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What people are saying
about the multimedia course
“Marketing With Business Blogs”
I liked how specific and logical everything is laid out in your course.
It’s not just vague conceptual ideas about how business blogging should
be. Instead, it’s, ―Here’s the 1,2,3,4,5 of this strategy‖ and then you give
us the 1-2-3-4-5 coaching steps on how to apply it. That is so helpful.
- Catherine Bruns
www.coachbalance.com
I work with Web stuff all the time – and you gave an UNBELIEVABLE
amount of practical information in this course! I will listen to this over and
over again! You shared SO many strategies that I can immediately apply
to market my business blog.
~ Kevin Finneran
'Synergy' worldwide distributor
I enjoyed your course so much. Before this, I was a techno-phobe. When I
first heard of blogging I thought, ―Wow that sounds like a cute word.‖ I
didn’t even know what it was. But after taking your course, I created my
first blog!
Business blogging is so simple – anybody can do it with the step-bystep instructions you give. You two are like walking encyclopedias of
knowledge. You’re the perfect team for busy business owners. I am SO
glad I took this course.
~ Beth Borray
Red Peony Consulting
I gained more clarity after this course. I will continue to apply all of these
strategies in the months to come with my new business blog I created!
~ Kathleen Reece
RealationshipCoachforYou.com
―I wish I took this course sooner! I would have saved over $1,250.00 on
the set up of my business blogs alone if I knew about these tips and
strategies sooner.‖
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~ John Allen Mollenhauer
www.mytrainer.com
Excellent instructions with all the workbooks, audio recordings and
videos you created for us! It’s superb. Thank you so much. You two are a
wonderful team – you each have a different style and it blends so
beautifully that it makes all the difference in the world.
~ Julie Rose
Roselight Gardens
―I saw my Web-site visitors double overnight after I started business
blogging! And once I added podcasting to my business blog, I went from
less than 1,000 visitors to more than 5,000 visitors!
This is an absolutely fantastic course. It has totally transformed how I
write anything, from e-mail, to blogs, to Web-site copy.
~ Penny Haynes
Encouraging Audio Productions
"The Marketing With Business Blogsв„ў Course was an exceptional learning
experience. Deb & John Paul Micek are experts in their knowledge and
understanding in the application of blogs, rss, and podcasting for business
growth in just about any type of industry or profession.
Even with my extensive experience in web site development I learned a
great deal from this course. I substantially increased my
understanding, application, and results with marketing strategies,
keyword selection/positioning, search engine marketing, social
networking, and much more.
I witnessed first hand how easy the course made it for students to apply
these techniques and get bottom line results through their blogs."
~ Keith Troup
www.idmstudios.com
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What the experts are saying
about blogs …
___________________
"The blog is the best relationship generator you've ever seen."
~ Fortune
Blogging is the “No.1 business technology trend for 2005.”
The businesses that capitalize on this niche marketing approach will
become leaders and stay at the front of their industry with a decided
competitive advantage.
_____________________
"You cannot afford to close your eyes to them [blogs],
because they�re simply the most explosive outbreak
in the information world since the Internet itself.
And they�re going to shake up just about every
business — including yours.
It doesn�t matter whether you�re shipping paper clips,
pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a
phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or
delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us,
blogs are not a business elective. They’re a
prerequisite. ”
~ Business Week
_____________________
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Microsoft Gets a Human Face
Robert Scoble has been at Microsoft only 19 months and has no highranking title, corporate perks, or direct line to Bill Gates. But what
Scoble does have is a blog of his own - Scobleizer.
On his blog, Scoble weighs in daily with opinions and updates about
happenings in the tech world and the inner world of Microsoft. Nothing
earth shattering - but what Robert Scoble has done with Scobleizer is
something that many would argue Microsoft has failed to do since the
early nineties.
He has given the corporate giant an approachable human face – a
human face that makes it easier to do business with the mega-company.
He is changing public opinion about Microsoft.
“Blogs are good for business because they have
distinct advantages over older forms of communication.
Blogs are good for consumers because you get the
information you want when you want it."
~ Bill Gates at the 2004 Microsoft CEO Summit
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BUSINESS BLOGGING
SECRETS REVEALED!
Boost Traffic, Build Relationships, & Win
More Clients With Your Business Blog
Deborah Cole Micek
John-Paul Micek
With special guest:
Thomas Pakii Pierce
Morgan James Publishing, LLC
New York
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Copyright В© 2006 by RPM Success Group Inc. В® / Deborah Cole Micek and John-Paul Micek
Published by:
Morgan James Publishing, LLC
1225 Franklin Avenue Suite 325
Garden City, NY 11530-1693
Information on use permissions and/or TeleCourse details should be addressed to:
RPM Success Group Inc
Email: support@RPMsuccess.com
Toll Free Phone: (888) 334-8151
International: 00+1+808+237+1008
http://www.RPMsuccess.com
Version 2.0
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Legal Notice:
While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the Author nor
the Publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject
matter herein.
This publication is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. The Publisher wants to
stress that the information contained herein may be subject to varying state and/or local laws or regulations.
All users are advised to retain competent counsel to determine what state and/or local laws or regulations
may apply to the user's particular business.
The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these materials and
information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, federal, state, and local, governing professional
licensing, business practices, advertising, and all other aspects of doing business in the United States or any
other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of the purchaser or reader.
The author and Publisher assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or
reader of these materials. Any perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.
Library of Congress Cataloging in-Publication Data:
Micek, Deborah and John-Paul
Business Blogging Secrets Revealed! : Boost Traffic, Build Relationships, & Win More Clients With
Your Business Blog
p. cm.
ISBN 0-9776492-0-2
1. Marketing 2. Business Blogging 3. Small Business Development
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to Stephen Pierce, our coach, mentor and
brother, who inspired us to take immediate action on our ideas, innovate
until our ideas turned into a profitable venture and persist until we saw
our dreams turn into reality.
This book was created for all the innovators and visionaries who
know how to turn a concept into an idea and an idea into a profitable
business that creates opportunities for others to succeed – and to those
who know the importance of doing it sooner rather than later.
~ Deborah Cole Micek, John-Paul Micek and Thomas Pakii Pierce
The basic principle of turning ideas into big money is
to seize every money-building idea and
work with it until the idea fits your purpose,
decide on the steps needed to make it work,
and then proceed to do it as soon as possible.
~ Duane Newcomb
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CONTENTS
What people are saying_____________________________________________ 2
What the experts are saying about blogs …_______________________ 4
Dedication ________________________________________________________ 9
CONTENTS _______________________________________________________ 11
INTRO: The Blogs Are Coming! The Blogs Are Coming! ___________ 18
Here are just seven ways that a well-structured blog can help you
grow your small business: ________________________________________ 20
When you learn how to master business blogging, you'll be able to
harness the power of this highly interactive technology… _______ 20
Building your business blog ... the right way! ____________________ 21
1. Welcome to the World Live Web – Where Content Lives ________ 26
What is the World Live Web? _____________________________________ 26
Blogs and RSS are a new way of publishing. _____________________ 28
Businesses and Marketers - Entering the World Live Web ________ 28
The Broad Reach of the World Live Web _________________________ 29
2. What Is Blogging and Why Should You Blog? __________________ 36
What Is a Blog? __________________________________________________ 36
What is the difference between a blog and a Web site? __________ 37
Why Should You Blog? ___________________________________________ 42
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3. Content & Syndication _________________________________________ 49
What Is RSS? ____________________________________________________ 49
What you need to know if you’re a business blogger: ____________ 53
RSS Aggregators and News Readers ______________________________ 54
_____________________________________________________________________ 63
4. Blogging for Business ___________________________________________ 63
Business Blogging Secrets Revealed! ____________________________ 66
Quick Case Studies ______________________________________________ 67
Five Important Reasons Why Blogs Can Boost Your Business____ 71
21 Ways to Boost Your Bottom Line Using Business Blogs _______ 77
5. Strategic Planning For Blogging Success ____________________ 125
Why Do You Want to Blog?_____________________________________ 126
What type of results do you want from your blog? _____________ 127
How to Determine if a Blog Is Right for You ___________________ 129
Business Blogging Strategy Action Playbook ___________________ 132
Creating Your Business Blogging Success Strategy ____________ 133
Business Blogging Success Strategy Summary Sheet __________ 135
QUOTES to Inspire You - Persist with your blog! ______________ 136
6. How to Choose the Right Blog Software Tools _______________ 139
Blog Software Defined__________________________________________ 139
Understanding Blog Software __________________________________ 143
How to Set Up Your Blog Using a Third-Party-Hosted Blog _____ 150
Client-based Tools _____________________________________________ 154
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7. Producing Content and Publishing with Your Blog ___________ 159
How to Publish Effectively _____________________________________ 159
Publishing a Blog Is Easy to Do! _______________________________ 162
Your Content as a Traffic Magnet ______________________________ 163
High Ranking Content (Content) _______________________________ 163
Reaching Broader Audiences (Communication) ________________ 171
Relating More Personally (Conversation) _______________________ 171
8. Introduction to Blog Marketing and Promotion ______________ 177
Blogs Do It Better ______________________________________________ 177
Let's start with getting your house in order. ___________________ 177
Coaching Tips on the do’s and don’ts of generating good content:
_________________________________________________________________ 179
Three big reasons to publish frequently: _______________________ 180
Planning for Blog Promotional Success ________________________ 181
Myths and Misnomers__________________________________________ 185
9. Pings, Traffic Generation and Spam Warnings _____________ 190
Pings the Thing, the Blog Ecosystem __________________________ 190
Spam Warning__________________________________________________ 192
You Get TRAFFIC! _____________________________________________ 194
Popular Directories to Submit Your Site _______________________ 199
Automated Pinging With Your Blog ____________________________ 203
10. How to Guarantee Blog Promotional Success _______________ 208
Understand the natural promotional characteristics of blogs and
the blogosphere. _______________________________________________ 208
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Understanding the Organic Search Properties of Blogs ________ 210
Natural Traffic Pull _____________________________________________ 210
Establishing Your Commitment and Setting Expectations _____ 210
What is Search-Engine Marketing? ____________________________ 211
Why Blogs Enhance Search-Engine Marketing _________________ 211
How Blogs Rank Well in Search-Engine Results ________________ 214
11. Strategizing and Selecting Your Killer Keywords __________ 220
Introduction to Keywords ______________________________________ 221
Three Steps to a Winning List of Keywords ____________________ 222
Killer Keyword Top 20 Summary Sheet ________________________ 223
QUOTES to Give You the Edge - ________________________________ 224
Happy Keywording! ____________________________________________ 224
12. How to Create Blog Success & Measure Your Blog ROI _____ 226
Crawling, Indexing and Ranking With Your Blog in Google ____ 227
How to Measure Your Blog Return on Investment (ROI) _______ 231
Monitoring Your Blog Progress _________________________________ 236
Monitoring Your Search-Engine Performance __________________ 236
An excellent monitoring tool! __________________________________ 237
___________________________________________________________________ 245
13. Other Ways to Blog for Profit ________________________________ 245
Blog with Affiliate Programs ___________________________________ 246
Contextual Advertising ________________________________________ 248
Information Products Sales ____________________________________ 251
Profiting Because of Your Blog _________________________________ 252
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___________________________________________________________________ 257
14. Turn Your Blog into a Multimedia Blog! _____________________ 257
What is Podcasting? ___________________________________________ 257
What is V-Blogging? ____________________________________________ 260
What is Mo-Blogging? __________________________________________ 260
15. Final Thoughts from Your Coaches and Authors ___________ 263
Recommended Cool Tools ________________________________________ 267
GoodKeywords _________________________________________________ 267
WordTracker ___________________________________________________ 268
BlogHarbor.com ________________________________________________ 269
TypePad.com ___________________________________________________ 270
RSS Submit ____________________________________________________ 271
E.Webscapes ___________________________________________________ 272
FeedDemon ____________________________________________________ 276
Resource Directory_______________________________________________ 277
Free Blog Publishing Software _________________________________ 277
Fee-based Blog Publishing Software ____________________________ 278
Blog Editing Client Software ___________________________________ 279
RSS News Readers (Aggregators) _______________________________ 280
Web-based RSS News Readers (Aggregators) ____________________ 282
Contextual Ad Networks _______________________________________ 283
RSS Ad Networks_______________________________________________ 284
Affiliate Networks ______________________________________________ 285
Publish, Be Read, and Get Paid! ________________________________ 286
Promoting Your Blog Search Engines __________________________ 287
Promoting Your Blog with Blog Directories ____________________ 288
Promoting Your Blog with Web Rings __________________________ 292
Resources for Writing Prompts and Ideas Generators __________ 292
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Mobile Blogging (Moblogging) __________________________________ 293
Photoblogging __________________________________________________ 294
Travel Blogging ________________________________________________ 294
Blog References & Research _____________________________________ 296
Charting Blog Trends __________________________________________ 297
Got Mail? Notify Users of Blog Updates via Email ______________ 298
Tips on Writing & Creating a Better Blog ______________________ 299
Videos to get you up and running with your blog ______________ 299
Steps to Getting Started with your First Blog: _________________ 300
How to become a Blog Reader – for FREE ________________________ 300
Blogs making the news! ________________________________________ 302
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ____________________________________________ 307
About Your Authors and Coaches ________________________________ 308
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Man’s mind, once stretched to a new idea,
never goes back to its original dimensions.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
INTRO: The Blogs Are Coming! The Blogs Are Coming!
Aloha fellow business owner,
On September 8, 2004, a power shift that�s been simmering below the
surface for years finally boiled over into simultaneous national
recognition.
Like Goliath being slain with a lowly slingshot, the mainstream media (in
the form of Dan Rather) came to the undeniable realization that they
were no longer in control of information.
Within 30 minutes of that now infamous TV special on "60 Minutes II,"
broadcast bloggers were digging into the facts and questioning the
validity of what had just been presented by the 42-year broadcast
veteran. In less than one week, CBS admitted it could "no longer vouch"
for the memos. And just weeks after the election, Rather announced his
retirement and the blogosphere won another victory.
ABC News selected Bloggers as
―People of the Year,‖ and
Merriam-Webster declared
―blog‖ its ―word of the year.‖
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No matter what your political affiliation is, this incident is one very
public example of the power of blogging. Blogging is quickly accelerating
into a steeply sloping growth curve of popularity and application.
Blogging puts the power of information and the impact of influence into
the hands of the ―average Joe‖ and the ―average Jane.‖ It makes instant
publishing a reality, regardless of your technical skill level. And, it�s a
business growth tool that the savvy small-business owner can no
longer afford to ignore.
Take the oldest, most effective marketing method in the world (word of
mouth), bolt a supercharger on it, and put it to work for you!
So why is blogging gaining popularity so quickly? What�s the attraction?
And why is it so darn powerful?
The answer is quite simple when you consider history and human
nature.
Blogging is an unstoppable technological force that exponentially
multiplies the world�s oldest, most favorite and trusted form of
information sharing – word of mouth marketing.
Think about it. Who do you trust the most to give you advice,
recommendations, and information about opportunities, purchases, or
choices?
If you�re like the vast majority of people, it�s the opinion of someone
you know and trust – someone who you feel is just like you.
That type of trust comes from personal communication, social
interaction, and the joining together of like-minded individuals. Blogs
and the blogging community deliver all that – and more.
Blogging is opening the door to the world of exponential leverage for the
average small-business owner. Now, whether you live in Honolulu,
Hawaii; Boise, Idaho; or Sydney, Australia; you can use blogging as a
business multiplication tool that puts word-of-mouth marketing to work
for you.
Blogs are not just for marketing and client-relationship building either.
There are dozens of business areas where blogs can help improve
information flow, reduce clutter and avoid the dreaded ―but I didn't know
about that‖ response.
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Here are just seven ways that a well-structured blog can
help you grow your small business:
1. Project development and management that enhances collaboration
and boosts the performance of teams across the hall and/or half
way around the world.
2. Centralized information distribution that eliminates duplication
and redundant research.
3. A nearly instantaneous client- and customer-feedback engine that
allows companies (large and small) to nip consumer issues in the
bud.
4. Reducing e-mail overhead and improving general team
management by answering a question once, and only once.
5. A low-cost instantaneous update system that automatically
distributes premium ―must have‖ information to clients and
customers - with no worries about delivery issues or spam.
6. Organization and coordination of your in-house and outsource
agent teams.
7. An online, creative think-tank where internal company teams or
industry peers from across the country can mastermind on a
topical basis.
There are actually dozens more! In fact, the number of business-boosting
blogging applications is only limited by one�s imagination. We highlight
21 additional ways in Chapter 4 of this book just to serve as a catalyst
for you to develop your original idea for your blog.
When you learn how to master business blogging, you'll be
able to harness the power of this highly interactive
technology…
By:
пЃ±
Building trust that leads to greater profits.
пЃ±
Multiplying the lifetime value of your clients.
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пЃ±
Positioning yourself as a respected authority in your niche.
пЃ±
Transforming your clients into raving fans who sell for you.
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Replacing or complementing your e-mail e-zine for 100% delivery
rates.
Effortlessly generating leads and press exposure.
Increasing targeted traffic and boosting your search-engine
rankings.
Your business blog is the tool that can help you do all of this – and
MORE!
Building your business blog ... the right way!
Blogging can play an important role in the growth of your business in the
marketplace of the new millennium. But to do that effectively - you need
to know exactly how to successfully start, maintain, and leverage
your blog for ongoing benefit to your business.
For a blog to be effective, it must be well-planned, well-written, wellorganized, and well-marketed. And that�s where most small-business
owners are stalling out. When you look at this ground floor opportunity,
it�s difficult to see exactly how you can navigate your way to an enviable
position in your industry or niche.
But that�s where the powerful, interactive coaching course comes to your
side to guide you step-by-step through the entire process. From setting
up your own blog, to advanced traffic generation and search-engine
optimization – you�ll get all the answers you need to succeed.
CONGRATULATE YOURSELF right now if you’ve
picked up the complete “How to Master Business
Blogging” multimedia coaching course, or for
picking up this book and applying what you learn.
You�ve just distinguished yourself as being among the top 7% of business
owners who recognize the powerful impact of accelerating the learning
curve. By modeling after someone who�s gone before, and working
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through the trial and error, you will have the tools to set up your
business blog – the right way – right from the start.
By the time your competitors decide to join the bandwagon, you�ll have
accumulated a substantial storehouse of trust, respect, and goodwill in
your niche. Through a careful combination of diligent promotion, searchengine optimization, and solid writing you�ll be able to fend them off with
ease as they try to catch up.
So the real question is – are you ready to master business blogging and
become a respected expert in your market or niche? Or will you let other
proactive business owners step into your ideal niche and muscle you out
of this prime-time opportunity?
The multimedia coaching course is the shortest way to success in
business blogging – even if you don�t currently have a clue what pings,
RSS, or trackbacks are.
In fact, all you have to do is actively participate by following through on
what you learn in your audio coaching sessions. Doing that, referring to
this reference manual, and becoming a success at business blogging will
be as easy as filling a paint-by-numbers picture.
YES! It really is THAT simple. That�s why we fell in love with business
blogging – for our own business. It�s easy to do – once you know the
secrets and strategies of effective and consistent business blogging. And
once you get results from your blog – you�ll be a blogging addict just like
us!
Chapter 5 of this book introduces you to one of the most important steps
you must take to set yourself up for business-blogging success – which is
PLANNING for your blog�s success.
(For those who are in the multi-media course, you’ll want to visit your
private student blog at HowToMasterBlogging.com in order to download
your Business-Blogging Strategy Playbook. We walk you step-by-step
through completing your own, unique Business-Blogging Strategy
Playbook. Planning your own business-blogging strategy, is the fastest
way to get the results you want from your business blog.)
Blogs and RSS are fascinating, fun, and powerful. Blogs have exploded
onto the business scene as significant communications tools for
business.
2004 was certainly the year of blogs and bloggers. Since 2004 was a
presidential election year in the United States, the power and influence of
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blogs were really felt as the blogs published and broke factual news items
related to the news and politics of 2004. Mainstream media was, in fact,
overshadowed and outpaced.
What happened in 2004 proved that blogs matter in a BIG way. Blogs
represent the voice of the citizen and individual consumer. Blogs now
deliver information faster than mainstream media, in a more personal
manner than other Web communications, and can be more influential
because they tend to be trusted sources of authoritative content and the
voice of one�s peers.
Technorati (http://www.technorati.com) is a blog-search directory that
monitors and indexes the growth of what they define as the World Live
Web. Google�s new blog-specific search engine
(http://blogsearch.google.com) works much the same way. With rapidfire updates occurring on thousands of blogs every minute, along with
hundreds of sites frequently updating their RSS content feeds --the
World Live Web represents the new way in which the Web works.
Blogs and RSS have introduced to the Internet the idea that publishing
information is easy, instant, and in real time. Never before have Web
sites become so important and never before, since the advent of e-mail,
have we seen such an effective means to communicate ideas and
information.
Blogs allow you to publish information in real time. Search engines have
responded by seeing blogs as sources of newsworthy content that are to
be visited frequently. So they visit blogs frequently looking for great news
and information to index and deliver in their search results.
Blogs provide the public with a more reliable way of getting news and
information that is free from the influence of formulated and self-serving
marketing messages and mainstream-media influences.
Blogs have moved from being a tool for publishing digital journals and
commentary. Now millions of citizens are creating blogs and using them
to communicate with others about what matters most to them about a
variety of topics.
What this means for businesses going online is that your markets are
organizing themselves into digital conversations. You must now
consider this in order to deliver an effective marketing message.
Consumers are more in control than ever before and they are controlling
the messaging medium on the Internet. Blatant advertising and marketing
messages are under scrutiny and are met with skepticism. Consumers
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want a more personal business experience where they can ask questions,
offer feedback and have more facts before purchasing. Consumers want
control, and now they have it.
Blogs are the tools of the time to meet this demand. They allow your
business to become more personal and self-disclosing without exposing
weakness and with the benefit of connecting with customers and
prospects in a significantly more powerful way.
Blogs allow you to build relationships around your brand, your business,
your products and services. Relationships are the key. The rules of
engagement have changed. Your markets are faster, smarter, and more
organized. This is the new world of Internet publishing and
communication. This is the world that online businesses must consider
and contend with.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Blogs are powerful drivers of Internet traffic
because they deliver content that is fresh, timely,
frequently updated around focused topics and
themes. All of these characteristics make them
first-rate content sources with the search engines
and make blogs top tools for search-engine
rankings and online marketing.
When it comes to online marketing, content is king
and search results are the main thing. The number
one priority for marketing a product and service with
a blog is to get your site content into the search
engines for keywords. This will deliver customers and
prospects to you. If you don�t get visibility in the
search-engine results pages (SERPs) then you will
have challenges introducing your business services
or growing your current business offerings online.
You have to get clicks to your site if you ever hope to
get exposure for your message.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
You�ll want to pay close attention to Chapter 11 as it introduces you to
the power of having the right Keywords.
(For those who are in the multi-media course, you’ll want to visit your
private student blog at HowToMasterBlogging.com in order to download
your Keyword Strategy Playbook.
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The audio CDs also go into more depth on keyword selection and the
resources you�ll need to ensure you are on the right track with your
business blog.
With this growing interest in blogs as marketing tools and drivers of
search-engine traffic there is also a great interest in how to promote a
blog properly and use it to build traffic and increase readership. And
there is a very good reason for this growing interest.
Chapters 8 and 10 of this book will give you the myths of blog
promotion, along with strategies on how to market and promote your
blog.
Listen to Level 404 of the Audio CDs you received in the complete
course where we share over a dozen different ways to promote your blog.
You�ll want to re-listen to this particular session several times to take
action on all the strategies shared to get your blog out there and known
in the blogosphere.
Blogs work and they work well at getting your message out. They excel at
getting high rankings in the search engines and they have proven
invaluable at getting good traffic and reaching new online audiences.
Blogs are natural link magnets and search-engine magnets whose viral
linking and sharing capabilities allow ideas to be shared quickly and
broadly.
Learn why blogs matter and how to blog successfully for personal or
business gain. Blogs really do matter and you need to learn the how and
why of blogging success. This is your guide to learning how to do just
that.
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Opportunities multiply as they are seized …
~ John Wicker
1. Welcome to the World Live Web – Where Content Lives
What is the World Live Web?
According to Technorati.com:
―The World Live Web is the syndicated subset of the World
Wide Web. Sites in this subset update often, sending out ‗live�
notifications by RSS and similar means every time new content
is posted or updated. While Web logs constitute the majority of
these sites, many non-blog sources also syndicate their
content. Technorati currently indexes more than three-million
sources on the World Live Web. Each one of these sources can
be updated at any time, generating ‗active content� (such as
new blog entries) within a 24-hour period.‖
In essence, the World Live Web is that part of the Web that is LIVE and
operates in real-time. Blogs allow for the real-time publishing of
information and the ability to reference and link to that information
instantly. Blogs magnificently and ingeniously send notification to the
World Live Web about new information as it becomes available.
What results is a symphony of activity consisting of real-time searchengine indexing and live-content updates. Other bloggers are reading and
linking to each other. Ideas and information are shared and exchanged
with lightning-quick speed and efficiency as blogs cross reference each
other. And, the search engines who love blog content drive this frequently
updated content to the top of the search-engine result for freshness and
relevancy.
In the ―society‖ of the World Live Web, each ―citizen blog‖ lives within its
own social system and network. These social networks tend to grow over
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time and expand over time. What occurs is the natural influence of ideas
and opinions upon one another as like-minded people reference and link
to each other as authoritative sources.
The building blocks of these social networks are the real-time
conversations of bloggers as expressed through instant publishing of
topically relevant micro-content and commenting. These social networks
grow based on how well-trusted each citizen becomes in his or her own
expressions.
Each citizen normally garners a readership that can range from one
person to thousands. This readership is a basic building block of an
individual social network. As that citizen engages the readership in twoway communications that involve publishing and commenting, a
common ―trust‖ begins to build. The citizen begins to establish an
authoritative voice for his or her topic and begins to build influence.
The Internet has changed and the growth in blog publishing has
significantly changed how people use the Internet for Web publishing.
Blogs are the latest communication tool taking the Web by storm. Blogs
are the most influential communications tool on the Internet at the
moment. While there are other technology communications tools like email and instant messaging, none of these tools are exercising influence
in ways that matter most for online content publishing.
On the Internet content is king! Your content must do two things in
order to be considered profitable:
Your content must influence search engines
and it must influence people!
Blogs excel at doing both. Since blogs have introduced the Internet to
active or live-content updates, you can use a blog to influence search
engines and people much faster and more effectively than e-mail or
instant messaging ever will.
E-mail is instant but closed. Your communications, while private, do not
reach search engines and only influence the limited number of people to
whom it was sent. Yes, instant messaging is instant two-way
communication but it is only as good as the moment that messaging is
taking place.
While you can save an instant-messaging session to a text or html file, it
is still an isolated discussion that doesn�t benefit from the wide expanse
of the Internet. Nor can this type of communication be referenced,
promoted, or searched. Lastly, when you generate an e-mail or instant
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message, only the recipients of these messages are aware of their
existence.
Blogs and RSS are a new way of publishing.
Blogs alert others to new information, making your content exponentially
more findable, searchable, and easier to reference and promote.
This new way of communicating can be characterized as conversational
in nature and real time in execution. Publishing content with a blog is
more than just producing new Web content. You are engaged in social
marketing and your content can be considered to be digital conversations
that are designed to reach out to a specific social market with the
expectation of eventually building relationships with your audience or
readers.
Businesses and Marketers - Entering the World Live Web
You can still participate in the World Wide Web where information is
static, stale, and infrequently updated. It is your choice. But do
understand the price if you go that route.
The World Live Web is a living mechanism. It never sleeps. Everything
happens in the ―now.‖ Where it used to take Web site content weeks or
months to get in the major search engines and spread; blog content
takes seconds, minutes, or hours, and it spreads exponentially.
In comparison to the World Wide Web, Web Live Web content is viral and
spreads easily and effectively with little effort on your part. Business
content in the World Live Web outperforms the World Wide Web. Hands
down it is the only way to publish.
As a business owner or entrepreneur, you now have to become a market
thinker instead of a product pusher. Pushing brochure-type content or
direct-marketing messages will not only fall flat, it could mean a reversal
of fortune if done obnoxiously enough. In this new era of consumercontrolled consumption, consumers are using technologies like RSS to
customize their content consumption and they are using blogcommenting systems to make their presence known and felt.
You have to think about your market�s conversations, understand the
influences and needs in real time and formulate a communication
strategy in which to get connected. If you think you will join the World
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Live Web with a hit-and-run marketing piece, your message will be dead
in the water before you will ever make a sale. You must be thoughtful
and committed to building relationships.
You have to understand that you don�t control the message entirely. You
control levels of influence but consumers have the ultimate choice. Deliver
value and people will choose your content and your products.
The Broad Reach of the World Live Web
There are live search directories that patrol the World Live Web for all the
live content updates and they index them. These live search directories
patrol your blog and RSS feeds, your links and content-aggregation
servers constantly for content to index. This indexing is so fast, so
efficient, and so viral that mainstream search engines like Google and
Yahoo vigorously search the World Live Web for content.
Blogs provide a much broader reach for your content because of livecontent updates. Never before has your content been able to reach so
many faraway places. The major search engines are important; however,
your content can now get listed on blog and RSS search directories and
show up in search results that were never before available.
The cup runs over – the World Wide Web is being overrun by live content
found through blogs and RSS feeds. The World Live Web is organic in its
transfer of information. You cannot lose with the World Live Web.
Everything is designed to promote and multiply information quickly.
Blogs as participatory-journalism tools or citizen-media tools (blogs are
called by several cool buzz phrases that capture the essence of what they
do) have outflanked and outranked mainstream media. Businesses must
now speak to bloggers along with using regular media if they want to be
effective.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Marketers must be conversational in their messaging
and must be interested in building relationships in
order to recognize new revenues. Communication is in
real-time, two-way, peer-to-peer, instant flow.
Information no longer flows from the top down but
multilaterally through informal and viral Web-based
discussions.
Accord to a Pew Internet study released in Nov-Dec 2004, of 120-million
adult Internet users, seven percent or eight million have created blogs.
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Currently, 27% of Internet users say they read blogs and this number is
up from 17% since the last survey in February 2004. That is a significant
jump in readership!
This number represents 32-million Americans who are reading blogs!
Additionally, the PEW Internet study revealed that 12% of Internet users
post material or comments on other blogs. That�s 14-million people
having conversations using blogs. And, 5% or 6-million Internet users
say they use RSS to get news and information.
These numbers are huge and represent both a challenge and an
opportunity for business owners and business bloggers to reach new
markets and communicate more effectively within current markets. The
online-marketing landscape is indeed changing.
Blog Creators
7% or 8-million Internet users have created blogs
30%
25%
Blog Creators
Blog Readers
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Jul-02
Mar-03
Feb-04
Nov-04
PEW Internet & America Life Project
http://www.pewinternet.org
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Welcome to the World Live Web!
ACTION STEPS for you to take right now:
Today’s Date: ________________
пЃ±
How are you connecting with your choice clientele (target market)
and building relationships online?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
What are you currently doing to instantly communicate with your
prospects – in real time – about your products and/or services?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
Who is your choice clientele?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
What are the demographics of your choice clientele (target
market)?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
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пЃ±
How can you communicate more quickly and with more of your
choice clientele more often compared to traditional one-on-one
networking opportunities/activities?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Visit http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com and
http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog to become a regular
blog reader of these blogs to get updated strategies and
information about what�s going on in the blogosphere and how to
apply it for fun and profit in your business.
If you enrolled in the complete Multimedia Course on How to
Master Business Blogging, you�ll also want to become a regular
reader of the private student blog:
http://howtomasterblogging.com
o Enter your private student-user name and personal
password given to you after you submitted your payment in
full.
Check out these links to get more information on topics
& resources mentioned in this section, and take your
learning to the next level:
o Technorati: http://www.technorati.com
o World Live Web:
http://www.technorati.com/help/faq.html#wlw
o SERPs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serps_competition
o PEW Internet: http://www.pewinternet.org
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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WARNING!
The following is a list of people who do NOT want you to
read further. They do not want you to get your hands on
the following content that is shared in this multimedia
course. And, they especially don�t want you applying what
you learn quicker than they can.
The top-three groups who DO NOT want you to
read any further:
1. The main-stream media (otherwise known as ―oldstream media‖)
2. Overpaid programmers and Web designers
3. Your competitors (who are already putting this
technology to work for themselves)
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Once I thought ideas were exceptions not the rule.
That is not so. Ideas are so plentiful that they ride on air.
All you need to do is reach out and snatch one.
~ Rod McKuen
2. What Is Blogging and Why Should You Blog?
What Is a Blog?
The term ―blog‖ is derived from the term ―Weblog‖ or Web log. In the early
days of blogging circa mid-to-late 1990s, Web logs were used to track
updates and references to other resources on the Internet.
A Weblog is a journal-like Web site that allows you to journal, or logs
your thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
You can publish freestyle and in any manner you like. A blog has a Webbased editing tool that allows you to add content at any time you like and
as often as you like.
You simply type in your content, push a button and you are published.
Therefore, a blog is a Web site or Web page that is updated frequently
with fresh content. Think of it as a Web site that allows instant
publishing.
We like to think of a blog as a Web site on multi-media steroids.
Weblogs (henceforth referred to as blogs), as journals were also used as
stream-of-consciousness publishing tools which allowed you to share
and comment on anything of personal interest that you wanted to
comment on or talk about. There are lots of blogs that publish
opinionated commentary as diverse in tone as there is a diversity of
topics to talk about.
Blogging is the activity of publishing content about a specific topic or
theme of interest to a niche audience instantly with blog software. That
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content is also part commentary, part opinion, and often includes links
of interest and maintains a more personal tone of voice in
communication.
As you will learn from this book, blogs have evolved into more than a tool
for commentary and opinion. Blogs have become powerful
communications and collaboration tools and are being used in many
ways for online business promotion and marketing communications.
Our business definition of a blog for the purpose of this book:
Blogs are Web sites that allow you to instantly publish
content about a topic or theme of interest.
What is the difference between a blog and a Web site?
There are some important differences between a blog and a typical, static
Web site.
Here is a list of a few key characteristics of a blog. This list will help
you understand how a blog and a Web site differ, although they are both
Web-centric publishing tools.
Blogs are different in the following key ways:
A traditional Webmaster is
not required for ongoing
maintenance.
You can publish directly from
your computer.
You can easily make changes
to content with instant
updates and minimal effort.
FTP isn�t required to transfer
files to your server.
There is no HTML or other
coding for you to learn.
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A regular Web site is designed to
publish content as static or fixed
Web pages that convey information
for the purpose of generating your
most wanted response – whether that
response is a direct sale, a sales lead,
or click-throughs to another Web site
or Web page.
Blogs publish information as
dynamic content (or conversations)
that take place in real time and
through continuously connected
content for the purposes of building
relationships, reputation, and most
recently, revenue.
MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
Your site content is automatically archived chronologically by
category.
You can allow comments from visitors to your blog and get public
feedback to your articles.
You get RSS feed integration in your blog allowing other people and
Web sites to receive your content through news readers and
aggregators.
