This post was most recently updated on May 24th, 2014

I’ve been marketing products and services online for quite some time now.

My gosh, there are so many aspects to it, doesn’t it just make your head spin sometimes? It doesn’t have to be confusing, though, you just need to get the right strategies to move you forward.

My husband David, used to be the only marketing pro at casa d’Merrill. He got me interested in too, though, about two years ago. I went on a trip with him to Washington D.C. where he was spending some intense time with Daegan Smith learning some ninja marketing stuff. I stayed in the hotel because I wasn’t ready to get into the marketing aspect of my business and that time. Plus, it was August and just too darn hot for me! While David spent long hours with Daegan, I started reviewing some of the marketing strategies he was in the process of implementing.

The hours he spent were so long that when he got back to the hotel, he was too tired to even talk about everything he was learning. But on our road trip home, I heard all about it! That’s when I got the light bulb on top of my head (image not included).

You see, I had been leaving the marketing part of our business to David because it all seemed so complicated, and I just wanted to concentrate on content development. My interested was piqued, though. It wasn’t as geeky and weird as I had imagined. In fact, it was fascinating, especially from the perspective of human behavior. I became obsessed with the wide variety of marketing methods that we could put into action.

I started attending marketing webinars, reading online marketing books and becoming a bit of an expert myself. I even got all caught up in the statistical aspect of it. Wow… I failed that subject twice in college! Now I found the math fascinating and still do.

So you may be wondering “Why is Donna telling me about her online marketing journey?”

Well, if you have a blog you need to have a marketing plan. And you need to put it into action. Now, that either means spending a lot of money having others do it for you, or figuring it out for yourself as you go along. The latter is always the best way to start getting a firm hold on your business.

If you’re a blogger, you already have a business. You may not be treating it as a business, but you have one. You need to be creating a structured goal for marketing your blog. That includes the marketing of a variety of products and services particular to your niche. They could be your own products and services, or affiliate products or business opportunities. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you create a structured goal for marketing your blog, or else it will never develop as a business.

I know you’re thinking… “Well, I have an optin on my blog to build a list.”

That’s fine, but it’s only a bare, bare beginning. First of all, you can’t just put an optin on your side bar and call your blog a business. True, you’ll get a slow drip to your email list that way, but you need to get a lot more aggressive in your marketing mindset. You need to build your list using a variety of methods.

You need to rotate those methods so they don’t get stale. You need to test them to see which ones are working, and then scale those up. And we haven’t even begun to talk about what to do with the list you’re building. That creates a whole other set of marketing objectives and strategies.

Do you need to be marketing your blog? You do if you want it to be a business instead of a playground.

You may be a writer and are trying to sell your books and services. You may have a network marketing company you want to recruit, or you may have your heart set on affiliate products. Hey, you may even have your own information product, or WordPress plugin that you want to market.

Whatever the case may be, you need to start marketing your blog to the point that people will find out whatever it is that you’re selling and promoting. That’s the main function of your blog, and the main reason for marketing your blog.

Your structured marketing plan must include some essential elements:

• Have a clear, concise idea of what products or services you want to provide.
• Organize them within some sort of a sales funnel.
• Develop related and higher-end products and services in the back-end of your funnel.
• Build a list of folks who are likely candidates for buying your products/services.
• Guide your subscribers deeper and deeper into your sales funnel as you give them greater and greater value.

That’s just the beginning.

The point is, that you can’t view yourself as just a blogger. You must grow into becoming a marketer, too. That may be a difficult shift of mindset for you, but it is absolutely necessary for marketing your blog

So what does this mindset shift involve?

• Learn how to turn passiveness to aggressiveness.
• Stay on top of the newest online marketing trends. We know how quickly things change in the internet world. It is imperative that you keep up your knowledge on the newest marketing trends.
• Understand the difference between writing narrative and copywriting. This may not be easy but it makes all the difference in the world when it comes to marketing your blog, as opposed to simply writing blog posts.
• Plan on spending money. OUCH…you didn’t want to hear that, did you? In truth, you are going to need a budget in order to market. There is only so much you can do on the “free way” but what is really going to get you going is having a good marketing plan and budget. That’s a mindset that keeps many people in the amateur ranks, and making their blog a hobby center instead of a business.

Marketing your blog starts right here and now, at this very moment.

This is the moment for you to stop and think… what am I worth? If you are a blogger and not marketing anything, my question to you is why not? You are spending endless hours writing, syndicating, being on social media. Don’t you realize you are sitting on a gold mine?

Now, I am writing this because I made the effort to learn how to market my blog. I took this knowledge and put it into action. I created a product and am marketing it successfully. I want to share with you that you can do this, too.

It’s a process. It never ends, but it must begin.

I’m just rolling into a new phase of my own marketing. Let me show you how I’m moving into a cutting edge marketing technology right now. I hope you enjoy it. I made it myself and am pretty darn proud. Yep, I didn’t know I could be this creative. But I’ve got that marketing mindset going. Hey, I just like to share what I love.

(Note: This is a sales video for my “Blogging Magic” course. If you’re interested in learning more about it, just sign on at my sidebar “Blogging Fever” optin box.)

By the way, if you’d like to learn to do some cool things with your own marketing like using video, getting involved in Facebook and Twitter ads, rolling out a solo ad campaign and so many other cutting edge strategies… I’ve just started (with David) a new training group that combines ongoing training with extensive one-on-one assistance. Check out my WhirlwindSuccess VIP Club. Wouldn’t you like me to help you achieve your marketing goals, too?

Blessings,

-Donna

P.S. As usual I would love to hear what you think! Are you marketing yet? If so, I encourage you to share how you are doing it.

• Bio
• Blogging Magic

Donna Merrill

Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.