As bloggers we hear quite a bit about marketing strategies, largely because most bloggers have something to market, if not their blog then it’s a product, an affiliate or even a service. As you would know there are many ways that people may use to get their product or service where it can be seen by others in the hope that they will eventually become customers.

Just the other day I was approached by a charming Aussie lass who asked if I would kindly help to promote her very unique marketing strategy. Seeing as how I’m not one to turn a pretty lady down I surprised myself by saying I would but only after I had a look at what she was offering. She kindly pointed me in the right direction and after giving it the once over I decided that I would succumb to her charms, and it’s to this end that I offer you, what I believe to be a very interesting sponsored post.

Are you considering using discount marketing as part of your business’s advertising strategy?

You must ensure that this form of promotional marketing is appropriate for your business’s brand image. It is also vital to plan whether your business can withstand the costs of this venture.

Any business considering a discount marketing strategy should take these tips into account.

1. Market a discount as another form of advertising.

Consider what incentive will work best for your particular consumer base: discount coupons, contests or free samples. Choose an advertising vehicle like direct mail, email or in-store that will not exceed your promotional budget.

2. Offer only what your business can afford.

Determine your reason for promotion and consider if you planning to discount an item as a loss leader to gain a larger consumer base. Ensure that you set your budget early on.

3. Set the target market.

By knowing exactly who your customers are, you can maintain control by offering an appropriate discount. You must know where and when your consumers will use your discount.

4. Ensure that all ground staff are aware of the discount!

Consumers will have an extremely negative experience if your staff doesn’t know what’s going on. This will turn them off your business. Ensure that staff also knows about the exact terms of expiry for your discount.

5. Keep testing!

Set specific goals and keep track of the feedback you are getting from your discount. If it is unsatisfactory, the discount is either not attractive enough or it is improperly targeting the consumer base.

“To learn more about local business marketing to sign up to Myzerr.com and start promoting your business online today!”

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As a seasoned blogger I am no longer amazed at the amount of new bloggers entering the fray thinking there is a quick buck to be made. Most of them enter the blog tips or blog marketing niche thinking to capitalize on that aspect of the market. Where they fail is that all they’re doing is regurgitating what others have already said and I know it tends to rub some the wrong way.

Take my mate Mitch for example, who wrote The Secret Is There Is No Secret, where he’s bitching about all these types of posts that are offering nothing new, except possibly to someone who  may be considering taking up the blogging challenge by starting their own blog on blogging for money or ways of driving traffic to your blog.

The way I see it is that although this market is pretty well saturated, inroads into it can be made as long as you approach it the right way. I’ve been reading the blog of a bloke who hasn’t been blogging that long who has a unique way of explaining things. Jim, that’s his name, runs Blogging Tips, Tricks and Fun and although he is tackling a topic that has almost been beaten to death with a wooden spoon, I think he will go far because he isn’t simply regurgitating old ideas. He has introduced his own personalized writing style, one that I think may open the eyes of those who before may have left a post discussing the same topic none the wiser.

You see the problem with reading the same thing over and over again is if it

didn’t make sense the first time there’s every chance that reading it over may not make it any clearer. So if all your doing is copying a post and rewriting it in much the same way you’re not adding any value, and if your not adding value your blog is going to be lost in the multitudes of other blogs similar to yours.

The trick is to make the post yours. Write it in such a way that people know you’re an individual with unique ideas and writing skills. Jim does this very well, especially with his Blog Recipe series. The first in the series was his Baked Stuffed Post where he breaks down how to write a post. It’s simple and to the point and may be just what is needed to get the point across. As I said this was one of his early ones and so I can only imagine what Jim may come up with as time goes on. I like to refer to him as The Blogging Chef, and who knows, perhaps one day he will have his own show.

I’ve always said that the one thing that makes a blog what it is and gives it some worth is the people who take the time to comment on them. I want to thank Gordie who’s currently making a big deal over how Passionate Speaking Can Be Deceiving, for reminding me of another blogger who’s bringing a bit of originality to the blogging scene. Naturally he’s referring to Jordon of Not A Pro Blog, a blogger who likes to bring a bit of wit to his blog. Being a professional comic he’s not averse to pasting his mug all over the videos he’s so happy to paste within his posts.