If you are not familiar with the terms RSS, news readers or news
aggregators, don�t worry. We will explain them to you later and you are
also supported with video tutorials to show you how to use them.
Blog software performs just like Web-site software. They are both used
for hosting linked-content sites or Webs. And just like Web-site software,
blog software will run across the major computer operating systems such
as Windows, Linux and UNIX.
Note: We are referring to software that is installed on a computer server
and not on your desktop PC.
There are tools that you can install on your desktop PC that will aid in
publishing. However, just remember that the blog software that hosts or
holds your content runs on a server just like a Web site.
You can install and set up a blog on your own server with downloadable
blog software which allows you to manage the technical details yourself
(like WordPress). You can also open a hosted account with a blog service
provider and have them handle the technical details while you focus on
publishing (BlogHarbor).
In either case, you have both free and fee-based options available to you.
Again, this is just like Web hosting.
Now that you have learned about how Weblogs differ from Web sites, let�s
focus on the key features of all blogs that make blogging the powerful
and dynamic communications tool that it is.
One of the most powerful features of a blog is the Blog Post.
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A Blog Post will usually contain the following:
The main comments (or body). This is where your personal
commentaries are normally written. These commentaries can be in
the form of ideas, stories, or whatever suits your fancy in
communicating to your audience.
The Date/Time Stamp. The date and time stamp is for the
recording of the day and time of your entry. It also serves to put
your blog entries in chronological order.
The Blog Title. The Blog Title serves to give a description of what
the entry is about.
Your blog posts contain your instant content and are the source of the
frequent updates for your blog. The Post is at the center of what
traditional blogging is all about. Without a post you do not really have a
blog. Another way to think of your blog post is to think of the articles and
content you publish. Each body of information is a post or article.
Your post contains your instant update. A blog post is also considered
an entry, or item, within your blog. Your posts or articles are
published in reverse chronology so that the most recent article that is
published is listed first or most prominently on the page.
For example, if you publish an article at 8 a.m. and then you publish
another article at 8:30 a.m., the article published at 8:30 a.m. will be
listed first with all other articles listed in reverse chronology from the
most recent to the least recent.
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Figure 1 multiple blog posts on same day
In Figure 1 above we show three posts made in one day. The times of
each post are 1:20 a.m. (EST), 2:17a.m. (EST), and 1:07p.m. (EST). The
post made at 1:07p.m. on that day is the most recent. Therefore, it is
listed in reverse chronology as the most recently published content which
results in that post being listed most prominently (first) on the blog front
page.
Your post is indeed the main activity of your blog, but there are optional
components that may be available for you to use and they may vary
among the different blog-software packages.
These components can be enabled through your blog software, or they
can be enabled as add-ins to improve the functionality of your blog. They
range in type from calendars, archival of blog entries, the addition of
blogrolls, and allowing/disallowing comments to Permalinks, Trackback
and RSS.
A blog is technically a content-management system (CMS) although it is a
more simplified version of one. A CMS allows you to easily publish to a
Web site and manage content without having to deal with having to know
how to program code or hire a Web-content administrator.
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Blog-publishing software provides you with a graphical user interface
(GUI) for point-and-click publishing of your content. Your blog software
will require you to perform initial easy-to-do setup configurations so that
it will know how to automatically organize your published content in the
future. After that, you can publish quickly and instantly using your blogsoftware Web-based editor that is built into your blog-publishing
software.
Bloggers of all types whether for business or personal publishing,
normally publish content around niche topics and subjects that they are
passionate about. Niche topics are the best topics since there is very little
activity for readership or revenue in publishing on a broad and general
topic.
Business-oriented blogs will always be more niche-oriented in their
information content because they need to be tightly focused on their
products or services and connected with the audiences they serve.
Business-blog content will cover topics, for example, that promote your
subject-matter expertise, educate consumers on your products or
services, communicate announcements, or provide customer support.
Business blogs with a tight niche focus will also yield better keyword
relevancy and search-engine ranking, along with better branding of you
and your company.
Personal blogs may cover a wider range of related or unrelated topics
within the same blog because personal blogs lend themselves to more
stream-of-consciousness publishing on a whim and according to mood.
This style works well for personal blogs.
There are an ever-increasing number of types of blogs out there. A few
examples would be public-relations blogs, affiliate-marketing blogs,
health-care blogs, law blogs, and car blogs to name a few.
Blogging is HOT!
Current statistics show that blogging is much more than a trend. And it
seems that Fortune magazine�s editors agree with us as they defined
blogs as ―the #1 business technology to pay attention to for 2005.‖
The innovative business owner can quickly see the opportunities for their
product or service that lie waiting with business blogging. The late
majority, however, will regret not getting on the blogging bandwagon
when it first appeared in the mainstream media.
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With that said, let�s talk about what a blog is not. A blog is not just a
Web site, although it is a type of Web site. Your typical Web-site content
takes much longer to update, publish, share, and distribute than a blog.
A blog is also no longer just an online journal. While the term ―online
journal‖ provides an easy-to-understand point of reference for how a blog
is used and how it works, business bloggers have extended the use of
blogs far beyond the personal-pundit type of posting publishing. As
outlined above, blogs are applicable for communication and publishing in
order to reach many different audiences.
NOTE: Refer to the special report included in the multimedia course,
“21 Applications for Business Blogging‖ to get your brain thinking of
all the innovative ways you can use a blog for business.
Why Should You Blog?
So, why should you blog? Well, you shouldn�t blog before you understand
how a blog can best support your online communications. You will have
the most success with your blog if you understand what outcome you
desire before you begin. At the end of the day, your blog will be both fun
and profitable for you.
If you are not blogging, it does not mean that you shouldn�t be blogging.
If you are in business and especially if you do business on the Internet,
then you absolutely must determine if blogging works for your business
model.
If you are doing business online there is a
good chance your competitors are
blogging or preparing to blog. Blogs are
evolving into business communications
tools that are building on ―market
conversations.‖ These markets, your
audiences, are talking to each other about
your products and services in your
industry and niche and they want to talk
to authoritative sources in those niches.
If you aren�t talking to your
target markets in real time,
your competition is and your
markets are definitely
talking back.
That alone is powerful
motivation to at least
investigate how a business
blog can enhance and drive
new business for you online.
Blogs have now taken center stage as the
premier communications-and-publishing
tool for businesses to communicate authoritatively and demonstrate
subject-matter expertise in their market niches.
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This is an opportunity to connect with others on a much more powerful
level.
The reality is that people buy from people they like and trust – Not an
anonymous entity.
Whatever and wherever your interest may be, you can use a blog to draw
people in to connect with you again and again. Whether you have
personal or professional relationships with these people, or they are
customers or suppliers, you have a new opportunity to extend your reach
and increase your influence with others.
Blogging is truly a dynamic communications medium allowing you to
make exchanges with others in a real-time conversational tone. With
more people reading and writing blogs, a fundamental change is
happening in the way we use the Web.
Blogs allow you publish your ideas quickly and communicate in real
time with your readers.
The Web is becoming a more active medium now because of blogs. People
are becoming active consumers of information rather than passive
consumers of information. You can now capitalize on the general
skepticism the public has for news from popular news media by
becoming a source of trusted news and information using a blog.
Blogs are an opportunity for businesses to humanize their content
and personalize their online communication by adding a personal
voice with their content. (Just as Microsoft did with Robert Scoble�s
mega-popular business blog, Scobleizer, found at:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/ that updates readers on everything
from Xbox to podcasting.)
You can create an online presence that consumers can come to know
and trust. Consumers want a more personal connection. They want to
feel like they know and can trust businesses.
A regular Web site is designed to publish content for a multitude of
different reasons. Regular Web sites are static and infrequently updated.
Regular Web sites are great at content delivery but they can also be
impersonal in their communication style and delivery.
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Business Blogging Secrets Revealed!
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Blogs are instant publishing tools that allow you to easily update
your content often.
Blogs are dynamic content-delivery systems.
Blogs publish content as two-way conversations that are more
personal than Web sites. They are humanized by the voice of the
blog publisher who is generally the one actually publishing content
and responding to feedback from readers.
Blogs have opened a door to communication where people can
voice their opinions and spread their ideas freely with a group of
like-minded people.
Blogs have given rise to millions on the Internet who are having
conversations and networking ideas and principles in real time.
Blogs have grown so popular and powerful so quickly that
businesses and marketers are now using them as business
accelerators to increase their reach in current markets, as well as
extend their reach into new markets.
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ACTION STEPS for you to take right now:
Today’s Date: _______________________
пЃ±
Based on what you have read about how other people are using
blogs and RSS technology to instantly publish content online, what
is YOUR definition of a business blog (with your business in
mind)?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
How can you see yourself using a blog for your business?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
How can you see yourself using a blog for personal use?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
What will be the difference between your Web site and your blog?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
Do a search on Google.com to see how many of your competitors (if
any) are already using a blog for their business. List the names of
your competitors who have beat you to the blog arena:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
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пЃ±
Brainstorm names for your business blog:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
After you select the top three names for your business blog, go to
GoDaddy.com and reserve the domain names and lock out your
competition from securing your top keywords for your industry,
while you learn to set up your own business blog.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
пЃ±
Check out these links to get more information on topics &
resources mentioned in this section, and take your learning to
the next level:
o Weblog (blog, blogging):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog
o Web Site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website
o RSS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss
o News Aggregators:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggregator
o Windows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows
o Linux: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
o Unix: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix
o CMS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Management_System
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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All achievement, all earned riches,
have their beginning in an idea.
~ Napoleon Hill
3. Content & Syndication
What Is RSS?
Now that you know what a blog is and understand why they�ve taken the
business community by storm, we want to briefly highlight the power of
RSS for you. If you have been interested in blogging even for a short time,
then we are pretty confident that you have come across the acronym at
some point in time.
Contrary to how often you hear RSS mentioned within the same context
as blogs, they are, indeed, two distinct tools for publishing Web content.
RSS is both an acronym and a word. If you ask those in the know about
the origin of the name, you will not get full agreement. Some say it
means Really Simple Syndication (which is our personal favorite),
others say it means RDF Site Summary, and even recently, although
certainly with tongue in cheek, Really Stops Spam.
The very first version of RSS, according to Dave Winer of Scripting News,
was put in use around 1997.
By 1999, Netscape implemented a version of RSS for publishing content
on its portal Web site. It allowed Netscape browser users to open and
land on a home page with customized and personalized content at the
beginning of each browser session.
In essence, Netscape was offering dynamic news and updates.
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Also in 1999, Radio UserLand (Dave Winer/Scripting News) began
offering the ability to aggregate or collect and read the RSS content that
Netscape was providing.
Radio UserLand also began offering a version of RSS for dynamic news
updates in 1999 as well. It allowed news readers and aggregators to
gather links and article summaries for syndication.
Between 1999 and 2000, a number of milestones with RSS had taken
place, although RSS was in its infancy and there weren�t any real
standards in place. Radio UserLand went on to develop a content
management system (CMS) that integrated RSS for content sharing, and
the Netscape RSS team disbanded.
What we�ve just given you is a very short history of the beginning of RSS
so that you can understand that RSS originally started out as a way to
share Web content. You can read more on the history of RSS by doing a
search or also by visiting the RSS History page at Harvard.
Blogs are dynamic and contain the ability to syndicate and publish your
content because of built-in support for RSS. RSS is NOT a blog, but RSS
is integrated into most, if not all, blog software applications. The blog
publishing software automatically writes to and updates your RSS file for
you anytime you make a new entry to your blog.
Today�s blog software has RSS integrated into it and it automatically
updates your RSS file for you as your content is updated. You never have
to worry about managing your RSS file, which is a VERY nice thing for
business owners who simply want to update their clients quickly and
easily, without the hassle of waiting for their Web programmer to do it.
RSS is used to distribute your blog content
and allows you to subscribe to content
from other sites.
RSS is used primarily to syndicate news-headline content. Now, however,
many companies are slowly moving towards using RSS to update events
lists, provide updated program information and project updates, and
distribute corporate announcements.
Using RSS you can subscribe to and gather a variety of content from
around the web. RSS is commonly used by bloggers who want to share
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their content across the Internet, but it is also widely used by major
news agencies to distribute their news content as well.
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Here is a screen shot of what the actual RSS file format looks like
underneath the dressing of a Web page:
Figure 2 XML RSS file
For each post in your blog, RSS will generate a <title> and <description>
for that post. This is what is published for consumption by your
audience and the public in general.
Your post is your actual content entry, comment, or article. Each content
entry is represented as a single <item> in your XML file.
So, in this case and to keep our discussion simple, your blog entry is
represented by four elements in your XML file as seen in Figure 1. These
elements are <item>, <title>, <link>, and <description>.
You can clearly see more elements defined in this example. These
represent additional elements available to further describe the nature of
your content.
Just like HTML is used to tell your Web browser how to display a page,
RSS uses these elements to help display content on Web sites and in
news readers.
A further discussion about the additional elements would be beyond the
scope of this material, but know that they are all instrumental in
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describing and displaying your content when it is shared or syndicated
via RSS.
What you need to know if you’re a business blogger:
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
The title assigned to your blog entry will be used
as the title for that post in your feed. When it
comes to your blog content, your feed
description is pulled from your post entry�s
starting paragraph.
Your description can contain a maximum of 255
characters to complete the description. However,
this is not normally the case. Normally, there is
a setting to indicate the maximum number of
characters to use for the description while also
giving you the option of publishing the post in
full via RSS.
Your blog software will enable all posts for RSS syndication
automatically, and you will find an RSS XML syndication icon that is
linked to your RSS file, allowing your site content to be syndicated.
This link to your RSS file is what allows your blog content to be easily
shared with other sites and to be listed in RSS feed directories.
Publishing and sharing your content becomes very easy with RSS. People
who use news aggregators can receive your content right at their
desktops and get notification when your blog content has been updated.
They simply copy the link pointing to your RSS file and add it to their
RSS news-reader software.
People can receive your content right at their desktops with RSS.
Bye-bye spammers!
By leveraging the power of one to many, RSS can mean more traffic for
your site as more directories publish your RSS feed. Your traffic can also
increase as more individual Web sites publish your RSS feeds on their
site and more people click through to your site and become regular
consumers of your content.
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RSS Aggregators and News Readers
RSS is an important difference between Weblogs and Web sites. While
you can certainly maintain an RSS file for updates to an otherwise static
Web site, by default, blogs support RSS without any intervention on your
part.
Blogs not only allow you to publish your content instantly, they also
allow you to share your content instantly with anyone who is interested.
RSS announces changes to your Web site through a link to your XML
RSS files. This link to your XML file, together with RSS, is called a feed.
This feed can only be read by an aggregator.
Figure 3 XML RSS Link example
Figure 2 shows an example of an RSS XML link. Most Web sites and
blogs offering an RSS feed will have an icon indicating an RSS feed is
available.
These icons, or images, are well recognized and used as a standard way
to link directly to the RSS feed while notifying site visitors that an RSS
feed is available.
While there is no solid standard of design for these icons, there is a range
of normally accepted types of images for RSS. Figure 3 gives an example
of just a few RSS icons you are sure to see on various sites offering RSS
feeds.
Figure 4 RSS Images
You simply click on the icon and you will see the RSS XML link for that
particular feed. Just copy it from your browser address field and paste it
into your RSS news reader.
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Or, if you use My Yahoo as your news reader (aggregator), it is even
easier to subscribe to someone�s blog who posts that icon. All you need to
do is point and click, and it will bring you to a page to ask you to add the
RSS feed. You click ―accept‖ and VOILA! You�re subscribed. It�s as easy
as that.
An Aggregator is another term for client-based or Web-based software
that is built and designed specifically for collecting and storing RSS links
(feeds) from your favorite blogs.
This is very much like collecting links and storing them in your browser
favorites. However, unlike your browser favorites, your aggregator will
notify you of headline updates for the collection of feeds you have saved
in it.
How this works is that your aggregator pulls the feed links that it has
been given. This pulling interval happens at a time interval that you set
within the aggregator software.
For any content that has been updated since that last pulling interval,
you will be notified via a pop-up or some other visual or auditory alert if
your aggregator is client-based, or via email if your aggregator is Webbased.
Your blog content is then read within the aggregator by clicking on the
headline. Client-based aggregators have an integrated browser to view
the contents or Web page of the feed once you click on it.
Our preferred news aggregator is FeedDemon because of the convenient
features and how all our information is organized.
An aggregator, or news reader, in general has three viewing windows.
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Figure 5 FeedDemon RSS News Reader
One window will list the channels to which you are subscribed. Another
window will list each item or content entry on that specific channel. That
item entry will be a headline that you would click on to view the
remaining content connected with that specific headline.
A third window will normally provide a browser view so that you can
preview that item or content when you select the headline.
Figure 9 shows you a clean view of how FeedDemon allows you to view
your RSS feeds. You will find news readers differ slightly in how you add
an RSS link for viewing and managing your feeds.
But most readers provide the following standard views as seen in Figure
10 for viewing and managing your RSS Feeds. FeedDemon is a rather
full-feature news reader. There are news readers that are simpler and
less feature-rich, as well. We have even seen one or two bare-bones RSS
news readers that offer just two viewing panes: one for the RSS channels
and one for the RSS channel content items. These very scaled-down
news readers did allow the content items to be opened in an external
browser.
These types of RSS news readers are rare and we highly recommend that
you select one that provides an internal browser view. You will also be
able to view content and the source Web sites or blogs in an external
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browser if you like. All you need to do is just push a button to launch
your Internet browser.
Figure 6 Viewing Windows in RSS News Reader
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Figure 7 RSS Bandit News Reader with Different Styled Interface
As a publisher of a blog, there aren't any restrictions or filters for your
feed once you make it available.
Anyone with an aggregator can pull your blog content into their
aggregator for reading, and they will be alerted automatically each time
you update your content. You would only need to spread the word to
encourage more people to use aggregators, especially those you are
directing to your blog.
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RSS is growing in power and popularity. Add RSS as part of your content
distribution mix and help increase its usage by learning more about it
yourself, and educating your current audience, customers, or clients
about the power of RSS.
Don’t wait. Start your RSS adoption now.
Start using it to get your own content updates and start using it to
provide content updates to others. There is a new market for your
content and for reaching new audiences through RSS. The Web is
changing. It�s time to adopt RSS and change with the times.
You can even link to videos to provide that education to your subscribers
at: http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/index.php?cat=7 from
your blog without having to put this together yourself.
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ACTION STEPS for You to Take Right Now:
Today’s Date: ____________________________
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Get more information on the ―Power of RSS‖ to innovate processes
within your business by using this amazing technology.
Include the RSS icon along with the direct link to your RSS feed on
your blog
Subscribe to your favorite news reader (aggregator) or two, try a
free aggregator service and an affordable fee-based service:
o My Yahoo (free, easy, convenient way to add feeds)
o FeedDemon (one-time-only charge of $29 – totally worth it!
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Begin reading your favorite blogs on a daily basis via RSS
technology.
Educate your clients, newsletter subscribers, and friends about the
power of RSS technology, and the new way to communicate by
subscribing to your blog.
Link directly to
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/index.php?cat=7 for
your readers to see videos that provide that education to your
subscribers. In this manner, they will see how they can also
subscribe to news readers to check out your blog regularly via
RSS.
Check out these links to get more information on topics &
resources mentioned in this section, and take your
learning to the next level:
RSS History: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssVersionHistory
UserLand: http://www.userland.com/
Dave Winer: http://www.scripting.com/dwiner/
RSS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss
XML: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xml
News Aggregators: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggregator
FeedDemon: http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/
RSS Bandit: http://www.rssbandit.org/ow.asp?ScreenShots
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Our greatest lack is not money for any undertaking, but rather ideas.
If the ideas are good, cash will somehow flow to where it is needed.
~ Robert H. Schuller
4. Blogging for Business
An evolution of communication is happening right now and you might be
missing the boat. Each day, many new small businesses and solo
entrepreneurs are joining the blogosphere and reaching out to their
markets faster than ever before.
How are you reaching your online markets? Blogs are the next evolution
in online marketing. If you are seeing more and more articles heralding
the coming of the blog and urging you to get your blog going, we are here
to tell you that the message is authentic.
Wait any longer and you�ll lose more and more mind share to your
competitors who beat you onto the blogging bandwagon.
Blogs are serious business tools that no online business should be
without. Blogs are fantastic bridge tools that allow you to personalize
your communication with your customers, prospects, and potential
partners. Blogs open communications tools that promote powerfully
interactive dialogues.
To a small business or solo entrepreneur, this means that you can
engage in a series of dialogues around your product and service
offerings. The more you dialogue with someone, the more comfortable
they become with you; and they begin to get some insight about you as
person.
Blogs are your tools to creating this type of customer connection through
content. You will build relationships that are founded on a great level of
trust as you become the authority and source of information on your
topic. Blogs promote repeat visits through relevant and frequent updates.
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Your audience will want the latest information from you and the fact that
you publish regularly is reason to return. If your content is of high value,
then your audience will keep returning. Your audience chooses to have a
relationship with you and your business time and time again as they
come back to you for solutions to help solve their problems.
Blogs allow YOU to personally give voice to your solutions. Product
brochures, catalogues, and e-mails all can communicate the benefits of
products and services through pictures and words that inform and pull
the trigger on emotion.
Your blog content, however, can pull the trigger on high quality,
longer-term relationships that will generate future income and
business for you.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Your blog allows you to have an instant and
direct line of communication with customers
who will come to trust you more than your
competition through the open communication
of your blog. Your business is accessible and
customers and prospects know they have the
power to influence business.
Blogs and RSS have amplified and escalated the demand for consumer
control. Just as RSS is 100% opt-in by consumers choosing to subscribe
to your content via RSS, your blog content is consumer-controlled. What
consumers say influences you and your products and services as you go
about building a relationship through your content.
No need to shy away from that statement. Customers want power
through choice. They know they have it through active feedback and
participation in your business through dialogue. By design, your
business blog will be set in play to communicate with your specific
market. The specific intent – to leverage your customers� and prospects'
desires to choose products and services they can trust and their desires
to participate in the markets that provide the products and services they
trust.
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Blogs are NOT the wave of the future. Blogs are
NOW. They are tools. They are powerful and they
work. Blogs are a new way of communicating that
has forever changed the way business marketing
will be conducted online.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
You will now have to decide whether blogging
is a business imperative and what are the
consequences of not using a blog. Blogging is
here to stay and one future for blogs is that of
a more collaborative business model that will
need to be highly participatory in order to be
successful.
Open that dialogue today!
We know of some online businesses and
entrepreneurs who are not using blogs and
should be because their competitors are
bringing products and services to market so
much faster than they are.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
This could be a killer for your business – if you
don’t capitalize on this edge sooner rather
than later.
k
n
This again raises the point of evaluating whether or not there ois a
business imperative for you, specifically if you are not blogging
w yet.
If you don't think a blog should be or could be a part of your marketing
o
mix, take some time to see if your competitors are using blogs.
f If they
are, examine how their blogs are being used and how their blog might be
helping them maintain a competitive edge.
s
o
m
e
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n
l
i
n
e
b
MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
Blogs don�t sell anything by themselves nor
do blogs profit in a vacuum. Setting up a blog
is not the way to instant success.
However blogs
do accelerate,
amplify, and
Business
Blogging
multiply your message. So, if you use a blog
Secrets Revealed!
to amplify your message effectively, it can
lead to more business and blog profits.
k
n
o
Additionally, your message will be accelerated because search technology
w
consumes blog content in real time and produces search results with
your content in real time.
o
f
Content is king and your blog will accelerate, amplify, and multiply the
quality of your content.
s
o
As a small-business or solo entrepreneur, you have to know beforehand
m
what your message needs to be and what keywords or terms your
e
audience uses to find the products and services that you offer.
o
Target those terms to gain visibility in the search engines and pull the n
traffic that you are seeking. One of your first objectives is to get listed in
l
relevant search results.
i
n
Refer to the Killer Keyword Strategy Playbook in Chapter 11 for tipse
and strategies relevant to the search results.
b
Blogs do a few key things very well that can be applied to a wide range uof
s
applications for your blog.
i
Here is a short review of search-engine marketing tips to keep in n
e
mind when blogging for business:
s
s
e
s
Organic Search + Blogs = Traffic Explosion
a
n
d
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1. Know your niche. Research the keywords that match your
business message (your solution) to the needs and desires of your
audience. These keywords are what will bring visitors to your blog
from the search engines.
2. Keep your blog content topical, relevant, and useful to your
keywords. (Don't bait and switch.) In other words, your content
must meet the need. If you are blogging about how to create your
own fishing lures then provide useful information on fishing lures
instead of trying to sell them a fishing boat. Teach them how to do
it before selling the solution.
3. Keep a natural flow to your content and use your keywords as
organically (or naturally) as you can without having a ―spammy‖
(redundant mentions of keywords) feeling to it. Blogs are the best
organic content publishing tools. Why? Because most blogs are
natural extensions of how you speak and think in free-form
communication to your markets about your topics that drive
results for your business bottom-lines.
Quick Case Studies
Let�s take a walk through a few quick case studies of how small business
is using blog technology to build business. Let�s put these case studies
on ICE so that you can improve your own blog marketing and blog
promotion efforts.
I is for Intent: What is the blogging setting out to
do?
C is for Content: What type of content is used to
reach and keep an audience?
E is for Event: What are the measurable results?
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Case Study #1: AudioBlog
Who & What:
AudioBlog is an audio/video publishing service. It allows you to create
and publish audio and video to your blog via your personal computer or
telephone. If you can use a Webcam, you can easily publish your video.
AudioBlog allows you to record audio via their exclusive BlogRecorder(tm)
service, your personal computer, or your telephone. AudioBlog supports
Mp3 and WAV formats as well as allowing you to publish to multiple blog
accounts.
Blog Intent:
Superior customer service with brand building
Blog Content:
Tips and tutorials
Blog Event:
AudioBlog improves customer retention by teaching customers how to
optimize the use of their service through easy-to-understand- and-apply
tips and tutorials. With the addition of their new VideoBlogging feature,
AudioBlog ran a contest that did two things effectively. The first
promoted a product that would allow the winner to immediately connect
with a powerful service, and second, it heightened the awareness of not
only the AudioBlog brand but resulted in a more immersive blogging
experience for those who participated in the contest.
Contestants had to write about what they thought was the most creative
use of audioblog or videoblog technology. The contest was open to
current and new customers. When the contest was complete, we are sure
many walked away with more creative ideas and uses for the
AudioBlog.com service, a desire to get Webcams and try out those
possibilities using AudioBlog, plus a better appreciation and higher level
of commitment to AudioBlog.com.
What Is Your Take Away:
AudioBlog uses their blog for customer service intentions that create a
higher quality experience with their service. Users know they have an
instant direct-response mechanism that allows them to participate with
the service they are using. Audio and video blogging is an immersive
activity that involves most of the powerful senses of sight, hearing, and
emotion. AudioBlog builds on that through improved service offerings
and content that continue to drive the usefulness of the AudioBlog
service to the customer.
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Case Study #2: Pheedo
Who & What:
Pheedo is an RSS and Weblog marketing company. It provides innovative
tools to help businesses leverage marketing and advertising campaigns
with RSS and blog technology. This is one company we like a whole lot.
We subscribe to its feed and its blog is chock full of fantastic metrics,
test results, opinion, and news that is helping shape the direction of RSS
and blog marketing and advertising.
Blog Intent:
Grow business initially. Establish expertise.
Blog Content:
Product marketing, advertising, branding, and publishing trends as they
happen in the Blogosphere.
Blog Event:
Pheedo leads where they live. They are specialists in RSS and blog
marketing and advertising. They demonstrate their expertise
authoritatively through regular updates about the growth and impact of
RSS and blogs for marketing and advertising. This content ties directly to
the service they offer that helps organizations and corporations to
promote, analyze, and optimize their Weblogs and content feeds.
Pheedo has clearly established itself as the subject matter expert in this
area and its content serves the company well in attracting prospects that
give Pheedo more opportunities to grow its customer base. As you read
Pheedo�s content, you become persuaded that Pheedo will help you
maximize your business through RSS advertising and Weblogs.
What Is Your Take Away:
One way Pheedo uses its blog is for establishing the company as the
expert in the area of RSS and blog advertising and marketing. Pheedo
publishes information that keeps readers updated with all the
performance data, studies, policies and news impacting the growth and
change in its area of expertise. Pheedo also publishes authoritatively
about its own philosophy and methodologies that tie directly to the
services that the company offers.
The Pheedo blog is an authoritative source for RSS and blog advertising
in an emerging market that has very few authoritative sources on this
subject matter; yet, this same market is seeing increased demand for
products and services of this nature. Pheedo has clearly positioned itself
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with its blog and as an early mover. It is a rare occasion that you read an
article about RSS advertising that doesn�t mention Pheedo.
Pheedo�s blog accelerated its start-up phase with the necessary client
base needed to build revenue; and it established the company as an
industry authority and innovator. As an example of how Pheedo
demonstrates its expertise through its blog, check out this post the
publisher called, ―Blogging Is Not a Direct Response Medium.‖
Blogs are quietly proving themselves time and again to be low-cost,
highly effective means for creating buzz, obtaining visibility, attracting
prospects, and improving customer relationships. Blogs eliminate the
need for a small business to acquire expensive IT talent to support their
content collaboration and messaging online because blogs are simple
Web site publishing tools. Most people could literally sign up with a blog
host and start publishing content in 15 minutes or less.
There is definitely an increase in the number of small businesses and
entrepreneurs adopting blogs as part of their business strategy. They are
most likely hoping that their competition has not started blogging or, at
least, hasn�t executed with a clear business blogging strategy yet. Small
business is getting big on blogging. Has your small business embraced
blogging yet?
The quick case studies presented here were taken in part from the
referenced links below and in part from our own familiarity with these
two services. We have not spoken directly with either of these enterprises
although we�d love to. These statements are solely the result of our own
analysis and are only practical examples of how blogs can and are being
used to promote and market business interests online.
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Five Important Reasons Why Blogs Can Boost Your
Business
Reason #1:
Your Markets Are Getting Smarter, Faster, and More Organized
With all the attention blogs and RSS have already received, it is a sure
bet that blogs will be even bigger news as we move forward with defining
more effective business uses for them. This one thing is for sure,
thousands of blogs are created every day. The last statistics we�ve seen
quoted by Technorati.com is that 23,000 blogs a day are created. That is
equal to about one blog joining the World Live Web every three seconds.
This means that more and more people in your markets have blogs and
there is no faster way of sharing ideas than with blogs and RSS. This
represents a growing community of discourse among your customers and
prospects who desire to talk with you. Additionally, this means that
learning how to blog means learning how to create blogs that reach your
markets along the lines of the discourse that is currently taking place
there.
What are the current trends in your markets? How does your product
meet or exceed your markets� expectations? What specialized knowledge
and expertise can you deliver to your markets? What challenges and
issues do your markets currently contend with? How about
demonstrating your awareness of these issues and giving your
perspective of suggested improvements? How about demonstrating your
market-leading knowledge and know-how?
You need to understand that your markets know more and more about
what products and services are doing and should do. Your markets are
monitoring trends, they are monitoring and comparing competing
products (comparison means choice and best value decisions). They are
getting information faster. Not only are they organizing their knowledge,
but they are organizing the networks by which they transfer their ideas
and opinions faster, namely the blog and RSS.
You need to be the in trenches with your markets, exercising some
influence on them by demonstrating that you know your market, you
care about your market, and that you contribute willingly to your
markets, not just out of a need to see a profit.
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Reason #2:
You Must Deliver Genuine Knowledge
Reason #2 picks up where Reason #1 leaves off. Once you create a blog,
you have to deliver high-value content. What is high-value content? How
do you identify it? This is content that consists of a genuine knowledge
about your chosen subject matter and also meets and exceeds the ―needto-know requirements‖ of your audience.
Only you know what you know. Your challenge is to inject your markets
with your quality knowledge and attract them to you. Let them know
what you know by answering to them and provide them with answers to
what they want to know more about.
1. Summarize. Analyze and then summarize your markets� ―need-toknow requirements.‖ You want to know what it is your market wants to
know. Do they want to know more about your company, your products,
you? Do they want to know more about your industry, your expertise, or
latest developments, etc.? We are not talking about what you already
know about what and why your market needs to purchase from you.
Blogs are not tools for direct-marketing pieces, pure PR pieces, or web email marketing pieces. You need to determine what type of dialogue will
help drive a higher level of relationship and trust between you and them.
2. Initialize. Initialize or set your starting position based on what you
understand regarding the discussion you could start within your
markets. What type of information will you provide and what will be your
discourse? Define the on-topic and near-topic discussions you have
selected to have through your blog.
3. Vocalize. Engage your market by clearly vocalizing your message.
Establish a clear and authoritative voice. Stay focused and allow your
market to clearly hear you and get a personalized sense of who you are
as a business or enterprise.
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Reason #3:
Your Competition Is Using Blogs and RSS
Your competition is using blogs and RSS and so must up. If your market
competitors are blogging they are reaching your customers and prospects
more effectively, efficiently, and quickly. They are willing to investigate
the required discourse necessary for blogging success.
Your competition will socialize and evangelize their message must faster
than you. You cannot afford to let that happen. If you cannot justify a
blog or establish a business case for blogging, yet your competitor has a
blog, then you need a blog too. That is enough of a business case to start
a business blog.
Reason #4:
The Speed of Business may be Your Greatest Ally or Enemy
Web content is now published instantly, continuously, and in real time.
The Web is more alive and active than ever before because of blogs and
RSS. Real-time and near-time communications through blogging means
that ideas and opinions are shared instantly, exponentially, and
powerfully. The business advantage is that you can now update and
inform your markets at the speed of growth – and faster. You can publish
information from your business and about your business at the speed of
your business while keeping pace with the rate of information change
and growth within your niche markets.
Reason #5
Blogs and RSS Represent Social Networking Most Powerfully
Blogs are social networking tools that connect millions of people
everyday. Blogs are link magnets, keyword-rich social tools. Your
message can be evangelized very quickly while containing the specific
semantics (your keywords, business language) necessary for getting
attention, traffic, and readership for your blog.
Bloggers passionately promote each other and promote great content.
Every blogger wants information to share with his or her audience and
they want great references to share with their audience as well.
Publishing great content that makes for great learning, informing, and
edification attracts links very, very quickly. Your blog can have several
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blogs which are all promoting your content and your message in mere
moments after make your content public in your blog.
This Web-enabled word-of-mouth evangelizing can be an invaluable
boost to your online business and blog success.
Why does this happen? It happens because for every market there are
passionate bloggers who care about their topics and themes. These are
A-listers and non-A-listers alike. In addition to a passion for providing
great content and great content sources for reference, bloggers diligently
monitor their section and niche of the World Live Web.
They subscribe to their market search terms with RSS. They subscribe to
related blogs using RSS and they research consistently, looking for great
content to share and expand on. This means that when you are
publishing relevant content, it will be found, referenced, and linked to
with little effort on your part.
Each individual blog is its own social network even if that blog has just
one reader. So, for every reference and link back to your blog content,
there is always the possibility for exponential exposure for your content.
