunities, or even joint venture offers. Now you can begin to see how blogging for marketing can help you start to make an income from your blog.
5. Blogging builds your market. Now that you see how blogging for marketing can grow your market, let’s look at some ways to monetize your blog and start creating an income from all your hard work.
Ways to Monetize Your Blog
- Build an email list- You can offer a free report or another enticement to get your readers to provide you with their email address. Internet marketers always say that the money is in the list. Once you have an email list from your blog it’s almost like a license to print money. Everyone on your email list has opted in to receive your occasional emails, so you are not sending SPAM when you email them with an affiliate offer related to the subject of your blog.
- Offer a subscription- Offer your readers a chance to subscribe to members-only content in return for giving you their email address. You really need to make your content special for your members-only subscribers. But this can be a great way to grow your list.
- Run ads on your blog. Many new bloggers post ads on their blog to start making an income right away. This can help you with making money when you first begin blogging. Just be aware that you aren’t going to make a ton of money with ads unless you have thousands of visitors a day. However, it can be nice to make a few bucks, so you can see some return on your investment of time and work.
- Offer affiliate products on your blog. Affiliate products pay you a commission for every sale that you make from your blog. The commission can be as much as 50-75% of the sale price. This can create you a nice income if you do it right. Make sure the affiliate product you offer relates in some way to the content on your blog. Readers of a travel and leisure blog probably aren’t going to click on an affiliate offer for electronics. They may, on the other hand, be interested in an e-book that tells them ways to save money on cruises and airfare.
Now that you know what blogging is and how to monetize your blog you can probably see the advantage of blogging for marketing purposes. When you think about a subject for your blog, try and think of something you are interested in. That way when you write your enthusiasm will come through for your subject.
Finally, once you have one blog up and making money, what is stopping you from starting another blog on a different subject? Think of this; what if you had 5 blogs that each brought in an average of $1,000 in sales per month? How would an extra $5,000 per month help you? I currently run 10 niche blogs on different subjects that each brings in a nice income each month. You can do the same thing. So get started today.
If you need a blog set up turn key ready for you to start writing and making money contact me or email me.
