In blogging, content is the lifeline of blogs. It is what makes each blog ticks, come alive or stand out from the rest. We cannot dispute the fact that content is the driver and the direction that the blog is moving is controlled by this driver. Whether we like it or not, content remains the primary yardstick to the success of each blog. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that good blog content matters the most as far as the success of the blog is concerned.

Blog content is read within the posts that are placed in the blog. It follows therefore that before posts can be made, content must be developed first. Such content development can be initiated through writing, compiling and linking. No matter which route is chosen for content generation, the fact still remains that it has to be developed first and has to be of quality and relevance to the title of your blog, that is to say, it must agree with your niche.

Often a mind-boggling question is the topic of frequency of posting. How often is a blogger required to submit new posts? What kind of posting schedule is preferred or should be followed? There are really no hard and fast rules concerning the frequency of submitting fresh posts. The one thing to look at is how much time can be spared for writing the new posts. Each post would require different amount of time to think out what you intend to say, read and edit what is being written and counter-checking spelling or grammatical errors. The point here to emphasize is that a fresh post will be best written at a time slot which you really can afford to spare, so that it will not be completed without inspiration but with refreshing zest and creative imagination.

Blog content may be generated in various styles best suited to your blog:

(1) Compiled — This permits quoting content from other blogs or experts with proper referencing .

(2) Narrative — Similar to an essay which can either be lengthy or short.

(3) Link lists — This style is time-saving. What is needed is merely creating the links and organizing them.

(4) Supplementary links — This requires creating the links in HTML within your posts for content similar to yours.

Throughout the presentation of the blog content, it is always good to be the voice of the blog, that is to say, be yourself. Write as you think and keep the thoughts flowing smoothly, continuously and creatively real. Should any idea for a blog post pops up, it is always beneficial to write it down first and post it later. Do not neglect this idea as it may turn out to be your blog’s number one post!

To write good posts, good content is the prerequisite. This can be generated if it follows certain guidelines:

(1) Be attention-seeking

A piece of good content is attention seeking. It contains information that is helpful and valuable to visitors who will return to source for others. Your blog will be bookmarked in the process. It will become a popular resource blog.

(2) Inducing subscription

With the content that is updated on a regular basis, it is good to provide visitors with a subscription feature. They will be able to subscribe through the feed system on your blog.

(3) Always aiming for more links

None is further from the truth that if your blog has more incoming links, your rankings on search engines will vastly improve. This is a result that will happen only after your blog has gained a favorable impression with other bloggers in terms of good blog content. In their eyes, your blog is their valuable resource center.

(4) Welcoming comments

To encourage openness and friendly interaction, always encourage visitors to post their comments on your blog. It is good for self-development. Comments should be taken with a positive mindset.

(5) Encourage action-taking

In your content, it is always possible to arouse the interest and urgency of the visitors to engage them in your call-to-action undertaking. It has to be one call that is strong and emphatic.

When there is a vast amount of posts on your blogs, it is good to place them into archives. The archive feature stores and places your posts in neat arrangement on daily, weekly and monthly basis. Your posts should be placed in categories that they fit into. Categories can be customized to your taste, style and creativity.

Generating good blog content should be the dream of every blogger. It will bring satisfaction and joy knowing that your blog content is well read by visitors and that your blog has turned out to be the hot favorite as a valuable resource.

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What is blog marketing? It is essentially building up a blog for the purpose of marketing a product or service. What is essential for knowledge and understanding of how you can go about marketing the blog boils down to the fundamentals of online marketing. They will guide you to achieve the best results in blog marketing.

What then are these fundamentals that are building blocks to the marketing of your blog? Much serious thought and consideration have to be given to them. They are the pillars in blog marketing.

(1) Check out and confirm who will be your audience that you are targeting

Needless to say, this is the very first prerogative any marketer has to fulfill before embarking on the process of blog marketing. The product or service must be able to meet the need of the customer. This implies that the audience must be correctly targeted. In marketing terms, there must be correct customer segmentation.

(2) Search out the possible sources of online audience presence

After having segmented the target market, ascertain where and how can the targeted audience be found and reached on the web. A good suggestion would be putting up a survey on the web. Ask questions pertinent only to your product or service.

