First Word

Whenever I give my talks on building your marketing platform for your book or business, I get a lot folks who look at me with a grimace when the answer to, "How often should I blog?" comes back with "every day." Most people hold their groans only to replace it with an uncontrolled frown and a brisk, "Including Sunday?" Yes, friend-Os including Sunday. I know the horror, the horror. If you miss a weekend, don't despair; but I can tell you my analytics show that a decent number of readers show up on Sunday, because my weekly newsletter First Word (another horror ... "weekly" newsletter) drives traffic to my blog. Why do I blog so much? Is it that I have so much to say I can't constrain my type-hungry fingers? Not exactly. I watch my analytics (if you don't know what is analytics, Google it) and if I don't miraculously manage to make my fingers do the tapping, my readership drops. I know this is an ugly truth for the less prolific; b...

We have services like Blog Talk Radio and video blogs becoming much more common. Then you have numerous social media available to choose from. You have written forms of media -- blogs, eZines and online advertising. What is a company to do? All of them? Some of them? I am constantly having people try to persuade me to try video blogs, which someday I may try. But when presented with so many time-consuming options, it is difficult to know what to do. Should I become a radio personality? Should I become an entertainer and do a video? Should I become a writer and blog? What if you have none of those skills? You can hire out yet if you do this every day that cost can escalate and become expensive. Is the return on investment there to justify it? Here is my best advice: You should absolutely do some or all of those marketing tactics . If you're voice isn't radio-friendly, take Blog Talk off the table. If you're just not ready to shoot a daily or weekly video, take video off the ...