Thrive Learning Institute - How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Website

At Thrive Learning Institute we are all about finding new innovative ways to market your online business and blogs are an awesome, free way to do that. In this article we'll take you through 4 basic steps to get you up and blogging in no time.

Step 1: Learning About Blogging
A "blog" is an online journal, a place where people can share their ideas, interests, and advice by writing postings every two or three days. The word "blog" comes from two words, combined: "Web log".

Begin learning about blogging by looking over your products and seeing if there are any particular themes or topics. For example, if you're selling some fishing poles and reels, then "Fishing" would be the topic of those two sites. Next, go to Google.com and search for the theme and the word "blog". In our example here, you'd search for "Fishing Blog".

Google will return with a list of a lot of blogs that deal with that particular topic. You'll simply click into each one, one at a time, and begin reading what those bloggers have written on that topic. This will help you to understand better what blogging and "the bloggosphere" (the network of blogs) is all about. Reading other people's blogs will be an ongoing part of your promotional efforts for your website.

Once you've seen what blogging is all about, it's also helpful to understand that internet marketing is all about what are called "inbound links". That means that you want to get links TO your site from as many other relevant sites on the internet as possible. Not only does that bring you traffic, but it also means you'll be found by the search engines quicker and you'll rank higher. Blogging provides the opportunity for you to do that in two ways: Using other people's blogs, and creating your own blog.

Step 2: Posting Comments

In the process of reading other people's blogs, you'll find an occasional blog entry that catches your attention, inspires you, or makes you think something. When you do, click to post a comment. Leave your own opinion (politely and respectfully, if you disagree) and experiences that relate to what the blogger is writing about. Don't just say, "Nice blog!" or "Me, too!" Add to the conversation. When you post these comments, there is often a place where you can leave your website address, creating a linkback to one of your relevant product sites. This is a great way to start to create traffic and attention to your websites.
Step 3: Creating Your Own Blog

Creating your own blog will allow you to establish inbound links to your website, and and help you to draw traffic to it. Begin, again, by looking over your products and seeing if there are any particular themes or topics. If your website is well-centered around a good niche, this should be pretty obvious. Choose the topic of your blogs. Remember that you'll want to write in this blog every two to three days, so you'll want to have a theme that you can write about often.

Go to Blogger.com, create an account, and create a blog in that account. Make a note of the address(es) of the blog(s) you create, so you can send them to your coach, and use them in your promotion.

Step 4: Blogging

Begin by writing a blog entry in each blog. A blog entry should have:

1. Anywhere from 250 to 500 words. That's just a guideline. Nobody's counting!
2. Good, usable information that relates to the theme of the website's products. It's important to not just write sales copy about the product. That's called blogspam, and Blogger might actually pull the offending blog off the web. If you're not sure what to write about, you can read what other bloggers are writing about that same topic and get ideas and information to re-write into your own blog.
3. Lots of good keywords that your audience is searching for. See Dropship Benchmark #3 for good information on how to discover good keywords.
4. Links to your website. If you're writing about the theme of the products, you could mention a particular product in the blog entry, and create a link to it. Make sure that the text that becomes the link includes some of your good keywords!
5. Links to other people's blogs that gave you ideas. It's not only OK to link to other people's websites and blogs, it's a good idea. Then go back to their sites, and leave a message that you mentioned them. They'll probably link back to you, so their readers can see what you said about them!
6. Links to any of your other blogs or websites!

Continue by writing more blog entries, creating more links, posting more comments in other people's blogs and being active in the bloggosphere!

For more tips and advice From Thrive Learning Institute browse our archives.

The Art of Being Controversial

If I started blogging about my personal political or religious views on this blog (that is, the Thrive Learning Institute Blog) it is quite likely that they would fire me. Those things are far too controversial for a professional to be talking about on a professional blog like this one.

Your blog, however, is an entirely different matter, especially if you're involved in affiliate marketing (revenue gained from people clicking on Ads on your site). In that case, do anything that would get you fired at work!

It may seem a little strange, but by upsetting people, you're guaranteeing yourself increased traffic. It's not so much about getting people involved in a positive way as it is about getting people emotionally involved -- and as deeply emotionally involved as you possibly can.

Why does this work? Well, human's are idiots, to start with. When we see a set of headlines online, if we know we agree with one, we are only somewhat likely to click on it. On the other hand, if we see something that upsets us, we immediately dive in -- knowing fully well that it will just make us more angry.

People who disagree with you will make long comments trying to prove to you that you're wrong -- and then those who agree with you will become upset with them. This is a way that you can get a lot of "content" generated for your blog, with little to no effort from you! People engaged in these internet arguments will check back frequently, sometimes get friends involved, and are likely to check back in for future posts.

So, yes! Be controversial, and be willing to step way out of your boundaries. By emotionally entrenching people, you're getting yourself a group of people who will return to your blog again and again -- and thus, a group of people who are likely to make you money through your affiliate ads.

Of course, having a successful blog of affiliate site is far more than talking about controversial subjects -- and there are many ways to maximize your profit. For more information on how a quality coaching company can help your business succeed in affiliate marketing, e-commerce, or any other branch of making money online, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Business Blogs

Since you're here, on our blog, I think I can assume that you know something about what a blog is. However, for those who just happen to have stumbled across this Blog, allow me to go back to basics.

The word "blog" is a shortening of "Web Log," and thanks to Blogger, terms like "blogging" and "bloggers" have become more a part of our cultural phenomena over the last few years. This is because it's now very easy to set up a blog.

And "blogging?" Well, blogging can be anything. If I tell the world my grandma is sick on a blog, that's blogging. If I talk about my new girlfriend, that's blogging. If I talk about my political beliefs, that's blogging. If I talk about religion, that's blogging. If I talk about how vanilla is the best ice cream, that's blogging.

And most importantly, if I talk about my company, my products, and my company's quality, that's most definitely blogging! This is where blogs come in as a part of your business. Is it mandatory to have a blog for your online business? No, not mandatory. But it does help you with the search engines.

The more people link to your website, the more popular that site will become. The more relevant the pages that links are on happen to be, the more powerful that link will be. So by creating a blog, you can link to your website through a highly, highly relevant website. In short, you will start to get a better page rank, your search engine ranking and SEO will improve, and you may generate some independent leads through your blog.

So what should you include in the blog to make it most effective? Should you have just one, or multiple? How much does it really impact your ranking? How can you make sure your blog is visible?

Even after explaining a lot of the details, there are always going to be more questions. To find out more about how a coaching company can help answer your questions, and introduce you to many more ways to market your website, simply visit www.thriveli.com.