Archive for June, 2009

More and more I get asked “How Can I Use a Blog or Incorporate a blog to my business?” First I would say that now a day’s blogging for business is not just a must but it’s a necessity for small businesses.

Cold calling and static websites are NOT going to work anymore, period. The way you need to market your business offline/online has changed and evolved to the level that you need to connect to your market effectively to stay competitive and to survive in this era and this is what blogging for business is all about.

A blog gives a small business owner the ability to show up much higher in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN rankings than any kind of static website can. Yeah! Static websites are like a business card on the web.

People don’t pay attention anymore to this kind of marketing; they don’t care about your business or how long you’ve been in the business anyways till you’ve proven yourself. All they care about is, “What’s In It for me?” so your static website is no longer going to work.

So the best way to market your business on the web is through blogging. This not only gives you a way to connect with your market but you’ll also establish a solid relationship with them because of the interactive nature of blogging,

You post on how you feel about your business and people or your readership (which is your market) will respond back. This is the name of the game in today’s world in running a business offline/online.

You have to remember buyers today are smarter because of all the information they get on the web but the decision making on why & how human beings buy is the same, it’s based on our emotions.

We buy from people that we know and people that we trust, period. This is where you’re going to implement your blog and use it as a vehicle to communicate and build a relationship with your market by providing valuable information that they need and information that they can benefit from.

If you do this people will follow you and you will have a community that will buy your products and services. People like to be lead just like a tribe they follow the leader or the chief from generation to generation because they feel someone really cares for them.

So below I’ve laid out the exact method I use here with my own blog and you guys can use it as well and all this is based on my own experience of trial and error, so here it is:

5 Key Blueprints to Small Business Blogging Success!

Identify Your Market: First you need to identify your market who they are, how old, what gender, what they like, what they need or what they’re having a problem with. You’ll be the one that will identify their problems and you’ll be the one who will provide them with the solution.

Once you identify your market then the next step is to get connected with them by using your blog and posting useful and valuable information so they have a reason to come back and when they do interact with them.

Brand Your Blog: This is very, very important in any business you’re in, this is how people will get to know you or how they’ll remember you when they see your blog (first impressions count).

What I’m trying to say is give your blog a face and to do this you simply put your logo or your picture on the graphic header of your blog, also incorporate the color of your product or services that you’re going to use, you need to be consistent with your branding. Successful branding is one key to business success.

Optimize Your Post: OK! This simply means that you optimize you blog post by incorporating your specific keywords on the title and the body of your post. This is important for driving traffic to your blog.

You will NOT only attract the search engine but also the targeted market. For example if your target market is people looking to buy shoes then I will go for the keywords that the majority of people will be using like where to buy cheap shoes.

Now when you talk about this on your blog and optimize it for the search engine then people that find your blog through the search engine will be targeted meaning they’re looking for this kind of information and might be a potential buyer.

Use Your Sidebar and Navigation Effectively: Folks many bloggers miss this part; they don’t utilize the sidebar & navigation tab on top of their blog to the maximum potential.

What I mean by that is you should use the side bar to showcase your product and services and this is what the sidebar is for while your readers are reading your blog post at the same time they’ll have a chance to scan through your related products on the sidebar.

It’s the same as far as the navigation tab on the top of your blog you should have a way for your readers to contact you if they have a question. Also put an “About Me” page so your readers can get to know you more.

One more thing that is very effective based on my own experience is to have a product and service page where you list everything that you offer and your readers will simply choose what they need and buy it.

Care about Your Customers: This is the most important to them all this is the reason your customers will base their decision on why they should buy from you. It’s like going to your favorite restaurant why is it your favorite?

Is it the food or the overall experience that when you go there they treat you like a king from opening the door for you and your company, from greeting you that makes you feel that your vip and the way they take your orders and the food is really great I mean this is a no brainer right?

It’s all about the experience and this is the same with your blog make that experience remarkable for your customers and just simply take care of them and be a friend to them. This is the million dollar tip for you!

Be a friend to them this is what business is all about anyways is to build a solid relationship with your market. Guys if you do this and practice it in your business you will have people that are loyal and happy that means you will have a customer that will buy whatever product or services you offer to them.