(3) Read the minds of the targeted audience

Delve into the minds of the audience target. Know what the targeted audience read. This will provide great support when it comes to studying their interests and understanding the different reasons for their reading blogs. This will be of great help when you want to find out in what ways blogs read by them have been useful to them. Plans can then be drawn up to revamp your blog for blog marketing success.

(4) Check out and confirm audience communication channel

Find out how to contact the targeted audience who is usually geographically dispersed. The norm will be via search engines. These will assist searches for your blog by the targeted audience. It is also possible to consider other communication methods such as the posting of interesting messages and the exchange of links amongst blogs. These alternatives will help in traffic growth for your blog.

(5) Determine ways to collect email addresses of targeted audience

The opt-in box will be needed to collect the email addresses of the targeted audience. This will help to grow the subscription list which can be the potential goldmine. Hang carrots to lure potential customers by giving freebies for instance free ebooks. The choice of opting in essentially means that the customers have the right to choose if they really want to release their email addresses and to receive future email marketing messages from you. To ensure privacy, insert a privacy policy which should categorically state that you as the marketer will protect all contact details and information given. The psychological fear of not knowing who they are talking to at the other end is overcome by the use of such a privacy policy. The building of your contact database will thus be made much easier.

(6) Know and understand the competition

Be armed with good knowledge and understanding about your competition. It is paramount to know the minutest details of the competitors in terms of who are they and what are they currently doing in their business. With the data collected, you will be able to write out a strategy to fine-tune your blog and blow your competition away.

In blog marketing, you can achieve the best results with the following steps:

(1) Careful selection of keywords

Your blog must be search-engine-ready. This means that even the brief description of your website must show up relevant keywords that are related to your niche business. This process of carefully selecting the best keywords may be tedious but it can extremely rewarding. Search engine optimization necessitates this action to be taken. Even the meta tag should preferably use description similar to that of the title. Search engine rankings can be affected by the title tag as well as the name of your blog. When selecting keywords, it is best to include the name of your blog into the title tag, not forgetting certain relevant keywords for the purpose of search engine optimization.

(2) Listings in search engines

To spread word about the birth of new blogs, it is usually done by listing with search engines. In submitting your blog to search engines, it is always useful to provide them with the brief description and keywords that you have specially selected. Of course, the operations of search engines do differ in their requirements for submission. Examples of search engines and directories that you can choose from include Google.com, Yahoo.com, Blogcatalog.com, Bloggernity.com, just to name a few.

(3) Get more links

The concept of links and reciprocal links plays an important role in blog marketing. Links must be relevant to your site; they must be speaking in same terms. The more links the merrier. Visitors will love to return as they realize your blog has become a valuable content resource to them. Undoubtedly, blogs are actually great link baits. There are several free tools designed specially to help out in the area of linking to other blogs. Examples include Blogroll.com and Del.icio.us.

(4) Use Feeds

When new updates are posted in the blog, it is strongly recommended to use blog feeds that will help to automate the important process of syndication of blog content by other bloggers. The concept of subscription to content from blog feeds enables members to monitor updates of blogs that they like. FeedBurner for instance helps to set up feeds.

(5) Use Pinging

Your blog must “ping” each time there is a new post written. The blog is being updated and notification must be sent out to your audience. This can be easily done with the help of blog search engines such as Blo.gs and Weblogs.com. for Typepad users. Ping-o-matic is another good choice.

(6) Place relevant comments on other blogs

Make many visits to related websites and place pertinent comments on those blogs. With rich and valuable content on your own blog, these bloggers would come to your site. This will imply more traffic from your targeted audience, especially if you have placed your URL in your post for the sole purpose of leading them back to your blog. In trackbacking and especially for blog marketing, the trackback feature will increase the awareness of your blog and blog content. This is simply done by putting a link to the page from where the post that you are referring to is taken from.

(7) Monitor and Identify shifting trends

It is imperative for the survival of any business to monitor what is happening with its competitors. What are the current changes taking place? What are the new trends that are appearing gradually? What will be your next course of action? It is no easy task but it must be done for the survival of your blog. The reason is that the blogosphere is always growing and getting filled with new blogs with new trends. Blogdex , Technorati and even BlogPulse will provide the much needed information on shifting trends and popularity.

Blog marketing is the new marketing era on the web. It provides a real hot source of revenue if given the strong setup and right impetus. It is a lucrative source of money. It can certainly be explosive.

PS Want to learn more about internet marketing and make massive income ? - subscribe to my newsletter at the top right - to get your free ebook.

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In email marketing, emails must be written effectively in order to capture the attention and interest of customers. The messages will usually serve two functions. They will be used either for the purpose of acquisition or for the purpose of retention. In acquisition, they will be used to draw in more new customers to enlarge the customers database. As for retention, they will be used to retain existing customers so that the customers list will not shrink. That said, what good will they do if the all-important landing page for your email marketing strategy fails to provide a smooth and proper landing for the customers?

The landing page is an integral component of your email marketing message. The main email text describes the main highlights of your product or service.The landing page consolidates and further reinstates what you have written in the main email text. This is the reason why the landing page being action-inducing is best left to stand on its own as another separate customized page. Traffic will tend to be directed, and the possibility of increasing conversion rates will be higher. Therefore, it is necessary to customize the landing page that will appear specific to what’s being offered in your email text offer.

To achieve good results , here are the tips for a good Landing Page:

(1) Be specific in details — Whatever is the intention of the landing page, it is best to place emphasis solely on the product or service in topic, as described earlier in the email promotional message. For example, if the promotion is for the registration of an educational course, then do not deviate from it. Direct all your efforts to only bringing in the registration traffic. Be focused and specific in the details and action taken.

(2) Be creative but synchronized — It is good to synchronize the appearance of the email text and that of the landing page. What is being used to make the email more appealing to customers should be used in the landing page. If the email shows certain colors being used, it’s best for the landing page to adopt similar colors. The main reason for this is that the attraction power that has worked for the email will filter to the landing page. Customers will stay on to read in the same creative background, without giving them unnecessary mental fidgets.

(3) Bring to mind the offer — When emails are being read, there are only two results. One is that the email is of no interest to the customer and goes to deletion. The other result is that the email appeals to the interest of the customer, and this goes on to be a click-through. Of absolute importance is the fact that the offer has to be reinstated for the sake of reminding the customer. The best way to achieve good results is to make the reinstatement within the headline itself. The headline sits at the top of your page, and it has be compelling in providing the unique selling proposition of the product or service. It must meet the needs of the customers in “What’s in it for me?”. It must convince their curiosity.

(4) Show off your selling skills — The landing page is where the customer gets to read the benefits of your product or service, and experience the best selling skills that you have. It is the opportunity for you to showcase to the best of your abilities what you can offer in terms of product or service excellence and benefits. Customers have gone this far clicking through to this landing page and you will be doing yourself injustice if they do leave because you have not offered them more freebies and benefits. One point worth noting is that there must be honesty and transparency as far as offers, freebies and benefits are concerned. It is strongly recommended that the pricing offers be simplified as far as possible; too much details and choices tend to raise confusion and can be damaging to the closing. To lend support to all these juicy pricing offers and benefits, a good testimonial preferably accompanied by a photo will do the job. You can increase your credibility by including a visual pop such as “As featured in SmartMoney”. Give your customers additional information using pop-ups to make them stay. They have to appreciate and understand more about the value of your offer and why they need to buy from you now.

(5) Emphasize the call to action — This is the finale for the landing page. After all the sales talk throughout the whole length of the landing page, it is time to emphatically stress the call to action. Even if there is a form to be completed, this must be made known to customers. The call to action should be written in clear powerful terms and should create impact upon customers. It should lead customers to taking immediate action. “Buy NOW before the price goes up tomorrow”, “Enjoy $100 discount. Don’t miss this offer. Sign up NOW! “. These examples of call to action clearly shows the strong directive for customers to take action immediately. Figures (e.g. $100) should be used to help customers realize the mathematical value of your offer.To create more impact, additional call to action buttons and links should be placed appropriately throughout the whole length of the landing page, with the minimum of one per screen view. To increase the confidence of your customers to buy from you, remove the element of risk and provide them with the assurance of guaranteed satisfaction.

