Must you have a Blog

I don't think a blog is necessary but it certainly can be helpful in building an audience or fan base.

I started with trying to build a blog about something I'm personally passionate about. After a few postings I realized that I had turned something I loved into work. I've killed off my blog and am now looking at other avenues.

You can certainly get started without having a blog, that said you will need web pages over time - when you talk about a sales funnel, the landing pages and content pages for a sales funnel are web pages. My preference, by far, is to use Wordpress as the underlying platform for building various pages you will need. You then settle on a theme and content platform such as Woo Themes, OptimizePress, Thesis, etc...

In addition to your landing pages, squeeze pages and various other components to your sales funnel, you want a traffic generation plan. That could be driving traffic to/through your own content in which case a blog is essential. It could be mainly through advertising, in which case a blog is not required, just successful landing pages for your ads that convert visitors into leads. You could also choose to drive traffic through other mechanisms such as webinars/events, social profile on facebook, instagram, pintrest, etc...

Come up with a plan for how you will drive traffic, what your sales funnel will look like and you will have a much better sense for if/how you will use a blog.

Jeff

It's not a must, but it certainly helps. Building authority and leadership should always lead to something, whether it be via a video or content in some way or another. I think emailing is crucial, but it would be stupid to solely rely on email. You can even consider implementing your sales funnel within your blog if you wanted to.


Relevant and useful content. You might want to consider the questions that your subscribers are going to have as they go through your funnel, and build your content around that to start with.


Sure. You certainly don't want to over-focus on planning without actually delivering results. This industry is always about testing, tracking and adapting.

It;s not essential if you are concentrating on affiliate marketing.
It's worth branding yourself though and becoming the go to person for your particular subject. I find it useful also for bringing traffic to my site.

I tend to lean toward the MUST camp.

Why?

You do all sorts of branding online.

You do all sorts of things to get your message out there.

You need all the signals you send through links and content to have a BASE.

Your blog is the BASE of your brand.

Otherwise, you're just a link spammer or squeeze page spammer OR you're more than perfectly happy to sell all that work vanish into the ether after some time.

While that works (to what extent is debatable) if you're just SIG SPAMMING on forums, if you want to do LEGIT types of marketing, you need to brand and a BLOG is a great home for your brand.

Clear?

When it comes to making money with affiliate marketing, having a blog and building an e-mail list is standard practice. The cool thing about having a blog is that when people come across your blog via the search engines, a lot of people will automatically sign up to your list without you having to do much at all -- especially if they like your content, so your e-mail list acts as a second income stream.

Another cool thing that I didn't realize when I first got started is that once you begin to develop a following, people will actually seek you out -- as in look for reviews about a particular product on your blog because they like you so much. Visitors come to you instead of you having to try to hunt down traffic. Having a blog is totally worth it.

Joey

I think you should seriously consider developing a blog for yourself. It's true that you don't have to have one, but put yourself in your subscribers' shoes: how would you feel about receiving a bunch of emails from a stranger you know nothing about vs. receiving a bunch of emails from someone who you can relate to, someone who takes the time to build a brand?

You don't need one, but it's good to have one. It helps to build credibility with a list if you have one. There is some work involved, but it doesn't have to be complicated. Take your time with it and post frequently. I try to write a post a day, but that's not required you can do one a week if you like. But if you're looking to build a brand having a blog is a good foundation.

I have had my own website for over 10 years now and can not imagine doing anything without it.

If you are really serious about success with your own internet business, getting your own website/blog is the way to go.

Marketing is changing.

Yes you can drive traffic to a Landing Page, then follow up with offers etc using email marketing from the get go.

HOWEVER!

People are spending more time doing their homework and research. If you can leverage the power of the pixel, you are giving yourself a leg up on your competition.

Its great to have a blog anyway to build value, trust, brand, loyalty etc.
The 2nd great thing about a blog is you can place pixels on your posts/sites and follow your potential customer all over the web.

This means that they continue to see your brand/product/service as they surf and this builds the awareness etc of you and your product/brand along the way.

