Wanna Get Into Internet Marketing? Start a Blog!

yet more reasons to get into blogs and blogging, with Renzie Baluyut.

In a video entitled "Social Media Revolution", which I have shared not too long ago, on a previous blog post, we see that there are over 200 million blogs all over the world right now- and those numbers are growing.

Still a couple more hard-to-ignore facts: 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily, and 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.

I wonder if marketing professionals realize what kind of word-of-mouth and buzz all this activity potentially generates. Here's another fact: more than 1.8 million pieces of content- web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.- are shared on Facebook every single day.

Wouldn't it be great if people talked about you or your company as well?

Social media has indeed changed the way we saw things as marketing professionals. We have to engage our market in a conversation, learn to listen to them and draw out what we can from their experiences with our respective brands.

If you're new to internet marketing, or just about making that shift from traditional marketing to e-commerce and new media, then you're best off starting your new marketing efforts by creating a blog.

This is what Aaron Wall- leading authority in search engine optimization (SEO), blogger, author and international speaker -recommends. In fact, he had even gone as far as giving us seven reasons why new internet marketers should start a blog now.

1. Blogs are easy to set up and update. There are so many free and easy-to-use services available to anyone on the internet now. Plus you're in control of the content, so you can put in new content anytime you want, as often as you want. Pretty much, you're your own author, editor, publisher and marketer, all in one.

2. Blogs have many feedback mechanisms. You know right away if what you're doing is spot on, or if it needs improvement. Because anyone can comment on any of your posts, or jump in on any ongoing discussion, you have a legitimate means to get feedback from your audience.

Knowing is definitely half the battle. All you have to do now is put all that feedback into good use. Remember, listen first. Then sell.

3. Blogs are easy to track and monitor. Thanks to RSS, you can easily keep tabs of other blogs and bloggers just like yourself. All you have to do is subscribe to other blogs that are relevant to you, and use an aggregator like Google Reader or Pageflakes. Even this blog works as an aggregator for all my favorite internet marketing/productivity-related blogs.

Similarly, it's easy to keep track of the activity on your own blog. There are so many available analytics tools online that can give you an idea of your blog's activity over time, where readers are coming from, and how they find their way to your blog.

4. It's easy to join the conversation on blogs. Because there are so many blogs around the world, and because you can know right away which blogs talk about the same things you talk about, joining in on a conversation online has never been easier.

There's definitely a whole community of bloggers out there, and even smaller niche communities for more specialized topics. There's definitely an appeal to all this- you know you're talking to other human beings- other regular people, not corporations or companies- that share the same interests and passions as your own.

5. There's many different ways for ideas to spread. Blogs are all about shareability and discoverability. If you create compelling enough content- readers will definitely pass your message on.

Remember, as you build your authority through your blogs, you will get more readers who trust you, or who feel like they have a connection with you and what you write about. Blogs make it easy for people who like you to share the stuff you post online.

Because of social sites like Facebook, MySpace and Multiply, microblogging services like Twitter and Plurk, and social bookmarking sites like Digg, Technorati and StumbleUpon, and because everyone spends so much time on all these sites, you can count on them passing on links, videos, blog posts, pics, etc. to all their other friends and associates.

6. Blogs have many signs of social proof and value. According to the good people over at Copyblogger,

From a marketing standpoint, social proof is the basis of both buzz and large sales figures. Without it, there’d be no “grapevine” in the first place. It’s also why testimonials are so essential in direct marketing.

Social proof is ultimately the most powerful force involved in growing a successful business blog that helps you sell products or services. The quality of your content is still the most important element, but other subtle influences may well dictate whether you turn a new visitor into a subscription or bookmark.

7. Reading blogs don't feel like you're reading an ad. Again, we go back to the importance of trust. At a time when the mass media landscape- and even the online environment on the internet- is actually getting more and more commercial, readers are always on the lookout for sources they can trust.

For businesses and organizations, word-of-mouth is a force to be reckoned with more than ever: 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. And only 14% trust advertisements.

With all this going on, the question for traditional marketers is: why aren't you blogging now?

If you'd really want to get into blogging, and know more about setting up your own blog right away for marketing purposes, you can check out this webinar, an online workshop on blogging set up by ProFora Media right here.

Check out more of Aaron Wall here on his very own channel on YouTube. You'll find lots more stuff on blogging and search engine optimization, as well as links to his blogs and other associated sites.

Cheers everyone!