What are Blogs?
Blogs are online journals that can be used in a variety of
different ways. In a personal sense, families can keep track of each other
across the globe by posting to a family blog. One family member posts, then
another member adds their comment underneath the post, and so forth.
Businesses can announce new products and services, discounts,
discontinued items, or holiday promotions in their blogs. I'll cover
additional ideas for the use of a business blog further in this article.
The biggest challenge is to get your target audience to read your blog.
That's why you need a “blog with a purpose.” You need a reason for your
audience to visit your blog on a regular basis. What would make your blog
special to your audience? Why would they want to bookmark your blog? Why
would they want to link to it and tell others? That should be your
ultimate goal.
Think about your own site, and let's start talking about “blogs
with a purpose.”
Five Example Blogs with a Purpose
1. Free
Directory Listings
For some time now, I've been steering people away from reciprocal
linking, due to the inherent problems associated with it. Submitting to
directories can certainly help your Web site from a link popularity
standpoint, which we all know is crucial, but how do you know which
directories to submit to? There are a lot of scammy directories out there,
so you need to know which ones to stay away from. Plus, it can cost you a
lot of money to submit to directories. What if your pocket book is a little
tight at the moment?
Martin Preece at WebSEODesign came up with a novel idea. He decided to
submit his site to free directories, and then keep track of when the
site was accepted into each directory, the PR of the directory, whether he
has to link back, and other statistics. He shares all of his experiences on
his Web site for readers to follow. All you have to do is follow in his foot
steps. Here's the link to the actual listing of free directories:
http://webseodesign.com/resources/free-directory-listings.htm
Then, he set up a free directory listings blog where he reports on
the progress of his free directory reviews. He also writes “how to”
articles in his blog, such as how to submit to directories.
http://webseodesign.com/blog/2005/04/free-directory-listing-101.html
Martin has created a “blog with a purpose.” People visit his
blog, because it benefits their Web sites and their link
popularity building efforts. Why should they spend the time finding and
researching directories when Martin will do it for them?
How does it benefit Martin? He's getting traffic to his site,
building link popularity, gaining potential clients, and getting visibility
from the search engines. It's a win/win situation for everyone.
Plus, his free-directory-listings.htm page isn't doing too badly in
the rankings. It's #1 in MSN for “free directory listings” out of 6.5
million, and #14 in Yahoo! out of 130 million.
What has he done, in part, to achieve those rankings? He's linked
to his free-directory-listings.htm page from his blog using absolute links
and using “free directory listings” as the link (anchor) text.
For example, this is an absolute link:
<A HREF="http://webseodesign.com/resources/free-directory-listings.htm">free
directory listings</A>
Below is a relative link. This is the type of linking convention
most Web site owners use when linking to a page on his/her own Web site.
<A HREF="free-directory-listings.htm">free
directory listings</A>
Tip: Always use absolute links when linking to interior pages of
your site from your blog, and always use keyword phrases in your link text
when pointing to those interior pages.
2. Wordtracker
KEI Observation Deck
Yes, this sounds like blatant self promotion, but when you hear the
story about this blog, you'll understand why it needs to be included in the
article.
A few years ago, we had a plain old blog. We posted information
about our site on the blog, articles, etc. The search engines loved it, but
the visitors didn't. Why? We didn't give the Web audience a compelling
reason to want to visit.
The blog was . . . boring.
My partner, John Alexander, and I teach Wordtracker strategies in
our courses, and we believe that the key to success with any Web site begins
with solid keyword research. We constantly hear students tell us how they
can't find high KEI numbers in Wordtracker - that the competition is just
too high.
So John came up with a fabulous idea. He set up the KEI Observation
Deck on our blog. He spends about 10 minutes a day finding high KEI values
and posting them on our blog. He's using the blog as a teaching tool,
because we're educators.
