One thing I’ve noticed from internet marketers is that there seems to be a great divide on the concept of what gets the best “bang for your buck" with internet marketing.  There are the “marketing traditionalists”, as I like to call them, who focus their efforts solely on search engine optimization and online paid advertising, and then there are the “new age” marketers, who believe that digital and social media is the marketing wave of the future.  My biggest issue is with the divide itself.  Why focus your efforts on one aspect of marketing when you can take the two practices and marry them?  Moving forward, you can call me the Minister of Marketing, because I am about to pronounce Paid Search and Social Media as husband and wife.

Ad Age just published a new white paper called Shiny New Things, which looks at early adopters of tech products. Overall, I found this white paper only moderately enlightening, although it did reveal a few interesting nuggets worth sharing. So here they are.

I just read Advertising Age's new white paper, The New Female Consumer: The Rise of the Real Mom. While this report reinforces a lot of longstanding wisdom about a woman's role within the family, there are some insightful new findings about how she views her role, and how marketers can communicate on her wavelength.

I recently read the new whitepaper published by security software developer McAfee entitled Digital Window Shopping: The Long Journey to “Buy.”  In this document McAfee makes a number of points and backs them up with in-house and third party research.  I’ll focus on just two of those points-- digital window shopping and trustmarks-- and offer some insights of my own.

Step 3:  Promoting Your Site via Social Media and Online Communities    

Now that you have your blog up and running and have established a few weeks worth of good, solid content, you can start promoting your blog and driving traffic.  This is where you can finally use your blog as a vehicle to promote your business.  

Most blogs have prominent spaces in the sidebar or side column for advertising. Use these spaces to advertise your own web business (rather than using 3rd party advertisers) by displaying graphics that link to your online store, text links in various strategic places (here’s a great article on how to successfully incorporate text links into your blog).  As you drive more and more traffic to your blog, you will increase the chances that people will link on these links and graphics and ultimately make purchases at your online business. 

The Pomegranate Phone website boasts beautifully high production value and a terribly weak concept. Flashy video effects don't make good advertising-- big ideas do. And this campaign didn't have one.

Step 2:  Branding Your Blog:  Developing Content Strategy & A Name for Your Blog

This next section is a follow-up to Part 1, the introduction to why you should start a blog and which platform is right for you.  If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Content Strategy

A big part of deciding on the brand of your blog or even naming it is deciding on the content.  Content is king for a blog to be successful.  Pick something you are passionate about.  Is it Cooking?  Interior design?  Technology?  Animals?  The sky is the limit – but the most important thing to remember is that you should choose a topic you are passionate and knowledgeable about then narrow it down to a few important objectives that you can focus on.

Most people who regularly use the internet have heard of, read or follow at least one blog on the regular.  Many people have contemplated starting a blog but many probably feel like it is out of their realm of skill or knowledge. The truth is, blogs are simple to start, easy to maintain and can be a powerful tool for recognition and brand promotion, both for business and personal use.

Imagine you’re Maloney & Porcelli, a fancy steakhouse in midtown Manhattan that relies on the wining and dining of hotshot business people.  Now imagine those hotshots stopped showing up because their cash-strapped employers no longer reimburse them for wining and dining.  Well, that not-so-imaginary scenario is probably what spawned Maloney & Porcelli’s Expense-A-Steak.