 |
| Happy New Year - 2017 @ Dillip Kumar Barik Blog |
Showing posts with label Blogging techniques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging techniques. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Top Ten Ways to Drive More Visitors to Business WebSites
For more visitors to your business website specifically, those who at some point want to purchase.
Like any other online business, the success of your own business is tied
in directly with the amount of targeted traffic your site can attract.
Fortunately, there are many techniques you can use right away to start attracting increasing amounts of quality traffic to your site. And they work long-term too.
1. Recommendations
Recommendations from other online businesses are very powerful, and drive valuable traffic for months if not years. So it’s worth investing time and effort in attaining some of these links.
After all, potential customers are far more likely to believe a third-party review of your business than your own marketing materials.
To help encourage these recommendations:
Yes, article marketing has received some negative coverage of late, but much of it comes from business owners who use SEO as a central pillar in their marketing strategy.
Instead, it’s important to develop links from all over the web that drive traffic to your business independent of search engines, and reduce any such reliance on SEO. Article marketing remains one of the most effective ways in which to achieve that.
The fact is article directories are among some of the most highly-visited sites online … why wouldn’t you want your link on them, siphoning traffic back to your site?
And if you need any proof that article marketing can increase the online visibility of your business – you’re reading this, aren’t you?
In fact, my own articles tend to get hundreds if not thousands of views within just a few days of publication. Some go on to achieve tens of thousands of views. And that’s just one article directory …
Multiply that when you syndicate to several high-traffic article directories, as well as other potential online publishers, and you start to appreciate how effective article marketing can be in raising your profile.
It’s also not always about linking back to your main website either. You can for example also link back to your pages on social media, or perhaps a squeeze page domain to help build your email list.
3. Paid Traffic
Can’t that be costly? Yes, but only if you do it wrong. Get it right, and it’s a continual, long-term profit stream.
Personally, I’ve been paying for traffic for years, as well as using other traffic-building methods.
Take time to master it; be willing to invest some cash up front while you get it working effectively, and it becomes an important asset for your business.
4. Retargeting
Of course, retargeting also involves buying traffic, but it works slightly differently.
When you get a visitor to your site, you then drop a cookie on them, and they continue to see ads for your site on other websites around the web long after they have visited.
This not only brings a percentage back to your site, but can also raise your profile with them and keep your business front of mind, increasing the likelihood of purchase.
5. Email Marketing
Capture the email address of your prospect, and you can then follow-up with them by email for weeks, months, and years to come. Some people on my own list have been receiving emails from me for several years now, and still end up back on one of my sites after clicking links provided in the emails I send out.
Communicate with your list regularly, and invite them to return to your website, whether for a promotion, to read your latest content, or to interract in some way with you.
It’s a powerful way to build a relationship with your prospects, build traffic for the long-term, and of course increase their likelihood of purchase.
6. Blogging
I’ve now been blogging for years, and it’s one of the central planks to my long-term traffic strategy:
Engage with forums relevant to your niche, and you can drive a lot of targeted traffic back to your site.
For example, link to a blog post where it helps someone’s question. Link back to your site from your signature, and via your profile.
You can also build up some powerful relationships which can result in long-term traffic from referrals and so on.
It works in a similar fashion with blogs. Avoid spam commenting completely, but instead add a useful, informative comment of real value. You can either link back by adding your website details into the field provided, or where appropriate try linking back to say one of your own blog posts where it adds further to the discussion.
8. Videos
YouTube can be hugely effective in driving traffic to your site, simply because it gets so much traffic itself as the world’s second largest search engine. By posting videos that will match up with some of those searches you’ll reach new audiences and attract new visitors to your site.
What’s more, you can create new videos relatively easily by simply basing them on earlier blog posts.
9. Social Media
Social media signals are becoming increasingly important for SEO purposes, and it also allows your content to spread far beyond your own shores and get seen by audiences you otherwise wouldn’t reach.
Every time you create or add new content somewhere, you can also post it to your social media profiles. This drives up engagement, attracts new followers, and raises the visibility of your business in general.
