Copyright ® Skip Lombardi
What would you think if I told you about a guaranteed method to reach
100% of your target audience? Beyond that, what would you think if I
told you that you could develop a base of prospects who would look
forward to hearing from you? You can do this, and more, by starting a
blog.
Since the landmark CANN-SPAM legislation, I think the spam situation
has gotten worse instead of better. I continue to get more new spam
than I can effectively filter, and the "marketing gurus" who send me
newsletters from time to time, are bemoaning the fact that as much as
46% of their outgoing e-mail is never getting to its intended
recipients because of spam filters; either on desktops, or at ISPs.
Worse, in an effort to get through the filters and into your inbox,
those same gurus are reduced to sending their messages using words
like `s*p*a*m', or `f'ree', or
`guar*an*teed'. For me, this is a turn-
off that makes their messages look unprofessional, and in my eyes,
costs them credibility. And here is where a blog begins to solve
those problems.
What is a Blog?
The word is a loose contraction of the term, "Web Log." A blog is--at
a minimum--"a journal that is available on the web. The activity of
updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is
a "blogger," according to the WWW Dictionary.
What is Blogging?
Blogging offers the opportunity for people to tell the world
what's on their minds, to share their passions, or to simply
inform them of current events--no matter how uniquely focused.
Orŕto
tell them what's going on in their business. A blog is a hybrid e-
zine/newsletter that keeps you and your contacts in touch with each
other.
Who is Blogging?
Who can you name? While technically not blogs, all the major
newspapers have created data feeds. Columnist Dave Barry has a very
popular blog. Now that Google has bought Blogger, it has developed a
blog to keep searchers up-to-date with ongoing activities in Palo
Alto. And in this election year, political pundits are finding new
and receptive audiences in the "blogosphere."
To find out who's blogging in your field, do a search at
Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) for some of the keywords that
you use on your own web site. I'm sure you'll be astonished
at the results.
Enter RSS
Blogging would be of little value if you had to depend on the
traditional methods for getting traffic to your Web site. But a new
piece of technology gives you the capability of reaching tens of
thousands of readers with the click of a button. RSS--Real Simple
Syndicationůis a means by which the content on your Web site--and
not restricted to blogs--can be translated and distributed to
thousands of users who have access to a "News Feed." All at no charge.
News Aggregators
Perhaps the most amazing feature to come to the internet in years,
and the feature that allows your readers to make a distinction
between news and spam, is the news aggregator. This is a software
application that polls the world of blogs at user-defined intervals,
and updates itself whenever it sees something new. Cori Rudl is
touting this free technology as the next "big thing," and has
apparently already figured out a way to make a buck at it.
With a news aggregator, you choose the sources you'd like to
read, and the software will poll those sources hourly, daily, weekly--
as you've specified--and it will notify you when one of them
changes.
As you might imagine, several companies provide products or services
to give you access to news feeds. They fall into two categories:
Web-based News Aggregators
Two of the popular aggregators on the Web are Bloglines
(http://www.bloglines.com), and Blo.gs. (http://www.blo.gs) Simply
register with either or both services--at no charge--then browse
their database of blogs, and click the "subscribe" link for any that
interest you. They'll be added to your personal space on the Web
site, and you can make a bookmark to view them at your leisure.
Desktop News Aggregators
If you'd like to have news delivered directly to your desktop,
you can download a news reader like Sharp Reader, or Feed Demon
(http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/).
Like their Web-based counterparts, these products enable you to
specify which blogs (or news sources) you'd like to follow, and
they will update them when they sense any changes. There is no charge
for Sharp Reader. Feed Demon costs $29.00.
And if you'd prefer to get your updates via e-mail, News Gator
(http://www.newsgator.com/) integrates itself with Microsoft Outlook,
and will notify you about updates via a familiar interface. News
Gator too costs $29.00.
How do I start?
Creating a blog requires special software that is available either
free, or for a nominal monthly fee. Even better, though, blogging
software is designed to flatten the learning curve for all who have
the urge to share their thoughts with the rest of the world. It
requires virtually no knowledge of HTML, or CGI programming. Updating
a blog is as simple as typing words into a text editor, then clicking
a button to publish your blog to the world.
Among the most popular blogging applications in use today, are
Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), Movable Type
(http://www.movabletype.org/), and Type Pad (http://www.typepad.com/).
Further removing the need to know HTML, blogging software allows you
to choose a template (which you can customize) that gives all of your
messages a consistent look. This could help you in branding yourself.
Additional built-in functionality
Whatever software you choose will have built-in functionality that
will allow you to:
* Specify how many messages to display on a page
* Specify the Archive interval (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
* Provide an area for readers to leave comments at the end of each
blog post.
You can even configure the software to send you e-mail notification
when a reader leaves a comment. This gives you the ability to
provide timely responses, and to reassure your readers that there is
indeed a human behind the blog.
In addition, the software automatically attends to housekeeping
chores like creating directories, archiving old posts, and displaying
a particular number of messages per page, based on your
specifications.
Blog Hosts
If you have your own domain name, you very likely have your own
server, so you can host your blog there. If you prefer, though,
Blogger will host your blog on their "Blog Spot" server at no
charge. If you've subscribed to Type Pad's service, they will
host
your blog
there.
Blogs have the ultimate opt-in audience
Thanks to the news aggregators, blogs are available to a staggering
number of potential readers. Your task--at least initially--is to see
to it that your current and potential customers have news
aggregators, and that they have your blog listed in them.
When they see that you've updated your blog, you can have a high
degree of confidence that they're going to read what you've
written, because they voluntarily subscribed to your news feed. As I
said earlier, they will very likely be glad to hear from you.
Beyond that, the blog world is loaded with "techno-geeks" who enjoy
nothing more than watching to see whose blog has been updated
recently. So you can count on some random traffic there too.
Finally, the blog world is inhabited by a talkative bunch of folks.
Blogs, after all, are vehicles for communication. So it's very
likely that if you begin to post worthwhile content to your blog, the
word will get around. This is indeed the case where "if you blog it,
they will come." But then it's your job to keep them coming back
with
high-quality content.
Once you've attracted a following, people will begin to seek out
your blog for your expert advice and commentary. Your blog will
become the go-to source for timely information about your area of
expertise. And it will be only a matter of time before people will be
compelled to drill down into your sales page, or go to your sales
site to buy your product.
If it is indeed true that a sale rarely gets made before the seventh
contact with a buyer, a blog can shorten the interval between
contacts from weeks to days.
A day in the life
So what is the precise interaction between you and the blogging
software that holds the potential to reach thousands of readers?
Well, when I post a blog entry, I begin by writing it in Microsoft
Word, text format. That way, I'm confident that I'm going to
get all the major spelling and grammar mistakes out of the way
quickly.
When I'm happy that I have a reasonably polished piece, I log-in
to my blogging service, and I click on the "New Post" link. This gets
me to a small text editor. From here, I go back to MS Word, copy my
text, and paste it into the text editor.
Then, I select "Preview" to view the document in a window that,
while not browser-quality, is better quality viewing than raw ascii
text editor. If I'm happy with what I see, I click on the
"Publish" button. If not, I can go back to the text editor and make
changes. And that's all there is to it. My latest post,
formatted,
dated, and ready for comments, is now in residence at Skip's
Italian
Food Blog (http://www.skiplombardi.com).
At this point, Blogger notifies a service called Weblogs.com
(http://www.weblogs.com), and they post a message on their site, that
Skip Lombardi has updated his blog. But that isn't even close to
the end of the story.
Weblogs will tell all the people in their database that I've
updated my blog, but there are many, many more services that do the
same thing, and I want to reach all of them.
Enter Ping-O-Matic
Seeing a need for bloggers to notify the blogosphere that they've
updated their blogs, a couple of like-minded bloggers created a
service called Ping-O-Matic (http://www.pingomatic.com). This is a
free service that "pings" or notifies the most important news
aggregators on the web that you've updated your blog. Now, you
have the potential of being noticed by over 500,000 people. And not
one of them will even consider the possibility that you're
sending
spam.
If you can get to the internet, you can have a blog
You don't even need to have a Web site to begin blogging. Simply
subscribe to a free blog hosting service and have at it. Google will
list your blog the same way they list every other Web page. And you
don't even need keywords in your tags.
And speaking of Google, I've not seen any factual reports, but
I've seen a ton of speculation on SEO websites that the spiders
visit
blogs more frequently than they visit traditional Web sites, because
the blogs are updated so much more often. It certainly appears to be
the case with my own blog. I've made postings, and seen those
pages in Google within days afterward. So, at least by anecdotal
evidence, blogging offers the possibility to improve your page
ranking in the search engines.
Networking
Finally, blogs offer the ultimate opportunities for networking. The
attitude among bloggers is that "we're all doing this together."
So exchanging links with like-minded sites is the norm rather than
the exception.
Also, a company called Blogrolling (http://www.blogrolling.com) makes
it possible for people to link to you "on the fly." You get a small
piece of javascript code from them, place it in your blog template,
and when people come to your site, they can click on the "Blogroll
Me" link, and they immediately add your link to their site.
And soŕ
A blog will never replace e-mailůon a purely personal level. But
a blog will help you to reach a larger audience than you thought
possible with opt-in e-mail. Whether you sell information products,
candles, or baseball cards, you'll find folks in the blogging
world who are seeking exactly what you have to offer.
For me at least, a blog has provided the quickest way to reach the
largest number of people. And every one of them is interested in
hearing what I have to say next.
About the Author:
Skip Lombardi is the author of two cookbooks: "La Cucina dei Poveri:
Recipes from my Sicilian Grandparents," and "Almost Italian: Recipes
from America's Little Italys." He has been a Broadway musician, high-
school math teacher, software engineer, and now, a fledgling blogger.
But he has never let any of those pursuits get in the way of his
passion for cooking and eating. Visit his site to buy either or both
of his cookbooks. http://www.skiplombardi.com or
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