Does Your Business Blog Follow the Law of Reciprocity?

November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

You may read this and be thinking “What on earth is the Law of Reciprocity?” If you don’t know what it is, then you are now going to learn some powerful information that will make a big difference to how you connect with your readers, visitors and customers.

Reciprocity is very powerful for anyone starting an online business here’s what it means:

Reciprocity

“A reciprocal condition or relationship. A mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges, especially the exchange of rights or privileges of trade between nations.”

You may have heard of these phrases ‘You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ or ‘Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you’. If you are aware of these two phrases then you are on the right track to understanding what reciprocity is all about.

Basically, it means when someone offers us a favor or information without us having to do anything to receive it, we normally feel obliged to do a kind turn in return to that person. This is the Law of Reciprocity – but it goes a lot deeper than just exchanging a reciprocal favor.

When you are connecting with your customers or clients you should be providing MORE than they were expecting. To under promise and over deliver your services or products is the way to gain long-term loyal customers and build strong relationships for the future.

If you look again at the meaning of the Law of Reciprocity above you will notice the first part states ‘A reciprocal arrangement or relationship’ … this is exactly what you should be cultivating in your online business between you and your customers.

And now I invite you to join me for my free weekly teleclasses, where I help people start an online business by coming to grips with Web 2.0 online technology. Check out my tips and advice on http://www.StartAnInternetBusinessBlog.com

Irene Houston teaches solopreneurs how to come to grips with internet marketing using Web 2.0 online technology to build their online business. Join her *free* weekly teleclasses at http://www.StartAnInternetBusinessBlog.com

Tips to Earn Money through Blogs

November 2, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Automated blogging is clearly something which is only of interest in terms of making money or creating an online business. Anyone who blogs for the fun of it would wonder what on earth the point of automating it could be, as this would take all the fun out of it.

The blogosphere is indeed increasing its scope of coverage from being just a personal electronic journal to being an online marketing tool for most online marketers. With its enormous functions, no wonder marketers on the net have seen its potential to forward their business. Blogosphere’s popularity is simply unstoppable.

Running a blog, is one of the easiest websites to own for any individual. Also, blogs are very popular and are very user friendly to all people. There are many blog promoting sites that will promote your blog if it contains awesome information. The Internet is full of valuable information nowadays about so many topics, so writing about anything will do.

Creating a blog can be easy but creating a popular blog which has the potential to be visited by hundreds or even thousands of people can be difficult. Success will not come so easily without any effort put in. If you really want to work online from home using blogs, you have to be prepared to make it your business to create good blogs.

Traffic is important when earning money through blogs. The higher your traffic is, the higher your income may get. While working your traffic way up, take some time to also study and analyze certain blogging tools. Be familiar with these, such as RSS, feeds, search engine optimization, and others.

The postings on business blog should be open and should portray personality of the writer and the company. The postings on business blogs should be very informal, and should be written in first person voice. Posts should be informative and relevant with an expert touch to it.

Setting up a blog is pretty simple. You can choose to design your own blog format on your existing site or you can use a free blog from free blog hosting services like Wordpress or Blogger. You can publish your own articles on any topics related to your business and provide information about your products or services to people.

While it is very important for the search engines to see outside links coming into your blog, you might also consider building an effective internal linking strategy also. Why is this important? It encourages visitors to stay on your blog longer, thus increasing page views, thus improving your search engine rankings. And if you have any products you are promoting, you will more likely to get some interested clicks

Another way that you might choose to make money with your blog is to use it as a space to launch an affiliate business. Have you considered having an affiliate business? An affiliate business is basically where you get paid every time you recommend a customer to a product and that customer makes their purchase through your personal affiliate link.

Tips to Earn Money through Blogs

Automated blogging is clearly something which is only of interest in terms of making money or creating an online business. Anyone who blogs for the fun of it would wonder what on earth the point of automating it could be, as this would take all the fun out of it.

The blogosphere is indeed increasing its scope of coverage from being just a personal electronic journal to being an online marketing tool for most online marketers. With its enormous functions, no wonder marketers on the net have seen its potential to forward their business. Blogosphere’s popularity is simply unstoppable.

Running a blog, is one of the easiest websites to own for any individual. Also, blogs are very popular and are very user friendly to all people. There are many blog promoting sites that will promote your blog if it contains awesome information. The Internet is full of valuable information nowadays about so many topics, so writing about anything will do.

Creating a blog can be easy but creating a popular blog which has the potential to be visited by hundreds or even thousands of people can be difficult. Success will not come so easily without any effort put in. If you really want to work online from home using blogs, you have to be prepared to make it your business to create good blogs.

Traffic is important when earning money through blogs. The higher your traffic is, the higher your income may get. While working your traffic way up, take some time to also study and analyze certain blogging tools. Be familiar with these, such as RSS, feeds, search engine optimization, and others.

The postings on business blog should be open and should portray personality of the writer and the company. The postings on business blogs should be very informal, and should be written in first person voice. Posts should be informative and relevant with an expert touch to it.