10. Do They Want What You’ve Got?
You might not think it’s a ‘traffic strategy’ as such … but in fact, it’s the most important one.
If people don’t want what you’ve got, you’ll find traffic generation a whole lot harder.
On the other hand, when you sell what people want, particularly when combined with a powerful USP (unique selling proposition) it all becomes a lot easier. People will spread the word naturally, your traffic will grow based on their willing referrals, and your marketing costs will reduce substantially.
Fortunately, there are many techniques you can use right away to start attracting increasing amounts of quality traffic to your site. And they work long-term too.
1. Recommendations
Recommendations from other online businesses are very powerful, and drive valuable traffic for months if not years. So it’s worth investing time and effort in attaining some of these links.
After all, potential customers are far more likely to believe a third-party review of your business than your own marketing materials.
To help encourage these recommendations:
- Ensure whatever you provide through your business is the best it can be and delivers real value to your customers.
- Prioritize customer support, deal with inquiries on a personal level and build up a personal rapport with some of your best customers.
- Create an affiliate program, providing incentives for other businesses to start recommending you.
- Ask for referrals – you’ll be surprised how often your customers will be happy and willing to refer others to your business.
Yes, article marketing has received some negative coverage of late, but much of it comes from business owners who use SEO as a central pillar in their marketing strategy.
Instead, it’s important to develop links from all over the web that drive traffic to your business independent of search engines, and reduce any such reliance on SEO. Article marketing remains one of the most effective ways in which to achieve that.
The fact is article directories are among some of the most highly-visited sites online … why wouldn’t you want your link on them, siphoning traffic back to your site?
And if you need any proof that article marketing can increase the online visibility of your business – you’re reading this, aren’t you?
In fact, my own articles tend to get hundreds if not thousands of views within just a few days of publication. Some go on to achieve tens of thousands of views. And that’s just one article directory …
Multiply that when you syndicate to several high-traffic article directories, as well as other potential online publishers, and you start to appreciate how effective article marketing can be in raising your profile.
It’s also not always about linking back to your main website either. You can for example also link back to your pages on social media, or perhaps a squeeze page domain to help build your email list.
3. Paid Traffic
Can’t that be costly? Yes, but only if you do it wrong. Get it right, and it’s a continual, long-term profit stream.
Personally, I’ve been paying for traffic for years, as well as using other traffic-building methods.
Take time to master it; be willing to invest some cash up front while you get it working effectively, and it becomes an important asset for your business.
4. Retargeting
Of course, retargeting also involves buying traffic, but it works slightly differently.
When you get a visitor to your site, you then drop a cookie on them, and they continue to see ads for your site on other websites around the web long after they have visited.
This not only brings a percentage back to your site, but can also raise your profile with them and keep your business front of mind, increasing the likelihood of purchase.
5. Email Marketing
Capture the email address of your prospect, and you can then follow-up with them by email for weeks, months, and years to come. Some people on my own list have been receiving emails from me for several years now, and still end up back on one of my sites after clicking links provided in the emails I send out.
Communicate with your list regularly, and invite them to return to your website, whether for a promotion, to read your latest content, or to interract in some way with you.
It’s a powerful way to build a relationship with your prospects, build traffic for the long-term, and of course increase their likelihood of purchase.
6. Blogging
I’ve now been blogging for years, and it’s one of the central planks to my long-term traffic strategy:
- It gives you a lot of content in the search engines, with each post that you write (or have written) working to attract visitors over the long-term.
- It helps build relationships with the people who read your blog, who return repeatedly to read your latest content.
- It builds your credibility and authority, increasing the chance of both purchase and referral to others
- It gives you content to feed your social media activities.
- You can leverage the content for other purposes (for example, this article originates from a blog post).
Engage with forums relevant to your niche, and you can drive a lot of targeted traffic back to your site.
For example, link to a blog post where it helps someone’s question. Link back to your site from your signature, and via your profile.
You can also build up some powerful relationships which can result in long-term traffic from referrals and so on.
