Jun 10
11

Can social media be profitable? Part 1: Blogs

24 Comments

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Are you a blogger?

If you’ve read my other posts you’ll realize I don’t like marketing unless it makes a profit – or at least a profit that I can track.

So where, you ask, do I stand on social media? Is it- or CAN it- be profitable? What I’ve decided to do is list the major social media strategies one by one and divulge my humble opinion about their effectiveness and profitability

First up, blogging. Here it goes…

WHY I’M A FAN

Well obviously I’m a fan of blogging – you’re here right? And this is my blog! In fact, I’m developing a second blog and it’s in the works even as I type. (I’ll be covering marketing strategies in more detail and more often.) I like blogs for a few reasons…

Reason #1
First, blogs are one of the best (if not THE best) tools for search engine optimization.

  • Search engines love the fresh and unique content blogs provide. If posts and comments being updated on a regular basis, you’ll likely be rewarded in the search results.

  • The organizational structure of blogs is optimized for search engines. For example, on the home page of my small business marketing ideas blog, notice how the most recent post is at the top of the page. Well, Google and Yahoo! tend to give more credence to content at the top of a web page compared to content at the bottom.

  • Now take a look at the title of this post – “Can social media be profitable? Part 1: Blogs”. Next, take a look at the actual URL in your browser – “http://www.doxmarketing.com/archives/can-social-med…e-part-1-blogs_2010-06-11″. This is called a permalink, or a page that remains unchanged indefinitely which helps to avoid broken links in the future (bad for SEO).

  • Keywords are also considered when it comes to blogs. Did you notice that the title of this post and the URL are similar? They also include a few keywords: social media, profitable, blogs. Search engines just love this and I did this on purpose!

  • And, we can’t forget the backlinks (a must for off-site SEO). In fact, I’ll bet this is likely the major reason you’ll leave a comment! Am I right?

Reason #2
Assuming you provide worthwhile content, publishing a blog gives visitors a reason to come back! More traffic means more eyeballs. And as we all should know, eyeballs means more sales and profits.

WHY I’M NOT A FAN

I’m having trouble trying to find a reason not to like blogging.

If I had to stretch and come up with one, it would have to be that managing a blog is time consuming. When business is busy like it is for us right now, it’s often hard to find the time to write a post and reply to your comments.

Yes, technically you could outsource this work with the use of a ghostwriter, but I’m just not that type of blogger. I prefer to write my own stuff from my own thoughts.

YOUR HOMEWORK

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this post. With the topic of this post being about blogs, I’m especially wondering what you think.

So if you would kindly answer me this…
QUESTION: Why do you blog and what strategy works best for you?

Thanks for your contribution. I look forward to what you have to say!

~Brodie

P.S. If you liked this blog post, please pass it on:

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Posted by Small Business Marketing Ideas 24 Comments

24 Responses to "Can social media be profitable? Part 1: Blogs"

  • Chris Pontine says:
    June 13, 2010 at 5:18 pm
    Reply

    In response to your question:

    Blogging for me provides a nice outlet for the knowledge I hold that I would enjoy sharing in a way that others can benefit from. A lot of times, when you blog, many people around you may not understand what it is all about so it’s tough to always share it to them because it doesn’t really hold their interest.

  • Pay Day Loans says:
    June 14, 2010 at 9:50 am
    Reply

    Yea, Facebook is really good if you know how to use it. I mean one can use this site in so many ways, for example creating fun pages, address book, friends contacts and networking, promoting product and brand building. I fact I have seen many people earn a good amount of money through it.

    John

  • R "buy and sell" Cox says:
    June 14, 2010 at 1:55 pm
    Reply

    Blogs are like having a conversation with the world. No follow blogs are like talking without listening. Thanks for sharing your mind and for listening.

    Randy

  • Dry Cleaning Delivery says:
    June 16, 2010 at 6:13 am
    Reply

    Brodie,

    You are 100% right, the biggest problem with social media in general is to do it right.. you almost HAVE to do it yourself. At least in the beginning.

    As a busy entrepreneur it is hard to do everything yourself and in turn I find it hard to put time and effort into social media because as you mentioned I can not directly trace those efforts back to a profit. I look forward to the part two of your article.

