If sales are stagnant, the problem is most likely the result of one or two things: You aren’t selling the right products or you aren’t properly promoting your online store. Of course, the answer could be found in a third option: You aren’t doing either.

Ecommerce doesn’t just happen. There is rhyme and reason to everything. In many cases, you can break it down like a math equation. If you do X and add Y but subtract Z you will get S, as in sales. But work is required to be visible, attract potential customers, engage them in the buying process and seal the deal. Ecommerce is full grown at this point and there is ample competition on the Internet. So you better put in the time to properly promote your online store. If not, failure is imminent.

The single best way to highlight your online store for customers is to create a blog. A well-written blog is a great way to put a human touch to your online store’s profile. This will attract and engage customers in ways that can’t be achieved with product and sales pages alone.

To help with the transition, here are the top 5 reasons your online store should have a blog:

Search engine rankings – This one is simple. If you aren’t registering on search engines – i.e. Google – then you’re spinning your wheels. It’s as simple as that. Without good SEO, your website is practically invisible. This is a bad thing unless you are in the fortunate position of being able to turn away new customers. Using keywords in certain ways and optimizing headlines, URLs and meta tags will promote the business end in a subtle, yet effective, way.

Engagement – Blogs, especially when combined with a comprehensive social media promotion strategy, are great for engaging readers and creating a sense of excitement. Polls, comment boards, contests and other special activities make the experience interactive and will keep customers coming back.

Education – Sales and product pages are viewed with an eye of skepticism by most consumers. They know you’re trying to sell something. But a blog represents a unique opportunity to inform readers in a non-intrusive way and answer important questions or address concerns.

Feedback – A blog also offers a valuable way to gauge customer interests and possibly hear what products and services they’d like offered. This interactive platform can be a very valuable source of prime consumer information.

Familiarity – While a blog will make your online store more accessible through lifestyle content, it also gives a look into the personality behind the business. This kind of insight offers human details consumers appreciate. It puts you on a level that will pay dividends in the long run.

Use your social media to generate traffic

Some blog owners still don’t like using social media sites to promote their blog, which is a shame. Links provided to social media sites can generate quick feedback and visits because it’s easier for your friends and acquaintances to click on the link and then read the article. Don’t be shy, self-promotion is not a bad thing.

Posting schedules should be considered

You may have written a wonderful article. But before you post it, make sure that you post it in a day and/or time where you will get more mileage from it. Study your blog traffic and post your great articles on a day or time when you usually anticipate more traffic going to your site. Just post your more “generic” content at a time when there is less traffic – even on a weekend if you want to.

Use a more critical eye when reviewing your post

Don’t just write and post your article. Before you publish your blog post, take some time to step back and look at what you’ve just written. Chances are there are some things that you can tweak and improve. For example, a more descriptive title, or a stronger opening to your post.

Many times, I find myself tempted to write headlines with a twist, or funny ones that are meant to be an insider joke (meaning only a few people would understand it). If you run a blog intended for such a purpose, then by all means, go for it. For instance, you might run a literary blog, and you are fond of writing poetry. In many cases, the titles of your posts can be simply one word. It can be as far out as just a single exclamation point.

However, when you run your blog with the intent of providing useful information, or as a source for news, reviews and editorials, it makes sense to use relevant headlines. In this case, you need to include relevant keywords in the title itself. Including relevant keywords in the title can both help your blog become more visible in search engines, and it will also make your post more attractive to human readers, such as those coming from feed readers. After all, at first glance, it’s the title of their post that they encounter, and so people will often judge the content based on the headline.

Let me ask you this: when you do a Google search for a certain topic, do you necessarily click on the first result in the list? Or do you click the title that seems most appropriate to your query?

I must admit that in doing reviews for submissions here on EatonWeb, I often scan through post titles, both current and archived, before reading through posts. This lets me get a feel of what a blog is all about, even before I read through entries. It helps me gauge the relevance of a blog at first glance.

Write a better blog. Start with great headlines.

I would agree that the best types of links are the natural ones–called “editorial” links. These don’t seem forced, because the writers themselves wholeheartedly link to your content because they like it. But it’s sometimes difficult to determine what kind of content people would actually like and link to on their own.

Ryan has defined these under two categories. First, you can evoke reactive emotions–write something that you know people will feel strongly about, whether positively or negatively. Secondly, you can appeal to reason–make yourself appear as the expert so people would listen.

Folks might think that linkbait articles are essentially those list-type articles that are fun or make for good reference. But remember, next time you try to come up with content that you feel should be link-worthy, make sure that it does appeal to the senses and to emotions. This way, people have a reason of linking to your site.

Is there such a thing as too-frequent posting, though? I would say that for blogs, there is only such a thing if you consider the front-page life-span of a post. While many users are already comfortable with reading content on their RSS feed readers, most are still accessing your site via the front page. This means they type in the URL on their browsers, hit enter, and land on your site’s main page.

So in that regard, it does pay to keep the important stuff at the front page, at least long enough for people to read it. If your front page displays five posts at a time, and you publish twenty posts in a span of one hour, then chances are those 15 other posts pushed to 2nd, 3rd and 4th page status don’t get as much exposure as the last five ones.

Some bloggers like to delineate between regular and important posts. So how do you keep important posts on the front page? One trick here is to re-design your site such that posts tagged as “features” become “sticky” ones, meaning they stay on the front page even when they’re already overridden by newer posts in terms of freshness.

Still, experienced bloggers would recommend a posting frequency of one to three times a day. That’s frequent enough to be considered fresh, but not too frequent that people are not overwhelmed by the postings. At least this goes for one-blogger blogs.

What’s In It For Me?

Always put yourself in the shoes of your audience because they will be asking that question. Keeping WIIFM in mind means figuring out how your blog can appeal to the people you want to reach.

Reading your blog needs to be a rewarding experience for both the regular readers and first-time visitors. You need to demonstrate this through all aspects of your blog, from the design to the functionality to the content.

Once your audience understands why they should be reading your blog, you must move on to what you want them to do on your blog. You need to be able to communicate to the benefits of bookmarking, subscribing, linking, and returning to your blog.

What are the more specific calls to action you wish to achieve on your blog? It could be a Digg or a Stumble. It could be a click on an affiliate link or any other advertisement. It could be directly buying your product. As you become more specific with the expectations you have of your audience, you must communicate them more clearly.

Connecting with your audience is an essential feature of successful blogs. And being mindful of WIIFM at all times is the way to do it.

Quality resources vary across niches, but you know a quality resource when you see one. For example, take a look at Brian Clark’s 10 Step Copywriting Tutorial. It’s what everyone turns to when they want to master copywriting for the web.

Or, take Darren Rowse’s Blogging For Beginners. It’s the ultimate resource of new bloggers. When blogging firms hire new bloggers, they always send them over to Darren’s resource.

Both of the examples above feature the content of the author’s themselves. But another type of resource is the “Meta” Resource which links to the best articles on a particular topic. For a great example of this, check out my resource article that lists what I consider the 10 most important articles that all bloggers read. I didn’t write most of the articles on that list, but I know from experience which articles have had the most impact on me and my employees.

Another way to create a great resource is to truly go multimedia by integrating text, images and video into a comprehensive guide on a topic. Recently, I wrote a guide for how to develop such a resource. As an example, I created the basic structure for a resource article on Scottish tartans. While it’s just the basic framework, a more thorough job would certainly get some attention from the online tartan industry.

So there you have 4 examples to help you get a picture of what it takes to build quality resources in your niche. So what are you waiting for? Differentiate yourself as a quality blog by creating top-of-class resources today.

He wrote about posting excerpts from his new book last month and also giving a recommendation for a book by author Garr Reynolds.  He built a Squidoo page about that book with an affiliate link to Amazon. 

Guess which book has gotten more sales?  His book or Garr’s book? 

Seth checked his stats and it shows that he’s sold more of Garr’s book than his own book.

What people say about you is much more important than what you say about yourself.

There’s a lot of talk about self-promotion but it’s a lot more beneficial and effective when other bloggers promote you.

When people talk about you and especially when they recommend you, you gain credibility, mindshare, and exposure.