It works in a similar fashion with blogs. Avoid spam commenting completely, but instead add a useful, informative comment of real value. You can either link back by adding your website details into the field provided, or where appropriate try linking back to say one of your own blog posts where it adds further to the discussion.
8. Videos
YouTube can be hugely effective in driving traffic to your site, simply because it gets so much traffic itself as the world’s second largest search engine. By posting videos that will match up with some of those searches you’ll reach new audiences and attract new visitors to your site.
What’s more, you can create new videos relatively easily by simply basing them on earlier blog posts.
9. Social Media
Social media signals are becoming increasingly important for SEO purposes, and it also allows your content to spread far beyond your own shores and get seen by audiences you otherwise wouldn’t reach.
Every time you create or add new content somewhere, you can also post it to your social media profiles. This drives up engagement, attracts new followers, and raises the visibility of your business in general.
10. Do They Want What You’ve Got?
You might not think it’s a ‘traffic strategy’ as such … but in fact, it’s the most important one.
If people don’t want what you’ve got, you’ll find traffic generation a whole lot harder.
On the other hand, when you sell what people want, particularly when combined with a powerful USP (unique selling proposition) it all becomes a lot easier. People will spread the word naturally, your traffic will grow based on their willing referrals, and your marketing costs will reduce substantially.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Business Blog Updating Tips to get Unique Visitors
Most businesses are beginning to see the value in having a company blog, but it can be difficult to decide what to do with it once you make one.
A good business blog doesn’t focus so much on selling, but instead on providing information and making your customers want to do business with you. If you do it right, your blog can help you become a leader in your industry; you should post relevant, up-and-coming information that shows customers your knowledge, while also giving them ideas.
Content should be fresh, original and exciting. If your customers take the time to read your blog, they want to walk away feeling like they gained something – not like they were suckered into buying.
Here’s a list of ideas to help inform, excite and engage your readers:
Information:
1. Write how-to articles. These types of posts will give your readers instructions – and you can even include screenshots or images – on how to do something related to your business. After reading articles like this, customers will view you as a knowledgeable, authoritative source.
2. Create “tips and tricks” lists. You could offer lists with benefits for doing something or lists of things to avoid. These can help readers understand your industry better.
3. Write an FAQ post. If you take the time to answer the questions all of your customers are asking, it shows you acknowledge them and want to find solutions. It will also help save customers’ time.
4. Pay attention to the news. You want your blog to feel up-to-date, so incorporating current events is beneficial. You could talk about how relevant events are affecting your customers and/or your business.
5. Talk about common myths. If you can come up with a list of common myths about a product or an aspect of your business, shed light on them and demystify them, readers might become more understanding and more likely to do business with you in the future.
6. Be practical. Readers will like it if your posts directly relate to them. Write posts related to the seasons, time of year or specific holidays. This will make your company more relatable to your customers’ everyday lives.
7. Partake in a friendly debate. You could do a “Point/Counterpoint” post with someone in your field who disagrees with you. Readers will see that you are knowledgeable, passionate and willing to show them all sides of an issue.
Excite
8. Record an interview. Any form of multimedia can make your blog more exciting for readers. You could turn an interview with an expert in your field into a podcast, or you could even record yourself giving useful tips.
9. Make a step-by-step tutorial. Whether you make a video or a stream of images, readers will be excited if you show them how to do something. Everyone likes learning new things, and it’s always easier with multimedia.
10. Be creative. Don’t be afraid to use humor in your blog, because customers enjoy when a business is down-to-earth and genuine. Try making a music video for your company or some sort of funny mashup with your employees. It’ll show your enthusiasm for your industry and your company!
11. Make a slideshow of pictures. You can use platforms like Flickr to post slideshows with pictures from recent company events. Images always liven up a blog, and if customers find themselves in a picture, they’ll be even more excited.
12. Write “sneak peek” posts. Give your readers inside glances at what you’re planning for the coming year, whether it’s a new location or product. You can use any form of multimedia to do this, but it’ll help you generate interest.
13. Create infographics. Any post filled with graphics and facts will be a hit on social networks and get a lot of shares. This is a great way to get exposure on different sites.
