The Small-Business Owner’s Guide to Blogs and E-Letters
Issue #2265
- WEALTHY: Opportunity in the face of recession (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: A proven - and easy - way to reduce your calorie intake (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Dave Barry on the Internet
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The difference between two Web-based information communication systems (Ilise Benun)
- 6 ways to find out if both sides of your business are in synch (David Cross)
- It’s Good to Know… about your vital statistics
- Add "liaise" to your vocabulary
Confidential Report: Disillusioned Trader Opens "Money-Floodgates" to YOU…
Rob Banks Legally… With an Inside Job!
Are You Ready for a "Smash and Grab" on the World’s "Hidden" Money-Mountain?
Great! The getaway car’s leaving…
The Time to Buy Is When There’s Blood in the Streets
The streets are looking pretty bloody. And in the investment world, that means it’s time for you to buy.
Since hitting a new high on October 11, the S&P 500 has dropped as much as 19.4 percent. Just since Christmas, the index has dropped as much as 15.3 percent.
Practically everywhere you look, there’s talk of the U.S. entering a recession. Almost every financial institution is taking write-offs on their assets. Both of these factors are contributing to the sell-off in the market.
But with all this selling comes opportunity. The sentiment toward the market has gone from primarily bullish to bearish. That’s a good sign that things are getting ready to turn around.
You don’t want to go diving in head first. Instead, wade back into the market to protect yourself. Put back 25 to 35 percent of your money, and wait to see if the market moves higher. Even though the market is oversold and the sentiment indicators are showing excessive pessimism, it can still go lower.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft, a two-time winner of the "Top Trader" award at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, is a contributor to ETR’s free e-zine, Investor’s Daily Edge . Learn how to protect your portfolio and multiply your money - in any market - by clicking here.]
"The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting."
Dave Barry
The Small-Business Owner’s Guide to Blogs and E-Letters
By Ilise Benun
Both blogs and e-letters (a.k.a. e-zines or e-mail newsletters) are ideal marketing tools for small-business owners. They give you two inexpensive ways to communicate with your customers, give them useful advice, and reveal your latest products and services.
But though they have the same purpose, they are very different.
First, let’s define our terms.
A blog is a website that you can create yourself using Web-based software. Blogs tend to have a personal flavor and speak in the distinct voice of the blogger. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. Unlike a traditional, static website, the content or information posted on a blog is up-to-the-minute, frequently updated (although it doesn’t have to be), and displayed in reverse chronological order, the most recent posting first. Also, readers can contribute their comments, turning the blog into an online conversation.
An e-letter is basically an electronic newsletter that you send out regularly via e-mail to a list of people who have given you permission to do so. The content of an e-letter is more evergreen. It can be anything from news about you and your business to tips that demonstrate your expertise. When you use an e-mail marketing service or software, it’s also very easy to design and send.
The main difference between the two is this: You "push" an e-letter to your list so you control the contact, while a blog is a "pull." Readers have to go there on their own, so you have a lot less (or no) control over the contact. The quality of the readers is different too. E-letter readers went out of their way to sign up, so you can consider them A leads for your marketing messages. They’ve essentially raised their hands and asked you to keep in touch. Blog readers, on the other hand, are information hounds, so they may not be as responsive.
Let’s compare.
- A blog is easier to set up - but not by much. It literally takes 10 minutes to create, and you don’t need any technical expertise. However, you have less freedom with the layout due to the limitations of most blog publishing software (especially the most popular and free ones, like blogger.com and typepad.com). With an e-letter, on the other hand, it takes a bit more time to create the prototype and template, whether in text or html. But once that’s done, you just type the text for each issue into that template and send it out.
- It takes more time to write an e-letter. Most small-business owners take time to write and edit their e-letters, as they should. Because you’re pushing your e-letter to people, asking them to read what you’ve written, it has to be well-thought-out, concise, and to the point. On the other hand, since a blog tends to be made up of snippets of ideas posted frequently (sometimes several times a day), bloggers don’t labor over their text.
Plus, a blog is less formal, because it’s like a conversation. That means "you can speak in your everyday voice, which is (hopefully) friendly and approachable." So says Colleen Wainwright, a.k.a. The Communicatrix, a graphic designer who blogs. "On a blog, the expectations are much lower for both grammar and formality. Also, you can combine personal and professional elements in your blog; how much of each depends on what you’re comfortable with and what your prospective clientele will be comfortable reading. You can write about anything (and many people do), but if you’re using it to promote your business, it will be most effective if you focus and use the blog to establish your credibility within that narrow niche."
