Blogging to Boost Your Business - Part II: Maximizing Your Blog's Potential
by Mikal Belicove, Director of Community and Education - Doba
In Part I of this article, we give you four great reasons for blogging about the products you sell. A blog won't do much good, though, unless it draws the attention of consumers who are in the market for the products you sell. Fortunately, the Web offers numerous promotional opportunities to steer prospective customers to your blog. In this part, we reveal several of these opportunities and show you how to skyrocket the visibility or your blog and, ultimately, your business.
Capitalize on opportunities to [tag]promote your blog[/tag]
The information superhighway is loaded with space where you can erect virtual billboards and road signs directing traffic to your blog. After you create your roadside attraction, start erecting signs, so passersby know how to get there:
- Spread your link far and wide. Established websites and blogs already have a steady stream of traffic that you can steer your way. Search for websites and blogs related to the items you sell, and ask the creators of those sites to link to your blog. (Steer clear of competitors, of course.) In exchange, offer to link from your blog to their site. For example, if you sell model trains, see if some of the national or regional membership associations for model train enthusiasts would be willing to provide a link to your site in exchange for one back to theirs.
- Take a detour around obstacles. eBay prohibits sellers from linking listings to an external sites that sell goods. You can, however, link to any type of site from your [tag]eBay About Me[/tag] page, without breaking the rules. Simply place a link to your blog on your About Me page, and then delicately mention your About Me page in your eBay listing.
- Use incentives to lure customers to your blog. Add a sweet morsel to entice viewers and send them rapidly clicking to your blog. Your incentive should be clear enough to be enticing but vague enough that readers will need to visit your blog to find out how to obtain the reward. For example, you might say, "Save 10% off your next purchase by visiting my blog.
- List your blog with the leading blog indexes and search engines. This part is really a cinch, as complex as it might sound. Why? Because Google does most of the work for you. As the world's leading search engine, Google is guaranteed to bring blog readers your way with its blog-specific search tool. The best part? You have to ask them not to list you, otherwise, you're automatically in the ring. Aside from Google, you have a few other fantastic opportunities for getting your blog to stand out among the abyss go to [tag]Technorati[/tag].com and register there under "Claim my blog" for free exposure. [tag]The Truth Laid Bear[/tag] Blogosphere Ecosystem does the same for you—head to Truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php and sign up for a free account. These sites even let you see how readers are ranking your blog.
Use your blog to shuttle readers to your store
People visit blogs because of curiosity, personal connections, and in a quest for knowledge, and they do not appreciate heavy-handed sales pitches. You can and should, however, mention your products and link to your webstore. Blogs are a perfect venue for
soft-sell sales. Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Talk about your [tag]eBay business[/tag] or eCommerce [tag]webstore[/tag]. Briefly mention your store in every other blog entry or so, and devote an entire entry every few weeks or so to your business. Relate to fellow hobbyists and aficionados on a personal level, cluing them in on the vision behind your business, your reasons for starting it, and your passion for running it.
- Post [tag]links to your store[/tag] in conspicuous places, but keep them to a reasonable minimum. Use your judgment as a consumer to determine how much is enough.
- Optimize the use of page layout to draw attention to your eBay account's presence. Post a link in a speech bubble of sorts near the top of your blog, highlight it with colors and borders, vary the font and font size from that of your
blog, and put it where you know readers won't miss it. Let your creative juices and your intuition guide you, but try not to make it look like too much like an ad.
Clone your blog in other locales
Once you've created a blog, you've done most of the heavy-lifting in terms of design and content. Leverage the power of your blog by cloning it on other free blog hosting services. Here are a couple suggestions:
- eBay's My World at myworld.ebay.com enables you to harness the marketing power of eBay and direct eBay member traffic to your blog.
- MySpace at www.myspace.com offers access to a huge community of active bloggers of all ages. Through the MySpace "groups" feature, you can create your own active, loyal community and drive traffic to your [tag]eBay[/tag] account or webstore.
Tip: As much as possible, design the cloned blog to mimic your own, creating somewhat of a brand presence. Countless site-design tools offer free tips to help you customize a MySpace page, and one great tool I recently found allows you to easily fashion your [tag]eBay My World[/tag] page after your blog. Check out www.isdntek.com for lots of great guides and shortcuts.
As you've discovered in Parts I and II of this article, a blog can be a powerful marketing tool, assuming you manage it properly. Don't let the clamor of other competing retailers drown out your presence in the marketplace. Harness the power of blogging to raise yourself and your business above the rest.
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About the Author: Mikal E. [tag]Belicove[/tag] is an expert at building and supporting online communities of practice and Business-to-Business-related social networks. As Doba's Director of Community &
Education, Mikal oversees the company's efforts to educate retail business owners and connect customers with one another. Mikal is the author of 2007 Edition of the Internet Yellow Pages (Que Publishing/ Pearson, 10/06), co-authored with Joe Kraynak.
Note: You are invited to reprint this article in your own newsletter or on your blog or website, provided that all content—including this signature—is included and remains unchanged.
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