Internet marketing is a field that is just jam packed with misinformation, confusion and misconceptions.
Some of these are intentional, as there are some unscrupulous people out there who desire to make a quick buck no matter what.
But for the most part, I feel a good amount of the misconceptions out there are just due to the large amount of information out there.
Whenever there is a lot of information about one subject in one place, it's going to create some confusion.
Most of this confusion seems to center around those things that are most important or most powerful, like traffic building.
Now, traffic building is not a complicated thing, and there are a lot of different ways to go about it.
One great way of producing traffic is through something called Blog Marketing.
 This can be a somewhat confusing term, and after my opening rant on how internet marketing doesn't need to be so complicated, I feel obligated to clear it up quickly.
Most people don't understand what Blog Marketing is, and they often confuse it with the general idea of Blogging.
For most people, blog marketing isn't any different than simply creating a blog that's related to their niche and writing a continuous stream of posts about it.
While that's part of the strategy, ultimate blog marketing and blogging are two somewhat different things.
 Here's the main problem in a nutshell.
If you think that all you have to do is create a blog, than you will just become a blogger.
You will stop being an internet marketer, and you will start primarily being a blogger.
There is a difference between the two.
Most internet marketers get into blogging solely as a vehicle for making money.
Most bloggers aren't primarily motivated by money, and simply write posts and interact with their readers just for the sake of doing it.
This is great, and blogging can be a very personally rewarding thing.
But if you are an internet marketer, than you need to start your blog with the main intention of using it primarily for marketing purposes.
 If you are reading this than you are probably in the camp of blogging to make money.
You are an internet marketer, you are not just someone who wants to share their knowledge.
You want to make money from what you have to offer.
If you want to start a personal blog, than that is great and you should go for it with all your heart.
But don't mix this personal passion project up with your money making ventures.
Even if you do eventually monetize your passion project, it still will primarily be one from the heart and will probably not make as much money for you as a blog started primarily to create income.
 Blog marketing itself is simple.
You make a blog around your niche, you optimize it for the search engines, you optimize it to convert visitors either into sales or leads for your email list, and make it as regular and predictable as possible, you track how people are finding your site and you optimize those avenues, and you do everything you can to make the most money from it- oftentimes things like lightboxes are regular sales pitches that you wouldn't necessarily want to incorporate into a passion project blog.
Know why you are creating a blog in the first place, and make sure that intention informs all the decisions you make for your blog.
Some of these are intentional, as there are some unscrupulous people out there who desire to make a quick buck no matter what.
But for the most part, I feel a good amount of the misconceptions out there are just due to the large amount of information out there.
Whenever there is a lot of information about one subject in one place, it's going to create some confusion.
Most of this confusion seems to center around those things that are most important or most powerful, like traffic building.
Now, traffic building is not a complicated thing, and there are a lot of different ways to go about it.
One great way of producing traffic is through something called Blog Marketing.
 This can be a somewhat confusing term, and after my opening rant on how internet marketing doesn't need to be so complicated, I feel obligated to clear it up quickly.
Most people don't understand what Blog Marketing is, and they often confuse it with the general idea of Blogging.
For most people, blog marketing isn't any different than simply creating a blog that's related to their niche and writing a continuous stream of posts about it.
While that's part of the strategy, ultimate blog marketing and blogging are two somewhat different things.
 Here's the main problem in a nutshell.
If you think that all you have to do is create a blog, than you will just become a blogger.
You will stop being an internet marketer, and you will start primarily being a blogger.
There is a difference between the two.
Most internet marketers get into blogging solely as a vehicle for making money.
Most bloggers aren't primarily motivated by money, and simply write posts and interact with their readers just for the sake of doing it.
This is great, and blogging can be a very personally rewarding thing.
But if you are an internet marketer, than you need to start your blog with the main intention of using it primarily for marketing purposes.
 If you are reading this than you are probably in the camp of blogging to make money.
You are an internet marketer, you are not just someone who wants to share their knowledge.
You want to make money from what you have to offer.
If you want to start a personal blog, than that is great and you should go for it with all your heart.
But don't mix this personal passion project up with your money making ventures.
Even if you do eventually monetize your passion project, it still will primarily be one from the heart and will probably not make as much money for you as a blog started primarily to create income.
 Blog marketing itself is simple.
You make a blog around your niche, you optimize it for the search engines, you optimize it to convert visitors either into sales or leads for your email list, and make it as regular and predictable as possible, you track how people are finding your site and you optimize those avenues, and you do everything you can to make the most money from it- oftentimes things like lightboxes are regular sales pitches that you wouldn't necessarily want to incorporate into a passion project blog.
Know why you are creating a blog in the first place, and make sure that intention informs all the decisions you make for your blog.