Is a blog needed to sell products (digital products)?

You don't necessarily need a blog per se. What you need is targeted traffic; Lots of it preferably.

What a blog does is help attain a loyal following. Over time, some of your visitors might bite and join your list or buy a product from your website out right.

A blog isn't needed, but it can definitely help. You can use a blog as a way to draw people to your site so that they can see whatever you are trying to sell, promote, market or whatever.

It gives you a central location to draw followers, subscribers, customers or whatever you are trying to draw. It can give you a great way to draw traffic from other sources like the search engines, especially if you are active on it and posting lots of articles.

A blog can help to draw people for one reason in hopes that they are there for the reason you want, and if they aren't interested in whatever drew them there, they might be interested in something else you have on your blog.

A blog can give you a lot more firepower for drawing people to see whatever you want them to see. Sure, you can sell your products using other avenues like social media or something but a blog is a real good thing to have that can be used for many purposes.

So, is a blog needed? No

Should you have one? Yes, for the reasons I stated above plus countless others.

A blog is not an absolute need - so no, it's not mandatory.


A blog can be a place to publicly showcase your expertise, brand yourself as the go-to-person in that niche, help establish networking opportunities, and generate organic traffic from search engines and social shares.

Of course, you want to make sure your blog is based around a topic that goes well with blogging, more on that here: 21 Warning Signs You Chose the Wrong Topic for Your Blog


There's no single answer for this but I'll share one of the ways to balance this.

Use your blog to post longer and in-depth articles so that you'll attract your target audience, and create a series of smaller but useful tips that you share only through your email newsletter.

Generally, it's easier to get away with shorter content in your emails (such as 200 to 300 words) while it's much harder to generate organic traffic from your blog with short content.


Regards,
Daniel

So, say for example, I wanted to promote two niches. Would it make sense to promote under the same blog or make two completely different ones?

(Also, that goes for the identity, should I create a whole new identity [pen name] for a new blog in a different niche?)

You said The money is in the list, but you can't build a list without an Autoresponder! And you can't have create an Autoresponder without a blog.

Of course, you can promote your products on Clickbank, Jvzoo, Amazon,...

But why not promote the same product to your audience who trust you and would pay more for it.

If you are going to sell digital products you definitely want to go check out clickfunnels.com it's going to save you time, money, and a whole lot more when it comes to selling digital products.

There seems to be a bit of confusion over the definition of a "blog". A blog is not the same as a website. A blog is just software that helps create a website.

You can have a website without having a blog. There's a number of types of sites that aren't blogs. The Warrior Forum is a forum and uses forum software. You can make web pages using an HTML editor. You can have a script that does something, like Google search. A game can be a website.

You don't "need" a website. But having one sure makes things better and easier. IMO, if someone can't afford a website and won't invest the time learning how to build and maintain a site, be it a blog or other type of site, then they either need to pay someone that does or not start an IM business to begin with.

It would be very interesting to know what percentage of people just starting out in IM that didn't have a site of any kind actually became successful? It's theoretically possible, but I wonder what the reality is?

Blog is not mandatory. What you need is targeted traffic. As long as you are getting targeted traffic traffic blog is not a issue. There are different ways of getting traffic. You can use Facebook Solo Ads to bring traffic to your product. Also Solo Ads is a good option of getting traffic and result of Solo Ads is good too. Opt-in rate of Solo Ads is more than 70%.

A blog isn't needed but can certainly help get you more traffic and even more sales ..

I also think a blog is very helpful to sell a product. But you must create a blog on a specific niche. Besides, the blog's content should be rich. When you will give informative content you will get more sell.

In my opinion, spending your time writing tons of content for your blog is not the only nor best way to go.
If you want to sell a product, the most important thing is to build preeminence, sure a blog does that, but there are other ways to establish expertise and build preeminence without spending months writings articles. For example, you could give a free sample of what you have to offer (that can be a small part of your product, the sneek peak kinda stuff, that can be a few minutes of your time like a call, a chat, a few e-mails, you name it).
By being able to prove you know what you're talking about, you'll be able to get clients.

