Why Your Blog Might Be Sabotaging Your Business

Why Your Blog Might Be Sabotaging Your Business

© Jeremy M. Hoover

http://jhooverwebcopy.com



Many marketers were very excited when forum and

newsletter discussion focused first on blogs (about

two years ago) and then on RSS feeds (mainly within

the past year). It was a brand new opportunity for

marketers to use, one that promised both search engine

success and a way around spam complaints. So they ran

out and created a free blogger account or bought some

software and began blogging and trying to set up RSS

feeds.



But many of these marketers didn't understand the very

real difference between newsletter readers and blog

readers.



1. While newsletters are published from once a month

to weekly there is an expectation among blog readers

that content will be updated daily, if not multiple

times each day.



2. Many people who would subscribe to an email

newsletter have no interest in learning about RSS

feeds, downloading a reader, or visiting your site

every day.



3. Although there are people who will both subscribe

to a newsletter and visit websites daily, most web

users seem to prefer one or the other.



Thus, there are really two ways to use your blog, and

you must use one over the other. You either have a

blog or a website. My view is that a "blog" more

describes the frequency of writing than it does the

form or layout of your site.



1. Use your blog as a content management system.

Write your weekly article, upload it to your blog,

then send an email to your list that links to the

article on your blog.



Or,



2. Write for your blog every day (or every two days at

an absolute minimum) to reach the group of people who

will visit your blog regularly, but only if you are

adding new content regularly. Then, for your weekly newsletter, create a weekly digest of your posts containing a synopsis of each article and a link to the article on your blog.



My own view is that the second option works better.

Even if you have four or five blogs, you can still

write 300 words each day for each blog, or write for

two one day and the other two the next day.

Brainstorm ideas every week and use that list for your articles. Set up a Google Alert for your topic or niche, and link to websites or news pieces you find from that service. Or, pay someone to write articles for you. But keep your blog fresh and original and post to it regularly.



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Read more marketing articles at my marketing blog, http://jhooverwebcopy.com/blog. Contact me if you need articles. My rates for 300-500 word articles are 1 for $15, 5 for $50, or we can negotiate if you need a larger batch than that. For more info, visit my website—http://jhooverwebcopy.com—or email me at jeremyhoover AT gmail.com.