One thing that causes small businesses to fail is that small businesses don’t work on creating their corporate identity. Without creating a top quality logo, you can’t build your business image and, hence, your marketing efforts will only waste your time and money.

Corporate Identity, Social Media and Graphic Design are Connected:

Your logo design helps you create your identity. When you use online social media to promote your business, your campaigns won’t be effective without an attractive logo.

Yes, your logo design plays an important role in giving your business a credible look. If it’s not attractive, your business won’t look attractive. As social media is a free way of promoting your business globally, you still won’t get much benefit.

Secondly, even if you manage to drive traffic to your site through your social media campaigns, you will only enjoy high conversion if your website design is attractive and professional.

Hence, corporate identity, social media and your website or graphic design are connected and they all work together to make your business successful.

Let’s Talk About Them in Detail:

Corporate Identity:

To create your corporate identity in a professional way, you need a professionally designed logo. In order to understand the importance of this small piece of design, let’s look at all big brands. For example: Nike, Toyota, Target, Adidas, etc. They all have a logo and these businesses are easily recognized by their logos.

Luckily, in today’s tough competition, custom logo design prices are not high. You can now get a top quality logo at a fraction of the cost.

Long gone are the days when logos cost thousands of dollars.

So, before you start promoting your business, go ahead and get a top quality custom logo design to represent your business professionally worldwide.

Social Media:

After creating your corporate identity, you may start your marketing campaigns. Today, online social media is a powerful way of promoting your business. When you create your accounts on different sites, you can display your logo design on all different pages. This way, your market will begin to know about your business and recognize your logo.

If your logo design is of low-quality, the chances are, you will be perceived as a low-quality business and people won’t take much interest in you. So, start marketing on social media after you create your corporate identity in an effective way.

Graphic Design:

Now, it’s time you drive traffic to your site from social media. However, you won’t enjoy a good conversion rate if the graphic design of your website is not attractive. So, this is something you need to work on. Make sure your website looks attractive and your logo is prominent on all pages.

Just like logos, getting your website designed is not expensive these days. When you pay to create an attractive website, think of your payment as an investment which will eventually pay off and help you increase your sales and grow your business.

The bottom line is… Uncle Sam never told us that Corporate Identity, Social Media and Graphic Design work together to make your business a huge success. The best part is… You can achieve success even if your budget is limited.

This is a guest post by Ben Johnson from logoinn.com

• Viral Marketing With an Ebook – Part 1
• Viral Marketing With an Ebook – Part 2
• Viral Marketing With an Ebook – Part 3
• Viral Marketing With an Ebook – Part 4
• Viral Marketing With an Ebook – Part 5

Read them, and start building your own ebook with your existing posts. Believe me, it is much more easier than you think.

We all know that logo is the foundation for any business and the first step in creating a brand identity. Great logos become big brands with time and the sooner your logo develops into a brand, the greater recognition it’ll get.

We are immersed in a logo rich environment where we see hundreds of logos every day, but why is it that we remember only few of them. The answer is very easy; we only recognize and recall those elements which are simple yet impactful. And this is the definition of great logos, those which are unique and easy to remember. Let’s say you have to buy a pair of joggers, you would immediately think of Nike because its logo has already become a huge brand identity.

Now why is, that you didn’t come up with any other company which is also selling the same product? Why not a brand which is a little less popular than Nike? It is because Nike has a greater brand value with a logo design which is more attractive, memorable and easy to read.

So, every business creates its market by making people aware of their products and services and this can best be done by developing a logo signifying what your business is all about.

Think for a while, if you are to start a business and you need a logo for it, what would be the key points you would suggest to make it a great logo, a logo which would later convert into a brand.

Key points to create a Great Logo

Believe me your logo would bring great success to you if you take care of a few points while getting your logo designed by a logo designer. In order to create a powerful impact, your logo should have:

• A Strong and balanced image

Make sure that logo has a strong and balanced image. It shouldn’t have any extra elements that make it look cluttered. Now what are the elements that make it a strong logo? First of all, the design should be eye-catching and appealing to both you and your designer, because if you and your designer have a conflict over the design of your logo, it means that there is something which is missing.

