Wanted to throw some ideas your way on how to increase your blog traffic in a massive way. The beauty about blogs is that they are your personal controllable piece of internet real estate. By no means do I want this post to overwhelm you with all the different options available. But I do want you to take 1 or 2 tips that resonate with you and focus on them at first to increase your blog traffic. Using 1 or 2 tips initially for you to get initial results and master them and then you can always add other tips later on.
So here it is….
Tip #1: Forum Marketing
Visit other network marketing sites like BetterNetworker.com and actively participate in discussion threads. Start a post, answer a question or give an opinion so you can enter your signature file. This provides exposure to your site as well as targeted traffic.
Tip #2: Create a Facebook Group or Fanpage
Use this free social site to brand yourself and attract your target market. By providing valuable content to your loyal following or fan base, you can invite them over to your blog.
Tip #3: YouTube Marketing
Video Marketing has a 400% response rate than that of print. Very powerful strategy that allows your prospect to see you, hear you and relate with you at some level. Once done Read more…
How To Generate Massive Blog Traffic Using These 6 Tips
By: Posted on: July 6th, 2011
A Logo Is Not a Brand
By: Posted on: June 30th, 2011
Lots of organizations come to our company, Advertising for Humanity, asking for “a new brand.” They typically mean a new name, or icon, or a new look and feel for their existing name. Lots of people think that brand begins and ends there — that once we shine up the name they can stick it below their email signature, pop it on their website, and, voila, they have a new brand. Much of our work consists of disabusing people of this notion.
Brand is much more than a name or a logo. Brand is everything, and everything is brand.
Brand is your strategy. If you’re a consumer brand, brand is your products and the story that those products tell together. Ikea’s kitchen chairs’ tendency to fall apart after two years is part of the company’s brand. If you’re a humanitarian organization, brand is your aspirations and the progress you are making toward them. Share Our Strength’s audacious goal to end child hunger in America in five years is its brand. The work the organization is doing to get governor after governor on board is its brand. Its seriousness is its brand. Back in 1969 NASA didn’t have the best logo. But man did it have a brand. It has a nicer logo now — but the brand no longer stands for anything. If you don’t Read more…
3 Social Media Marketing Lessons from Comedians
By: Posted on: June 21st, 2011
Like marketers, comedians spend their days carefully crafting messages for maximum impact. They tell stories. They build analogies of great length to make a point. They gauge reactions from their audience and adjust if needed.
The line between the two professions is blurry indeed, and we shouldn’t be surprised that comics like Jimmy Carr and Tim Sidell (aka @badbanana) had prior careers in marketing and advertising. They likely learned a lot from us! But now it’s our turn. Here are three important principles to bolster your social media strategy, extracted from the tips of the stand up trade.
1. Engage Your Hecklers
Hecklers make stand-up comedy a full contact sport. In smaller clubs, where patrons set their drink on the edge of the stage, back and forth with audience members is almost always part of the act. And it doesn’t go away on bigger stages, either. I saw Jerry Seinfeld at Foxwoods a couple of weeks ago, in a massive ballroom, and he lambasted a heckler who was sitting at the back of the 2nd balcony, at least 70 yards from his mic stand. Detouring out of rehearsed material and into a conversation with a heckler is in a comic’s blood, and it should so too be part of how you use social media.
Marketing Takeaway:
You can schedule posts all you want, but a truly remarkable Read more…
Social Media Is Like a Loaded Gun — Aim Carefully
By: Posted on: June 13th, 2011
Social media is like a loaded gun: You can use it to protect yourself or, as Anthony Weiner, Brett Favre and so many others have aptly demonstrated, you can also shoot yourself in the, um, foot, while the world watches — and retweets it.
But that doesn’t mean that you should ban guns — or snub social media like Facebook and Twitter. Companies shouldn’t be afraid of social media just because a few people shot themselves in the foot.
In fact, you’re making a big mistake if you’re NOT using social media. Twitter says it has about 200 million registered users and Facebook claims 600 million active users — you can’t ignore perhaps nearly a billion potential customers.
“If you’re not going where everyone is going to sit and talk and chat, then you’re going to miss out on an opportunity to be part of the conversation,” said Jason Sadler, who runs social media company “I Wear Your Shirt.” And here’s the best part, it’s cheap! You can sign up for a Twitter or Facebook account for free. And it’s far cheaper to hire a social media expert — in house or through a company like “I Wear Your Shirt” — than it is to make a commercial or buy advertising. In fact, social media companies like “I Wear Your Shirt” saw their business soar Read more…
Is a Logo or Website more Importante for your Business ?
By: Posted on: October 8th, 2010
Whenever I have started an online personal project, after the initial research on the viability of my idea, I have always begun with the logo. We all know that a planned, well informed and structured approach to starting a business begins with a unique identity that sets you apart in this brand conscious society where chaos reigns on a regular basis. What happens if you launch a venture with a brilliantly functional website that is well received but has no purposeful identifying mark? How do things work if you’ve got yourself a logo that everyone is talking about but you don’t care very much about having a web presence? Today my question to you is,
After you have researched and outlined your business model, would a logo or would a website be the next logical step? Why do you think one is more important over the other? Have you ever had to make a choice to pick one over the other? How has it affected you and your business?
