Your Blog Is A Gateway To Tons Of Search Engine Traffic You Couldn’t Get otherwise.

The real power of blogs is the ability to tap into the blog suppliers search engine.  For example, I have blogs that were developed to lead readers to my web sites.  These blogs get 28, 76 & 180 hits per day.  This is genuine traffic that comes from blogger.com & wordpress.com.

To create a blog that will generate traffic you need to initially put yourself into the shoes of the searcher.  You need to be SEO conscious of course, and use keywords that are relevant to the searcher you are looking to attract.  You need to think of what keyword phrases you would use to find information you are presenting in your blog.

You also want to create headlines that would make you stop scrolling to read.  Most people glance for a whole second at your blogs caption.  If you can’t hook someone that quickly, you won’t be generating much traffic.

Your blog posts will display higher in the rankings providing you are updating your blog regularly.  If you can add 1-10 blog posts per day, you should see constant traffic being sent for free.

The blog posts you create should not have any links put into the first paragraph unless it is completely appropriate to do so.  The reason is, the search engine uses the first part of your post (usually the first paragraph) in the search engine results page.  If you have links in your post people will immediately believe it to be spam and will move on.

Obviously strong spelling, grammar & punctuation skills are standard.  Any more than one mistake in your blog post and your readers will have formed a very negative opinion of your writing.  You can correct 99% of errors by simply running a spell check on your work.

You can link your blog posts to keep your reader reading.  For example, if you have written a post about Baby food, you may want to offer the reader your past blog post on diapers.  Linking relevant articles will keep the reader within your “web.”

Always start your blog with your end goal in mind.  If, for example, you want to sell a product, then you should clearly define that as your goal when starting your blog.  Knowing the goal of the blog will allow you to keep your posts consistent, and you will flat out make more sales.

Most importantly, stick with it.  I can’t tell you how many blogs I’ve seen just stop updating right before it was going to take off.  If you don’t give your blog time to develop you will not have very much success blogging.

Power of Testimonials:

If I were to send you to 20-30 random sales letters on the internet today you would find that the testimonials section is there 100% of the time.  You will also notice that 99% look and sound identical.  If you can switch gears from an entrepreneur to a consumer and read through these testimonials you will feel very un-easy about the authenticity about any one of them.

Testimonials are so important in the sales process.  For the 95% of us who do not run multi-national corporations, we need to constantly work at building trust quickly and more importantly fully.  Trust is the one key ingredient to a sale being made.  If you do not build a certain level of trust in your marketing efforts you will never sell a product.

So, now that I have successfully freaked everyone out about their own testimonial efforts, let me direct you on some ways to build trust through your testimonials, while avoiding the negative condemnation that the generic testimonials convey.

The goal of the testimonial section is to show your prospect that you have served people like them before, and that they have been satisfied with whichever areas you are promoting.  If the prospect believes that the testimonial was fabricated, they immediately devise a negative image of your business, and certainly don’t buy anything.

One of the most effective ways I’ve been able to convey that my testimonials are authentic has been through an audio testimonials campaign.

To begin, I promoted the testimonials by phone throughout the web site.  The banners and text links I used basically all said something like, “Had A Great Experience?  How About A Terrible One?  Phone The Testimonial Line Right Now And Record Your Experience For Other Consumers.  ALL TESTIMONIALS GET PUBLISHED.

Now, if you promote at all testimonials get published, you should be ready to step up to the plate during customer problems or you will be getting negative testimonials sent.  If you don’t list them the person who left the negative testimonial may go viral about exposing your “Fake Testimonials” and the business can expect to die shortly after.

On your sales letters, offer the MP3 audio file of the testimonial calls you have gotten, as well as the written highlights from your testimonials.  By doing this you are showing people that your testimonials are authentic, and that you are proud of your reputation with your customers.

If you do not have the means to get audio testimonials you can also do the same with video (although this has been done, and still has the “fake” feel to it), or handwritten letters.  Handwritten letters about your business have a certain level of authenticity to them; however, if the handwriting looks the same, or the “voice” of each person sounds the same, people may feel like they’re reading fake testimonials.