So Yes, Yes and Yes for a blog... WHY?

1) Its long term content that is good for SEO
2) Its about building quality content for your brand and having others seek you out as an expert
3) Its about being able to re-target your visitor/subscriber/customer for a while to come

I don't anymore with a few of my Niches. It certainly can help and put more Money in your Pocket.

But its all about prioritizing.

Do you want to put that extra work and time for extra money ? Or do you value to have more free time on your hands and do without it ?



- Robert Andrew

No. Absolutely not a must.

It can actually be a distraction in most cases...

However, it depends. Blogs can be amazing sources of income, or huge time-wastes

Blog is not necessary. But if you want to be successful you must have one blog. Email list created through blogs are very active and responsive.

absolutely not! A blog is good for seo and branding yourself for people to follow for advice.
yes its a good place to keep people up to date and informed and have a central spot but you can do the same thing with a facebook group. Might even be able to rank it easier!

Set up your funnel collecting your prospect and tie your free offer to your paid affiliate product to build a customer base and work on those front end sales. Start the cash flow process. You can then create your blog and use that to build trust with your email list.

Be adventures and fun in your marketing efforts not just business like.... ;-)

Hi,


I was thinking about this same question myself and as many have stated, blogging is best when geared toward branding.


I come from the Direct Sales, MLM, NWM background and have had the unfortunate experience of maybe a company going out of business, with a blog I could build my business and brand me and then I could add affiliate marketing to the mix.


There are some great blogging course materials on branding and correct blog monetization.


It isn't just about pushing products like so many seem to do in Affiliate and Internet Marketing.


Also I wouldn't think a blog, to build a list and/or audience, would work with solo ads, as Affiliate and Internet Marketing can.

If you are looking to brand yourself then I think a blog is a good thing to have. Of course there are other ways to brand yourself and at first you can probably get away without having one. Personally I love to blog!

Why wouldn't you want a property that allows you to control the sales process? The attraction, lead capture, preselling, and commissions. It allows you to have a base of followers that will buy products you create.

NOT having a blog, or in particular a website, puts you at the mercy of every other company instead of taking things into your own hands.

I agree with many of the posts above about the benefits of having a blog, however, I believe it's something that comes after gaining experience and having the confidence and experience to teach others. I personally wouldn't place "having a blog" as a top priority if you happen to be fairly new. Do Work, Be Successful, Make a killing online...then build a blog to educate others and boom you're helping people achieve their goals, and you're building authority...you should obviously have your blog monetized, so there's another revenue stream Just my 2 cents

Dont waste your time. Blogs are the worst ROI in this business.

Building a blog is extremely resource heavy. That's if u building a top quality blog, great content and quality traffic. Thus it's vital that before u go down that path you have gathered a feasible understanding of exactly how your blog will execute your desired path.

Choosing a domain name, writing content and pushing traffic will be calculated decisions made from your research. Thus it's so important to have a clear direction of where you going.

One of the most important steps in research are testing. A-b split testing will help you make a clear decision. Depending on what your end goal is, I find building free pages to create funnels on websites like getresponse, mailchimp, linktrusted, wix is a great place to start. Once you found the formula by testing then create a blog. Now you able to choose the correct domain name and write relevant content to your niche and create your empire.

Personally I would say it's not vital to have a blog unless your end goal is to have a brand identity. If u simply want affiliate cash or want to make sales, it's best using free tools.

The contributions here had shown that having your own BLOG is very essential and i totally agreed then that you MUST have your blog, this will be another platform for your subscribers to look for you if you stopped mailing.

Hello gjhabs8

the choice of landing pages or contents pages or mini website is undoubtedly the shortest way to reare your list.

Having a blog, even if the construction requires a lot of time and commitment, it helps to create a relationship of greater trust and empathy with your leads so that they become clients, through your funnel.

Good luck :-)

No website is not must. You CAN start without a website. But as other members suggested, having a blog/website is better.

Having a Website is important for a Online Presentation. It will server you for 24*7 to represent your business.

