Blog Marketing - What Works - Exemplified by Five Case Histories

Courtesy of Flickr

By Hector Cisneros

What makes a great blog? For that matter, what makes a great blogger? How can a blogger insure their blogging success? As a blogger, I received my training from several successful, experienced authors and writers, (including Dr. Ivan Misner, the Founder of BNI). I was taught that brevity is your friend. I was also taught that prose should be clear, clean, and concise, yet elegant. On top of that, your grammar needs to be impeccable. Your blogs need to open dramatically and beat a clear path that readers will want to follow. Then, your story needs to fulfill its promises by providing useful information that compels the reader to continue reading to the end of the story.

In this episode of Working the Web to Win, I will explore five case studies that show how would-be marketers made their blogging bones. I will detail their methods while exposing the good, the bad and the ugly paths to blogging success they took. These are true stories with some elements modified to hide the writers’ identities. The paths they followed will be explained in detail so you can learn from their mistakes, as well as from their successes. So, get ready to learn from these five blog marketing methods as we explore; “Blog Marketing – What Works Exemplified by Five Case Histories.” 

The Makings of a Great Blog Post & Other Writing Enigmas

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Max Pixel

With the success of our blog comes compelling questions as to how we did it? How were we able to grow our readership organically from nothing to as many as 85,000-page views in one month? The growth of a blog audience is a marketing question to some extent, but many bloggers forget one very important aspect of blogging – that of what people want! People want to read high-quality articles that are Relevant, Timely, Useful, Focused, Educational and or Entertaining. A high-quality blog that is useful to lots of people will garner readers and subscribers. Even if you have a great distribution system, if your blog is mediocre, it will produce poor results. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore the many elements of a blog and what is needed to end up with a high-quality product that compels an audience to read, comment on and share your articles. So, start reading and taking notes as we pen – The Making of a Great Blog Post and Other Enigmas.

The Guide to The Working The Web Universe

Courtesy of  Wikipedia

By Hector Cisneros

There is a universe of marketing choices for the business owner today. Gone are the days when you could do just Print, Radio, TV or billboard advertising. The internet changed all that. In fact, the Internet has forced conventional analog media, once considered the foundational platforms for advertising, to adapt and join the internet or die. Today the internet is the space that marketers need to make their advertising work. But the choices are many, and the landscape is filled with tricks, scams and large advertising players who are constantly changing the game. So as a business owner, who do you trust, how do you make the right choices and most importantly, how do you know if you’re getting a good return for your marketing dollar? Well, this episode of Working the Web to Win will delve deep into Marketing In Cyberspace to help business owners make sense of the Working the Web Universe.

Is Blogging For Business The Write Stuff?

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By Carl Weiss

Blogging is one of the best ways to promote any business.  Unlike a website, which rarely changes, blogs are dynamic, in that they can keep prospects and clients current with what’s happening in your business and your industry.  It can also elevate a business owner to the level of an authority figure.  More than mere words, blogs can be enhanced with the addition of multimedia elements such as photos, videos, and podcasts. Best of all, it costs little or nothing to employ, since blogging platforms like Blogger are free to use.  That being said, why isn’t every business on the planet taking advantage of all that blogging has to offer? Here are the top five excuses most businesses give, along with the antidote to those excuses.

To Autoblog, or Not to Autoblog? That is the Question.

By Danny Murphy

Courtesy of Flickr

Everyone knows that nothing worthwhile can be accomplished in a hurry.  Yet when it comes to working the web, everybody is always looking for shortcuts.  Case in point: Autoblogging. It takes time to create worthwhile blogs. A good blog post can easily take 4-hours or more to create. The time depends on variables including the length of the post and the research required. In today’s frenetic workplace, with information coming at people from every direction, time is a precious commodity which can be hard to find.

Autoblogging purportedly can generate content for a blog automatically. Doesn’t that sound great? All you have to do is find a good program, set it up, and watch the prose spill forth like magic! Here’s a promo paragraph for Autoblog, a popular autoblogging plugin for WordPress.

The DIY Online Marketing Solution

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By Carl Weiss

“We’re Number ONE!”

That’s what everyone strives for in the USA. Whether you’re talking sports, business, academics, or keeping up with the Jones’, Americans are extraordinarily competitive. This is especially true for online position of Google search. Ever since the first search engines appeared more than 20 years ago, website owners vied for the top spot on every keyword combination imaginable. Today, a Page One position is more competitive and more important than ever before. There are nearly 600 million websites and only 14 to 20 Page One positions for any specific keyword combination. Talk about competitive!

