Best of 2007: Blogging for Business

Blogs are becoming a hugely popular, almost mainstream tool for indirect business promotion. When used properly, a blog establishes the author—and by extension, the author's company—as a knowledgeable and influential voice within a particular industry or community. Examples abound, from Robert Scoble changing the market's perception of Microsoft to Chris Baggott making ExactTarget one of the leading hosted email services.

Journalists, industry analysts, and CEOs are turning to blogs to reach their audiences directly. A business blog can be written solely by the the chief executive, or managed as a group blog, where anyone in the company with unique knowledge, and a bit of writing skill, can contribute.

Here are some of the best articles and blog posts from 2007 on effective blog design, writing and promotion.

10 blogging tips from 10 bloggers by iMedia Connection

After stating that "Business blogging has passed the tipping point. Today, executives and professionals in the media, marketing, technology and public relations industries get much of their information from blogs and strategize about how to incorporate blogging into their marketing, advertising and communications campaigns," writer Joe Kutchera provides expert tips on blogging, including focusing on what you know best and building online relationships, from bloggers such as John Battelle, Christina Kerley and David Berkowitz.

Twelve SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make by Search Engine Land

If you're going to put out the regular effort to write a blog, obviously you want potential readers to be able to find it when searching. To help ensure that your blogging efforts don't go unnoticed, Stephan Spencer provides a helpful list of tactics to optimize search engine positioning for your blog.

How to Blog without Having a Blog by eMarketing Strategist

Blogging isn't for everyone; it requires discipline and persistence to be successful. As Elgé Premeau puts it here, too often, "New Bloggers get excited, start a blog, add entries for a few weeks and once the excitement wears off blogging becomes one more thing to feel guilty about not doing as often as you should." However, one can use blogs for indirect promotion without writing his or her own blog, and Elgé provides a helpful guide to researching, tracking, and commenting on blogs.

Optimize Your Blog Sidebars by Life Rocks! 2.0

Following the guidance in this short but valuable post will help ensure that your blog's page-loading time doesn't become an annoyance to your readers.

50 Great Widgets for Your Blog by Mashable

Than again, if you're more concerned with really pimping out your blog than page load time, check out this excellent selection of blog widgets, including Flickr and Twitter badges, widgets for weather and gas prices, Tecnhnorati Link Count, answers from Answers.com and more.

RSS – Blog Directories by TopRank Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden provides an extensive list of direct submission URL links for RSS and blog directories where you can add your blog and/or feed for promotional purposes.

The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog by How to Change the World

Marketing guru Guy Kawasaki offers ten tips to help launch a new blog with a splash, or grow readership for an existing one, including blog rolling, responding to commenters and using Feedburner.

How to mine the Blogosphere, a podcast with Jim Nail by Buzz Marketing for Technology

Blogger and podcaster Paul Dunay interviews Jim Nail, formerly of Forrester and now with Cymfony, about how businesses ranging from small B2B companies to large B2C enterprises monitor the web and listen to online conversations about their brand. This podcast reveals what small and large companies—such as Sony and Wal-Mart—are discovering about their image online.

The Top 10 List of the Best Affiliate Networks by Self SEO

If you're blogging for yourself rather than as part of a company's interactive PR efforts, affiliate networks are a virtually painless way to earn money from your blog. Titus Hoskins offers a helpful list.

Tips for Optimizing Blogs and Feeds by Search Engine Guide

Ross Dunn offers several tips for making your blog more search engine-friendly, from RSS feeds and PR to commenting and linking.

Previous articles in this series:

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools
Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools
Best of 2007: News Articles on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on Google AdWords
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1)
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 2)
Best of 2007: Website Design

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Comments

All Time Greats

Top Notch Digital Marketing Tip: Google AdWords and PPC

MARKETING: 101 Looking for some online marketing strategy or social media tips to grow your business? Well, you’ve come to the right digital marketing resource! Web Market Central has been doling out the proper digital marketing advice for years. And as you already know, marketing to customers online is 100 times easier than using dated, expensive and traditional marketing tactics. Like seriously, who uses billboards in 2019? But you already know how effective digital marketing can be in the modern age. So now that you're totally convinced of what you already knew, let’s give you today's top-notch digital marketing tip! The Pure Unfettered Power of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and PPC Campaigns Just like optimizing your site to rank for keywords, you can use our online marketing tips to pay to run advertisements on Google so that your business is shown on the first page of search engine results. Ranking this way is instantaneous whereas SEO (Search Engine Optimizati...

How to Use SEO: Leverage SEO To Be Found Online and Boost Your Online Marketing

All businesses that want to attract customers online, no matter the business size or age, have few options other than Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO In The Box™ by Results Driven Marketing®, LLC There are roughly 1.8 billion websites online, and basic SEO allows Google to find and index or catalog your webpages. After that, Google serves you up to searchers in the organic section. The question remains: where they list your site, on page one or page 22 or further back? SEO controls your positioning. Do you want to be found online or not? If your business is online or you want your product or service to be found online, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must, and knowing how to use SEO to leverage the power of the internet is vital. Arguably, an effective SEO strategy gets you on the organic results section of the search engine results pages (SERP). Organic traffic is highly valuable and requires high-quality SEO. But even busines...