If you think can compete with possibly thousands of blogs possibly in the same niche you are a happy chap. The new bloggers that make it nowadays are mainly lovely make-up lassies who have successful channels on YouTube, or YouTube gamers like PewDiePie.

You have to build a track record on your own really offline. Sell offline, get sales, you can and will. If you don't have the dream and fighting energy, just go fishing.

Bad News. The truth is nowadays a blog should complement your successful YouTube channel, times have changed. I would start your selling offline, build up a real track record and a list, but without YouTube success, stay in your bed and relax.

Or get a pro to build your YouTube channel preferably a Scottish genius like me and my team.

what is in for me? who knows!

you don't get rich if you are not sharp!

Jim

I love blogs...but I do not love blogging. But there are plenty of creative ways to get around that.

The great thing about a blog is that it can be alive and networking for you from all your content connected with bookmarking sites and social media and people linking to your content as well.

Also investors would find a well maintained blog very appealing, especially one that generated revenue. So they can definitely be considered assets.

-Art

You should probably get a blog. Get a free one first, like Blogger.com or Wordpress.com if you don't want to pay. This will start you off and give you experience.

If you've spent more than twenty minutes studying marketing, you probably heard that "people buy from people they know, like and trust." Unless you're dealing with pure commodities, like, say, a candy bar at the checkout register, this is true.

A blog is one of the most accessible ways to foster that "know, like and trust" but it isn't the only way. It provides a home base for site and product news, a home for your opt-in pages, etc., a base to foster relationships with other people in your niche space, and more.

It depends on how closely related the two niches are. Do they overlap at all? Do the audiences share demographics and psychographics? For example, you might be able to put some fitness material on a golf blog as long as you relate it to playing golf. The same could be said for travel and golf.

On the other hand, if you wanted to tackle bodybuilding and competitive eating, you'd probably want separate sites.

As for different pen names, it depends on just how different the niches are. Very few people are so narrowly focused in their lives that they only have knowledge in one thing. I believe the best combo would be to put two unrelated niches under the same name, one business and one leisure. I would likely take on something related to online marketing and fishing for example. If I wanted to go into DIY brain surgery or something, I'd use a pen name.

You see this with authors more and more. For an example, look up Nora Roberts and JD Robb.

Sorry, Cowboy, but this is incorrect. All you need is a website where you can post a few simple web pages - opt-in page, thank you page, success page, maybe a privacy page. Four simple HTML pages, and you're in business. No need to set up Mysql databases, CMS framework (blog scripts), themes and plugins, etc. if all you want to do is collect email addresses.

Google loves blogs, and monetizing them is a good automated method of making money

You don't need a blog to sell digital products successfully. Honestly you can only use email marketing and a sales letter. I use my blog to provide an avenue of more new content. Writing is easy to me, and i find that some of my subscribers prefer reading info on my blog, rather than waiting for another helpful email from me. Plus the SEO and RSS marketing benefits are cool too. Plus... with some Wordpress plug-ins, you can use your blog to host your sales letter page, make it responsive, and even create squeeze pages with awesome designs (even if you know nothing about creating a website).

Blog is not mandatory for any website. but you need traffic then it is must as per my experience.

Do not overthink the purpose of having a blog. You don't necessarily need a blog to sell. However, you can use blogs to increase traffic and to promote your business/digital products.

You don't even need that. All the main ARs have hosted capture pages and some have landing pages as well.

I see this alot too. You can configure WP however you choose. You can make a "classic" blog with the home page being your latest posts. Or you can make a static homepage. Or you can have both, a static homepage and a blog on the same install.

I think it's almost "necessary" to have at least one "utility" site. This is where you build landing and delivery pages, etc.