My e-letter goes out weekly, and between the writing, editing, and layout, I spend approximately one hour on each issue. My blogging takes a half-hour on a Sunday morning. That’s when I draft and schedule my three posts for the week. Each one is usually no longer than a paragraph or two with a couple of links. At least one post is simply a link to an article I like, plus a little intro from me about why I think it’s relevant. If your e-letter goes out more frequently - like Early to Rise - the time you spend on it expands by leaps and bounds.
- It takes more time to maintain a blog. For most people, creating fresh content several times a week, or even weekly, requires a certain mindset. It isn’t even that it takes so much time to create the material. (Blog posts are mostly very short pieces accompanied by a link.) What takes time is getting into the groove of blogging - and that involves much more than posting to your own blog. It includes visiting other people’s blogs, reading their posts, and commenting on them. It’s not difficult. It just takes time and practice to get into that mode. E-letters, on the other hand, don’t carry the same expectation of freshness, so there is a lot less pressure to produce. You send it out when you like - daily, twice-weekly, monthly, or even occasionally.
- A blog attracts more Web traffic. Even if no one ever reads your blog, posting to it regularly can be a tremendous boon to your search engine rankings because search engines love fresh content. Any website with new content will come up earlier in search engine rankings than a site that hasn’t been changed in months (or years). Meanwhile, the traffic an e-letter drives to your website consists of those who already know you, not new prospects and leads.
- An e-letter makes more sales. Some people make money by displaying ads on their blogs - but if you want to sell products or services, an e-letter is more effective. Why? Because with an e-letter you "push" (send) your offer to your prospects, then watch while they click and, hopefully, buy. Because a blog is a "pull," there’s no way to measure or track sales. On a blog, you show how much you know. You shouldn’t expect to "get work" from your blog, but it will be good for driving traffic to your website. And once you get people to your website, they can sign up for your e-letter… which will allow you to sell to them directly.
- Both inspire trust in the visitor. Inspiring trust depends more on the tone you take than the format. If you’ve spent time composing your e-letter, it will show, and that certainly inspires trust. A blog, with its rapid-fire and often impassioned comments, can convey a sense of impulsiveness, which rarely inspires trust. Trust is important on the Internet (a very anonymous medium), because unless people trust you, they’re not going to buy from you.
If you don’t already have a website to promote your business, a blog is a good first step in that direction. It provides a way for people to find you online without your spending a lot of money or time working with a Web designer or learning Web design software. In fact, some people use a blog as their one and only Web presence.
If you already have a website and are ready to branch out with an e-letter or a blog, which one should you start with? That depends on your goal. If your goal is to generate revenue from a known group of prospects, an e-letter is the right choice. If you are less focused on revenue-generation and are looking instead to position yourself as an expert and make it easier for new prospects to find you online, a blog is better.
If both goals make sense in your business plan, by all means do both. Blogs and e-letters work beautifully hand-in-hand.
Here’s how we do that at Marketing Mentor: I want to be able to reach out to my qualified prospects on a regular basis, to keep reminding them who I am and what I have to offer. I don’t want to wait for them to come back to my website or have time to read my blog. I want to be in their inboxes, rather than on their browsers.
So we have a static website (marketing-mentor.com) with content that doesn’t change very often, an e-mail newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor, that we send out to a list of 8,000 qualified prospects every other week, plus a blog (marketingmixblog.com) where we post ideas and tidbits at least three times a week. We use the newsletter to drive traffic to the blog and the website, while the blog also gets our search engine rankings up. People who find the blog are encouraged to sign up for the e-mail newsletter, so we can stay in touch with them and nurture those relationships. We also use the e-mail newsletter to sell e-books, mp3s, and other electronic products. That would never work on the blog.
People need to be motivated to buy from you, and the best way to motivate them is by landing in their inboxes. If the copy is compelling and the timing is right, a sale is just a click away.
[Ed. Note: Marketing expert Ilise Benun is the author of The Art of Self Promotion. Get more marketing strategies with Ilise’s free e-newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor. For more ideas about how to achieve your marketing, business, health, and social goals, check out ETR’s Total Success Achievement Program.]
Learn how to "Hotwire" the Internet for fast and furious profits…
These days, it seems like everyone’s getting bogged down with all the technical jargon and being intimidated by the internet… and rightly so, because doing things the way all the ‘experts’ say is a real headache!
This system assumes you have absolutely no previous knowledge about making money from the internet nor any previous knowledge about computers.
Discover that much needed extra bit of breathing space and peace of mind an extra grand or two here and there can give you today. Read about it here.
Praise for Ready, Fire, Aim : "You’ll find breakthrough ideas in this book."
"I literally have hundreds of books in my library on business - but I always make room for somebody like Michael Masterson who has actually ‘done it’ and not just talked about it.