Engage
14. Create polls. If you develop surveys and polls to give your audience, it shows you value their opinion and want them to be a part of your company. Make sure you publish the results of the polls in a blog post or infographic!
15. Interview your customers. If you write an interview post or create a video with your most loyal customers sharing testimonials and success stories, readers will feel more connected with your business.
16. Start fun contests. Make sure you occasionally reward your customers for reading your blog. You could create contests that get them more involved, such as sending in funny pictures that relate to your business and then picking the winner.
17. Make staff profiles. By including images and descriptions for each of your employees, readers can feel more connected to you and your staff.
18. Talk about your charity work. If your business volunteers in the community, write a blog post about your recent experiences – and include pictures and videos of the event. Show that you’re engaged with the community around you.
19. Share customer feedback. Regardless of if you have comment cards, surveys or email forms, create a post with highlights from the suggestions you received from customers. This shows you’re listening and being open with them.
20. Offer readers something. Give your blog subscribers and readers something to thank them for their commitment to you. It could be a giveaway that you only post on the blog, or a sneak peak at a new product or service.
Using a variety of informative, exciting and engaging posts will help you keep readers interested in your business blog. With so many ways to create original content, neither you or your readers should get bored with your blog!
Have additional ideas for spicing up a blog? Share them with your fellow bloggers in the Comments section.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Blogging Inspiration, Top Blogging Ideas for Business Blogs
Even if you have the best
intentions in the world, coming up with a constant stream of new ideas for blog
posts can be pretty intimidating. All too soon, the corporate blog lies empty
because the company has run out of ideas. Don’t let that happen to you! From
company brainstorms to new ways of planning copy, we are going to provide you
with some great tips on how to generate ideas for blog content.
WARNING: This is a long post, but we think it’s worth the read (and hopefully you’ll agree). If you really don’t have time then there’s a list of our top tips at the end!
1. Look at current trends, extrapolate them, and make a prediction for the future of your industry.
2. Do an introduction to 10 of the best up-and-coming bloggers in your field.
3. Find a current topic of debate and express your own, new, different view on the issue.
4. Make a list of common myths and misconceptions about your industry and then debunk them.
5. Satirise a well-known personality – it can be someone inside or outside your industry.
6. Look at a big brand, and analyse both their good and bad points – show where they’re using best practise techniques and where they’re making mistakes.
7. Find a recent piece from a high-level personality in your industry, disagree with it, and prove them and their opinions wrong.
8. Do a case study of something that went wrong in your business. Analyse the mistakes and explain how you fixed them.
9. Break some news about your company, e.g. revealing a new product.
10. Write a list of the vital web tools and software people in your industry can’t do without.
11. Compare the old and new ways of conducting your business.
12. Write an allegory about your idol doing your business e.g. “How Steve Jobs Would’ve Done SEO” or “The Bruce Lee Approach to Marketing”.
13. Go to a trade fair or industry event and report on it.
14. Do a comparison of your national market to markets abroad.
15. Review a book which deals with your industry – particularly if it contains some interesting outside the box thinking.
16. Find out about something new for your industry – a tool, a website, a method etc. – and write about it.
17. Identify industry leaders in your area and ask them to do a guest post.
18. Write a code of business ethics for your industry.
19. Conduct an interview with a prominent or rising industry figure and write it up.
20. Check Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, and Quora to find out what’s most popular right now, and what questions people are seeking answers to. Then provide the information they want on your blog.
WARNING: This is a long post, but we think it’s worth the read (and hopefully you’ll agree). If you really don’t have time then there’s a list of our top tips at the end!
Use your Colleagues
Brainstorms can be a brilliant
way to come up with interesting blog ideas. Don’t limit yourself to asking only
the PR or SEO teams though, invite people from across your business to
contribute to a brainstorming session. They might not have the skills needed to
write good content, but they may have insights and opinions that will help you
generate great ideas.
Speak to your partners, colleagues, and employees, and listen to them to decide what would best suit the needs of your company. Then, come up with something you can write about which takes this on board.
You might even want to talk to some of your regular and trusted customers, to find out what they’re interested in, as there’s a good chance other potential customers will share those same interests.
