Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, blogs and blogging are the latest “buzz” words on the internet. The stories surrounding blogging range from it being a way to achieve fame (Perez Hilton and Matt Drudge are two bloggers whose blogs have become household names) to being a way to achieve earning a small fortune from the comfort of home. (Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett have written a bookon the topic ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.)

This blog focuses on using blogs as easy marketing tools for business owners to promote their products and services.

But you may be wonder what exactly is a blog and what makes it so special. In order to answer the second part of this question, you need to first understand the history of the internet.

Brief History of the Internet

The internet began long, long ago as ARPANET way back in 1969 and was developed as a way to facilitate communications for the defense department. Fast forward a few decades to 1993 and Mozilla released the first browser which allowed users of the internet to view the internet in the manner we do today, using graphics instead of just a black screen with white text.

(Try to keep this date in mind, because knowing this essential fact will help you when some moron tries to claim that he/she has been using the internet for marketing their business since 1992. )

Prior to the mid-1990’s, if you wanted to communicate with a large potential audience, you had to do it professionally. Authors, newspaper columnists, journalists, ministers, radio DJ’s, television anchors all had access to hundreds or thousands of people, but average ordinary people didn’t have this kind of access.

The Magic of the Internet

The magic of the internet was that the World Wide Web allowed anyone with internet access and the ability to code in HTML to publish information which could be viewed by thousands of people.

It wasn’t long before geeks and freaks were logging on and creating their own places on the web. (I kept the HTML files from my first place on the web from way back in 1994. You can see a copy of my very first website here: Waders.) In those early days, the web was not filled with the marketing madness you see today. As a matter of fact, there was a very LARGE contingent of internet users who were VEHEMENTLY opposed to the “commercialization” of the web.

During the earliest days of the internet, the term “surfing” came to describe the way users would find content on the internet. Each website would link to other “worthy” website finds. (Remember, these were the days pre-Google when Yahoo was attempting to index the web by using human beings to catalog the vast array of websites populating the online world.)

Making A Communication Connection

So, in the early days of the internet, one needed the ability to code in HTML and to transfer those files from the computer to a server, which is just a computer that “serves” files to the internet. For the technically savvy, it was cheap and easy to gain access to a potential audience of millions.

For everyone else, they had to wait until Y2K to gain easy access to the internet - which was provided by weblogs.

Prior to 2000, the only way to get content onto the web was to properly code it so it would display properly in the web browser and then FTP (File Transfer Protocol) that file to a web server account. However, with the advent of the weblog, suddenly the barriers of coding and FTP were removed. Less technically savvy users could EASILY publish content to the internet, so they could get their thoughts and ideas before an audience of what had now grown to tens of millions of potential viewers.

The Modern Blog

Blogs are simply software that makes it easy to get content onto the web.

Blogs today are being used by tens of millions of people who want to share information (content) via the internet. Sometimes that information is personal, sometimes that information is political and sometimes that information is to promote products and services offered for sale.

The modern “blog” is really just an easy to use “content management system” or CMS. Some blogs are hosted on individual hosting accounts just like “regular” static websites. These types of blogs carry the “responsibilities” of domain name registration, hosting and keeping the blogging software of choice up to date.

Other blogs are hosted on a common server (like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com). These common servers will host tens of thousands of “blogs” being populated by individuals and businesses alike.

In addition to offering an easy way to get content onto the internet, blogs offer other abilities as well.

• Blogs offer RSS
  Rss stands for “really simple syndication” and it is a method of keeping RSS subscribers “current” on the latest postings to the blog. Every time a new article is posted to the blog, the RSS subscribers are notified.
• Blog readers can leave comments
  Unlike a static website, readers of an article on a blog have an opportunity to leave comments directly on the article. This type of “interaction” is one of the key elements to “blogging”.
• Blogs can interact with each other
  Back in the 1990’s people “surfed” the web without the aid of search engines and blogs are bringing back that practice. Bloggers tend to freely link to other blogs with “worthy” content, just as early webmasters did in the 1990’s. This practice of linking between blogs is a very effective tool at getting a blog-style website better positioning within the search results.

Blogs as Marketing Tools

Which brings us to the rather new practice of using blogs as easy marketing tools for businesses.

Because of the ease of updating content, smart marketers can use their blog to promote their products and services. In addition to posting articles to article directories, a business blog can serve as an article repository as well.

One of the key elements of self hosted Wordpress blogs is that, when equipped with the proper plug ins, can be very search engine friendly. What that means is that when your potential customers are searching for answers on the internet, your blog posts (when they use the right keywords) have a great chance of appearing when they search for the solutions your business offers.