For every blog linking to your blog, there is an audience that includes
bloggers who also have an audience, and well – you get the picture – the
multiplication here is powerful.
Blogs are powerful social and communications tools. They are not to be
ignored. Consumers are using blogs to influence and control marketing
messages. Your competition is using blogs to respond to consumer needs
and now you must decide how a blog can be a part of your marketing
mix – for these reasons and more.
A blog allows you to deliver genuine knowledge to your markets in a
personal real-time, two-way dialog and discussion. By summarizing what
it is your markets want to know and talk about, you can initialize
effective discourse and vocalize your business clearly and effectively
through content that delivers value and which will pay you dividends
many times over in the long term.
Your competition is using blogs to reach out to the same markets in
which you are doing business. The truth is that your message will have
lost a competitive advantage if you do not start a blog to match the
message of your competitor and meet the need of your hungry markets.
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The Internet is an active and real-time communications
medium. Blogs are types of Web sites that now have the
same characteristic of instant messaging and real-time
communication.
Static content is out and active content is in.
Blogs allow you to keep your audience in tune with you at
the speed of business and at the speed of your market
conversations.
Links to more information on topics & resources mentioned in this
section:
AudioBlog: http://www.audioblog.com
Pheedo: http://www.pheedo.info
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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21 Ways to Boost Your Bottom Line Using Business Blogs
An Introduction to the True Power of Business Blogging
and How You Can profit With the Right Strategy
Introduction
Blogging is capturing the attention of more and more business owners
mainly because of its marketing and search-engine optimization
potential. But the owners and entrepreneurs who think that these are
the only benefits and applications of business blogging are selling
themselves (and business blogging) short.
Blogs have dozens upon dozens of immediate applications for small and
large businesses alike. As with any new technology, the real benefits only
become apparent when you step away from all the hype and begin to
align the technology with the needs, wants, and desires of the people who
can use it.
Business blogging is no different. It needs to be viewed as a tool that can
be matched with your current operations and client communication
channels for maximum leverage in all your business development efforts.
So why are blogs such powerful online allies for small-business
owners?
Although there are a number of combined factors that make blogs
powerful online allies, here is what we consider to be the top seven:
Instant on-demand, online publishing
The ability to easily make entire blogs (or individual posts)
private/password protected
The ease with which the technology can be used (Only basic
technical knowledge is required for the operation and maintenance
of blogs. If you can use a word-processing program and surf the
net, you can use a blog.)
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Automated syndication of content to all subscribers
Bypassing of all e-mail delivery and spam filters
Low cost of operation (―Hosting‖ and ―posting‖ are your only costs.)
With the right business-blog strategy, you get high-impact benefits
with both human visitors and search-engine spiders.
As a 21st-century entrepreneur, these seven factors may have already
piqued your interest in business blogging. But we�d like to help you take
this even further for your company by giving you some real-world,
practical applications for business blogs.
In this section we�re going to look at 21 examples of how you can use a
business blog to create high-impact results for yourself and your
company. You should use this time to reflect and innovate ways to use
business blogs, Podcasts, and RSS to market and grow your business.
First, we�ll look at 13 examples of the external use of blogs. Then we�ll
delve into eight examples of internal applications of blogs. In both cases,
these practical examples will help make the useful application of
business blogs easier for you to digest and apply.
Business Coaching Corner: The best way to gain a sustainable
advantage over your competitors is to innovate and improve in small
increments. To make this easy, you must write down ideas immediately
when they pop into your head. It�s a simple step in the process, but a
critical one for taking action.
That�s why after each of the following 21 application examples and case
studies we�ve provided an area for you to write down notes. Use this
space to capture your ideas and innovative ways you could use the
relative application to more effectively market or otherwise grow your
business.
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Business Blog Application #1: Product/Service Q&A and FAQ
Instead of an old, boring, static FAQ page, or forcing your clients through
a ―phone prompt‖ gauntlet – you can create a business blog to answer
questions for your entire client base all at once.
The native organization feature of blogs puts the newest post at the top of
the page making it easy to find the most recent questions. And the builtin navigation of blog software, using categories, makes a FAQ business
blog more intuitive than a forum for most users.
Combine these two features with the right strategy and you�ll have a
powerful, convenient, and interactive FAQ resource that not only
answers questions for your clients, but also becomes an intuitive online
learning resource for your products or services.
Case-study example blog:
www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog
Adobe Photoshop has done an excellent job integrating blogging
technology into their customer support and service. They offer news,
links, and tips for optimizing your use of Adobe Photoshop.
One thing that we were disappointed in is that Adobe has their
comments feature turned off. While it is totally understandable, giving
clients the ability to post comments would give Adobe a ton of direct user
feedback that could be used to immediately improve both the product
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and customer service. There are very easy ways to protect against
comment spam or overly zealous complainers.
Other than that, this is just one good example of how you can apply
blogging software to boost your bottom line in this area. We have helped
coach students of How to Master Business Blogging to come up with at
least a dozen powerful variations. Whether you decide to get coached on
how to quickly get blogs like this up and running, or take the time to
learn to do it on your own, the same is true – get going today before your
competitors beat you to it.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #2: Contests and Promotions
Using your business blog to enhance relationships and open lines of
communication with your clients and prospects can take on many forms.
Whether your business is primarily online, offline, or driven by both click
and mortar channels – you can use your business blog to get the word
out faster about promotions you are running.
Online buzz can be created much faster when prospects and clients can
interact with you and with each other. They can do this very easily via
the comment feature embedded in most blog programs. And with creative
contest ideas, you can engage many of your prospects, customers, and
clients by encouraging their participation.
You can drive your offline contacts online to participate too. That
same interaction with offline buyers can lead to more ideas and buy-in
from people who you might not otherwise hear from. And nothing beats a
contest to motivate people to take the extra step of going online to
participate and contribute their input. (It�s amazing what people will do
just to see their name up in lights. Or at least backlit on a screen.) пЃЉ
Leveraging the communication enhancement that blogs provide brings
benefits to both online and offline businesses.
Case-study example blog:
www.appliedsilliness.com/cartoonblog.html
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Cartoonist Jim Meskimen has a great contest-based blog that he uses to
help generate terrific new ideas on captions for some of his cartoons.
Would-be caption writers can enter their submissions, and if chosen, get
their name published along with their caption on the AppliedSilliness
blog.
The benefit for Jim Meskimen is that he gets a ton of new ―outside the
box‖ ideas for captions on all his cartoons. It is an ingenious way to
engage would-be clients, build a network of referral evangelists, and
expand his own thinking at the same time.
My notes and ideas:
How could you use contests or give-aways to engage your clients to
generate innovative ideas and boost your business growth?
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Business Blog Application #3: Company News and Updates
If you have a lot of activity that goes on at your company, or if you deliver
premium content to your clients as part of what you do – then it is
important to get that information out to your prospects and clients as
quickly as possible. You can do that with a business blog.
You can publish literally at will, making real-time updates when new
breakthroughs or shifts take place. If you are updating readers on critical
news or market data, their news aggregator automatically pulls in your
news through your RSS feed.
No spam filters, no e-mail delivery problems, and no more interrupting
your clients by ―pushing‖ your content to them! Your clients and
subscribers decide when they want to read your company news updates
or premium content on their schedule.
This is just another example of how your business blog can make clientcentric information delivery a practical reality.
Case-study example blog:
www.outsourcemanagementgroup.com/medical-billing-blog
The outsourcing of medical billing might not be on the top of your mind.
But we can tell you from our business-coaching work with doctors and
dentists – it is on the top of their minds.
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The company that helps to keep doctors and dentists up to date with
advancements or provides service options for the medical industry in
general is going to have a HUGE advantage when it comes time for those
doctors to choose who they will outsource to.
This is especially true when you add a human touch to the mix such as
personal insights, guidance, and open dialog – just as Melissa Clark at
the Outsource Management Group does.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #4: Press-Release Posting
Getting mentions in the press can be a big boost to positioning small and
midsize businesses in the marketplace. And your business blog can be a
powerful tool in getting the word out on important announcements from
your company.
In addition to using a service like PR Web that may get your release
picked up by a daily paper or trade publication, you can post your press
releases on your own business blog for a double whammy.
We have had coaching clients with active business blogs who have found
their press releases being picked up in search-engine queries ahead of
powerhouse services like PR Web. For example, one of our business
coaching clients had her press release (that detailed her interview of an
industry leader who has more than 100,000 people on his mailing list)
come out in Google searches AHEAD of both his Web sites and PR Web�s
distribution of the same release.
Plus, as an added benefit, your press releases will remain as permanent
posts on your business blog thanks to permalinking. This means that
both people and search-engine spiders can always find that content at a
set location as long as your blog is up and running.
(Our case study example below is an example of a Permalink. It may not
be pretty, and it is long – but it is permanent, which is what both searchengine spiders and humans like!)
Case-study example blog:
http://blog.crossmap.com/archives/2005/03/05/press-releasecrossmap-launches-crossmapnet-christian-web-hosting/
Obviously, the typical business would not dedicate an entire blog solely
to press releases. The exception would be for a consultant, writer, or
company that produces press releases for other businesses.
Most companies would simply have a separate category for the posting of
their regular press releases. When properly formatted and keywords are
strategically incorporated into (and around) the press-release post, it will
pull your blog post right to the top search-engine results which, of
course, will bring you highly qualified traffic.
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Here�s what a press release at the Crossmap blog looks like.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #5: Sneak Peeks and Consumer Input
Does your business rely on the creation of new products, services, or
information? If so, you can use your business blog and natural human
curiosity to increase interest with ―sneak peeks‖ of your works in
progress.
As an added bonus, with a properly structured and well-planned blog
your readers can interact along the way with comments, track-backs, or
even private e-mails. With these forms of direct communication, you will
open a dialog that allows you to collect valuable input. This input may
impact your development process and generate improvements before
your new product or service even hits the market.
Plus, people who do open that dialog with you are prime candidates to
beta test the product or service before it goes out to the general public.
They�ll appreciate being involved (so much so that they�ll often become
your greatest evangelists). And, you�ll appreciate the final fine-tuning
that they will contribute.
Case-study example blog:
http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/2005/03/a_sneak_peak_at.
html
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Lynn Allen is a Cadalyst columnist and worldwide Autodesk technical
evangelist who speaks in person to more than 20,000 users of AutoDesk
software each year. But what she does with her blog is even more
powerful and impactful for AutoDesk�s bottom line. She gives insight,
expands understanding, and yes – is always giving sneak peeks of
upcoming releases and upgrades. This is one example of a business blog
being applied in a brilliant proactive way to increase trust, improve
customer loyalty, and boost the repurchase rate of current clients.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #6: Self-expression (putting a “human
face” on your business)
If you have a business where you�re not involved in daily interaction with
clients and prospects, or if your company is set up primarily as a virtual
business, your prospects and clients may never get the opportunity to
interact with you on a personal basis. They may never have the chance to
really get to know you as the owner. That distance may create some
hesitancy or uncertainty in doing business with your company as a
whole.
As strange as that may seem to some business owners, it�s a fact. People
want a relationship with their product or service provider. The depth of
that relationship will vary from person to person, and it will also depend
on what is being consumed. But it is a certainty that trust and
connection will pave the way for better client-to-company relations.
This applies to all businesses, but it is especially true with servicetype businesses where there�s a higher level of human interaction built
into every transaction. If your business provides a service, there is a very
personal interaction that takes place, whether you are providing services
to the general public, or to other businesses. If at all possible, consumers
want to feel comfortable with you before hiring your company.
By using your business blog to express yourself and your opinions, you
can go a long way to putting a human face on a small service company
and even the largest of corporations.
Take Robert Scoble, for instance. He has unintentionally (at least at first)
done it for Microsoft with his blog ―Scobleizer.‖ If it can be done for a
behemoth like Microsoft, don�t you think you can do this for your small
business?
The more relationship barriers you can remove between you and your
prospects and clients, the easier the sales will be and the more loyal the
clients will be. No matter what other focuses you might have with your
business blog – always give your prospects and clients the opportunity to
get to know the real you better. That human connection will give both
you and your prospects what you are looking for.
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Case-study example blog: http://www.rexblog.com/
This is the blog of Rex Hammock, president of Hammock Publishing,
Inc., a Nashville, Tennessee-based custom publisher of magazines,
newsletters and digital media for corporate and association clients
nationwide.
With offices in Nashville; Washington, D.C.; and New York City, Rex
works with more than 150 freelance writers, photographers, illustrators
and advertising sales representatives across the country. The task of
keeping contact and a dialog with an internal team that is diversely
scattered is tough, if not downright impossible.
You also have to take into consideration the number of companies,
organizations, and trade/industry leaders who advertise with Hammock
Publishing. Stack that all together and you�ve got a real connection
challenge both inside and outside the company. But, with Rex�s blog he
is able to keep a human face on Hammock Publishing, and is building
relationships at the same time.
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Do you own a business with a scattered office team? Do your clients
rarely, if ever, have a chance to meet or talk with you? Has your business
grown so quickly that you feel you have lost touch with your clients,
customers, or employee team?
Then it is time to learn how you can put business blogging to work
for you.
Check out the multimedia coaching course: MarketingWithBusinessBlogs
today and reap the rewards in as few as seven days.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #7: Photos and Images
If your business or industry focuses on photos or visual imagery, then
a business blog can be a big help too. Business blogs can be used for the
rapid posting and wide distribution of visual content as well as text.
The only key with image-based blogs is that a text summary and altimage text is a must for each and every post. That helps humans make
the link in their minds between the images and the benefit to them. And
that helps the search-engine spiders, because photos mean nothing to a
search-engine spider.
Case-study example blog #1: http://ayola.com/blog/
While it may seem an obvious application of business blogging for a
photographer, we just had to use Brooks Ayala�s blog as an example. His
work is simply out of this world!
There are some improvements that we would suggest for optimized
search-engine rankings, but the blog itself is an awesome representation
of his work and the way a photo-based blog can look.
Case-study example blog #2: http://storms.typepad.com/
Patricia Storm is a cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic designer who
utilizes her business blog to share examples of her talent, as well as her
wit and wisdom.
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A few regular visits to Patricia�s blog and you not only get a taste for her
design style, you also get a good feel for her personality. And that is very
important when deciding to work with an illustrator.
If your business deals with images, the simplicity and instant publishing
of blogs will enable you to establish a powerful Web presence with ease.
And with your personality appropriately injected, the right structure, and
the proper strategic use of keywords – you will establish expert
positioning in your niche in as little as 60 days.
My notes and ideas on how to use this application to
market and promote my business:
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Business Blog Application #8: Developer Notes
Software companies, programmers, and Web designers can use a
business blog to keep their clients up to date with the latest upgrades
and fixes.
By creating a business blog with this purpose, you can put your clients�
minds at ease knowing that solutions and upgrades are being worked on.
And if your current work is addressing an issue that a client is not aware
of, you are more likely to get feedback on other bugs or problems you
should be looking into.
Case-study example blog: http://www.37signals.com/svn/
―Developer notes‖ is a pretty self-explanatory application for business
blogging. But don�t let simplicity fool you into thinking the results will be
run-of-the-mill.
37 Signals blog shows just how powerful this application can be when
done correctly. This is an extremely active blog that proves why it is
important to talk about what your company is developing, and add in
just the right mix of related materials and commentary. Notice how many
comments are contributed and the customer interaction that the team at
37 Signals is gaining insight from.
My notes and ideas on this application:
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Business Blog Application #9: Client Case Studies
Many times, your prospects and clients are dying to know in detail how
your product or service can help them. Very often in your Web-site sales
copy, it is difficult to make the connection between benefits and the
practical ways your product or service can be used. Your business blog
can create the bridge you need to lead a curious prospect through the
valley of trust to become a loyal client and raving fan.
Sharing real-life case studies in your business blog does two things.
1. It makes the benefits of your product or service tangible.
2. It subtly creates social proof (Definition) that opens the door to
deeper rapport.
You can devote your entire business blog to case studies, or just dedicate
a section. But when you do, you�ll realize a significant increase in trust
and rapport because people can interact with you by commenting on
your case studies – something that they could never easily do with a
regular Web site.
Case-study example blog: http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/
Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba are authors, speakers, and trainers.
Their first book, Creating Customer Evangelists, has been called the ―new
mantra for entrepreneurial success‖ by The New York Times and ―an
absorbing read‖ by Harvard Business School. Together, they pen regular
columns for MarketingProfs.com and speak frequently at industry,
association, and company conferences.
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Their business blog is used to promote their book, speaking
engagements, and facilitation of the creation of customer evangelism
plans inside organizations. Ben and Jackie effectively use case studies
from their work with clients or readers of their book to generate added
social proof of what their strategies can accomplish for business leaders.
You can do the same for your business when you master the art and
science of business blogging. We�re sure you are beginning to really see
the power of business blogging, while you still recognize that there are
underlying strategies that make a business blog truly powerful. That is
why we dedicated nearly six months of painstaking effort in fine-tuning a
business-blogging course that went way beyond other products that just
teach you the technical side of blogging.
Although MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com includes in-depth videos and
significant step-by-step coaching on how to start and run as many
business blogs as you want for free, that�s not even one-eighth of the
complete course. It is the proven strategies and practices that bring you
targeted traffic, and help you build rapport, trust, and dialog with those
people to transform them into pre-sold prospects.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #10: Reputation Building and Positioning
Yourself as an Expert in Your Niche
When it comes to building credibility and gaining recognition as a
knowledgeable expert, your marketing materials, Web site, and even the
occasional published article do little to establish you as a leader in your
niche. Unless you have a full feature article published in a major
national magazine or you have a regular weekly column in a major paper,
it is difficult to generate the respect and notoriety that press coverage
can bestow.
But when you create a niche-focused business blog you can quickly
gain recognition and respect while proving yourself with quality resultgenerating content. It is amazing but true – you can post to your
business blog for as little as two or three months and you will begin to
establish substantial credibility in your market.
Using your business blog in this way has a number of benefits, but one
of the most powerful is building a credible track record that speaks for
itself. When a prospect arrives at your blog and sees how much
knowledge you are sharing and the passion you are exhibiting about
your chosen niche – they tend to respond. That response is usually to
place you in a position of respect and expertise.
Get educated on the right way to start your own business blog, and then
follow a well-planned strategy. When you do, your RSS-powered blog can
become a major ally in your reaching for a position of recognition and
respect in your industry or niche.
Business blogging is not a magic wand, but it is a powerful
communication tool that can transform you into a serious ―go-to‖ source
of knowledge.
Case-study example blog:
http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog
Our good friend and partner Thomas ―Pakii‖ Pierce is the perfect example
of a person drilling deep down into a highly specific niche, and getting
richly rewarded for it. Thomas is passionate about blogging, especially
the social networking aspect of blogs. It is that passion that got him
recognized and invited to be a founding member of the Professional
Bloggers Association.
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When you know how to properly structure your business blog and keep it
strategically focused on a niche, you�ll attract both search-engine spiders
and highly targeted human visitors like honeybees to apple blossoms on
a warm spring day. Advanced Business Blogging is another example of a
highly specialized niche blog.
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My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #11: Edu-Marketing
Successful marketing is no longer about being outrageous or screaming
louder than your competitors. In the 21st-century marketplace people
want a relationship with the person (or people) they are buying from.
That relationship is what makes the consumer feel confident that he or
she will get the personalized service they are looking for.
When you decide to create a business blog, with all its ease of use and
built-in interactivity, you are taking advantage of the perfect medium for
effective ―new school‖ marketing. It is marketing that is based on
building deeper levels of trust, understanding, and rapport.
Really when you think about it, this desire on the part of consumers
should come as no surprise. It is nothing new.
Most people have always wanted an interactive relationship with the
provider of services or products they need. But, during the last century
the merchant has been in control. And, unfortunately that ―old school‖
business owner didn�t understand the important distinction between
making a sale and building a relationship.
Successful marketing in the marketplace of the new millennium
The 21st-century marketplace is a new and rapidly evolving environment.
If you hope to be effective with your marketing in the future, now is the
time to wake up and ride the wave of change.
Technology, the Internet, and now, blogs – they have all permanently
changed the expectations of the average consumer. No longer will
intrusive ads or other interruption marketing techniques create the
results you once could count on.
Today�s consumer is bombarded with blatant marketing messages and
overwhelmed with the sheer volume of clutter in their lives. Joining in
the fray and just trying to shout above all the other noise is not enough
anymore. You need to stand out by stepping out of the traditional
marketing paradigm.
People who are in your target audience want to be educated about your
product or service. They want to feel comfortable with you and your
company before making a commitment to purchase from you.
Using your business blog to share detailed information about the
benefits, applications, and implications of your product or service can
help you achieve all the goals you want and more. Educating through
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your business blog and speaking about other issues directly related to
your niche or industry will transform you (in the eyes of your audience)
into a trusted resource instead of a self-serving marketer.
Like it or not – interruption marketing is dead
Some business owners may feel like all this education, orientation, and
interaction is way too much work. ―I�ll just pump some more money into
an ad campaign and get the same results I always have,‖ some owners
may ignorantly say. But any business owner who thinks this way is in
for a rude awakening.
We can assure you, the direction the 21st-century marketplace is moving
is undeniable. The consumer is in control and that will only be reinforced
as time goes on. The unstoppable upswing in technological advances and
the increasing integration of the Internet into our daily lives makes
sticking with the old methods of interruption marketing a literal death
wish.
Today�s consumer is well armed with convenient technology and she�s
Internet-savvy. She already knows she can get information on just about
anything she wants. The easier you make it for people in your target
audience to find the information that they are already looking for – the
more they will appreciate you and your willingness to educate them.
This is all GOOD NEWS for the average small-business owner
All these changes in the marketplace have dramatically leveled the
playing field. It is no longer the big that eat the small. It is now the fast
that eat the slow! That means successful marketing is now more about
getting the right information rapidly applied than it is about big bucks
and complex campaigns.
A properly planned business blog is part of the answer. We can assure
you that there is no easier way to winning the trust of prospects and
making them feel secure in making an initial purchase. A business blog
is interactive, easy to integrate into your existing marketing strategy, and
best of all – it is ultra-low cost.
Learning how to create your own business blog is not the complete
answer all on its own. But, as part of an overall click-and-mortar
marketing strategy, it is an interactive tool that you and your business
cannot survive without. Step into the marketplace of the new millennium
with confidence and integrate a business blog into your marketing
strategy today.
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Case-study example blog:
http://businessownerscoachingclub.com/businessownersblog/
If your business growth relies on your prospects trusting and believing in
your expertise, insight, and knowledge – there is no better way than to
prove it to them with appetizing samplings of that wisdom.
For example, the Business Owner�s Coaching Club has a very limited
membership size and stringent application requirements. So we need to
do all we can to make sure business owners can get a feel for Deborah�s
and my styles, and at the same time be educated with practical tools,
tips, and strategies that give them a small taste of what they�ll experience
if accepted as members in the Business Owner�s Coaching Club.
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If you�re a busy business owner looking for the edge in the 21st-century
marketplace, check out www.Biz-OwnersBlog.com and be sure to add the
RSS feed to your reader or subscribe for e-mail updates.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #12: Niche Branding
You�ve probably heard the saying ―an inch wide and a mile deep‖ to
describe an area of specialty for your business. But that same principle
can also be applied to the branding of your product or service.
It can take years to brand your company using an off-line-only approach.
Even when you employ some serious online strategies and tactics, brand
building can be a long drawn out process.
But with a business blog, you can often achieve the same focused impact
in a matter of months! And the great thing, it doesn�t matter whether
your clients buy primarily online or off-line. Building a niche brand with
your business blog is a remarkably effective approach.
Blogs leverage the power of word of mouth and kick your niche
branding into high gear.
Put a business blog to work for you and you will witness the power of
word of mouth. When you combine the publication of high impact
articles in targeted publications with interactive events (both online and
off-line) – you can create the buzz and branding that you are searching
for in a fraction of the time, and for practically no cost whatsoever. The
press notices more quickly, and your target market responds more
quickly.
Once again, your business blog is not ―the‖ answer all on its own. But, it
is a powerful multiplier for a solid click-and-mortar business branding
strategy.
Case-study example blog: http://www.ka-thunk.com/
In this case study we’re going to look at a business blog by Maytag.
Yes, that�s right – Maytag. You know … the company with great washing
machines and those under-worked repairmen who play tricks on each
other in TV ads.
So what does Maytag have to do with niche branding? Well, the Maytag
development team has come up with a new ―men�s fridge‖ called the
Skybox™. And they�re blogging up a storm over at www.ka-thunk.com/.
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It is funny, informative, and is allowing enthusiastic sports fans to join
in and do the selling for Maytag! Best of all – it is creating a big-time
buzz about this new product with a fraction of the cold hard cash that it
would take with ―old school‖ advertising.
You can learn more about this type of product-based niche branding site
in a more in-depth case study at Advanced Business Blogging. Here�s the
permalink for that article:
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/index.php?p=44
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #13: Product Development (public view)
Creating a product (a book, a course, an audio series) is something that
can supercharge the marketing of just about any small business. Many
small-business owners know this is true; but yet, they still struggle for
months (and often for years) to finally wring that product out. It is a
challenge that many busy business owners face, but here is where a
specially designed business blog can come to your rescue.
One very practical way to use your business blog is to use it to create a
product online in a ―piece-meal‖ fashion. We�ve shown many of our
coaching clients how to leverage this new technology and put it to use in
creating their long delayed book or product.
With some forethought and focused planning you can use this type
of business blog to simultaneously accomplish three marketing
benefits too.
You will …
a. Feed a continuous stream of valuable relevant material to your
target market
b. Create a captive audience of pre-qualified buyers ready to
purchase when your product is done
c. Organically generate a ton of key-word-rich content for searchengine spiders.
Best of all, you can keep yourself organized while you create your
product bit-by-bit right in front of your competitor�s eyes. Since only you
know how all your content will link together to form a product – they�ll
never know what you�re doing. Many of our business-coaching clients
post material for public view knowing that they have strategically
structured the blog to serve both themselves and their target market
while thwarting their competitors� attempts to copy their concepts.
When you have content where there might be a question as to whether
you would want it open to public view, or if you have some proprietary
data or research to be included in your product – you can still use your
business blog to stay organized. With the better blog software programs
(such as Word Press,) you can keep that content password protected
while still using the structure of your business blog to keep you focused
and organized.
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With the right approach, your business blog will be like a treasure map –
a map that leads to a completed product over time and a map that no
one else can decipher. With no clear beginning or end, it translates into a
product ―in-progress‖ cloaked to everyone but you.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #14: Centralized Archiving of Competitive
Research Summaries (private internal use)
For many companies, industry and competitive research is essential for
rapid growth and niche leadership. When multiple parties become
involved in research (both directly and indirectly) things can start to get
pretty confusing. Most of the time, information is filed and archived,
never to be seen again.
With a private password-protected business blog, all that research can be
categorized and made readily available for convenient access. You can
provide one central location where information can be easily accessed for
immediate use. No more double work, and no more ―buried‖ files.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #15: Product Development and
Management (private)
In an earlier application example we looked at how you can use your
business blog externally as a product-development tool. In that case,
you would use the blog to organize your product creation into bite-size
pieces while you allow your prospects and clients to benefit from the
content that you are creating as part of the development.
This application would work basically the same way, only your posts
and content would be password protected or for private/internal viewing
only. In this capacity your business blog could act even more openly as a
product-content management tool.
This application works equally well for a team, just as it would for a
single developer. With the right setup, the blog will provide the structure,
content relationships, and linkage to reference materials – all in one
place, and completely organized for easy access.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #16: Centralized Knowledgebase
How many times have you answered an employee�s question that you
think you have heard a dozen times before? Very often the reason you
feel that way is because it�s true! An internal business blog can help you
solve many of these types of situations once and for all.
It helps overcome three inconveniences concerning disseminating
important company information internally:
1. Accessing your operations manual online through your intranet
(which is not exactly user-friendly).
2. Referring to an off-line version in hard-copy form, which is
cumbersome for your team members (and may be providing
potentially outdated information too).
3. Relying on you or your top managers to answer questions, which
may not give your team the answers they need as quickly as they
need them.
A business blog set up to act internally as a centralized knowledge base
is less intimidating and much more user friendly than any of these
choices.
As your team becomes accustomed to accessing the knowledge they need
from this internal blog, they win with nearly instant access to the
information that they need to perform. And you win with more free time
because now you only have to answer questions and provide guiding
knowledge once.
Case-study example blog: http://teamotm.com/
Vanessa Beaton is a past student of the ―How to Master Business
Blogging‖ multimedia coaching course. This is another example of the
diverse uses of business blogs and how the technology can boost your
bottom line without having any direct connection with your marketing
and client relationship building.
Vanessa has a thriving retail store in downtown Honolulu, but she has
always had a challenge with the staggered work schedules of the ―Off The
Mat‖ team. Because of the mix of full timers and part-timers it has been
difficult for her to consistently communicate with her team so everyone is
on the same page.
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When the staff of the Off The Mat yoga store needed to communicate with
each other in the past, they often would use a simple tool: Post-ItВ® notes
stuck to the computer terminal near the cash register.
Now they use something decidedly cooler, and infinitely more effective:
the shop's team blog.
Titled ―Team OTM: Off The Mat�s Team-Building Blog,‖ the site lets the
staff communicate with each other by reading and posting messages
from their home computers. Messages can be read instantly. And Off The
Mat's owners, Jim and Vanessa Beaton, do not have to come into the
store to read those old-fashioned Post-It notes – something that�s
especially convenient now that the Beatons have their hands full with
their six-month-old son, Briscoe.
In addition to policies and procedures, Vanessa is able to communicate
with her employee team using the Team OTM Blog. Now they get updates
on new products, merchandise soon to be added, and general
information on the company in addition to any other ―corporate
housekeeping‖ that Vanessa wants to bring everyone up to speed on.
―I don�t have to repeat myself, they don�t have to repeat themselves,‖
Vanessa says of the staff. ―Everybody�s on the same page.‖
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My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #17: Small-Business Advisory-Board Blog
Many of our business-coaching clients have taken our advice and put
together a small-business advisory board for their company. This
informal advisory board usually consists of (at a minimum):
A corporate attorney
An employment-law attorney
CPA (or an enrolled agent)
Banker or money broker
Spiritual advisor
Business coach
Personal mentor
Financial Planner (with real-estate investing experience)
Real Estate Agent (with investing experience)
A small-business advisory board like this can give owners and
entrepreneurs a tremendous competitive advantage, but it is not without
its challenges.
For one thing – getting six or seven professionals together in one room at
one time in an advisory capacity is like herding cats. To be honest with
you, it is one of the biggest stumbling blocks small-business owners face
in keeping their advisory board functional.
Often, people who are asked to be members of the advisory board sign on
fully prepared to interact and share their advice. But, when several
meetings go by with only a couple of other board members showing up,
the momentum gets lost and the board just kind of fades away.
But now … enter the business blog!
Three simple steps and you have created some incredible leverage for
yourself and convenience for your advisors.
1. First, you create a business blog with special (private) access for
all the members of your small-business advisory board.
2. Next, provide each of your advisory-board members with the
FeedDemon news aggregator. ($29 bucks is the least you can do
for what they are contributing to your business, and a cheap or
―free‖ news aggregator will only frustrate them.)
3. Then make sure they are all subscribed to your RSS feed for this
private small-business advisory-board blog.
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Now, they can all interact and provide professional advice at a time that
is most convenient for them. That means you will get more interaction,
more advice, and more efficient board operation for all concerned –
including you as the owner.
We are sure that these basic steps have spurred some innovative ideas
for you. If you are ready to take your business blogging to a whole new
level, you can learn more about these and other easy-to-apply
advanced business blogging strategies, applications, and techniques in
the MarketingWithBusinessBlogs course.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #18: Instantaneous Client-Feedback
Engine
Have you ever wondered how you could make it easy to get a continuous
stream of specific input, feedback, and direction from your clients? – Input
and opinion that can position you as a top leader in your industry,
profession, or niche?
Well, with a specially designed business blog and a little internal
marketing to your clients, you can harness the same innovation power
that top international corporations (example: Proctor and Gamble,
General Foods, Chrysler) use to dominate the market, and unleash it in
your small business.
Having a client-centered approach for business development can shave
years of trial-and-error off your product and service improvements. And
when you stack the powerful strategies of Socratic Business Innovation
(a proven innovation system that members of the Business Owner�s
Coaching Club learn to apply with deft precision) – you�ll find yourself so
far out in front of your competitors, they�ll be gasping for air trying to
catch up.
External Input – Internal Application
This is a business blog application that does have a public side to its
functionality, but its main purpose is to gather client feedback for your
business innovation.
Let�s face it. Your clients are going to have comments and feedback on
any and all of your products or services. Why not make it simple for
them to give input, and your team to get it?
Direct them to a special business blog where they can voice suggestions,
complaints, and kudos in a way that will benefit your company.
Setting up and structuring a business blog for this purpose works very
well because it is non-threatening for clients. It helps open an immediate
dialog with your clients as soon as they purchase. And it lets them know
you value their contributions for the development of your products or
services on an ongoing basis.
One word of warning though
If you are going to ask for comments and feedback – you had better be
prepared to act on that input. You must respond and actively incorporate
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it into your product/service upgrades. Nothing will tick a client off faster
than you asking for feedback, them giving it, and then you not
responding or applying anyone�s input.
To learn more about Socratic Business Innovation and how you can
become a top leader in your industry or niche, visit the Business Owner�s
Coaching Club to learn about membership.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #19: Outsourcing Management and
Coordination
Thanks to outsourcing, today�s small-business owner has access to a
pool of talent that once was reserved only for large corporations.
Flexibility, highly specialized skills, and performance-based pay are just
a few of the enticing benefits that come with outsourcing. But for many
small-business owners the communication, coordination, and tracking
challenges of outsourcing often appear bigger than the benefits.
That annoys the heck out us, so let us tell you why.
My partner, Deborah, and I are passionate about helping business
owners achieve their full potential – both in terms of profits and lifestyle.
That is the main reason we launched the Business Owner�s Coaching
Club. And to be quite frank with you, it is why we�re really upset that so
many small-business owners are missing out on the leverage of
outsourcing.
These hard-working men and women have to keep more on their plates
and live a life of lower quality because they have less free time than they
could with outsourcing. They are suffering with higher costs, and often a
lower quality of work because they feel it is easier to use less specialized
in-house employees to do work – work that could be done better (and
more efficiently) with an outsource agent.
That�s a shame because we have seen incredible transformations take
place for small-business owners who begin to apply proven outsourcing
strategies.
Radical changes like:
More free time for themselves and their families.
More time and energy to work ―ON‖ their business.
More industry-leading innovation and greater creativity.
Better quality customer service and continuity sales.
We could go on and on, but we think you see now why we want to help
small-business owners remove as many barriers to outsourcing as
possible.
The bottom line is that outsourcing enables you to quickly find and
employ highly talented specialists to perform activities that would
otherwise be impractical or cost-prohibitive to do with an in-house
employee.
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So here’s where an internal business blog can help
In our experience coaching small-business owners around the world,
what they struggle with the most is keeping a handle on their
outsource agents. They want a way to manage, coordinate, and oversee
both their in-house employee team and their outsource agents. And this
is where an internal business blog comes to the rescue.
Online services like Kayako do make the management of outsourcing
projects easier. But they often lack the collaborative aspect that is so
valuable in this type of situation. Plus, with most of these services,
gaining access to categorized historical data is a real hassle, if it is
available at all.
But with your own password-protected internal business blog, you�ll gain
a practical tool for collaboration and organization.
When properly structured, it is a system that will allow you to harness
the full power of outsourcing and avoid many of the common
management and communication challenges associated with
outsourcing.
When you apply business-blogging software in this way, you will make
management, coordination, and historical tracking a relative breeze. At
the same time, you will provide a collaborative online environment that
keeps communication and creativity flowing in an organized
manner.
Set a 30-day goal to learn more about outsourcing and get coached on
how you can use it to increase both profits and free time. Then start
harnessing the full power of outsourcing by creating a well-structured
internal business blog.
When you put this team to work for you, you�ll put yourself on the fast
track to business growth and open up more free time at the same time!
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #20: Delivery of Team Updates and
“Premium Content”
Do you have employees in multiple remote locations? As part of your
business, do you have to supply updates to clients? What about
delivering ―premium‖ content to subscribers or clients?
With the organized interactive format of your business blog, paired with
the power of the RSS feed (already incorporated into your blog,) you can
bypass e-mail, spam filters, and unreliable delivery to make sure your
message gets through instantly – every time.
Update every remote employee or every premium-content client instantly,
reliably, and all at once. Then drive them back to the blog for posting,
interaction, and commentary.
Once again, a major part of the power in this application of your
business blog is the categorized historical data that is right there on the
blog, adding content and relational value to all the users.
Learn how you can apply this powerful profit-releasing tool in your small
business. It is just one of the many benefits waiting for you in the How To
Master Business Blogging course.
Case-study example blog:
http://www.businessownersjournal.net/members/
Now this may not be your standard business blog, but it is an example of
what is possible once you know how to harness the underlying power of
blogs.
Blogs and RSS (the supercharged engine that powers blogs, podcasting,
and v-blogging) can be used to meet the demands of today�s consumercontrolled marketplace in ways that are only limited by your imagination.
When you step up the content to a premium level and limit the
automated direct delivery of that multimedia content to subscribers only
– you take the satisfaction of your target market to a whole new
level using business blogging and RSS.
For instance, www.BusinessOwnersJournal.net uses RSS to supply
premium/subscriber-only content to busy business owners who want a
constant stream of innovative ideas, proven strategies, inspiration, and
coaching that will give them the competitive advantage.
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Each week, subscribers get automated updates of new podcasts of the
Business Innovators Podcast, small-business Q&A, and virtual business
coaching via audio, video, and how-to articles.
Updates are delivered directly to each subscriber�s desktop via a
customized RSS delivery system. All audio content is automatically
delivered via private podcasts using ―subscriber only‖ RSS feeds which
allow each subscriber to listen on their desktop, or set up their software
to automatically load MP3 files to their iPod or other MP3 player.
This is an example of RSS and blogging on steroids. Since the
membership is 95% automated, we can reduce overhead costs allowing
us to pass savings on to subscribers in the form of a ridiculously low
membership investment. Business owners looking for an edge in the
marketplace get a very affordable, consumer-centric service that makes
their busy lives a little simpler. It�s an all around win-win service, thanks
to the power of blogs and RSS.
My notes and ideas:
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Business Blog Application #21: Simplifying (and recording)
Corporate Board Communication
Corporate board members are usually very busy people. They have a lot
on their plate, often running their own businesses, and to top it all off –
they�re not usually compensated for the time they dedicate to board
activities.
Now, while that is all true for both profit and nonprofit companies,
nonprofits stand to gain the most by fully engaging their corporate board
members. With nonprofits, the guidance and direction of corporate board
members can be even more valuable since funding for other outside
sources of guidance (from consultants or business coaches) is likely to be
limited.
The bottom line is that the more steps you can take to make it easier
for board members to contribute and fully participate, the more
actively they�ll be fully engaged and give it their all.
Part of the answer lies in a private “Board-Members’ Business Blog”
When you put together a private password-protected business blog for
these corporate board members (similar to what we discussed earlier
with the small-business advisory board), you�ll create a win-win-win
scenario.
Win #1: For the corporate board members
The corporate board members win because they can advise, guide,
and provide input ―virtually.‖ That means interacting more and
meeting in-person less. And since many members on the boards of
nonprofit companies are fulfilling some of their personal desires to
contribute, they�ll appreciate the fact that they�re able to contribute
even more thanks to a high-efficiency business blog.
Win #2: For your company
Since board members have time to digest topics, comments, and
conversations, the company wins because you get more well
thought-out direction from the people on the board. The company
also wins because applying a business blog in this way creates
more of a mastermind environment where board members can
build on and expand on each other�s ideas in a more creative,
unrushed manner.
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Win #3: For your clients
Your clients win because you draw out more effective solutions and
ideas from the board. At the same time, your business blog equips
your team to put those ideas into action in between lengthy inperson board meetings.
On top of all these wins though, our favorite benefit has to be the
archiving of all contributions and guidance from board members,
organized and categorized for easy reference. One of the biggest losses in
efficiency and impact that we have witnessed with corporate boards is
when the board membership turns over. Now, with your board-member
business blog – you can make all the invaluable historical data generated
by your advisory board available for new members to draw on for years to
come.
With proper planning, the right structure, and a few simple strategies,
you can fully harness the power of business blogging for your company.
Remember – business blogging is not just about marketing. The
strategies and principles you need to fully harness the power of business
blogging are easier to obtain than you think.
You can check out the How to Master Business Blogging course, or you
can choose to unearth all the proven approaches on your own – that is
up to you. But what we cannot recommend strongly enough is that you
get started today.
The 21st-century marketplace is not a place to hesitate. It is no longer the
big that eat the small. It is the fast that eat the slow. And our passion is
to help business owners move as fast possible. Business blogging is just
one of the ways to do that.
My notes and ideas:
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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With a definite, step-by-step plan ah, what a difference it makes!
You cannot fail, because each step
carries you along to the next, like a track.
~ Scott Reed
5. Strategic Planning For Blogging Success
AUDIO ALERT!
The information in this
chapter corresponds with and
is expanded on in the audio
CDs for level 202 of the
multimedia course.
PLAYBOOK ALERT:
At the end of this chapter, you�ll find where you can get an expansive playbook
with a detailed step-by-step process for developing a successful business-blogging
strategy. When you complete your Business-Blogging Strategy Playbook, you�ll
have crafted your own personalized business-blogging strategy for lasting impact.
There are many more types and categories of blogs and bloggers so this
introduction is not meant to describe all of them or be all inclusive.
We cover the six main styles of business blogging (and show you how to
choose which one is right for you) in the audio CDs for level 202 of this
multimedia course. They are also reviewed in detail in your BusinessBlogging Strategy Playbook.
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For now, let�s cover some basic essentials to planning and publishing
your blog. We will classify two broad types of bloggers in this lesson.
These categories are:
Personal Blogs/Bloggers
Business Blogs/Bloggers
Personal bloggers tend to publish articles that voice their opinions on a
wide array of topics and events. Personal bloggers typically find pleasure
in documenting their personal lives, ranting, stream-of-consciousnesstype entries reflecting moods and mind-sets and publishing a variety of
themes or interests.
Business bloggers use blogs to promote products or services that help
drive revenue and profits. Business blogs may seek to increase
reputation and authority with customers, vendors, and partners by
publishing content that demonstrates knowledge and expertise within a
given industry, market segment, or niche. A business blog can promote
products and services through high-value content that customers and
prospects find extremely useful.
Here are several considerations for you to give thought to as you plan
your blog.
Why Do You Want to Blog?
Consider your reasons for wanting to start a blog. There can be many
reasons for wanting to start a blog. You desire to share a piece of your
mind with the whole world or to a small group of intimate family and
friends. You may want to market your skills to your industry or perhaps
create an online portfolio for job opportunities or contractual work.
You may want to connect with others who share your hobbies or
interests and collaborate on the exchange of ideas, applications, and
discoveries within that interest. You may have a business and you want
to promote your brand, your product, or your service using a blog. What
ideas or interests do you want to promote?
Whatever the case may be, there is only one thing you must have if you
are to be successful with your blog. PASSION. If you don�t have passion,
then you can expect your blog experience to be less than exciting.
Eventually you will abandon your blog and your audience.
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If you have a passionate interest in something and the burning desire to
publish information about that interest, you will have the strength to go
forward.
What type of results do you want from your blog?
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How do you want your blog to support your objectives?
Do you want your blog to be a way to update your family and
friends about your life events?
Do you want to attract prospects to a specific product or service
and convert them to customers?
Do you want to provide customer support for an existing product
line?
How about public relations for your profession or industry?
Do you want to stir spirited conversations through brash and
irreverent ranting about a specific subject?
Knowing what your most desired response is will help you define the
context for your content. Blogs accelerate online communications, help
build reputation, promote information sharing, and amplify the
connectedness of the Internet.
We have a three-letter memory-hook we use to help highlight the three
beneficial reasons for considering a blog and how you might use these
functions in your personal or business communications.
I.R.S.
I is for Information. Blogs allow you to share information quickly,
instantly, and powerfully.
R is for Reputation. Blogs build reputation. Whether personal or
business, blogs are an honest communications medium. Your level of
integrity will weigh heavily on how you build authority and credibility
regarding your blogs subject matter. What you publish will serve as a
basis for others to formulate opinions about your expertise, knowledge,
and character, in general.
S is for Self-expression. Blogs allow you to say absolutely anything you
like. But that doesn�t mean you should say anything you like. While blogs
can provide the ultimate freedom in written expression you must still
remain self-aware of what you are publishing. Blogs allow powerful direct
communications.
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Once you publish, your words will be out there forever. Don�t say
anything you aren�t willing to defend and, even with that, make sure you
are fair and factual in your writing. Let your true self shine through and
connect with your audience.
Who is your target audience? For whom will your blog be published?
To know your audience is to know what they need, want, and desire.
Your blog must provide value to your audience if it is to be effective in
creating a dialogue and drawing repeat visits. Prepare your blog to create
a community of dialogue with a specific target audience.
Identifying your target audience will help you keep your messages on the
mark and effective. Your greatest joy with blogging will occur when you
use your passion to blog or publish relevant information for a likeminded community of people where the free exchange of ideas can grow,
resulting in enriching communication.
Planning your blog starts with establishing your purpose for blogging and
finding your voice. You will have fun and generate profit from a blog that is
guided by a clearly identified reason and desired result.
When considering these points for planning your blog use the formula of:
I + C = E Your Intent plus your Content determines your Event.
Establish your intent and identify the content that will deliver your
intentions and produce an expected event. Is your intent to rank high in
search-engine results for certain keyword phrases that are identified with
your business? Then your content must reflect your intent with the right
information about your business and the keywords associated with your
business. The event is good search-engine rankings for your chosen
keywords. Traffic will find its way to your blog as a result of those
keywords ranking high in the search results pages.
Once you decide why you want to publish with a blog, be very
intentional. Make sure your content reflects your intention and that you
maintain that focus. Together, your intent and content will produce a
measurable event that can assist with determining the effectiveness of
your blog.
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How to Determine if a Blog Is Right for You
If you have something to say, something to sell, or something to socialize,
then a blog may be right for you. Ultimately, to make the best use of your
blog for promoting your personal or business messages, you must be
willing to commit to developing relationships and content.
A continuous flow of information and content is what keeps the search
engines returning your blog. It is what builds an audience and keeps
them returning to your blog and it is the only way to make use of blogs.
Blogs are social tools and it takes time to build an audience that trusts
you. If you can accept that and you can take a long view of blogging, then
you can really expect success and good results in a much shorter time
span than if you rush for immediate results.
You don�t want to just start a blog because it�s trendy and interesting.
Establish a plan for your blog as you would anything else. Jot down
some concepts and ideas for a blog you would like to start. Pick a
purpose, decide on a theme, and brainstorm about related topics you
would like to share with others.
Be unique. Feel free to examine the blogs that contain topics and
features that appeal to you. Build your own ideas from the observations
of other blogs. Add your own unique spin as you generate ideas for your
blog. Taking the time to do these now will provide focus and direction as
you move forward with starting up a blog.
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Check out these links to get more information on topics & resources
mentioned in this section. Take your learning to the next level:
Technorati: http://www.technorati.com
BlogDigger: http://www.blogdigger.com
Google: http://www.google.com
Topix.net: http://www.topix.net
PubSub: http://www.pubsub.com
GoodKeywords: http://www.goodkeywords.com
WordTracker: http://www.wordtracker.com
BlogHarbor: http://www.blogharbor.com
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Business Blogging Strategy Action Playbook
Playbook is included in the complete multimedia course: Marketing
With Business Blogs found at: www.MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
PLAYBOOK ALERT:
This chapter refers you to an expansive Playbook with a detailed, stepby-step process for researching, selecting, and integrating the ideal
keywords for your niche.
When you complete your Business Blogging Strategy Action
Playbook, you�ll have a step-by-step system for maximizing results from
your business blog. And, you�ll have an organized summary sheet that
will keep you focused and moving consistently ahead with your blogging
efforts.
This is what will give you the competitive edge for your business blog to
attract highly targeted traffic and to achieve top search-engine rankings.
NOTE: If you waited to pick up the full, home-study course, now�s the
time to grab it – if it�s still available. Then, you�ll be able to create your
own Business Blogging Strategy using the Playbook our Coaches have
designed for you.
Simply visit http://MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com to get the full
course today. (While supplies last.)
―The one thing that separates the
winners from the losers is,
winners take action!”
~ Anthony Robbins
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Creating Your Business Blogging Success Strategy
by John-Paul & Deborah Micek, from www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com
What is it that makes a great blog, great? For many, it is the passionate
and thorough coverage of their chosen niche or industry – coverage that
is so highly valued by readers that the blogger becomes the respected
authority in their topical area.
But success and recognition takes much more than what may appear at
first glance. Successful business blogging takes much more than
frequent posts, good content, and a passionate zeal for your chosen
niche. It is an intentional synergy between those three components and
five more components that comprise your successful business blogging
strategy.
The blogosphere is entering into a very steep growth curve. This presents
an unprecedented opportunity for business owners to capture their fair
share of the people discovering this new consumer-centric
communication channel. The key is to establish yourself quickly so you
can capture your part of the limited ―mind share‖ that is up for grabs.
By ―mind share‖ we mean the limited attention that people have and the
limited space they have in their feed aggregator/reader for feeds in any
given area. Once we�ve gathered a reasonable number of feeds in any
area of interest for our regular perusal, it becomes more difficult for any
new source to gain access to the limited real estate available on our
aggregator. The bloggers with feeds already there have captured part of
our mind share in that area making it difficult for any new source to
muscle them out.
Far too many business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers are out
there just haphazardly starting blogs. They don't know the rules of the
road, nor do they understand how the blogosphere works, and most of all
– they don't have a clear plan. So they start their blogs, and when the
results that they expected don't come flowing in the front door, they let
their interest slowly fade away. At the same time, opportunities to
capture mind share are lost.
So now that you understand what is at stake, and why you need your
own business-blogging success strategy, let�s get rolling right away!
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The Business Blogging Success Strategy Playbook is meant to help you
avoid many of the pitfalls that ill-prepared business owners stumble into.
It is designed to help you plan for, develop, and maintain your internal or
external business blog. And with that planning and preparation, to gain
your rightful share of the limited mind share available.
It’s no longer the big that eat the small.
Now, it’s the fast that eat the slow!
Refer to your Business Blogging Strategy Playbook, and complete your
plan now. Then transfer the information onto the summary sheet on the
next page.
NOTE:
If you purchased this book separately from the full course, and want to upgrade
now, to create your own Business Blogging Strategy using the Playbook our
Coaches have designed for you, simply visit
http://MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
and get the full course today. (While supplies last.)
The Playbook includes:
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Creating Your Business Blogging Success Strategy Action Playbook
Preferred Business Blogging Styles
Secondary Business Blogging Styles
Coaching Tips about Blending Business Blogging Styles
Time guidelines for article length
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Business Blogging Success Strategy Summary Sheet
(Taken from the 30+ page Business Blog Strategy Playbook)
Here is where you transfer the key information for the plan you just
completed into one convenient summary sheet. We suggest you
photocopy this page, and keep it in front of you for review every time you
are working on your business blog, at least for the first 30 days. This
practical summary sheet will help remove ―blogger block‖ and keep you
focused and on track.
The vision for my business blog:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
The intended use of this blog is:
_______________________________________________________________________
The unique service/s I will provide with this blog are:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
I will use my passion to fuel this business blog by:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
My two primary styles of posting for this business blog are:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
My target audience is:
________________________________________________________________________
Their greatest needs/wants/desires are:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
My posting schedule is:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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Once you�ve completed your separate 30+ page Business-Blogging
Strategy Playbook, you�re ready to begin your business blog!
Here are a few quotes to keep you motivated to blog consistently and
persistently. Go ahead and print out this page or make a copy and post it
to your white board or bulletin board to remind you to stick to your
blogging schedule.
QUOTES to Inspire You Persist with your blog!
To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune;
to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have
lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forego even
ambition when the end is gained – who can say this is not
greatness?
~ William Makepeace Thackeray
The odds are with us if we keep on trying.
~Keith DeGreen
The most essential factor is persistence, the determination
never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by
the discouragement that must inevitably come.
~ James Whitcomb Riley
There’s only one way you can fail – and that’s to quit.
~ Brian Hays
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
Feel free to jot down a few motivational quotes of your own – to keep
yourself blogging consistently. You can find additional quotes to inspire
you to take action towards pursuing your goals at
http://60secondMotivators.com
Happy Blogging!
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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You are never given a wish without also
being given the power to make it true.
~ Richard Bach
6. How to Choose the Right Blog Software Tools
Blog Software Defined
Blog software is any software that allows you to publish content with a
blog. Simple enough! We know that may be overstating the obvious, but
let�s examine this for a minute. There are certain characteristics that are
unique to blogs and some features that definitely distinguish a blog from
a regular Web site. So if your software doesn�t have the following features
then your software may not actually be a blog.
Ping Updates
This concept goes way back to the early days when blogs were updated
manually. Some bloggers would manually update their list of links and
others would check those lists for new and interesting places to visit.
Well, as the blogosphere grew and more bloggers began to update their
links, it was impossible to continue with the manual updates on a select
few update pages.
Dave Winer, one of the earliest RSS pioneers, started one of the first ping
update servers located at weblogs.com. Weblogs is probably the most
popular ping update server and may be the oldest. The most recent blog
software applications ping Weblogs.com automatically when you publish
new content. This feature is normally able to be turned on or off at your
discretion and you may have the option to ping more than just
Weblogs.com.
If you want to receive feedback and have a dialogue with visitors to your
blog, your blog software needs a comments section. Earlier Weblogs did
not have comment systems, but now most ―modern‖ blog software
applications do have comment systems.
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In fact, a comment system is critical to your success as a blogger. Stay
away from blog software that doesn�t have the ability for visitors to post
their comments. It is better to have comments available with the option
to turn that feature off versus not having the ability to have comments
available at all. Today, most, if not all, of the well-known blog software
applications have a comments feature.
You can think of a ping as a message in a little capsule that travels
across computer wires. In the case of blogs, a little message is sent to
update servers announcing new content you have published with your
blog. This is like automatic promotion for your content every time you
publish something new.
Another common feature of blog software is Trackback and in some cases
Pingback.
Trackback & Pingback
Trackback allows you to let your blog update another blog when you are
talking about something on that other blog. For example, suppose you
have a blog on catering. You publish a great article on ―place settings‖
that we want to talk about in some fashion.
Using your commenting system we could just place our remarks on your
blog right there at the end of your article. Instead, we decide we want to
talk about this and share it with the readers of our blog. We write up our
remarks in our own article and when we go to publish it in our blog, our
blog will actually send your blog a little Internet message called the ping.
And by pinging you, you will know that we are now talking about your
article back at our blog instead of yours.
The ping our blog sent results in a written entry with the title and short
summary of our remarks about your blog. Think of it as our blog writing
our comments to your blog for us. This is instead of us doing it,
personally, at your blog, using your blog commenting systems.
It�s pretty cool stuff. A Pingback is basically the same.
A Pingback lets you know someone is linking to you by writing the URL
instead of a title and summary like Trackback does. You will find
Trackback much more commonly available than Pingback.
BlogHarbor and WordPress are two blog software applications that
support the Pingback feature. Both features can be turned on or off at
will.
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Instant Publishing
The ability to publish instantly, frequently, and at the push of a button is
THE biggest and best feature of a blog. Make sure your blog software has
a Web-based word-processor-type interface that you can access through
your Web browser.
You then compose your article and press a button and you are instantly
published! A blog article, post or entry (pick your term) is the center or
heart of blog and it is distinguished by the fact that blogs publish your
content in reverse chronological order. Technically, a blog entry is also
called an item (especially within the context of RSS, which is the subject
of another tutorial).
Blog software allows you to set the number of published articles you
want visible on the main site page at one time. You normally have
settings in increments of five at a time.
Blog software also provides auto archiving, easy category configuration,
and permalinks.
Blog Software Archiving
Archiving is simply a mechanism for preserving historical data. The
archiving feature of your blog software will organize articles published in
the past by date/time, day, week, month, and year.
Blog Software Categories
Categories allow you to easily organize your content. You can determine
your categories ahead of time as part of your blog software configuration.
Then, before you push the button to publish each article, you can select
what category you want your content to be published to.
Your content will still be visible on your page but it will also be viewable
when someone clicks on your category link. That way the reader can
focus on a specific category of your content instead of other areas that
may not be of interest to them.
This is important. Be sure to set up your categories right from the start.
Set up your categories to strategically match
up with your top 20 keywords, and you�ll
quickly see the results as your keywords are
optimized in the search-engine ranking.
Remember – you can always add categories
as you- 141
go- along when you�re using
WordPress, or BlogHarbor. So don�t sweat it.
Just get started.
MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Permalinks
Permalinks were created to allow others to reference a specific blog item
permanently or specifically. Because of the publishing paradigm of blog
software in which the most recent news is the most relevant news, blogs
publish items in reverse chronology. The most recent item is the most
visible item. The result is that you have a single page of several
published items going down your blog main page from top to bottom.
Remember, you can decide the number of items visible by adjusting this
setting as part of your blog software configuration.
Now, suppose we want to reference and link to a specific item that may
be published in the middle of your blog site between an older and much
newer article. Without a permalink we would have to link to your main
blog URL and that would make finding the referenced item a chore,
especially when you consider that blogs are frequently updated. That
item will eventually roll off the front page.
Permalinks allow you to link to a specific article. Permalinks also allow
you to share specific posts or articles by simply sharing the link to a
specific post that you care about.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Permalinks also do something else for you.
Another result of permalinks is the fact that your
pages become stand-alone pages as well. What
you have is the ability to isolate your content
down to a single page of tightly focused and
keyword-rich content that stands out to the
search engines. This is a great search-engine
boost for you – your content becomes much
easier to index and search engines love blogs.
Blog are great content
managers because they allow you to easily develop content that is tightly
focused on an overall theme. You can then filter it down to an even
tighter focus with your categories; and lastly, you can be laser-specific
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with your permalinks. (There are great SEO benefits for bloggers and
we�ll cover that subject a bit later in this manual.)
Blog software allows you to publish frequently, publish instantly, and
publish easily.
Blog software also allows you to:
Notify update servers when you have published new content items.
Notify other blogs that you are referencing them with Trackback.
Notify other blogs that you are linking to them with Pingback.
And finally, blog software allows you to:
Easily categorize content.
And, easily compartmentalize content.
This is a list of major features that is unique to blogs. There are more
features and settings and they vary among the different offerings. These
common features will be available in all blog-software offerings out there.
Other distinctions are simply extra features, add-ins, and usability
enhancements that are designed to help differentiate one blog software
offer from another.
Understanding Blog Software
There are different blog software applications available for you to use.
Choosing the best one for you largely comes down to what you desire to
accomplish with your blog.
Also, consider how much time and labor you have available to make your
blogging experience an enjoyable one. For example, you may find
configuring your own self-hosted blog takes more time than you have
available.
If you would rather spend more time on developing content and writing
your blog, a blog-hosting service would be a good choice for you.
The ease of publishing offered with blog-hosting services would allow you
more time to update your content regularly while not having to worry
about the technical details of managing your blog.
Here a few questions you will need to answer:
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“Where should I host my blog?”
“What blog software application is best?”
“How do I choose the right blog platform?”
These are key questions that do not automatically provide simple
answers. Knowing and understanding how blog systems are categorized
can make the decision process easier for you.
You will encounter the following types of blog publishing systems:
Self-hosted blog software
Third-party-hosted blog software
Remote blog systems
There are two main categories of blog software tools when it comes to
publishing content. There are third-party-hosted blog publishing tools
and there are self-hosted blog publishing tools.
VIDEO ALERT!
There is a detailed movie on
the different types of
hosting on your video disk
for level 202 of this
multi-media course.
Self-Hosted Blog Software
Self-hosted blog software requires you to download, install, and configure
the blog software on your own server or domain account with a Web-site
hosting service-provider. WordPress, Moveable Type and Greymatter all
fall under this category.
With this type of blog software, you will need to understand what the
blog-software minimum requirements are to run successfully on your
server; and then make sure your Web server and Web-site hosting
service-provider can support those requirements.
99% of quality hosting services easily meet or exceed the basic
requirements of WordPress.
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Some examples of these requirements would be versions of MySql
database server, and Perl. There are both free and fee-based blog
publishing software applications for download and installation on your
own server.
This is the way to go if you want the greatest level of flexibility and
control over your blog. Even if you�re not technically inclined, you can
easily hire a designer or programmer to load and configure your selfhosted blog very affordably.
When you install a blog on our own Web server, you can have any
address you like. For example: http://blog.myserver.com,
http://www.myserver.com, or http://www.myserver.com/blog.
The advantage of self-hosted blog software installed on your own server
is the level of control and customization you have over your configuration
and design. You can allocate as much storage as you like, create custom
pages and layouts, and you can essentially extend the features of your
blog with blog add-ins or plug-ins depending on the software you decide
to use.
Also, if you host your blog on the same URL as your main Web site, the
keyword relevance and inbound links that your blog will generate will all
be associated with your Web site URL for improved positioning in searchengine results.
This type of software requires you to download the application files
yourself and install them. There are blog designers that will customize
your blog for a fee and some will even install your blog software for you
as well.
The disadvantage to this type of self-hosted blog software is
administration, management, and support. This is a bit subjective
because there are many people who are technically capable of supporting
their own software. A lot of people don�t have the time or technical
knowledge to maintain their own blog software.
Some software will require you to pay a fee before you download it and
others are completely free but supported with donations.
When considering this option, think about the additional time you will
need available for the maintenance and updates to your blog software.
If you want to focus more on content publishing while leaving the
technical details to someone else, then you may want to consider thirdparty-hosted blog software services. (Or delegate this task to someone
who can handle this for you.)
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VIDEO ALERT!
For
nearly
two
hours
of
comprehensive, how-to videos on
the installation and operation of
WordPress, refer to the video
DVDs that are part of level 202 of
this multimedia course.
Self-Hosted Blog Recommendation:
For most business owners looking for the maximum capabilities in
control, customization, and search-engine optimization related to your
main Web site URL – nothing beats a self-hosted blog.
Tthe absolute, hands-down winner for this type of blog software is
WordPress. The fact that it is open-source software (free for everyone to
use) is another perk. With WordPress, you can set up as many internal
or external business blogs as you want and never have any licensing or
maintenance fees other than your regular monthly hosting fees.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Every blog post is viewed as a separate
Web page to the spiders and search
engines.
This is great news if you�re looking to optimize
your own Web site by using your blog as a
subdirectory for your Web site.
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Third-Party-Hosted Blog Software Services
The second variety would be blog software tools located with a bloghosting service-provider. Blog hosting is much the same as regular Web
hosting. You simply create an account via a sign-up page at a thirdparty-hosted service provider of your choosing and you can begin
blogging in just a few minutes.
Third-party-hosted blog service-providers supply you with blog
publishing software on their servers. You simply sign up with them to set
up a blog account.
Moments later you can start blogging. You aren�t required to install any
software or get a separate Web-site hosting account or domain name.
Some examples of third-party-hosted blog service-providers would be
BlogHarbor, TypePad, LiveJournal, and Squarespace.
This is the quickest and easiest way for most people to start blogging. If
you have little to no technical background and you want to get up and
running, publishing a blog easily and quickly, this is an attractive option.
Once you are signed up, you are given a blog address similar to an
address like this: http://myblogname.blogserviceprovider.com/.
Some hosted service-providers support domain mapping that enables
you to use http://www.myserver.com.
Hosted services don�t require you to understand technical details like
HTML, CSS and Perl. There are both free and fee-based third-partyhosted blog service-providers.
Some services offer a free version of paid accounts that have limited
features. Some free accounts are trial accounts, so check to make sure
you are registered for the right type of account.
The advantage to using a third-party-hosted blog-software tool is the fact
that sign up is very easy, and you don�t have to install software or
manage difficult configuration settings. You can focus strictly on
publishing your content.
With a hosted solution you have the support of your service provider for
all server-related issues. Third-party-hosted solutions normally offer
several site-design templates that allow you to quickly decide on a layout
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that best suits your tastes. You also have the ability to customize some
details of your templates like colors, fonts, and columns.
As a plus, you can also have a completely customized layout and design
even with a hosted-blog publishing tool. When choosing a blog site
designer make sure they are familiar with your blog software hosted
solution. Most designers will ask you which blog software provider you
are using or they provide details on which blog software tools they do
custom designs for.
The disadvantage of using a hosted solution is the limitations in
configuration and control. Some may find the limitations of a hosted
service too confining. Hosted services are designed to make your blogging
experience very simple, yet fun to do. This simplicity may also be too
confining to some.
For most hosted-blog software tools you will need to pay a monthly fee,
but Blogger.com is the most popular free blog-hosting service and they
are also owned by Google.
Another serious consideration has to do with search-engine optimization.
If one of your goals is to associate good keyword ranking and inbound
links with your main Web site URL, then a third-party-hosted blog will
not help you anywhere close to what a self-hosted blog can do for you.
That�s because any keyword relevancy and inbound links credited to
your third-party-hosted blog do not flow over to your main Web site/s.
Third-Party-Hosted Recommendation:
Most blogging tools provide adequate trial periods. We always
recommend a hosting service for the non-technical people because you
really need to focus on publishing. Free isn�t always good, that�s why we
recommend BlogHarbor for third-party hosting of your business blog.
The customer support for BlogHarbor is superb.
TypePad is another third-party hosting service where you get less space
and bandwidth than you do with BlogHarbor, but you have a brand
leader. TypePad was created by SixApart, the creator of the server-based
blog-software, MovableType. They are considered leaders in the blogsoftware category.
BlogHarbor is a great service that is very easy to use yet very smartly
designed for serious content management. BlogHarbor is fast becoming a
platform of choice for serious bloggers and content publishers.
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Unlike TypePad�s rather bare bones statistics reporting, BlogHarbor has
much better site stats.
In fact they are the best blog stats we�ve seen for a hosted service. You
get metrics on HTML requests, RSS requests, unique hosts served, most
popular categories, most popular articles, most commented articles, and
of course referrer stats.
BlogHarbor allows you to publish HTML pages right along with your blog
and maintain a consistent look and feel across your entire site. This is a
very good system. They provide a dynamic feed for each category you
create, and they provide you with from one-to-two Gigs of space (Wow!
The best we�ve seen so far!), plus one-to-three Gigs of bandwidth.
BlogHarbor recently added a 2GB with 5GB bandwidth option for
bloggers with large audiences, podcasters, and videobloggers. Wow!
BlogHarbor is a top choice. We use them heavily and recommend them
first to anyone looking for one of the best hosting services around.
BlogHarbor also offers e-mail subscriptions for those in your audience
who don�t yet use RSS for getting content updates. E-mail updates for
your content is supported and built right into your BlogHarbor software
system. They also offer secured channels and user/group management
for rights-based access to content and they also provide automatic
podcasting.
Just like WordPress, you simply add your audio/media attachment to
your post and when it is syndicated, BlogHarbor automatically adds the
RSS element tag to it so that media aggregators can receive your podcast.
These are a few of the highlights for BlogHarbor. BlogHarbor is definitely
worth a look.
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How to Set Up Your Blog Using a Third-Party-Hosted Blog
Stand-alone software provides you with great power over customization
and configuration. But remember, with great power comes great
responsibility. Even if you hire someone to customize your blog templates
for you, please keep in mind the technical support you will need to
provide for yourself. These applications don�t break easily if you leave
them alone, but it wouldn�t be wise not to learn anything about your
software. So just keep in mind the extra time commitment to technical
details when you manage your own blog software and server.
If you�re going to go the third-party-hosted route, we recommend Blog
Harbor. That is the easiest and fastest way to get started. Opening an
account only takes minutes and you can start blogging in just a few
minutes after that.
1. Go to http://www.blogharbor.com
2. Select the Upgrade tab and view the pricing plans.
3. Sign up for the 30 trial. This is necessary to go to the full plans.
4. Select the Upgrade and then login with your 30 trial account
username and password.
5. Select your upgrade plan and you now have your own blog.
6. Feel free to work through the 30 trial to see if the service works for
you. You don�t have to immediately upgrade to the full service.
7. All features are fully enabled during your trial period.
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Figure 8 BlogHarbor Account Sign-in Page
Next, click the Login tab from the top right of the BlogHarbor page and
you will be taken to your account login screen (see above).
Sign in with your account username and password.
Once you are signed in, select ―Post An Article‖ and you will be taken to
the article-post screen. (See below.)
If you have a design in mind for your blog, contact Lisa Sabin at
http://www.elegantwebscapes.com/ for good custom design. A unique
design definitely helps encourage repeat visits and generates interest.
Don�t underestimate a good design for making your blog a success. You
don�t have to have a custom design before you start posting content.
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Figure 9 BlogHarbor Web Editor (Posting)
From here, simply add an article title, add the article contents, and press
that save button (see below) and you�ve just published your first article
with BlogHarbor. All of this activity is done through your browser. It�s
that easy!
In an earlier step you were informed of the need to develop five-to-ten 10
articles that are also keyword optimized. You can post those articles and
set dates in the past as you publish each one; otherwise, take the time to
publish something every day for a for a week or so. You can use this time
to fill your blog with content and get adjusted to a publishing schedule
and your new blog software.
Figure 10 BlogHarbor Posting Options
For example, if you have five articles, you can start posting five days from
your current date and assign dates for each article. In that way, your
blog will appear to have published content from the last week.
The idea here is to populate your blog with content and give it the
appearance that someone is actually actively publishing. It also gives
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new visitors the impression that the blog, while new, is publishing on a
regular schedule. That encourages repeat visits.
Remote Weblog Systems
Remote Weblog systems are a combination of both a third-party-hosted
blog service and a self-hosted blog installed on your own Web server.
Blogger.com mainly offers this type of blog configuration
You still have the ease of use you would experience with a blog-hosting
service-provider. Essentially, Blogger provides an advanced configuration
option once you sign up and decide on the configuration for your blog.
