First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took part in a very interesting discussion about short films and advertising. I shall make an entry about this discussion shortly, so keep your eyes open for an interesting discussion on advertisements in the form of short films.
A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to develop a few ways to build traffic for this blog. At first, I was a bit shocked to advertise outside of the class, but I know that blogs have often given me vital information for my concepts, so if I can help others with my posts then all the better. Here are the three different forms of advertising for this blog site that were considered:
One form of creating buzz is through viral marketing. Viral marketing is basically any online strategy created by the marketer that encourages users to spread the message being promoted to others (West Virginia University, P.I. Reed School of Journalism, 2008). One example of viral marketing that can be used to market a blog or any product is to create an interesting and/or entertaining viral video that captures the audience’s attention and promotes the blog. For example, when the company that produces Mentos decided to take advantage of the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment by creating a viral video contest, the company gained over $10 million in free advertising (Fueling the Mentos and Diet Coke explosion, 2006). By creating and/or hosting interesting viral videos and promoting them through sites such as YouTube and other social networks, the blogger can raise blog views and create an audience.
Another way to promote blog traffic is by posting the blog site on blog directories and search engines. Blog directories such as blogarama.com and blogcatalog.com lists your blog on their directories so individuals can search through the directory to find blog and/or information the user wants to read (Blogcatalog, 2008). Another blog network to use is Blogburst, “which syndicates content across American newspaper’s websites,” though this type of networking can have a downside since the blogger loses certain rights to their work. A blog carnival can is also a form of promoting not only the individual’s blog, but the blog carnival that the blogger posts on will also promote other blogs within the network (Hung, 2007).
A third option to promote a blog is to spend money on buying a site and advertising. One example is to buy a domain name and host a blog on this site rather than a hosted site that does not allow the user to use a specific domain name (Odden, 2006). Another form of advertising is through Google AdSense, where an individual or business advertises through Google which places ads on other websites and the individual and/or business earns money. These ads are only placed on other pages in which the content relates to the individual and/or business site (What is Google AdSense, 2008).
The first option I have decided to try for marketing this blog is the more realistic approach of using search engines and directories. The first site I used was Yahoo! Search Engine. I submitted my site under the free search engine listings and it actually said that it may take weeks before it is listed. Which has been a disappointment, but as a marketer there are other options available.
The second option I used was the ever popular Google. I used the free service and while I am now contemplating adding the Google AdSense to my arsenal of marketing tools, I wanted to give free advertising a try. I also used the Google Webmaster Tools to add crawl stats and subscriber stats. These stats can come in handy for when I want to check to see page activity. My site is still listed among the "low" ranking since last week, but I do hope to build these ranks even more by posting on a more organized schedule.
Due to the low traffic, I decided recently to add my blog to the blog directories in hopes of boosting traffic. The first site I tried was the Blog Hub since it was considered to be one of the top twenty blog directories (Baker, 2007). Another site I recently loaded my blog link to was Bloggernity. I am thinking about possibly incorporating other methods such as viral video, short-film advertising, and possibly partnering with another blog in order to team up for cross-promotional advertising (my favorite kind of advertising).
If anyone has any tips/suggestions please let me know. Should I join Google AdSense? Or will the addition of these types of advertisements cause the blog to lose the credibility it has?