People love it. He's proving to them that Wordtracker is full of
high KEI values, if you only know how to find them. Affiliate marketers
flock to his page to see what John will come up with next. SEOs have
syndicated the blog through the RSS feed, so they can keep up with John's
latest research. Search engines spider the page almost every day.
How is it benefiting Search Engine Workshops? John can use it to
promote our other products and services. Wordtracker has linked to the blog,
which is definitely a plus for the site.
The blog is no longer boring . . . it's effective -- a blog with a
purpose.
3. Horseback
Riding Tours
Bayard Fox of Equitours Worldwide Riding Vacations has a unique way of
using his blog. After one of his horseback riding vacations, he writes an
online journal, complete with pictures, and posts them to his new blog.
The guests who attend his vacations can visit his blog and link to it,
and then tell their friends and family members to visit to read more about
their recent vacation.
These vacations are in very exotic places, like Africa, India, and
Uruguay. In other words, reading about them and seeing the pictures
certainly makes you want to take a riding tour as well.
Why do people want to visit his blog? If you had taken a horseback riding
tour in Africa, wouldn’t you want to visit a site that had pictures of
your trip, as well as a journal that documented the whole thing? Wouldn’t
you want to link to it?
What good does this do for Bayard and his company? It’s obviously a
perk for his customers, and we always want to take care of our customers.
Plus, as the site gets more exposure in the search engines, more and more
people will visit, outside of his existing customers.
His existing customers will pass along the link to friends and family
members, and he’ll pick up new customers that way. He’ll gradually build
link popularity from the blog as time goes on.
Tip: Be sure to link to additional pages of your site from your blog
posts, so potential customers can read more information about products or
services you mention on your blog. Use absolute links with keyword phrases
in the link text. On your product pages, link to the blog. In Bayard’s
case, he would be linking to each riding tour’s page.
If you have a newsletter, promote your blog through the newsletter. Be
creative! Ask your customers to post their opinions about a new product line
in the blog. Offer a 10% discount to those who post.
In Bayard’s case, he could mention a recent riding tour, and give the
URL of the blog where newsletter readers could see the pictures and journal
entries.
4. Threadwatch
For this category of “blogs with a purpose,” I wanted to list a blog
that serves a purpose similar to that of an online forum. Numerous ones come
to mind, but none more appropriate or effective than Threadwatch.
The owner takes great pride in his site, and it shows. What makes it
different from other blogs of the same sort is this twist:
“Finding the signal amongst the noise of internet marketing media takes
too much of what we all value most: TIME. Threadwatch.org cuts through the
chatter and produces a clear signal for the time starved professional
Internet Marketer.”
In other words, he distills information from other forums and posts that
he feels are the best and most useful posts. Rather than your having to sort
through mountains of information yourself, go to Threadwatch and let them do
it for you.
What’s in it for the visitor? You don’t have to run all over forum
land to learn SEO and Internet marketing information. It’s all
consolidated in one handy place: Threadwatch.
What’s in it for the owner? He’s has an extremely popular site now
with a very loyal following. His link popularity is excellent, and I’m
sure his visibility is as well.
5. Cup of
Sunshine
In the final example, the entire Web site is a blog. This Web site
is for a coffee house in Abbotsford, BC, Canada, which also sells antiques.
They didn’t want to have to learn HTML to post to their site. They wanted
something easy and non-technical.
So, their SEO set them up with a simple blog in about an hour. Now, they
have a Web presence and can even sell their antiques online.
The blog is loaded with character, as you can see. They’ll certainly
have a lot of fun adding to it as time goes on.
The purpose of the blog is to be a Web site!
Now is the time for you to be creative. Here are your goals for your
“blog with a purpose”:
* You need a reason for your buying audience to visit your blog.
* Your blog needs to be special to your audience in some way.
* Is your blog bookmarkable, and will people want to link to it?
Any business can set up a blog. Making your blog a “blog with a
purpose” takes it a step beyond normal blogs. It gives it purpose and
meaning. It gives it power.
Give it a try, and good luck!
Copyright 2004-2005 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.
