Today we’re going to talk about how you can implement blogging for an online marketing strategy to help you create your home-based business. So, why don’t we take a look at exactly what a blog is.

According to Wikipedia, a blog (a contraction of the words web log) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first).

The above classification is all there is to a blog. There’s not a great difference involving a website and a blog, but blogs convey more functions than conventional websites.

There’s two types of blogging:

1. Blogging for enjoyment: This is actually known as a personal blog in which individuals posts personalized online journals, personalized research or personalized viewpoints on various topics. Most personalized blogs are generally a cost-free blogging site, for instance, Blogger and WordPress.

2. Blogging for business: This is usually a blog designed with a purpose to generate money. Many people do this by discussing beneficial and pertinent information and facts to a specific niche market. Compared with personalized blogs, business blogs are generally self hosted that has a unique domain name or even a business name. This kind of blog is our key focus today.

Blogging for business is a great way for just about any home-based business proprietor to share their area of knowledge and be connected with prospective team members and customers.

A properly designed professional blog enables entrepreneurs to build much more website traffic. The majority of people visiting your business blog are targeted and for that reason, they’re self pre-qualified as possible business partners.

From a business standpoint, let me tell you that blogging is a really low expense solution to making your online presence. If you don’t have time and money to understand web HTML and CSS and everything that accompanies a professional created blog, you can pay out only a few hundred dollars to really get your name and information out there without breaking the bank.

Well, at least that’s what I was able to. Although, there are several individuals who give tips on how to blog online, I learned the hard way and I resulted in searching for a web creator who could design a properly optimized blog for me.

Upon having your business blog up, updating it with information and facts, pictures and videos is quite simple and you don’t have to hire somebody to do this for you. It can be done yourself. When your purpose is to get connected to as many potential customers as you possibly can, acquiring a business blog will be your greatest strategy.

Your blog site will even enable you to build relationships, not only potential team members and customers, but your existing customers and team members. You can bring in 10,20, 50 or even 100 good quality prospects each day while blogging for business.

If you don’t use a business blog or perhaps you have one that’s inactive, then I suggest you obtain one from a web designer who could build a well optimized blog for you.

They primarily work together with individuals in Direct Sales Marketing and they don’t just create your blog but they offer you the coaching on how to handle it as soon as they have it all set to go. The bottom line is, is to get a website that’s properly optimized and one that will catch the attention of interested prospects.

What is Variable Data Printing?

Variable Data Printing is a modern technique of leveraging printing technology, combined with database information to personalize a direct mailing campaign which results in quicker response times, increase in average order size, increased response rate and increased orders.

How Does Variable Data Printing Work?

Variable Data Printing, or VDP is an integration of your data with your printer to create very customized marketing pieces for each prospect based on demographic, psychographic or past purchase behaviour and past marketing behaviour.

For example, let’s say you’re sending a post card to your list. The list contains both older people 60+ and many people under 30 years of age. The images and the way that you position you’re offer may be completely different. Let’s say you’re selling condos. For the 30 and under crowd, you may want to show young people using the exercise equipment and having fun in the party room. You would want to show images of young professional people enjoying where they live. You may want to highlight such selling features as “cool” and “trendy”, “close to bars and restaurants”. For the 60+ crowd who may be at a different stage of life, looking to downsize, you may want to highlight “relaxing”, “quiet”, “low maintenance”, and “no more yard work”. All these things are possible with variable data printing. You simply design different post cards with different images and through the use of modern printing technology, simply print the specific postcard for the specific age group. Similarly, you could design different offers for different income brackets, lifestyles, hobbies, interests, those who’ve requested info from your website, past customers, investors vs. first time home buyers, etc. The options really are limitless to customize your direct mail campaign with VDP.

Design Process of a Variable Data Printing Campaign

Better Tracking Capabilities with VDP

Mobile devices and QR Codes are adding a whole new dimension to VDP. Using a variable data printer, it’s possible to create multiple QR codes that can send responders to specific pages. In this way you can track response rate by your targeted segment. For example in the condo marketing example, you could send the under 30 crowd to a specific webpage targeted to them when they scan the QR Code with their mobile device. The 60+ crowd could be sent to an entirely different page that is more targeted to their interests. Not only can you increase your conversions, but you can track by segment, how effective your campaign is.

What is the Hidden Job Market?
It has become a “buzz word” but the concept is simple. It is estimated that 80% of jobs are filled by companies who never advertise the position and are filled by referral, or the “who do you know” method of recruitment. So while keeping an eye on job posting sites and LinkedIn is important, the percentages are in your favor if you utilize the hidden job market.

The best way to find the hidden job market is by:

Identifying types of companies you are interested in
Build a list of potential employers/companies
Find specific contacts within the target employer
Reach out to them directly
Identify the companies and organizations that you are interested in, and don’t rush this step. It only takes a few minutes to learn more about most businesses and get a feel for their culture. Don’t waste your time contacting a company that will not be a good fit for you.