"Whether you are a bright-eyed beginner looking to get your first business up or you’re a 7-figure earner or even a serial entrepreneur - you’ll find breakthrough ideas in here."
- Yanik Silver
SurefireMarketing.com
[Ed. Note: What can you do with Ready, Fire, Aim besides read it?]
A Marriage of Online and Offline Technology
By David Cross
I recently attended a friend’s wedding in Lincoln City, OR, a place not famous for its hotels. On the recommendation of a friend, I found a spa and golf resort a few miles away, and went to their website to book.
The website gave me a security warning when I tried to reserve a room, so I tried to contact them to inform them of the error. After completing and submitting their online contact form, I got a technical error message. It was unclear whether my submission even went through.
I called the hotel to book my room. The reservations manager honored the special Web pricing, and thanked me for informing him of the errors I’d encountered. Twenty-four hours later, both errors prevailed.
Any number of reasons could explain why these problems persisted. (Perhaps the hotel’s webmaster was on vacation.) But this incident reminded me of many similar instances where staff who work in an "offline" department don’t tend to liaise well with "online" staff.
The best business owners see the offline and online aspects of their companies as two channels, each serving the business as a whole. They make sure that both channels contribute to each other, and that there is excellent coordination between them.
Here are six questions to ask yourself to see if both sides of your business are in synch:
- Do our customer support people tend to see our website or e-mail newsletter as something "out there"?
- Do our website and technical staff members know what it’s like to speak to a customer who has never visited our website or read our e-mail newsletter?
- Do our online and offline staff members communicate well?
- Have we removed communication barriers, so that it’s simple for information and ideas to flow between our teams?
- Do our customer service teams receive complaints from customers who are unable to use our website?
- What can we do today to improve this for our business?
[Ed Note: David Cross is Senior Internet Consultant to Agora Inc. in Baltimore. And is a contributor to ETR’s Internet Money Club, where we’ll help build you an online business within the next 12 months. The club’s memberships were 100% filled up last month - but we’ve just opened up a small handful of slots for a very limited time. To check on availability, click here.]
A Cause for Concern
Our environment is making us fat. We drive more, exercise less, eat bigger portions, and consume more liquid calories than ever before. It’s that last point that many experts believe is an underappreciated reason for weight gain.
Researchers from the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina examined dietary records of U.S. adults from as far back as 1965 to as recently as 2002. What they found is a cause for concern.
In 1965, only 11.8 percent of the average adult’s calories came from beverages. However, that number significantly increased to 21 percent by 2002, largely because of an increase in the consumption of sweetened beverages.
Another problem the researchers noted is the huge increase in available beverage options. We now have energy drinks, sports drinks, sweetened teas, juices supplemented with vitamins and antioxidants, and more sodas than ever before.
A proven way to reduce your calorie intake and risk of weight gain is to eliminate sweetened drinks from your diet. So stick with unsweetened iced tea, water, green tea, and a small amount of coffee each day to quench your thirst. Avoid all sweetened beverages. Unless you are exercising for more than 90 minutes, forget about the Gatorade and stick to plain water.
[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. For a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR’s free natural health e-letter.]
It’s Good to Know: Your Vital Statistics
If any of your vital records (e.g., birth certificate, marriage license, a relative’s death certificate) got lost in a past move, were burned up in a house fire, or were simply mislaid, don’t despair. You can probably get a copy for less than $10.
Each state has a different system, but the National Center for Health Statistics clearinghouse has links to the records departments of all 50 states. You can even find information for events that took place onboard a ship or in a foreign country. Check out cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/w2welcom.htm.
(Source: National Center for Health Statistics)
You CAN learn to become wealthy!
Success is not encoded in an individual’s DNA and does not transfer from father to son or mother to daughter. It is a process - and learning the process is a major KEY to setting up for success.
Today I’d like to offer you two complimentary reports to help you get started: “How To Get What You Need To Succeed In Life" and "Simple Guidelines for Creating Abundance In Your Life."
There will be many steps you take towards your goals where it will feel like you’re taking two steps forward and one step back. You will have breakthroughs, triumphs, and opportunities to overcome adversity.
But to keep moving forward, you just might need a friendly kick-in-the-pants every once in a while. Here’s how to stay energized towards action and success every day of the year.
- Charlie Byrne
Word to the Wise: Liaise
To "liaise" (lee-AZE) is to communicate or make contact with, especially with the intention of reconciling differences. From the French word "liaison." Ultimately from the Latin for "bind."
Example (as used by David Cross today): " This incident reminded me of many similar instances where staff who work in an ‘offline’ department don’t tend to liaise well with ‘online’ staff."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008