Blogs started out as a kind of personal journal.  However, the uses for blogs has expanded to include all kinds of writing – including uses for Internet Marketing.

1. Simple – blogging is easy for everybody.  Any piece of writing can easily be uploaded into a blog post.  No special skills are required – an average adult (and kids!) can read, type, and click a mouse.  It is the equivalent of having a piece of virtual paper to jot down ideas, experiences, drawings.  Or you can video a demonstration or conversation.  This allows us to easily describe a product in a way that compels the reader to try the product.
2. Authentic – it is best when in the blog authors’ own words.  Canned descriptions that are just copy-pasted are not as compelling as a true story of how the product was effective for the author.  Product specifications are sometimes needed to fully describe a product to the reader – but the sizzle that sells most products comes from the story of the benefits that the product delivers.  And a personal story makes your pitch (and site) unique.
3. Free - it costs nothing to blog.  In a lot of cases, the blog is even hosted for free by sites like Blogger.com or WordPress.com.  When you are starting out with a product, one of these free blog sites can keep your internet marketing costs low while you prove out the product demand.  Once the product begins to show some legs, moving up to a paid site with your own domain name can increase the profits.
4. Credibility - relating your continued experiences with the product.  A blog gives this timeline of experiences in a way that other internet marketing methods do not.  Pay-per-click ads and sales letter web pages give a single impression to the reader.  Blogs allow the reader to look through your history with the product and can see a variety of benefits obtained with its continued use.  The blog also allows you to personalize yourself so that the reader relates to you and takes your recommendation of the product as the recommendation of a friend rather than a sterile sales pitch.
5. Market Building - sharing the spotlight between you and a host of products.  The blog should have a focus that draws the reader back.  This focus could be you or it could be a particular marketing niche.  Regardless, this focus can be used to build your market.  Here are some ways to do that:

- Email.  Send an email message to your list announcing new content on your blog.  Include a link to your blog in your signature for all outgoing email.

- Subscription.  Let readers subscribe to your website.  You can entice them to do so by providing extra information to subscribers. 

- Survey.  Ask your readers for information.  This information could be about their experiences with the products you have recommended.  Or about benefits they are looking to satisfy – which can lead you to new products to recommend.

- Network.  Spend some time watching other blogs / forums that are related to your niche.  Answer questions or add comments and link back to your own blog.

- RSS.  This can be a great way to keep your blog more up to date.

- Social Media.  Make sure that each article on your blog is bookmarked with places like Digg and StumbledUpon.  Mention your new content on Twitter or Facebook.

Blogs are a required element in your Internet Marketing toolbox!

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL: Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.Words/phrases:Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.