Sep 11, 2008 Posted in Marketing Ideas

The Easiest Way to Generate Traffic and Build Relationships

It could be said that the Internet is making business less personal. Five years ago I would have agreed with that statement. Many of us were hiding behind websites and email and never really making a lot of face-to-face contact.

Fast-forward to 2008 and the proliferation of web 2.0 and I’d say that things they are a-changing. Web 2.0 and social networking are taking the power out of the hands of product and website owners and putting it squarely in the hands of consumers and users.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the biggest sites on the web today. Nearly all are web 2.0 properties where the actual content is created by the users. YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, the list goes on and on.

Let’s face it, web 2.0 is here to stay and we’d better adapt and leverage this fact or prepare for extinction. Where am I going with this? Good question.

The fastest and easiest way for any business to get on to the web 2.0 superhighway is by adding a simple blog to their existing website. It can be done in less than a few hours but it creates a number of opportunities.

First, website owners can build personal relationships with visitors. Through blogs, owners can let their readers know what is happening in their world. This could be personal information or it could be ideas for new products or services being contemplated. Either way, by sharing more information the blog owner is more likely to build more trust and respect faster than just by telling someone why they should buy whatever he or she is selling.

The second point goes hand-in-hand with the first. Blogs allow for interactive conversations with visitors. By allowing readers to comment on posts or ideas, the blog owner can get immediate and relevant feedback. If you’re looking for cost-effective market research, this is the ultimate approach. It costs nothing and you’ll likely get some pretty honest feedback if you’ve done a good job developing relationships with your visitors.

Finally, blogs attract search engine spiders. As a rule of thumb, more content = better rankings. Everyone loves free traffic from the search engines and a dynamic blog is a great way to get it.

A WordPress blog can be added to your current site in no time. It is easy to update so you won’t need to rely on any programmer or geek. You can update it yourself as you see fit. Even better, you can outsource this work to anyone in the world. Nice.

Article by Eric Haaranen