I am a logo designer to the core and I would probably brand our holiday activities, certain parts of our home, create logos for our kids and important events and occasions if I am not kept in check. So going by that alone, I would say that a “logo” is more important for Read more…
GAP NEW LOGO — What do you think ?
By: Posted on: October 6th, 2010
Just the other day, we spotted that Gap’s logo on theirwebsite had changed to this new version. There’s not much to say about our thoughts on it, other than we are all in agreement here at Brian Joseph Studios that the new Gap logo is a shocking direction to go with such an iconic brand.
The revenue issues Gap have been experiencing recently doesn’t have much to do with the branding. The problems all stem from the generic identity of the clothing, the lack of style and mundane fashion involved in their products. With this new brand identity, it appears that the corporate suits at Gap headquarters felt that the traditional Gap brand was partly to blame.
The gradient of the logo really cheapens the overall identity and it lacks any sort of strength or visual interest. It’s a struggle to really understand how this new logo came about, what its purpose is and why it fails on so many levels. I’m sure we’ll find out as the days go by……
Branding across borders – creating a successful international brand
By: Posted on: October 1st, 2010
I’ve recently returned from the 2010 HSBC Business Thinking ‘Thought Exchange’ trip to Istanbul, a chance for up-and-coming UK businesses to get together and talk Turkey (and business).
The week’s discussions reinforced two important points for me – firstly, that emerging markets like Turkey are absolute goldmines of ecommerce opportunity just waiting to be explored, and secondly, just how important it is for companies to think about how their branding will travel across cultures before they go multinational.
E-commerce is growing much faster in emerging markets than in its traditional heartlands of North America and Western Europe. Turkey, for instance, is the fifth largest internet consumer in Europe, behind only Germany, Russia, the UK and France, with some 35 million web users – that’s just under half the population – despite ADSL only being introduced in 2003.
The trend bears out in other emerging markets as well – Chinese is the second most widely used language online behind English (with almost 300 million more users than the third most popular language, Spanish). Meanwhile, in India internet use has doubled since 2007, from 42 million to 81 million users.
So it seems that, just as ‘tele-commuting’ may be the future of work, ‘tele-exporting’ will be the logical future of business, especially for start-ups without the ready resources to get established on-the-ground in foreign markets.
But what does Read more…
11 Ways to Make Your Customers Swoon
By: Posted on: September 29th, 2010
Lots of people say that in the world of social media it’s your job to engage with customers. You have to talk to them, be accessible and give them something about yourself to hold on to. I guess that’s true. However, I think businesses have to go even further than that. I think if you want customers to evangelize your brand and be loyal to you, you have to do more than just talk to them – you have to woo them. You have to make your customers swoon.
As a small business owner, how can you get customers to swoon? Here are 11 practical suggestions.
1. Monitor the social networks for people talking about your company. When they’re saying positive stuff, say thank you. When it’s negative, get more details and then say thank you. When they’re asking questions, answer them and say thank you. When you find people talking about your company, respond.
2. Show up places they wouldn’t expect. Your customers have certain places where they hang out on the Web, even outside of Twitter and Facebook. Find their local watering holes and be there when they need you. Don’t hijack their conversation or try to sell your services; just be part of their world and let them know you’re there.
3. Create a blog, write content designed to address customers’ Read more…
Six Tips for Turning Business Ideas Into Action
By: Posted on: September 24th, 2010
Successful startups are all about turning ideas into action. These actions must be the hard part, since entrepreneurs always seem to come to me with ideas, and ask me for help on the actions. That has always seemed strange to me, since the magic is supposed to be in the ideas, and the actions are the same for every business.
In fact, the actions required to start and run a business are well documented, the subject of many books, and taught in college courses across the land. As confirmed by a recent book on this subject by John Spence, Awesomely Simple, turning business ideas into action consists of six essential strategies:
Build a vivid vision. Having a clear, vivid, and compelling vision in your head is without question an essential component in building a successful company. But that’s not good enough. The vision has to be documented and communicated in a way that makes it vivid to every member of your team, your customers, and your investors.
Team with the best people. The best people are highly talented and motivated individuals who are also masters of collaboration. The future of your startup is directly tied to the quality of talent you can attract and keep. You must create a winning culture that people love.
Practice robust communication. Open, honest, frank, and courageous communication, both inside Read more…
Are You a Goal-Getter? — 7 steps to achieving your goals
By: Posted on: September 17th, 2010
I recently overheard someone reply, when asked about her holiday weekend, “It was successful. My New Year’s resolution is to overeat on every major holiday. I figure I’m going to do it anyway; why not make it a goal I can actually keep?” I had to laugh. It made me think about the goals we create in our lives and in our businesses.
Many fall into one of two major categories. The first category is goals we set that we have a 95 percent chance of accomplishing–mostly because we have done it before, so the likelihood is high that we’ll succeed. (Our overeater above almost didn’t pig out because she was feeling poorly. But she pulled herself together and gorged.) The other category is goals where there is a 95 percent degree of uncertainty that we’ll accomplish them, and we have never done it before, but we would like to. There are benefits to both kinds of goals.
You might think the first kind of goal is for slackers, but there is some value in setting goals that you’re confident you’ll achieve. Using that confidence as a springboard for trying new things can be a useful thing–kind of like doing the perfect swan dive as a warm-up for an Olympic-caliber diver. The problem is if you stop at those, you don’t get to Read more…