Internet Marketing: Lessons Learned & Best Practices Part 4 – Content is King

By Hector Cisneros

Photo Credit: blogger.com

When we started our journey in content marketing, we never envisioned our blog would grow to 35,000-plus page views on average each month.  We wrote articles because we wanted consumers and businesses to understand the sea change that was taking place in Internet marketing.  From our humble beginning of one blog a week to the phenomenal following our blog has acquired, we’re amazed and grateful for what has transpired.

Marketing Your Blog in the 21st Century – Part 3 of Blogging 101

By Hector Cisneros

Photo Credit: hongkiat.com

How do you get found in a world of billions of competitors?  That’s what most bloggers ask me when I meet with them to discuss their marketing needs. Most blogs are like billboards in the desert. Few, if anyone, reads their great literary works because their blog is like a needle in a mountainous hay stack.

Learning the Tricks of the Trade – Part 2 of Blogging 101

 

By Hector Cisneros

Photo Credit: keepbouncing.com

Would you like to know writing secrets of three successful writers? Would it be useful if you know their tricks of the trade, the elements they use to capture a reader’s attention, captivating them to read on and to be engrossed to the very end of your article?  If that’s what you’re looking for, this second segment of Blogging 101 will deliver that in spades. It will provide the real tips and tricks of the trade provided by Carl Weiss, Robert Kaye and myself, successfully published writers and authors all.  So get comfy and dig in to read Working the Web to Win’s “Learning the Tricks of the Trade - Part 2 of Blogging 101.”

Can DIY SEO Work For Your Business?

By Carl Weiss & Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Flickr

If you own a small business and have a website, or plan to launch a basic business website in order to get more visibility, no doubt you’ve heard about the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website. This is especially important if you plan on selling goods directly on your site.  The rub is that many times web designers spend more time fretting on form rather than function.  As a result, many websites we’ve surveyed don’t have many of the On-Page SEO elements that are needed to get properly indexed by the search engines. 

How to Triple Your Blogs Views in 60 Days or Less

By Hector (the Connector) Cisneros

Working the Web To Win's blog Stats

So, you have a blog and you’re publishing articles on a regular basis, but you’re following and page views are growing at a snail’s pace. What do you need to do to get to the next level? Wouldn’t it be great if you could find some proven method that produced a quantum leap in growth? Would learning how to maximize your postings really help? Would learning how to use the right schedule, frequency, and time of day actually make a difference for your blog? Does sharing your posts with the right people in a coordinated manner make a difference?

Are You Ready for the BIG Game?

By Carl Weiss

When fall is just around the corner and anyone mentions “the BIG Game,” most people immediately think of   And why not?  With a viewing audience of over a hundred million people, for a sporting event that commands nearly $4 million dollars for a 30-second TV ad, this is one game that’s hard to beat.  Well, at least it is on TV.  When it comes to that other BIG Game, the online marketing game, we’re talking about a whole other arena.

the Super Bowl.

Working the Web Just Got Easier

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By Carl Weiss

Everyone knows that Google is the most popular search engine in the world, dominating more than 80% of the search market. As such, businesses large and small move heaven and earth in search of the elusive goal of being on page one. The problem is that with more than 240 million websites online and an additional 130,000 sites being spawned daily, trying to obtain and maintain page one results is harder than ever. Today’s marketing experts in the know approach Google with its favorite food, SEM (a.k.a. Search Engine Multimedia Marketing). So today’s blog is intended to show you what it takes to please the 800 lb. gorilla in the room named Google.

Top 5 Reasons to Blog

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of flickr.com

Like it or not, if you own a website, you are forced to compete for exposure online.  With 242 million websites already in existence and nearly 130,000 new sites coming online every day, is it any wonder that being found is getting harder and harder to accomplish?  Well, the good news is that while it may take a little sweat equity to put your web presence in the winner’s circle, the task can be accomplished in short order if you blog just once per week. Here are the top ten reasons to blog: .

The Tao of SEO

by Carl Weiss

Courtesy of flickr.com

When it comes to search engine optimization, most people think of it as some kind of religious cult where members speak in tongues, intoning such mantras as “SERPS,” “Meta Data,” “Linkbait,” and “AJAX,” as though they were trying somehow to transmute lead into gold.  Worst of all, there is so much conflicting data out there regarding the ever changing world of SEO that keeping current is almost a full time job in itself.  Add to this the fact that no sooner do you get a bead on what the search engines want, when they up and change their algorithm (as Google recently did with their Penguin Update), making the analogy to sorcery even more poignant as your listing disappears like a puff of smoke.  So, if you don’t want to have to start the process from scratch every time the search engines decide to do a little spring cleaning, this is what you need to know: