Why Every Freelancer Needs a Weblog

If you are looking for best way to deliver a strong sales message to a particular group of companies, blogging should not be your first choice. For something like that, use phone or a direct mail piece.

However, blogging does offer its own, unique set of strengths.

Here are just a few good reasons why every freelancer should have his or her own weblog....

>> 1. A blog is a great place to showcase your area of expertise.

If your freelance niche is writing of white papers for big companies, for instance, us your blog to show that you are an opinion leader. Use each blog entry to show that people come to YOU for opinions on this subject.

When a potential customer finds your blog, they won't find a strong sales message, but they will find a good reason to visit your main sales site and consider you for their next project.

>> 2. A good blog generates incredible word-of-mouth.

It's nature of medium. If you send out a promotional postcard, one person sees it and then it hits trash can.

When you build a reputation for being a leader in your area with your blog entries, then hundreds or even thousands of people will link to your blog, refer to it in their own communications and talk about it with their friends and colleagues.

>> 3. Blogging brings you to attention of major search engines.

It is said that Google and other major search engines love weblogs. That's almost true. What they love are sites that are frequently added to and updated. And that's why they love blogs, because they are being added to weekly or even daily.

Step Into My Parlour… Easy ways to entice the right people to your website

Though traditional marketing methods cannot be ignored, having a website is a very effective gateway to getting new business. Not just that, you can maximise sales to existing customers with your website by making it easier for them to do business with you. Now, this sounds really rosy…you put up a website; you become a millionaire. Though that is not such a far away possibility, a lot comes in between two.

Once you put up a website, it is important to market it right and generate tremendous traffic inwards before you can start converting your leads into cash cows. Now, you would ideally want everyone and their cousin to check out your website, right? Isn’t that what we mean by ‘tremendous traffic’? Think again. No matter how great products or services you sell, you will not start making a profit until you have relevant people hitting right buttons on website. By relevant, we mean people who fall within your targeted segment and who are most likely to buy your products and services. Hard as it may sound, traffic generation should be a top priority for a home business owner. Here are some effective ways to market your website online and not have to pray for fortune to fund them:

1. Register with ‘Affiliate Programs’: Undoubtedly a great way to market your website would be to get your affiliates to do it for you. An affiliate program is a revenue sharing program where an affiliate website receives a portion of income for driving traffic, sales or leads to your website. Most affiliates use a pay-per-sale model and by far get you most focused traffic than other methods.

2. Email Promotions: Email is god’s gift to home-based businesses. You can use email to get in touch and keep in touch with existing customers and prospects. Initially, target your existing customers. If you run a weekly newsletter, use subscribers’ email database for your email promotions. One of easiest ways to encourage visitors to keep coming back to your site is to offer value. Get word out on discounts on purchases from website, e-coupons and other attractive promotional offers. Try to resist temptation of buying email addresses from web companies, for 2 reasons. One is that not all people on that list may necessarily be part of your target audience. Second, and more important, you could be seen as a “Spammer”! That would not only not give you much sales; it will also spoil your company’s reputation.

3. Search Engine Optimization: Free search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN are ‘the’ places people go to when they are looking for information. Make sure that your website gets in top 10 of these websites’ result pages. This is a sure shot way to attract quality traffic to your website. Take a four –pronged approach to do this:
   • Submit your site’s URL to these and other free search engines and online directories (www.goto.com, www.altavista.com, www.morpheus.com)
   • Optimize your website so that it can be easily indexed by search engines. You can also use website optimization and SEO placement agencies for this purpose. (www.proboostgold.com, www.addpro.com)
   • Make your website’s content rich in keywords and pay special attention to keyword placement
   • Finally, create a content rich site, which actually gives useful information to customer

4. Reciprocal Links: Reciprocal link is a hyperlink you place on your web page with understanding that linked web page will do same for your website. The obvious choice for a partner here is a website that is related to your business but not in direct competition. For instance, if you sell contact lenses, choose websites that sell eyeglasses or related products like cleaning solutions. Another good choice would be websites that give out clinical information on contact lens usage. Reciprocals are a cost-free and effective way of attracting focused traffic to your website.