Truth be told, most blogs aren't really optimized for

marketing effectiveness. Even more so, some blogs are

absolute marketing machines, but they at the same time fail

to fully capitalize on that fact by not being really

optimized marketing-wise.

Blogs may be Web 2.0, but bloggers should not ignore some

of the good old internet direct marketing tactics that have

been working for marketers online almost for a decade or

more.

Here are the absolute 101 basics you really shouldn't

ignore ...

1. DON'T FORGET E-MAIL DELIVERY

Bloggers are often abandoning or completely ignoring e-mail

as a tool to deliver their content to their readers. As an

RSS evangelist I certainly believe in using RSS to get your

content to the world, but only as a supplement to e-mail

delivery.

While RSS provides us with many unique benefits, it is yet

to reach mainstream adoption. Until it does, marketers and

publishers should not even consider abandoning e-mail

delivery, or risk ignoring most of their potential

readership.

If you're still wondering why you need e-mail, consider the

potential you might be wasting without it. Someone visits

your blog, likes the content and would like to be notified

as new content of interest becomes available, and he does

not know what RSS is or even care. If you fail to capture

his e-mail address and consent at that exact moment, he

might never again return to your site, either because he

forgets about it or because dozens of other sites capture

his interest even before the next day.

2. E-ZINE PUBLISHING IS STILL A MUST

Publishing a blog is not a replacement for an e-zine. If

nothing else, publish a weekly or monthly e-zine of your

top blog posts, available in a single easy-to-consume

format.

Some simply do not have the time to watch your blog

regularly and others will only want to receive a quick

summary to get only your best and most crucial content.

Publishing an e-mail e-zine will do that for you, giving

you the opportunity to communicate with the widest possible

long-term audience for your blog.

3. E-MAIL AND RSS SUBSCRIPTIONS

Providing e-mail (e-zine) and RSS subscriptions is

important to the success of any blog. But neither of these

will do you much good if your visitors don't actually see

them and if you don't give them enough incentive to

subscribe.

Foremost, display your e-mail e-zine and RSS subscriptions

information at the top of your blog, instead of somewhere

far down where no one will see them.

And second, use enticing copy to get visitors to subscribe.

Briefly explain the benefits of subscribing, what kind of

content they can expect to receive, and also do not forget

about your privacy disclaimer, calming potential

subscribers that you will never abuse their personal

information.

4. EXPLAIN RSS

Most internet users still do not know what RSS is or how to

use it, and consequently the RSS buttons on your blog mean

absolutely nothing to them.

To overcome this problem, create a special RSS presentation

page and link to it next to the RSS subscribe button. On

that page explain:

• What RSS is

• How the visitor will benefit from using RSS

• Where they can get a free RSS aggregator (recommend one

yourself!)

• How they can install it (provide step-by-step

instructions)

• How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds

• Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds

Then, on this same page, include the links to all of your

RSS feeds.

5. TOP CONTENT

If you update your blog frequently, your less recent top

content keeps being pushed down and down, where most of

your blog readers will never bother to look for it.

Overcome this frequent blog problem by creating a list of

your top posts, clearly displayed and available from each

of your pages. Depending on the topic you cover, you might

want to place these headlines as close to the top of your

blog as possible, in order to quickly entice your new

visitors to start reading the best of what you have to

offer and then use this content to convert them to loyal

readers and subscribers.

6. THE HEADLINE

The site or blog headline will tell your visitors what to

expect from reading your blog and will answer their key

question: "What's in it for me?"

Make sure that your blog headlines gives this reason and

the story inviting enough for your readers to keep reading.

7. LEAD YOUR VISITORS TO YOUR MDA

MDA is the Most Desired Action you want your visitors to

take on your site, ranging from a subscription to your

e-zine to requesting more information about your services

or ordering your product / getting more information about

it.

Your blog will be of great help in this area, but only if

you actually lead your visitors to this action. Putting

this information in your menu simply is not enough.

Experiment putting some copy for your MDA directly below

each blog post (on your permanent blog post archives pages)

and also prominently in your left- or right-hand columns.

If you're providing multiple services or products, promote

each of them next to the appropriate posts, based on post

topics.

And yes, this is more important than having dozens of

Google AdSense ads on your blog ... if you want to use your

blog as part of your marketing mix.

8. LOOK DIFFERENT

Blogs are usually not heavily designed and most of them

look exactly the same. While light design is one of the

positive sides of blogs, you should invest some effort in

making your blog stand-out visually. Don't cram it with

design, but still make sure it's different than every other

blog in the market.

9. USE YOUR OWN DOMAIN

Having a subdomain.typepad.com type sub-domain might be the

easiest choice, but don't forget that your domain name is

your permanent online address and part of your online brand.

Consequently, invest a couple of dollars to get your own

domain name, to enforce your brand, as well as making it

easier for your readers to access your blog.

10. DON'T FORGET YOUR KEYWORDS

What keywords do you want your content and blog to be found

under in the search engines?

Don't forget to implement these keywords in the titles and

body content of your blog posts. I'm not saying you should

write your posts to please the search engines, but at least

keep them in mind and use them when possible, without

taking anything away from the actual content.

11. INTERACT WITH YOUR READERS

If you're blogging for business, don't forget about

business oriented reader interaction.

Mainly, solicit questions from your readers, pertaining to

your field of expertise, and then respond to them via your

blog. Post interesting client case studies. When you get a

review, post it or link to it. And so on ...

12. BLOG SPECIFIC PROMOTIONAL TACTICS 101

a] Intensively market your RSS feeds

b] Ping the search engines and directories after you update

your blog, using a free service such as

http://www.pingomatic.com

13. DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CONTENT

And of course, none of the above won't make any difference

at all if you don't provide high-quality, interesting and

frequent content.

These 13 points are of course only the most basic stuff,

but enough to help you get on the marketing optimization

train.