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Tag Archive for blogs

bikram | March 20, 2011
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Blogging and Social Media

The doomsayers are flat out wrong!

Social Media has become such a huge phenomenon, and many proclaimed that the rise of social media will kill blogging the way television killed the radio, or the Internet killed magazine, the newspaper, and what not. But, this time the doomsayers were flat out wrong.

Blogging did not go away, and social media didn’t become the blog-killer. It didn’t, and both co-existed amiably. What doomsayers forgot to realize that blog has a different purpose than social media. If I could draw a leaf from our life to understand what these people were saying then I will say if blogging is like the magazine you read then social media is akin to meeting you have with your friends, or may be a conference you attend.

How can a conference or friends’ gathering replace the need of magazines?

It cannot. Both are different. Rather the readership of magazine will increase because of word of mouth phenomena cutting loose during social gathering. And that is what has happened to blogging. Now more and more people are blogging on variety of different topics.

Social media has fueled the growth of blogging. Now more and more people are using their blogs to express themselves. Social media along with its status messages has brought writer out of every person. Earlier you couldn’t imaging people saying things that you see them writing on their Facebook walls.

Social media may be huge in its own right, but when it comes to blogging, even a force like Facebook is subservient to blogging.  Facebook is used by the bloggers to promote them, and it doesn’t work in the opposite direction. Facebook, twitter, MySpace, and the rest have turned into mere tool for bloggers to promote themselves.

What do you think about this? Has social media become the force or will become the force that will take the place of blogging? Use the comment box below and write in.

Category: blogging | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | October 10, 2010
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How Mobile Is Used by Mobile Users Worldwide

People in different countries use mobile differently. This is not something that is top of the mind for most of the people because intuitively we think people buy cell phones to talk. To talk is surely why people buy any phone, but given the feature richness of a modern day cell phone, talking is not all is in the minds of people. They use it for various purposes.

This has been proved by the recent study conducted by comScore in the United States, Japan, and European countries for its comScore MobiLens data study.

After careful analysis of the data, comScore found that Japanese mobile users are the most connected lot, and Americans are more hooked to social networking sites. And European consumers resort more towards passive mode of communication, i.e., texting.

When we talk of connectedness, we talk of browsing, downloading content, and accessing applications. Japanese users are more connected on that. 75% of Japanese uses connected media, whereas, 43.7% Americans and 38.5% European mobile users.

On the benchmark of social media usage, Americans lead the pack. 21.3% of American mobile users access social media sites or blogs on their cell phones, which is higher than the usage pattern of Japanese (17%) and European (14.7%) consumers.

Europeans may invest time in using social media sites or accessing connected applications, but they are very much into texting. As many as 81.7% of Eurpoean cell phone users give in to text messaging. On this front, percentages of American and Japanese cell phones users are 66.8 and 40.1, respectively. (See image for detail).

comscore-mobile-media-global-demographic-jun-10-oct-2010

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | September 19, 2010
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Have You Tried These Advanced Linkbaits for Your Blog?

In the previous article I talked about content types that suits perfectly for linkbaits, and towards the end, I told you that in the next article I will share some advanced linkbait techniques. And this is that article. By using these techniques, you will not only get more links, but you will be able to network with real people behind the websites or blogs linking to you.

Advanced linkbaits

Rank websites

Create a list of websites and rank them on the basis of their merit. You can, for example, create a list of top 25 dating websites. Once you are done with the ranking, sending each website with a badge announcing their rank. A website will definitely link back to your blog.

Rank people

This is a linkbait that very few blogger or webmaster will refuse being lured to. What you have to do is to create a list of 25 most influential people in a niche. Write a small bio about them — you can find this information on the about us page of their websites or blogs — and post it on your blog. Add a link to their websites as well.

The next step is to send them a mail informing them about their inclusion in top25 most influential list on your website. Send each one of them a rank badge. They cannot help, but give you a backlink.

As you can see, both the strategy has two parts: one, creating a list, and contacting the relevant parties with a badge explaining the honor they received. Err on any and you will miss the opportunity to get ranked.

Do not abuse this strategy. It will stop working, and do not add any non-deserving candidate in your list, just because you know him. It will take the credibility away from your ranking.

Category: blogging | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | August 21, 2010
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How to Get Killer Content for Your Blog

While going through the blogging category on this blog, I found that I have touched almost all the aspects of blogging, except one. And interestingly that aspect is the most crucial for the success of a blog. Content is what I am talking about here — yes, I can sense that all antennas are out now. It should be as content provide substance to your blog, rest of it is just bells and whistles. In this article I will show you how to get killer content for your blog.

Write yourself

You yourself are the best place to source content for your blog. Look inside you and see if you can add to the reader’s experience. If you are in love with the topic you have chosen to blog about then this will be rather easy. If not, you can do the research and find relevant information that will help you solve readers’ problem.

Hire someone with passion

Another way to get high-quality killer content for your blog is to hire a staff blogger. He will be doing the hard work for you churning quality content, but there is one decision problem that you need to sort when hiring someone to write for you. And that problem is to choose between a passionate blogger and cost-effective staff blogger.

On the face of it, many people will choose to go with option one, but this is not that simple when it comes to deciding on which one to go with. Whom you will go with will depend upon the purpose of your blog. Do not think that the one that come cheap has necessary be bad. You must check the sample works of a freelance staff blogger before you hire one.

A rule of thumb in hiring a staff blogger is to go with the one that gives quality output. Price should be secondary.

Research and repurpose

Go to popular blogs that are in the business for many years, and scour their blog to find any old post that would be relevant today as well. Take this article as a base, and do further research to find ideas that should be included in the article. Take this and the blog post we put aside, and create a killer post for your blog.

There are many more ways to get killer content for your website, one such source is customer generated content (CGC). To find a good source, all you need to do is to think out of the box.

Category: blogging | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
James Thomas | July 18, 2010
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How You Can Write Copy For Your Attorney Website

Law firm web marketing starts with a built-in difficulty regarding the material you are writing for your website or blog. It is because the subject matter is intricate, in depth, and calls for an advanced degree to understand completely. The content on your website and/or blog is met with the unenviable challenge of presenting, in layman’s terms, very sophisticated subjects while at the same time confronting the short lived concentration of internet users.

It is essential to understand that crafting copy for your website is unique and must be approached differently than other styles of conventional writing.

Successful attorney internet advertising requires knowing how to craft internet copy

I am going to address writing web copy from the viewpoint of user friendliness and engaging your readers. Even though it is also important to understand how to create website copy for search engine marketing,I will reserve that subject for a different post.

Here are a few tips to take into account when writing content for your firm’s website:

People reading your website scan through the pagesthey don’t read them – Keep your paragraphs and sentences concise. Use headlines and bolding that point out your primary messages.

Utilize bullet points – Consumers like lists on the web. Any time lists and bullets are applied appropriately, a person can more easily look at and process the points you make.

Start a conversation, less “marketing speak” – I often emphasize that consumers want to buy from other individuals, not faceless firms. This is particularly legitimate when marketing professional services. Make sure you write with your style, while maintaining a professional tone.

Stay away from legal writing – Not only doesn’t the average joe comprehend it, but these people will quickly dismiss your material and move ahead to another website. Focus is fleeting online, if a prospective client doesn’t have an understanding of what you are expressing, they will quickly go someplace else.

Make use of photographs, video, and designs in your writing (where applicable) – This can make your website much more aesthetically interesting and draws the users in.

A fantastic book to read on the topic is Net Copy by Nick Usborne. It is a fast read that details how to approach writing for the web.

Taking a deeper look at the content on your firm’s website will enhance the success of your law firm internet marketing.

Understanding how to create engaging website copy is important for your law firm marketing. Writing copy that appeals to a user increases engagement and can be a nice compliment to your lawyer SEO.

Category: Articles | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 2, 2010
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Inbound Marketing Pushes Outbound Marketing Away

According to the “State of Inbound Marketing Report” released by an Internet marketing firm Hubspot, inbound marketing is getting hotter and hotter day-by-day. It is pushing the outbound marketing out and gaining more ground for itself in the process.

hubspot-lead-generation-budget1

In terms of percentage of the overall lead generation, inbound marketing grew by 1% between 2008 and 2009 (from 38% to 39%) at the cost of outbound marketing that contracted by 5% (from 29% in 2008 to 24% in 2009), as reported in the study released by Hubspot.

The study revealed that social media, SEO, and blog form the top three lead generation sources followed by Email marking. As the chart at the bottom suggests, there had been a tremendous shift towards social media for lead generation. In 2009, only 46% businesses used it, which is expected to increase by 14% to touch 60% mark in 2010. Blogs will also grow in importance but not as much as SEO.

hubspot-sources-leads-important-apr-2010

What so striking about these findings?

If the trend continues to grow as it does now then soon the businesses involved in outbound marketing will be out of the market. For long, everyone was saying the death of mass media is at the door, and we all expected it to be some violent death. But, like life nothing violent happened on the Internet. It means a silent and slow death awaits outbound marketing. It‘s high time for us to shift to inbound marketing.

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | April 24, 2010
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Can You Say Which One is the Most Used Social Media Marketing Tool?

Well, it is nobody’s guess, and it is not Facebook. Twitter is the most used social media marketing tool, as found in the survey by SocialMediaExaminer.com in the “2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report”.

The responses to the question asked in the survey found that 88% of marketers use twitter for marketing, and at number two is Facebook, which is used by 87% of the marketers for marketing. The third-most used marketing tool is LinkedIn, which is number one of online professional networking platform. LinkedIn is used by 78% people, and blogs are used by 70% marketers as marketing tool followed by YouTube and other video sites — 46% markets use these services for marketing.

