Starting a blog for your business website is an effective way of personalizing your company. It makes your customers feel a kind of connection to you that they might not otherwise if the site was simply just nuts and bolts.
You can use the blog to write about something important going on in your specific area of industry, promote some business initiative, or just produce some fun content that can also pull in some extra viewers through the use of search engine optimization.
But another way to think of your business blog is a potential supplemental moneymaker. By possibly making some connections with other like-minded companies and promoting their products, you can essentially pull in some extra money for your own. And, if you can manage a kind of quid pro quo arrangement, you can possibly have your own products or services highlighted on other websites, thereby expanding your exposure.
It’s important that your website is properly set up to highlight the blog in just the right way. And it’s also important that you know just how to execute this kind of arrangement with a third party to possibly make your own bottom line a little sounder.
Getting the Information Out
People might get a little suspicious if your blog post is simply a commercial for another product, which is then accompanied by a link to that product. To practice effective affiliate marketing, you should attempt to first think about the content of the post in terms of whether it’s informative or entertaining. Only then can you even think about possibly adding the information about the other product or service that you’re promoting? This has to be a hard sell that’s disguised as a soft sell.
Promoting the Right Stuff
It can be easy to be lured by the way of money coming in from another source, thus clouding your judgment. But promoting an inferior product just for the chance to get a commission on any sales that come in because of your efforts can actually do harm to your own business in the long run. Remember that your business is only as good as your brand, and that brand needs to be associated with trust and honesty for your customers to want to go into business with you. If they follow a lead you give them to something that lets them down, you’re playing fast and loose with their faith in your business.
Making the Proper Connections
Even if you determine that your business partner is trustworthy and sells a solid product, they still might not be the right fit for your business. If they sell a product or service that has no logical connection to your own, you run the risk of seeming like you’re simply out to make a fast buck. In addition, the people searching your website won’t have much interest in something that’s far removed from your area of interest.
Using your blog as a kind of secondary business can often have huge earnings potential. But the right precautions must be taken, lest the effort does more damage than good.
