Blogging: Who Are You?

Who are you? is probably the most important and yet overlooked aspect of blogging activity.

When you visit a blog, you want to know who the person is behind the words that are written before you accept the information you receive as factual.

Who are you? What are you blogging about? What are your qualifications? Why are you blogging?

All these questions should be answered by you if you expect your visitors to trust anything you have to say, especially if your blog is an "educational" type.

Who are you?, is extremely important if you run a "How To" blog on almost anything.

People want to know abut your qualifications and that you are credible before they take anything you say "to the bank"; so why not provide the information up front?

If you have a website or blog, why not take some time to check your "Contact" or "About Page" to insure that the information you provide your visitors instills faith that you know what you are talking about.

If you don't already have a "Contact" or "About Page" on your website or blog; it's probably a good time to set one up.

Having this single page can help people decide whether or not what you have to say is worth of reading and writing about or linking to.

You don't need to provide your complete resume, but you need to provide something that gives your readers a clue as to who you are.

If you use wordpress.com; the WordPress Theme you have chosen probably already features an "About Page".

Check your sidebar or in the header, for a link to "About". If it's not there, you can easily add it by clicking Manage > Pages and adding an About Page of your own.

You don't have to include your life history in your "About" page, but you should tell people something about you, even if you use a fictitious name, in order for them to trust what you say.

If you have a business site; you must provide certain bits of information in order to do business.

You must provide an address, your URL, and a valid email address. Otherwise, it's not necessary to give out this information.

What you choose to share with your visitors is entirely up to you, but it's a good idea to provide enough information so that your visitors know; Who are you? What you're writing about? Why you're writing about it? and Why they should listen to you.

If your visitors now can't answer the question, Who are you? You need to get to work!

Strategic Online Profit Strategies Based On Alliances Work!

There are several economic strategic online profit strategies based on alliances, that during these economic times, will improve the bottom line of your business.

Strategic online profit strategies based on alliances with reputable companies who are not in direct competition with you, but have a similar product line or service to yours, will reduce your advertising costs and increase your customer base.

The important thing to remember is that you need to allay yourself with companies that offer superior products or services to their customers.

If you can attract a strategic alliance with a company that has a large customer base, you can increase your profits tremendously in a very short period of time.

Strategic online profit strategies based on alliances is not a new concept and it is definitely an under utilized strategy with the majority of small to medium sized companies.

Here are some examples of strategic online profit strategies based on alliances that work well particularly with companies that have a large customer database.

• Endorsing and adding additional non competitive products to your customer database

• Reactivating archived customers that received service subscriptions

• Getting new customers by using opt in subscriber forms.

• Using targeted email campaigns to create a "sales funnel" of new customers.

• Sharing the results of profit pulling sales copy on non competitive products with your alliance with direct mail advertising copy

• Sharing cross selling direct mail advertising costs by promoting non competitive products to each customer base

Many larger companies don't focus enough on making their customers feel important or on maintaining a long term customer relationship.

Many of the larger companies don't even have a basic squeeze page or place on their websites for visitors to obtain additional information about their company.

This is unfortunate because most clients like to be rewarded and continually looked after with additional product or service follow ups after their initial purchase, even if the product was produced by another company.

Often companies inexperienced in business marketing strategies who have never set up a strategic alliance, try to implement these strategies themselves only to wind up with limited success.

Unless you know how to set up your business marketing strategy correctly and are experienced, it can easily backfire causing a tremendous amount of damage to customer loyalty and longevity.

Strategic online profit strategies based on alliances can be highly lucrative and productive when both parties collaborate on their business marketing strategies.

Often just a simple form on each website asking the visitor if they want to receive additional information, a free business report, a free sample or trial, or a free ebook or catalog will immediately improve the customer base and bottom line of the strategic alliance.

There are multiple ways to increase business profits without having to do much more than send your existing customers a targeted email or a direct mail letter.

Like partnerships and joint ventures, strategic online profit strategies based on alliances will work to your benefit, regardless of the size of your company as long as both parties share their input.

Core Strategic Online Profit Strategies That Increase Your Impact

Adopting these core strategic online profit strategies can significantly increase your business presence on the Internet with very little cash outlay.

With today's technology revolutionizing the way businesses strategize; you can now reach thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people with just a small dedicated sales team that adheres to some core strategic online profit strategies.

Below are a few core strategic online profit strategies that have been proven effective over the years and are successfully used by thousands of businesses.

• It's imperative that you make your website dynamic and interactive.
  
  You only have a few valuable seconds to make a positive impression and communicate your intent to your visitors. Visitors have come to expect to see the content management systems that most companies are now using, in lieu of traditional static websites.
  
  You need to offer fresh, compelling content to encourage website visitors to return regularly. If possible, try to get your visitors involved with your business in some meaningful way.
  
  Remember that your website is your public face and you may never get another chance to make a positive first impression with your potential customers.

• Managing and consolidating your contacts is one of the often overlooked core strategic online profit strategies that is critical to any business.
  
  It is critical that your business has a system that enables you to manage all your business relationships.
  
  This includes your customers, donors, individual contributors, volunteers, colleagues, business or JV partners, media, elected officials, etc. Many online businesses use some sort of CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) system that enables them to manage all of their business relationships through a single versatile database.
  
  This allows businesses to easily target and personalize email campaigns, newsletters, special offers or promotions, or even fundraising drives if your business is a non-profit organization. Consolidating your contacts also makes it easy to aggregate and track your results.

• Use aggressive email marketing.
  
  Email marketing is one of the most cost effective core strategic online profit strategies available to reach your target audience and your existing customers.
  
  Email marketing gives you a substantial return for every dollar invested. It is timely, highly targeted, cheap, and builds trust and fidelity with your customers.
  
  To ensure that your emails reach a broad base and are well targeted; you need to already have an accurate widely populated CRM system; or acquire your own targeted list using squeeze pages, product giveaways, etc.
  

• Promote online networks and partnerships.
  
  Remember that the more traffic and links you have to your website; the higher your page rank and listing in the relevant search engine results.
  
  Each and every back link and visit to your website counts toward your prominence in the search engine rankings. It is critical to get your website listed on the first page of a relevant search in order to increase your business credibility and visibility.
  
  You can list your business or organization in all relevant directories and if applicable, professional associations, and get a back link to your website whenever possible.
  
  Avoid "link exchanges", but do exchange links with partners and colleagues, especially those that already have a high PageRank. If you are a non profit organization; ask your donors to link to your site.
  
  You can also use social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to increase your web presence and use the network of bloggers to your benefit.

• Always monitor the results of your efforts.
  
  Google Analytics is an excellent way to keep tabs on what exactly is driving traffic to your website. It can also spot why traffic is not being driven to your site so you can correct the situation.
  
  It takes time to discover which campaigns work and what doesn't. Monitoring the results of your communications will spotlight which topics peak your audience's interest and which strategies generate the greatest response rate from your customers. What works best for one company is often unique to that company and may not work for your business.
  
  Test and continually refine your strategies until you come up with a winning formula.

These core strategic online profit strategies can significantly increase your business presence on the Internet and improve your bottom line.