In the 2009 version of the survey, Facebook was at number four place with 77% marketers using it for marketing, and blog was at number two position with 79% of markets using it for marketing.

The survey also reported that small business owners are more inclined towards using LinkedIn for marketing, and men use YouTube and other video sites more for marketing than men do. To give you the number 51.2% men said they use video sites, whereas only 42.6% women marketers said they use YouTube and other video sites for marketing. See image for detail.

socialmediaexaminer-commonly-used-tools-apr-2010

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | March 7, 2010
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Make Your Blog Interesting to Read in 3 Easy Steps

Writing does not start from the time you press the first key on your keyboard, it starts long before that. It starts from the time you starts thinking about your writing. An article starts in the writer’s mind and ends it journey in the reader’s mind. Blog, website, or paper is just a medium though which the idea inherited in article is conveyed. Therefore, in order to make your article interesting you need to work on your thought process. And asking the following questions will help you in that.

What your audience what?

Do not just write what you feel is right because the chances are quite fair that most of the time it is not right. You need to ask your audience what they need. You can take help of occasional surveys, or visit forums in your niche or read other blogs in your niche to understand your audience’s need. This is very important.

What tone do they like?

Not only what you write is important, but how you write is equally important. You should not use just any tone of voice, rather you should ask your audience how they want to be communicated. Some people need authority-like guidance, while other wants to read blogs that treat them equal, while other wants to feel superior. Use the tone your audience wants you to use.

When do they want to hear it?

Timing is equally important. If everyone in your niche is publishing its article at 10 AM then there is a good reason to that. May be it’s the audience who want that! You should research in this as well. Observe when you see spikes in viewership. And also ask your audience if they want you to post daily, or posting on alternate day will do? Should you write on weekends?

These are the decisions you need to make, and these along with creative use of words and sentences will make your blog interesting to read.

Category: blogging | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | March 5, 2010
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Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 11

This is the last post of the series, and in this part I will talk about how you can sound all knowledgeable to your readers by being on top of the news and by writing resource posts plus one more.

Set Alert in place

Set Google Alert, Twist (for twitter), and Blogscape (for blogs) for the keywords you are targeting, and be on top of the updates in your niche. You can then capitalize on the recent happenings and tell your readers how they can profit from it. By being top of the news, you will sound knowledgeable and will be regarded as an expert in your niche.

Write a resource post

A resource post is a must-have for any blog. It gives your users a reason to bookmark your page. A well-written resource post has an ability to pull visitors again and again to your blog. It is also very much digg-friendly. You need to have as many resource posts as you can think of.

Write quality guest posts

Guest posts are new black for blogging. Write quality guest posts, and while writing them you goal should not only be to get published on the blog of your choice, but also to lure the readers to your own blog. This could only happen if you write quality guest posts.

With this our 11-post long discussion on making your blog stand out from the crowd comes to an end. And I hope, you enjoyed the series, and worked on the bite-size tips shared in this post. You may like to bookmark this post, as I am providing links to all the posts that I wrote in the series. Let me know how you feel about this series, and what changes you would like to see in future series.

Index

  1. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 1
  2. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 2
  3. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 3
  4. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 4
  5. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 5
  6. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 6
  7. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 7
  8. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 8
  9. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 9
  10. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 10
  11. Blog with a Friendly Face – Part 11
Category: blogging | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | March 3, 2010
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Blogging and Social Media

The doomsayers are flat out wrong!

Social Media has become such a huge phenomenon, and many proclaimed that the rise of social media will kill blogging the way television killed the radio, or the Internet killed magazine, the newspaper, and what not. But, this time the doomsayers were flat out wrong.

Blogging did not go away, and social media didn’t become the blog-killer. It didn’t, and both co-existed amiably. What doomsayers forgot to realize that blog has a different purpose than social media. If I could draw a leaf from our life to understand what these people were saying then I will say if blogging is like the magazine you read then social media is akin to meeting you have with your friends, or may be a conference you attend.

How can a conference or friends’ gathering replace the need of magazines?

It cannot. Both are different. Rather the readership of magazine will increase because of word of mouth phenomena cutting loose during social gathering. And that is what has happened to blogging. Now more and more people are blogging on variety of different topics.

Social media has fueled the growth of blogging. Now more and more people are using their blogs to express themselves. Social media along with its status messages has brought writer out of every person. Earlier you couldn’t imaging people saying things that you see them writing on their Facebook walls.

Social media may be huge in its own right, but when it comes to blogging, even a force like Facebook is subservient to blogging.  Facebook is used by the bloggers to promote them, and it doesn’t work in the opposite direction. Facebook, twitter, MySpace, and the rest have turned into mere tool for bloggers to promote themselves.

What do you think about this? Has social media become the force or will become the force that will take the place of blogging? Use the comment box below and write in.

Category: blogging | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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