You can actually supply FTP, FTP account identification, and FTP
directory information to Blogger when you are configuring your blog and
it will literally install files to your Web server.
With this configuration, anytime you publish your content, Blogger will
publish to your domain via FTP. You still have the option of publishing
on the Blogger domain if you choose not to use the advanced
configuration.
This is a great way to maintain your brand identity and domain name
while setting up your blog with a hosting service. The only other bloghosting service-provider we know of that provides this type of
configuration is WebCrimson.
If you choose to host your blog at Blogger.com, we highly recommend
that you work with a programmer or designer familiar with this set up as
problems can occur if this is not set up properly. This feature may be a
good compromise between ease of configuration and domain brand
identity for some business owners.
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Figure 11 Blogger.com Home
Client-based Tools
Client-based tools are tools that aid you with publishing your blog and
they are installed on your computer and run from your computer. These
tools are not mini-blogs that run on your hard drive although we�ve seen
an application or two that work along those lines.
What we are referring to here are tools that are really text editors for
bloggers. In fact, they are desktop blog editors. When you want to
perform word processing tasks on a Windows computer, you normally
fire up Microsoft Word or some other word processor to create your
document. A blog editor allows you compose and publish your content
from your desktop in the same manner.
Three Benefits of Using a Desktop Blog Editor
The first and immediate benefit is convenience. It is much more
convenient to publish with a desktop tool instead of firing up your Web
browser, logging into your blog-software control panel and then
accessing your Web-based text editor every time you want to publish.
While publishing with a blog is very easy, you can still benefit from a
client-based tool.
The next benefit of a client-based blog tool is local and remote content
management. A client-based blog publishing tool will allow you to
remotely manage and edit your posts. You can easily manage your
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content locally by saving drafts to your local computer while you develop
your content item for publishing. You don�t have to be connected to the
Internet to do this. You can save your work if you aren�t finished and
when you are ready to publish, you just open your item up in your blog
editor and push a button to publish to your server.
You can remotely view items you�ve published in the past and modify
them. A blog editor also allows you to format your content with the ease
and familiarity of a standard word-processor application.
A final benefit we want to point out is multiple blog management. If you
are publishing more than one blog, consider using a desktop blog editor.
You can easily configure a blog editor to manage all of your blogs. All you
have to do is enter the same information you use to log into your blogserver tool along with the specific type of server software you are using
and you blog editor will keep that information as part of its configuration.
All you have to do is fire up your blog editor and select the profile for the
blog you want to publish to and you are on your way. All you have to do
is log out of that profile and log on with a different profile for a different
blog you want to publish to. This is a very simple process and a fantastic
time saver.
Most blog editors support most of the popular server-installed and
hosted-blog software tools available and also support custom
configuration for blog software not directly supported. Check to make
sure that your blog tool is supported before you purchase a desktop blog
editor.
Desktop blog editors allow you to remotely manage one or more blogs
which will save you time and allow you to easily develop, publish, and
manage all of your content locally on your hard drive and remotely on
your blogs.
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Check out these links to get more information on topics & resources
mentioned in this section, and take your learning to the next level:
Dave Winer: http://www.scripting.com/dwiner/
Weblogs.com: http://www.weblogs.com
Ping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping
Trackback: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback
Pingback: http://www.hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback-1.0
WordPress: http://www.wordpress.org
Moveable Type: http://www.movabletype.org
Greymatter: http://www.noahgrey.com/greysoft/
MySql: http://www.mysql.com/
Perl: http://www.perl.com/
BlogHarbor: http://www.blogharbor.com
TypePad: http://www.typepad.com
LiveJournal: http://www.livejournal.com
Squarespace: http://www.squarespace.com
Blogger.com: http://www.blogger.com
WebCrimson: http://www.webcrimson.com
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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He that walks with wise men shall be wise.
~ Proverbs 13:20
7. Producing Content and Publishing with Your Blog
AUDIO ALERT!
The information in this
chapter corresponds with and
is expanded on in the audio
CDs for levels 303 and 404
of the multimedia course.
How to Publish Effectively
Before you begin writing anything, you must know who your market is
and what they want.
Here are some coaching tips to publish content your readers will
love.
Communication. Your communication must be authentic. When you
blog or publish content let your true self come through. Blogs are by
nature personal and up close in communication. You must let your
authentic voice come through. Each blog will be unique because each
publisher is unique. Whatever the topic you are blogging about make
sure you inject your personality into your writing.
In order to create a loyal readership, visitors must come to trust you and
feel like they know you in some way. It doesn�t mean that they need to
know your personal details but you do need to connect with your
audience in a very real way. Keep it simple by just being yourself.
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Credibility. Your content must be credible and authoritative. Your
credibility will rest largely with the ―voice‖ of your blog, that is, your
authenticity. However, credibility is a slow build over time. Some
individuals and businesses bring a level of credibility to the Web and
have a built-in audience.
As you begin to publish content that is found to be of high value and
useful by others, you begin to build authority. When your audience
comes to believe in the value of your content you are building credibility
and authority. They will look to you and seek your opinion and advice.
These are some of the key factors you will need to build reputation.
Blogs are fantastic reputation builders. What better way to have
automated blog promotion and blog marketing activities than with other
people who will link to you and reference you without you having to ask?
You can build your audience exponentially when you get other blogs to
reference your blog content and send you traffic. Blogging has given rise
to what some are calling newsmasters. Bloggers are in the business of
referencing relevant news, facts, information, and content of various
kinds that they find useful; and, when they find something of value to
their audience, they talk about it or blog it (blogging).
Each reference you get to your content can lead to a multitude of
additional references as more people who find their way to you also turn
around and link to you as well.
Bloggers act as a filter. When people find a blog that is useful they will
link to it and refer others to it. You can become the authority within your
niche. Others will look to you to filter the news for them on what is
valuable and newsworthy.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Your content builds page reputation with Google
as more people link to you and your blog builds
reputation as more people read it and reward you
with repeat visits.
As you learn how to blog, remember you are
building credibility, authority and reputation.
Publish Frequently. Publish frequently or regularly. A stale blog will not
generate traffic from the search engines and it will have visitors leaving
your blog like crazy. If you aren�t up to the task of publishing on a
regular schedule then one of the following can provide a solution for you:
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1. Get someone else to write and publish for you.
2. Publish ahead of time.
3. Get out of the game. Blogging isn’t for you.
Number one is obvious. Number three is sarcastic. We certainly don�t
coach any of our private coaching clients to get away with option three.
Now, let�s talk a little about number two which will explain why we
recommend WordPress. We recognize that many people are very
interested in blogging but don�t think they have enough time to blog or
feel that blogging is consuming more of their time than they originally
had in mind.
WordPress allows the option to post to the future or ―schedule‖ posts.
This lets you manage your time by planning your content ahead of time
and then publishing it on a future date/time. This is a powerful feature
that is soon to come to BlogHarbor as well. You could sit down and write
your content on a Saturday and have your content publish according to
a schedule set for the rest of the week.
Link Often. Take your readers on a journey and link to relevant
supporting content and facts to boost the level of importance for the
points you are making. At the heart of all Internet activity is ―search.‖
People like to find stuff! We search for stuff all the time. Take note of how
you feel when you read content that references other great content. You
get a sense of joy and discovery and you feel smart for having found it.
Help your readers find stuff that gives them more reasons to trust you.
No matter what you publish, make sure you link out to other content.
That helps your search-engine rankings and your readers.
Take advantage of the growing obsession we all seem to have with ―time.‖
That is one reason why RSS feeds are powerful. They help people
subscribe to great content without having to hunt for it and a gazillion
individual Web sites. Help people save time by being an authoritative and
trusted source of filtered news and high value content.
Open Comments & Allow TrackBack. Turn on comments and
TrackBack so that you can develop a dialogue with your readers and
allow other blogs to ping-reference your content. If you want to connect
with your audience with content that will move them – or move them to
do something – you need to allow them the means to talk back to you.
When you give people the opportunities to react to your content you
allow them to connect even deeper with your content. This is powerful.
Niche It. Being a generalist or writing for a broad audience will not be as
profitable as writing for a niche. Your richest returns will come from
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targeting a niche market, topic, or theme, and focus on the informational
needs of those in that market. Focusing on a niche will allow you to
tighten your message and keep your content relevant.
A blog that builds reputation around a theme will need to be more on
topic with each published item. General rambling isn�t as productive. A
themed or topical blog publishes content that doesn�t move away from
the central theme; however, it can touch on any and all related
information that would assist in reaching and relating to an audience.
Publishing a Blog Is Easy to Do!
You can also publish content to your blog by using blog publishing tools
called bookmarklets, or with blog editing and publishing software like
BlogJet or WB Editor 2. You can also easily type content into a Webbased text editor that comes with your blog software, push a button and
your published!
Some of these set-up and configuration tasks include providing the name
of your blog, providing archival intervals, providing the names for
categories of content, and providing names of other publishers.
There are additional settings such as deciding to allow TrackBack, how
to handle commenting in your blog, security settings, RSS syndication
settings, site layout, and more.
Once these simple tasks are completed, blogging becomes fun, fast and
flexible and even profitable.
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Your Content as a Traffic Magnet
Blogs are significant for their ability to rank high in the search engines
for great content, reach broader audiences with relevant messages, and
relate your message more personally to your targeted niche.
In the previous section we provided three principles for getting starting
with blog promotion success. Those principles are designed to help you
set proper expectations for you as you begin your blog.
Blogs are indeed social tools, the key to leverage any promotion effort for
traffic is good content, and you must be willing to commit to a long term
with your blog because it takes time and patience to develop a blog that
develops good relationships.
Here are the next three important things to focus on for blog promotional
success for ranking your content and reaching your audience. They are:
1. High ranking content (content)
2. Reaching broader audiences (communication)
3. Relating more personally (conversation)
High Ranking Content (Content)
The important points for high ranking content are as follows.
Know your niche
Know your keywords
Write to inform
Watch your stats
Know Your Niche - You research your niche and know your niche. We
recommend grabbing surveys and review statistics on market trends and
behaviors happening within your niche and those happening around
your niche.
If you�ve been a player in a particular niche and you already have a good
understanding of your niche (market) then you are in fantastic shape for
launching your blog.
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Understanding your niche means understanding the supply and demand
factors. Blogs add the new dimension of conversation to your niche
markets. You must now analyze the conversations taking place in your
market so that you can decide what dialogue to start with your blog.
Remember, blogs are social tools. There are millions of digital
conversations taking place every moment as more and more people use
blogs to publish and link ideas to each other.
Business Blogging Secrets Revealed!
You need to know what conversations are taking place in your
niche. You need to identify where in these conversations you can
position yourself and your brand.
Search out the blogs in your niche and subscribe to them. Ask
yourself the following critical questions to get the edge.
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
What is being said by the publishers?
What comments are being posted?
What common ideas and conversations are common
among all the blogs you are reading and observing?
Are there any emerging trends?
Who are the top bloggers in your niche? (You will find them
by the number of references to their blogs. You will start to
come across these references as you explore more of the blogs
in your niche.)
This works because blogs are the fastest way to monitor the
pulse of what is going on your niche.
Blogs deliver information in real time and they represent the actual
sentiment in your niches because they are free from marketing
influences and mainstream media filtering.
Blogs are the voice of citizens, consumers, and content creators in
your niche. They tend to be authentic and authoritative sources for
information.
Go to http://www.technorati.com and do a search for the keywords that
represent and identify your niche. Go to http://www.blogdigger.com and
do the same. These are blog search directories that monitor blogs in real
time.
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Remember to also check Google. More and more blogs are taking up
top positions in Google, so check Google. Don�t just check the top 10 or
20. We go up to the top 40 or 50 looking specifically for blogs. Some
keywords may not have as many blogs targeting them. That�s a bonus for
you, but do remember to search until you have a reasonable feel for
whether you will find a blog talking about something related to your
niche.
The idea is to grab quick info from the freshest sources around for great
information. You may also try http://www.topix.net and
http://www.pubsub.com, but realize the information they provide is
based on newsworthiness and is not necessarily niche-topic specific.
Know Your Keywords - Knowing your keywords is important and
obvious. But make sure you know the right keywords to use for your
niche. (Refer to the Keyword Strategy Playbook in Chapter 11 to plan out
the best keywords for your business or industry.)
Use a tool like Good Keywords at http://www.goodkeywords.com to help
you research good keywords to use when writing your blog content. Your
keywords are what will bring you traffic from the search engines.
Keywords are the terms people use in the search engines to find stuff.
Suppose you are publishing a blog about RC Cars – using the Good
Keywords tool you would see something similar to Figure 12.
Figure 12 GoodKeywords Software
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You can see that RC car has had 43,491 searches within the last month.
This means that keyword gets a lot of traffic. You can also gas rc car has
5,997 searches. What you want to do is determine which keywords
represent your customers. Do you have a ―gas rc car‖ product or service?
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
The keyword phrase with the largest amount
of traffic isn�t always the best for you to use.
And the more specific the keyword ―phrase‖
you use, the better your results.
Large amounts of traffic generally represent
more general traffic for a general search term.
This is usually a starting point for searches.
Get specific!
Searches move on from there to more specific ―phrases.‖ These phrases
represent niches that are more targeted, more specific, and more focused
on what they are looking for. This is higher quality search traffic.
This is where you�ll gain a major edge over your competitors. Just by
knowing how to apply what you learned from your keyword research will
propel you into business blogging success.
Most business owners would naturally think
that the largest amount of traffic would mean
the best keywords. By following along with
the audio coaching sessions in the How To
Master Business Blogging Course, along with
your Keyword Strategy Playbook – you�ll
know otherwise!
Business
Blogging
Secrets
Revealed!
You must know which keywords represent your audience, customers
and prospects.
Knowing what your niche market is searching for provides you with a
needs analysis of what your market wants. Keyword search-tools work to
help you identify where your market is. http://www.goodkeywords.com
and http://www.wordtracker.com are great resources for that.
It�s the way of the Web. Search is effective when search engines deliver
results that make people happy with what they found. If we type in ―rc
cars‖ into Google, we want results that talk about ―rc cars‖ not boats or
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dolls. You want keywords that will make you part of those search results
when someone goes searching for the keywords you are mentioning on
your blog.
Using GoodKeywords or WordTracker, do a search for the keywords being
used that are related to your products and services and business.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Pay special attention to the two and three
word ―phrases.‖ They represent more specific
searches and more qualified traffic.
Write these keywords down for later use to be used in Chapter 11.
Now go to Google and search for each keyword and examine the top 10
and 20 search results. You will need the Google search bar for this part.
Go to http://toolbar.google.com and if you are using Mozilla Firefox you
can go here:
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application
=firefox&id=33&vid=34
While this is not guaranteed to work 100% of the time, it certainly works
magnificently with us and our clients. It has worked more often than not.
Look for pages in the top 10 first then look at the top 20 Google results
that have a page rank of four or less. Take note of these keywords.
Write to Inform - Now it�s time to get your blog working for you. First
take the keywords that have Google pages in the top 10 rankings which
also have a page rank of four or less. Then write blog posts that mention
these keywords. These are going to be high-niche phrases.
You need to specifically target these keywords as you write to inform
your audience. When you have very good niche keyword phrases that
also target the traffic and audience you seek, your blog will easily break
into the top rankings in these areas.
This isn�t as mechanical or formula-based as it may sound. The key is to
know your niche instinctively and know your keywords instinctively so
that writing with your keywords in mind is more natural and not as
deliberate.
But your blogs will rank you well for your primary keyword phrases –
when you work them.
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In the beginning, it may seem like it really is deliberate, but over time it
will be natural and organic if you take the time to understand your
market search traffic. Writing with your keywords in mind creates
relevancy for your blog. Your keywords will get picked up by the search
engines and in short time your blog content will begin to show up in the
search-engine results.
*Be sure to let us know when get top ranking for your
targeted keywords for your blog by sharing your results
on our blog, http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com in
the ―Blogging Classroom‖ category.
Blogs are viewed as authoritative sources of news and information. By
design they are text rich and with a light-weight coding that helps make
your blog content easier to search and index. Blogs do not carry a lot of
flash, Java, and extra HTML characters that tend to hinder efficient
crawling of your content by search-engine spider bots.
Blogs are highly favored by search engines. Publish content with your
keywords in mind and you will find yourself breaking into key positions
for your keywords. We�ve found that top-ranked pages for our keywords
with page ranks 4-5 and less have been easily outranked by our blog
content. We�ve done this several times.
Blogs make ranking high in the search engines very easy. Be natural
when you write your content and using your keywords because the
natural language does very well with Google natural search results.
You will begin ranking for other phrases related to your niche without
even thinking about it because of this natural, organic harmony between
how you write and how Google responds and picks up those phrases.
Blog content simply outperforms content
from standard Web sites.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
You are targeting these ―weak‖ keyword
phrases because you can easily obtain good
positions where pages in the search results
don�t have a lot of back links or very strong
page rank.
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Watch Your Stats - You want to watch your stats for two reasons.
1. You want to know which keywords and keyword phrases are
driving traffic to your blog.
What you are looking for are the keywords and phrases that are driving
traffic to your site that you didn�t specifically target.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
If you see recurring instances of this and the
phrases do fall within the scope of your
products or services, then you should
publish an article about the topic that those
phrases indicate as an area of interest.
This is a sign that people are looking for information that you could use
to pull more traffic to your site. Because blogs are instantly updated and
blogs are indexed frequently, you can rapidly respond to this kind of
traffic very quickly and drive it to your blog.
You can literally reach out and grab it! No basic Web site can do this for
you and this is by no means a small thing. We�ve learned more from
examining how our blog is being found then we ever learned from our
normal Web stats. This is simply because of the range and reach and real
time nature of blog content.
2. You want to know which sites are referring traffic to you.
You must, must, MUST monitor your stats for referrals. This is one key
way to know who is linking to you. Expect this soon with a blog because
blogs tend to link often to other blogs in their blog space. Just like we
inform you of the need to monitor your niche for market conversations,
other bloggers in your niche are doing the same thing as they participate.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Bloggers are generous promoters of great content.
Always on the hunt for something good to deliver to
their audience, they find information quickly and link
to it without haste. They want to deliver great
information. This is a part of the viral aspects of blogs.
Bloggers read other blogs in their areas of expertise.
They cross link to each frequently.
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This creates a rich linking infrastructure and a topically rich, focused
theme-based network of sites that Google likes. For example PR blogs
tend to read other PR blogs and link to good articles and information.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
This natural linking within the blog space
creates niches of themed content that pulls
search engines and traffic. If you start getting
links from blogs that have good rankings and
readership, your traffic can begin to grow
exponentially.
When you see these referrals, visit the blogs and see what is being said
about you. It would be good to also say ―hello‖ and ―thank you.‖
Participate.
Monitoring your stats helps you understand how your blog is progressing
through your niche. Are you pulling qualified traffic? Are you getting the
attention of other bloggers?
Watch your stats and be prepared to act.
Blogs are instant, rapid-response mechanisms. You can tell a lot by
watching how the Web responds to your blog content. One of the best
ways to monitor the effectiveness of your content and your keywords is to
monitor your blog stats.
You only need to start publishing content with your keywords in mind. In
a later section we will talk about getting indexed fairly quickly so that
you can begin to monitor your results.
It would also help to sign up with a service like BlogHarbor at
http://www.blogharbor.com because they provide some of the most
powerfully integrated blogs stats around today for a hosted service and
they are about to update their stats for even better analysis.
They provide reporting not only for unique hosts served and HTML
requests, but also your RSS feed requests, most popular articles, most
popular categories, daily stats, hourly stats and monthly stats for all the
above and more.
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Reaching Broader Audiences (Communication)
As a publishing tool, blogs allow you to reach out to a much broader
audience than you would otherwise be able to reach within your niche.
When you understand the Blog Ecosystem you will appreciate how
powerful blogs are transmitting your message to far-reaching audiences
who are interested and looking for what you have to offer.
You have to start with good communication. Your communication will be
your ―voice‖ as it is impressed upon your readers through your content.
You need to approach your blog with a clearly defined voice and one that
is both personal, collaborative, and yet, authoritative.
You know what you know, so write like you know it. Communicate who
you are and let your personality come through your blog. Don�t try to be
anonymous or clinical in your blogging discourse. Be inviting, be
personal and speak to your audience as if you are speaking to someone
one-on-one.
Invite reader feedback and participation and expect them to respond. The
key important point here is that your blog has to communicate in a clear
and definite voice. You don�t want to appear off topic or out of focus.
In order to bring great content that content must not only inform but it
must also communicate who you are personally.
Your communication or how the ―voice‖ of your content is interpreted by
your readers will be the vehicle that adds the most weight to your
credibility, authenticity, and authority.
Relating More Personally (Conversation)
So what�s the difference between communication and this section on
conversation?
The difference is that your communication represents the quality and
texture of your message and how it is delivered through a clear voice.
Your conversation is what allows you to establish relationships for longterm success. It is your actual discourse and discussion.
Let us explain what we mean here. It is important that you establish a
clear voice and ―communicate‖ your business authoritatively. We
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interpret communication as that level of getting attention for your
business, brand, or products.
Conversation is where you connect specifically at that personal level that
encourages your audience to enter into a relationship with you where
you are mutually conducting communication about your niche.
Now this may seem like semantics and to a degree it may be. We define
the line between the two because we think it is important that you keep
in mind that you can communicate, but to communicate effectively
through your blog, you mustould focus on a conversation with someone
as well.
This definitely helps us to focus on delivering value through our content
and helps us focus on delivering solutions for the needs of our audience.
We hope that you excuse our word play here and that it also helps you to
keep your audience in mind in a personal way as you publish.
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Check out these links to get more information on topics & resources
mentioned in this section, and take your learning to the next level:
Newsmasters:
http://myst-technology.com/mysmartchannels/public/item/51065
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/02/19/the_birth_of_the_newsm
aster.htm
BlogJet: http://blogjet.com/
WB Editor 2: http://www.wbeditor.com/
Bookmarklets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmarklet
Technorati: http://www.technorati.com
BlogDigger: http://www.blogdigger.com
Google: http://www.google.com
Topix.net: http://www.topix.net
PubSub: http://www.pubsub.com
GoodKeywords: http://www.goodkeywords.com
WordTracker: http://www.wordtracker.com
BlogHarbor: http://www.blogharbor.com
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Success or failure is often determined
on the drawing board.
~ Robert J. McKain
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Be an opener of doors…
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
8. Introduction to Blog Marketing and Promotion
Blogs Do It Better
It starts at home. When your house is in order everything happens in a
matter of time. By using the word ‗home� we are referring to your blog as
the starting point from which all your other efforts flow. Your blog is your
starting point for generating traffic and the quality of your blog will
determine how well you can sustain your traffic.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
A blog is a natural SEO tool but you have to make
it work for you. If you don�t like writing, checking
e-mail, sitting at your computer for extended
periods of time, or doing Internet searches, then
you may want to consider outsourcing your blog
activity.
Blogs are not cash registers or mass page generators or keyword spam
tools. They are actually quite elegant as conversational media tools. They
work hand-in-hand so well with organic search you won�t believe it until
you see it.
Blogs get your message out better than any other publishing tool on the
Internet at the moment. When you leverage a tightly focused and topical
message with your blog, you will reap the rewards of your labor.
Let's start with getting your house in order.
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Successful blog promotion always starts with a solid blog that has a
definite purpose and provides good content. So let�s cover the
foundations for blog promotion.
Content is King. You have to ―master
your message.‖ Feed the need of your
audience and feed your audience
frequently. You must publish content
frequently for three important reasons.
Your content must be relevant and of high value for your audience.
Whether you want to humor them, get them to think, get them to cuss,
show them how to do something, or point them to useful resources –
keep asking yourself this question about your audience as you prepare to
write your content, ―What do they want?‖ Think of the needs of your
audience and target what you are writing to satisfy that need.
This is especially important if you are planning to generate sales from
your blog. You have to become a trusted, credible source of information
before people will try your product. Blogs do this very well by allowing
you to ―experience connection and conversation through content.‖
Without great content you cannot fully realize and leverage the power of
your blog.
Fortunately, this isn�t hard to do.
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Coaching Tips on the do’s and don’ts
of generating good content:
Do:
1. Do publish often.
2. Do publish meaningful, high-value and
focused content.
3. Do be yourself. You can personable
without revealing private information.
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Keep your posts topically focused and relevant to the theme of your
blog.
Keep your posts interesting, authoritative, opinionated or
humorous. Inject yourself into your writing and be authentic.
Be prepared to create content and regular amounts of it.
Do NOT:
1. Do not publish infrequently.
2. Do not criticize others without
supporting facts and reference to those
facts.
2. Do not criticize in a mean spirit. Keep
it objective and never personal.
Blog Often. We talked about this being important for publishing
effectively but it is also important to blog often for effective blog
promotion. For this reason, blogs gets crawled more frequently, indexed
much faster, and updated much more quickly. Your content then gets
more visibility.
But here�s the thing …
This will not happen for you if you don�t keep the search engines happy
with fresh, relevant, accurate, and topical content.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
The search engine spiders will literally
adjust the number of visits to your blog
based on how frequently you update.
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If search-engine spiders notice your content isn�t freshened often, then
they will slow down the frequency of visits a bit. If you publish more
frequently, the search-engine spiders will visit your content more
frequently.
Three big reasons to publish frequently:
1. Frequent updates mean frequent crawling and faster indexing
by Google.
2. Frequent updates mean frequently returning traffic.
3. Frequent updates encourage RSS subscribers.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Ping! Ping! Ping! We believe in pings and we
go the extra mile to ping by not just relying
solely on blog-software pings. Blog software
pings other update servers like Weblogs.com
to announce your content updates.
You may recall that we discussed this in the section of blog software.
Search engines like Google and RSS/Blog directories like Technorati,
BlogDigger and PubSub check these update-servers for the latest content
updates.
Your blog software will normally and automatically ping
http://www.weblogs.com and http://www.blo.gs by default. You may
need to turn this on, so check with your blog software for instructions.
When you turn ping ―on,‖ it works in the background. Every time you
publish content it will automatically send ping updates.
A companion tool that is a must-use is Ping-O-Matic. Ping-O-Matic allows
you to enter the title and RSS feed URL of your blog. It will ping a larger
group of major ping update-servers all at once. A very nice tool! It�s a
manual process but well worth it.
These are the basics necessary to prepare for blog promotional success.
You have to publish regularly, publish frequently, and publish great
content for your audience and make sure your blog sends out live
notification when you publish content updates.
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Planning for Blog Promotional Success
Blogs are not the holy grail of Internet success nor are they a guarantee
of online marketing success. Your blog will only be as good as the quality
of your mission, your message, and your momentum.
Developing your mission, message, and momentum is the foundation for
blog promotional success. What follows are three simple promotion
principles to remember as you get underway with your promotion and
marketing activities.
Your Mission - What is your mission for your blog? What is your intent?
You must have a clearly defined intent for your blog so that you can
know what your returns are going to be for measuring success.
Blogs are NOT a direct-sales marketing tool. Please understand this. If
you get this wrong then nothing else will go right with your blog. Blogs
are a relationship tool.
No matter what intent you decide for your blog it must account for the
dynamics of the medium and that means understanding the tolerances
of blogs.
Let us explain. When deciding intent, ask yourself the following
questions:
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
пЃ±
Do I want to rank high in the search engines?
Do I want to reach out to current customers?
Do I want to establish my expertise?
Do I want to improve public relations for my
business?
Do I want to do perform lead generation for a
product or service?
Do I want to re-purpose my e-mail newsletter?
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Simple Blog Promotion Principle #1
No matter what your intent, your mission must always come back to a
message that fosters relationship in your market, with your market.
Your Message - Your message will be the type of content you deliver with
your blog and how it is associated with your blog. What will your content
say about you? What will your content say to your market? When you
develop your message it needs to be delivered in a personal voice.
Blogs are a relationship medium and your personality must come
through in a way that allows your audience to connect with you and
identify with you. This is extremely beneficial for businesses that have
many employees. Blogs make business more personal.
The ‗message� is where your mission lives. Remember it�s about
relationships, so deliver a personal and informative message.
Your message must do three things to make your blog successful.
1. Your message must deliver information that is useful.
2. Your message must build reputation that can be trusted.
3. Your message must deliver communication that others can
connect with.
Information, reputation, and communication are the foundations for
successful blog promotion.
If your information isn�t relevant then you won�t pull and attract the right
traffic. Your reputation cannot mature if your blog has a hard time being
a source of quality information and lastly, you cannot communicate and
connect with an audience that doesn�t appear because of a lack of
information and reputation.
When your message delivers information that others are looking for, it
will bring the traffic to you. Blogs are very, very good at this. The SEO
aspects of blogs are very powerful, yet highly understated.
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As your content delivers good information, and the other bloggers begin
to pass your message along to others, your reputation as a good
information source begins to build. This increases traffic because your
reputation will precede you. Others will think of you for certain topics
and the great posts you made. They will link to you and your traffic will
grow.
Your communication, when clearly defined and personally connected
with your audience, will result in repeat visits. You will be a fully trusted
source of information worth visiting again and again.
Remember this:
Simple Blog Promotion Principle #2
Great information brings traffic.
Reputation increases traffic.
Communication returns traffic.
Your Momentum - Your momentum makes all the difference. It is the
final success principle for getting started with successful blog promotion.
Blogs are a commitment. When you blog you are committing to your
market. You are committing to developing a dialog that keeps your
market interested in you and what your business has to offer.
As a social tool you must nurture your relationships and that means
keeping a continuously active dialogue going in your markets. You have
to continually reach out to them and you must continually be responsive
to their needs.
Failing to do so means you risk the credibility of your presence and the
integrity of your efforts. Developing partnerships, friendships, and
relationships takes time and requires an investment of your time. Beware
of this expectation before venturing in.
Simple Blog Promotion Principle #3
If you cannot keep it up,
then you may as well pack it up before you ever start.
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Myths and Misnomers
MYTH #1:
Blogs are direct-marketing tools. Blogs are not directing-marketing tools.
Blogs are social networking tools with the emphasis on social. To deliver
an effective marketing message with a blog, it must first be socialized
through relationship. A direct-marketing message will most likely be
ignored and turn people away.
People want to trust you before they buy from you. As a marketer you
must think differently about how you deliver a message with your blog.
Deliver value first before you ask for the sale. Avoid direct sales
messages.
MYTH #2:
Blogs are Web-based e-mail. Blogs are not Web-based e-mail. You cannot
broadcast a sales piece with your blog and expect people to respond.
Again, this goes back to direct-marketing messages. You must connect
and inform. Blogs offer consumers the highest level of choice that e-mail
doesn�t quite offer. Consumers have the ability to choose you or not
choose you. It is totally out of your control.
Even with opt-in e-mail, you can broadcast to someone anything you
want at any time. Your audience is more captive to you than you are to
them. Blogs require that you appeal more personally to the needs of your
audience with the intent of getting them to return and connect with you
personally.
The result is a higher quality of relationship when your audience is
expecting good information from you and responding to you more actively
and in real time. This is much, much different than e-mail and the rules
are much different.
MYTH #3:
Blogs Are Profitable. This is somewhat tricky. YES! Blogs are profitable.
But not to the tune of thousands of dollars overnight! Put your blog to
work by working your blog and you will see magnificent returns and
rewards. Don�t believe the hype and be realistic.
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MYTH #4:
Blogs Are Instant SEO Tools. Blogs can get indexed very, very quickly.
Indexed instantly? Well, that depends on who you ask. We don�t worry
about such things. Search engines like blogs – A LOT! Your content will
get indexed quickly when you publish properly (we�ll talk about that
later).
MYTH #5:
Blogs Are Online Journals. Not anymore! Let me repeat that: Not
anymore!
In the past, blogs were used for personal writing and publishing, but not
any more. The power and influence of blogs have been adopted by
businesses and marketers and blogs are so much more than online
journals now. They are multilateral in their communication of ideas; they
are collaborative; and they are authoritative and highly influential.
People are using blogs for more than just personal musings and navel
gazing. They are influencing mainstream media and impacting markets
like no other Internet communication tools ever have up to this point.
Blogs are powerful personal publishing tools; but they just aren�t for
journaling anymore.
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ACTION STEPS for today:
MEMORIZE THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES
(highlighted in this chapter).
Simple Blog Promotion Principle #1
No matter what your intent,
your mission must always come back
to a message that fosters relationships
in your market, and with your market.
Simple Blog Promotion Principle #2
Great information brings traffic.
Reputation increases traffic.
Communication returns traffic.
Simple Blog Promotion Principle #3
If you cannot keep it up
then you may as well pack it up
before you ever start.
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Check out these links to get more information on topics and
resources mentioned in this section, and take your learning to the
next level:
Weblogs: http://www.weblogs.com
Blogs: http://www.blo.gs
Ping-O-Matic: http://pingomatic.com
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Let no one be deluded into thinking
that a knowledge of the path
can ever substitute for
putting one foot in front of the other.
~ Mary Caroline Richards
9. Pings, Traffic Generation and Spam Warnings
Pings the Thing, the Blog Ecosystem
To appreciate the power of the tool you have at your disposal, you need
to understand how blogs work under the covers.
Using business metaphors, there are what we like to call, front-office
factors of blogs and back-office factors of blogs.
This is a good way to logically split functionality and focus clearly on the
activities that will allow you to promote your blog successfully.
Understanding the communications network of blogs will help you put
your mind at ease about your ability to publish a blog that gets attention.
Front-Office Factors - The front office factors are the blog optimization
activities you need to perform before getting into action. By configuring
and using these elements of your blog appropriately, you can have your
blog working much more efficiently and effectively for you in your blog
promotion activities.
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Here are the things you need to consider and configure:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Blog title and description
Post titles
Categories
Archives
Comments
Make sure your blog title and description contains a descriptive name that
appeals to your niche market and that it contains your keywords for that
added relevancy in the search engines. You want it to create some
curiosity or interest from someone reading it.
If you already have a blog that doesn�t conform to this suggestion then
don�t worry. Blogs are awesome and you can skip over this with simply
fantastic content.
Post titles are to contain keywords whenever possible. Sometimes your
keywords cannot fit naturally in a post title. In those cases, we tend to
use the keyword blatantly in the title of the post and then a dash and the
full title afterwards.
For example: Podcasting – How to Publish Internet Audio Shows
Categories are always, always, always named according to keywords.
This really adds a high level of relevancy to your blog. Plus, it creates
natural divisions of your content for visitors to your site. This allows
people to use portions of your blog that are important to them without
having to search your entire blog. This encourages repeat use and repeat
visits. When you make it easy for your audience you strengthen your
connection with them.
Archives are important. Use them. Use daily archives if you are
publishing several posts a day and use weekly archives if you are
publishing several times a week. Archives serve as an historical reference
to previous articles, create individual pages so that each post can be
positioned as a single topical page to the search engines, and lastly,
archives allow you to create a fantastic article history that is rich in
keywords and brings traffic to you, over and over and over again.
Make sure that comments are turned on and allowed. This promotes
personal conversation and connection. You are saying to your audience
that you are accessible and approachable. Also, remember to comment
and contribute to other blogs.