So, how do you get other people to start talking about you?

Unique Content

First, and you’ve probably heard this a million times, write unique content. 

This is easier said than done because it takes work to be creative. 

The key to creating unique content is knowing your niche well.  If you do this, you’ll be able to see which topics, viewpoints, and media formats are not being covered well in your niche.  Also, you’ll be able to gauge your competition.  Can you produce something better than them?  Can you create something different from them?

When you find a "gap" you can fill, you have a much better chance of being recommended because no one else is doing what you’re doing.

For example, in my last blog post, I talked about producing audio and video content.

Many niches don’t have a blog with quality video and audio content.  If you produce multimedia content, you’ll greatly differentiate your blog from the other blogs in your niche.  This leads to people talking about you because you’re unique.

Here’s another example from the make money online niche.  Surprisingly, this niche does not have many good tutorials.  If you write a lengthy tutorial filled with screenshots (like this one), you’ll probably get a lot of links and traffic

Therefore, do some market research.  And then have a brainstorming session and come up with content ideas that aren’t being produced in your niche.

Network

Second, network. 

You may not agree with this but I think networking is more important than unique content.  Networking allows your content to be found.  Even non-unique content can get popular because the blogger that produced the content has many blogger friends.

Networking is simply building friendships with other bloggers in your niche.

Think about how you make friends offline and try to translate those methods on the blogosphere. 

For me, I find out where people hang out and then I go there to meet people.  When I’m online, I do a similar thing.  I visit places where other bloggers hang out to network with them.  Depending on the niche, these places could be a forum or a social voting site. 

Also, I find that I can meet new friends through my existing friends.  On the internet, I ask my existing blogger friends if they could introduce me to other bloggers.

Here are some other ways and places where you can build friendships with other bloggers in your niche.

• twitter
• blog commenting
• email
• link out with trackbacks
• help out another blogger

There’s more that can be said about networking.  Here are 2 posts that can give you more ideas:

• 3 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Networking Skills
• Effective Networking: 7 Ways to Connect With People in Your Niche 

The Final Ingredient: Time

Just like profitable blogging usually takes time, so does getting mentioned consistently by other bloggers.

If you’re only starting out, it will probably take a couple of months of producing unique content and networking before other bloggers start talking about you.

But give it some time and you’ll soon be a recognizable blogger in your niche.

Feedback

What have you done to get other bloggers to promote you?

Produce multimedia content.

You may have to spend time and effort to learn how to produce a podcast or edit a video and upload it to YouTube. But this is a tactic that will pay many dividends for your blog. Here are 5 of the great benefits that come from integrating multimedia in your blog.

1. Reach More People

As bloggers, we probably think people read a lot because we read a lot. However, here are some surprising stats I found from the short ebook Teaching Sells.

• 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
• 42% of college graduates never read another book.
• 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
• 57% of new books are not read to completion.
• Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.

Teaching Sells also makes the point that many people learn better through audio or video rather than text.

Think about how many visitors go to YouTube on a regular basis. According to Alexa, YouTube is the 4th most visited site in the whole internet. That’s a huge potential audience that’s worth promoting to. Other video sharing sites like Dailymotion and Revver also have huge audiences.

By producing video and audio, you’ll reach the huge number of people who use the internet primarily to consume video and audio – not text.

2. Stand Out From The Crowd

How many blogs in your niche actually use multimedia on a regular basis? As a full-time search marketer for a company with over 20 blogs, I’ve worked in many different niches. In all the niches I’ve worked in, the vast majority of blogs don’t use multimedia.

Multimedia greatly improves your branding. My company recently rolled out a weekly news show for our celebrity gossip blog. We had struggled with getting links for other popular celebrity blogs. But once we had the show up and running, it was a lot easier to get links.

Webmasters like to link to unique content. Right now, multimedia content is unique content in most niches. Multimedia will help your blog get noticed. Video and audio content will capture the attention of your niche audience.

So, start producing multimedia before the other bloggers do it. Be one of the first in your niche to start a podcast and/or vodcast.