The landing page is just too important to be given some slipshod construction. It will work if it is given due thought and consideration with meticulous planning. It may turn out to be the savior of your flagging business. Nevertheless, the customer must still be given the red-carpet welcome on your landing page!

PS Want to write great emails?Read all about it in my post dated 16 Jan 2008 entitled “Tips for great emails” featured and published on Ezine Articles.

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It is true that some marketing copies sell extremely well and some do not. This is because of the fact that certain marketing copies are really well written. They are created from powerful and effective copywriting. Those that do not make the grade are those that are pretty weak in impact upon the readers. There are numerous and varied reasons that we can hold accountable for these different yet sometimes alarming results.

David MacKenzie Ogilvy (CBE), a notable advertising wizard who was labeled as “The Father of Advertising”, had famously stated that:

(a) “Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything” , (b) “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar”, and (c) ” If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative”. Certainly there are so much truth and wisdom for marketers to grasp from these statements from an advertising genius.

What then will make or break the success of your internet marketing system? The marketing copy that is being drafted is to achieve the principal dual purposes of drawing traffic to our website and to increase the bottom line. Inside this marketing copy is the important component that will make or break the success of your internet marketing system. It is none other than its HEADLINE!

What constitutes the headline for your marketing copy? How should you write and what words should you use when drafting the headline? How do you plan to market your product or service through the headline?

Tips for powerful headlines include the following:

(1) Brainstorming sessions — It is imperative that brainstorming sessions be held to find out the right direction that will be taken for the selection of the most appropriate headline for the marketing copy. What kind of headline will create the greatest impact? What is the sole intention of the headline and how is it going to project the marketing copy effectively in existing fierce competition? How can the headline be made powerful in its impact upon customers and the bottom line?

(2) First impression counts — Words to be used for the headline should be chosen with extreme caution and thoughtful consideration. Words can sell effectively and profitably, but they can also create devastating damage to your marketing campaign as a whole. In any marketing endeavor of a reasonably big magnitude, and this goes for offline too, the very first impression that the headline projects to the readers is extremely important,and should not be taken lightly. The headline has no other alternative but only to either attract or repel the readers. In marketing basics, what is often used in the plans for advertising is the concept of AIDA. This is the acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. What will impress the readers will be the result of what is being put in the headline to win the readers’ attention, stimulate their interest, create their desire for your product or service, and compel them to make the purchase.

(3) Put up attention-grabbing headlines — The main intention of the headline is to captivate the readers and persuade them into quick acceptance of your proposition. They must be made interested enough to read deeply into your headline in order for them to agree to read on into your marketing copy. The mental focus of the readers must be captured and not be allowed to shift direction. The headline has this important role to play to fuel readers’ interest. Do not forget about the sub-headline which functionally supports the main headline which appears at the top of your website. It is basically an additional description of your offers. Examples of attention-grabbing headlines:

“Health secrets that most drug companies won’t reveal to you”

“5 effective cures for your back pains”

(4) Use words of “power” — As the headline is the first sentence that is being read, it is therefore strongly recommended to use “power” words that will effectively describe in a nutshell the intention of the marketing copy. “Power” words can include words such as power, proven, unleash, secrets, free and success, just to name a few. Such words cause great impact upon readers, and push them into taking action. The usage of “power” words in the headline must be strong. It must show strength, stimulation, captivation, and explosion with the handful of words specially chosen. Needless to say, too much of these words would reduce the impact, so use them in moderation. They are best used in normal fonts. It can be irritating to the eyes if all words are in bold. We can see examples of “power” words in action here:

“This is an opportunity that may change your entire life!”

“Insider secrets to email marketing now exposed for the very first time!”

Headlines will definitely affect the conversion rates for your campaign. Powerful and effective headlines will bring in the numerals and positively affect the bottom line. That said, it is time to be express confidence in your product or service and use these tips for powerful headlines to spin your marketing copy successfully.

