Post: #1

I'm trying to get more Internet sales with the product my company sells. Should I spin-up a blog just for the product, or make something with a broad search term and put my product at the top of every page?

Post: #2

Your question is very broad.

If you're interested in strengthening your brand and acquiring organic traffic, then a blog could be a good idea.

Just so you know --- a blog is a lot of work and you'd have to be sure the ROI is there to justify spending your time and money building it, maintaining it, attracting an audience.

And then you have to get involved in social media to really get traction with a blog.

On top of that most blogs fail.

You'd also need to do a good bit of keyword research to see if there are even any search terms with ranking for with a prospective blog.

If you're just looking to drive more sales, look into Facebook advertising instead.

Post: #3

(07-05-2014 08:49 AM)VincentVinturi Wrote:  Your question is very broad.


If you're interested in strengthening your brand and acquiring organic traffic, then a blog could be a good idea.

Just so you know --- a blog is a lot of work and you'd have to be sure the ROI is there to justify spending your time and money building it, maintaining it, attracting an audience.

And then you have to get involved in social media to really get traction with a blog.

On top of that most blogs fail.

You'd also need to do a good bit of keyword research to see if there are even any search terms with ranking for with a prospective blog.

If you're just looking to drive more sales, look into Facebook advertising instead.

-Tried FB ads and did get over a 1000 likes (which goes to show you can buy "likes"), but failed to see a single sale from the money spent.
I've had some experience blogging, so I do agree with your comments. They can be a pain-in-the-ass, especially when you're trying to come up with an original post for the Nth time.
I did a keyword search on the product category and found out the one we chose gets all of 50 search hits a month in the USA. So I need to get it into a better category. I've found better categories, ones that get 2500-5000, but they are highly competitive. So to do it right means spinning up a blog specifically for the right category with a take no prisoners attitude.
And thanks for the comments. I need all the help I can get.

Post: #4

(07-05-2014 09:31 AM)ColSpanker Wrote:  Tried FB ads and did get over a 1000 likes (which goes to show you can buy "likes"), but failed to see a single sale from the money spent.
I've had some experience blogging, so I do agree with your comments. They can be a pain-in-the-ass, especially when you're trying to come up with an original post for the Nth time.
I did a keyword search on the product category and found out the one we chose gets all of 50 search hits a month in the USA. So I need to get it into a better category. I've found better categories, ones that get 2500-5000, but they are highly competitive. So to do it right means spinning up a blog specifically for the right category with a take no prisoners attitude.
And thanks for the comments. I need all the help I can get.

You need to broaden your keywords. Get the list of your top competitors and run them via SemRush. You'll get all the keywords they are ranking for. Then you sort them by search volume and off you go blogging, siloing your site or link spamming whatever suits you better.

If you don't know who your competitors are, run your site via SemRush and it will tell you. If nothing shows up there, you have serious online visibility problems.

Post: #5

Have you tried split testing your FB ads? Seems as though you were sending all of your traffic to a fan page, and none of it direct linked to a sales page. Was it a feed ad or a banner? Test multiple images and short ad copy.

As for the blog, if you already have a site selling a product you definitely need a blog. Just make the URL www.(your company name).com/blog. It costs nothing other than a bit of time. Just answer questions that deal with your product or are in the general niche of your product. You can keyword optimize your blog, but answering the right questions, even if they are very longtail should be a priority. Google's algorithm loves lots of fresh quality content, and since PBN's are becoming more common, unique on-page content will get more love going forward.

Since you're selling products, guest posting is also not out of the question. A strong social media presence will do wonders as well. Depending on your target demographic, Pinterest is a goldmine if chicks are in your market.

Product placement ads on Amazon work really well depending on the product. There are so many traffic sources you can leverage, but none of those matter if your sales funnel is garbage.

If you give me a little better idea of the type of product you are selling, I could help you focus on the most viable sources of traffic.

Post: #6

(07-05-2014 07:30 PM)CaptainCrazy Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 09:31 AM)ColSpanker Wrote:  Tried FB ads and did get over a 1000 likes (which goes to show you can buy "likes"), but failed to see a single sale from the money spent.
I've had some experience blogging, so I do agree with your comments. They can be a pain-in-the-ass, especially when you're trying to come up with an original post for the Nth time.
I did a keyword search on the product category and found out the one we chose gets all of 50 search hits a month in the USA. So I need to get it into a better category. I've found better categories, ones that get 2500-5000, but they are highly competitive. So to do it right means spinning up a blog specifically for the right category with a take no prisoners attitude.
And thanks for the comments. I need all the help I can get.

You need to broaden your keywords. Get the list of your top competitors and run them via SemRush. You'll get all the keywords they are ranking for. Then you sort them by search volume and off you go blogging, siloing your site or link spamming whatever suits you better.

If you don't know who your competitors are, run your site via SemRush and it will tell you. If nothing shows up there, you have serious online visibility problems.

Just did the SemRush thing and found out what my competition is ranking for: exactly what I though. Then I ran my domain name and found nada.
Yep, I got a serious visibility problem. Time to get to work.

Post: #7

(07-06-2014 09:53 AM)ColSpanker Wrote:  Just did the SemRush thing and found out what my competition is ranking for: exactly what I though. Then I ran my domain name and found nada.
Yep, I got a serious visibility problem. Time to get to work.

Install Google Analytics, get a Google Webmaster account, and submit an XML sitemap.

Post: #8

Not a Mahatma, but it really depends on

1) What you're selling
2) How competitive your market is,
3) How much money you have to spend.

Options

1) pay for advertising. Look up the Google Adwords program, and look at your budget. This probably the best option for a lot of people.

2) Add a content management system/blog to your existing company website. Last time I looked into this, it was a lot of trouble to glom on "wordpress" to an existing site.

Building a separate blog & e-commerce site can also be a pain.

3) Build a blog on its own, get traffic to it, and then direct that traffic to your e-commerce site.

4) Target blogs within your niche, and send them product so that they might review it.

5) Get your Audio/Visual people together and
- create videos for your product that could go viral
ex. "Does it Blend" - Blendtec

- create a podcast for the people in your target industry.
If you sell wireless keyboards, then you create an audiopodcast for your typical user. "Brought to you buy, Col Spanker's Wireless Keyboards"

6) Consider enrolling in Google Products, instead of Google Adwords

WIA