Having Blog which is the main focus to describe or share some info to others, from that we can earn money by Guest Posting, Affiliate, ad sense or ppc.

Kind Regards

gjhabs8, I think a blog is very useful in many ways. Besides being a base for presenting your offering and comments and information in your topic area, it acts as a platform to give and receive market information within your niche area. A blog is usually set up as a duplex communication form and this allows for discussion, and sharing on many levels. Some of the discussion can lead to product ideas, potential partnering and just plain ole developing friendships. It is nice to have contact with kindred spirits since in most cases you are the only one in your neighborhood that is involved in online marketing. For what it's worth...

No reason not to right? I mean, writing is easy enough and the internal linking options can help you rank pretty well by itself.

A few years ago I would think you have gotten away without a blog, but these days....not any longer.

You don't need a blog, but it would be *nice* to have one. LOL

Just like offering an "articles" page or your own forum... on top of a daily email newsletter. And even free ebooks. To me, the more content the better. It's just a fast way of becoming the obvious expert in the mind of your prospect. Which helps to bring them 1 step closer to purchasing your product.

But no, a blog isn't needed.

Dear gjhabs8,

Thanks for a interesting question.
Think the Blog/Website is a tool to reach your target audience (known as a niche). It's not the only one tool you can use to do so but it's the most powerful and the long lasting one. Blog/Website allows you to share YOUR vision, YOUR opinion, YOUR experience about the particular product/service. And that is how you create the value for your readers and "pre-sell" the affiliate products.

Secondly, Blog/Website helps you to create the base of your regular readers and followers, it helps you to get the feedback and improve your business, answer the questions, understand your audience, build the trust in you and, finally, get the subscribers and built up a mailing list of people interested in products/services you are promoting. And the money is in the list.

To answer HOW to start blogging for money, Warrior Forum is a great help and you can read and learn a lot here, ask questions and get your answers. As well, I suggest you to invest some money buying an affiliate course (Affilorama, Google Sniper 3.0, Wealthy Affiliate, Clickbank University and similar).

I hope it helps... Cheers

nope u don't NEED it, like u don't need your home to live in.

but without a home (site) and address (domain) where are you going to put all your STUFF (content)?

It is better to have a blog for the product awareness, and build your reputation and followers thru blogs you can interact with your customers.

... I agree with a blog you can always keep in touch with your potential buyers..e promote in detail your produce..e can leverage social as an additional showcase

Blog is not a must for an affiliate marketer like you, but most adviceable if you want to widen you coast. What's really important to your success is your list and few pages for OTO, free downloads. The purpose of your blog is if you want an article marketing base, and it's a bid far more exclusive for affiliate marketer.

Its not a "must have" if there are better "already haves"! The blog would give you some traction as far as reputation is conserced as well. So, if you have better things, focus on them (e.g a massive YT channel)...else start a blog.

If you do make a blog, just keep the quality high.

Definitely not a must, but it certainly helps with visibility, traffic and promotion of your business. There are other channels to get there, don't focus on having a blog or a website.
Max

I agree with the others. It's not necessary, but will definitely help to promote for sure. Some ways to start without having a blog or website is to: Create a YouTube series, Build a "Hub", Post on blogs and forums, Write a viral eBook, Write ads or reviews for classifieds websites, Promote affiliate products directly through pay-per-click advertisements. Here is an article I came across--as I was looking into this recently myself. Affiliate Marketing Without a Website: Secret Revealed! | Affilorama

Have a Blog is a positive element helping you to increase your business because:

- get more traffic
- loyalty
- receive feedback from visitors

For build a nice BLOG you must upload articles, give news, suggestions, anticipations

Oh sure-you don't 100% NEED it. But, SEO is a hell of a lot easier if you actually write a blog. Like a ton easier

It's not 100% necessary but it makes things more convenient and if SEO'd correctly can help put your products in front of a wider audience.

Blog will definitely be helpful.If you are in that plan of creating it,then go for it.It will do no harm to you

It really depends on your long term goals. To start off email marketing is fine. If you are looking to be an authority you could also get Facebook page going and develop a blog later down line if you choose.