Blogging for Business

Still, I close my eyes and try to get through...

On the Web 2.0 I am quite a "Social Animal" in many Friendship Communities from the old times when I used to chat, as well as in all kinds of internet marketing communities. Each one has Blogs, mostly as center of the profile page, (what I miss on Facebook).

I always thought, a Blog was a great instrument to communicate.... Am I wrong?

I thought, I could keep in touch with friends through reading and writing a kind of online diary, even when it only contains short messages. -- No, even when I told them it's on my blogs, or they should follow me on Twitter (which indeed could be used private too). I really cannot be online to chat all the time. (And I do miss them too and want their news.)

I read so much about blogs being popular, about commenting and by this increasing one's own blogs popularity. - And this does not mean merely spreading one's link, as comments are mostly set to 'nofollow' for search engines.

Are blogs at least a traffic tool? Yes, occasionally community blogs appear in the list of referrers to my site, but very seldom, more often the link " My Homepage" is clicked, oftener than the link "My Blog", btw., when there are both.

Marketing in social networks faces a very curious paradox:

People want news, specially about shopping and such. That is why Networks are full of ads, and I somehow suppose, they are even clicked more than on other websites. There are lots of groups or sections related to "Shopping". People love buying stuff online.

But not from someone they suspect to be an Internet Marketer.

People want to find help online, in groups, forums, etc. -- they want it for free, and they would even read a helpful blog -- as long as there is nothing for sale recommended in it.
Guess, if would like to advertise my goodies, I would have to lie and claim not be the sales-person, but someone else who has heard about the product.

This is so annoying at times: Yes, they do want my help, they do want my instructions, which means, they want me to work for them without any reward ! This is mainly in the niches I'm in (or what is the opposite of niche?) Online Marketing (which for most means "money making" -- different subject, but why should I care when they fall for scammers instead of reading my blog?) Healthy Living and Diets.

Ok, some of such Community Friends are just lonesome and look for company. Many heartbroken young men are for real and still want the advice and care of a woman who cannot be their girlfriend. Those give back respect, if not more that feeds the ego of a woman. (Too bad I have nothing to market in that niche, but I cannot help caring and giving my time.)

Only, can anyone tell me, why I should take a special interest in somebodies belly fat?
There is my Real-Life Friend, yes, but she is my friend and cares about me too. Which of my problems would an Internet Friend wish to help solving?

An Internet Marketer is a free-advice machine for her Community Friends, nothing else.

About the same happens in Marketing Communities. I just joined a new one:
Marketing Mastermind
they promise lots of materials and advice for everyone to profit from it. I do hope, just for once, apart from Facebook, there will be real Networking.

What does "real" Networking mean?
(this will be an new post soon to come, so just in short:)
Discussion, Communication in forums, about tactics etc., no useless plain advertising one's business. Reading each others blogs for articles that are too long for forum posts getting to know each other and everyones expertices, so that one even might find business partners.

Still I try blogging in communities, when can find time for it. At least it brings a bit of traffic; and reposting, specially when blogs are inside frames, does not harm anyone... .
After all, I still hope to find time for my poetry and short stories one day. Such groups are quite responsive.

Blogging for Business, in combination with Social Marketing is not much more than a nice Illusion -- if not Social Marketing as such is.

But all in all, a blog is better than a static Website for business. Information Marketing, Content production, is still effective -- just not in Social Networks.

Email Marketing was the first thing to be said dead - it is not really, because there is no alternative. But misuse and overuse have taken just too much of its efficiency.

The Death of Adsense was proclaimed lately - and yes, the big times when content alone drew money by clickthrough rates are over, no matter how many marketers are angry about this proclamation (maybe also jealous about its impact.)

And what killed it? Again misuse and overuse - (see footnotes)

Encouraged by this report (as he admits himself in his newsletter to his new subscribers) last week Mike Filsaime made the most severe announcement of the Death of Internet Marketing alltogether. - And he is right, as everyone could have seen since at least the last four months.... (see footnotes as well)

Now, before its real break through Blogging as a business tool is already in danger!

There is software offered, which will allow you to "blast out 1000 Blogs at one click" or so...

How many will use it? What would such an explosion mean for the blogosphere? This idea is really frightful.

Not only Blog Marketing will be affected, private bloggers, political bloggers and whoever does not do it for advertising will be covered by all those marketing blogs which would then exist, blogs nobody ever would read anymore of course either - thousands of blogs with the same things in it would be pretty uninteresting alltogether. Who would like to browse them for something new?

And who would want to browse blogs just for the fun of it, if every second one, or even more suddenly would be a marketing blog? Also, bloggers have now the chance to run adsense or other programms alongsite, or to post texts and reviews for special sponsors when they fit into their blogs - all these possibilities will be gone.