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Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
When you comment, add a link as you sign
your comment and include the keyword or
phrase you want to rank for in the search
engines. Do this on a blog with good page
rank and good traffic, and Google will find
you quickly and you will get referral traffic.
Spam Warning
DO NOT COMMENT SPAM! Commenting works best when you genuinely
contribute content through your comments. If you post something like
―oh, that�s interesting‖ — let�s be realistic, anyone will see that as a
shallow post that is self-serving.
Some blogs won�t allow any self-promotion, so observe the comments of
others and determine the rules for comments. If in doubt, just e-mail the
publisher for clarity.
You don�t even have to focus on link exchanges and links swaps as much
when you are starting out. Linking is a natural by-product of blogging. If
you publish great content, you won�t have to ask for links, they will find
you and you will get linked naturally.
Naming your blog and labeling the natural features of your blog with
your keywords creates natural optimization for the search engines. When
your blog content is topical, themed-based, and focused, and is keyword
optimized for high rankings, you position yourself for a winning blog.
The wonderful thing about blogs is that your categories, archives and
links are all managed automatically by your blog. You only need to really
focus on developing good content that ranks high for relevancy and
addresses a demand in your niche. Your blog will naturally cooperate
and supercharge your content.
Blogs are designed to publish, link, and share information
naturally and instantly.
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The mechanics of blog publishing as a source of frequently updated
information makes them magnets for the search engines. Blogs are
natural promoters of themselves when you work with them naturally.
Following these tips will allow your blog to work for you easily. Do your
research before you start your blog and if you already started a blog,
know your niche before you publish that next post.
Once you know your niche and your keywords, it will flow naturally and
you will be able to weave keyword optimization into almost any post you
write. Also note that you don�t have to have a certain keyword density.
Just write and publish but do mention your keywords intentionally and
you will do just fine.
Back-Office Factors - The back-office factors are related to how your
blog is driving your message into the blog space and getting visibility.
Here are the things you need to consider and configure:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Pings
TrackBack
RSS Feeds
Blog and RSS Directories
Permalinks
Pings, as you recall, are little messages that are sent from one computer
to another on the Internet. On computer networks, pings are data
packets that you send from one network address to another network
address to see if a given computer can be reached or communicated with
on that network.
Again, blogs use pings to send update notices to other servers when you
have published something new. It�s like telling everyone, ―Hey, we just
published some new information. Come check it out.‖
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Here�s how it works and why blogs can get
you in the search engines so quickly. When
you use services like BlogHarbor
(http://www.blogharbor.com ) or TypePad
(http://www.typepad.com ), they
automatically ping update-services or
aggregation servers like http://www.blo.gs or
http://www.weblogs.com.
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If you visit each one of these sites you will see a simple list of blogs that
we�ve been updating.
We�ve been there after we�ve pinged them and did a search and found our
blog. Cool stuff. Anyway, your blog pings these services and a URL entry
to your blog is made.
Here�s the good part …
These blogs or update servers are hunting grounds for GoogleBot. Google
searches these blogs, constantly visiting the links to fresh new content.
GoogleBot and other bots will find your content quickly and easily
through ping updates.
But that�s not all. Go to Ping-O-Matic at http://pingomatic.com and they
will allow you to ping multiple blog and RSS directories. Why is this
important?
You Get TRAFFIC!
You are telling all of these services that you have updated your content.
They will all send bots to check you out and take your content back to
their directories where they begin to enter your fresh content into their
indexes.
No longer does Google index your content within weeks and months.
Your content is indexed within hours to days. You can expect search bots
to start visiting your content within minutes of notification. This is
outstanding! The Web has literally speeded up and only blogs can keep
up. Now you understand why a normal, static Web site cannot perform
as well as a blog.
TrackBack is very cool. We�ve mentioned TrackBack often and it is a very
necessary and powerful component of blogging. Again, it is like a ping
but it is a special ping. Instead of sending notice to a blog directory or
aggregation server like blo.gs or weblogs.com, TrackBack sends a ping to
another blog. When it pings the other blog it writes information to that
other blog about what you are writing on your blog.
Let us explain further. Suppose we found a great blog with a blog post
about ―tuning RC cars.‖ We have a blog about RC cars and we want to
write about this topic and also reference and maybe quote some
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information from the other blog. Well, in the world of blogs this is
perfectly acceptable as long as you give credit and mention the article
you are borrowing from or the article you are just mentioning.
Here is how it works.
Another business blogging secret revealed!
Most blog-software applications have a TrackBack feature that creates a
TrackBack URL for every post you publish.
We visit the blog and look specifically for the TrackBack URL for the
―tuning RC cars‖ post. It is usually located towards the end of a blog post
and just above the comments field of most blogs.
We then copy that URL and we go back to our blog. Now, before we push
the button to publish our blog there is normally a field, window, or box
that says something like ―TrackBack URLs‖ or something to that effect.
This differs from blog software to blog software but TrackBack works the
same in all cases.
We then enter that TrackBack URL into the required field. Once we
publish our article, our blog will send a TrackBack ping to the other blog
site. What TrackBack then does is write the title of our article with an
excerpt from the post we just published into the comments section of the
article on the other blog about ―tuning RC cars.‖
This is incredible! This means that you can create natural back links to
your own blog by simply using TrackBack.
Now there is etiquette for you to keep in mind. Only TrackBack related
posts where you want to notify the other blog that you are talking about
something they wrote. Do make your post relevant and actually mention
the blog article in your post by either referencing or quote from it in some
way.
This builds traffic and works powerfully when you TrackBack a wellranked blog with good traffic. Be judicious and kind. If you TrackBack
spam, that is, to TrackBack to try and build lots of incoming links, you
will pay the price. You will get negative promotion from others and you
will have tons of sites removing your link and blocking your IP address.
We had someone just today actually TrackBack our blog, but they added
nothing relevant in the TrackBack and only wanted to boost their own
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site. We removed the TrackBack because it did not add value to us or our
audience reading through our comments section.
Figure 13 TrackBack Example
In Figure 1, you see an example of TrackBacks to one of our blogs. These
are references by two other excellent bloggers who were mentioning a
post we made. They TrackBacked our post and, as you can see, we have
the title of their post, the name of their blog (from where the TrackBack
came from) and an excerpt from the post they made.
Clicking the linked title will take you to their blog.
Anyone who reads the comments section of this article will see that. If
they click the link then the other blog gets a visitor. So you see how
powerful that is for you when you TrackBack other blogs and they
TrackBack you. It is a natural traffic exchange and the powerful thing is
that it isn�t forced and the TrackBacks are normally very topically related
which increases the relevancy of your blog and the power of the link.
RSS feeds allow you to broadcast your content whereas your blog allows
you to publish your content. RSS which stands for Really Simple
Syndication or Sharing is a simple text file that keeps track of the
changes you make to your blog.
When you publish a new post to your blog, your RSS feed is also updated
with that new information. Your RSS feed keeps running lists of your
blog posts and links to your blog posts.
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Here is an example:
Figure 14 RSS Sample From PC Magazine
Figure 2 shows the raw RSS file for a RSS feed from PCMag.com.
You don�t have to worry about this under the hood code but we wanted
to point out the structures for you. You will see a <channel> tag along
with the <title> and <description> tag. This information describes your
RSS feed. What follows if you skip down a bit is that <item> tag. Each
<item> tag corresponds to a blog post you made to your blog.
That means when you publish a post, the title of your post is recording
with a <title></title> tag around a <description></description> tag
surrounding an excerpt from the first part of your blog post and the
<link></link> tag contains the URL to the specific blog post. Your RSS
Feed is the link to this file and includes the file itself.
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For example the RSS link for How to Blog for Fun and Profit is:
http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog/index.xml
Your RSS feed can be submitted to directories such as BlogDigger and
http://www.blogdigger.com and Feedster at http://www.feedster.com.
These directories will visit your feed and discover your content and index
your blog.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Google more actively visits blogs and sites
with feeds it can detect because Google
views RSS feeds as authoritative sources
of good news and information.
RSS feed are mostly pure text and easy to crawl and index just like blogs
are. Now imagine your RSS feed with keyword-relevant content and
LINKS BACK TO YOUR BLOG in directories and search engines.
You have created an opportunity for exponential growth in the exposure
your blog content can get. Your content will be found in many more
places than you could have imagined. Plus, all the content in your RSS
feed links back to you.
You drive all traffic back to your blog. Your blog software automatically
updates and publishes a fresh feed each time you update your blog
content. Check with your blog-software maker to determine if you need
to configure a setting to turn on your RSS feed or not.
Blog and RSS Directories can broadcast your content via your RSS feed
far better than you ever can. Submitting your blog to search directories is
important.
Submitting to blog and RSS directories serves to initially announce your
blog. They are also sources for links, traffic, and subscribers. People
search various directories looking for content to subscribe to using their
RSS news aggregators. Some people search various directories looking for
content to syndicate on their Web sites. Some people search these
directories for new blogs to visit and lastly you can get links from the
directories themselves.
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It is all about getting traffic and links back to your blog. Directories are a
good start for your new blog. It is a fantastic way to promote your
content.
However you don�t have to submit to every possible directory available.
The more exposure you get the better, of course, but we don�t want you
to think that you need to submit to every known directory first in order
to have good success with promoting your blog.
Business Blogging Secrets Revealed!
Here are the popular directories for you to submit to. In the Cool Tools
section we will share with you a tool that will help automate your sitesubmission activity.
Popular Directories to Submit Your Site
Feedster
http://www.feedster.com
* My Yahoo
http://my.yahoo.com
BlogDigger
http://www.blogdigger.com
Blogdex
http://www.blogdex.com
CompleteRSS
http://completeRSS.com
2RSS.com
http://www.2rss.com
DayPop
http://www.daypop.com
Of particular interest among this group of directories is My Yahoo!
My Yahoo recently switched to an RSS feed, focused-news delivery
portal system.
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They have an RSS search directory with over 300,000 RSS feeds
and growing. They are moving RSS to the mainstream and they are
encouraging their users to use the RSS feeds in the My Yahoo
directory for news and information.
Now, let�s share why this piece of information is so important, and why
you must register with My Yahoo!
Business Blogging Secrets Revealed!
Register for a My Yahoo account today. (It�s
free as of this writing.) Then you need to add
your own RSS feed to your news page.
This will cause Yahoo to almost instantly go
out and find your blog via your RSS feed and
begin to crawl and index your blog. Your feed
will be automatically included into the Yahoo
RSS Search directory.
This one secret just saved you $300.00!
Meanwhile, your competitors will unknowingly
pay this fee, while they ―hope‖ to get listed, all
because they simply ―don�t know any better.‖
Permalinks are a direct result of blogs. Permalinks were created as a
way to reference a specific post within a blog. A blog post when
published by date and time would be located among many other posts
published by date and time.
Without permalinks there would not be a way to reference a specific post.
You would have to link to the main blog URL and hope that you could
find the specific post you wanted to reference.
A blog post once published eventually rolls off the front page of your blog
and out of view to visitors because of the reverse chronological order of
posts listed by date and time. All posts eventually become archived posts
as newer content is published. Permalinks allow you to link permanently
to another blog post, specifically.
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Permalinks are an extremely viral
component of blogs and a powerful blogpromotion strategy. Other blogs using your
permalinks provide a permanent reference
to your blog and blog post.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Unlike static Web pages that tend to deliver
the 404 error more often than you would
like, blog posts by nature never change or
go away.
Permalinks drive traffic and visibility to your blog.
Permalinks are another natural blog-promotion
characteristic and are the major basis for referencing
and sharing content among blogs.
Pinging is one of the most powerful ways to promote you blog. It alerts an
important part of the blog ecosystem about your content updates; that is,
the search bots that scour the blog space looking for fresh content. These
LIVE updates are what make blogs very special tools for promoting
content and driving your message into your niche.
Pings and TrackBack send live notification and create a response to your
blog that promotes your blog naturally and requires very little effort on
your part aside from publishing.
Pings get blogs and searches engines to your blog in short order without
you having to reach out to them and TrackBacks notify other publishers
that you are linking to them and talking about them. This creates a traffic
exchange between your blog and theirs. This is a lane the search-engine
bots use and search-engine traffic uses. You create lots of incoming,
legitimate back links with TrackBack — naturally. This is an awesome
tool!
Use it wisely and you will reap significant rewards for your blog. You will
get certain visibility and traffic to your blog will little fanfare or fancy
tactics. Help your blog do what it does naturally and you will succeed.
RSS feeds, RSS and blog directories, along with permanlinks are all
features that extend the reach of your message, expose you to wider
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audiences, drive traffic back to your blog and create a means for traffic to
continuously find you time and time again.
Blogs are powerful!
Make sure your blog is configured to ping weblogs.com and blo.gs for
update notification.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
When you publish an article or post to your blog also use Ping-O-Matic
at http://www.pingomatic.com to notify several more services about your
updates. Once you make this a part of your regular blog updates it will
not seem like as much of a chore. It is an added step but a valuable step.
Eventually, you will get such good traffic from the search engines and
links referrals from others that you won�t need to ping as much with
ping-o-matic if you don�t want to. Most of these services will visit you at
regular intervals as long as you publish at regular intervals.
Understand that your RSS feed is only as good as the content you
publish on your blog. When your blog post-titles and main content are
informative and contain your keywords for search engine traffic, you
move your powerful content from just being on your blog to being
available almost everywhere an RSS feed can be searched, found and
used.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Your RSS feed becomes a powerful, keywordoptimized traffic-generating tool that works
constantly at driving traffic back to your blog.
You are essentially able to market and
promote far beyond your blog�s front office.
Submit your RSS feed to the listed directories in this guide and make
sure you are aware and understand the power of your permalinks. They
serve as powerful, permanent, traffic referrers and exchanges.
Bloggers are passionate newsmasters that link often. Your permalinks
will serve you well. They are what has become a part of the natural
promotion characteristics of blogs.
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Automated Pinging With Your Blog
Blog software sends out ping update-notifications for when you publish
new content. BlogHarbor pings several services automatically so that is
already configured for you.
Other blog-software applications allow you to configure which services to
send notifications to.
There is a powerful tool for you to use to send updated notification to
several major content directories and services. This tool is called Ping-OMatic and is located at http://pingomatic.com
A ping is a packet of information that your blog software sends out
across the Internet, carrying a message about the content updates you
make. Any time you publish something new on your blog that is
considered a content update, use Ping-O-Matic to notify services of your
updates.
This is critically important because many of the services have their own
programs (or spiders) that come to your blog and take your content back
to their directories where you can be found in searches. Some servers
like http://www.weblogs.com and http://blog.gs just aggregate content
in the form of lists of links to updated content. These services are
extremely useful because people search these servers for content but also
Google crawls them also and can find you through these updates. This
means your content can get into Google very quickly.
There are other services like Technorati at http://www.technorati.com
and BlogDigger at http://www.blogdigger.com which are search
directories that people use to find content to subscribe to and syndicate
on their Web sites. What is extremely exciting here is that these services
come out once they get your ping update and take your content back. In
mere minutes your content will start showing up in their search results.
It is really exciting stuff!
Keep in mind that this activity is about getting your blog and your
content discovered. Live updates are a natural way that blogs work and
are one reason why blogs are so much better than regular Web sites.
Using the Ping-O-Matic tool (see Figure 3) you provide your Blog URL or
RSS URL, check the services you want to send notification to and press
the Submit Pings button.
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NOTE: WordPress is automatically set to notify Ping-O-Matic every time
you publish a new post. In the administration panel for WordPress, you
can manually enter additional blog-pinging services outside of those
updated by Ping-O-Matic. Please refer to the WordPress administrationpanel orientation videos that are included in level 202 of the How to
Master Business Blogging Course.
Figure 15 Ping-O-Matic Update Notification Tool
The next step in getting your blog noticed is to submit your blog and RSS
feed to blog and RSS directories. This is similar to ping updates, but ping
updates serve to give notice of content updates as you make them and
ping updates are a regular part of your blogging activity.
By submitting your blog and RSS feed to various directories, you are
introducing your blog to the various directories for indexing, links, and
traffic and RSS subscriptions.
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Submitting your blog to a directory is normally a one-time event and
gives you more opportunities to get links and traffic.
You can use RSS Submit mentioned in the “cool tools” section to
automate your directory submissions.
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Links to more information on topics & resources mentioned in this
section:
BlogDigger: http://www.blogdigger.com
Feedster: http://www.feedster.com
Ping-O-Matic: http://pingomatic.com
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Opportunity rarely knocks on your door.
Knock rather on opportunity’s door
if you ardently wish to enter.
~ B.C. Forbes
10. How to Guarantee Blog Promotional Success
AUDIO ALERT!
The information in this
chapter corresponds
with and is expanded on
in the audio CDs for
level 404 of the
multimedia course.
To guarantee blog promotional success you must first embrace the
following strategies:
Understand the natural promotional characteristics of
blogs and the blogosphere.
This is based on our own observations and the rich results we have seen
from our experience in the blogosphere. Others may have their personal
methods and approaches but this one is our favorite. This one works so
powerfully because it is the most natural form of blogging and serves the
blogosphere with the most value – but it takes the most work.
When you focus on amplifying the natural promotion properties and
characteristics of blogs you have to focus on great content, communication
and conversation within the blogosphere.
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This is the quickest way to blog-promotion success. Serve the people.
Gimmicks come and go. Hype comes and goes. We wonder how many
people abandoned their blogs only because they didn�t have the proper
expectation set before they got started. Were they promised instant
riches and uncontrollable traffic?
You have to consistently work with your blog. Help it help you
communicate into your blog space effectively.
The upfront investment is worth it. Once you get your momentum, the
blogosphere will take care of you and your blog. You will open up
channels of communication to your audience and partners and build
friendships you never thought possible.
As a collective, the viral nature of blogs for multiplying ideas at
astounding speed and the social nature of blogs for building powerful
and mutually beneficial networks of information serve to promote your
blog at a pace and rate you and an army of people could never hope to
achieve in quick fashion.
Anything, other than the true adoption of
your blog by your audience and your
peers, serves as a short-sighted attempt at
gaining the same level of exposure that, in
the long run, can only be obtained by
building on the fundamental social aspects
of blogging.
Once the blogosphere adopts your content and begins the viral expansion
of your content, communication, and conversation you�ll realize how the
natural promotion characteristics of your blog are hard at work for you.
Once you start getting links and references and traffic from places that you
didn’t seek out or promote your blog directly to, you�ll realize how the
natural promotion characteristics of your blog are working hard for you.
Some people want blogs to be easy. While blogs aren�t exactly hard, they
do require work and commitment – especially if your goal is to gain the
marketplace advantage.
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Understanding the Organic Search Properties of Blogs
Natural Traffic Pull
Your blog will rank you by the way you write. The search engines will
only index what you publish. You must know your niche, know your
keywords and publish information that informs your market niche and
answers their need.
When your blog comes up in the search results for your keywords, make
sure your blog content delivers the solution. When you target your
keywords, avoid the fluff and deliver value.
Your blog will simply pull in traffic from many places you hadn�t even
thought about. Sometimes there will be opportunities that were within
your own content all the time, but you just didn�t see what the search
engines saw when someone typed in a natural search phrase that just
happened to be in your content.
When you see this happening for keyword phrases on a regular basis, it
means there is a possible opportunity worth exploring. Blogs have a way
of highlighting little nuggets of opportunities like that because of how
powerful organic indexing works.
You don�t have to work hard at trying to manipulate the process. You
simply have to work at developing great content. Anything more than
that is mechanical and distracting and detracts from the blogging
process.
Establishing Your Commitment and Setting Expectations
Your commitment and expectations will set the tone for how well you do.
The real truth is that you may not see a traffic rush or a readership
explosion for your content right at first.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
You�ll need to take a long term view and
understand that you are building
relationships that need time to mature and
grow before they can be mutually beneficial.
Don�t expect to retire in the first week of
opening your blog. And, don�t expect to
magically become famous just because you
publish a blog.
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You must plan your blog program carefully and thoughtfully. Consider
the commitment of time and resources it will take in order for you to
benefit from the fantastic return on your efforts.
What is Search-Engine Marketing?
A well-written and tightly-focused blog will create a traffic bonanza of
high-quality visitors. Blogs are generally tightly focused on a topic and
several related topics.
Search-engine marketing is simply getting a high enough ranking in the
search engines for your keywords so that your content will generate
visitors to your site from search-engine-results pages (SERPs).
Compelling site and content titles and descriptions help motivate users
to click on your links in the search-engine-results pages (SERPs) and
visit your blog.
Search-engine marketing requires a search-engine-optimized Web site.
This is a Web site that displays a configuration that makes it very
attractive to search-engine spiders. The spiders will visit your site and
visit your content. When they do this, they pick up your keywords and
determine what your page is about. That content goes back to the search
engines and gets indexed.
When people type in the keywords you are using, your pages will show
up in the search results. The idea is to get your pages ranked high
enough to get traffic to your site.
It is far better to be in the top results that come up instead of the bottom
results. For example, showing up in positions 1 through 30 is much
better than being positioned at 800 to 1000 in Google.
Why Blogs Enhance Search-Engine Marketing
In the past, only the big media and news sites carried frequently updated
content in the form of breaking news headlines and content. The search
engines would pound away at these sites because they were designated
as sources for the freshest content to be found on the Internet.
Now blogs are creating millions of mini-news sites or micro-content hubs
with rich information and links. Bloggers update their content frequently
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with all types of late-breaking information. Blogs have outpaced
mainstream media outlets in their ability to get information out to the
masses faster.
Search engines specifically target blogs as another huge source of high
value, fresh and highly relevant information and they want it as fast as
you can publish it.
The more frequently you publish the more
visits you will get from Google, Yahoo! and
other search engines.
A common theme, right?
Here is what you need to realize about your blog relationship with search
engines.
Blogs are search-engine magnets. Blogs get crawled often and deeply
by search-engine spiders. This means that you get your content indexed
by Google in mere hours and days rather than weeks and months.
You no longer need to go to Google or Yahoo!, submit your site, and then
wait for two-to-three months before you start to see yourself showing up
among the rankings. Nope – that�s old school.
Can you guess what business the search engines are in?
They are in the business of delivering the most accurate and relevant
information as possible in their search results. They know that if they
don�t deliver relevant content in their search results, users will stop
using them and start using a different search engine.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
As far as the search engines are
concerned, YOU are THEIR customer.
They want to deliver a quality product to
you. Their product is ―relevant search
results.‖
Blogs are new sources of quality content and because blogs are updated
frequently (or should be!); the search-engine spiders literally are
programmed to visit your blog based on how often you publish fresh
content on your blog.
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Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
You can accelerate or ramp up the spider
algorithm as you blog frequently and
regularly.
Think of the algorithm as the program logic
that helps the spider determine how often it
will visit your blog. You can improve your
chances for good rankings by simply
publishing more content, more often!
This is why if you are simply using a regular Web site, you may be at a
certain disadvantage in the search-engines rankings game.
A regular Web site that is not published frequently simply cannot keep
up or catch up with blog content that ranks easily and quickly for
search-engine results pages.
Blogs are natural search-engine-optimization tools. The search engines
are prepared to read your content often and take it back for indexing and
ranking.
FAIR WARNING!
If you have a product, a service, or any marketing skill or knowledge and
you don�t have a blog, you are missing the boat.
Once you get your content ranked high, you can market your message.
You now have visibility for your target audience. Whether toys, clothes,
or cars, your blog content needs to contain the keywords your target
audience is using in their search efforts. Your keywords are those words
that your customer or prospect has in mind when they are searching for
something you have to offer.
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How Blogs Rank Well in Search-Engine Results
Blogs rank well for several good reasons.
1. Blogs, by their very design, meet the current requirements for search
engines and search traffic. Search engines need to deliver the latest
information accurately and search-engine traffic wants the most accurate
information right now. Blogs are highly relevant in their niches and, at
this pointing time, are the best sources online for the most up-to-date
information.
2. Blogs can be naturally keyword optimized for even greater appeal to
search engines. By using your keywords judiciously through your blog
design and blog content, you can easily rank those keywords in the
search engines without gimmicks or search-engine tricks. You literally
begin to ―rank as your write.‖
3. Blogs are text-rich publishing tools.
WARNING:
GEEK ALERT!
The following information is for
programmers and technicians only.
What do we mean by text rich? Blogs use light-weight code in comparison
to regular Web sites. Blogs are styled and formatted with cascading style
sheets and, for the most part, PHP with moderate use of HTML. There are
some variations in underlying code depending on the blog software you
use. The point is that blogs do not contain lots of extra and poorly
formatted HTML code, or lots of JavaScript and images. Blogs are designed
to share code and components behind the scenes so that your design
doesn�t get in the way of your content.
This makes your content much more visible to the search engines. The
search-engine spiders that visit your blogs frequently can also crawl your
content faster and see your content with greater clarity. This makes for
easy interpretation of what your blog is talking about. Lots of JavaScript,
flash animations and over-used HTML code hinders your content from
being seen at all (JavaScript and flash) to rather difficult to interpret (too
much extra code or poorly formatted pages).
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The bottom line for non-techies:
While you don�t need to really bother with all this behind the scenes
stuff, just know that blogs are text-rich publishing tools and search
engines love text. I repeat TEXT. All the other flashy stuff is for human
appeal. Search engines appeal to pure text and blogs have that in
spades.
4. Links are your best friend for search-engines rankings. The more links
you get the better. The more relevant the link, the more importance that
link has for search-engine results. Blogs naturally generate inbound
links because in the world of blogs, content links to content every
moment of the day. Great content is found by others in the world of blogs
and linked to on a regular basis. Write good content and you will get
good inbound links.
Inbound links are easily generated from sites with similar content and
often contain relevant keywords in the linked text to your blog. All of this
means better rankings for you in the search engines with little effort
spent trying to build back links and link partnerships.
Good blogging etiquette dictates that you make a practice of linking to
other content when you publish – not to mention the new, amazing
relationships you�ll develop within the blogosphere as you link, comment,
and get to know other active bloggers.
This creates outbound links and when you link to other content with
relevant keywords in the linked text, it also creates a stronger relevancy
rating for your blog content. Remember to be natural and don�t force the
use of keywords of linked text any more than you would use your
keywords throughout your blog and content.
The result for you as a beginning blogger is a topically-focused and
themed content site that is also a rich hub of inbound and outbound
links – another bonus for using a blog.
These are just a few reasons why blogs are good for search-engine
marketing. Blogs naturally appeal to the algorithm of search-engine
spiders. In other words, they have exactly what search-engine spiders are
programmed to look for. In the past, producing themed site content that
was rich in keywords and also had good links and navigation took more
effort using a regular Web site.
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Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Blogs allow you to publish easily and instantly. At the same time, you
can easily produce a site that gives you the best chance of ranking well
for search-engine traffic with less of an effort.
You don�t have to focus on content management at all. You configure
your blog software once for greatest appeal to the search engines. From
that moment forward you can strictly focus on producing quality content.
Your blog will do the rest for you.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Blogs are natural search-engine-optimization tools. The search engines
love blogs and they crawl them frequently looking for great products
(your content in search results) to take back and sell to their customers
(that�s you and us when we do searches).
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Blogs are crawled more frequently when they are updated frequently.
This results in your content potentially being indexed much quicker as
well as ranking much higher for relevancy and freshness.
A regular Web site requires more time and effort to organize and manage
content for keyword optimization, navigation and building links. All of
these activities are important for effective search-engine optimization and
search-engine marketing.
Blog software manages your content automatically and allows you to
focus on publishing good content.
This is a huge time savings for you. Plus, it gives you a clear advantage
for generating traffic to your blog and getting your message in front of
visitors much quicker.
A regular Web site cannot compete against a blog because a regular Web
site is not published as often as a blog normally is nor can it be managed
as efficiently as a blog. Regular Web sites are slow. Blogs are fast!
If your blog content is targeted and link density for your keywords is
healthy, you can easily speed past your competition in the content war if
he or she doesn�t switch to a blog, or is a ―late adopter‖ in the
blogosphere.
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Ultimately a blog alone isn�t the Holy Grail for publishing content online
for top search-engine rankings. You will need to do other things like
writing good and relevant high-value content for your audience. You will
need to target the keywords that target your markets and you�ll need to
build links to help with your Google popularity.
Begin with a blog, and the rest will follow – naturally!
VIDEO ALERT!
On the video disk for
Level 404 there are
some excellent movies
that help explain how
to do keyword
research, place
keywords in text links,
and orient yourself to
meta tags.
Now, to really accelerate your content results, take action with the
following Keyword Strategy Playbook we�ve put together for you. Do this,
and you�ll quickly be on your way to business-blogging success!
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Remember:
The #1 Business Blogging Secret:
the
“It’s no longer
BIG that eat the small.
Now,
it’s the fast
that eat the slow!”
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High achievement always takes place
in the framework of high expectation.
~ Jack and Garry Kinder
11. Strategizing and Selecting Your Killer Keywords
AUDIO ALERT!
The information in this
chapter corresponds with
and is expanded on in the
audio CDs for level 404 of
the multimedia course.
PLAYBOOK ALERT:
This chapter refers you to an expansive Playbook with a detailed,
step-by-step process for researching, selecting, and integrating the
ideal keywords for your niche.
When you complete your Killer Keyword Selection Playbook, you�ll
have a top-20, high-impact killer keyword list for each of your niches
and you�ll be ready to integrate those keywords into your business
blog to attract highly targeted traffic and to achieve top searchengine rankings.
NOTE: If you waited to pick up the full, home-study multi-media course, now is
the time to grab it – if it’s still available. Then, you’ll be able to create your own
Killer Keyword Strategy using the Playbook our Coaches have designed for you.
Simply visit http://MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com to get the full course
today. (While supplies last.)
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It isn’t sufficient just to want –
you’ve got to ask yourself,
“What you are going TO DO
to get the things you want?”
~ Richard Rose
Introduction to Keywords
Just as with any other online effort, keywords play an important role in
the success of your business blog. They are the lifeblood of your online
actions, and small distinctions can make a huge difference.
Before we begin with this brief coaching session on this keyword
selection, it is important that we share with you one critical distinction
on keyword length. What you must always keep in mind is …
Shorter keywords = browsers
Longer keywords = buyers
The shorter, more general keywords that the majority of entrepreneurs
and marketers are scrambling to get ranking on will provide the least
qualified prospects. This is true regardless of the niche or industry you
are in.
Think about your own actions when it comes to shopping.
If you are serious about shopping for a used car, and you wanted to do
research online before going to a dealer, would you just enter ―car,‖ or
even ― German car" if you wanted information on a BMW?
No, absolutely not. Not unless you didn�t really know what you were
looking for, or if you wanted to waste a lot of time sorting through
useless search results.
You would probably enter something more like ―BMW M3 convertible
Hawaii‖ if that�s the car you wanted and you lived in the state of Hawaii.
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It�s the same with any other online search and the keywords that people
use. The longer and more specific a keyword is, the more serious the
buyer is going to be because they are already significantly pre-qualified.
Plus, as an added bonus – longer, multiple-word keywords usually have
less competition for ranking in both organic search-engine rankings and
ad-word bidding.
Three Steps to a Winning List of Keywords
Selecting and maintaining good keywords require three continuous
actions on your part:
1. Detective work: questions, investigations, and creative thinking
2. Scientific research
3. Testing, tracking, and monitoring
Once you brainstorm and edit all the phrases you�d like to use, following
the steps in the Killer Keywords Playbook that you�ve downloaded from
your private student blog, HowToMasterBloggin.com be sure to revise
the words until you find the best ones.
Write your final choices on the Summary Sheet for your Top 20 Killer
Keyword Phrases, tape it to your computer and refer to it as you blog so
you can integrate these phrases into the body of your blog, highlighting
as appropriate.
NOTE on your Top-20 List - If you have a broad-based business blog that
covers a variety of topics related to your industry or niche, you may be need
to have a top-20 list for each major category of your blog.
For example, with www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com – this is such a
narrowly defined niche and focus for this blog that one well-defined list is
sufficient.
If, however, you have a very active blog that focused on
gardening, for example, and you covered three main
areas/categories such as container gardening,
courtyard gardens, and herb gardens – you�d probably
want to develop a more narrowly defined and specific
keyword list for to use in each of those categories.
This will help transform each of your distinct
categories into a keyword magnet for search engines within your
broader-based business blog.
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Killer Keyword Top 20 Summary Sheet
(Tape this to your computer and use often!)
1.
____________________________________________________________
2.
____________________________________________________________
3.
____________________________________________________________
4.
____________________________________________________________
5.
____________________________________________________________
6.
____________________________________________________________
7.
____________________________________________________________
8.
____________________________________________________________
9.
____________________________________________________________
10.
____________________________________________________________
11.
____________________________________________________________
12.
____________________________________________________________
13.
____________________________________________________________
14.
____________________________________________________________
15.
____________________________________________________________
16.
____________________________________________________________
17.
____________________________________________________________
18.
____________________________________________________________
19.
____________________________________________________________
20.
____________________________________________________________
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As you develop your list of keywords, keep the following quotes in the
forefront of your mind.
QUOTES to Give You the Edge -
I’m a great believer in luck,
and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
~ Thomas Jefferson
The individual who wants to reach the top in business must
appreciate the might of the force of habit – and
must understand that practices are what create habits.
He must be quick to break those habits that can break him – and
hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits
that help him achieve the success he desires.”
~ J. Paul Getty
Things don’t turn up in this world
until somebody turns them up.
~ James A. Garfield
Happy Keywording!
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men
than has ever been taken from the earth.
~ Napoleon Hill
12. How to Create Blog Success & Measure Your Blog ROI
Let�s move our attention to talking about measuring your blog�s return
on investment (ROI).
We like to consider ourselves more than just practitioners of blogging,
that is, those who publish niche content with a blog, since we also like to
observe the blogosphere and, in particular, the ways in which blogs are
being used to help individuals and businesses promote their messages
more effectively into their ―space‖ on the Internet.
There is a lot of writing and publishing on the usefulness of blogs for all
kinds of powerful marketing and promotion of products and services.
We�ve done quite of bit of writing on this topic on our blogs:
http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com and
http://How2Blog4FunAndProfit.com
But there isn�t as much content being published on blogs or blogging ROI
as there is on the other points of interest. So a walk through on blog
promotion wouldn�t be complete without a walk through on how to
measure your blog�s success.
Once you�ve begun to promote your blog, you must be able to measure
success. Measuring the success of your blog is slightly different than
with a standard Web site.
Here�s why. Except for the up-front cost of self-hosted blog software plus
hosting fees or the very low cost of a monthly subscription to a thirdparty blog-software hosting service, the cost of sending your messages to
your target audience is near zero. Your return is potentially unlimited.
You only have to put in time.
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So if you need to spend time writing an article that doesn�t cost you a
dime to generate but has the potential financial return of many times
over, would you agree that something like that is powerful and important
to your business?
This is what a blog can offer you. You publish one article that can reach
thousands, maybe even millions, via the search engines and RSS while
continuing to drive traffic into the future for only the time investment of
writing the content. Unlike a classic direct-marketing campaign, you
don�t have the same costs of acquisition associated with reaching a target
audience with your message.
How do you measure the response rate and associated costs to determine
ROI if you can now publish content that thousands of people can see and
which has virtually no time limit for viewing – and also has no direct cost
that can be associated with each eyeball that sees that content? You are
very limited here but that�s the power we�re talking about. Low cost, high
exposure!