After years of empty promises, it appears that blogs may actually be poised to deliver the promise of marketing magic to business owners around the world!

I won’t deny that luck has its part in any success story, however luck alone isn’t enough.  Not by a long shot.

In the past month, I’ve had a couple of clients who “got lucky” and  have been contacted by national media. As a result, they are going to have their 15 minutes of fame in the near future, and I’m thrilled for them! One is scheduled for an NPR feature in November meanwhile another is preparing for the taping of her segment on a nationally televised series which airs on a popular cable station.  Yet another is in the hunt to land a five figure contract as a result of her blog.

In my opinion, the last example is the most exciting.  See, a lot of people are seeking their moment in the limelight.  While I’m thrilled with my clients who have been “discovered” by the national media, if they don’t have the right marketing tools in place, they won’t be able to parlay that national exposure into business success.

Recently, I had a woman contact me who had landed a shot as a featured expert on one of the cable news networks.  She was convinced that this was going be the launching point for her service based business.  She contacted me because she was frustrated that she hadn’t gotten a single contact as a result of the exposure.  Our contact actually began by her asking me to “fix” her contact button on her website.

Her contact link WAS working on her website - but not much else was.  She didn’t have any way to capture contact information from interested visitors.  Her site didn’t feature an RSS feed or a newsletter sign up. This woman had GREAT luck in landing the role of “expert” on a national cable news network… but because she hadn’t done the work before hand, the exposure did nothing for her business.

Maybe you’re trudging along - you’re blogging and it seems no one is paying any attention.  Your Alexa ranking is in the 3 Million range, your RSS subscriber number is less than 100 and you’re wondering if this is worth it.

First, establish the goals you have for your blog.  Is it to promote your business?  Is it to promote yourself?

Second, make sure you have the essentials in place.  A newsletter sign up is essential.  Less than 10% of internet users even KNOW what RSS feeds are, let alone know how to use them.

Third, keep on keeping on.  Remember, it takes 3 years to ESTABLISH a blog.  I’ve created an 8 Week Blog Power Launch to teach you the essentials, but nothing is going to replace the hard work of posting 3 times a week come hell or highwater.

Keep working hard so when you get lucky, you’ll be ready to reap the rewards!

The purpose of your business is NOT to make money. Making money is just a happy side effect when you offer a product or service that provides a way for people to achieve a Goal, satisfy a Desire or solve a Problem (GDP).

With that in mind, your marketing is all about communicating the solution you offer to prospective customers. This is the basis of marketing strategy.

INTERNET MARKETING is all about communicating those solutions with customers via the web.

BLOGS are just the latest and greatest way to get that information onto the web easily and effectively.  Wordpress blogs are great at helping even the most clueless master internet marketing.

Internet Marketing with Blogs

One of the reasons internet marketing professionals use Wordpress self hosted blogs is because they tend to do MUCH better in the search engines than the previous darling of the internet marketing world, the single page, long copy sales website.   These ‘microsites’ used to be the cat’s meow when it came to internet marketing.  You simply purchase a domain name, put up a single page website and VIOLA!  You’d rise to the top of the SERPS because your keyword density was easily managed.  Then, Google decided that those types of sites weren’t providing “quality” content and they suffered greatly as a result.

Now, the new darling of internet marketing are self hosted Wordpress blogs.  The search engines love these types of blogs and there are a bevy of plug-ins which make them positively irresistible to the various search engines.

The reason I adore this platform for clients is self hosted Wordpress blogs provide my clients (who are anything BUT internet marekting savvy) as a way for them to do the most important things when it comes to internet marketing.

Courtney Tuttle of Court’s Internet Marketing School, answers the question of what is the most important task when it comes to internet marketing.  He writes:

What are the most important tasks?

Building content and links.

Building content and links.

Building content and links.

Building content and links.

Guess what tasks Wordpress self hosted blogs make easy?  You’ve got it - building content and links.

The content is your marketing message.  The links, well that’s a necessary evil.  See, part of Google’s decision on where to return your web presence in a search query is based on a lot of factors.  One key factor is how many other sites link to your web presence.  In Google’s eyes, the more sites that link to your site, the “better” your content must be so therefore, the higher your pages deserve to rank.

Therein lies the “magic” of using Wordpress blogs as an easy internet marketing tool.  You can easily build lots of content AND link building is MUCH, MUCH easier when you use a blog.  In fact, a Wordpress self hosted blog is easily a key to website success.

