Do you use a blog?

[rspadi]

Nowadays a blog is already almost an old hat. Lots of people have one, but still, I think most don't use it properly.

Blogs are ideal to get your messages delivered and even more important to develop a relationship with your audience, which is absolutely crucial to assure long-term success for your online biz.

Many people (myself included) start a blog, post a few messages and then stop providing valuable information. With a blog, you won't reap the fruits of your efforts immediately. It can take months, a year or even longer, but if you keep on providing great stuff - again and again - the final rewards will easily compensate the initial effort: You get people to trust you, they recommend you, buy your products...

After all, I think 3-4 posts / week are enough and that shouldn't take more than an hour/week - not really a big deal for what you'll get in return.

Anyway, I guess you're doing some research, education... on your niche topic, so whenever you find some golden nuggets, just post it on your blog.

Do you have any great tips to share on how to make blogging more effective?

Thanks.

Robert

[Will]

A blog that you put genuine effort into and provide value with can be a great asset especially for an affiliate.

My primary blog offers my opinions and experiences earning online. Not only can I document my experiences, but by doing so I'm also marketing my blog and attracting visitors from search engines. Yet another form of perpetual Internet marketing.

For some really excellent tips on how to vastly improve your blog I highly recommend John TP's own blog. You can find the link from my reading list.

[Lowell Rieger]

Blogging in and of itself can be the end, not the means. With the CMS capabilities of Wordpress (with all the add-ins) , it has become a very user friendly site builder.

I find that by blogging an affiliate site I get indexed faster, get more traffic faster, and it is easy to add fresh content. Instead of pinging the blog to get my main site spidered, I ping the blogs to get THEM spidered.

[grumpyoldman]

Hi,

I don't use a blog. I also don't read blogs and I don't feel that anyone else, over the age of 15 does.

If I Google for something and I see 'blog' in the URL, I will certainly not click on it.

Articles are another 'written, but never read by anybody' thing.

Just a personal opinion, but why would ANYONE be interested in anything I have to say?

I've never been on an ego trip. Putting your picture on a blog or website is also another sign of insecurity. The desire to be famous - for doing nothing. Very 21st century.

[Lowell Rieger]

grumpyoldman -

You might be surprised to know how many blogs you've visited that you thought were traditional sites.

You seem to put all blogs into the myspace category.

Putting a picture on a page is a way to brand yourself so people remember you. You'll see Rosalind's picture in her blog, and indeed at the top of this page in this forum.

I'm not trying to change your opinion, but you're missing out on a lot of what's going on with web marketing today if you pigeonhole blogs into the "immature kid stuff" category.

By the way, my sig link is a blog...but since I told you I guess you won't go there lol.

Regards,

Lowell

[grumpyoldman]

Hi Lowell,

Thanks for the reply, but I have only visited about 50 sites in 14 years online. I don't surf, I know exactly what I want and I go there and there only.

I also realise the purpose of the picture. However, as an online marketer, it is probably more advisable to do all you can to hide your real identity. After all, us esteemed online marketers have now occupy the bottom of the list as far trustworthyness and honesty, in the eyes of the general public, is concerned. Even used car salesmen are higher up the list.

I write e-Books and I put a different false name on each one. Just to be on the safe side. No contact, link, bio box or email address appear on my sites or in my e-Books. On eBay my 'about me ' page is blank and my forum profiles contain as little information as possible. No-one cares who you are online. I'll never get trust and respect. It's not like a real business in the main street. I have skype and messenger but they're both blocked from taking requests for details to be exchanged. I have one contact on each - after at least 5 years.

I live in a small country town (pop. 10,000) and, since I've started selling on line, I'm shunned by all who used to be my friends. I've been selling for a year and I've not received an invitation anywhere for a year. This is to be expected. By advertising who you are, you are only inviting more people to dislike and distrust you.

You must remember that 99% of information products contain no information whatsoever, and less that one person in a million ever makes any money at all by following the instructions in an e-Book, regardless of who wrote it.

I must admit that I haven't bought Rosalind's, but that's simply because I have bought so many and 100% of them have been useless. I have set myself a price limit of $20. I know that I'm almost certainly going to lose my money so I'm not going to allow myself to lose a lot.

My total affiliate sales for 10 months are $22 and I think that I have done well to get that.
To expect to increase on that figure is hardly likely.

I guess my opinion is really worth nothing. I honestly don't know why I bother posting as I realise that nobody would ever be interested in anything that I have to say.

That's why I'd never blog or write articles, even to promote my own e-Books. I'm quite sure no-one ever reads an article and the kind of people that read blogs won't buy
e-Books.
I will stick my e-Book on its own site and forget about it and just hope that someone finds it. Nothing I could do is going to make any difference to sales.

No, I've not been to 'disguised' blog sites because I never go to sites that have information on them. If I want to read an article I will buy the newspaper or go to the library. I visit the absolute minimum of sites and I would never dream of going to a site 'just for a look' or 'out of interest'. Oh, I do visit 2 forums, but just to see how the rich other half lives. Us failures must have our little bit of fun, too, you know.

And no, I'm not lazy, I spend 12 - 16 hours a day, 7 days a week in front of my computer even though, in a full year I have not achieved a total of $900 in sales. I sell e-Books, my average sale is about 70 cents. That is all you get for e-Books. I've just today finished writing one about a topic that is in the news constantly and is causing worry to almost everyone. The draft has been read by quite a few people, to rave reviews.

I will still list it on eBay for $1.99 because that's all it's possible to get for an e-Book.

Joint ventures etc are for millionaires. I wouldn't waste my time writing a letter.

And, by the way, Lowell, you don't have a signature link. As you can see, nor do I. But you are correct in assuming that I wouldn't have visited it.