Blog Marketing

This is a guest post by Mitt Ray.

A white paper is a cross between a magazine article and a corporate brochure. They posses both the educative qualities of a magazine article and the persuasive qualities of a brochure, this educative and persuasive quality of a white paper makes it one of the most powerful marketing tools. As it first educates the reader, builds trust and then and only then does it market the service or the product to the reader.

White papers were first used only by companies that sold expensive and technical products, but nowadays they’re being effectively used by small business and bloggers, not only to generate leads directly, but to also generate emails for newsletters.

How Bloggers Can Use White Papers

Bloggers can use white papers for various purposes including the following.

1. To build a mailing list. When you start a blog you need to work on building a mailing list. Through your mailing list, you can stay in touch with your readers, build relationships with them and eventually generate leads. Your newsletters can also help increase the number of repeat visits to your blog, as on average a blog only receives 20% of repeat visits.

Usually it can be hard to get people to sign up to your mailing list, but with a white paper, this will become a lot easier. If you share good content, day after day on your blog, people will want to read your white paper, as they will want to know what new information they can receive after reading the white paper. When you ask them for their email addresses, they will feel that they will receive something better than the other content that is present on the blog and they will readily give you their email addresses.

A company doing really well with white papers and newsletters is Hubspot. If you visit their Marketing Resources page you will find scores of white papers and guides you can download for free just by leaving a few details about yourself. They use these emails to send you information their latest guides, white papers, webinars and offers.

Continue How Bloggers Can Create and Use White Papers

This is a guest post by Marcus Sheridan, recently named one of the Top 10 Social Media Bloggers of 2012 by Social Media Examiner.

We all want our blogs to grow. I do, you do, we all do. But as many are now finding, it’s getting more and more difficult to experience growth quickly, especially in industries that are more saturated with many great bloggers and tons of excellent content.

Notwithstanding, every year bloggers come from nowhere and explode onto the scene, finding a way to build a large audience quickly and become a leading voice of authority and trust within their field.

So how does it happen? How can a newbie blogger increase their ascension to the top of their chosen industry? This article will demonstrate qualities of successful bloggers and how they have found a way to stand out from their peers in a very short period of time.

1. Be Relentless in Getting Stuff Done

I put this one first because often times when we read about ‘shortcuts to success’, we forget the most important principle of all- hard work. And when I look at bloggers that have shown a propensity to push with an unrelenting enthusiasm to get things done, one name really stands out to me — Danny Iny.

For those of you unfamiliar with Danny, he started his blog Firepole Marketing at the beginning of 2011 and managed to not only build a name for himself, but also produce one of the Year’s best works (IMO) with his excellent book, Engagement From Scratch, a must read for any blogger.

What was so impressive about Danny was the sheer amount of ‘stuff’ he did during the year to get going. Not only did he produce 2-3 great articles each week on his own blog, but he also managed to land more guest posts in one year than anyone I’ve ever seen… by a landslide.

Moreover, Danny also commenced a marketing training program, published his book, and found the time to get married in the process. Seriously, I thought I was pretty motivated until I saw everything Danny was able to accomplish in 2011, but he certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities if we put in the time and truly ‘will’ success into our lives.

Continue 5 Essential Qualities of Growing Your Blog Quickly in a Crowded Niche