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Creating
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Welcome to the
May 2007 issue of
“Creating Marketing Magic.”
"Please sir, may
I have another?"
Back
in the 1960’s, one of the most popular game shows on
television was “Let’s Make a Deal” hosted by Monty
Hall. For those who are too young to remember, the
show featured contestants (dressed in elaborate get
ups) picked from the audience who were challenged to
make the best deal possible. Monty Hall would award
the lucky contestant a prize for being chosen and
then immediately challenge the contestant.
The
challenge: Will the contestant keep the sure thing,
or will he or she trade what they have for what’s
behind Door Number One?”
Of course, the fun of the show was watching the
contestants squirm as they tried to decide whether
to stay with the known or trade for the unknown.
I’m amused because, of late, I’ve been reading quite
a few articles and blog postings where the readers
are assumed to have to take a “Let’s Make a Deal”
type mentality. On one blog, the question was
“Should you use a free blog or should you go with
your own hosted blog?”
In other words, in the marketing game, the correct
answer is, “Why Monty, I’ll keep my fabulous prize
AND take what’s behind Door Number One, thank you!”
The story continues here....
In the
case of the free blog vs the hosted blog, it’s truly
a case of how many outboard engines powering your
motor boat. If one is good, two is better and three,
well… the more the merrier.
I encourage clients to sign up for an account with
Google’s Blogger.com, as well as with Wordpress.com
(the free hosted version).
Why? The answer is simple: because it’s yet another
“bread crumb trail” to lead people to your “main”
web site or blog.
There are pros and cons in setting up a free blog
account.
The pros:
When you set up a free blogging account, the price
is definitely right. Plus, you get to avoid hosting
issues, software issues and other “uglies” of
blogging. (Blogger is offering a candid look at the
headaches of migrating from one blogging platform to
another.)
In addition, if you happen to get busy and “ignore”
your new blog, it won’t be a death blow to your blog.
Because your blog is sharing space with hundreds of
thousands of blogs, your inattention won’t get the
entire site ignored by the search engines.
In addition, you don’t have to deal with Google
Sandbox issues when you choose a free platform, like
Blogger.
The cons:
First, should your blog “catch on” and develop a
following, the traffic belongs to BLOGGER not you.
Should you develop a following, it will be difficult
to "transition" to a stand alone blog.
Second, by blogging, you’re creating content for
Google and not for your web site. This is of
CRITICAL importance.
Content is truly king when it comes to the internet
and your blog is a great way to build TONS of
content and in the quest for world domination (or at
least a successful online marketing campaign) you’ll
need content and lots of it to compete. Your own
blog is a GREAT way to build content. If you blog
just three times a week, in no time you’ll have
hundreds of pages to toss into the old Google Index.
It’s a matter of numbers. If you have 100 pages
talking about your subject matter, you stand a MUCH
better chance of getting your pages (a.k.a. posts)
returned well in the search engines.
Those lovely pages (a.k.a. posts) that you create on
your Blogger account go towards BLOGGER.COM’s
content, not yours.
I have a Blogger account. This is the URL:
http://beyondtheniche.blogspot.com/
Notice the URL. It’s not one I’d like to give over
the telephone to a client, that’s for sure.
Because I analyze my log files, I can see that my
blogger.com blog usually sends one or two visitors
to my web site
http://www.findmyniche.com. However,
the extremely low volume of traffic as a result has
reduced my blogging efforts on the free sites
CONSIDERABLY!
On the other hand, I have a client whose blogger.com
blog has YET to send a single visitor to her web
site after six months of blogging. In her case,
we’re going to install a blog on her site so at
least her blogging efforts will contribute to her
web site’s content. Because that’s a LOT of work to
be contributing to Blogger’s vast array of content!
Oh, another peril of hosting your blog with a “Free”
service is the question of with whom you’ll be
sharing your blog. In my blog’s case, when I click
on “Next blog” I get one in Spanish. Click “Next blog”
again, and I’m greeted with a photo of a monstrous
bunny snuggled up to a smug guinea pig. Not that I
have ANYTHING against huge bunnies or smug guineas…
it just “detracts” from my “professional” image.
In the end, when it comes to the debate of “free vs
hosted”, I suggest you consider doing BOTH! It’s
surprisingly easy to maintain multiple blogs once
you develop the habit. Of course, most of my
blogging is done late night on the weekends when
others are out having “fun”.
Blogs are a powerful tool at building and organizing
content for your web site.
Next time, I’ll cover the
“blog vs email newsletter” dilemma and illustrate
how that also shouldn’t be an “either – or”
decision.
Questions, comments, rants, raves? Feel free to .
Find My Niche and Creating Marketing Magic
are written Kathy Hendershot-Hurd who
is the founder of Virtual Impax, a small business
marketing consulting firm and the author of
"Beyond
the Niche"
available at online book stores everywhere.
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