I hope this will help you and I hope you apply this method to your small business blog or to your blogging in general. Take care and I love you guys!

Till Next Time and God Bless You!

Albert Hallado

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Folks I’m back from our short vacation. Yeah! It was very short but it was so much fun! Sometimes you just need to get away and do some fun things. We will take another vacation when my son Brandon gets here pretty soon.

Anyways everyone knows that when your PC gets stuck or freezes up you simply reboot and most of the time it will fix the problem. With many of us this is the case too we need to reboot yourself get away so you can come back with a fresh mind.

Just like what I did! I have been busy from the beginning of the year (non-stop) and working long hours with special projects and working with my Small Business clients so I just needed to get away for a short time just to rejuvenate everything and believe me it’s the best thing.

OK! The video below is mixed clips from our vacation please watch it and enjoy!

Also the pictures below are me and my family, my wife Darcie, kids Gilian and Mylles:

                 

I just wanted to share this with you and I hope you’ll be inspired to start blogging. It’s not to make a lot of money but to live how you want and be comfortable.

Till Next Time and God Bless You!

Albert Hallado

Name:

E-mail:

Yes! Folks I’m still on vacation with my family I will post lots of photos and videos when I get back! I promise.

Till Next Time and God Bless You!

Albert Hallado

Name:

E-mail:

Folks I just want to put this video out there to encourage you and whoever is reading my blog. You probably know it’s pretty tough out there because of the economy so I created this video for you so you can be encouraged and keep pressing forward.

And this goes with your blogging as well don’t be discouraged if you don’t see any results for a while, you know like no comments or no income all of this will fall into place if you are providing valuable information consistently.

Just like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter they started with no revenue at all they just provided value and built their equity but look at them now they’re worth Billions and who knows this can happen to you so count your little success and count your blessings to empower yourself to do more and more!

Watch The Video Below:

Ok Folks I hope I encourage you and help you fired up a little bit!

BTW: I will be on vacation next week Monday-Wednesday so to all my students there’s “NO Email or Skype” for that day, also FYI I’m not accepting new clients at this time because I am booked till next month I hope you understand. Love you guys take cake all the time!

Till Next Time and God Bless You!

Albert Hallado

Name:

E-mail:

When your traffic increases you should see some increase in your sales too. It makes sense right? The more people that go to your blog the more potential customers you’ll gain.

But the big question is, “What else can you do to increase your traffic on your blog?” If you’re doing just the basics in driving traffic to your blog/site you know the typical PPC (PayPerClick) and exchanging links and so on…

You should also add social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon and others to your to do list as this will definitely increase your traffic.

Just spend time with them, if you haven’t created an account yet it’s easy and it’s free all you have to do is create your account, then profile, and that’s it.

Here’s what I usually do besides my own list that I send out every Tuesday and Thursday I also send my blog post to all my followers at Facebook, Stumbleupon, Twitter and so on…

Just telling them that I have another great tip or information that they can use and benefit from and it will leave the link that will lead to that particular post. Like for example (see the images below):

 

As you can see every time I have a blog post I also post it on my social media account and this really increases my traffic because I am diverting that traffic to my blog as you can see on the graph screenshot (from TwitterAnalyzer.com)

below the date I twitted about my blog post the graph spiked up and this means I got tons of traffic. As you can see below the graphics my Readers Reached: 2943 and Unique Readers Reached: 987

Folk these numbers will definitely make a big difference with my traffic and my bottom line NOW!  This is just my twitter account.

 

OK! Folks but it doesn’t stop here I mean you can divert traffic from anywhere or from any site back to your blog but if your blog post sucks then you can’t really convert that traffic to either buy from you or subcribe to your blog!

So your blog post should be valuable and have something that your readership can get from it and benefit from and this will also give them a reason to come back to your blog.

They’ll also get to know you and it will build a solid relationship and TRUST between your readers and you! This is what will trigger them to buy from you over and over again!

I hope you like this post and you got something from it and I am hoping also that you will put what you learn in today’s post into action! OK! Take cake and I love you guys!

Till Next Time and God Bless You!

Albert Hallado

Name:

E-mail: