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What differentiates a tactic from a strategy?

A strategy is the plan for achieving a defined goal. A tactic is the “doing” part of the strategy. Tactics can be put together in a plan to form a strategy.

Time line is also an important differentiator between a tactic and a strategy. A blog can be up and running in a very short time frame (hours or days). A Strategy usually takes much longer to achieve (months or years depending on how lofty your goals are).

This is the second in a 5 part series looking at Blog Strategy with a focus on Clients. In this post, I’m going to look at how to develop a Blog Strategy for your Client. What makes it a ‘Strategy’ versus just building your client a Blog?

Starting a new Blog is a tactical move. You select the platform, customize a template, add a few plug ins and you’re done. Maybe it will be a success, maybe it won’t.

What transforms a Blog from a tactical move to a Strategy are:

1. Setting Goals and Objective(s)
2. Developing an outlined plan of all the steps necessary to get there from here
3. Having some idea of how you will know whether you’ve achieved your goals (metrics).

These principles apply to any Strategy, in this post I am going to take the above steps and apply it to a Blog.

1. Goals and Objectives

There are many good reasons for starting a Blog.

Having a good understanding of what you want to achieve will assist in setting the tone for your writing; determining what topics you’re going to write about; and making decisions about how often to Blog and whether you wish to have multiple authors.

It will also influence social networking decisions such as if you’re going to show and allow comments, if you’re going to employ social media tactics.

2. Outlined Plan

Getting the right level of detail in a plan is very important. I’m a visual person, so I like to start planning with a diagram

Here is where I currently am -> -> -> -> and this is where I want to get to.

Then I break this plan down into the high level steps that must happen to get me from A to B. Personally, I like to plan three levels deep. Steps A, B, C, then A1, A2, A3. then A1i, A1ii, etc.

By planning three levels deep, you can take big steps and break them down into bite sized, doable pieces. Unless you’re working on a 18 month IT project with 60 project members, I don’t recommend planning in much more detail than this.

Although detail is awesome, sometimes you can get caught spending too much time planning and not enough time doing (also known as Paralysis by Analysis).

3. Metrics

It’s important to make sure that your metrics are tied to your objectives. If your goal is to increase traffic then one of your metrics should be to measure increase in traffic.

Make sure that you set an actual number. Setting SMART objectives is very important. Jeff defined these principles really well in his post about setting goals for social media Profile Development.

It could be a percentage increase in overall site traffic or could be a 12 month goal. If you blow away your 12 month target by month 3, you can always adjust this goal later.

—————————————————————————————

Here is a Blog Strategy for a Typical Client which employs all of the above:

Objective

Client Objective: My ultimate goal is to increase sales and I’d like to attract new customers to my website.

Agency Objective: We can use your blog to help bring new visitors to your website. If the ultimate goal is sales, then we will go after targeted traffic. Quality first, quantity if possible. (this is different than if your client is on a CPM model who strictly is going after eyeballs).

Outlined Plan (3 levels deep)

In this case I would optimize the site to help rank for many more broader keyword phrases than we’ve targeted in the past. Further social strategies will encourage referral traffic from like minded sites. Finally, niche tier II social media will expose your site to potential customers.

Here is the plan one level deep:

SEO –> Content –> Social Strategies –> Blog Promotion using niche social media

Taking it two more level deep it might look something like this:

1) SEO

Select an SEO friendly blog platform (like wordpress) and customize it so that it has the look and feel of the clients site. Add plug ins that will make it easier to do your job.

2) Content - Develop editorial schedule for next 3 months.

• This will involve coming up with at least 15 to 60 Blog Post ideas that will appeal to your clients target market. I’ll be discussing how to come up with post ideas for Challenging Industries in Part III of this series, next week.

• Decide who is going to be responsible for the writing. I really like it when the client does the writing. Not only does this keep the budget down but it starts the conversation between your client and their clients. Plus, they are the expert in their field. They know what matters to their clients.

• Ideally you will be able to assign topics to various experts on the client side. Not only does this split up the work effort but it gives your client’s blog more variation in voices and content.

• If the client is going to be doing the writing then some Blog Writing coaching is probably required. Writing a blog post is different than writing an article which is different than writing a business email.

2) Determine what Social Strategies you are going to employ.

• The most common Social Strategy is to allow commenting on your site. I personally really like comments because take a one sided conversation and turn it into a dialog. Plus it can give your blog more of a community feel.

• RSS Feeds are another social strategy. Your client’s readers may not be very technically savvy so it’s very important to make it easy to subscribe and to give the reader the choice of subscribing by email.

• Linking out to other bloggers through your blog roll and in individual blog posts is also a good social strategy. When you link to another blogger you will get their attention. Chances are they will check out who is linking to them and if they like your blog they may subscribe to it. Or even link back to you in the future.

• Further, by linking to authoritative bloggers in your industry, your readers will perceive you to be at their level, defined by the company we keep. It’s very important that these links make sense and that they add something to your ideas. Name dropping industry experts into your posts does not add to the quality of your post and will probably take away from your readers experience.

3) Promote the Blog using Niche Social Media

• Research your clients industry to find social media sites that their potential clients may use. I.e. if your client’s product is helpful to the environment then environmentally conscious posts may appeal to the HUGG crowd.

• Decide which posts would appeal to which social media. There is no point in spamming social media with every blog post your client writes. Only the really good posts that are on topic for that social property should be submitted. If your post is interesting to the social media’s target market then social media can drive quality traffic to your client’s site.

Make sure all the steps i the plan are mapped out into a process and that the process is communicated to everyone involved.

Metrics

Forget about what all the experts say. Just ask your client “what would make you consider this a success?” You may have to coach your client to keep it reasonable but this is going to open up a very important dialog.

i.e. You want get more traffic to your site and you want some of it to convert. So we have two objectives here.

• Quantity of traffic (this is going to build over time so I would set goals for this for 3months, 6 months, 12 months).

• Quality traffic. Some of my favorite quality indicators include bounce rate, time spent on site, and number of pages visited.

Down the line you will want to start looking at how social measures like the comments your posts are generating and the number of RSS subscribers.

I’ll discuss what realistic measures are for your Clients Blog, in part four of this series.

A Blog without Objectives and a Plan is just a Tactic.

By breaking out the steps and assigning accountabilities & time lines to those steps you can take a tactic and turn it into a successful strategy for your client.

Jennifer Osborne writer and marketer for Search Engine People.

Tags: blog marketing

Fed up with wasting money on ads that don’t work? Here are some killer ways to turn things around and get writing ads that pull in the clicks, visitors and sales in droves.

1. Reverse Psychology

This is where you encourage people to do the opposite of what you really do want them to. For instance, if you want them to sign up for your marketing newsletter say something like “If you’ve got all the sales, visitors and profits you need, don’t sign up for our SuccessNewsletter”. Just remember that people don’t want to be told what to do, or what not to do, so out of sheer cussedness, and a helping of curiosity they will click.

2. Use exciting and appealing words

People respond best to words that appeal to their emotions and to their desire for money, so use words that aim at these two aspects of the human psyche. Use words such as You, Ultimate, Free, Master, Power, Discovery, Easy, Guaranteed, Love, Money, New, Scientific, Profits, Proven, Results, Incredible, Discover, Breakthrough, Secret, Private, Cash, Shocked, Shocking, Revealed, Uncovered, Hidden, Exciting, Sizzling, Hot and so on. Be careful not to overdo it as less is more when it comes to emotive words.

3. Offer a discount

The Internet started out as the place to get things free. Usually this meant information in the early days, so capitalise on this basic human instinct of wanting ’something for nothing’ and offer your visitors a discount if they buy NOW! Alternatively off a free bonus. Make it compatible with the product you’re selling so that they both form a useful combo.

4. Include testimonials

If you have people write or email you thanking you for your product, get back to them and ask if you can quote them in your advertising. Mostly they will be happy for you to do so. This lets prospective buyers know that a real person has got a real benefit from your product or eBook etc. Don’t be afraid to ask for a testimonial. Send buyers a follow-up email to see if they have benefited from your product and ask them to tell you why (if they have). Testimonials are one of the most persuasive tactics there are.

5. Use a guarantee

Always use a strong guarantee in your ad. One guarantee you often see on downloadable products is ‘Try this eBook for 8 Weeks’ because this is now the length of time ClickBank will offer an automatic money back facility. Other payment providers may differ. Include the guarantee in your headline: ‘Our eBook Will Save You Money - Guaranteed!’

6. Tell your customers what to do

People will often act on an instruction such as ‘Click Here Now’. It may be stating the obvious but this is again the psychology of the prospect. They often need just that little nudge to make them take action.

7. State the major benefit of your product or website

Make sure you tell people what the major benefit of your product is. Even in a classified ad you must answer the question ‘What’s in it for me?’ With some products this is not difficult. For instance if you product is a cure for acne, make you can say something like ‘Our product can cure your acne in 21 days’. If you are selling something less obvious you could say ‘Our Nirvana CDs will soothe and relax you after a hard day’. Make it clear what benefit your product or website has to offer.

Now take a good look at your current ads and apply one or more of the tactics given above and you will begin to see some real results. When you do, why not email me and let me know? I like to get testimonials too!

Mervyn Love writes articles on various aspects of Internet Marketing, and his website - http://www.fortresspublishing.com - has a wealth of resources and information on all aspects of starting and running an online business. Sign up for his newsletter here: http://www.fortresspublishing.com/MPNsplash.html

Tags: adwords, Marketing

It’s a common question that companies who are considering hiring a search engine optimization company often face - is this something that we can do in-house? More importantly, can we do this in-house and get the same results that an expert search engine optimization company would provide?

As this article will demonstrate, clearly the answer is “yes” to both questions. However, as this article will also demonstrate, getting the types of results that an expert at search engine optimization can provide will cost you - often more than outsourcing.

For the purpose of this article, I’m ignoring the multitudes of companies that decide to dump the job on somebody already in their organization (usually an IT person who already has too much to do) rather than hiring a search engine optimization company. It has been my experience that while some of these people eventually provide decent results, they are the exception. More often than not, the project never leaves the ground, or the effort is halfhearted at best. In a worst case scenario, your internal person may embrace tactics that no expert search engine optimization company would ever use because they can put your site at risk of penalization or outright removal from the engine indexes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: search engine optimization, seo

One of the most common questions discussed in many online
circles is: how do I monetize my website? Just how do I make
money online from my site or sites?

The solution to that problem is not just a matter of slapping
a few lines of Google Adsense code on your pages and hoping
for the best. Actually, the solution to earning income from
your online site or blog can be as complex or as simple as
you want to make it.

There are thousands of ways to earn money from your site
or blog… among the most common are selling advertising,
selling your own products, using affiliate programs,
drop-shipping, donations, Google Adsense, Azoogle…
and the list goes on.

But this is a rather superficial approach to this issue.
A more interesting way to tackle this rather lucrative
question is to define or make some distinctions between
what exactly you are monetizing - your website or your
traffic?

This may seem pragmatic to many, but any professional
webmaster or marketer who has dissected this issue will
have discovered how you approach this problem will greatly
affect how much income you will derive from your sites.

To the savvy professional marketer it is more an issue
of refinement than anything else. They make the distinction
between a general monetization of a website and a highly
targeted monetization of their site’s traffic. There is
a difference.

Any webmaster can place ads on their sites to get an income.
If you have a normal amount of traffic, you can monetize
your site with ads such as Adsense, Azoogle, Chitika…
and you will receive your monthly checks. But is this the
best way?

Any professional marketer knows you can easily get 100 times
what you can get from Google Adsense by using other means
of monetizing their sites. It comes down to a marketing
strategy that involves monetizing the traffic coming to
their sites, rather than just monetizing the sites themselves.

Not all the traffic to your site or blog is looking for
the same thing. You can have general traffic, searching
for information on a broad subject area, or you can have
someone looking for a specific product or service. Therefore,
you must closely monitor your traffic to find out exactly
what your visitors are looking for and then providing these
visitors with a solution.

Individually Monetizing Your Pageviews, Traffic…

Individually monetizing your pageviews, traffic and landing
pages is the key to deriving larger amounts of income from
your online sites. Just as “long tail keyword” marketing
can greatly increase your income, so too can constructing
income sources directly related to your long tail keyword
traffic.

Using affiliate products and services from third party
affiliate networks like Commission Junction LinkShare,
ClickBank… will earn you 10 times more income than you
would earn from using Adsense; most times it is much more.

The prudent professional marketer will closely examine
their site’s traffic logs to find out exactly the source
of the traffic and the keywords their visitors are using
to find their site. These marketers will closely examine
their traffic and then take steps to monetize it. It may
involve producing their own products or services to offer
to these visitors. It may be using an affiliate program to
offer a product.

They also know that “keywords,” the exact words someone
types into a search engine to find what they’re looking
for on the web, are the real main sources of targeted traffic
on the web. Quality traffic that’s worth its weight in gold.
Domination of the main keywords in your market or niche will
spell monetary success even for webmasters whose main goal
may not be making money from their sites… these strange
creatures do exist I am told!

Aggressive marketers will take a different route, especially
if they have gained domination in a niche area; many approach
other businesses in their niche with offers of partnerships
and independent deals… they supply the leads or customers
to these businesses in return for a percentage of the sale.

I personally go for “residual income deals” where I get a
percentage of the revenues generated for the life of the
clients I refer. Large multinational companies in your
targeted niches probably won’t give you the time of day,
but smaller, lesser known companies will give you lucrative
deals if it is a “win-win situation” for both parties.
This is my number ONE way to monetize my traffic.

Any professional marketer will also aggressively market
their traffic by collecting opt-in lists of interested
customers. These marketers will offer free product buying
guides, valuable information, deals/coupons, customer ratings…
all to capture leads because then instead of just having one
chance to market to their site’s traffic, they get many more
chances in follow-up emails. Studies have shown it make take
6 or 7 follow-ups before a sale is made.

ROT - Return On Traffic

These marketers “add value” or “pre-sell” to their site’s
traffic in order to increase their odds of producing more
income from this traffic. They never forget this traffic
is the real source of their site’s income; instead they
exploit it to their full advantage. No reason why you can’t
do the same.

Always keep in mind, you should develop different sources
of traffic: search engine traffic, article traffic, social
bookmark traffic, link traffic from related sites, viral
traffic with free PDF files, PPC advertising… if one traffic
source dries up, it won’t be a major problem for you.

Likewise, like most things to do with business, it is never
wise to just use one tactic or source of income. I have always
used a “multiple income streams” strategy. On any given site
I may use Google Adsense for general traffic, affiliate products
for my more targeted ‘long tail keyword’ traffic and, of course,
I give priority to special independent deals with long-term
residual income. Even higher PPC (Pay Per Click) bids are possible
with residual deals, as you will recoup your investment down
the road.

Similarly, it is a good business practice to find or promote
companies that will give you a “cookie for life,” which means
once you refer a customer - they are yours for life. Marlon
Sanders does this, so too does Ken Evoy’s Site Build It,
where your customers are yours for life. Also promoting
products like web hosting, marketing tools, and utility
services that have recurring income are very lucrative sales
to make. Believe me, getting a monthly payment for a sale you
made five years ago will put a slight smile on your face every time!

So the next time you’re trying to monetize your site or blog
- first take a real close look at the your site’s traffic,
monitor your site’s raw traffic logs to find out what your
visitors are looking for on each page of your site and supply
a solution for them. Be it your own products, affiliate offerings
or even Google Adsense ads… along the way make sure you offer
them valuable content to help them on their quest and help you
to collect their contact information for further follow-up.

Of course, savvy marketers will create or make the above scenario
happen from the get-go; they find a product, they target and
dominate the keywords for that product in all the search engines
and then harvest this traffic with killer landing pages, opt-in
forms and special bonuses if you buy from their links. They use
this traffic and this marketing strategy to sometimes obtain
obscene amounts of income from the web.

Your success or failure in obtaining the same results will
largely depend upon your own skill level, but mostly it will
depend on the amount of work you put in to earn this income.
This process is so simple, yet so complex to perfect, but with
a little work and some practice anyone can monetize their site’s
traffic to get the best returns.

…..

Affiliate Marketing Tips for Monetizing Your Traffic

Since I am a full-time affiliate marketer, most of the above
post is biased or geared towards affiliate marketing. It is
a simple way to derive income from your sites without having
to worry about handling sales, supply problems, customer complaints…
all you have to do is supply the lead or potential customer
to your promoted affiliate programs and let them do the rest.
All tracking, sales, product delivery… are handled by the
affiliate company, which lets you concentrate on marketing,
producing content, search engine optimization and promotion.

It’s a system that suits me to a T!

However, it is not the most profitable way to monetize your traffic.
Perhaps the most profitable way to monetize any traffic is to
produce your own products and/or services. But this usually takes
some time and skill level beyond the ordinary webmaster; and it
does create additional headaches like product delivery, support
issues, sales records, taxes… everything associated with running
a business or company.

If you’re like me and go the much easier affiliate route,
here are some tips for you:

1. Use well established affiliate networks like Commission Junction,
LinkShare, Shareasale, ClickBank… all these are professionally run,
which makes finding affiliate links/products extremely easy for you.
Besides, they will deliver your checks on time.

2. Aim for or promote affiliate products that have residual or recurring
income because these will be your most lucrative over the long haul.
Pick ones like web hosting, marketing products, utilities… or other
services, which once people sign up for, rarely change.

3. Concentrate your marketing on small, little known niches. Dominate
the main keywords in that niche with your sites and then create special
“residual” income with the main companies in that niche.

4. Pick affiliate products that have lifetime cookies and/or have high
payout rates. You can promote anything; why not promote high-ticket
items that pay the big commissions.

5. However, picking the highest paying products may not be your only
choice. For example, I have found promoting Amazon products usually
pays less than my other affiliate products, BUT the conversion rate
for Amazon products is much higher so you sell many more products and
earn many more (albeit smaller) commissions, which quickly add up to
a nice sum.

6. I have had success by concentrating on well-known products that
you can only purchase online. Smart tactic that pays off, especially
when those companies offer coupons/deals that are only available online.

7. Marketing in foreign markets has proven very lucrative for me.
Usually getting top ranking in these countries is much easier than
in the very competitive U.S. marketplace. For instance, marketing in
the UK is less competitive, and you get higher commissions when you
consider the pound is equal to two bucks in USD. I use Affiliate Window
for marketing in the UK.

8. PPC advertising is the fastest way to deliver targeted traffic
to your pages, but you have to know exactly what you’re doing or
you will lose money. Here, I concentrate on promoting products with
proven residual income so that I can make higher bids since my initial
investment will be returned to me, many times over in the coming years.

9. If you’re a one-marketer, one-person company, you will have to
choose your affiliate products very carefully. Pick only top quality
products to promote, preferably ones you use yourself. Your conviction
will come through in your content or writing.

10. Being a former teacher, I know knowledge is money. The more knowledge
you obtain about affiliate marketing the more income you will make.
But choose your learning sources very carefully, like that saying on
old maps: “here there be monsters”. Be careful. Choose your educators
wisely. Here are two sources I would recommend for further study on
Affiliate Marketing: try Ken Evoy’s free Affiliate Masters Course or
try one of top self-help guys Steve Pavlina - he has a very good page
here on how to make money from your blog.

Tags: affliate marketing, make money from blog, monetizing traffic, monetizing your site, online income, online marketing tips

Earlier this month, Google completed their formal acquisition of major advertising firm DoubleClick Inc., for $3.1 billion in cash from equity firm Hellman & Friedman. The purchase, originally announced nearly a year ago, has had it’s fair share of detractors and legal hurdles to clear before going ahead, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) grinding negotiations to a halt shortly after the original announcement. However, the FTC finally gave the green light on the deal in December.

But Google’s DoubleClick woes may not be over just yet. According to Startup Earth, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has revealed that DoubleClick employees have been asked to submit their resumes to a senior Google committee in advance of possible staff cuts. Here’s a snippet from the post:

“The move is said to affect employees in every department, who will have to prove not only that they are capable of fulfilling their previous roles, but also that they are ‘Google material’, which could leave many veteran employees with virtually no job security pending a personal review.

DoubleClick employees at all levels are said to be furious and deeply concerned by the effect this acquisition will have on personnel, and many are looking at their options.”

One of the more obvious areas where Google may downsize is within the DoubleClick owned search marketing company Performics. It’s been noted that when Google acquired DoubleClick, they also acquired Performics, making them the owners of a search engine optimization and link building company. The irony of this is probably not lost on them, not to mention the conflict of interest issues it raises. I would expect to see an announcement from Google in the next few months that they will be dissolving that portion of the business.

Apart from that little hiccup, I’m expecting the DoubleClick deal will result in the release of superior tools for targeting, serving and analyzing online advertisements. We’ll have to wait and see.