Setting up a blog is pretty simple. You can choose to design your own blog format on your existing site or you can use a free blog from free blog hosting services like Wordpress or Blogger. You can publish your own articles on any topics related to your business and provide information about your products or services to people.

While it is very important for the search engines to see outside links coming into your blog, you might also consider building an effective internal linking strategy also. Why is this important? It encourages visitors to stay on your blog longer, thus increasing page views, thus improving your search engine rankings. And if you have any products you are promoting, you will more likely to get some interested clicks

Another way that you might choose to make money with your blog is to use it as a space to launch an affiliate business. Have you considered having an affiliate business? An affiliate business is basically where you get paid every time you recommend a customer to a product and that customer makes their purchase through your personal affiliate link.

Twitter – why having a huge following is great for business and how to attract more followers

November 1, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

I’m the first to admit I was a bit slow on the uptake for Twitter.  My husband had been nagging me for months to get on to Twitter and use it as a way to grow my businesses.  To be honest, I had my doubts.  How could a 160 character update attract anyone to follow me, let alone have any positive impact on my business?  And what on earth was I going to tweet about?

Then I stumbled across a ‘how-to’ program which helped me see the light.  I paid around $US25 for the program and was amazed by what I learnt.   I’m so impressed that I’m sharing this new-found knowledge with Home Biz Chicks subscribers.

Why Twitter? Twitter is the fastest growing social networking medium in the world.  There are millions of users online every day conversing about things they’re interested in – whether that is personal stuff, hobbies, or business.   The beauty of Twitter is that is groups together people who are interested in the same thing, so you can easily find consumers who might be interested in your products.

The stats are interesting – I know of a user who has 16,000 followers.  On average, around 400 people click on the links in his tweets each and every time.  If that link goes to a web site with a product to sell, he’s got 400 new prospects every time he tweets.

How to make the most of Twitter: The key here is to automate your Twitter account as much as possible.  You also need to tweet about something that is interesting (but the good news is you can automate that too!). Here are the steps I’ve followed:

1. Upload an engaging photo of yourself looking directly into the camera.

2.    Upload an interesting bio – something funny, personal, cheeky, engaging – anything that can capture attention.  Mine says “Home Biz Chicks evangelist, white chocoholic, PR Queen, Greece nut, mother to 1 and a half, step mother to 2, doting wife, BandB fan, fearlessly determined” .  I am amazed by how many people have commented on my bio since I changed it from the standard professional profile.

3.    Personalise your page by going to mytweetspace.com. You can add images, a banner, text, anything that shows you’ve taken the time create something unique.

4.    Update the design of your home page by using the Settings Tab and Design.  

5.    Send an automatic response to everyone who follows you. This is especially powerful if you want to send a link to drive people to opt in to your list. The product recommends using an affiliate response which I haven’t done – mine is offering the report “How to Generate Free Publicity For Your Home Based Business”. Go to tweetlater.com and follow the links to auto welcome and auto follow.

6.    Find people to follow who are interested in the things you offer. Did you know it’s twitter etiquette to follow people who follow you?  The key to generating more followers is to follow more people yourself, who are then likely to follow you back.  Find people who are interested in what you have to offer by visiting twollo.com and then adding key words to your searches.  You can also find people using Twitter’s yellow pages directory which is twellow.com.

7.    Create content for your tweets. So, how do you keep people engaged?  The trick is to post useful information about your topic, regardless of whether it comes from your web site or someone else’s.  If you’re constantly tweeting about your subject, people will notice and begin to view you as an expert in the field, who knows where to find some great information.  Do this by creating google alerts using key words for your industry.  Set up a gmail account for the alerts to be delivered to, and then set them up as an RSS feed.  Set up an account with twitterfeed.com, add the HTML code from your alerts into your account and shorten the link using tinyurl (there are drop down boxes for each step). These alerts will then automatically feed into your twitter update every few hours, giving you timely and interesting content that you don’t need to spend hours researching.  If you have products to sell, tweet about those too.

Follow these guidelines and you too will see your followers skyrocket. 

If you want more detailed information, including the step by step ‘how to’ videos, plus a check-list, you can purchase the product (which I recommend and have used) “Twitter Traffic Machine – the Automated Growth and Money Making System” .

© 2009 Home Biz Chicks

Online entrepreneur Sue Papadoulis publishes the popular e-newsletter Smart Biz Chicks. If you’re ready to jump-start your home business to make more money and have more fun and free time, get your FREE tips now at www.homebizchicks.com.

WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE? Become a Home Biz Chick member and you’ll access specialised and expert information on everything you need to know about home business including how to generate a home business idea, how to put it into practice, and how to make it outstandingly successful. You can also connect with other like-minded women who are happy to share their experiences and wisdom. Home Biz Chicks offers articles, special reports, audio teleseminars and other resources to help women who work from home. Sign up at www.homebizchicks.com.

Chief Chick Sue Papadoulis is committed to empowering women who work from home with the means and know-how to live a life of abundance. Sue educates and advises work-from-home women, and those who dream of working from home. A wife, mother and the owner of two successful home-based businesses, Sue is uniquely positioned to help others.

Related Posts with Thumbnails