I found his post on Are Your Blog Readers Your Customers rather intriguing. I think he’s trying to tell us that they’re not because they’re not buying anything, and he backs this up by saying that A customer is one that buys something, and while that is true I would like to ask what you call all those people who window shop or walk into a store without buying something, either because they couldn’t find what they want or because their service was so bad that they decided to go elsewhere. They didn’t buy anything so that means they’re not customers right?

Perhaps not, but they are potential customers, ones that could bring not only cash through the registers when they decide to buy but something more important than that. Apart from return business their recommendation can bring new business through the door.

I don’t look at my readers as customer because my blog isn’t all about making money. But for those blogs that are, perhaps it would be a good idea to treat their commentators, or future potential customers, with some respect, a respect that can be seen in the way you interact with them on their blogs as well as the blogs of others. After all your blog posts and more importantly your interaction or lack of can be seen as being a window into who you really are.

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I was lucky enough to get hold of an eBook written by Mitch, a well known blogger who amongst other blogs runs the popular I’m Just Sharing Blog, and I thought only fitting that I write a review of it.

In Mitch’s eBook, Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool, he outlines the importance a website can play as part of any marketing campaign and how as a small business you could be missing out on the huge potential by not having one.  Mitch also stresses that while it is important to have a website you don’t want one that is poorly designed or looks cheap, for obvious reasons.

Unlike some eBooks that I’ve read that tells you to do something but doesn’t tell you why you should do it this eBook states reasons for why things should be done, starting off with the reasons as to why you should have a website. I find that this will be more acceptable to the average reader as the reason for getting any book is to learn all the ins and outs.

Mitch then asks the same question but states that perhaps some people shouldn’t have a website. At first I found this a little unusual, but once I started reading I understood what Mitch was getting at. There’s a fair bit involved with having a good website and that perhaps some people could not afford to have a professionally designed one. Rather than opt for a cheesy cheap one they’d be better off not having one at all.

The eBook then goes on to explain everything that’s involved in owning and maintaining a good website. Something that everyone who is thinking of starting one should know. You will learn about domains and their relative costs, hosting and even the importance of design, with some samples thrown in for good measure.

Considering it’s just over 50 pages long Mitch has managed to put a fair bit of information into the eBook, including simple HTML coding, discussing CSS, SEO, Keywords, just about everything you need to know if you were thinking of starting your own website.

What this book doesn’t do is to show you how to actually build a website from scratch. What it does do is show you what’s involved in having a website and how a good website can help your marketing strategy. Armed with this book you will have a better idea as to what avenue to follow when the time comes for you to have your own website.

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The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

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Guest posts are a very important marketing tool. For the person doing the guest post it allows them to extend their brand or expertise to other blogs, blogs that have a different readership thereby expanding their exposure.

To the person hosting the guest post it allows them to offer a subject or topic that they may not have an enough expertise or are not comfortable writing themselves. In essence it’s a win win situation for all. I hope you like this guest post by Melvin of   MelvinBlog.com

You have probably heard that a blog is a very good asset. In fact, it’s really true. Most people are so caught up with the money they can make from a blog directly that they forgot their blog is more than just that. Just from my experience, blogging has done a lot of nice things to me like getting to conferences and being invited as a speaker, receiving free schwags from some companies, getting good deals from them, getting interviewed, joint ventures, new friends and good publicity. Overall these are obviously more than what you can make with your blog directly.

And so for today, I’m going to tackle how you can leverage what you have in your blog (audience, expertise, reputation) and make more money from that. I am going to put out a list of ways on how you can capitalize more by leveraging what you have. Without further ado, here‘s now the list:

