Website marketing
| |
| |
|
Blogging & RSS Information
brought to you by The Best Paid Website marketing |
|
|
|
3 Reasons To Publish An E-Newsletter AND A Blog
With spam filters on high alert, delivering a newsletter by email is not as easy as it was even one year ago. Should it reach your subscriber's inbox (without getting siphoned into a junk folder), it still has to vie for attention amongst dozens - or even hundreds - of new messages. 1. A blog is not "email" A Weblog or blog, on the other hand, is a page on your site that can be updated several times a week with fresh content. If a reader has "subscribed" to your blog, he or she gets an alert (consisting of the headline and brief summary) every time you post new information. I.e., much the same way you can include a teaser paragraph in your e-newsletter with a link back to the full article on your site. If you're thinking that subscribers have to proactively "visit" your blog (a "pull" tactic) vs. having an ezine or e-newsletter delivered to them (a "push" approach) there's good news. You can subscribe to a blog using downloadable software called a newsreader. NewsGator www.newsgator.com is a popular one as it integrates seamlessly with Outlook. There are lots of newsreaders to choose from, many of them free. Once installed on your desktop, the newsreader (also called a news aggregator) grabs the latest updates to your blog via an RSS feed. No need to worry what RSS is (it stands for Really Simple Syndication). Just have faith that RSS is a new way to publish and distribute content on the Web without using email. And that's the point. No email. So, no worries about spam filters or delivery problems. 2. A blog is an instant publishing tool A blog is an easy-to-use content management tool. When you "blog," you are instantly adding new content to your site via a Web interface. No technical or programming skills are necessary. Anyone can update the copy and content on your site. In fact, think of a blog as just another page on your Web site. Key point: a blog doesn't have to be "cool." A steady stream of short tips with links to other sites or articles can be extremely useful. (See my article 5 tips for a useful resource blog.) In fact, this is the same kind of useful information you may be cramming into each issue of your newsletter. With a blog, you can parcel it out in digestible bits - with more impact. 3. A blog makes your site search engine friendly Search engines love blogs and will index individual entries (no matter how short) if you've got your blogging software configured to create a separate page for each new post. In other words, think of each blog post or entry as a Web page with its own title. By incorporating a blog into your site you are creating multiple new mini pages. Search engines crawl sites which are updated regularly with fresh content. So "blogging" raises your site's rankings in search results. OK, but are blogs a fad or a trend? I love this question. Here's my answer: Newsletters or ezines are still the e-vehicle of choice for most marketers. Two things are slowing the adoption of blogs as a channel for business communication: 1. The term blogging is associated with online journals; personal, unedited writing; and, er, needless bloviating. 2. Most folks don't know what a news reader is and why you need one to subscribe to a blog or any other RSS feed. (Again, don't fret over RSS. Visit www.newsgator.com for a good explanation and to see how easy it is to download a newsreader.) Use a blog to extend the reach of your e-newsletter My advice for now is to continue publishing an e-newsletter. If you're sending it in HTML, trim your design down to the bare minimum and make the file size as small as possible. This will give you a better chance of getting past the spam filters and other blocking tools being used by major ISPs like AOL. Of course, don't forget to link back to your blog through each issue of your e-newsletter. You'll probably need to explain to your newsletter readers what your blog is, where to find it and how to subscribe to it. If you think your email subscribers are not ready to embrace "newsreaders," then don't mention this downloadable software - or RSS for that matter. Simply include a prominent link to your blog in the layout of your newsletter and remind readers to "visit" often for updates between issues. Bottom line, consider adding a blog to your site for two reasons: as an instant publishing tool and as an adjunct to your email marketing efforts. You may find you can use a blog to trim down the extraneous information that's clogging the regular issues of your newsletter and making it less effective.