Revise the design and shed the elements which were bothering. Secondly, the more your logo depicts the essence of your business, the stronger it will be in terms of creating a brand identity. Moreover, clip-art or any template image is never advisable for your logo. So tell your logo designer beforehand, not to use templates because they are already being used by many people. Lastly, the height and width of the image should be balanced.

• Make your logo distinctive

Great logos are always distinctive and bold in design. If you are giving a creative brief to your designer, make sure to tell him to create a unique logo, which shouldn’t resemble any other logo design. Why it is important is, because people tend to remember images which are distinct. Complex images fail to reside in our memory. So, make your logo unique, yet simple.

• Design an image that fits best for your business

It isn’t necessary that if you are into a business of selling joggers, you should create a logo having a jogger image. Your logo can be anything, but make sure that you should be able to create an association between your logo and your business. This depends upon the name of your business or company as well. For instance, Apple is a giant in computer business, yet its logo doesn’t look like a computer, but it depicts the name of the company ‘Apple’. Apple didn’t go for a bicycle image because it has nothing to do with their business and with the name of the company.

• Use easy to read Font

Your logo can never be a great logo if it fails to have a good, appealing font. Using the right font is as important as working with other design elements. Use fonts which depict the purpose of your business instead of using fonts which are famous. Your logo is categorized as a bad logo even if it’s a combination of a very well designed symbol with an entirely awful font. Moreover, the font should be readable. Many companies choose fonts which give logos very stylish look but make them difficult to read and understand. Don’t make that mistake!

• Create a black and white version of your logo

Great logos have an ability to draw attention when displayed in black and white. When designing a logo, one should keep in mind whether the logo would look appropriate when shown as black and white. It happens that some logo designs look good in colors, but fail to grab the same attention when presented in black and white. Business owners have realized with time that cost effective logos are the ones which look good in black and white as well.

Creating a great logo is critical, but if you follow these basic guidelines, you will see it for yourself, that it’s not something you were unable to do. I hope I have solved the mystery of how to create a great logo. In case, I have missed out on something, which you think can add to creating a great logo, do write back.

A small bio:
This is guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.

Actually it is a promotion campaign for the launch of Butterfly Marketing 2.0 which will be launched on 24th March. Anyway, I have just downloaded this free manuscript and started reading. There are some good food for thought in this 124 pages long report. You can also read this free report this weekend, and start next week with some refreshing thoughts. Enjoy reading!

• Technorati
• Bloglines
• Blogarama
• Answers.com
• Syndic8
• Blogdigger
• BlogExplosion
• The Truth Laid Bear
• Blogflux
• BlogPulse
• Yahoo! RSS Submit
• WeBlogALot
• 2RSS.com
• Blogz

Some of them requires you to insert reciprocal links on your blog. I strongly recommend you to create a “Links” post, change the date as several months before, and place all of your links on it. Also copy your blog’s title, description, keywords, URL, and feed URL, and paste them on a Notepad document. Keep them handy when you are saving because you’ll find yourself pasting them many times. Good luck!

The kit consists of  3 how-to videos and an instructional (truly inspirational!) e-book:

• Video: SEO -  How can you get found in the search engines? (an hour)
• Video: Business Blogging – How can you get found in the blogosphere?(an hour)
• Video: Social Media Marketing – How can you get found by engaging in social media? (an hour)
• e-Book: Getting Found Online – How can you get found online in the major search engines, blogosphere and social media sites (10 pages)

You will also find a bonus video which I have already posted about before, namely Combine SEO, Blogs and Social Media for Marketing Results (1 hour).

If you are looking for a reliable and free Internet marketing guide, I am sure this one is for you.

The new Bloghology Blogging Community, or Social Network, is another important extension of Bloghology. However, it is significantly more interactive, to reflect the community nature of blogging and the softer web 2.0 style of marketing. It functions and looks similar in many ways, to today’s popular social networking sites. The Bloghology Community Platform is unique in that it provides additional features and functions which are special to bloggers and blogging related issues.