Measuring your blog�s success and return on investment (ROI) will be
slightly different for these reasons.
Crawling, Indexing and Ranking With Your Blog in Google
Before we dive in, let�s establish a few expectations first.
We are not SEO gurus or Web-metric statisticians. We lean heavily on
what we call the natural promotional properties of blogs and blogging. We
call it the un-marketer�s way. We would like people to realize before any
real marketing effort occurs that blogs don�t require gimmicks and tricks
to work well. You don�t have to be a marketing guru either.
Expectation 1: Blogs are practical. No gimmicks required. It will work
for you if you work with it.
What we share are fundamentals that don�t violate the blogosphere. They
optimize the power of your blog and allow you to tap into the most
powerful force behind blogs – other people using blogs. You need their
participation if you ever hope to have a measure of success. With
participation comes cooperation and that means avoiding unnatural uses
of your blog that will not only upset the quality of your reputation, but
will hurt your ability to build an audience. You must cooperate with the
rules of the blogosphere.
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Expectation 2: You have to participate in the right way and
participate frequently. No gimmicks required but you are necessary.
Getting ranked in the search engines is only half the story. Here is a
question we get asked often, ―What blog software do you recommend
using for high rankings in the search engines?‖
Our answer: None.
Some think the marriage between Google and Blogger.com is a good way
to get indexed quickly since Google visits Blogger.com blogs like crazy.
We agree. And we talk about this fact in the How to Master Business
Blogging Home Study Course.
Some of you might be familiar with one of the Blogger.com strategies for
getting content in the search engines. If not, here�s how it works.
Google owns Blogger.com. Google visits
blogger.com like crazy.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
You get a blog at blogger.com and then you
create some posts and do some other things
and you can get your content crawled very
quickly and indexed soon after that.
Then, you create links back to your standard
or regular Web site so that Google can follow
the link from your Blogger.com blog to your
regular Web site.
Makes sense, right?
Get a blog that Google crawls and add your outbound links to get your
main URL indexed in quick fashion.
It works even better when you configure Blogger.com to publish to your
server.
But be careful here. If done inappropriately, it can be considered blog
spamming (creating fake blogs for search-engine rankings).
NOTE: We do not condone any type of spamming with your blogs.
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We�ve tested this and our observations are that, indeed, Google will crawl
your site very quickly.
Getting indexed is another story. We also tested Blogger.com configures
to publish as a blog on our server instead of theirs. We used it on a niche
affiliate site in the financial arena. It immediately ranked 15 in Yahoo
and hasn�t budged since, despite the fact that we haven�t even updated
that particular blog in the past four months.
Yet, for this one particular blog, we couldn�t rank one bit on Google.
Why? Because, in our opinion it is about more than just traffic.
First, we�re sure we would have done better if given more time, but we
wanted to test the promise of quick indexing and ranking of blogs. This
only demonstrated what we have observed time and again.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Blogs are great ranking tools for
the search engines but it depends
on your keywords, your content
and your update frequency.
We know that there is some obsession about having and keeping an edge
in ranking in Google. Blogs are ultimate ranking tools in plain sight!
One of our blogging colleagues referred to keyword-optimized blogs as
SEO gold.
http://radiantmarketing.typepad.com/radiant_marketing/2004/12/key
word_optimiz.html
We are firm believers in blogging with your keywords in mind, meaning
that we deliberately try to mention our keywords in every post where they
naturally fit in.
Not all of them, of course, just those that we think are a natural fit for a
particular post that we are writing. The results have been powerful.
Our point is that blogs are powerful SEO tools hiding in plain sight
because many people can�t understand the rather practical and ordinary
way in which blogs rank so well. With blogs, there really isn�t an SEO
ranking-tool gimmick or trick in order to use them effectively. Some
people need to feel like they have the next ―secret‖ to winning the
rankings competition.
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Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
You simply publish great content, publish
often, and target your market. Blogs are so
powerful and so precise in this respect that
from the first word you publish, you are in
absolute control over the traffic you start to
pull in.
AUDIO and VIDEO ALERT!
For similar indexing and ranking
impact with Yahoo, be sure to listen
to CD2 in level 101 of the
multimedia course.
You can use the Yahoo videos on
the video DVD in level 202 of the
multimedia course to help you out.
Now, going back to our original answer of ―none‖ for the best blog
software to rank with – we say that somewhat ―tongue in cheek.‖
It really doesn�t matter because not one blog-software platform in our
experience and knowledge has proven to be a better ranking platform by
virtue of certain unique characteristics.
It is better to plan for and commit to a blog
strategy with clearly defined and measurable
goals than it is to try and get indexed quickly.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Apply what you learned in the Blogging
Strategy Playbook in this course, and you�ll
get the edge over your competitors, and make
long-lasting business blogging a reality for
yourself.
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If you blog then you can expect that you will get indexed and you will get
ranked.
How well you rank depends on your niche; your keywords; keyword
weakness in the top 10 and 20 results on Google that you want to rank
in; your incoming or back links; the frequency of your updates; and the
quality of your content.
This brings us to the last expectation we�d like to set.
Expectation 3: It’s not about “quickness;” it’s about “quality.”
How to Measure Your Blog Return on Investment (ROI)
Here are several ways to measure your blog success and ROI. These
points must be interpreted in light of a clearly defined outcome that you
have established for your blog.
1. Traffic
Traffic is one of the first ways to measure the success of your blog. It is
important to be patient and work your blog strategy. Traffic will come if
you leverage and tweak the natural promotional properties of your blog.
We are not talking tricks. We are talking about using your blog
strategically for maximum results.
If you are promoting your blog from another Web site, take a look at your
traffic and see how much is clicking through to your blog. Do you see
interest growing and are people returning to your blog? Repeat visits are
a good indication of your ―stickiness‖ and that is what you want.
One way to measure stickiness is by looking at the percentage of repeat
visitors you have to your blog and also the number of RSS requests you
have. Your RSS requests will be skewed a bit because you cannot
account for the update interval of each individual RSS reader. If you are
using Blog Harbor at http://www.blogharbor.com, then you know that
they provide excellent stats so that you can measure traffic.
Blog Harbor provides you with several stat metrics by which to measure
your RSS reads and blogs visits. They will show you your unique visits
over a 24-hour period plus the number of XML requests for RSS readers.
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You can then begin to put together some picture of your traffic via RSS
and with the additional metrics you can measure your traffic for the most
popular articles and categories and referrers.
If you don�t have a host like Blog Harbor that provides great detailed
stats (Blog Harbor is about to introduce even more powerful stats
shortly) you can burn your feed at http://www.feedburner.com.
FeedBurner provides excellent processing of your RSS feed by providing
features such as subscriber metrics, RSS advertising, feed conversion,
podcasting, and much more.
You must have a way, however, to measure your traffic and see if your
results are consistent with your blog strategy.
If you want to drive leads, newsletter subscriptions, or sales you must be
able to measure those results as well. For example, with sales you can
use tracking codes for click-throughs to see how well your blog is
performing. The newsletter can be measured by the number of
subscribers you get via your blog.
Here are a few of the many questions you to ask yourself based on your
specific business blogging strategy.
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Define your expected results and examine your blog traffic and
RSS traffic.
How are you doing in comparison?
What pages are popular on your site.
What links get the most clicks?
How many RSS requests are you getting?
2. Search Engines
Unlike a regular Web site, you can measure your blog progress in real
time and respond appropriately in real time. We have found this to be
invaluable to us as business bloggers.
For example, on one of our blogs we had a particular keyword in mind
that we were deliberately going after. We were ranking in the top ten
around 9 and 8 and kept jumping up and down between 6 and 7.
We played with our blog title, arranging the keywords for the best
combination that Google would like and bingo! We found the right combo
and now we are ranking numbers 3 and 4 and we�re quite happy.
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This keyword is what we call an edge-traffic keyword because it doesn�t
get a whole lot of searches. It is a word that highly qualifies our audience
who will also be open to other topics on our blog. We targeted that
keyword after examining the top 10 and 20 rankings for weakness.
We were able to secure a top-10 spot very easily and fairly quickly.
These rankings bring us a nice bit of traffic to our blog. Measuring your
blog ROI for search engines is done by simply examining your searchengine rankings. You will rank for lots of keywords naturally and bring
traffic from far-away places. Start out with a set of keywords that you are
strategically targeting in order to determine your blog success.
Refer to your keyword list that you
developed in the Keyword Strategy Playbook
in this course to give yourself the edge.
Tape the list to your computer, and refer to
it every time you blog.
One way to measure your blog�s success for search-engine traffic with
Google is to go to http://www.googlerankings.com and type in your blog
URL and a keyword or keyword phrase. Googlerankings.com will tell you
if and where you rank in the top 1000.
Here�s an even better way to do it:
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Go to http://www.nichebot.com/ranking/
and type in a list of all your keywords to
check your blog URL against all of your
keyword terms. If you still don�t know where
you rank, then make sure you change the
last drop-down box from Top 100 to Top
1000 to make sure you check all the
rankings.
3. Comments
Comments are a great way to measure how compelling your blog content
is becoming for your audience. This is a bit tricky though because blog
traffic takes some time to warm up, so you will need to promote and
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encourage interaction and solicit reader responses. Don�t be discouraged
with this at first.
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Stick with it.
Give it time.
Work on writing great content that is compelling for your readers
and keeps them informed.
Stay passionate and committed to your topic.
Slowly but surely, you will see people start to leave comments at different
posts throughout your blog. We make it a practice of responding to all
comments as soon as we can even if the visitor doesn�t return.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Replying to all comments left on your blog
demonstrates to others coming through that
you are involved and participating with your
audience. It makes you approachable and
gives you one more measurable success
metric.
4. Word of Mouth Index (Inbound Links)
Links in the blogosphere are like measurable buzz and word-of-mouth
marketing. Links matter with blogs and they matter a lot. They carry a
lot of weight because links from blogs carry a message that influences
others. Links to your blog are a way to measure the amount of viral
activity that is occurring with your blog.
You can go to a service like http://www.technorati.com and do a search
on your blog URL.
Technorati will return a list to you of all the links to your blog from other
blogs. Technorati.com monitors all the blogs and links among blogs in
real time. It�s a great way to track the word-of-mouth index for your blog.
Some of the questions to be answered are:
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Who is linking to you?
How influential are these blogs?
What are others saying about you?
How many links are incoming?
Are the blogs linking to you representative of your core audience?
How much traffic is being driven through these back links?
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Don�t overlook quality for quantity here.
Lots of links are good but you want links that say something good about
you. Just as with comments, be patient. Give your content time to
circulate and be found by others who will want to link to it.
TrackBack is also a good measure of buzz and word-of-mouth marketing.
Pay attention to your TrackBack links and visit the blogs referencing you
to see what they are saying. The quality of your TrackBack links will
grow as you continue to produce good content.
Remember to write good content that informs.
5. Other Measuring Tools
We also recommend some third-party-site measuring tools to help you
build a better picture of your blog traffic.
If you are using http://www.typepad.com, then it is highly recommended
that you use a third-party service. (Typepad doesn�t provide very useful
statistics at this time.)
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
We use http://www.statcounter.com for
their superior Keyword Analysis stats. They
also provide stats about the stickiness of
your site with their return-visitor metrics.
Their service is free to use with limited log
file size so go for the upgrade package. It�s
inexpensive and will allow you better
visibility into your traffic figures.
SiteMeter at http://www.sitemeter.com is very popular although we�ve
never used them. Finally, there is http://www.blogpatrol.com which we
also use and they are pretty good. They are free but not as
comprehensive as StatCounter but definitely have useful stats. 3Dstats
at http://www.3dstats.com comes highly recommended also although
we�ve not yet used them either.
By measuring your blog performance and results according to these
methods you can begin to get a tangible picture of how well your blog is
rewarding you for your effort and commitment.
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Monitoring Your Blog Progress
At this point you have planned and set expectations for your blog. You
have developed your content and published several articles. Yyou have
notified the world of the existence of your blog and fresh content by
sending update notifications and submitting your blog and RSS feed to
several blog directories.
Now you need to monitor your progress.
Here are the items you want to monitor and the services you can use to
monitor them.
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You
You
You
You
need
need
need
need
to
to
to
to
monitor
monitor
monitor
monitor
your
your
your
your
search engine performance.
content performance.
inbound links.
referral links.
Monitoring Your Search-Engine Performance
When monitoring your search-engine performance, look for the keywords
that are sending you traffic. Using your keyword list, you need to monitor
for which targeted keywords are sending you traffic and which ones are
not.
Also, examine which keywords are sending you traffic because they are
mentioned in your blog content, even though you know you aren�t
specifically targeting those keywords.
Blogs rank well and pull traffic for new keyword terms quite often. So,
there will be opportunities for anticipating new interests, needs, and
markets through some of these un-targeted keywords and phrases.
If you are hosting your own blog software then you already have
statistics software. If you are hosting your blog then we recommend
StatCounter at http://www.statcounter.com which provides great stats
for monitoring your referral traffic, your traffic from keywords, and many
other site performance stats.
If it is important to you, you can also monitor how well you are ranking
your keywords and monitoring your positions.
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Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Go to NicheBot�s ranking tool at
http://www.nichebot.com/ranking/
Enter your entire list of keywords (one
keyword or keyword phrase per line)
and find out if you are ranking and
exactly what positions you have.
An excellent monitoring tool!
This is the tool we use for monitoring the performance of our blogs at
ranking keywords we specifically target.
We were amazed to watch keywords debut and rush up through the
search-engine rankings! Some keywords simply debut at good positions
from the start and just move up from there to better positions.
You Need to Monitor Your Content Performance - Monitoring your
content performance involves monitoring which articles get the most
attention or clicks. In other words, you want to determine which articles
are the most popular with your traffic and subscribers.
BlogHarbor has specific stats for determining your most popular articles
and FeedBurner also provides statistics on which articles are popular
with your RSS subscribers. Use this information to determine what your
market is most interested in.
Using StatCounter, you can also determine why articles are getting the
most traffic according to keywords. Keeping tabs on how your content is
performing for your readers and the search engines is an important part
of shaping an effective and useful business blog.
You Need to Monitor Your Inbound Links - Monitoring your inbound
links is a critical activity. You want to know who is linking to you and
why. Blogs are social tools and links from blogs to yours have a buzz
factor associated with them. Links in the world of blogs carries opinion
and voice.
Links are word-of-mouth and from monitoring your links you can also
monitor how well your message is evangelized across your niche and
what type of reputation is being established because of your blog.
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Business bloggers monitor their inbound links passionately and so must
you. You also need to follow up with some of the links with ―thank you�s‖
and initiate conversation at their blogs as time and content permits.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
There are two easy ways to monitor your
inbound links or buzz.
Technorati and TrackBack.
Simply go to Technorati and enter the URL of your blog. What you get
back is the list of blogs that are linking to you in real time and what they
are saying. You even get a measure of their influence by labels that
indicate how many inbound links and pages or sites are linking to you.
We look at this as one measure of influence from the blogs linking to you
as discovered by Technorati. You see, Technorati crawls millions of blogs
and the links that occur between them. So while it doesn�t account for
the non-blog links, it sure is a good measure of the influence of the sites
linking back to you (see below).
Figure 16 Samples of Technorati Cosmos Search Results
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Figure 4 is a snapshot of results for our blog since the list is too long to
list here in full. Technorati refers to this as Cosmos search results
representing known links and references to your blog from the universe
of blogs (The Blogosphere).
The other option is to monitor your TrackBacks. If you recall, TrackBack
is a way someone can create an inbound link by referencing content on
another blog. TrackBack lets you know someone is talking about your
content on their blog and it creates a link on your blog back to theirs.
TrackBack writes the title and short summary to your blog so that you
can get an idea of what is being said about you with a link to follow back
to the originating blog.
Here is an example:
Figure 17 TrackBack Example
In Figure 5, you see a couple of TrackBack entries on one of our blogs to
an article Thomas wrote about creating effective blogs.
The linked text is the subject or post title used by the other blog as well
as an excerpt from what the other blogger published about that article of
Thomas�. You will also note that the name of the blog that TrackBacked
his article is also listed along with the date and time of the entry.
Monitoring your TrackBacks is another important way to monitor what is
being said about you. While TrackBacks to your blogs are not considered
inbound links they are still a measure of opinion, reputation, and wordof-mouth marketing.
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TrackBacks originate from a citation and link from the article anyway, so
TrackBack can indicate an inbound link, although the TrackBack itself
doesn�t count as inbound.
To help you understand what we are saying here, clicking the first
TrackBack entry will take us to the blog that sent the TrackBack to
Thomas. In Figure 6 you see a short article with a link that is an inbound
link to our blog.
The Marketing Loop Blog found Thomas� article and wanted to alert us to
the fact that he is talking about our blog. So he didn�t stop and just
provide a link to our blog for his readers, he used our TrackBack URL
(refer to Figure 5) and sent the TrackBack notice to us when he pushed
the button on his blog to publish his article.
He benefits because he had an inbound link; he will get traffic from
others reading our article and seeing his TrackBack link in the
comments section of our post. Plus, he also gets our attention.
You gain the same benefits as well when you use TrackBack for articles
on other blogs.
Figure 18 TrackBack & Link
TrackBack is useful in monitoring what others are saying about you.
Monitor your TrackBacks.
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You Need to Monitor Your Referral Links - Use your server statistics
software or third-party software like StatCounter to monitor which sites
and links are sending you the most traffic. Visit those blogs and
participate by commenting there or finding good content that would be
interesting to your audience and linking back to that blog.
All of these activities can be instrumental in keeping you informed about
the performance of your blog. Understanding how your blog is performing
will allow you to create a better blog and produce the results you set for
yourself through intent and your content.
MEMORIZE the Three Expectations of Blogging!
Expectation 1: Blogs are practical. No
gimmicks required. It will work for you if you
work with it.
Expectation 2: You have to participate in the
right way and participate frequently. No
gimmicks required but you are necessary.
Expectation 3: It�s not about ―quickness;‖
it�s about ―quality.‖
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Check out the links to get more information on topics & resources
mentioned in this section, and take your learning to the next level:
FeedBurner: http://www.feedburner.com.
BlogHarbor: http://www.blogharbor.com
Upgrade Your Mind: http://thinkblade.typepad.com
GoogleRankings: http://www.googlerankings.com
Nichebot Rankings: http://www.nichebot.com/ranking/
Technorati: http://www.technorati.com
Statcounter: http://www.statcounter.com
BlogPatrol: http://www.blogpatrol.com
SiteMeter: http://www.sitemeter.com
TypePad: http://www.typepad.com
3Dstats: http://www.3dstats.com
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PERSIST WITH YOUR BLOG!
It takes a little courage
And a little self-control
And some grim determination,
If you want to reach the goal.
It takes a deal of striving,
And a firm and stern-set chin,
No matter what the battle,
If you really want to win.
There’s no easy path to glory,
There’s no rosy road to fame.
Life, however we may view it,
Is no simple parlor game;
But its prizes call for fighting,
For endurance and for grit;
For a rugged disposition
And a don’t-know-when-to-quit.
~ Anonymous
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Opportunities come from knocking on doors until they open.
~ Anonymous
13. Other Ways to Blog for Profit
Once you have a blog that has begun to build traffic and content you will
want to consider ways that you can begin to profit from the content that
you are publishing.
Or, you may want to create a separate blog – just for the purpose of
profiting from that particular blog – using a variety of profit-generating
strategies.
Profiting from your blog isn�t too far removed from ways to profit from a
regular Web site. But there are some differences in how blogs are used
that will determine how well some revenue programs may work for you.
Because blogs carry the personality of the publisher, make sure your
revenue programs match your message or complement it to keep things
relevant throughout your blog.
You need to be mindful of how your blog is used. For example, if more
people are subscribed to your blog via RSS, then you need to consider
the impact this has for any one-page promotion content. RSS readers
don�t initially see a promotion method unless or until they click on
headlines and summary content that will take them to your blog.
If you are publishing full post or article content then your RSS readers
won�t need to visit your blog at all because they have access to full
articles from their desktops.
Consider the need to create more compelling subject lines and
summaries if you are syndicating only headlines and summaries because
you want to get your subscribers to click through to your Web site for the
complete article. Then you can expose them to any promotional content.
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If you are syndicating full articles or posts then you have to consider how
you will reach your audience effectively through your RSS channel.
As a publisher generating traffic and leads, you want to capture traffic and
direct it to the high-value products and services you offer. Ultimately traffic
will leave your site so the following suggestions are ways to direct traffic
off to other sites that have the potential of helping to build revenue while
building relationships.
Let�s talk about some programs for potential blog profits. First is the
familiar affiliate program.
Blog with Affiliate Programs
What is an affiliate program? - An affiliate program is any type of
revenue-sharing program where an affiliate Web site receives a portion of
income for delivering sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant Web site.
Affiliates are also called associates, referrers, resellers, or sponsors.
Companies and individuals who want to promote their products and
services online offer affiliate programs. You, in turn, would sign up for an
affiliate program.
When you do, you will be given a unique affiliate ID. This affiliate ID is
used to identify you when you refer people and they make a purchase.
Your affiliate ID is what ensures that you get credited with the
appropriate commission from the sale or lead you generated to the Web
site of the company or individual whose products and services you are
promoting.
When you decide on an affiliate program you want to join, you simply
sign up with that program for free. Once you are registered with that
program and you have your affiliate code, you can begin using that code
in your blog.
Barnes and Noble and Amazon are two very popular affiliate programs
among bloggers at the moment. But we recommend checking other
affiliate program directories and networks for a greater variety of
products, services, and commissions.
Reviews and recommendations are powerful ways to generate revenue for
affiliate programs and they are much more powerful because of the
relationship aspects of blogging. You make a recommendation to a
readership that already trusts your advice.
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WARNING!
Be sure that you ONLY promote the best, if you want to be known as the
best source of referrals. Your referrals are a direct reflection on you, and
your standards of quality and performance. If the person you refer doesn�t
perform, they�ll come back to you and complain, and in the future, they�ll
trust you less.
You simply use your affiliate code to link to a product or service you have
written about and recommended. When readers and site visitors click on
your link and purchase, you get a commission.
Experiment and then monitor what works best for your blog and
audience. The best way to create a profitable blog is to create a blog that
doesn�t appear to be out to make a hard sell or direct sell.
People in general don�t like to feel as if you are selling stuff to them all
the time. If your product and service recommendations are relevant
within the context of your blog, then your readers won�t be offended.
If your readers feel you are providing value and service, you are well on
your way to success. If you want to hard sell, then your best bet is to say
so up front and let them know your blog is strictly a commercial
endeavor.
And if you primarily use affiliate sites then a complementary blog can
provide you the added boost to increase traffic and visibility with the
search engines.
To compete with the other affiliate sites in your niche, add a blog to
complement that main affiliate site you have set up. Start publishing
articles where you mention your keywords along with the names of the
affiliate products or services you are promoting. You can find your
search-engine traffic and rankings for those terms improving on Google
and other search engines fairly quickly.
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We recommend the following affiliate program networks which are used
often.
http://www.LinkShare.com
http://www.cj.com
http://www.clickbank.com
http://www.amazon.com
Understand that there are many independent affiliate products out there
that can match and may be a better fit for your blog content than what is
available via these affiliate networks. Simply do searches by entering
your ―keywords + affiliate” into Google, Yahoo, or MSN to see what is
available.
Contextual Advertising
Another widely used method of creating a profitable blog is by running
advertisements. Google Adsense and BlogAds are great ways to automate
your ads. Google Adsense and BlogAds are revenue programs used
within the blogging community as well.
All you have to do is sign up for these ad services and registration is free.
You then generate your code within your account at the ad service.
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You can customize your code to fit the look and feel of your blog site. You
then add the code to your blog. If you are registering for the first time,
you will need to get approved first before using the service.
Make sure you read the TOS (Terms of Service) for the ad network with
which you are planning to register. There may be certain restrictions on
running their ads with other ad network�s ads.
Google in particular does not allow this. So evaluate each ad network,
read the TOS and decide which one will meet your requirements.
To improve the potential profitability of your blog with ads, write
specialized and targeted content for consistency and relevancy between
your content and the ads.
Most contextual ad-networks have auto-sensing technology and will
attempt to show relevant ads based on your content (keywords and
keyword phrases).
Your targeted content will help if the displays are relevant ads, since
auto-sensing technology determines relevancy from your site content. Let
your blog theme be your guide for content, but do keep your content
tight and targeted.
There are different types of ads you can display. Contextual ads appear
as text and are closely matched to the text or content of your blog.
Google Adsense is an example of this and Kanoodle is an alternate to
Google Adsense.
Contextual ads do not have graphic images and they come in several
different sizes to insert in your blog headers, sidebars, and articles.
Google Adsense provides several sizes of contextual ads that you can
display on your site and you can customize the colors for a seamless
match with your site content and color schemes.
Contextual Ad services like Google Adsense and Kanoodle generate
income for you each time someone clicks on the ads. You do not have
control over the ads that are displayed. Again, these networks
automatically sense your site theme based on your content and then
display matching text ads from advertisers in their networks.
There are other types of ads that you can display on your blog as well.
Most services do offer some level of graphic banners that you can display
on your blog as well, whether it is an affiliate program from Linkshare or
contextual service like Adsense.
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Graphic banners, for the most part, have been proven much less effective
since most readers tune out flashy advertising and click more on text ads
because text ads resemble regular content and links, and appear more
relevant and informative instead of having advertising and marketing
content.
BlogAds is a network where you can receive advertising on your blog for
a fee and you decide which ads you run on your blog instead of having
the ad network determine that for you. BlogAds keeps 20 percent of what
you receive for brokering while you keep the remaining percentage of
revenue from accepting ads.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Another option is to create your own text ads
and promote whatever you want. This gives
you ultimate control over your own
advertising and revenue and you can
completely customize messages to fit
extremely well within your blog. This can
easily be done manually but there are also
some solutions that will help you do this if
you are hosting your blog on your own server.
TextAds is one such service.
In-context ads are ads that appear within the context of content that you
write. The idea is to insert a promotional message that appears to be on
topic and in-context or relevant to what is being written.
This is very powerful because you can lead your readers to promotional
messages and affiliate programs without offending them and you can
actually appear to be helping them – which is exactly what you ARE
doing!
Some in-context ads are clearly identified as such through a sponsored
message label of some sort. Other in-context ads are simple text links
that contain affiliate code. Your content leads your reader to click
through to an affiliate product or service and increases your chance of
netting a sale.
Because your promotional message is in-context, it feels more natural to
your readers and gives them a sense of control in evaluating your
message instead of feeling like you are hard selling them through a
direct-sales message.
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In-context ads are the only way to effectively reach your audience
through RSS. Some text ads appear as classified-style advertising. Some
bloggers are not yet comfortable with this style of advertising in their RSS
feeds as they don�t want to alienate their established audience.
We believe experimentation and feedback is the key here. A good
relationship with your audience and asking for feedback can guide your
efforts. If you aren�t quite ready or have some reservations about
classified-style ads in your RSS feeds, then you can do simple in-context
links to affiliate products and services and this works very well.
Your links appear as normal links to other resources. This is in keeping
with what you are doing normally as a blog publisher anyway – delivering
information, expertise, and recommendations.
Information Products Sales
Information products are excellent revenue generators all around the
Internet and they can and do sell well from blogs. The principle here is
really simple.
Tell people what they need to do and sell them the tools on how to
do it.
The Internet is about free access to information but there are big profits
in selling premium content. Your blog doesn�t only carry the voice of your
business but as a reputation tool it also communicates and delivers your
expertise to your target market.
You can leverage your knowledge as a trusted expert by publishing
premium content in the form of physical and digital information products
and sell them. You can sell audios, videos, and books. This also applies
to memberships to premium site content, tele-seminars, coaching, and
consulting.
You can also sell your products and support it with affiliate programs
through affiliate networks like Clickbank, and Share-it. They will handle
program details and delivery for you with easy-to-use administration
access where you configure the details of your particular program.
These are some easy, yet powerfully important ways that you can convert
your content into cash. Whatever you sell and however you sell, weave in
your recommendations in-context and educate before you sell.
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An in-context message that offers solutions to solve a problem for your
reader, and then recommends the solution, whether it is your own
product or an affiliate product, will go over much easier.
When you do this, you are providing up-front value and building trust.
Ultimately you are establishing rapport, and because of that, you open
your readers up to your recommendations.
Selling isn�t a bad thing for blogs. People just don�t want a hard sell.
People want a solution to a problem. Affiliate programs can be just as
powerful in your blog content as they are in any static Web site,
especially if it�s giving people an item or service they need.
Profiting Because of Your Blog
Another important profit center of your blog is your brand and
reputation. Long-term revenue will be driven by your brand and
reputation. This is how you profit because of your blog.
Blogs represent a new brand and reputation strategy where you can
quickly dominate your niche and establish your expertise. You can pull
traffic quickly through content that establishes your brand as a leader in
your space. Your expertise and information can be trusted.
When you become the trusted brand and reputation for your niche
markets, you are building relationships with permission to expose your
audience to a wider range of your product and service line.
All you do is begin to drive your audience to the messages that generate
revenue and you are on your way to building revenue because of your
blog.
More importantly though are the social influences and networks that
become available to you as you blog. You can establish powerful alliances
and partnerships because of your blog. This could be powerful free
advertising and exposure for your business and message.
Business Blogging
Secrets Revealed!
Reaching out to others and forming
partnerships will help promote your brand
and reputation and you can generate even
more revenue through the right connections.
Strategic or otherwise, there are, indeed,
opportunities to help others and help you in
the process.
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Don�t just think about how much money you can immediately make from
your blog.
Think long term about how you can also profit because of your blog.
Your blog can raise the profile on products and services that you are
selling directly from your blog and generate revenues because of your
blog.
Writers and consultants can especially benefit from a blog. You can win
business because of your blog.
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Check out these links to get more information on topics & resources
mentioned in this section, and take your learning to the next level:
BarnesAndNobles: http://www.bn.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com
LinkShare: http://www.linkshare.com
Commission Junction: http://www.cj.com
ClickBank: http://www.clickbank.com
Google Adsense: http://www.google.com/adsense
BlogAds: http://www.blogads.com
Kanoodle: http://www.kanoodle.com
TextAds: http://sourceforge.net/projects/textads/
Share-It: http://www.shareit.com/index.html
Robin Good, Make Money with your Blog
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2005/02/07/how_to_make_money_wi
th.htm
Robin Good, Blogs Long Tail: Blogs and RSS Profit Potential
http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2004/10/27/the_blogs_long_tai
l_blogs.htm
Darren Rowse, Blogging for Dollars
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2004/09/23/blogging-for-dollars/
John Rhodes, Money Honey, List of Revenue Generation Ideas
http://oristus.com/resources/moneyhoney.html
Big Money Tips, Making Money with Blogs
http://bigmoneytips.com/online_money/making_money_with_blogs.php
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
How can YOU profit from YOUR blog?
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Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
- Proverbs 4:7
14. Turn Your Blog into a Multimedia Blog!
What is Podcasting?
Podcasting is the activity of creating time-shifted audio for the Internet.
Using an assortment of software and optional hardware you ―record and
store‖ audio programs for broadcasting over the Internet using RSS. Call
it Internet radio, if you like. RSS has often been referred to as TiVo for
the Internet as it time-shifts content for reading the way TiVo time-shifts
video for viewing at a time of your convenience.
A common yet very accurate analogy for describing how a podcast works
is by, again, using TiVo as an example. TiVo is a device and service that
allows you to record programs and then watch them at a time that is
convenient for you. With TiVo you don�t have to worry about rushing
home to watch that favorite program of yours. You simply tell TiVo what
you want you want to record and what time to record it. Then you can
pick anytime you have available to watch the program at your leisure.
This is what is referred to as time-shifted video. Instead of having to be
available to watch a program at 8 p.m., for example, you just record it at
8 p.m. without having to be present. You then time-shift your viewing by
watching the program later when it is more convenient.
A podcast operates in the same manner from the listener�s perspective.
RSS allows you to time-shift your audio recordings. RSS allows for the
syndication, distribution, and subscription of your audio content.
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Here's the process from a podcast-publisher’s perspective.
1. You record an audio program of some type. It can be anything.
2. You then upload that audio to your Web server or blog.
3. You then tag your audio file for delivery through your RSS feed.
4. You publish and promote your audio program feed or podcast.
Here's the process from a listeners perspective.
1. A listener who uses RSS for audio hunts for feeds and finds yours.
2. The listener subscribes to your podcast by entering your podcast feed
into his/her media aggregator.
3. The listener sets a timer on their media aggregator that tells it how
often to check your podcast feed for updates.
4. At the designated time interval and if you have new audio content, the
media aggregator will download your podcast.
5. Your podcast file is then saved to the listener�s hard drive and copied
or synchronized to the user�s software media player (Windows Media
Player, iTunes, etc.) and/or their MP3 player (iPod, etc.).
6. The listener who is now a subscriber has time-shifted your podcast by
scheduling the time to download your podcast and then deciding when is
the best time for listening to your podcast with either their mediasoftware player or their hardware-media player like an iPod.
A podcast is just another MP3 audio recording. But how does it differ
from any other audio that you record and put on the Internet for
downloading?
The differentiation here is RSS. RSS allows you to distribute your audio
content widely across the Web through your RSS feed, plus it allows
users to subscribe to your audio content using the shift-shifted model of
content consumption.
XML is used to format or structure the content of your RSS feed. Well,
this XML has tags, again, just like HTML has tags, and these tags help
RSS readers understand and identify content within an RSS feed.
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One of these tags is called the <enclosure> tag. This tag is what makes
podcasting possible via RSS. Your audio file is attached to a content item
in your feed. In other words, it is just like attaching a file in e-mail. In email it is referred to as exactly that, an attachment. In RSS, instead of
attachment, we use enclosure as a reference to the <enclosure> tag that
identifies media attachments in your RSS content.
The enclosure tag in your RSS feed is responsible for notifying any RSS
reader or media aggregator that a media file is attached to a specific
article or content entry in your blog and it then provides details for that
audio content such as the URL of the audio file attached in the RSS
feed, name of file, length or file size, and audio file type.
Here is an example of the raw code from a sample podcast RSS file:
<enclosure
url="http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/_attachmen
ts/208655/BloggedIn60secs-121704.mp3"
length="2348052" type="audio/mpeg"/>
If your RSS readers support enclosures then you can schedule the
downloads of any podcast you subscribe to. Otherwise you would use a
media aggregator to subscribe and download your podcast.
A media aggregator is an RSS reader except that it is purposely built for
subscribing to and downloading podcasts. We�ll show you a bit later in
this tutorial how that works. FeedDemon is our all time favorite RSS
reader and it now has support for podcasts.
AUDIO ALERT!
If you purchased the complete How to
Master Business Blogging, be sure to
listen to the 90-minute BONUS CD
introducing you to the process and
power of Podcasting.
Podcasting is gaining in popularity and grabbing a lot of headlines at the
time of this writing. Podcasting can have a tremendous impact on your
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business by allowing you another personalized channel of
communications with your audience. Podcast allows your message to be
delivered and your listeners can receive your content even when
disconnected from the Internet when they download and listen to your
audio on their iPods or some other media player.
