Why You Should Blog!

I have been blogging for just over two years now. Many of my mentoring students have been asking for my advice on blogging. I have so far hesitated to teach much about blogging because it's not something I feel I "know" yet. I feel much more comfortable teaching about things I know.

Well, I looked at Alexa today and noticed that this blog almost hit the top 10,000 most visited sites on the Internet today. I have seen success with many of the unique methods of blog promotion. I felt it was time to write a post about blog promotion… BUT WAIT! I haven't even explained why I have this blog thing. I can't jump into getting traffic to your blog without explaining why I have a blog and why you should have one, too; now can I?

Let's go back to my history. I "made it" online without many of the tools you see me offering today. I had no products. I had no copywriting ability. My search engine ranking data was key to my initial success on the Internet. I would create high-ranking websites for some markets and sell the traffic from those sites directly to those who did have copywriting ability and products. I no longer recommend that. Having your effect and copywriting knowledge are both multipliers to knowing how to get traffic. Nowadays, I focus on all three aspects of your Internet business and recommend that you do the same.

With that said, don't underestimate the traffic business. Consider this. Who is the wealthiest man in the world? Right. Bill Gates. He sells software. Software is a good business! Consider this, though. Who are the three leading sites on the Internet? Check Alexa if you don't know. OK, don't check. I'll tell you:

1. Yahoo

2. Google

3. MSN (Microsoft)

Now take a look at that third one. That's the company that Bill Gates (the richest man in the world; remember?) started. Now he's messing around on the Internet in the #3 spot.

Now, let's take a jump here. What do those three sites sell? Ok, take a minute on this one. There will be a test.

That's right. They sell the traffic (or they mainly sell traffic, Yahoo and MSN are a tiny bit more diverse than that). Now isn't that interesting, The wealthiest man in the world… who go that way by selling software, now wants to sell traffic.

OK, that was a diversion. We'll come back to that later. I wanted to tell you about my experience selling traffic (which is still the most significant part of my business). I made a mistake. I sold traffic anonymously under corporate names. None of my traffic customers know who I am. They buy traffic from XYZ Corporation because it converts to sales for them. XYZ Corporation has no personality. It's fully automated, and most customers like it that way.

I tried to change that a couple of years ago. I started sending them emails, teaching them how they could get the most out of my traffic service. I was too late. They didn't know me and didn't want to hear from me.

Then I tried one last attempt (I'm glad I did) by offering them a special on traffic that month. I think I did a two-for-one deal or something like that. Over 25% of my customers bought a new campaign that day. I made over $60,000 in one day with that one email. I thought that was cool! I still do. I can write a single email and make thousands of dollars daily. I think a lot of marketers like that.

The power of your customer list is incredible! If you can convert 2% of strangers into customers with a sales page, you can convert 25% of your existing customers into customers of another product with that same sales page. That's powerful!

I tried it with another product. It was a good product. It was mine. It was the search engine research itself that led to the traffic those customers were buying. In effect, I offered to teach them how to generate the same traffic I was selling to them. It flopped miserably. No-one bought. I tried several other products. Nothing. Why?

Some of the responses told me right away. Even though I was writing under the company name, they didn't know me. I'll repeat that. They didn't know me. They knew my company. They knew my company delivered significant converting traffic but didn't know me. An endorsement of one company by another isn't compelling. It isn't nearly as powerful as an endorsement by an individual.

So, I went on to do the Freedom Events. You know how they went. Based on the endorsement of a few well-known Internet marketers, they sold out. Lesson learned. To get that 25% number, you need one of the following:

1. To be marketing to your customers as a company and selling a special offer on your company's product that your customers already know about.

2. To be marketing to your customers as a person and selling a special offer on any product that you endorse and have never given a lousy endorsement on a product to your customers before.

I wanted to do the latter with my customers, not those of another Internet marketer.

What is the best way to do that? A blog is a perfect vehicle for that as I look around. I promote this blog by selling products (and cross-promoting them on the owner's pages). I do it very early in the process. It is mentioned on the owner's page and in the first email that most people get after purchasing one of my products.

They buy the product from a stranger, but I introduce myself as the product creator very early by pointing them (you) to this blog.

Then, I don't hide the blog behind some corporate image. You do buy my products from a corporation, but do you even know the name of that corporation? Who cares what it is called? Could you get to know me? That's the purpose of this blog.

Now some folks are finding this blog before they purchase one of my products. That's OK too. Some people buy a product based on the sales page. Some believe because they know the author never produces junk. Some have a combination of those reasons.

OK, so, yes, you should have a blog. I suggest you create your blog between your 3rd and 4th product in your primary market. That's when I created this blog. That is when you want to start cross-promoting your 3 or 4 products on their owner's pages.

Here are some other things that I think are important:

1. Register your name for the domain for your blog.

2. Put your name at the top, not some cutesy blog name.

3. Share of yourself. Do not post to your blog like you are a customer service rep answering the phone for a large company, never revealing anything of yourself, only the corporate script. Chat with your customers like they are dear friends. Don't give out your home address or phone number, but within the context of the blog, what are you afraid of? Let your blog readers get to know you.

4. Post often. People can quickly get into the habit of doing something daily or hourly. It is much more challenging to get into a weekly or monthly routine. Post at least daily so your blog readers can get into a daily habit of reading what you have to say.

5. Don't worry about giving away secrets about your products. That's one reason I only sell software, video, and mentoring products right now. It's impossible to accidentally give away too much in the text on your blog. Software and video are both more powerful mediums than text. I can explain in words all day long how to do something, it will still be helpful to buy the software to automate that task and buy the video actsee how it all works.

6. Get a subscribe link up on your blog (and all of your content sites). Some people will want to follow your blog but won't remember. It would help if you gave them a way to allow you to send them reminders when you post. This will dramatically increase your number of repeat visitors over time.

OK, I think that answers why I have a blog, why you should too, and how you should set it up. Now, I can jump into the specific ways to get traffic to a blog that only exists for blogs, not other types of sites. I'll do that in a future post.

For now, register your name and get WordPress installed on that domain. Get yours subscribe link up. Please write an article and submit it to your blog, and then submit it via Artemis Pro with your blog mentioned in the resource box of your paper. That's how I started just a little over two years ago, and as of today, I'm almost in the top 10,000 most visited sites on the Internet. See if you can beat me in the next couple of months.

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