Using the right keywords in your blog post title can make or break your blog.

Many bloggers seem to forget that their blog is built out of words… and the most frequently used words on any blog are, from the search engine’s point of view, the building blocks of the blog.

I you want to see what keywords are defining your blog, check out the tool Wordle… and for more about that, read the post Blog Diagnostic Tool - Wordle: Graphic Illustration of Your Blog’s Content

In the musical classic West Side Story, Maria sings,

I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and bright!

Unfortunately, when it comes to blogging, while it’s not necessary to feel pretty - sometimes it’s possible to be TOO witty and too bright!

I spent this morning explaining to a blogging client about keywords and how they can make or break your blog. Keywords are the words used by people to find information they want on the internet.

To find the lyrics I referenced above, I went to Google and typed in the words “I feel pretty“. I could remember that much of the song and by typing in those words, Google figured out what I wanted and provided links to sites which had exactly what I needed.

My results would have been dramatically different had I typed in “I feel beautiful.” Those results probably would not have included the complete lyrics from the song for which I was searching.

Which brings me to the point of how it’s sometimes possible to be TOO witty and TOO bright for your blog’s good.

You may have really GREAT content on your blog, but if you don’t target the right keywords, especially in the title, you’ll make it difficult for your audience to find your blog.

One great way to improve your blog’s “find-ability” in the search engines is to Run Your Blog Post Titles Through Keyword Research Before You Hit Publish.

Thanks to a great plug in for Wordpress from Semvironment checking your blog title keywords just got easier! Their Keyword Research Wordpress Plugin makes it easy to check your favorite keyword tool for just the right keywords for your blog titles.

If you’re not optimizing your blog posts for keywords, you’re robbing your blog of potential readers! It’s as simple as that.

For example, when I was composing the post Creating Blazing Hot Headlines that Attract Readers, the original title of the post was going to be “Writing Pithy, Punchy Headlines”. The only problem? No one is searching for pithy. It’s one of those words where someone would say, “Who TALKS like that anymore?”

Well, obviously I talk like that, but I always have had the vocabulary of an English Lit professor.

In the world of blogs, that’s a curse, not a blessing!

Five dollar words may impress your college professor, but on the internet, words like Secret, Cure and Fat are the words that win attention!

By the way, I used the tool to look up the title of this post. While no one is searching for “Wickedly Wise” or even “Wonderful”, they are searching for Wordpress plugin.

So the 2nd Commandment of blogging is KEEP KEYWORDS IN MIND AS YOU  CREATE YOUR TITLE POST!

See, in the past, the client would send me a file, usually a Word document. So, I would strip the code, then copy and paste their words into the static HTML template. (I copy and paste because I’m not anyone’s ideal secretary!) Then, the client would begin proofreading their work which would turn into revision after revision of the original content.

Well, about 6 weeks ago, I was researching keywords using Wordze for the keyword business. I was looking for search terms around which to write blog posts.

In the course of that search, I found a promising keyword. The search volume was high as was the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) for the term plus size business suits . When I checked for the domain name, it turns out that plussizebusinesssuits.net was available.

I am a big fan of Courtney Tuttle and at that moment, I decided to engage in a Keyword Sniping experiment.

I registered the domain name and in my haste to post content to the site, I ended up creating a couple of links for plussizebusinesssuites.net instead of suits.

Today, 6 weeks later, the site is #103 on the Google Hit Parade for plus size business suits… and is #6 for plus size business suites. The thing is, the site is getting nice traffic as the result of that typo.

So who says a typo is a bad thing? In the case of the site above, it’s providing the BULK of the traffic for a very, very new site.

What’s even more amazing is how quickly that site is raking in the Adsense revenue.  It’s my first attempt at a market outside of dogs or internet marketing.  Turns out, there are a lot of ladies out there who don’t fit the NY fashion elite’s ideal body type who are searching for answers on the internet.  Right now, I’m reaching the ones with typing skills similar to mine with this site.

The biggest and most glaring commandment of successful blogging has to be this:

1st Commandment of Blogging:  Thou Shalt Begin by Being in Control of Thy OWN Blog

Your business blog should be a self hosted blog… period.

I am horrified and stunned by the number of large companies who have more than adequate resources who choose to dip their toe into the blogging waters and choose the path of a free blog to do so.

