Converting Traffic Into Business – Part II
Posted by Patrick on May 28th, 2006
The difference in my perspective in contrast to Patrick’s is that most of the value to me in blogging is to allow people to “meet” me and allow us to create conversations through the blog. Much like having an open studio, a blog allows me the opportunity to discuss my ideas about art, about blogs, about conversations in cyberspace, The blogs let me feel out the audience, share my personality, show some of my work and in general share what’s going on in my life with people who are interested in doing a little evesdropping. – Susan Reynolds
Essentially, my view on the monetizing issue is that a blog can serve a perfectly useful and even productive function in a business by helping raise awareness of the business, helping to build trust and providing other benefits, none of which need to be directly attributable to this or that sale of goods or services on or directly from the blog. – Des WalshFor myself, increased traffic to my website (tripled) has resulted in a doubling of revenues last year alone, and it’s going to be even better this year.
But I blog for the pleasure of writing, and it also serves to clarify my ideas, thoughts and purpose. I also learn through writing. That is just how I consolidate things I’ve read.
Why do you blog? I mean, besides all the money? Sure, increased traffic is good, so are the relationships and new opportunities, and reaching a global audience. For me, it’s not “show me the money,” it’s “show me the fun!” – BlogSquad
Indeed, you are all absolutely 100% correct. After reading through the comments and re-reading my post I realize that I came off like a used car salesman. Just to clarify, I do not believe that the main reason businesses should be blogging is to hard sell products/services. On the contrary, blogging, IMHO, is about initiating and nurturing relationships that will help to generate business. However, not offering the occasional call to action on your blog is like handing out your business card at a networking event and not telling the person to please call if he/she ever needs your services.
Dennis D. McDonald says it best here:
I’ve found that I am more successful when I incorporate a call to action in the targeted communications I direct to target clients via phone and email. I use embedded referrals (links) to my blog as a supplement to my resume and to illustrate capabilities relevant to solving specific problems I think ae relevant to that client.
In that respect, I view my blog as an integral part of my sales process, but I do not use it by itself specifically in a “call to action” sense.
But what actions do I promote via the blog? That’s a fair question and one that I use my blog visit records and Google Analytics to help answer.
When I do a targeted emailing or call campaign I can measure a variety of things:
- I can often tell when a targeted person has visited my blog after an email since I can track specific IP addresses.
- I can tell how often my resume, my about me page, my white papers, and my RSS feed page are visited by using Google Analytics ?Äúconversion goals?Äù tracking process.
These responses to my “calls to action” are much less concrete than, say,”click here to add item to shopping cart.” But they do give me some sense of how well my blog is doing in terms of the overall cycle of communications relative to my networking and business development activities.
No related posts.
on May 28th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Yes, you made it ‘selling’, and I made it more ‘selling’ to my audience, and it all turned into a number of visits which, if caring enough, converted into a deeper quest for questions, and not answers. No harm done; quite on the contrary. Thanks for stopping by.
on May 28th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Patrick
Great to see such an interesting conversation develop. Congratulations on kicking it off and moving it along in such an open way. I for one have learnt from it. Thank you.
Des