What We Learned From Early Use of blogorbuild.sitesell.com by Affiliates
We recently launched http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com. It explains to most small-business people why they should start a Web presence (or re-start it) with a Theme-Based Content Site, NOT with a blog. The long-term monetization potential available to someone who uses the Content 
Traffic PREsell Monetize process to build a Theme-Based Content Site is just so much greater.
Through this landing page, we are trying to engage people in serious conversation, to cause them to reconsider blogging and its role. If blogging fits your business model, include it as a relationship-builder. We're not "against" blogging. Not at all. It can be superb... in its place. And its place is not as the primary Web presence, not for most small businesses.
Naturally, the message (build vs. blog) is not only true, but it has a very definite marketing purpose. In the same way, we view ourselves as competing against Web hosts even though they don't deliver a product anywhere near SBI!. We compete against blogs since many prospective customers consider blogging as a potential way to start a small business online.
For most, it's the wrong way. Our job is to convince them that SBI! is the right way. And to do that, we give our 5 Pillar affiliates the tools (in this case, blogorbuild.sitesell.com) to get the message out to them.
Since the launch of the landing page, I've been tracking how our affiliates have been using it to PREsell SBI! to people who are right for SBI!. I want to be sure that my message is clear and balanced as I point out the known weaknesses of blogging.
Here's what I've learned so far...
1) My original version was perceived by some respondents as an attack on blogging. Now, some people are over-sensitive and you have to decide if that was the case or if the message was too strong. After I reviewed the opening headline...
Blog or Build?
You COULD Do BOTH With Site Build It!.
But For Most Small Business People...
"Full-Blogging" Is an All-Too-Common,
Important and Time-Sapping Strategic Error
... I decided that it read as a bit too strong. So now it's...
Blog or Build?
You COULD Do BOTH With Site Build It!.
But Your Time Is Limited. So...
For Most Small Business People...
"Full-Blogging" Is the Wrong Choice To Build a Business
This is cleaner and more direct, and certainly more accurately reflects what the page is all about. The core message is...
"Blogging has its places, but it's not as the primary online business presence."
2) One of our affiliates made a point in her blog about blogorbuild.sitesell.com. She discussed using a Web site and a blog. So I added a new paragraph, the second one after the "When Should You Blog?" headline near the top of the page.
And in that section, we fine-tuned the first four paragraphs to be clearer.
3) Reaction by Andy Beard's readers (and in a couple of other blogs) convinced me that the rest of the messaging about "bloggers blogging about blogging" and the weaknesses of blogging was not only on target, but causing them to really think about it all. So by the fifth paragraph (starts with "Most only realize the error..."), no changes were needed to that material.
4) One other change, and this was due to an interpretation we noticed a few times, was how people referred to our quote directly from the Google Analytics 101 course...
http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/#ANALYTICS101
People quoted it, thinking that we were making the claim that...
"Blogs usually have high Bounce Rates no matter what since normal visitor behavior is to read the newest post and then leave."
I guess we could have done more than merely reference Google. We could have linked to the actual article...
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-analytics-101-part-3.html
But I really hate to break the reader's train of thought.
So I improved the message, hopefully, to make it clear that this is Google stating this fact, not us making an unsubstantiated claim.
If you think about it, it makes sense. It's how I read blogs, unless they are like Steve Pavlina's, which is really a Theme-Based Content Site.
But when we have an authority like Google stating it, we would like readers to remember it was their (Google's) data and not our own opinion.
What have I learned so far about our latest affiliate landing page? It's early days yet, but overall, my post-launch copy tweaks got us closer to the "just right" message.
The blogorbuild content has people THINKING about blogging, how it fits in, where it belongs and when. They can now make informed decisions about their online businesses, rather than fall for all the buzz and white noise about blogging. That's our main goal and it's happening.
What's The Point For Your Business??
Studying the response of a new Web page or an e-zine issue helps you to fine tune your message to just the right level of understanding and credibility.
Are there any confusing points or assumptions or built-in biases affecting the clarity of your communications? Tracking visitor/customer reaction to your content (in their blogs, e-zine articles, forums, etc.) can pinpoint where key tweaks are required.
How and where can you get visitor/customer feedback about your content so that you can fine-tune it until the right message is being "conveyed and weighed" properly by your target audience?
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