Archive for Blog
What the BLOG???
Posted by: | Comments
I just read this great article in Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero’s Ezine, Copywriting TNT. As a graduate of Lorrie’s Shefactor Bootcamp I’m a great fan of hers and wanted to share this post with you:
Blogs Are the NEW Secret Weapon for Reaching Your Tarket. Just like you, I hate being marketed to. Every day we’re bombarded with over 3,500 marketing messages. And frankly I’m sick of it! But blogs are different. Blogs are a two-way conversation between blogger and bloggee (plus all the readers in between). Through commenting and cross-linking, you can share feedback. You can build your network. You can become, dare I say it, an Internet celebrity!
See, blogs add humanity and instantaneous expression to the web. Like ezines, blogs are a way for your customer to get to know you.
However, unlike ezines, blogs help you with search engine rankings. Did you hear me? I said, unlike ezines, blogs help you with search engine rankings. That’s a big one.
Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Week, even the FCC (Federal Trade Commission) all believe blogs are here to stay. Recently Michael Powell, chairman of the FCC, started one. His initial post drew over 30,000 readers. A Microsoft spokesperson says Bill Gates is considering starting a blog. And filmmaker Michael Moore built a blog to promote his controversial movie, Fahrenheit 9/11.
But who has time to read a blog anyway? Exactly! The job of a blog is to cut through the information overload and deliver searchable, relevant and current content. BlogAds.com recently conducted a survey of over 17,000 blog readers. Here’s what they report:
- Blog readers are older and more affluent. 61% of blog readers are over 30, and 75% make more than $45,000 a year.
- Blog readers are more cyber-active. 54% of their news consumption is online. 21% are themselves bloggers and 46% describe themselves as opinion makers.
- Blog readers are media-mavens. 21% subscribe to the New Yorker magazine, 15% to the Economist, 15% to Newsweek and 14% to the Atlantic Monthly.
- Whether on the left or right, blog readers have traits in common that often are absent in today’s public spaces: passion and initiative.
- Blog readers have apathy towards traditional news sources. 82% say that television is worthless. 55% percent say the same about print newspapers. 54% say the same about print magazines.
- Meanwhile, 86% say that blogs are either useful or extremely useful as sources of news or opinion. 80% say they read blogs for news they can’t find elsewhere. 78% read because the perspective is better. 66% value the faster news. 61% say that blogs are more honest.
- Blog readers appear united in their dissatisfaction with conventional media and their rabid love of blogs.
Don’t you want to be a blogger too? How about looking at some samples of the good, the bad and the bizarre?
Model citizen blogs: http://www.marketingsecrets.com/blog/ – John Reese’s blog. Hey, the guy just made $1,080,496.37 online in a single day. Here’s a good rule of thumb. If Reese is doing it, you should be too.
http://www.talkbiz.net/ramblings/weblog.php – Copywriter Paul Myers keeps us up-to-date on SPAM and other Internet marketing nightmares.
http://www.bookedsolidu.com – Michael Port’s new streamlined and simplified community helps you get booked solid. His old site, Booked Solid Referral Network, was just too big. This one is amazing! You’ll love it.
My Blog: http://www.redhotblogging.com – my blog today.
Bizarro Blog: Jeff Bridges’ site is considered a “blog.” He uses “hand-written” graphics that make it a unique and clever site! (Yes, really.) http://www.jeffbridges.com
I dipped my toe into the blogging pool a few years ago. Now I’ve decided it’s time to really learn how to do this stuff with an expert who will take me by the hand through the scary forest of the blog-world. I’m going back to school!
Christina Hills has opened another world to me using WordPress. I just attended her amazing, content-filled “Website Creation Workshop” studying her detailed webinars. Even though I have my own Blog, I’ve learned a ton since meeting this bright and intelligent guru woman!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Award-winning marketer, world-renowned copywriter and creator of “The She Factor®“, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Copy has a reputation as the top female copywriter in the info-marketing industry. She has written award-winning home study courses, conducts a world-famous virtual copywriting training, holds live workshops, and is authoring the original book, The She Factor based on her own She Factor Marketing System. Lorrie is dedicated to teaching the world it is possible to shift from the hype-filled sales to a more modern version…marketing written with authenticity, trust, and rapport. Check out Lorrie’s websites: http://www.redhotcopy.com and http://www.redhotcopy.com/shefactorbootcamp1.html and http://www.redhotblogging.com.
Launch of my New Zealand specific website
Posted by: | Comments
Hello again,
I have just launched my new Wordpress website specifically designed for my local, New Zealand, market. I feel it’s important to keep in mind that there are some slight differences in the local market to, for example, the US market.
Our economy is a bit different, our business landscape features mainly small businesses and hardly any large corporates and we are the country of Kiwi ingenuity (which means, we do a lot ourselves). So, thinking of this I believe that Kiwis want to read some different things than international visitors. Please correct me if you feel that I’m wrong.
One major difference is, for example, that there are not many Virtual Assistants in New Zealand. If you do a search, you will probably find a handfull of women who call themselves Virtual Assistants, but they usually run their business under the secretarial services or secretarial support header.
But not all Virtual Assistants are secretaries who just work out of a home office, many international Virtual Assistants add online marketing, ecommerce and social media marketing to their repertoire. This is a whole new field that New Zealand based Secretarial Services can bite their teeth into.
Marketing services is usually more brick and mortar driven here. Many local marketing consultants will focus on the offline activities while online marketing falls into the hand of webdesigners. Unfortunately, the webdesigners are often not skilled in online marketing (the psychological bits). They are amazing when it comes to the design of stunning websites, but the whole area of persuasion, customer involvement and content effectiveness seems to be something that needs some updating.
Another thing is that many Kiwis haven’t really made use of the idea of blogging yet. Many NZ websites with blogs I’ve visited so far hardly ever update their blogs. There’s usually one post made in May, another one in September and maybe one to say Merry Christmas or Happy New Year.
What is missing is the understanding that blogs can be immensely powerful. Looking at the 6 and 7 figure earning international bloggers (check out some of these blogs on my links page) the tool of blogging is highly undervalued. Ok, I understand that most of us will never earn that sort of money with our blog posts, but how about reputation management and customer relations?
Aren’t we all still stuck in the olden times when a business or service would look down on us, the little customer, and don’t ask how we like the service or products. The thing is only that people have changed. We are not that “quiet” anymore and we don’t believe in the authority of businesses anymore. And it’s not only Enron’s fault.It’s that we woke up and found our voices. We want to have a say and if we can’t have that, we just stop buying from these businesses. Easy. And the businesses don’t know why. Hmmm.
Maybe a blog could help to listen to the customer and finding out what they think or what they need. It’s well worth trying. I definitely will.