Using RSS Feeds to Promote Your Website by Ralph Wilson Quick explanation of RSS (from my article "5 key questions about business blogs")
Popular Blogging Tools Blogger (free tool; now owned by Google) Movable Type (software you install; it powers many professional-looking blogs) TypePad (hosted version of Movable Type; easier to set up) Debbie Weil is the publisher of award-winning WordBiz Report, read by close to 15,000 subscribers in over 80 countries. She is also an Internet marketing & communications consultant. She sells special reports & award-winning starter kits, and produces audio conferences on topics related to marketing with e-newsletters or ezines... as well as blogs. Download your free copy of her mini guide to online copywriting (value $10) instantly when you subscribe to WordBiz Report.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
For Wordpress users version 1.5 new feature "Pages" After many requests from wordpress users, the latest version of wordpress has a build in option to create static pages. You can use static pages for an about page, contact page, a links page, etc. Blog and Ping: The Basics! The buzz words on the internet at the moment are Blogging and Pinging and according to the internet guru's we should all be looking at these as the must have system to be attracting visitors to our site and consequentially making revenue.At first glance you may be forgiven for thinking that this is a new comedic duo just bursting on the entertainment scene, but seriously what is Blogging and Pinging and how will it help us to become a viable internet site owner and if indeed an internet marketer, make a serious income online. 16 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. 5 Easy Ways To Use RSS On Your Site You hear so much talk about RSS these days on the Internet and in the media. Everyone is acknowledging it's importance in boosting your site's presence on the web. Blogging for Business Not long ago a blog was simply an online diary. Initially, people decided that blogging was describing, in excruciating detail, how their day went, what they had for dinner last night, and why they spent the whole weekend doing laundry. Should Affiliates Really Use Blogging and Pinging To Get Indexed? There seems to be a huge craze lately with everyone trying to blog and ping to get their websites indexed into the search engines. Although this can be a great tool, all marketers should first understand exactly what they're getting themselves into before starting. How To Profit From Your Home Business Blog A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers should be utilising to explode their affiliate sales.I set up my blog in about 15 minutes at http://www. Boost your Search Engine Rankings with an RSS Feed I'm here to teach you about how RSS Feeds can boost traffic for your website. You may have heard of it, but I guarantee you are not harnessing the full power of the tool. Could There Be A New Way Of hearing The News Stories We Feel Are Relevant In Our Lives? Mainstream media has become a single-minded authority on how we should perceive life. Theirs is a negative perspective. How to Make Money with Your Blog -- What Is A BlogA blog (or web log as what originally called) is the modern day equivalent of a journal?think 'captains log stardate?' and you're heading in the right direction.A blog is an online publication about a subject or subjects that interest you. The Art of Business Blog Writing "It is precisely minds of the first order that will never be specialists. For their very nature is to make the whole of existence their problem; and this is a subject upon which they will every one of them in some form provide mankind with a new revelation. 5 Reasons Why Your Site Needs to Publish a News Feed It seems like everyone is talking about RSS Feeds. They've been around for years but the buzz is up about them as the technology continues to go mainstream. How to Use RSS for Free Targeted Website Traffic RSS (real simple syndication) is the new rage in communication. Why? Because people are beginning to see the traffic and communication potential of using RSS to boost their business. Blogging for Profit Using AdSense This article is designed to teach you how to profit from blogging, writing to a website in the form of regular posts, without spending anything. The keys to this idea lie in two of Google's programs, Blogger. Blogging Your Way To Success Part 2 (Continued from Blogging Your Way To Success Part 1)By now, you have already configured your blog name, description, personal profile, and the page template. As soon as you set up your blogging account with Blogger, you will need to do this next:Post At Least 20 Articles ===================== While this may sound like hard work, there is no short cut around it. RSS Publishing for Webmasters Since the recent rise in interest in RSS there has been a slew of RSS sites and RSS software. RSS has been proclaimed as the next big thing. Feeds For Small Business: Real World Examples A merchant I was talking to the other day asked to me, "Aren't feeds for bigger companies with IT people on staff?" All they knew about feeds was that bigger companies , news providers etc., were using them. The RSS Promise for Internet Users The RSS promise for end-users is simple:--> a unified one-stop-shop to consume online content, without having to visit dozens of sites every day to see what's new and without having their online subscriptions interfere with their personal and business e-mail communications;--> complete control over their content consumption, including a quick, easy and reliable mechanism to unsubscribe from content they do not wish to receive;--> the ability to receive breaking news as it becomes available, without having to wait for a monthly, weekly or daily recap sent to their e-mail addresses;--> the certainty of actually receiving the content they want, without the fear of it being stopped by spam filters on the way;--> the ability to receive rich-media content directly to their desktops, including audio and video content;--> the promise of providing the tools to make their lives easier, including receiving critical content updates as soon as they become available.These points are not simple enhancements, but important advancements that can fundamentally change how internet content is consumed. Promoting Your Business Using Blogs Internet marketing using blogs has quickly gained a lot of popularity as a wonderful way to promote your business.There are many ways that blogging can help in the promotion of your business. Google AdSense and Blogs If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting a blog, then you are definitely going to want to read this article. It's all about how to line your pockets with money that's just waiting to be made without working much harder than you already are.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
