Blog Link Advertising

It seems like everyone these days has a blog.  Once upon a time, every angst filled teenager had a LiveJournal, a GreatestJournal, a DeadJournal, et cetera.  Then, little by little, they moved onto MySpace and Facebook.  Now, however, whether it is through Wordpress or Blogspot, everyone has moved onto blogs.  In some cases, these are still just places to rant and run off at the mouth — or fingers, as it were.

However, a lot of people are realizing that you can make money with your blog.  They simply aren’t sure how to do it, let along how to get started.  Given the troubled economy, though, this can rake in quite a bit of extra money — if you know how to do it correctly, of course.

That is thus going to be the focus of this next series: how to make money with your blog, easily.

When you are selling a blog, trying to bring attention to it, you have to treat it like any other product – and that means PR.  You want people to know about your web site.  You have to tell them about it.  You can submit posts to social bookmarking sites for starters, not just the popular sites like Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon, but also lesser known bookmarking pages.

You also need to address the press.  This can mean writing a Press Release – or hiring someone to do so – and having it submitted to sites like Squidoo.  It can also mean actually talking to the press, and finding out if they’ve seen your site, directing them to it if they haven’t.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be journalists at the New York Times or anything like that, of course – though the online publications for such news outlets is a possibility.

Now we are going to talk about RSS feeds, which are increasingly popular.  Providing a good one can drive a whole lot of traffic to your blog.

RSS can mean two things: Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication.  Whatever you call it, it is basically a light XML format used to distribute news on the internet.  For you, the blogger, it means that other sites will be able to distribute your news and the content on your blog easily as well.  RSS feeds are also indexed by search engines, so you can ask them to link to your site.

You need to be careful about the sites with whom you share links, though.  Google especially has high standards.  For instance, if you link to web sites which are no longer listed, then Google could remove your site from their index as well.  So, just make sure to keep up with maintenance and check on your links every once in a while.

Always make sure you are sharing links with quality places too.  That can lead to a huge Page Rank for your site.  Remember, if Google finds out that you’re just trading links with other sites simply because you want a better ranking, your site could get blacklisted.

Now, web directories can only do so much.  Advertising your blog falls primarily on your shoulders, and you have to take responsibility for that.  So, get your blog’s address out there wherever you possibly can.  Any piece of communication you put out there, your blog needs to show up on it somewhere.  Write up an About Us page, get a press release done, and most of all, advertise your blog yourself.  Make sure the link shows up on your business cards, your letterhead, your fax cover sheets, and in all of your email signatures.  In addition to getting a press release, think about having a brochure put together as well.  You should also think about creating a monthly newsletter.  That way, you can let people know what is new or simply noteworthy.  Most of all, it will remind people that your blog is there, and you will be encouraging them to visit.

Unless you are just blogging for your own personal enjoyment, you want to get your blog out there – especially if you are doing it to get paid.  That can be hard, especially if you aren’t really sure what to do.  So it is definitely worth it to take a look at some strategies to get your blog out there – and to improve your page rank.

First and foremost, you need to concern yourself with the blog itself.  You have to have as much useful, relevant, and high quality information as you can possibly create.  Furthermore, it needs to be something that users not only want to read themselves, they should want to share it with other people as well.  One of the ways you can draw people in is to start submitting your blog to as many web directories and reference sites as you can.  This includes Google, naturally, because Google’s PR is as important in the scheme of things as Google itself.  You can also submit your blog to places like Open Directory Project, or ODP, Yahoo!, and LookSmart, as well as sites like Wikipedia and other blogs.

There are a number of strategies you need to follow when learning and implementing blog link advertising.  The most important of these involve relevancy.  So many people are into black hat tactics these days.  They prefer to stuff keywords and links into places where they do not fit.  They will hide links, or cut corners by placing linked-in comments into forums and other blogs, which does not really advertise effectively at all.

Remember: relevance is key.  Your links and your texts need to go together perfectly.  Moreover, they need to have some impact on the subject, whatever it may be at the time.

Blogging for fun is one thing.  Blogging for money is another.  A lot of us are used to blogging as a means of personal expression.  For those of us just getting into the whole idea of professional blogging and blog link advertising, the concepts can be seriously out of reach.  It sounds like another language — SEO, white hat tactics, black hat tactics, keyword ratio, et cetera.  This is not an industry for the faint of heart and if you don’t learn how to do things correctly, you’re not going to see a penny — or get any advertising done.

You need to promote yourself and promote your site.  How?  Well, stay tuned for that.  There are a number of things you can do to get yourself and your site out there, and to pique the interest of your readers.  Blog link advertising is without a doubt one of the best ways, but it is by no means the only way.

If you are purchasing sponsored blog posts from various services or directly from the blogger, here’s a tip to maximize those advertising dollars.  Once your post has been made, navigate to the entry and Digg it, Stumble it, and post it to del.icio.us.

These simple steps will help get this particular page indexed with Google and thus increase the value of those inbound links to your website.

Some bloggers employ sketchy techniques that nullify the value of your sponsored blog entry once it rotates off their blog homepage.  By using the social bookmarks mentioned above (Digg, Stumble Upon, del.icio.us), this will help you retain value from that entry for the life of the blog.

“The Customer Rules.” These three words speak volumes in business. Customer communication, service and loyalty are the goals of every marketing campaign.

And nothing delights a business owner more than a satisfied customer. In fact, they are so satisfied with the product or service they purchased that they want to tell the world about it.

Customer testimonials are extracted from letters, e-mails. They are impressive; displayed on websites as text, audio or video. But can your visitors be certain that the testimonials are true?

Now they can, when you use Authenticated Testimonials it adds more power to the message. How? Because they are evaluated by an established firm who is an unbiased third party.

The “Authenticated Testimonials” seal assures your visitors that what they are reading about your company, product or service has been verified and is truthful. Now, the Customer REALLY Rules.

Imagine this: you are looking for a product, service or a piece of information you need for your million dollar project.

You’re searching online and come across what might be the answer, but you don’t know the company. Hmmm, what to do? Aha-you think, let me ask Joe, he might know them.

You: Ring, ring: Hello? - Hey Joe, have you heard about the TQV company that sells blog widgets?
Joe: Nope, never heard of them, I use HLM Widgets Unlimited and they’re great! Fast service and reasonable price.
You: Wow–are they online? What’s the URL?
Joe: Oh yeah, very cool site too-www.HLMWidgets.com
You: Awesome! Thanks Joe, you’re the best!

That my friends, is the essence of what Bzz Agent is all about: it helps you harness the power of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing in an organized way. It brings the right brands together with the right consumers to enhance traditional media buys.

Advertising can build awareness about your brand, but when one person recommends it to another person, your brand gains credibility. The results are powerful when traditional and new media work together: trial, purchase, adoption and commitment.

Plus 40% of WOM conversations include a reference to another form of media which means a lot more exposure for everyone. If you are ready to promote your brand, better get some WOM-BA going.