Insider Advertising Report

Chapter 14: How To Advertise A Blog

There is a misconception in the industry - Many gurus equate online business to blogging. When they say they teach people how to make money online, they are actually teaching people how to blog. As a result, many 'aimless' blogs are created.

Let me get this straight. Blogging alone is NOT a business.

It has to be combined with a business model, such as affiliate marketing, MLM, ecommerce (as in selling your own product) or service model (such as LeadsLeap).

If blogging is not a business, what is blogging?

What Is Blogging?

To me, blogging is...

1. A bait to generate traffic

Blog is a good bait to attract traffic to your website.

• First, if your blog is search engine optimized, it is a good bait to hook search engine traffic.
• Second, if you provide useful information on your blog, it is a good bait to hook more traffic through social networks, forums and referrals from other bloggers.
• Third, if you have a list, it is a good bait to bring your list back to your website with new posts.

2. A means to build trust

Blog helps to build trust in several ways.

• First, if you have a list, blogging allows you to connect with your list better. You can update them with what's new on your website, or even share your joy, frustration and sadness. It is a good bonding tool.
• Second, for someone who is new to your website, when they see that you have a regularly updated blog, especially one with a personal touch, they are more likely to trust you and the product/service that you offer.
• Third, with a decent blog, it is easier to get other bloggers and marketers to partner with you.

Remember, trust = confidence, confidence = sales.

How NOT to advertise a blog

If you are like most bloggers, you blog homepage is a list of your recent post. If so...

NEVER advertise your blog homepage.

If you think that the prospects are going to spend time digging through your blog and see if there is an interesting article, you need to read Chapter 2 again!

How to advertise a blog?

The thing is, you don't advertise a blog. You only advertise a sales page.

A blog post can be a sales page, but it must meet the criteria of a sales page as illustrated in Chapters 6 - 9.

You also have to make sure that there are some good comments in that blog post. If you try to advertise a blog post with no comment, you are better off advertising a standalone sales page.

How you advertise your blog-post-style sales page depends on your business model.

Affiliated product

If you promote an affiliated product, you should advertise a blog post that presells that product. (I've covered in Chapter 10)

MLM business

If you promote an MLM business, you should promote your system or opt-in offer. (I've covered in Chapter 11)

Ecommerce or service business

If you promote your ecommerce or service business, you are better off preparing a separate sales page rather than presenting it as a blog post. But if you have an active blog for that business, add a link to the blog from the sales page.

In the past, I thought that sending people from a sales page to a blog will reduce the conversion rate, since you send traffic away from the sales page. But my later tests show that doing so can actually increase the conversion rate because people know that you are real and you really provide values.

Make sure that you open the link to your blog in a new window, so that your prospects do not navigate away from the sales page.

Using blog to build list

If you are not promoting any product but simply want to build a list, here is what you can do:

1. Write a bait post sharing some interesting tips that the prospects are interested in.
2. Create an opt-in offer that provides more tips on the same topic. Present that offer at the end of the blog post and in an exit popup. (There is no need to buy those expensive popup software. We have the best in the market that you can use free! Check out our PopupXpert.)

Example...

You can have a bait post titled "7 niches that can you can make money with". Your opt-in offer can be "20 under-explored niches that you can easily profit from".

Assuming your blog post is interesting and useful, you bet the prospects will want to opt-in to grab the other 20 niches.

Another example...

You can have a bait post title "3 traffic generation networks that suck" (people will be curious to see which 3 networks suck). Your opt-in offer can be "My top 3 traffic networks that send me real buyers!"

I hope you can see the pattern here. You attract people to your blog post, get them interested in a particular topic and then offer them more as an opt-in.

Such a trick works, not only in advertising, but also in almost any other traffic methods, such as forum marketing, social network marketing and article marketing.

Using blog to build relationship with your LeadsLeap followers

This is a sidetrack to show you how you can use your blog to build relationship with your LeadsLeap followers.

As you probably know, LeadsLeap system includes a 10-level leads builder. You can reach out to your followers unobtrusively via our Follower Message system.

If you have a blog, you can update the Follower Message with your blog posts.

Make sure that your blog post is interesting and useful. Your followers are human. They know which associates provide true values and which don't.

Remember the strength of a blog

• as a bait to bring in traffic
• as a trust builder.

Success is about understanding the strength of the tools available to you and using them to achieve your goals.