Top-Notch Digital Marketing Tip: Advertisements That Make Sense

MARKETING: 101 Looking for some online marketing tips to grow your business? Well, you’ve come to the right digital marketing resource ! Web Market Central has been doling out the proper DM advice for years. And as you already know, marketing to customers online is 100 times easier than using dated, expensive and traditional marketing tactics. Like seriously, who uses billboards in 2019? But you already know how effective Digital Marketing can be in the modern age. So now that you're totally convinced of what you already knew, let’s give you today's top notch-digital marketing tip! Advertisement Congruence If your business is running ads this is one of our most important online marketing tips! Ad congruence is when your ads and landing pages look alike or have the same message. Have you ever clicked on an ad and been taken to a page that looked nothing like the ad? When your ads look like the web pages they lead to, customers will feel like they are in ...

5 Painfully Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid For Better Results

Every company wants their website to show up well in search engines, and their marketing teams understand the importance of search engine optimization. And after the thousands of articles and blog posts written about search engine optimization , SEO is no longer the black art it once was. It's still a blend of art and science, but the basics should be well understood at this point by web marketers and designers. To their credit, many have integrated this basic knowledge. Yet there are still a surprising number of sites that violate some of the most basic principles of SEO, and pay a penalty in poor search position. Here are a few still-common mistakes that are easy to avoid. Header Tag Abuse: Although header tags have declined somewhat in SEO importance , they still have somewhat of an impact on rankings—and they are an easy thing to get right. Sites that use words and phrases like "Overview," "About Us" and "Our Services" in their h1, h2 and h3 h...

What is CRO and How Can It Skyrocket Your Conversion Rates? Expert Digital Marketing Strategies Revealed

‍ Image Source: FreeImages‍ ## Introduction to CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) In the world of digital marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a crucial strategy that can significantly impact your business's success. CRO focuses on improving the percentage of website visitors who take desirable actions, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter. By optimizing your conversion rates, you can maximize the return on investment (ROI) of your digital marketing efforts. Why CRO is important for your business CRO is important for your business because it can directly impact your bottom line. By increasing your conversion rates, you can generate more leads, increase sales, and ultimately drive revenue growth. Instead of solely focusing on driving more traffic to your website, CRO enables you to make the most of your existing traffic by ensuring that a higher percentage of visitors convert into customers. In addition to boosting your revenue, C...

Fishing for B2B leads? Choose the right bait.

Fishermen (fisherpeople?) choose their bait based on the type and quantity of fish they hope to catch. On the lakes of Minnesota, worms and small leeches are great for catching sunfish, and if find a good spot, you can catch a lot of them in a short time. However, it's likely that you'll also end up throwing many of them back because they're too small to be "keepers." Bait such as sucker minnows or spinner lures will attract larger, more exciting prey like northern pike. These larger fish are more elusive, so you likely won't end up catching many, but each one will be larger and more fun to catch than a small panfish. The same principle holds true in b2b lead generation. Different types of b2b lead generation programs can be used to draw visitors to your landing page, but once there, your incentive for response is the bait that determines the quality and quantity of leads you'll "catch." The greater the involvement you require of respondents,...

The Wrong Way to Build External Links for SEO

Anyone who's worked on search engine optimization (SEO) for any length of time understands the importance of building relevant external links to a website. But whether you do choose to SEO internally, outsource it domestically, or offshore the effort, it's important to get this process right. If you're doing it internally, follow established best practices for this effort (including the information below). If you outsource your SEO, ask your vendor exactly how they perform their SEO work. I frequently receive reciprocal link requests for WebMarketCentral.com . Some of the requests are well-written, some inelegant, some spammy. But I recently received the following message, which was among the worst I had ever seen: Subject: Link exchange Dear Webmaster, My name is (name), and I run the web sites.: http://www.clickatest.co.uk/(PR>2) http://www.clickajob.co.uk/(PR>3) http://www.freshpromotion.com/ I recently found your site and am very interested in exchanging links. Y...

Email Campaign, Newsletter and Banner Ad Click-Through Rates (CTR)

When planning online advertising and email promotion budgets, it's critical to calculate the likely ROI upfront whenever possible, as well as to establish campaign benchmarks. The first step is understanding the average and likely range of CTRs for various programs. The growth in online advertising, the proliferation of enewsletters, the emergence of new forms of information delivery such as RSS and the emergence of social media sites have all affected CTR, so planning based on current data is crucial. It can be challenging to find current statistics, but based on several studies, these are typical CTR ranges for email newsletter ads, email campaigns (blasts or internally-produced enewsletters), and banner ads. Email newsletter advertisements Open rates range from 28-40%, with an average of about 33%—meaning that roughly one-third of the subscriber base is likely to see your ad. The Advertising Is Good For You blog tracks these statistics from DoubleClick . The average CT...

Search This Blog