BLIF Marketing for Small Businesses

Small businesses and hobby businesses that have little or no marketing budgets can now promote their businesses online. Blif marketing (Blogging + Linked In + Facebook) is a free way to promote and expand your business.

BLIF marketing is also known as zero cost marketing. It utilizes social media, which is free for businesses to access and use. Each of the three components of BLIF Marketing has a distinct purpose.

1. Blogging: Reaches new readers and builds the brand of the business as an authority in their niche. Blogger.com is the recommended free blogging platform.
2. LinkedIn: Builds up your professional network. This increases the reach and breadth of your network. Use LinkedIn Answers and Groups to keep expanding your network.
3. Facebook: This is the fastest growing of the social networks and has the reputation of having the largest number of small business owners as members. This element is for interacting and social networking at a more personal level.
   

Ways to Rate Blogs

How can you rate and rank the importance of a blog? There are a number of standard measures that can be used.

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top. This is a measure of link popularity.

Alexa Rank This is based on traffic information from Alexa Toolbar users. The rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages viewed. The smaller your Alexa Ranking, the closer you are to the top.

PageRank PageRank is Google’s way of deciding a page’s importance. It is a measure of the number of links and the PageRank of the sites that link to your page. Not all links are counted by Google, they filter out those of low importance.

Does anyone else have some suggestions?

Business Blog Marketing

Business blogging is different than personal blogging. A business blog is an online business and marketing tool. It is a blog with a purpose, with a focus and one to get measurable results from. Business blogs can interact with a target market on a more personal level than other business marketing methods.

Business blog marketing allows your marketing to talk directly to customers. A business blog is a communication tool that allows your business to reach a new audience by writing in a conversational way and showing the human and personal side of the business.

A business blog is meant to promote, establish a relationship with readers and potential customers, to build anticipation and to generate a buzz. They separate you and your company from the pack and help to build both trust and your reputation within your business' targeted area.