3. Higher Perceived Value

This is similar to the second benefit. Multimedia adds a ton of value to your blog. You can charge more for advertising since you’re reaching more people. You can place ads in your multimedia content. You can even sell your content. And video and audio products can be sold at higher prices than ebooks.

4. Ranking through Universal Search

One thing that hasn’t received a lot of press is Google’s Universal Search. Yet this development will change search rankings for the years to come. Universal Search means that the first page of Google no longer has only text-based pages. Instead, there will be videos, images, books, and even maps.

This means you can upload your video to YouTube and your YouTube URL can rank on Google’s first page.

I did a short YouTube case study back in July for Net Business Blog. Mark from 45n5.com and I targeted the keyword worlds best internet marketing tools. (This keyword actually has search volume.)

We built links to our videos. In three days, Mark’s video got a first page Google ranking. In 11 days, my video also hit the first page.

I haven’t done any link building since then. My video is currently ranked 6th.

So, by creating videos, uploading them to YouTube, and then building links to your video, you can grab first page spots on Google.

Don’t forget to link to your site on your YouTube video. You can’t use anchor text. However, if you type in your URL with “http://”, YouTube will link to that URL. Check out my video for an example.

5. Mobile Content

With the popularity of iPods and other multimedia mobile players, audio and video content will rise in popularity too. Sure, you can read text on iPods. But for the most part, people are not using their iPods to read blog posts. Instead, they’re watching videos and listening to podcasts.

Audio files have an extra benefit because they can be consumed while doing other things like commuting or cleaning the house. The audio book industry is a 800 million dollar industry so there are many people willing to spend money on audio products.

Practical Examples

Here are 3 excellent sites that use multimedia well. Check out their podcasts and videos to give you inspiration for your own multimedia content.

1. http://www.tubetorial.com
2. http://www.techsavvymarketer.com/video-tutorials/
3. http://www.whoisandrewwee.com/category/podcasts/

Also, check out sketchcast.com. It’s another multimedia format that may fit well for your blog.

Good luck with your blogging efforts in 2008!

So, how do you become a more passionate blogger?

First of all, enjoy your niche. Blog about something you love. If you don’t like to travel, don’t start a travel blog. If you don’t like video games, don’t start a video game blog. If you don’t like American football, don’t start an NFL blog. Simple, right?

The key to being passionate is to figure out what excites you. Consider the niches you gravitate towards. What do you spend your money on? What occupies much of your time? What do you like to think about?

If you go to a rock concert every two weeks, you’re probably a good candidate to start a rock music blog. If you are subscribed to five car magazines and you read them cover to cover, you should start a car blog. If you’re a scientist and follow science blogs and do experiments for fun, you guessed it, you should start a science blog.

This begs the question. What if you’re in a niche you don’t really love? Should you stop blogging about it? Can you develop a passion for that niche? I think you can, but it’s risky. The most important thing you can do is research your niche more. Subscribe to quality blogs in the niche and read them regularly. Read magazines. Read books. Go to forums. Immerse yourself in the niche and you’ll find out quickly if you like your niche or not.

Let’s say you do have the passion and excitement. Here are two practical things you can do to show others your passion.

Increase your word count. Write posts that deliver a lot of value. Of course, it’s not just about having more words. But if you’re passionate about your niche, you should have many things to say. Also, don’t be afraid to publish less posts. What’s more important is the quality of the posts. I increased my traffic by posting less often and writing longer, more insightful posts.

Do things no one else is doing. By being unique, you demonstrate that you want to add value to your niche. Too many bloggers are copycats. They look like and sound like other blogs. You can be unique in many ways. Here are some of those ways:

• Write about an important topic that’s not being covered well
• Use pictures
• Have a unique blog design
• Use non-text media like video and sketchcasts
• Do a series of 5 or more blog posts that relate to one theme
• Write a comprehensive FAQ
• Give away free stuff
• Guest post a lot
• Network like crazy
• Submit a consistent stream of great content to a social media site like StumbleUpon

Further Reading

From Copyblogger:
Go Big or Go Home: Why Being Bold is Critical to Getting Noticed

From Blog Herald:
If You Want to Start Blogging, You Have to Get Up and Dance