PS Want to learn more and succeed in your email marketing? Read all about it in my post dated 15 Jan 2008 entitled “Email Marketing Success” featured and published on Ezine Articles ==> Click Here !

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What can be further from the truth about blogging? It is phenomenal and explosive. Admittedly, blogging brings bloggers together. There is no other way that communities can be formed so easily, with bloggers exchanging views and ideas so willingly and honestly. Blogging provides the welcome space for bloggers to speak their minds via their blogs. It is the landscape on the internet that has made web surfing to be much more diverse, interesting and appealing.

Blogging has its own truths. To be successful in blogging, it is imperative to realize and understand these truths. Progress can be made. Results will be amazingly positive. Before these to happen, truths must be unfolded and followed faithfully.

Whatever the profession is, blogging truths require the blogger to be real. Bloggers have the responsibility of thoroughly knowing themselves. They must be in control of their own directions, where they are heading to in their blogging, what aims do they have for initiating their blogs, and how do they plan to achieve what they have planned at the outset. They must control their own destiny. Besides these, they have to comprehend their fellow bloggers too. These are people on the other side reading and listening. They comprise the target audience who are looking for something specific to their needs. Put simply, there is really too much for bloggers to blog about especially when it is about everything. Bloggers have to be specific.

To succeed in any endeavor, there must exist passion. If there is passion in blogging, the result will be that blogs will be outstanding. Bloggers will use their voices passionately about the things they are passionate about in their blogging. It is not difficult to visualize the enjoyment of something developing into passion, turning the blog into an explosive connection with other bloggers.

Needless to say, good blogging requires constant posting. Blogging truths endorse this fact that posts must be made constantly and with the inclusion of fresh content. Numerically, posting has to be made at the minimum once a day within a five-day week. Anything less than that is unacceptable. This is imperative because of the fact that the blogs will be subject to the scrutiny of search engines. Blogs will be searched more regularly for fresh content. Fresh content is therefore important not only to readers but also to search engines.

In blogging, the process of links is fairly noticeable. Links can imply that the blogger expresses interest in a certain topic posted, or that the linking blogger wishes to express his respect to the other blogger for the interesting post. The quality of the links that the blogger is linking to have the possibility of commanding more respect from readers and fellow bloggers. Respect begets respect. Links provide the way for newer blogs to be noticed only if their outward links are of higher quality.

Blogging truths reveal that in blogging, it is important and useful to request for and leave comments on the blogs. This process opens up the way for traffic and relationships building. Through links on the comments, the community members will be able to know more about the blogger and vice versa. There is the opportunity to get blogs and content revealed to the community. It is the golden path to enlargement of networking.

On the flip side of seriousness is fun. Blogging can be made fun. In reality, it should be fun, as it requires a voice from the blogger. It is an understatement to say that it can change views and relationships between blogger and customer. The fun aspect of blogging should be unanimous.

The advancement in technology is changing our lives on the ground and on the web. There are the new innovation of podcasting and video-blogging technologies which should not be left on the shelf. Blogging will be more enhanced with such cutting-edge technologies incorporated into the blogs. There will be more expression and appeal on these blogs.

New posts written have to be communicated to the blogosphere. In the world of blogging, there is the ‘pinging’ action that blog-software takes care of. This action readily shows the new posts to the rest of the blogging world. Bloggers thus stay connected and updated. To complement what ‘pinging’ can do, it is essential that content can be readily received by other bloggers or readers. This can be resolved by the usage of feeds. Through feeds, content can be easily read anytime and anywhere.

In blogging truths, it is strongly recommended to write a good blog post title. This is to captivate readers and to make them read on. When there are more readers, the chances of more links are higher. In the eyes of search engines, these are the kind of post titles they are searching for and type of blogs that they are sending more traffic to.

Learn more of these blogging truths and keep them in mind when blogging. They are the sure path to blogging success.

PS Learn more about Blogging. Read my post ” The Power of Blogging” dated 12 Jan 2007 and featured on Ezine Articles. Click Here!

PPS Want to learn more about internet marketing and make massive income ? - subscribe to my newsletter at the top right - to get your free ebook.

PPPS Looking for tips on how to improve your blogging ? ===> Click Here!

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