Remember why you’re blogging. In the case of a corporate blog it’s usually to generate business – so put your audience first and write for them, not for your own interests. You might be delighted to finally have a platform to rave about your travels, but your corporate clients won’t care.
One key consideration is to make sure everything you write is both useful and interesting. That’s the best way to maintain a high standard for your blog.
Become a Serial Killer
Speak to your partners, colleagues, and employees, and listen to them to decide what would best suit the needs of your company. Then, come up with something you can write about which takes this on board.
You might even want to talk to some of your regular and trusted customers, to find out what they’re interested in, as there’s a good chance other potential customers will share those same interests.
Remember why you’re blogging. In the case of a corporate blog it’s usually to generate business – so put your audience first and write for them, not for your own interests. You might be delighted to finally have a platform to rave about your travels, but your corporate clients won’t care.
One key consideration is to make sure everything you write is both useful and interesting. That’s the best way to maintain a high standard for your blog.
Become a Serial Killer
Serializing your blog posts can be a great way of producing killer copy over the medium term,
rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket. By producing a series of
posts on the same topic, you increase the apparent relevance of your site for
that subject – and give your readers some other pages to click onto.
Serial articles can help keep people interested in your blog and encourage them to return for more useful content on a relevant subject. You could consider writing a series of how-to articles, or reviews of products, industry publications, or even Twitter accounts from within your sector.
At its best, this approach can encourage readers to come back for the next instalment, creating a steady flow of visits. So, if you’re relying on serial posts to get people back to your site, you might want to stick to a regular schedule for maximum effect.
One caveat – don’t flog a subject to death. There is nothing worse than reading a series of posts which do nothing but re-iterate the same ideas over and over again. If you have nothing new to say on a topic then it’s time to find something new to write about.
Serial articles can help keep people interested in your blog and encourage them to return for more useful content on a relevant subject. You could consider writing a series of how-to articles, or reviews of products, industry publications, or even Twitter accounts from within your sector.
At its best, this approach can encourage readers to come back for the next instalment, creating a steady flow of visits. So, if you’re relying on serial posts to get people back to your site, you might want to stick to a regular schedule for maximum effect.
One caveat – don’t flog a subject to death. There is nothing worse than reading a series of posts which do nothing but re-iterate the same ideas over and over again. If you have nothing new to say on a topic then it’s time to find something new to write about.
Please Read.......
Simple enough to be summed up in a single word, ‘read’ is
one of the best pieces of advice that can be given to any writer. The more you
read other people’s blogs – even if they’re not relevant to your industry – the
more you’ll understand what makes for engaging content.
You also need to read people’s blog comments and take on board what they’re saying, both on your blog and other people’s. This will help you to understand which sort of posts are good and which aren’t.
Once you’ve gained this understanding, as well as gathering some new ideas, the trick is to turn them into something that is not only engaging and entertaining, but which also meets your marketing or lead-generation needs.
Remember, it’s not just new ideas that you can pick up by reading other blogs – you might also improve your grammar and style along the way.
You also need to read people’s blog comments and take on board what they’re saying, both on your blog and other people’s. This will help you to understand which sort of posts are good and which aren’t.
Once you’ve gained this understanding, as well as gathering some new ideas, the trick is to turn them into something that is not only engaging and entertaining, but which also meets your marketing or lead-generation needs.
Remember, it’s not just new ideas that you can pick up by reading other blogs – you might also improve your grammar and style along the way.
Invite Guest Bloggers
Consider
asking an industry influencer if they’d like to contribute to your corporate
blog. They are likely to be flattered, so it could be good for networking, and
they will publicize it to all their Twitter followers and online circle, which
can lead to some new traffic for your blog.
Just one word of warning: agree how you’ll edit their copy in advance. People can be very protective of their work and may not be happy if you’ve gone through it with a red pen. Edit their work lightly and send it back to them for approval before publishing.
Just one word of warning: agree how you’ll edit their copy in advance. People can be very protective of their work and may not be happy if you’ve gone through it with a red pen. Edit their work lightly and send it back to them for approval before publishing.