Wordpress.com, Blogger, LiveJournal are all great free blogging services and if you’re a stay at home mother who wants to express her creativity, then they are truly a great way to see if blogging is for you.  By choosing one of these platforms for your business blog, you are broadcasting your level of blogging expertise AND your lack of commitment to your business blog.

The $10 for a domain name and the $120 or less for yearly hosting should NOT be a barrier to entry for ANY business which is SERIOUS about creating a blog to market their products and services.

I was contacted a while back by the VP of North American Operations of a company… well by a company large enough to have a VP of North American Operations.  This VP had found my flagship blog (virtual impax) via a comment I had made on another blog as this other blogger was dragging the VP’s company’s name through the dirt because of some exceptionally poor customer service.  When bloggers get dissed- they tend to blog about it.  (Read Andy Beal’s Rant about Office Depot for social proof!)

So this VP writes to ask me to take a look at his company’s blog and to tell him what they’re doing wrong.  I didn’t even have to follow the link to begin the diagnosis.  The URL read companyname.wordpress.com.

Lee Oden answers the question of why you shouldn’t host your blog using a third party domain name in his post Learning from Business Blogging Mistakes.

First, you have no control. If you want to change blogging platforms, there is typically no reasonable way to redirect traffic from the old blog to the new address in a search engine friendly way.

If you’re serious about blogging, get serious from the start.  Get a domain name and a hosting account for your blog.  Starting your business blog with a free blogging account sets your business blogging up for failure from the start.

One of the key elements to blogging success is to view each post as a part of the “whole” that is your blog. Each post is a building block, a structural element of your blog and your blog’s overall structure affects its ability to act as a marketing tool.

In order for your blog to act as a powerful marketing tool, it has to focus on essential keywords that your prospective customers are using to find the information contained on your blog or website.

Liz Strauss over at Successful Blog introduced me to an incredible tool to help you analyze the keywords used on your blog. It’s Wordle. Wordle allows you to create beautiful word clouds, but more importantly, you can enter your RSS enabled site and SEE the words or building blocks of your blog. The larger a word appears, the more its used on your blog.

Now, I know that there are plug ins which will create tag clouds for your Wordpress blog. But tags aren’t the words used in your content and there’s something about the quality of the image of the Wordle image that makes it so appealing.

Over the past week, I’ve had two clients contacting me whose blogs are struggling. They are complaining that their blogs have not been acting like the powerful marketing tool they expected. So, I entered their blog feeds into Wordle to see what it showed.

CASE STUDY #1

The first client has been blogging for three months now. She’s consistently blogging so it’s not a lack of content that is hurting her blog.   If it’s not lack of content, then is has to be the keywords included in the content that is the problem.  I plugged her blog URL into Wordle and got this image:

This would be a GREAT Wordle if my client’s blog were about gardening, kitchens and writing.

However, her business is to help people achieve spiritual healing through journaling.

OUCH!

I can’t imagine anyone interested in her services to be rushing to Google and typing in the word “garden” hoping to find what she has to offer.

I’ll send her an email today about this tool and let her make her own evaluation.

CASE STUDY #2

This client is a weight loss coach. Weight loss is a great internet business. There’s a lot of competition but on the other hand, a lot of people are turning to the web to find weight loss solutions as well. This client included the essential keywords of “lose” and “weight” in her domain name because she understood how important those words were to her potential clients. However, despite FAITHFUL posting to her blog, her Wordle tells a different story.

Her most dominant keyword: YEARS!!!

ACK!!! I don’t want my weight loss efforts to take YEARS!!!! I don’t want it to take months!!! I want to go to bed fat and wake up thin!

Now, contrast these two Wordles with yet another client’s recently launched blog.

Rosemary Davies-Janes recently launched MibosoTraining.com. Her blog’s Wordle looks like this:

See the big words? Those are the ones she’s emphasizing in her content. The good news is those are exactly the words her potential clients will be using to find her.

Training, corporate training, executive training are all important keywords for her business and this tightly targeted site.

Rosemary has another blog at CarBrandsLikeMe.com where she focuses on showcasing her talents at helping companies develop a powerful and cohesive brand. The Wordle for that blog looks like this:

Since the blog is all about building a brand, Rosemary is probably pleased at the Wordle that blog produced.

If your blog is struggling, check out Wordle.  See what words you are using to build your blog.  Ask yourself, “Are these the words people would use to find what I have to offer?”

I’m in the middle of developing a course called “The 8 Week Blog Power Launch“. To be honest, I’m developing the course as a way to relieve some of the “customer service” I’m providing to my blog clients. When it’s finished, I’ll be sharing it with others just because it’s been almost as much work as supporting all of my combined blogging clients, which is a lot like herding cats!

