What is the blogosphere? Boost online sales by leveraging blogs

Definition:"The blogosphere" refers to the global community of individuals who write and maintain personal blogs; it is generally not used to describe corporate blogs and publications. Many blogs review and promote products and ecommerce stores, acting as affiliates and referrers for online businesses.

Successful bloggers know how to cultivate an audience, with many blogs dedicated to topics that touch on or exclusively discuss ecommerce. While many blogs incidentally promote (or negatively discuss) particular online stores and product types, some have a direct relationship with the businesses they write about. Leveraging bloggers — and at minimum, maintaining awareness — is an effective tactic that all ecommerce stores should consider.

How to leverage blogs for increased brand visibility and revenue

Ecommerce stores can generate revenue from blogs in a number of different ways, and the best strategy is often determined by their overall goals.

Affiliate marketing

Many blogs publish content that focuses on a niche interest and write about how various online businesses approach it. As an affiliate partner, the publisher of the content earns money by referring sales-producing leads to other companies.

Success with affiliate marketing depends on the readers taking a specific action that provides value to the advertiser. In most cases, the blogger only gets paid when users click through the ad and makes a purchase. Many only businesses rely on affiliates to drive new acquisitions.

Display advertising

Though similar, display advertising differs from the affiliate model because of the payment model. Banners and other visual sidebar advertisements are usually billed on a per-click or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis. Online businesses can get started with advertising by joining Google's AdSense program, which distributes display ads to relevant blogs and other sites across the web.