Break the Rules.......
Finally, a fallback option is to go out and break all the
known rules about corporate blogging. But, if you take this option, on your own
head be it! Every so often you will find a corporate blog that has almost
nothing to do with the company that publishes it, but focuses on something like
environmental sustainability or charity work instead.
You might also see ‘corporate’ blogs that are purely for entertainment purposes, filled with jokes, or comic strips, or pictures of cats. When you’re this far outside of the box, there are very few hard and fast rules left to break, but get it right and you could give your brand a huge boost in positive perception as a result.
The only caveat to this is that it’s always wise to have plenty of plain text along with any images, info-graphics, videos, and so on. If you can get some relevant language into it then so much the better, even if it’s just ‘After a hard day working on our new landlords’ insurance document, we’ve been relaxing with some polecats. Enjoy!’
That way, even if you’re giving your visitors something fun to look at, you’re still delivering the search-visible text content that will help to get you into the search engine results.
However, I wouldn’t recommend this as a good way to write a corporate blog. Nine times out of 10 it’s not a clever quirky marketing strategy, it’s down to ego, and it brings little benefit to the business.
You might also see ‘corporate’ blogs that are purely for entertainment purposes, filled with jokes, or comic strips, or pictures of cats. When you’re this far outside of the box, there are very few hard and fast rules left to break, but get it right and you could give your brand a huge boost in positive perception as a result.
The only caveat to this is that it’s always wise to have plenty of plain text along with any images, info-graphics, videos, and so on. If you can get some relevant language into it then so much the better, even if it’s just ‘After a hard day working on our new landlords’ insurance document, we’ve been relaxing with some polecats. Enjoy!’
That way, even if you’re giving your visitors something fun to look at, you’re still delivering the search-visible text content that will help to get you into the search engine results.
However, I wouldn’t recommend this as a good way to write a corporate blog. Nine times out of 10 it’s not a clever quirky marketing strategy, it’s down to ego, and it brings little benefit to the business.
Five golden rules.......
Ultimately,
there are just five things you need to consider when writing corporate blogs.
Your posts need to be:
-- Relevant -- Timely -- Frequent -- Personable -- Useful
These are the golden rules for great blog content so never publish anything without considering those first.
Your posts need to be:
-- Relevant -- Timely -- Frequent -- Personable -- Useful
These are the golden rules for great blog content so never publish anything without considering those first.
Top Blogging Tips......
If you’re still struggling for blog ideas, try some of these top tips:1. Look at current trends, extrapolate them, and make a prediction for the future of your industry.
2. Do an introduction to 10 of the best up-and-coming bloggers in your field.
3. Find a current topic of debate and express your own, new, different view on the issue.
4. Make a list of common myths and misconceptions about your industry and then debunk them.
5. Satirise a well-known personality – it can be someone inside or outside your industry.
6. Look at a big brand, and analyse both their good and bad points – show where they’re using best practise techniques and where they’re making mistakes.
7. Find a recent piece from a high-level personality in your industry, disagree with it, and prove them and their opinions wrong.
8. Do a case study of something that went wrong in your business. Analyse the mistakes and explain how you fixed them.
9. Break some news about your company, e.g. revealing a new product.
10. Write a list of the vital web tools and software people in your industry can’t do without.
11. Compare the old and new ways of conducting your business.
12. Write an allegory about your idol doing your business e.g. “How Steve Jobs Would’ve Done SEO” or “The Bruce Lee Approach to Marketing”.
13. Go to a trade fair or industry event and report on it.
14. Do a comparison of your national market to markets abroad.
15. Review a book which deals with your industry – particularly if it contains some interesting outside the box thinking.
16. Find out about something new for your industry – a tool, a website, a method etc. – and write about it.
17. Identify industry leaders in your area and ask them to do a guest post.
18. Write a code of business ethics for your industry.
19. Conduct an interview with a prominent or rising industry figure and write it up.
20. Check Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, and Quora to find out what’s most popular right now, and what questions people are seeking answers to. Then provide the information they want on your blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)