I'm no car buff, but that TV commercial really caught my ear. "What do you get when you pit a Ford Escape against a Lexus?" the announcer asked. The answer, unexpected as it
was arresting: "Bragging rights."
So I'll give you one better: What do you get when you pit business blogging against pay-per-click advertising? Bragging rights again. According to Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, "There are two basic ways to use search as an acquisition tool" (referring to acquisition of new customers): Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Optimization."
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a form of paid advertising on the Web. (You the business owner bid on keyword phrases. Every time an online searcher clicks on your listing, you pay a fee.) According to the Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Study, marketers using PPC typically target more than 1,000 of these keyword phrases in an attempt to rank among the top results for a dozen out of the 1,000 they've selected.
By contrast, blogs need to target only 1-2 dozen total keyword phrases (with the blogging company paying no fee when the sties get "found" and clicked on) to achieve comparable search results.
What if the "Lexus" isn't a PPC but a website? How do blogs stack up against traditional websites? Since search engines assign value to pages that are frequently updated, traditional website pages simply can't compete with more frequently changing content on blog pages. While a website page might be very keyword-rich, the cumulative use of keyword phrases over months and years , and over pages and pages of relevant content builds up the kind of "equity" that leaves traditional web pages in the dust. Again, bragging rights for blogs.
As with any tool, blogging for business works only when - and if - it's used. Good corporate blog posts may earn bragging rights when compared with other marketing tactics, but only if business owners actually keep up the pace. The fact is, few entrepreneurs, even given the help of talented and passionate employees, can spare the time to post relevant, new material with enough consistency and frequency to improve search engine rankings. Often a professional ghost blogger can help those owners earn bragging rights and convert online searchers to new clients and customers!
"
Five times as many people read headlines as read the body copy, "Father of Advertising" David Ogilby taught.
Fastened low on the wall near the door of the restaurant was a metal thing-a-ma-gig with coloring sheet handouts for kids to color. That day's handout had an outlined picture of a snowman talking with some penguins. There was space on the paper to fill in the child artist's name, age, and phone number, and a pocket in which to deposit the finished work.
In Monday's Say It For You blog post, I talked about Goodwill Industries' TV commercial on organizing clothes closets. Then I discovered I wasn't the only one finding valuable lessons in Goodwill ads. Personal finance site
If anybody's got a keen sense of what an audience wants, it has to be
today I want to deal with a particularly interesting issue:
"Tropicana imports some of its orange juice," the Florida's Natural announcer hastens to inform TV audiences in no uncertain terms. Leaving nothing to implication, he follows up with a question, "So why would you ever choose anything but Florida's Natural?"
I almost didn’t go to see the movie “Nine”. The Indianapolis Star gave the film only two stars, quoting Roger Moore’s review in the Orlando Sentinel: “How can a movie starring six Academy Award-winning actors be such a bore?”
Parents may be reassured by finding a video game rate “E” (for everyone), but that’s certainly not the best rating for business blogs. In order for blog posts to be effective as part of a business marketing plan, the content of the blog must be targeted towards a specific audience.
Talk about an "in a nutshell" summary of a big topic in a few words!
Hard to believe, but my little professional ghost-blogging company, Say It For You, is celebrating its third New Year's today!
Sometimes we role play, my career mentees and I. At Butler University College of Business, where I serve as an Executive Career Mentor, one of my functions is helping students prepare resumes and train for job interviews.
Every holiday is a marker, however you look at it, and it's hard to resist tallying along with the toasts.
comes to blogging for business. 
