Community Marketing Blog: Turning Grunt Work Into Syndication Gold

It's not what you know in some cases, it's what you can do with the application of the knowledge that's critical to creating a proprietary cash-free ongoing advertising model. Sol Solutions set out to create a model for using blogs and articles as a means for generating traffic, developing an extensive social network, and a no-cash form of ongoing online advertising. Results look promising 30 days into an extensive "experiment".

How We Are Creating A Proprietary Model For Building Traffic With This Blog

It was just over 9 months ago when we started the Community Marketing Blog. Andrew Ballenthin, President of Sol Solutions, an integrated marketing consultancy for branding, online and offline marketing had a vision. He saw an opportunity to not just share theories and principles of marketing to help businesses grow, but realized that by gaining stories of what everyday companies are applying he could help inspire and share relevant information - hence the name, Community Marketing Blog.

Advice, emails, and cutting edge services that promise miracles overnight have abounded during the past months as a traditional marketer waded into the tumultuous waters of honest and not so honest online "traffic building" service providers.

After some time reviewing and trying a number of "snake charms" it was time to take a number of theories and put them to the test. This approach wouldn't be about short cuts, it's about building a solid model that can be duplicated with clients and provide ongoing value without necessarily spending cash to maintain.

Creating A Syndication Model for Building Traffic - 1st Phase Hypothesis

1) Get the blogging basics right. Have niche content and frequent publishing, etc.
2) Create traffic volume and interesting topics.
3) Create viral traffic by publishing articles on other companies so they refer traffic.
4) Add other author's content. Utilize their name and content strength. Give due credit/links.
5) Seek out top social bookmarking sites with high traffic rankings.
6) Set-up accounts with social bookmarking sites and link back to the original blog article.
7) Where applicable, promote relevant events that naturally draw high attention levels.

What Has Taken Place Over 30 Days?

1) Currently publishing 2-4 blogs per week. Interest categories expanded.
2) LinkedIn is being utilized to reach over 600,000 international professionals as needed.
3) Several businesses have submitted their success stories and sent clientele to read their articles.
4) New style adopted for publishing highly relevant content from other authors.
5) 8 additional sites now run mirror content. It only takes 10 additional minutes per article to update.
6) Massive networking underway online and offline generating interest with an "Anti-Recession Campaign" to collect success stories and tips. Great enthusiasm is being received.
7) Weekly Google blog submissions and regular pinging of RSS feeds are taking place.

What Social Book Marking Sites and Networks Have Been Utilized?

The target will be to maintain a 90% match between the Community Marketing Blog and the following sites. In most cases an RSS feed supplies content within 24 hours. Keep in mind, this exercise is still within it's first 30 days of implementation and new learning and changes are occurring daily.

Delicious (Alexa site rank 2,653) Our Blog's URL- http://delicious.com/AndrewBallenthin
Digg (Alexa site rank 248) Our Blog's URL - http://bit.ly/fF7x5
Google Reader (Alexa site rank 2) Our Blog's URL - http://tiny.ccgGVms
LinkedIn (Alexa site rank 149) Our Blog's URL - www.linkedin.com/in/AndrewBallenthin
Reddit (Alexa site rank 3,830) Our Blog's URL - http://www.reddit.com/user/SolSolutions
Technorati (Alexa site rank 569) Our Blog's URL - http://bit.ly/Vitim
Twitter (Alexa site rank 360) Our Blog's URL - www.twitter.com/solsolutions
Windows Live (Alexa site rank 4) Our Blog's URL - http://bit.ly/e013p

Newly added - Blog Burst - URL to be determined.

Alexa Rankings For Community Marketing Blog today - 1,683, 572.
Over 90 days ago the ranking was over 12,000,000+

Next Hypothesis: Millions of Readers Can Be Accessed Through Social Networks and Their Leaders

Sol Solutions operates out of Toronto, Ontario Canada. This "experiment" of building a replicatable cash-free advertising model has been an amazing way to leave the constraints of geography behind as we now talk to executives, media mavens and solopreneurs across North America, Europe and Asia. The future has a lot of hard work ahead but looks very promising.