If you look at brentstangel.com there appears to be nothing there. The Domain redirects, there's no "about" or home page. But look behind the scenes and there are dozens of opt-in and landing pages, numerous download pages, bonus pages, several entire HTML mini-sites, etc. I like it because it fits for any niche.

Yeah if you are damn serious about online earning then you should build a blog first of all.
This will help you to get your desired traffic and yeah desired money.
Thanks

Of course, there are lots of other methods to selling your products but a Blog helps you a lot for the business. It will useful to make a trust with your customers and you can always be connected with the networking through your blog.

A blog is a good place to explain about your products to the customer and it's helpful to make you more business and of course there are no restrictions to sell your products because you have own it a blog. Driving a targeted traffic through the organic search results also.

While a blog can help in a lot of ways as has been mentioned, I think you need to understand the reality of the situation too.

Most of the people here that say they aren't making a dime have a blog. Most of the people that can't get traffic have a blog. Most of the people that can't sell anything have a blog. And most of the people making a tiny amount (but still worry about their hosting bill) have a blog.

A blog, in and of itself, isn't going to do you any good. Yes you might get lucky and Google find a page and get some long tail traffic but it's unlikely.

What makes a successful blog is people visiting it, reading it, and taking the desired action on the content. If no one visits, reads, or takes the desired action, your blog is worthless.

Someone made the comment about this sad state of affairs where you have beginners that put their all into creating content but then never get anywhere with their blog. They don't make money and aren't making progress and many get frustrated and quit. They were comparing those efforts to someone that, for example, writes a Kindle book and takes advantage of Amazon's traffic or selling physical products on Ebay who also already has traffic. The same could be said for YT videos, FB pages/groups, and more.

For example, I've seen threads saying I've got 20/30/40/50/60 posts but no visitors and the answer in some cases is to add more posts. That's just insane. More content isn't needed - more marketing is needed.

I'm not discounting the usefulness of a blog. I'm just saying that there is more to it than slapping up a blog.

I've seen people proudly advertising their blogs here, for example, that are copy and paste posts from big sites and wondering why they don't get any traffic.

If you are focusing on the English-speaking market, you need to be able to write better English than most of the folks that are members here. But most members can't but they are broke so they need a fast way to get started. Many helpful Warriors say - start a blog - it's free. That's advice that isn't going to get you very far without all the pieces of the puzzle fitting together.

Mark

As others have said it is not a necessity but I have found it can be an effective tool in your overall marketing efforts to establish a Brand and gain more Trust


- Robert Andrew

All you need is an converting offer and targeted traffic. Everything else is just fluff! ~ A blog is a tool to help bring in more targeted traffic.

A friend of mine did very well simply using Facebook advertising and selling high ticket items without a website. However he did spend a small fortune on advertising after 'tweeking' his advert successfully. It takes a bit of nerve to successfully do this and you need the right program to do it with.

A blog is necessary for your site's traffic. You can also place in your blog any updates, events or promotions that you want to.

Basically no need to create blog but its always better to create it, so that you can use it for long term gain instead of looking short term gain because of not creating blog. Blog is a centralized place to give your audience to understand your products , its useful for old products as well as new products.

No, you don't need a blog to sell online. In fact, I recommend against it unless you plan to blog frequently.

Having no blog is better than an outdated blog with bad information. Nobody wants to hit your site and see that your most recent blog post was from 5 years ago. It makes the product look abandoned.

Blog is best choice but not necessary, because there are many more ways to promote product

To answer your question in one word , No!
But if you are going to sell something online and you want to attract traffic that is interested in and is related to your niche then yes creating a related blog is going to help you draw that traffic to you. it is a safe and absolute way of getting free traffic. Also if you want to get any investors then it seems very impressive to have a well maintained blog that backs your product sales.
In case you do not like to blog and so can not keep up with posting frequently then you should not have a blog instead you should look for more ways for promotion of your product.

It's not required but I highly suggest you get one so you can build an email list. It's easier to sell by email from my experience.