How can anyone want such a thing? - Don't the developers of such software see from the above mentioned examples, that such overuse and/or misuse of the originally best marketing tools lead to their death?

1.) Adsense

So called black hat adsense sites which had no real content, only high rated keywords in hidden tags and senseless writings around them, only built to cheat the search engines and the searchers, make them virtually flee from such sites by a quick click misused this feature.

Overuse - well, there are just too many sites around, adding to information overload. No matter how good some content may be, some sites will never be seen, only few can make it to the first page of a search engine.

Just a few years ago one site in thousands still had a chance - now it is one in millions.

2.) Internet Marketing

(here I actually wanted to cite an unfinished rant in my blog and a forum post with my comment among others before I had time to read the report, but the most important parts of my connection are mysteriously down at the moment)

It is obvious, that one sector is completely down: Information Material for marketers of any kind cannot be sold anymore. It cannot even be given away free effectively anymore - everyone owns everything already.

This struck me, when I looked into Richard Legg's membership site beginning of August - packed with great stuff, designed to Succed In 30 Days. The free course was (is) very good and logical, though a bit too optimistic; just because the stagnation had already begun.

Everyone should read the 50 page analysis by Mike to see what is wrong with Internet Marketing, why the strongest and most visible branch is dead and be curious about the ideas and changes he will come up with to safe our businesses.

At the moment I am like running against a wall with everything I try - wether I just learned it from someone who knows from (former) experience and seriously wants to help "newbies", or wether I think it up myself.

Now I know well only what does NOT work although it should according to logic, and how it comes that such an anourmous mass of scams is coming up all the time and finds so many followers....

I always thought I must have been Cassandra in a former life....
Last year I received a comment on a new Blog in a German Community. My post was:

Who Reads Blogs?

In short, the comment said that and why nobody reads blogs in communities.
I wrote about blogging as communication, for gettting to know the other better, receiving friends' news.

Here is this comment:
"You forgot something decisive: Open blog....read, Networking... read, chrrrrr, chrrr, close Blog and bye....
Unspoilt fresh meat for Networkers becomes rare.....
Additinally it goes on one's nerves, like the glitterpictures."

People do not only dislike to be sold and advertised to, they have developed a paranoia against advertising and marketers, and the most fright is caused by network marketing. - Unfotunately this keeps them from reading blogs and learning news about things.

But nobody is interested in the 'friends' they add anyways. What happens in such communities? - Windows Live Spaces for instance - I have visitors all the time, many more than I could expect by my so much too neglected blog, but they never seem to visit my blog anways. They open the space, add me to friends, without any message ever, not even come back or call me in the messenger - probably not even read my 'about me' ... the same was on MySpace before the "Butterflies and "SpaceHogs" took over.

In Marketing Communities, the 'social life' is even worse. People have no idea, what networking is, or social marketing... look at Zenzuu where they don't paste glitters in profile-comments but blatend advertising. - And hardly anyone has a blog there, even though it is not possible to put up a readable profile.

But I'll keep on blogging - and hope for the best.

I just found, this here was the first lense I created, I think, - way back, lol, in October 2006. And only just now I realize, that I never updated it :-(

Now I must, otherwise I cannot submit it to the 'First Lens Showcase', belonging to Bob The Teacher's new Membership Site all about 'Squidoo Secrets', Web 2.O, and the traffic and exposure gained. - Actually what I had planned this lense about.

Except - yes, time flies - The keyword 'Web 2.O' was quite unknown when I started here. (Not that I'd know what it literally means.) But now it is The big subject - networking, relationships, communities,....

And blogging is sure the basic subject of web 2.O be it a marketing- or a friendship-community the blog is in the centre of interest (well, not always... but more about this in my soon to come lens on communities, in case I can still get an url, lol, and in the empty one I secured but did not open yet.)

Somehow, here in Squidoo it is almost easier to make a new lens for a new mini-subject than to change the layout of an existing lens and move the modules around - so I must make at least two more lenses on blogging:

Biz-Blogging is not restricted to presenting content (ah yes, Articles, Reports,- each can have their own lens - and before there are 100s on the same subject)

Blogging is also about communication. Every blogger is happy to receive comments in addition to her or his blog being read - in business or private. Through a blog, the blogger can be almost visualized by the reader.

(yes yes, people like to look up the profiles also, I know, I really will build mine soon. And here it is even more important, because it is for many lenses, which are again more focused on their specific contents than the blogs with wider range of subjects, including the author are.)

But then... coming back to the title, although this here is no article (should be underlined and link to one about the differences between blogposts and articles, which I will eventually finish and publish...)

To write and blog all I want to, I would need so much more time than I have... And how should I find things to market with it, if I did all this writing...

Well, perhaps I find a solution in all the materials Bob provides on his new site...