We launched it a few weeks ago. It is still at BETA stage. We started with a hundred BETA testers. After having received so many positive feedback from them, we decided to open our doors to more bloggers. You are also invited to join  Bloghology Community.

Up to now, the users were able to add friends, send message, update their profiles. We will add chat and classified ads functions by the end of this weekend. Our members will be able to chat with their friends/contacts/partners, and develop better relationships.

The “Classified Ads” will allow you to post classified listings. Categories created (like “Sponsorship Opportunities”, “Jobs”, “Personals”, etc.) and you can post relevant listings. You will also be able to search for other listings via a “browse marketplace” area. The good thing is each users’ listings will appear on their profile. No need to spend your time at forums like Digital Points to find sponsors/advertisers for your blog!

Join Bloghology Community, and feel free to invite your friends/colleagues/partners. You can do so by clicking on the TOP header”Invite” and you will be taken to the form where you can add your friends details.

I hope you will like these new features. We look forward to have your feedback. Please go to “Help” menu, and then click on “Contact Us” and submit your thoughts.

I will also appreciate if you can post about Bloghology, and help us spread the word.

Yesterday was one of the most exciting days in my life. I gave my first ever public speech on a blogging related topic at Cebit Bilisim Eurasia exhibition. It was titled “10 Ways of Making Money Online with Blogs” You can check the presentation at SlideShare. Unfortunately it is only in Turkish now. I will later translate it into English too.

I also make a very nice video interview with Sekit Can Gokalp,   Turkey country manager of Mixxt.You can watch the interview at OkumaSitesi.com

All in all it was a very exciting event for me. I am planning of joining more events like this in the future.

One side note; Bloghology social networking site for bloggers are growing. We requested from our current beta testers to invite their friends. If you want to become a member of this selective community, please sign up my weekly blog tips newsletter.

The PRWeb is worldwide known with its effectiveness on online promotion and marketing campaigns. They have recently  launched RSSPad, a free service for RSS feed promotion for websites/blogs. RSSPad provides a tool that will allow you to syndicate your content through the power of RSS.

What is RSS and How Do You It?

You use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to syndicate or subscribe to the feed of a website, blog or almost any media content online (not just articles, it can be music, video or almost any digital media). By syndicating you subscribe to the feed of the site which means you do not have to go visit the website to read the latest content. Instead you use feed reading software or a website to read the latest articles. Instead of going to each of your favourite sites individually you can collect all the feeds of the sites (provided they make them available) in one place. The purpose of syndication is to therefore make it more efficient for you to consume your favourite content. For more details about RSS please refer What is RSS and How Do I Use It?

How Can You Use RSSPad.com?

• You need to have a free PRWeb access to use the service
• Go to RSSPad.com
• Click on “Register Free” button on the right sidebar
• Fill the form, and register your account
• Login your account, and then Import your RSS feed
• You need to manually categorize your RSS feed at the beginning
• That’s all! Now everytime you logon to RSSPad, you will be taken to quick stats page, where you can monitor your RSS feed’s popularity at RSSPad.

Here is my RSS Feed address at RSSPad: http://www.rsspad.com/SearchForBloggingcom.xml.If you find the information helpful, you may want to take a minute and subscribe to My RSS so you do not miss any great articles.

Since a very long time I have been telling you that the Bloghology is not just a blogging magazine. It will become one of the largest blogging networks of Blogosphere. I have very good news for you this weekend. The long-waited Bloghology community site is up and running at beta stage. We are looking for 100 lucky beta testers at the moment.

The Bloghology community site looks somewhat similar to today’s popular social networking sites, but with some extra functionality for bloggers and blogging related issues, like affiliate marketing. It is going to be a social networking site mainly for bloggers.

A few hours ago I announced to my mail list that we were looking for beta testers for the Bloghology community site. Honestly I did not expect so many people to reply me back so quickly.