Anyhow, one thing I encourage course participants to do is to subscribe to the RSS feeds of other blogs. (I subscribe to a lot more than I list in my post The Best Making Money Blogging Advice.)

My iGoogle page is full to overflowing, so I began visiting each blog listed there to see if the blog was still worthy of a place on my page. To my HORROR I found one blog by a self professed blogging consultant that was obviously composed in Word and then copied and pasted directly into the post… Word coding and all! (Ordered and unordered lists do NOT make the jump from Word to Wordpress well AT ALL!)

Now the question…Should I out him here? He’s pretty wicked with his wit and I’m sure outing him would provoke an attack. His blog has more readers than this one… but not more than my Virtual Impax blog according to Alexa. Should I try to make a mortal enemy to boost traffic here?

I’ll be honest, if I had my The 8 Week Blog Power Launch product ready to sell, I’d out him. But I don’t and my time should be spent in compiling the feedback which continues to flood in from beta testers. (The most recent, “Don’t assume we know how to do anything!”… GOT IT!)

On to the next blog on my list. (I really should be working on the power launch stuff… I know! I’m calling this “research” to justify my procrastination.) This one is a competitor of sorts - well, he claims to be a blog expert as well. I noticed his RSS feed hasn’t updated since I subscribed. I click on the site. Oh, he’s been very busy creating content for his blog… just none of it is appearing on his RSS feed. Oh, he wants to sell you his services of setting up your blog for maximum performance though and will charge you handsomely to do so.

Again, I could out him. I’ve found that people who claim to have expertise they don’t possess get VERY touchy when their rookie mistakes are posted for the world to see. Another mortal enemy to engage in verbal battle… it would be a GREAT excuse to ignore the additional content I need to create to bring my course participants up to speed….

By the way, blogs whose RSS feeds I’m still subscribed to include (in addition to the four I listed in the post above) include:

• Court’s Internet Marketing School because it really is a blog which serves as a school for internet marketing!
• The Writer’s Manifesto by Monika Mundell because, she’s the greatest.
• Andy Beard because he IS the original blog guru!
• Itty Biz because Naomi always makes me at least smile if not laugh.
• Liz Strauss at Successful Blog because she makes me think.
• Catherine Lawson because she tells it like it is.
• Daily Blog Tips because Daniel knows his stuff!

These are the blogs whose RSS feeds will remain featured at the top of my iGoogle page. These are each blog experts WORTH following. I’ve launched over 100 blogs and I STILL learn something new at least weekly from each blog listed above!

One very successful blogger is David Airey.  He launched his blog to promote his graphic design practice and he offers tips to other graphic design artists along the way.  Those helpful tips not only helped other graphic designers to learn how to better practice their craft, but they also served to demonstrate David’s expertise.  As a result, David’s business has grown.

I recently shared in Blogs-Credibility-Trust about a supposedly successful online business person who fell into posting the typical  MMO style of posts.  His “I’m so successful and look, I’m going to buy a 2nd home on an  exotic island” post earned my disdain instead of my trust.  On the other hand, David’s approach is, well.. authentic and it definitely inspires trust.

Recently, David took the opportunity to share the spotlight he’s earned with others through his post The Value of Trustworthy Subcontractors.

At the end of the post, David invites OTHER freelancers to list their specialties on his blog.  Yes, it’s open to his competitors… other designers!

OUTSTANDING!

This kind of post goes a LOT further in building the image of a “successful online business” than any photo of him standing in front of a mansion leaning on an expensive automobile could ever do.

David is all about sharing and as a result, his blog and his business are apparently a raging success!

A lot of my web development clients come to me with the idea that the internet is a Cockaigne for marketing and advertising.  Business owners imagine that their magical, mystical website is going to naturally attract visitors.   People will be compelled to buy just because there’s a buy button in front of them.   These business owners ignore or forget the fact that their website is competing with BILLIONS of pages for MILLIONS of eyeballs.

Not long ago, I worked with a client who agreed to use traditional media to promote his business.  I’ve got to tell you that after more than a decade slugging it out on the internet, promoting his business via television, radio and newspaper was like shooting fish in a barrel.  The money he spent to air his television spots was 1/3 of what he was spending on Adwords.

Blogs are truly great marketing tools, but they shouldn’t be your ONLY marketing tool.  One of the reasons that I advise my clients to blog is because a website you don’t update isn’t worth the money you pay to host it.