In the latest issue of Avenues to Marketing Success, I wrote about the power of blogging, and it only makes sense for me to fill you in a little more on why I personally blog.

Giving out information to readers like you is one key way that I can help you grow your business a small tidbit of marketing knowledge at a time. I hear from enough of you that this appears to be quite helpful to you, especially if you are new to your business or you're uncomfortable marketing yourself regardless of how long you've been in business.

I don't get a lot of comments here directly on the blog (though if you want to comment, you're welcome to -- click on the Comments link below), but I do get tons of e-mails asking for more information about what I've written, clarifying comments I've made and that sort of thing. I love hearing from you, and you give me priceless information about how I can better help you in the future with all your questions, so keep the questions coming! And feel free to share them here on the blog if you wish.

I also shouldn't neglect the fact that I personally love having an outlet to get out my frustration about some marketers' attempts to sway you to their services just so they can make a buck, even though there is little or no value to what they offer. I just got an e-mail this morning from the 30th Internet marketer promoting the same thing as everyone else, with the same e-mail every single time, down to the typos. I know that we're all in business and don't have time to reinvent the wheel every time we send out new offers, but honestly, make sure that if you use any sort of canned sales letter for any reason in your own business to tailor it to the way YOU write. Sorry for the mini-rant, which is somewhat beside the point.

What I should have said before I got off on that tangent was that long prior to getting today's e-mails, I also got apologies ... APOLOGIES from a number of folks who had sent the promotion out because they hadn't done their homework to see if the product in question was worthwhile. C'mon. You make thousands and thousands of dollars from each e-mailing you send out, and you can't take the time to verify if ANY of the information is useful?

I expect more. Your customers expect more. And that's where your blog can come in handy.

When you write a blog, here are some hints:

Get personal.

Dig deep.

Give it your all.

Don't try to sucker people into buying from you unless you offer a good product.

Show your value by showing yourself and your brand values to your readers.

And remember:

You don't have to be perfect in your communications, but the more you write about things in a blog that are helpful to your clients and prospects, the more feedback you get about what's helpful and what isn't. And you also become a better writer, helping you with all of your promotions in the future.

I urge you to consider starting a blog to give your prospects a better sense of who you are and what you stand for (that's a HUGE part of the branding process, after all, and I would be remiss if I didn't say so!) Blog for humanity. *laughs* Blog for your sanity. After all, if I didn't have this blog, I'd have nowhere to rant and rave! :) I don't think my cat cares what I think about marketing as long as she get her ocean fish dinner in gravy!

Think a blog doesn't work to draw in clients? Then why did you read this post?!

Ever read an article and think, "My sentiments exactly"? This happened to me a moment ago.

As I sat sorting through the dozens and dozens of my e-mails from the past couple of weeks that I didn't get to during the Thanksgiving holiday, I came across an article by Paul Lawrence that focused on a philosophy I have espoused in my life for a long time -- and it might be of help to you.

Whether you're aware of it or not, fear likely dictates a large number of your actions, day in and day out, both in your business and in your personal life. It might be fear of failure, fear of being unable to provide for your family, fear of success, you name it. We all face these fears on a regular basis.

Lawrence talks about the power of the Magic Question, however, as a way of coping with his own fears ... and since it is *exactly* what I ask myself when I face a new challenge, I wanted to share this Magic Question with you too.

Before I mention the question itself, consider this: Most solutions to your huge problems are not earth-shattering. They are not mind-blowing, over-the-top changes that you must make to achieve your goals. You just have to follow the common-sense advice and put it into action.

So what's the Magic Question, you ask? "What's the worst that could happen?"

When you are in a situation that brings out your fears and insecurities, simply ask yourself what the absolute worst thing is that could happen to you if everything went wrong.

For instance, I am about to launch a new course on how to brand your small business, and although I have already had a number of clients express interest in the course, of course there is always the possibility that no one will buy it, everyone will laugh me out of town and my business will fail to grow at the rate that I have planned. But none of that is likely to happen, and allowing my fears to rule my actions would be silly.

The same goes for you: What's the worst that could happen if you took a calculated risk?

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In a recent issue of the Avenues to Marketing Success Newsletter, I mentioned a service for adding audio to your website to boost your conversion rate.

By now, I've spent some time trying out AudioGenerator for my own purposes. You literally pick up the phone and dial in to record your website audio, and then the program generates a line of code for you to add to your website. That's pretty much all the work involved. No complaints on my end.

After much consideration, I've decided not to go with AudioGenerator for my own websites -- not because of the quality of the service, which is excellent, nor because it is easier than the alternatives (which it is).

Flying solo

Rather, I decided that since I have an entire web server at my disposal that can handle the extra bandwidth of audio downloads, there's no need for me to add on another service that charges a monthly fee when I could do it myself.

Although I am not a techie, after many years promoting consumer electronics, I am pretty comfortable with garden-variety devices such as voice recorders and the like, so I have decided to try to make my own audio files using one of 2 options: either my digital voice recorder's USB capability or a separate mic and easy-to-use software.

I'm not going to announce my findings until I've gotten everything wrapped up and running so that you can sample it, but wanted to let you know that if you've got a high-capacity web hosting account you're not utilizing fully and a little (not a lot) software know-how, I'm pretty sure there's a better way.

