The WordPress PAD » Web & Blog Business

Can Your Blog Be Worth Millions?

wppad — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:44:28 +0000

We’re ba-aaack! Refreshed and ready to inform and delight! So, this morning I was reading an article from Weblog Tools Collection about the 25 most valuable blogs and was stunned! These blogs are worth millions! I was just talking with a co-worker about blogging. She had been listening to a book on tape a few weeks back and she heard the term “blog” for the first time. Ever since then, she says she has seen the word “blog” everywhere. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that just after I was talking to my co-worker about that, that I read an article about this “blog” phenomenon that’s still so very new to so many people, but apparently can be worth millions…one day…if done right…and about tech stuff…or celebrity crap…or political yadda yadda.
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Trend Watching: The Rise of Valuable and FREE Stuff Online and Offline

wppad — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:40:56 +0000

This month’s briefing at Trend Watching, is all about “FREE LOVE”, companies giving away free valuable products and services to consumers online and offline as the latest trend in marketing. I thought this is a relevant article especially as regards to the C2C (consumer to consumer) marketplace and of which we bloggers benefit from every day. We get free plugins from each other, free tools, free links, free traffic, all of which are valuable in our blogging successes. I touched on the value of “Free” things on the Web in an earlier article suggesting that good content on the Internet specifically may be worth paying for, and still, free content is only as valuable as its use to you. It’s interesting how Trend Watching breaks down how FREE LOVE came to be:
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Post tags: business, consumer, internet marketing, Trendwatching

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Getting Your Website and Blog Noticed with Online PR Services

wplover — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:19:06 +0000

When I think about marketing my blog, I don’t think of PR. But, blogging is a unique business requiring unique and numerous channels of marketing. There are the usual word of mouth, article submission sites like ezinearticles.com, getting well known guest bloggers to write an article or two on your blog, and so forth. But, PR, really? Well, Poles Apart Design is ready to announce a new partnership with an email marketing company, Constant Contact, and we’re looking to get the news out there quick, fast and hard. But, we’re still a new and small company.

I checked out a couple of PR sites like PR Newswire and Business Wire. Then I checked out PR Web and was quite impressed with what they had to offer, but more so with how they presented it to me. Check out this smart, creative way PR Web used video to market their PR services:
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Post tags: constant contact, ezine articles, PR web

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Some Great Online Tools and Websites for Marketing Your Business

wplover — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:57:39 +0000

As a small business owner myself, I look for unique ways to market my business without traditional advertising. I took a look at a few great online tools/websites that you could consider assets to your small business or yourself. One is Zvents, the only search engine for events. The second is Constant Contact, a small business centered email marketing program. The others are three must visit/bookmark sites: Local Biz Bits, All Business and Small Business SEM (Search Engine Marketing).(...)
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Post tags: constant contact, internet marketing, local biz bits, web tools, Zvents

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Understanding Publicity, Part 3: HOW to Pray for Space and Time

wplover — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:52:46 +0000

Our guest blogger Murry Shohat is back with the final installment in the series, Understanding Publicity.

Websites are dynamic, living things. They breathe (or they should). A static website that rarely changes or fails to regularly add content is like a store with goods on display but no employees to transact business. One good way to add life to your website is through publicity. This part of my series tells you how to get publicity and what to do with it to keep your website breathing.(...)
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Understanding Publicity, Part 2: The Who, What, Why, When and How.

wplover — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:03:46 +0000

Our guest blogger Murry Shohat is back with Part 2 in the series, Understanding Publicity. Let’s get to it.

In Understanding Publicity, Part 1, I mentioned that with advertising, you pay for space and time. With publicity, you mostly PRAY for space and time. The reason is simple: there is a sort of “church/state” separation or wall that is firmly in place in western journalism. You can buy ads but you can’t buy a news story. You can pay for a TV or radio commercial but you can’t throw dollars at a reporter for coverage, not in any media that’ll help your business. Online, you can pay for incoming links to increase your page ranking in major search engines, but many experts, and even Google frowns upon this type on insincere and inorganic form of website publicity.

If you study the media, you’ll learn that good editorial content receives five to twenty times more attention than advertising content. On the web especially, content is king. We sometimes mute commercials, or skip them, right? We do the same for interruptive flash banner ads. We usually read a newspaper for news and features, barely noticing the ads. Thus, if you can get editorial attention, it’s worth the effort because the attention provides leverage. Sitting on top, like whipped cream, is the endorsement value of publicity.
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How to Hire a Website or Blog Designer and Be a Good Client

wplover — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:10:17 +0000

So you need a website or a blog and haven’t the faintest idea how to go about choosing the best one for you or your business? My best advice to you, speaking as a small business owner, a website and blog designer, and well, a human being is know what you want your website or blog to accomplish first and then start your search. Why? Well, it will cost you less in time and money. You won’t have to do as much research for one. And second, the designer or firm you hire will spend less billable hours talking with you and redoing whatever it is you want undone or adding whatever it was you forgot to mention for your website or blog to meet your needs.

Ultimately, when you’re looking to hire a designer, developer or firm to design your website or blog, know your needs and know your wants, then get a reality check. In writing school we were always told to “kill your babies”. Meaning, get rid of the part of our story or article that we love too much, so much that everything else suffers or so much that we get stuck. My advice to you individuals and businesses who are looking to get a website or blog created, make a list of your needs first, your wants second. Keep those things that overlap, keep the rest of the needs, put the rest of the “wants” in your pocket for a rainy day…or until your budget expands to support these wants.(...)
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Post tags: Blog Design, hire blog designer, hire website designer, website design

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Understanding Publicity and How to Get It: Part 1

wplover — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:40:41 +0000

Today’s guest post comes from a long-time San Francisco Bay Area freelance writer and journalist, Murry Shohat. For over 20 years, Murry has been writing and providing PR and marketing services for technology and media firms. I figured Murry could enlighten us on how to publicize our small businesses and make us all famous and wealthy…maybe.

Small business owners tell me that marketing is one of the most difficult things to figure out. Energy flows in new and even mature small businesses emanate from the competency of the owner. Whether you are a chef, retailer, mechanic, accountant, e-bay lister, dentist, inventor, software developer, entertainer or what-have-you, marketing is not high on your list of new things to master. In fact, marketing often gets after-thought attention. And that’s a shame because winning new customers (and keeping current ones) is the chief focus of marketing. Done properly, proactive marketing becomes the lifeblood of the business, oxygenating every aspect.(...)
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The New Generation of Online Learning – (Free) Visual Tutorials

wplover — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:04:02 +0000

When I took online courses at Sessions.edu, my friends and family looked at me cross eyed like they couldn’t understand how that could work. They also couldn’t understand how I could pay money for classes at a school with no actual physical location. Well, Sessions does have a corporate office, just no classrooms or faculty lounges. Fortunately I learned a long time ago to ignore the neigh sayers and do what I need to do to get where I need to go. I also learned that times have changed, and our methods of learning should change too. Plus, it’s not like I had a clone of myself lying around to take courses for me in the afternoons while I worked. Though online schools and courses are offered on every corner of the Internet, it still raises eyebrows and contorts faces. And even though, I can readily admit that being in a class room is preferable, I really benefited from taking courses online through Sessions and later, Academy of Art in San Francisco. You’re forced to pay attention, and heaven forbid, read! You’re forced to take initiative. And, you set your own pace, for the most part.(...)
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Post tags: free tutorials, web tutorials

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