When it comes to blogging, there are few things as controversial as advertisements. While there is potential benefit in deriving revenue from "click-throughs" (when a reader clicks an ad on your blog, you get paid a small amount of money), advertisements can be intrusive and damage the credibility of the blogger. Of the blogs I've written for (including corporate and personal), some have leveraged ads where others have eschewed it. It really depends on what purpose your blog serves for your small business and the audience you are trying to reach.
It also depends on the type of advertising you host on your blog. Google's AdSense is one form of advertising that is incredibly easy to insert on your blog - especially if it's hosted on the Blogger platform (as this blog is). AdSense provides contextual advertising (e.g., relevant to your site's content) through text-based Google AdWords ads. If you do any sort of Google search, you'll see an example of the contextual ads off to the right of your search results.
You can control where the ads are placed, but that's about it. You can't determine the content or which ads are posted, nor can you control how much you will get paid for each click-through. Unless your business relies on peripheral industries to satisfy your customer base, it's probably not the best choice for a small business blog, and would be more likely to turn off your readers!
Another option is direct advertising - leveraging existing relationships - or developing them - with sponsors to deliver content to your readers. In this instance, you have total control over what is advertised and where it's located on your blog. It also requires a bit more technical knowledge to have them placed properly on your site. If the ads are relevant to your business, all the better, as it provides a service to your customers.
A great primer on blog advertising can be found at The 7 Levels of Revenue for your Blog. Here, they rank the different methods of blog advertising and the potential return you may derive. Remember, this is only a guide, and it's up to you to determine the best path forward for you and your customers.
One of the fastest growing online properties is the "deal of the day" website known as Groupon. Within 2 years of operation, Groupon already has 40 million subscribers, and they generate close to $500 million in revenue. CEO Andrew Mason has said that Groupon is the "savior of small business", and based on some of their results, it's easy to see why. Recently, Groupon launched their first national deal in partnership with The Gap, and sold over 441,000 "groupons" (the name given to their coupons), generating more $11 million! Pretty impressive!
Although national deals may become more prominent on Groupon, their mainstay remains local "bricks and mortar" businesses. Groupon offers discounts to group buyers of a particular item. The level of discount and the length of the redemption period are set by the seller of the item, and revenue is generated when each groupon is sold. However, given that Groupon typically splits the revenue generated with their small business partners, some question whether there's value in leveraging it as a sales incentive. Care must be taken if you sell products that have low margins, as you could end up losing money on every deal you sell. Similarly, if you don't have the ability to handle a large influx of customers, a Groupon deal could be problematic if it generates a response higher than originally forecasted.
But if you view Groupon as a vehicle to drive an awareness campaign for your small business - it's pure genius. When compared to the cost and efficacy of a yellow pages or local newspaper ad, Groupon looks like a bargain. There's no out of pocket or up front cost - you get paid for each groupon sold. Additionally, not every groupon sold will be redeemed by the buyer - traditional coupon redemption rates usually top out around 30%, so it's a safe bet groupons will follow a similar trend. If you keep the redemption period short enough, you may well end up making money on the deal, all while raising awareness for your business in ways traditional advertising could never do.
If you saw my post about how I set up this blog in 58.8 seconds, then you are probably thinking of starting your own blog. Fantastic! Blogs are perfect for establishing you or your business as thought leaders, and even though there are a ton of them out there, I fully encourage it.
Once you start your blog, you'll want to get some followers - "build it and they will come" does not apply here. You are fighting for mind share against millions of others in the blogosphere. One well known way to attract potential followers is to claim your blog on Technorati. Technorati is a search engine for blogs, and they have indexed over 110 million blogs!
Claiming your blog involves putting the blog's URL in their database, and then posting your claim token in a blog post (e.g., XW53TBZ6CQH9). You then verify that claim token, and your blog will be included in their search tool.
Will it be seen? Hard to say. I believe the quality and frequency of your content will be as much a driver as anything else, but if you disagree, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Facebook recently announced that small businesses now have access to analytics which allow them to see per-post impressions and feedback for posted stories. Previously, this capability was restrcited to pages with over 10,000 fans or more.
Clearly, Facebook wants a larger piece of the SMB pie, an area that as of now has been the domain of Google. Chalk this up as another "shot across the bow" in the looming battle between these giants. The best thing is - you benefit as a result, and improving the insight into your business is critical if your goal is to thrive in a highly competitive, fragmented market segment.
There seems to be some debate as to whether Facebook is a viable platform for marketing your company -especially if you are a business-to-business company (B2B). While most "experts" agree there is value, most companies - big and small - have not been able to harness the power and potential Facebook could bring.
Each and every person on Facebook could be a buyer, decision maker, or advocate for your brand. How you engage them over Facebook is another subject - albeit an important subject - for a later post, but with over 500 million users, Facebook ranks as one of the largest communities in the world. As Facebook is so proud to point out, if they were a country, they would rank as the world's 3rd largest! As a small business owner, that's really, really, really, REALLY hard to ignore.
Want some perspective? Facebook created something they call a "social graph" where they plotted the number of friendships between cities around the world. They basically took a blank sheet of paper and plotted the points accordingly (ok, I am simplifying somewhat, but you get the idea).
Look at what they ended up with - a pretty accurate representation of the continents around the world. Now imagine getting your business in front of that crowd.
A karate sensei I know often says "it's not practice that makes perfect, it's perfect practice that makes perfect!" The point is, if you don't practice what you do properly, then you won't end up doing whatever it is you do properly. That's certainly applicable to martial arts, but when it comes to something like writing a blog, I'd suggest otherwise.
If you want to be effective at writing blog posts, you do need to practice. However, a blog is really intended to be your voice - your opinion is what matters and will drive people to read your posts. Too often, I read blogs that are monotonous and boring. They are written as if read from a script, much the same way when a speaker reads from a teleprompter. It just doesn't sound genuine.
So I submit that when it comes to writing a blog - practice can make perfect...just don't be too perfect and you'll find many more people will listen to what you have to say.
I just changed the standard template for my blog to this new look - I love the old fashioned look with parchment. The template is called "Aspire" and I downloaded it from Blogger Templates Blog.
I would call this a somewhat "advanced" technique for beginners, or anyone using the Blogger platform. It took a little time to get the template to look "right", and I am still working out some kinks. However, if you are feeling intrepid, take a look at some of the templates that are out there and give it a shot!
The creation of this blog was borne out of a challenge I issued - to myself! The challenge was - how quickly could I set up a blog by myself?
You might ask why I would issue such a strange challenge - I'll tell you why. But first, a little information about me: I've spent over 20 years in Marketing and Product Management, mostly in the technology industry. The particular market segment I've focused on is the small and medium-sized business market (SMB), and it's a segment I am very passionate about. The SMB segment has unique challenges that no other businesses face, and I have always tried my best to understand those challenges, and offer ways to address them. It's fair to say that small businesses are the economic engine that drives the world's economy. Don't believe me? I bet you didn't know that 98% of all businesses worldwide are classified as having less than 20 employees!