    Shaun

  • eSilverBullet Affiliate CRM says:
    June 17, 2010 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    I started blogging for my company long before we had our product on the market (we’re a startup) or a company website because I knew that once we were ready to start promoting ourselves, we’d need a history of some good content to help with that. It was also a way for us to show we have some expertise in our market (all bloggers are experts, right? LOL) and helped focus our attention as we went through the market research stage. And now I also have some original content that I can use to retool as articles, white papers, etc.

    Adam

  • Paul Friar from Yearn2earncash.com website says:
    June 20, 2010 at 12:51 pm
    Reply

    I am a fan of blogs and use them all the time, but I find social media marketing a complete mystery. I look forward to hearing more from you about this area of marketing.
    I know that they can drive traffic to your website, by getting it bookmarked with services like onlywire which can blast it out to all the social bookmarking sites, but that is the limit of my, and I suspect many other peoples, knowledge on this subject.
    As for using Facebook to drive traffic to your sales pages, I know by my own experience that many poeple on Facebook are just blasting me with messages about their products, which only puts me off buying from them all together.

  • Terry | Canadian Pharmacy Online says:
    June 21, 2010 at 2:46 am
    Reply

    Many people enjoy reading blogs and the search engine loves blogs because of the constant updates. It is important to provide quality information that will encourage people to come back.

  • Tracey from Sec Sports Fan says:
    June 21, 2010 at 2:53 am
    Reply

    I really enjoy blogging to share my thoughts to the world. There has to be other people who are going through the same problems and looking for a solution.

  • Anonymous says:
    June 24, 2010 at 12:21 pm
    Reply

    Social media is taking the world by storm. It is a gift to entrepreneurs.

  • Michigan Search Engine Optimization says:
    June 25, 2010 at 9:17 pm
    Reply

    I have to agree with you.
    Blogging is probably the most SEO friendly platform. And, with permalinks it allows you to promote your keyword in the title.

    And, the best part is anyone can do it. No expertise required.

    Good share.
    Leo

    :)

  • Anonymous says:
    June 25, 2010 at 7:22 pm
    Reply

    Yes social media is very helpful to increase traffic on any type of site, these are the only free sources from where we can grab as much traffic and visitor as we want to…

  • George Anderson says:
    June 28, 2010 at 3:37 pm
    Reply

    I personally blog for the sake of writing about subjects that interest me. And if I can get folks discussing my articles and what not, all the better.

  • James from Pinball Machines says:
    June 30, 2010 at 9:16 pm
    Reply

    If anyone out there is doubting social media for SEO they need to read this article. People think that they can just expect everything from social media without doing it with knowledge and correctly are wrong. You need to know what your doing in order to achieve the goals that you have set for yourself or your company.

  • Small Business Websites says:
    July 1, 2010 at 9:51 am
    Reply

    I have used social media to make money for quite a few years now. Blogs have been my least favorite because they mean I have to write content (my least favorite thing to do!) but they not only make money themselves provide valuable link juice for my other money sites that are the same niche.

    Cheers,
    Sam.

  • John Moss says:
    July 1, 2010 at 2:46 pm
    Reply

    Hi Brodie,
    I agree with you that marketing is ‘good’ only if it’s profitable. I see too many tactics that are chased just because they are new or the hot thing instead of because they support larger marketing goals.
    Good article!

    Regards,
    John Moss

  • Internet Marketing Massachusetts says:
    July 5, 2010 at 6:05 am
    Reply

    I think marketing is always profitable for our business if we do use it in a proper way and always try to get our targets.

    Kristina

  • Knowledge Process Outsourcing says:
    July 6, 2010 at 8:30 pm
    Reply

    Nice write-up! You bring up an interesting point. A blog IS social media but it seems necessary to keep “blogs” distinctive from “social media sites”. The reason I say that is because both are effective for networking and marketing purposes. The challenge really is in where and how to utilize them.

    Charles

  • Anonymous says:
    August 14, 2010 at 6:37 am
    Reply

    So it’s profitable, but not for us :)

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