Many website owners question the benefit of syndicating the content and articles they write for their own site. In fact, they even fear that syndicating their content may cause them to receive search engine penalties for duplicate content, or actually make them competitors with the sites they syndicate to.
None of these concerns are really worth stopping you from syndicating, however. There are many benefits to syndicating your articles, including:
Creating Brand Name Awareness – As more people have access to your articles from multiple sources, you create awareness for yourself and your site, and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Generating Traffic to Your Site – Your syndicated content should link directly back to your site, which, quite simply, brings you more readers and should help improve your business.
Increases Your Search Engine Ranking – As you generate more traffic to your site along with more backlinks to your site, your ranking in the search engines continues to get higher. This, in turn, generates even more traffic to your site.
One of the main keys to syndicating your articles is that they link back directly to your site. You want your work to always point back to you, rather than generating traffic for the sites you’ve syndicated to. This helps you ensure that you’re not competing with the sites who publish your content, and helps the search engines determine that you are the original source of the content.
Like anything else, syndicating content does have some downsides, like the possibility that the site you syndicate to might decide to modify your articles, even though your licensing agreement prohibits it. Issues like this can be sticky and time consuming to remedy. However I’ve found these types of issues of only minor concern, far outweighed by the benefits of article syndication.
Fears about duplicate content are not an issue here either. I’ll cover duplicate content in more detail in another post but in general, the search engines aren’t going to penalise you for syndicating your articles.
For most small, micro and home-based businesses, syndicating articles is an extremely effective way to get your name out there and create awareness for your own site.
Having a website for your business is one thing, but getting traffic to it – the right kind of traffic – is something that many small business owners find daunting.
If you’re keen to discover new ways to get all the traffic you can handle to your website then the World Traffic Summit is worth getting along to.
This 3-day seminar will focus solely on traffic generation for your website(s) or online business, with some of the best-of-the-best from around the world traveling to Australia to share their tips and personal traffic strategies.
Have you ever wondered why it is that some people follow through and achieve success with something while others either don’t follow through – e.g. they buy a coaching program or book and never use it – or they follow through but don’t seem to achieve positive results?
I have. Many times. And it’s really frustrating because if someone buys my product I truly want them to use it and to achieve results from it.
I know it’s not just me because I’ve had many discussions about this topic with several colleagues in the last couple of years.
Thankfully, John Reese and Frank Kern, two well-known and highly respected internet business professionals, wanted to know the answer to the very same question. So they asked one man who was sure to be able to explain this … Anthony Robbins. Better still, they recorded this interview so we can all benefit from it.
What Is Market Research And Why Is It So Important?
These are important questions to answer for any small- and medium-sized business (and indeed large companies as well). Unfortunately, many small business owners disregard the importance of market research or otherwise know little about it. It is not at all uncommon for small business market research to be ignored or not completed fully. This often spells the downfall of small businesses, as they are out of touch with the wants and needs of motivated buyers.
The Danger of Assumptions
Many small business owners assume that they understand what their customers want and what motivates them to buy. But without accurately testing the market you can never be sure. There is a danger involved in assuming that you know what your client-base wants and what motivates them to choose one supplier or provider over another. The danger is in missing your target audience and not connecting with them. That loss of connection means a loss of business or sales, and for many, ultimately business failure.
Rather than assume you know what your core target group wants, be sure! The only way to be sure is to test your market through thorough market research, and find out precisely how to incite them to action and excite them about your business.
What is Market Research?
One of the greatest reasons small businesses fail to effectively complete market research is that they are unsure about what it is.
In simplest terms, market research is finding out what people want and will buy (whether that be services or goods), and how much they will pay for it. Thorough market research consists of testing and evaluating the market through different means to determine the demand, usefulness and likelihood of acceptance of a product across different demographics. It answers very specifically who will purchase a product or service based on characteristics such as:
age
gender
location
income
other variable characteristics.
Armed with this data, business owners can very narrowly target their audience and clientele, and thus can commit resources, product development and advertising to connecting with this audience and very specifically serve their needs. Market research helps small businesses plan for every aspect of promotion and sales, including:
price
advertising and marketing
product features and development
improvements and modifications
Small Business Marketing Research Downfalls
In regards to market research, the downfall of small businesses often comes from nothing more than a lack of it. In other instances, the downfall comes as the result of business owners who become too personally ‘attached’ to their ideas. It is essential to maintain objectivity in marketing matters and use the research to support the most effective strategy.
Understanding market research and its importance is the first step towards taking full advantage of it. The next step is to learn how to perform it effectively and accurately so that you can capitalise on this very important business tool. Know where market research falls into your business strategy, and learn how to make the connections with your core group that will translate into business success.
Many small, micro and home-based business operators are well aware of the benefits of networking with other businesses. Along with meeting new people and perhaps learning from networking event guest speakers, other benefits include building professional relationships with potential clients, suppliers and resources, colleagues, fans and friends. Not to mention getting yourself and your business known in the community.
With all of the technological advances in communications, people are now becoming ever more connected, particularly on the Internet.
And with this advancement in Internet technology comes the ability for businesses to network online too. This could be via:
Online networking gives entrepreneurs a chance to develop relationships with several other entrepreneurs at one time. They can meet several people and communicate in a wider way than face to face networking. In online networking, many different industries and companies are represented within the group.
Online networking saves time and effort for busy entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs are able to reach the world from their own computer through online networking. Utilising the Internet allows professionals to attend online networking avenues much easier than if they attend physical events … all from the comfort of their own home, often at any time of the day from any location and without the need to get dressed up (unless you’re using videos and web-cams!)
Along with benefiting an entrepreneur’s professional and social growth, online networking offers flexibility. Not only does this make it easier to manage how you prioritise your time, it’s also ideal for business owners in small towns and regional or remote areas who may otherwise find business networking a challenge.
Online networking can also be a viable alternative for parents who work from home while caring for children. It’s often difficult for this group of business owners to attend face-to-face networking events without also having to arrange suitable child-care. The cost and effort involved sometimes limits the number of events that they can physically get to.
I’m not suggesting that online networking should entirely take the place of face-to-face networking events, but there are some definite advantages for most businesses to incorporate a little of both.
If you know any worthwhile online networking sites for small, micro and home-based businesses, please share them with us via a comment post
Brett McFall is an Australian marketing expert who has a particular skill for using a simple 10 minute process to help turn businesses around.
In this video you’ll see Brett demonstrate this process – one he performs all around the world, getting the end result he’s looking for every single time … without fail.
It truly is amazing to watch as the process evolves.
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