Blogging has become a profession.  A profession that most companies now realize is critical to their success both online and off.

Emarketer estimates that in 2010 one in three companies are using a public-facing blog for marketing purposes, forecasting a rise to 43% by 2012.

“Studies have shown that marketers perceive blogs to have the highest value of any social media in driving site traffic, brand awareness, lead generation and sales—as well as improving customer service,” said Verna.

Of course you already knew that bloggers have influence, but did you think that so many mainstream media journalists were using YOU as a resource?

I am sure Matt Drudge has a HUGE influence too!

Nearly 70 percent of the US journalists examine blog postings on a regular basis, a poll carried out by Brodeur shows. Blogs have turned into a popular information source and have even affected the manner in which reporters look for news and present events

Once you reach a certain tipping point in regards to readers, you start gaining leverage.  Lots of readers, brings in more readers.  A mention in the mainstream media brings more mentions in the media.

I am sure you have noticed, but I hide the dates of my blog posts.

Why?

Because it helps create the perception of  “evergreen content”.  I want readers to explore the site and dig deep in the archives.  Few people do, when the see that a post was written 3 years ago — and yet there is a lot of valuable information out in my archives.

Removing dates increases the amount of time people explore my blog i.e. more stickiness!  And the longer people are on your blog — the more money you stand to make either with your revenue streams, or when you sell your blog!  Stickiness is huge when computing the value of a website/blog.

Jakob Nielsen is reporting that it is better to have summaries of your posts than full blog entries.

Why?

Because it increases ‘stickiness’.

If a visitor’s interest isn’t captured quickly, then chances are that they are gone.  Summaries increase the likelihood that a visitor finds something interesting.  Jakob’s offers eye-tracking charts as proof…

I stumbled by this website selling t-shirts Seek And Destroy Clothing Co. and was surprised to see that the site was constructed using WordPress and this cool little shopping cart plugin called e-Commerce.

How do you make money with a blog?

Simple.

Design and sell t-shirts.  Or tables.  Or ImageCubes.

(You have to see that a blog is nothing more than a website.  A content management system.  A blog can used to sell products either tangibles, e-products, or knowledge.   The strength of using a blog to make money is that it is simple and versatile.)

There are two schools of thought on blogging…

1. Write lots of short and sweet posts like Instapundit — or…

1. Write one or two long posts a day.  Like Michel Fortin

In the past I preferred writing longer posts.  And maybe that is why I have been so inconsistent in my posts since moving back home to Canada.  (It must be the fucking shade.  I spent too long in California, Hawaii and Georgia.)

So what am I going to do this time — with THIS blog?

I am going for short pithy posts, because as I shared with Lynn Terry and the rest of my subscribers in September 2006: lots of short entries are the secret of the A-listers.  This blog will concentrate on “How To Make Money Blogging!” and nothing more.

I will save my long posts and general marketing stuff for JasonCain.com, so be sure you are reading both via your RSS reader.  (You don’t need to subscribe via email to both blogs.  I will be emailing my whole list when I have something new.)

Presidential candidate John Edwards announced today that he continuing his campaign despite the reappearance of cancer in his wife Elizabeth. However hours before Edwards made his announcement, blogger Ben Smith posted a entry on his blog saying that Edwards was throwing in the towel.

Although Smith apologized for his error — I am not so sure he made one. He was quoting a source that he trusted. He was quoting a source that he believed to be in the loop.

Bloggers are NOT journalists — nor should we aspire to be.

CNN, NY Times and many other media companies spew lies and half-truths all the time, and you rarely see an admission of guilt.

Hell they won’t even admit that they are liberally biased!

Instead of hiring a moving company, I made the mistake of hiring two day laborers that were standing out front of the local gas station mini-mart.

Their packing was less than adequate — and you can click here to see how their incompetence is now YOUR advantage…

Here is a fact…

Online sales letters are dying a painful death — and they are taking a few marketers with them.

Last night I was reading Michel Fortin’s white paper on the “Death Of The Salesletter” for the third time.

And I know he is right.

Long, scrolling copy is dying.

Prospects aren’t reading it — and most of all, they aren’t buying it! They aren’t buying the pitch or the product.

So what is working?

Conversations.

The super successful, mega-product launches that you are witnessing are not sales — they are conversations! Conversations between marketers and their rabid following.

Did John Reese need a killer sales letter in order to sell Traffic Secrets?

No. He had proved he was the king of the Internet prior to the product release. He had created so much anticipation with his blog and videos that people were lining up in droves and crashing his server PRIOR to launch!

(And he is doing it again with his newest blog in the run-up to the Income.com kick-off.)

Did Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins need to use a sales letter when launching StomperNet?

No. They had proven that their network was going to dominate search engine optimization (SEO) with their videos.

And the tool they used to create a feeding frenzy?

Stomper Blog

There are techniques to creating a rabid following — some of which that I described in my sold-out special report “The ‘O Factor’: The Secret To Getting Your Customers To Hand Over All Their Money!”

A rabid following of customers and readers is critical to your ongoing success. And I am NOT talking about having a list. Every marketer has a list. Your relationship has to be deeper than that or you will be left behind!

You’re going to have to quickly learn to master blogging, audio, video and email.

Failing to embrace these tools may well lead to your downfall as a marketer — and there are other marketers circling overhead like buzzards wanting to pick at your carcass.

Download audio file (intro.mp3)
Download audio file (podcast-2007-Mar-08-AM.mp3)

I am often asked what this whole Web 2.0 thing is…

Is it Myspace? Is it Technorati? Is it Plenty of Fish?

It is this…