We still have some seats left to meet the 100 limit. If you want to be one of the lucky 100 beta testers of Bloghology community site, then all you need to do is  join my blog tips newsletter (signup form is on the header above). First come, first serve. Hurry up!

Beta testers will use the site before it is available for every blogger in the blogosphere. We expect them to tell us honestly what is missing on the site today. So that we can make a superior social networking site for bloggers.

If you believe you can contribute the Bloghology community site with your suggestions and innovative ideas, please join my blog tips newsletter now.

Did you know that Google is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year? Google is celebrating this event with project 10 to 100. It is a call for the ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. You may join with your own brilliant ideas. I will also join.

I remember the first time I used Google for searching something related to my previous company. It was a milestone for Internet search. Google also helped blogs spread like a virus in the last three or four years, not only with its blogging platform Blogger, but also with its free marketing tools for bloggers. Here you may find my most useful free  Google marketing tools for bloggers list:

Google Analytics

Analyze your traffic, where it comes from, and what it does in your site. It is free up to three sites for an account. One of the best free products I have ever used as a blogger.

Google Alerts

Are you interested in “making money online”? Set it as a keyword in Google Alerts, and let it notify you when another site or blog mentions it. It is a great way to keep track of your online activities as well as your online business interests and products. Set your name as a notification, and see who says what about you in Internet.

Google Trends

It lets you search popular trends, and hot products to promote. Also a breakdown for different regions is possible. Find the most popular blogging related trends, and post about them in your blog. A smart way of increasing your blog’s traffic.

Google Docs

It is full featured online writing editor with some great collaborating features and spellcheck. In addition it lets you publish your content directly to your blogs. You can also save your files in PDF format. You can write your own ebook with it, and spread it online.

Google Blogger

Google’s blogger is a simple free blogging platform. Blogger can be used to promote yourself and self-hosted blogs. It has some built in functions like Google Blog Search bar.

Google Groups

Every blogger knows the importance of having a large community with a similar interest. Social networking is one of the most important factors in your success on the Web. Google groups is a form of business and social networking that every blogger should be aware of.

“Do you really make money with blogging?” will be the most common question you will be hearing throughout your blogging career unless you are Darren Rowse or Yaro Starak. Everytime people ask me such a question, I take a deep breath and start telling them everything I know about blogs, and making money with them. I noticed that many bloggers are also not making enough money to earn their living from blogging like I do today.

Do not expect making serious money from blogging without investing any money. You need to have a certain strategy to follow if you want to become a problogger in the end. You may start with reading Yaro Starak’s Blog Profits Blueprint. You will find all ways of making money with blogging in this PDF document. After reading that, you may join Blog Mastermind blog mentoring program. You will learn everything related to blogging from A-Z, and start building your own blogging venture with Blog Mastermind.

I know it is not so easy to pay $97 a month over 6 months or $497 upfront for Blog Mastermind. Therefore I decided to offer prizes if you join the program through my Blog Mastermind affiliate link: Join Blog Mastermind and Earn Prizes from SearchForBlogging.com

WordPress has recently become blogger’s standard. You need to use WordPress perfectly well as a problogger. If you can afford you should also enroll Alex Sysoef’s Expert WordPress program. The good thing about the program is that a custom script does the full blog configuration and customization based on a few answers you provide on web page and you got a clear winner. But you really must see the video that shows you entire process to understand just how simple it is. Watch the video Expert WordPress to see how anyone can create a blog in less than 4 minutes from Start to Publish.

An email list is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can have on the Internet. Your blog and your email list are the perfect combination for a successful online business. You may use your email list to develop relationships, to deliver value added content and to communicate with your audience. Most internet marketing gurus tell that the majority of people need to be told about a product seven times before they buy it. So if you are telling your visitors about your product less than seven, no way out! You need an auto responder to remind people about your product.Aweber email autoresponder has recently become a standard for most of the Internet marketing gurus. You should use Aweber if you are going to make money through affiliate programs.