• Leveraging your expertise to build a consultation service – I’m not really a fan of these consulting services and to be honest I never plan to do it myself.  But obviously, it’s a very profitable business. Guys like Jim Kukral, Shawn Collins, Chris Brogan don’t really make anything from their blogs BUT make a really good amount with their consultation services. If you’re an established blogger with a good reputation, it’s good to make good use of your stature and make more money by offering a consultation services to other people
• Leveraging your audience by offering them a product – I can‘t emphasize it more. Creating and selling your own product is by far the BEST way to make money from your blog. If you have a huge audience following you and still haven‘t considered this option, you‘re missing out a lot. By having your own info product, you don‘t just benefit by making sales. You also try to build your own expertise through those various product of yours.
• Leveraging your audience in your blog and using it as a launch pad – Probably another unsung benefits of being a blogger is using it as a launch pad. Having a blog alone gives you a decisive advantage to just launch about everything and have a big lead against everyone simply because you already have the audience. I always consider it like a boost pad where it can simply just put you ahead in the race.
• Leveraging your reputation for joint ventures – Since blogging is a business, getting proposals, joint ventures from other bloggers/marketers in the same niche is always a good thing. Most marketers don’t just negotiate with anyone, they often want reputed bloggers with good audience. Just look at the connection between Darren Rowse, Yaro Starak, John Chow, Shoemoney, Daniel  Scocco and other reputed bloggers. They just seem to really bounce it off each other and maximize what they have combined. Imagine the amount of traction they can get from helping out each other.

Blogging brings a lot of good things if done properly. Reputation, huge audience, fame, and many more. As we get more and more of those, make sure to make the most of them. Don’t just be contented with what you’re currently making. After all you worked your butts out real hard to have them, right? What do you think? I would love to hear your opinions.

This post is written by Melvin. Melvin is a young blogger and entrepreneur who blogs at MelvinBlog.com. He aims to share all his best marketing tips to fellow bloggers. If you find this post awesome consider visiting his blog, if not forget about it. Either way follow him on Twitter too.

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The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

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It’s a pretty well known fact that many bloggers exist today because they want to share their acquired knowledge with others, and this is indeed a very good thing that they do. Wouldn’t it be great though if they could go beyond merely sharing their experience in  a well thought out post.

There are many ways that we can help other bloggers, some of which I would like to outline below.

1. Comment on their blog. This is a win win situation, as you are building their morale as well as helping to build your presence on the Net.
2. Reply to comments left on your blog. Not everybody does this, and that’s a shame. Stand out from the crowd by showing your readers you appreciate their comment by replying to them wherever possible. Does not mean that you have to reply to every single comment.
3. Share some link luv. Again, a win win situation as this will inform others of great content that you’ve found and may well earn some brownie points with the one getting the link luv. If it doesn’t, don’t sweat it because it’s always better to give than it is to receive.
4. Promoting Blogger Projects: Let’s face it, most of us are pretty green when it comes to marketing, but imagine how much help it would be if we were to help when we come across a blogger who has a special talent but is finding it hard to market their products. It could be an eBook, arts and craft, a forum or whatever. Wouldn’t it be great if we could give them a little boost.
5. Affiliate products: Almost every blogger is promoting one affiliate or another, but when we’re in the market for purchasing a product, do we remember to support one of our blogger mates?

These are just a few ideas that I’ve come up with, and I was hoping that you guys could contribute to this small list. As to what day we should use for the Global Helping Hand For Bloggers Day, I reckon it shouldn’t be limited to a single day. It should be left open, for we never know when you come across someone that you can give a helping hand.

OK, just to get the ball rolling I would like to mention a few sites. Sheryl has been a loyal reader of this blog and she seems to have a liking, probably helped by her talented daughter Cait,  for those cute fluffy animals. Well, they’ve decided to turn their love of fluffies into an online store called Fuzzy Wuzzy Anipals! These cute fluffy toys would be great for any special occasion, especially Christmas.

Just today I’ve happen to come across a talented artist called Jay Zuck, who is displaying some of his artwork on his blog.  Honestly, you should hop on ever and check them out. While there why not enter his contest to win one of his great works of art.

Then there’s Holly, another talented blogger that I’ve only just met. Not only a blogger, Holly is an author and you could win an autographed copy of her A Guppy Not A Puppy children’s book.

Finally, I’ve been having a little problem with the software that scans my email for spam and shit, as it’s allowing way too many spam emails through. I’ve decided it was time to update, and low and behold Mitch just happened to do a post on Mailwasher.  Just yesterday I decided to take the trial offer, but honestly I was so thrilled by it that I’m going to buy it from Mitch’s post, all the while hoping he will make something from it. Read the rest of this entry

The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!