There may be companies you are familiar with and many more that you have never heard of or considered. Many positions are located in smaller businesses, so be sure to extend your search past the Fortune 500 or you will miss out on some great opportunities (often with less competition).

Find specific potential employers by tapping into your network of personal and professional contacts, ask around and you will receive a wealth of information on not only where people are working, but where they are happily employed.

Search job sites for postings that meet your criteria. What types of companies are hiring for those positions? Start building a list. Utilize online tools such as LinkedIn, Hoovers or Glassdoor to find employers in a specific geographic location and industry. You can also check out the Chamber of Commerce, and Business Journal lists for more ideas.

Then, find the names of specific contacts within your companies of interest. Don’t just look up a hiring manager, find the department heads for your job title, people currently in the position, etc. With the reach of the internet today, finding a direct phone number or work email address is only a few Google searches away.

The final step is to reach out to each contact in a personal, engaging and professional manner. Without an “in” at the employer of choice, job seekers can still gain an advantage by contacting the company directly, even if there are no open positions posted.When it comes to finding out about jobs that are unadvertised, it often boils down to “knocking on doors, and tapping into the hidden job market is still by far one of the most effective ways to run a job search.

Strategic Resume Specialists create powerful resume, CV and cover letter documents as well as optimized LinkedIn profiles, individually crafted by a former Executive Recruiter – we will get you noticed!

YouTube Marketing has become an essential part of any successful network or online marketing strategy. YouTube, according to Alexa analytics data is the number three most visited website in the world, ranking after Facebook and Google.

We all know that YouTube is also owned by Google, the most important search engine in the world.

Alexa reports that each visitor spends an average of 24.02 minutes per day searching or just browsing YouTube. Many network marketers have experienced significant breakthrough in their business using video marketing on YouTube or on any other video sharing site.

Why YouTube?

Videos ranks higher on Google search than even the most SEO optimized and back-linked blog post or article. Even the SEO guru himself – Rob Fore and many of the industry’s top leaders use videos on YouTube to communicate with their lists and subscribers.

Network Marketing success depends largely on building relationships, when potential prospects see your face and hear you on a YouTube video, that builds instant rapport and a bond with your audience. They feel they know you and it takes your believable factor to a whole new level, higher than just words on a blog or post. People need to see and relate to a real person.

Any lead found via YouTube marketing is also a more superior and qualified lead, and automated rapport builds with daily visitors to your channel which can actually happen on auto-pilot for years, after posting the video.

On this powerful and under-utilized channel of YouTube video marketing, a video post takes less time to actually produce or create than an article. An average well crafted article or post, takes about two hours or more, while high-ranking videos takes an average of three to five minutes, especially if it’s for generating leads or traffic to another portal like your blog or other websites.

A Mindset Shift is Needed to Breakthrough in YouTube Marketing.

Mark Harbert and the Bluesman’s “Traffic Mojo series” on MLSP is a great resource. These masters of YouTube and Video marketing revealed that their breakthrough in MLM and network marketing came from adding a targeted and consistent YouTube marketing strategy to their blogging platform.

We need to break free from the barriers and fear of video marketing. That fear of criticism, ridicule and mean comments, our physical appearances, lack of confidence and the thinking that our videos have to be perfectly scripted and well produced. Be genuine, real and relatable. People distrust guru-like personalities. Be yourself and do it afraid.

Keys to Success in Implementing a YouTube Video Marketing Strategy:

Use Keyword Research to find what people are looking for and to optimize your video in the title, description,script, and actual video title for the chosen keyword.
Always direct your prospects to your capture page and put the link in the first part of the description.
Use Social back-linking like TribePro to increase back-links to your video URL and increase ranking on both YouTube and Google.
Time stamp your video with your keyword in the description and YouTube actually adds extra back-links. (More details in Traffic Mojo Series in MLSP)
In creating the video, be yourself, be excited, speak with confidence and do it afraid, till you get comfortable!
Build commonality, mention your location, smile and greet your audience.
Your video must have a purpose, so introduce it, provide content and give the call to action. You have to direct them to the purpose of your YouTube marketing video.
The Best Kinds of YouTube Marketing Videos:

Sometimes we get stuck thinking, “what should I make a video on?” You can make a video on anything, but for business purposes, some great topics are:

Marketing Strategies, Marketing Mind-sets and Aha Moments
Company, Books, Product and Leader reviews
Value-based training or Personal developments videos.
Trainings or webinars provide hot, fresh and relevant content or ideas.
If you are new to this, keep it simple – listen to a webinar or wake-up call and make a one minute video about what you learnt on that call or training, upload it, post it to your Facebook wall, ask a couple to marketer friends to check out. Do this three to five times in a row to breakthrough and become comfortable on video.