----------------------
Baker, L. (2007, November 20). 20 essential blog directories to submit your blog to. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-essential-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/5998/
Blogcatalog. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.blogcatalog.com/
Fueling the Mentos and Diet Coke explosion. OmniNerd. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.omninerd.com/news/Fueling_the_Mentos_and_Diet_Coke_Explosion
Hung, T. (2007, January 11). How to market your blog in 2007. ProBlogger. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/01/11/how-to-market-your-blog-in-2007/
Odden, L. (2006, June 15). 25 tips for marketing your blog. Top Rank Online Marketing. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/06/25-tips-for-marketing-your-blog/
West Virginia University, P.I. Reed School of Journalism. (2008, August 18). Lesson 3: Creating buzz: Viral marketing, crowdsourcing & blogs. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webct/urw/lc5116001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
What is Google AdSense? Google. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=9712&topic=8421&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-asui&medium=link
A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to develop a few ways to build traffic for this blog. At first, I was a bit shocked to advertise outside of the class, but I know that blogs have often given me vital information for my concepts, so if I can help others with my posts then all the better. Here are the three different forms of advertising for this blog site that were considered:
One form of creating buzz is through viral marketing. Viral marketing is basically any online strategy created by the marketer that encourages users to spread the message being promoted to others (West Virginia University, P.I. Reed School of Journalism, 2008). One example of viral marketing that can be used to market a blog or any product is to create an interesting and/or entertaining viral video that captures the audience’s attention and promotes the blog. For example, when the company that produces Mentos decided to take advantage of the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment by creating a viral video contest, the company gained over $10 million in free advertising (Fueling the Mentos and Diet Coke explosion, 2006). By creating and/or hosting interesting viral videos and promoting them through sites such as YouTube and other social networks, the blogger can raise blog views and create an audience.
Another way to promote blog traffic is by posting the blog site on blog directories and search engines. Blog directories such as blogarama.com and blogcatalog.com lists your blog on their directories so individuals can search through the directory to find blog and/or information the user wants to read (Blogcatalog, 2008). Another blog network to use is Blogburst, “which syndicates content across American newspaper’s websites,” though this type of networking can have a downside since the blogger loses certain rights to their work. A blog carnival can is also a form of promoting not only the individual’s blog, but the blog carnival that the blogger posts on will also promote other blogs within the network (Hung, 2007).
A third option to promote a blog is to spend money on buying a site and advertising. One example is to buy a domain name and host a blog on this site rather than a hosted site that does not allow the user to use a specific domain name (Odden, 2006). Another form of advertising is through Google AdSense, where an individual or business advertises through Google which places ads on other websites and the individual and/or business earns money. These ads are only placed on other pages in which the content relates to the individual and/or business site (What is Google AdSense, 2008).
The first option I have decided to try for marketing this blog is the more realistic approach of using search engines and directories. The first site I used was Yahoo! Search Engine. I submitted my site under the free search engine listings and it actually said that it may take weeks before it is listed. Which has been a disappointment, but as a marketer there are other options available.
The second option I used was the ever popular Google. I used the free service and while I am now contemplating adding the Google AdSense to my arsenal of marketing tools, I wanted to give free advertising a try. I also used the Google Webmaster Tools to add crawl stats and subscriber stats. These stats can come in handy for when I want to check to see page activity. My site is still listed among the "low" ranking since last week, but I do hope to build these ranks even more by posting on a more organized schedule.
Due to the low traffic, I decided recently to add my blog to the blog directories in hopes of boosting traffic. The first site I tried was the Blog Hub since it was considered to be one of the top twenty blog directories (Baker, 2007). Another site I recently loaded my blog link to was Bloggernity. I am thinking about possibly incorporating other methods such as viral video, short-film advertising, and possibly partnering with another blog in order to team up for cross-promotional advertising (my favorite kind of advertising).
If anyone has any tips/suggestions please let me know. Should I join Google AdSense? Or will the addition of these types of advertisements cause the blog to lose the credibility it has?
----------------------
Baker, L. (2007, November 20). 20 essential blog directories to submit your blog to. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-essential-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/5998/
Blogcatalog. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.blogcatalog.com/
Fueling the Mentos and Diet Coke explosion. OmniNerd. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.omninerd.com/news/Fueling_the_Mentos_and_Diet_Coke_Explosion
Hung, T. (2007, January 11). How to market your blog in 2007. ProBlogger. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/01/11/how-to-market-your-blog-in-2007/
Odden, L. (2006, June 15). 25 tips for marketing your blog. Top Rank Online Marketing. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/06/25-tips-for-marketing-your-blog/
West Virginia University, P.I. Reed School of Journalism. (2008, August 18). Lesson 3: Creating buzz: Viral marketing, crowdsourcing & blogs. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webct/urw/lc5116001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
What is Google AdSense? Google. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=9712&topic=8421&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-asui&medium=link
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