For now, I recommend AudioGenerator if you're low-tech (or no-tech) or don't have a hosting account large enough to accommodate audio files, and I'll get back to you on the less-expensive, but more technical solution very soon.

More on adding audio to your website soon!

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As you may know, I celebrated my birthday about a week ago while I was on the road. Early this morning I began doing the weekly email inbox clean-up session that keeps me sane and ensures that I haven't forgotten to take care of anything each week. In the midst of doing so, I came across a handful of emails from vendors I've registered with -- including my favorite local radio station here in SoCal.

The station is smart enough to know that they should pamper their loyal listeners to keep them happy and tuning in, and they sent me a ecard to wish me a happy birthday. Sounds sweet, and it's nice to receive (even if in my heart of hearts I know that it is computer-generated and not a one-on-one note from my fave DJs) ... but there's also a *wee* little problem with the card.

In it, there was a note that allows me to accrue additional points (they have a customer loyalty program in place in which you trade points for goodies like CDs and concert tickets) just by going to their website and typing in a specific phrase. The problem? They didn't include their URL, and it's been a long while since I've been to their site, so it's no longer anywhere to be found in my recently used URLs file in Internet Explorer.

Secondly, the number of free points gives me essentially nothing. I'd have to have 15 times the amount given away in the ecard to even begin to be able to get anything at all.

So I've got a present that I'd have to do work for just to be able to someday possibly accrue enough points to get that Milli Vanilli CD I've been saving up for since the mid-80s ... if, that is, I can ever find the radio station's website when the time comes.

Folks, if you want to do something nice for your clients, make sure that:

a) it requires no work on their part to enjoy

b) it actually provides something of value to your clients

c) you include relevant contact info because your clients are not psychic and might not know how to proceed

All of the above will keep happy clients even more thrilled with you and your business.

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Blogging is powerful stuff indeed.

On Steve Rubel's excellent Micro Persuasion blog, he referenced a story about some bloggers who have been posting all sorts of negative, yet very funny stuff about Kensington's new laptop lock. (Apparently, all you need to crack the lock are readily available items we all have at our fingertips -- a toilet paper roll, scissors and that ever-present, ever-ready, ever-useful stuff known as duct tape or the 8th world wonder to you DIYers out there.)

Funny as the story may be, there's a real marketing lesson here. The Kensington folks seem unaware of their faux pas, although it's plastered all over the Internet. What are your customers blogging about you online? And could this be blemishing your otherwise positive image?

A quick Google search could work wonders! And blogging on your own site to respond to such rumors might also be in order.

(And while we're talking about duct tape, for everyone still in need of a good Father's Day gift, there are quite a few books on new and exciting uses for duct tape out there. Got my dad one as a fun gift for a recent gift-giving occasion and he loved it!)

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In my early-morning plan-my-week surfing, I came across a marketing/computer website (yes, both at once) with decent content, but no indication of who the person is who's running the show.

A note on the homepage lets me know that the person has been watching the Internet expand and has a background in computers. (Both of which don't tell me how he or she will help me with my extremely specific computer issue, but that's another blog post entirely.)

But there's no picture of the person (whoever he or she is) on the homepage, nor is there an About Us page to give me the opportunity to find out more.

Now, I'm the last to advocate putting a lot of time and focus on an About Us page -- but when dealing with a small business on the Web, I (the hesitant prospect who's seen a lot of Internet scams and is very, very wary), I want to know names, faces, backgrounds.

Are you showing your prospects and customers who you are? Not just on your website, but also in your other materials.

If hungry prospects are actually seeking out info on who you are, it's a sign they might be convinced to buy. (Active prospects are literally trying to give you business.) But you've got to give them the opportunity to see who you are and why they should trust you.

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While looking for info on a particular aspect of Google Adsense, I came across this great article, right on the Google website, no less.

If you feature Google Adsense on your site, you should take a look -- it outlines good places to put your ads on pages, how to improve your results, etc. For the bargain price of free, it has just about all the knowledge you'll end up gaining from any number of high-dollar ebooks on Google Adsense, one of which I recently bought and cannot recommend.

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As you know, I recently launched my website, blog and all its accoutrements, and I have been using a lot of techniques to get visitors to my site, all of which are measurable. I'm also asked by clients a lot what to do, and of course there are plenty of methods I can and will share at a later date (that's a "whole 'nother" set of posts, however).

However, while I have been helping others generate traffic to their websites for some time on a semi-casual basis (as in, I get to wear jeans <g> and offer advice without being the one to do a lot of the implementation myself), I'm wondering how many of you have hired an on-line marketing service to get traffic to your site.

I'm not talking link farms, search engine optimization firms or pay-per-click traffic -- I'm talking a company that uses ethical means to get more viewers to your website for a reasonable fee. (To clarify, I don't mean that SEO firms and pay-per-click ads are unethical, just that I don't need help in these areas. And yes, some SEO companies ARE shady, so do your research before hiring.)

If you have in fact hired an on-line marketing service, please do let me know. I'd love to hear any pros and cons, especially if you're also a small business owner with a typical small business budget. I want to be able to give solid advice that has been proven to work.