What's Happening?
Anyone who has been following my blog for some time is probably aware of my keen interest in the topics of marketing and promotion and how the two can be used effectively in blogging. I'm not going to delve too deeply into my own thoughts on marketing as you can do a search of my blog under the terms "marketing" or "promotion" and come up with plenty of posts on those and related topics.
In fact my A to Z theme in 2012 was marketing and promotion and those posts would be a good place to find out some of my thoughts on the subject as well as get an idea of what the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is about. If you want to read the first installment of that series you'll find it here and then just continue on if you want more.
The current blog event is about what you bloggers think and have to say about marketing, promotion, and related ideas. There's no magic formula that I know of that makes for successful marketing. Sometimes what works in one instance may fall flat in another. Other times totally absurd ideas may work in a big way. Some ideas are fairly tried and true while others are just a shot in the dark. Sometimes they work and and sometimes they don't.
With What Works....and what doesn't we want to get some idea of what some of you may have actually tried or observed. We hope to learn some of your philosophies, psychological insights, hard factual data, or your pipe dreams about marketing. We want to try to figure out What Works...
Why What Works...?
In November Yolanda Renée and I were having an email interchange about the guest post she did at my dream blog, A Faraway View. We were examining stats and experimenting with different tactics to see what worked in drawing visitors to the site. A Faraway View typically is a low activity blog, but our combined efforts brought considerably more viewers to her post than I usually get. Though the numbers for that post are still low, through our combined marketing efforts the post garnered some of the highest views and most comments of any other post on that site. Was it due to our marketing efforts?
During the course of our exchange I came up with what I thought might be a good idea for a blog event. The "blogfest" should have a wide range of interest among most of our followers since we all are promoting something whether we admit to it or not. This would not be just a fun blogging exercise, but " a blogfest with information you can use."
The premise would be for participants to tell about a marketing idea they've used that worked or one that didn't work. Their post could describe a campaign that succeeded in a big or small way or one that failed drastically. This wouldn't only be limited to authors but also apply to those who have gone into business, observed in another business campaign, participated in an organizational event, helped their kids with a fundraiser, or anything where a bit of promotion was necessary. In other words this is a blogfest anyone could participate in and everyone can learn from. Posts can be informational, a personal experience account, or a funny marketing story. Experience gained from a promotional effort in one area can have applications in other efforts.
The ultimate goal is to learn what others have done right that we all can use and what to avoid. Hopefully we can get marketing stats like Yolanda and I were doing in our study and other hard data that might be compiled into specific or fairly decent conclusions. We want to know What Works... and I'm sure many of you would find this type of information useful as well.
Also Brought to You By:
Since I've had more than a few interchanges on the subject of marketing with my good friend Jeremy Hawkins, I contacted him to bring his knowledge to the table. I know Jeremy is very interested in marketing since he has a number of ventures going. His artistic expertise provided us with a super cool logo for the event.
And of course no great blogging event would be complete without Alex J. Cavanaugh. Alex has mastered the art of cross promotion, building his name, blog recognition, and brand by promoting others. I owe a special thanks to Alex for being at the helm of this event while I was on vacation and during my subsequent illness. That's why we call him "The Captain".
Arlee Bird - http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/
Yolanda Renee - http://yolandarenee.blogspot.com/
Jeremy Hawkins - http://www.beingretro.com/
Alex J. Cavanaugh - http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/
Now let's find out What Works...and what doesn't.
Here's the list of participants!
Here's the list of participants!
Remember--if you don't see the Linky List here then check the other participating sites. I've been having some computer problems.