This is common. You can deliver entertainment, commentary, updates,
learning, and instruction, and many information-based communications
that can help boost your business and revenues.
Podcasting, along with blogging and RSS, are proving to be a powerful
combination of active content publishing with powerful marketing and
promotion potential.
What is V-Blogging?
Video Blogging (V-Blogging) is blogging using video – either live or prerecorded streaming video for all your viewers to see when they get your
latest post.
See Appendices for cool resources to help you easily set up the ability to
blog using photos to really differentiate you from all the others.
What is Mo-Blogging?
Mobile Blogging (Mo-blogging) is blogging on the go – literally. It is
blogging using your mobile phone or land line in order for you to podcast
while you�re traveling or at a seminar, etc. and want to share something
important with your readers and listeners to your blog and/or podcast.
You can call in from your cell phone and get your message to your
viewers – in minutes!
See Appendices for cool resources to help you easily set up the
ability to blog – on the go!
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Links to more information on topics & resources mentioned in
this section:
BlogHarbor Documentation on How to Syndicate Your Podcast
http://demo.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2004/11/2/173375.html
Micropersuasion Ponders the Possibilities of Podcast Advertising
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2004/12/pondering_possi.html
Podcast Encoding Tips – Optimizing Your Audio
http://www.wholewheatradio.org/jbb/comments.php?id=P231_0_1_0_C
Podcast Bunker – Excellent Resource - one of our favorites.
http://www.podcastbunker.com/
Podcasting 101 - Illustrated for Newbie Podcasters
http://radio.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/10/17/161695.html
Just plain quality here and takes you where articles and videos do not.
You definitely don�t want to miss this one.
Partners In Rhyme – Royalty-Free Music
Nice selection of sounds and effects to add to your podcasts. Create a
unique environment and have fun exploring different sounds for your
podcast.
How to Podcast In 3 Easy Steps
http://www.howtopodcast.org/
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MY INNOVATION CORNER!
My Notes and Ideas from this Chapter:
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Success or failure is often determined
on the drawing board.
~ Robert J. McKain
15. Final Thoughts from Your Coaches and Authors
Blogs are poised to dominate Internet communications for at least the
next decade. The reason is because blogs are not complicated, yet they
accomplish so much for small-business owners.
Elements of business blogging cross over into nearly every aspect of
marketing and communication in the 21st-century marketplace. One of
the most important elements that blogs are based on is RSS (Real Simple
Syndication.)
RSS is at the core of trackbacks, instant distribution, and on-demand
media. It can be used for monitoring reputation, general publishing, and
promotion. That is the power of blogs. You don�t have a lot of moving
parts in blogs. When it comes to online business and marketing
activities, what you have not only is easy to manage, but also allows you
to grow awareness of your brand, build your reputation, and relate to
your markets on a scale of multiples.
And, since RSS is one of the major players in consumer-controlled media
– it is here to stay. RSS is at the heart of blogs, podcasting, v-blogging,
contextual marketing, reliable digital-content delivery, and more. The
21st-century marketplace is a new frontier. It is a place where
consumers demand to be in control of the information they receive. The
consumer is gaining more and more control with each passing week.
You can choose to fight the marketplace, or learn how to prosper in it.
When mainstream media tries to position blogs as a passing phase,
something of no power or impact, realize that ―Old Stream Media‖ is
desperately trying to maintain the control they have had for 60-plus
years. A New York City rat will fight hard as a pit bull when it is
cornered, and Old Stream Media will continue to fight, deny, and
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denigrate consumer-controlled media and consumer-generated media in
a vain attempt to keep control of your mind.
But now you know better. You know the marketplace is demanding
something dramatically different. Unlike Dan Rather, you�re smart
enough to know that the marketplace always wins.
When your competitors say they don�t have time for ―fads‖ like blogs or
RSS, just quietly smile and let them live in the past while you establish
yourself as a leader in your niche. But, if your friends, peers, and
colleagues show that they don�t understand the permanence and power
of blogging, podcasting, and RSS (yes, sadly it will happen), do everything
you can to bring them up to your level and encourage them to join you in
mastering the marketplace of the new millennium.
It�s hard to ignore a tool that can do so much for your personal or
business communications at such little expense. Our hope is that you�ve
gained significant insight into the excitement as well as the practical
business applications of blogs for successful communication, connection,
and attraction of pre-qualified prospects.
The possibilities of using blogs and RSS are only limited by your
competitor�s imagination. Be sure to refer to the special report, ―21
Business Blogging Applications‖ to spawn ideas and ignite a fire under
your team to come up with a truly original method of using a blog for
your business.
The more innovative you are with the use of blogs for your business, the
more you�ll differentiate yourself from your competitors. With a concerted
effort on your part, you�ll have your competitors reaching for the oxygen
mask while they gasp for air trying to keep up.
This is not the Internet of the 90s. With increased competition for
search-engine positions, competitive prospecting, accelerated need, and
improved customer outreach that every business is now faced with, there
comes an increased complexity in strategies for online success.
Blogs bring remarkable simplicity to this complexity and your efforts to
deliver to the ever-changing, consumer-driven 21st-century marketplace.
Most importantly, remember that establishing relationships and
building rapport with your target market is what keeps you in touch with
what your consumers want and need. This dialogue is feedback that
brings greater accuracy to your business decisions and increases your
bottom line. By using the power of blogging, you can accelerate your
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ability to change and adapt by communicating effectively with the people
who matter most to your business.
Now is the time to get your blog strategy underway and increase the
effectiveness of your business-to-consumer relationships more powerfully
than ever before.
Yours in Blogging Success,
T.L. Pakii Pierce
Blog Publisher and A-list Blogger
John-Paul & Deborah Cole Micek
Business Coaches and Strategic Consultants
PS: Blogs are just one tool in the arsenal you will build as you master
the marketplace of the new millennium. And, there are so many other
tools and strategies that you can use to get the edge in today�s
marketplace.
If you would like to radically transform your personal performance and
boost the profitability of your business – having the motivation, support,
and accountability of other like-minded business owners in your corner
is invaluable. That power, when teamed with the expert guidance and
insight of an experienced business coach is what will equip you to get
twice as much done in half as much time.
If that is something that sounds appealing to you, we�d love to have you
join the Business Owner�s Coaching Club and help you take your
business to a whole new level. Check us out while we�re accepting
applications to join the club at:
http://BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com
PPS: To stay current with what�s going on in the blogosphere, be sure to
be a regular reader of the blog we set up for you at:
http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com
Happy Blogging!
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Why Hestitate?
Take ACTION today!
Upon the plains of hesitation
are the bleached bones of countless millions,
who on the threshold of victory…
sat down to wait,
and in waiting,
they died.
~ Author Unknown
I guess he waited too long to
put his name on this quote пЃЉ
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Recommended Cool Tools
You’ve just reached our FAVORITE section of writing this book!
GoodKeywords
Figure 19 GoodKeywords
From http://www.goodkeywords.com...
“Good Keywords is free Windows software for finding the perfect set
of keywords for your web pages. Knowing the right keywords to
target is very important because your site should provide what
people are searching for.”
Keyword research is important and your blog should contain keywords
that target what your audience is looking for.
Our Take: We use this tool frequently for quick checks on keywords for
new sites or content we are working on. It�s very handy and it�s free.
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WordTracker
Figure 20 WordTracker Home Page
From http://www.wordtracker.com...
―We compile a database of terms that people search for. You enter some
keywords, and we tell you how often people search for them, and also tell
you how many competing sites use those keywords.
Wordtracker helps you find all keyword combinations that bear any
relation to your business or service - many of which you might
never have considered. You'll find out how popular these keywords
really are.
Then for each major search engine, we'll show you the chances of
making the top 10.”
Our Take: WordTracker is pay-per-use keyword research tool. It is very
comprehensive and highly recommended for serious keyword competitive
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analysis. Access can be for 1 day to 1 year. You can pay for a few days
access and get some significant research done. Very good for developing
your keyword list.
BlogHarbor.com
Figure 21 BlogHarbor Home Page
From http://www.blogharbor.com ...
“BlogHarbor offers the easiest and most powerful way to publish on
the web. With easy-to-use templates and advanced weblogging features,
bloggers and businesses both find BlogHarbor weblogs the best web
publishing solution available today!”
Our Take: BlogHarbor is our number blog hosting service provider of
choice. Their service is outstanding and their price and value is industry
leading. BlogHarbor had many advanced features like excellent site
statistics for visits, page views and RSS views, integrated Podcasting,
dynamic category RSS feed generation, secure content based on user and
group permissions, built in support for content subscriptions via e-mail,
built-in site search and much more!
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BlogHarbor is built for serious content management and publishing.
They recently expanded their capacity for greater support audio and
video publishing. This is definitely one service you should check out as
you decide on your service provider.
TypePad.com
Figure 22 TypePad Home Page
From http://www.typepad.com …
“TypePad is a powerful, hosted weblogging service that gives users
the richest set of features to immediately share and publish
information -- like travel logs, journals and digital scrapbooks -- on
the Web. TypePad lets people communicate, publicly or privately,
with the audience of their choosing.”
Our Take: TypePad is a great service. They have excellent and responsive
support and are very user friendly. One of the biggest strengths of
TypePad is their post scheduling feature which is can be an important
content management strategy for the solo entrepreneur.
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TypePad�s offering is smaller in the amount of bandwidth and file space
compared to BlogHarbor yet they do offer great flexibility for
customization and template design.
This is an excellent service for new bloggers who don�t plan to use a lot of
graphics, audio and video.
RSS Submit
Figure 23 RSS Submit
From http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html ...
―RSS Submit is the quickest way to submit your RSS Feeds to the RSS
search engines. RSS Submit automates the process of submitting your RSS
feeds, publishing your content, and getting more traffic.‖
Our Take: RSS Submit is a must have tool for you promoting your blog
content. RSS Submit allows you to introduce your blog and RSS content
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by automating the process of submitting your RSS feeds to 50 different
blog and RSS directories.
Submitting your feeds is one of things you will need to do as you get
started with promoting your content. This is a must have tool to use. We
definitely use this one.
E.Webscapes
Figure 24 ElegantWebscapes Home Page
From http://www.elegantwebscapes.com
―Whether you are a blogger or a business owner - Webscapes offers
dynamic packages and services that are fully customizable to your
needs.‖
Our Take: Elegant Webscapes is owned by Lisa Sabin. She is a very
skilled web and blog site designer and she also runs her own blog
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hosting service. She is an excellent business women and we specifically
recommend her services for site design. You should seriously consider
the impact your site design can have in helping you communicate your
message to your audience. You can view a sample of her work over at the
success motivation site at the Upgrade Your Mind Blog.
Lisa is fantastic at executing designs according to what you envision and
she takes very good care of her clients. Consider Lisa by giving here a call
and consulting with her. We do not get referral bonuses for any of tools
we are recommending here. These are services and tools that we�ve had
great experiences with and would like for you know about as you start
your journey with blogs.
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FeedBurner
Figure 25 FeedBurner Home Page
From http://www.feedburner.com …
“FeedBurner is an RSS/Atom post-processing service that allows
publishers to enhance their feeds in a variety of interesting and
powerful ways. By republishing their feeds through FeedBurner,
publishers gain detailed feed statistics, maximum feed format
compatibility, "shockproofing" to absorb bandwidth spikes, and
more.”
Our Take: Most blog software applications provide poor statistics and
that is especially true of getting statistics on your RSS Feed activity.
FeedBurner provides statistics that help you determine the popular of
your content and monitor your subscriber base. There are too many
features to discuss here so we recommend that you check this service
out. It is a valuable tool that you need to consider as part of your toolset.
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You can always email if you have any questions about this service and
definitely check out their blog. They provide lots of insightful information
about their service and RSS feeds. Highly recommended.
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FeedDemon
Figure 26 FeedDemon RSS Reader
http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/ …
MyTake: Just the best darn RSS reader/news aggregator on the planet.
FeedDemon is free to try and then you buy. There are many free RSS
feed readers on but FeedDemon is worth every penny in purchase price.
This software simply rocks.
Easy organization of feeds, podcasting support, search and filter
subscribed RSS feeds, drag and drop subscribing of RSS feeds,
integrated browser views, and much, much more. Check this tool out the
buy it. It�s only $29.95. You must have this tool for your RSS feed
reading and management.
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Resource Directory
These resources are here to support your blogging endeavors. The links
provided here were functional at the time of this writing. Please forward
any link errors to tpierce@how2blog.com.
Resource descriptions were taken from the respective product and
service web sites. Each product or service, description and related legal
product items are the respective copyrights of their owners, authors and
creators.
Enjoy!
Free Blog Publishing Software
This is a list of free blog publishing software applications that are
installed on your own servers with the exception of Blogger.com
which is a free hosted blog application. If you want absolution control
over the technical details and configuration, this may be your best
option.
WordPress
http://www.wordpress.org
WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform
with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
Blogger
http://www.blogger.com
a blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts,
interact with people, and more. All for FREE.
Movable Type
http://www.moveabletype.org
Movable Type is the premiere weblog publishing tool for individuals,
organizations, and web developers.
Greymatter
http://www.noahgrey.com/greysoft
With fully integrated comments, searching, file uploading and image
handling, completely customizable output through dozens of templates
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and variables, multiple author support, and many other features while
having perhaps the simplest installation process and easiest-to-use
interface of any program offering this level of functionality.
LiveJournal
http://www.livejournal.com
LiveJournal is a simple-to-use (but extremely powerful and customizable)
personal publishing ("blogging") tool, built on open source software.
Xanga
http://www.xanga.com
Xanga is a community of online diaries and journals. You can easily start
your own free journal, share thoughts with your friends and meet new
friends, too!
Fee-based Blog Publishing Software
This is a list of fee-based blog publishing software for hosted services.
You will pay a monthly fee. These are very affordable services and
may be your best option if you want to focus more on publishing and
less on technical support, administration and configuration.
BlogHarbor
http://www.blogharbor.com
BlogHarbor offers the easiest and most powerful way to publish on the
web. With easy-to-use templates and advanced weblogging features,
bloggers and businesses both find BlogHarbor weblogs the best web
publishing solution available today!
TypePad
http://www.typepad.com
TypePad is a powerful, hosted weblogging service that gives users the
richest set of features to immediately share and publish information –
like travel logs, journals and digital scrapbooks – on the Web. TypePad
lets people communicate, publicly or privately, with the audience of their
choosing.
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Quikonnex
http://www.quikonnex.com/944
The philosophy behind the development of Quikonnex is to create an
email-alternative publishing system which keeps publishers and their
subscribers "quickly" connected. Q Channels offer two-way
communications, with both comments and QMTP, so that subscribers
can respond to their publishers right in their channels, no email
necessary. Free web conferencing, which is available to all members, is
another way for individuals and small to medium business owners to
stay "quikly" connected to their customers.
SquareSpace
http://www.squarespace.com/do/display/external/Frontpage
Squarespace is a managed (no downloads) publishing service that lets
you effortlessly maintain complex multi-page web sites.
UserLand
http://www.userland.com
UserLand Software is a leading provider of web site and weblog publishing tools
for organizations and individuals.
Blog Editing Client Software
These Windows-based blog editors allow you edit and lay out your
posts offline and even post to multiple blogs at different locations.
They provide greater flexibility and ease for you than you may find
with your web-based blog editor tools.
w.bloggar (freeware)
http://www.wbloggar.com
The w.bloggar is an application that targets it to be an interface between
the user and his blog(s), in other words, is a Post and Template editor,
with several features and resources that the browser based blog editors
cannot offer. Another great advantage of w.bloggar is that it is compatible
with most of the weblog systems available, allowing an advanced user to
have one only interface to several accounts hosted on several different
sites, under different publishing systems.
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BlogJet
http://www.blogjet.com
BlogJet is a weblog client for Windows that allows you to manage your
blog without opening a browser. It is easy to use and elegant.
Blapp
http://blapp.sourceforge.net/
Web home of Blapp, a Mac OS X blosxom weblog editor.
XJournal
http://www.speirs.org/xjournal/
Xjournal is a Mac OS X client for the Livejournal.com weblog service.
RSS News Readers (Aggregators)
RSS News Readers are client side software like web browsers that
allow you to subscribe to various content sources and get alerts to
updates. These are very powerful tools for personal information
management. You can stay up to date with your areas of interest.
By receiving updates through your news reader on your computer
desktop area, you no longer have to visit multiple sites to get your
content update. The information comes to you, and even then you
only need to response to those alerts whose headlines and
descriptions are of interest to you.
FeedDemon
http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/index.asp
FeedDemon enables you to quickly read and gather information from
hundreds of web sites - without having to visit them. Don't waste any
more time checking your favorite web sites for updates. Instead, use
FeedDemon and make them come to you.
RSSReader - free
http://www.rssreader.com
RssReader is a program to read RSS and Atom news feeds. RssReader
collects news in the background at user configurable intervals and warns
with a little pop-up in the system tray that a new message has arrived.
You can click the news headline to see a short description of the news
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and click or open the original news web page in an RssReader browser or
default browser window.
Pluck - free
http://www.pluck.com
Seamlessly integrated with Internet Explorer, Pluck retrieves, organizes,
and automatically delivers your favorite web stuff in a single-view. Pluck
lets you browse multiple sites at once, share stories and folders with
anyone, and it even finds things when you are not online. Pluck also
organizes and stores all your Web information so you can access it from
anywhere.
SharpReader - Free
http://www.sharpreader.net
SharpReader is an RSS/Atom Aggregator for Windows, created by Luke
Hutteman.
BlogExpress - Donationware - beginners
http://www.usablelabs.com/productBlogExpress.html
BlogExpress is a full-featured .NET application for content syndication
(and also called a news aggregator or a blog reader). BlogExpress
supports all RSS versions and ATOM. It can read contents from any
Weblogs (a.k.a., blog) and any Web sites that provide XML files for
content syndication (generally, a file with .rss, .rdf, or .xml extension).
NetnewsWire Lite - MacOS
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire
NetNewsWire is an easy-to-use RSS Web news reader for Mac OS X. Its
familiar three-paned interface similar to Apple Mail and Outlook Express
can fetch and display news from thousands of different web sites and
weblogs, making it quick and easy to keep up with the latest news.
Liferea - Linux
http://liferea.sourceforge.net
Liferea is an abbreviation for Linux Feed Reader. It is a news aggregator
for online news feeds. It supports a number of different feed formats
including RSS/RDF, CDF, Atom, OCS, and OPML. There are many other
news readers available, but these others are not available for Linux or
require many extra libraries to be installed. Liferea tries to fill this gap by
creating a fast, easy-to-use, easy-to-install news aggregator for
GTK/GNOME.
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Web-based RSS News Readers (Aggregators)
Web-based RSS News Readers operate just like the like news readers
that you install on your computer, except that they are kept on a
service located on the Internet and read with your Internet browser.
These are great alternatives for those using a computing platform
other than Windows, since most client side RSS news readers are
Windows-based.
Rocket RSS Reader - Free
http://reader.rocketinfo.com/desktop
The Rocket RSS Reader is a FREE personal news & information tool that
allows you to search, subscribe, read and track content from thousands
of RSS & Atom news feeds and Weblog sources.
Radio UserLand
http://radio.userland.com/newsagg
Every hour Radio's aggregator reads the "feeds" you're subscribed to, as
few as a half-dozen, or as many as you like. Because Radio's aggregator
is integrated with a powerful weblog tool, you can view it as a "content
router." When you see an item that you want to amplify with your own
comments, or pass on to others in your organization or interest group,
with two clicks it can be on the home page of your weblog.
BlogLines
http://www.bloglines.com
Bloglines is the most comprehensive, integrated service for searching,
subscribing, publishing and sharing news feeds, blogs, and rich Web
content. It's free and easy-to-use.
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Contextual Ad Networks
These resources will allow you run contextual ads within your blog
along the lines of Google Adsense. Remember to observe Terms Of
Service as some services like Google prohibit the use of their ads on
the same page (not site) as another competing contextual ad network.
BlogAds
http://www.blogads.com
Blogads is a network of bloggers that accept advertising. Blog readers are
hyper-literate, highly networked, influential and affluent. You get more
than click-thrus, you get mind-share.
Casale Media
http://www.casalemedia.com
Casale Media built the world's first ever, full default campaign
management system. The intuitive and easy-to-use web-based system
gives publishers total control over every conceivable aspect of default
campaign management. Publishers on the network are thrilled with the
high payouts, dependable payment and quality advertisers Casale Media
provides.
FastClick
http://www.fastclick.com
Earn an industry high 65% monthly payout on all advertising revenue
your web site generates! Fastclick pays by the 25th of the month for the
previous month by check or Pay Pal.
Text Ads Dot Biz
http://www.textads.biz
textads.biz provides a mechanism for you to make money by serving
unobtrusive textads on your site. We provide all the infrastructure
necessary in order to collect payments and allow those people who have
bought ads to view detailed campaign statistics.
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Google Adsense
http://www.google.com/adsense
Google AdSense offers more ways for you to earn money while making
your site more useful for visitors. Along with targeted advertising for your
content pages, you can add a Google search box to your site and show
targeted ads on search results pages. When visitors click on these ads,
Google pays you.
Blogsnob
http://blogsnob.idya.net/
Blogsnob is a free advertising service for members of the blogging
community. It's simple to use, and easier to join.
MarketBanker
http://www.marketbanker.com/mb/
MarketBanker is the advertising service that enables the people who visit
your site to purchase ads directly on your site. You decide which ad
products to offer and what to charge for them. MarketBanker serves your
ads, bills your advertisers, and sends you a monthly check.
RSS Ad Networks
These services help you with advertising in RSS feeds. This is a
shortlist, but more of these types of services are beginning to appear
as RSS increasingly becomes a more adopted channel for rich media
communication.
Pheedo
http://www.pheedo.info/index.html
Pheedo delivers performance based marketing services and technologies
to help advertisers grow their business. We also help publishers monetize
their passion without compromising reader experience.
RssAds
http://www.rssads.com/default.htm
RSSAds is an ad network that will provide a full-service outsourced ad
bureau that makes it easy to buy and sell ads in RSS feeds, including
technical integration, publisher approval process, and payments. We are
currently signing up publishers to be a part of our ad network.
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Affiliate Networks
Your list of affiliate networks with merchants offering a wide variety of
products and services that you can promote via affiliate relationships
with them.
Clix Galore
http://www.clixgalore.com/
clixGalore is a large affiliate network comprised of over 3500+ Merchants
and ten of thousands of Affiliates across our three networks in the USA,
UK, Japan and Australia.
Affiliate Sensor
http://www.affiliatesensor.com/?u=pjunction
Get the ease of Pay-Per-Click publishing with the income of the best
affiliate programs!
Commission Junction
http://www.cj.com
Commission Junction provides publishers the opportunity to earn more
revenue from their audience on a pay-for-performance basis. Publishers
can partner with hundreds of advertisers and access millions of ads via
the BFAST Partner Gateway and the CJ Marketplace.
ClickBank
http://www.clickbank.com
Earn sales commissions from 1% to 75% by linking customers to your
choice of over 10,000 digital products ClickBank sells. Sign up free and
start earning commissions today!
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
Starting in 1996, Amazon Associates program was the first online
affiliate program of its kind. Today, it is the largest and most successful
online affiliate program, with over 900,000 members joining worldwide.
(Click the Join Associates link at the bottom of the home page.)
LinkShare.com
http://www.linkshare.com
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Share A Sale
http://www.shareasale.com
shareasale.com allows independent and corporate web sites the
opportunity to match their existing content with links to other web sites
and get paid for it. Basically, you sign up for shareasale.com, browse
through our available Merchant programs, and select the ones that are
best for you. Whenever someone goes to your site and clicks through a
banner that you selected from shareasale.com, you earn money: a
portion of that sale, or a fixed amount for a lead or hit.
Publish, Be Read, and Get Paid!
Listed here are a few resources that will help you generate income
directly from your blog articles.
BlogIt!
http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Affil/?52657
This is a marketplace network for getting paid as you blog, a
performance-based compensation plan. The more people read your
articles, the higher percentage of compensation from the network. This is
a great way to promote and generate traffic to your blog.
Blogversations
http://blogversations.com
Leverage your authority and audience to earn money - without losing
control over what you've got to say. Turn your ideas, criticisms, opinions,
and reader share into money - and not muddy up your site with clunky
ads in the process. Engage your audience with thought-provoking issues
and questions.
Recommend Products
http://www.aiyo.com/index.do
AiYo AdFavorites allows you to embed your recommendations on your
blog or web site. You make 5-15% of the purchase when any of your
recommendations turns into a purchase. Recommendations may be for
any product on Amazon, eBay or the AiYo network.
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Promoting Your Blog Search Engines
Submit to the search engines.
(These are obvious… right?)
Google - URL
http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Yahoo - URL
http://www.yahoo.com/addurl.html
Lycos
http://insite.lycos.com/
MSN
http://advertising.msn.com/msnsites/SubmitSite.asp
AskJeeves
https://sitesubmit.ask.com/Main/login.jsp
AllTheWeb
http://www.alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/submit_site
AOL
http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/add.jsp
HotBot
http://insite.lycos.com/
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com/addurl/default
GigaBlast
http://www.gigablast.com/addurl
DMOZ
http://dmoz.org/add.html
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Promoting Your Blog with Blog Directories
This is a list of blog directories to submit your blog to. Some of these
may accept both your site URL (www) and your RSS URL.
Feedster
http://www.feedster.com/add.php
Feedster is a rapidly growing news search engine that provides easy
access to relevant and up-to-date information. Mainstream information
providers, as well as hundreds of thousands of weblogs, are syndicating
their information using a newly popular XML syndication standard called
RSS (Really Simple Syndication).
Bloglines
http://www.bloglines.com
Bloglines is the most comprehensive, integrated service for searching,
subscribing, publishing and sharing news feeds, blogs, and rich Web
content. It's free and easy to use.
Blogdex
http://www.blogdex.net
Blogdex crawls all of the weblogs in its database every time they are
updated and collects the links that have been made since the last time it
was updated. The system then looks across all weblogs and generates a
list of fastest spreading ideas. This is the list shown on the front page.
For each of these links, further detail is provided as to where the link
was found, and at what time.
Moreover
http://w.moreover.com/main_site/aboutus/sourcesubmission.html
Moreover Technologies is a provider of real-time information
management solutions, delivering essential online information in time to
impact business decisions.
NewsIsFree
http://www.newsisfree.com
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NewsIsFree is a web site designed to let you access thousands of news
sources with a powerful and flexible portal for browsing, indexing and
publishing news headlines.
Technorati
http://www.technorati.com/developers/ping.html
Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going
on in the blogosphere — the world of weblogs.
Syndic8
http://www.syndic8.com/suggest.php?Mode=data – RSS Feed URL Only
http://www.syndic8.com/suggest.php?Mode=site – Web site URL Only
This is the place to come to find RSS and Atom news feeds on a wide
variety of topics.
DayPop
http://www.daypop.com/info/submit.htm
Daypop is a current events search engine. Daypop crawls the living web
at least once a day to bring you the latest information relevant to your
searches.
Blog Search Engine
http://www.blogsearchengine.com/add_link.html
The blog Search Engine is a web search resource for finding weblogs.
Search for blogs of all kinds. Own a blog? Then please submit it to the
blog Search Engine.
Eatonweb Portal
http://portal.eatonweb.com/add.php
One of Forbes Best of the Web, (from the web site) ...this portal is a labor
of love. It started back in early 1999 when there were less than 50 known
weblogs-there were a lot more than that out there, they just hadn't been
discovered. As more kept turning up or getting started, I kept adding
them to my list. It's grown a little since then.
Blog Universe
http://www.bloguniverse.com/radlinks/index.php
Blog directory and blog tool resource. Choose your category first, then
select ‗Add a Site.�
Popdex
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
Popdex came about because an inflated technological ego thought that a
current-events news & link spider could be built in a few days. A month
later, after many Mountain Dew filled nights and weekends, an index was
born.
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Blogarama
http://www.blogarama.com/index.php?show=add
Blogarama is the best free directory of web logs (blogs) and journal sites.
With the explosive increase of blogs and blog related sites, the blogsphere
needs a single coherent voice, a place where people can go to navigate
this ever-changing, ever-growing garden of information. You take the
time and care to maintain your blog; now you can help people find it.
Globe of Blogs
http://www.globeofblogs.com/register.php
Inspired by diarist.net, I found that there were no weblog registries that
listed weblogs in several different ways. I wanted to go beyond just basic
title and location listings, with author name, birthday, gender, age, and
topic. Thus, GoB was born.
Blizg
http://blizg.com/
Blizg is a blog index that focuses on metadata. We want to promote the
use of metadata in the blogging community. We're also excited about
finding new ways to use metadata that will create useful connections
between and among blogs.
Online Marketing Links
http://onlinemarketinglinks.com/add_link.html
Open Weblog Directory
http://www.weblogs.nu/directory/?add=top
Please make sure to read the requirements. Click the Requirements link
at the top of the page.
Blogster
http://blogster.mytopsitelist.com/site_sign_up.php?list_id=top25
Blogster.Net - Top Blogs is a top site list where you can exchange visitors
with other related sites. We are better than banner exchanges in that we
will almost always send to your site more visitors than what you sent us.
As a result, we can drive tremendous amounts of traffic to your site.
BlogLinker
http://www.bloglinker.com/
blogLinker.com is a free tool to manage your web links on your blog/web
site and to dramatically increase traffic to your site. It can be embedded
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anywhere in your web page and can be easily configured to fit the
existing design of your site. BlogLinker is the only tool of its kind.
RSS Top 55
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/02/05/rsstop55_best_blog_direc
tory.htm
Where To Submit My RSS Feeds And Weblog URLs To Get More
Exposure, Visibility And Reach. An extended list of directories to submit
your blog and RSS feeds to.
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Promoting Your Blog with Web Rings
Joining a webring is a great way to promote your blog and generate
traffic. Listed here are a few ―ring‖ networks that may work for you.
Xanga Blogrings
http://www.xanga.com/groups/default.aspx
Xanga is a community of online diaries and journals. You can easily start
your own free journal, share thoughts with your friends and meet new
friends, too.
RingSurf
http://ww.ringsurf.com
RingSurf is a completely Free service that lets users quickly, easily, and
reliably navigate thousands of related web sites organized by areas of
interest.
Resources for Writing Prompts and Ideas Generators
These resources are good to get some great ideas and jump-start your
writing. This is a short list but a good start for fighting bloggers block.
5 minute stories
http://5ms.next12exits.com/
five minutes of pure creativity. No strings attached.
Blog Ideas
http://www.blogideas.com/
Are you scratching your head trying to find something to write about?
Well, by all means steal one of our ideas and make it your own! These
topics are meant to spark a thought, remind you of your past, or give you
an excuse to vent.
Daily Dirt
http://lick-shots.com/dd/
This a simple and fantastic site for writing prompts. You guys may be
challenged a little by the Janet Jackson (Damita Jo) graphic.
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Mobile Blogging (Moblogging)
Resources that allow you to blog even while you are away from your
computer.
Phlogger
http://www.whisktech.com/phlogger/
Phlogger is an extension to your blog. When you blog, you usually have
to be at home online, but what Phlogger does is it allows you to blog thru
your phone, by SMS or MMS, and whatever you type will go into your
blog almost immediately, anytime, anywhere. Perfect for while you're out
and you're hit with a sudden urge to blog something to all your readers,
before you forget it once you're home. Too cool to be true? Nope, it's here
and it's free!
TextAmerica
http://www.textamerica.com/
This is a very nice mobile blogging and photo journal service. I really like
this one. Sign-up is very easy.
Phlog.net
http://www.phlog.net/
Rather than wait until you get home or near a computer to write about
your day, why not write about it as it happens? Here at phlog.net we are
creating a community of phone-bloggers. Once you've registered with us,
you can send your phlog entries from your phone to our community
using email or MMS - and have them viewable to the world in seconds.
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Photoblogging
This list of photoblog hosted photo blog resources will allow you to
easily try your hand at photoblogging.
Photoblogs.Org
http://www.photoblogs.org/
Photoblogs.org is a resource designed to help people find all kinds of
photoblogs. If you're not sure what a photoblog is, check out the FAQ.
Our database currently holds listings for 5,564 photoblogs in 65
countries and 29 languages.
Fotolog.net
http://www.fotolog.net
Create Your Own Free Fotolog and join the greatest worldwide online
photo sharing community!
ZimoBlog
http://www.zimoblog.com/
ZIMoBLOG is a blogging site that lets you post pictures and comments to
your own blogs or search and view other people�s blogs, posting
comments and rating your favorite photos.
Travel Blogging
What is a travelblog?
A travelblog is a web site that you can update from any cybercafe in
the world. You can add your stories and digital photos whenever you
want. Send the travelblog address (URL) to family and friends, who
will be able to see how you are and what you're doing, and even leave
their own messages and thoughts about what you've written.
BootsnAll
http://www.bootsnall.com/
The BootsnAll Travel Community is made up of all our members, their
experiences (in the form of travel stories, travel guides, travelogues,
message board discussions, etc.) and their desire to explore and learn,
and to help others on their own journeys. Members are aware and accept
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that they may be contacted via email by other members; however, there
is no obligation to do anything more than that.
MyTripJournal.com
http://www.mytripjournal.com
First you do and then you tell. But, imagine being able to do and tell at
the same time! To share your experiences with family and friends as you
go!
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Blog References & Research
Weblogs Compendium
http://www.lights.com/weblogs/tools.html
Welcome to The Weblogs Compendium. Here you can find everything you
need to know about weblogs/blogs: hosting services, tools, directories,
definitions, RSS readers and resources...
History Of Weblogs
http://www.userland.com/theHistoryOfWeblogs
Blogroots
http://www.blogroots.com
This blog is a public project to track news in, around, and about the
weblog world. The blog is a combination of remote post excerpts from
numerous weblogs and local posts contributed by members. (Local posts
are highlighted yellow—and can have comments.)
Weblogs Compendium
http://www.lights.com/weblogs/index.html
Welcome to The Weblogs Compendium. Here you can find everything you
need to know about weblogs/blogs: hosting services, tools, directories,
definitions, RSS readers and resources...
The Geek Philospher
http://geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/blogLinksTools.htm
Good list of blogging tools.
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Charting Blog Trends
Track Blog stats and trends with these resources.
Technorati
http://www.technorati.com
So Technorati tracks the number of links, and the perceived relevance of
blogs, as well as the real-time nature of blogging. Technorati allows you
to track who�s linking to you and who�s linking to who.
BlogPulse
http://www.blogpulse.com/
BlogPulse is an automated trend discovery system for blogs and a portal
into the blogosphere.
Blogdex
http://www.blogdex.net
The system then looks across all weblogs and generates a list of fastest
spreading ideas.
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Got Mail? Notify Users of Blog Updates via Email
Here are services that send either an email or instant message to your
readers each time you post an update to your blog. Unfortunately,
these notifications do not give the subscriber any info about your
posts. RSS is more effective than email updates, as it won�t get lost in
a sea of other messages, and provides headlines and descriptions for
your content so users only visit if they are really interested.
These resources may be a good interim solution if you are
transitioning a current email list over to RSS updates, or you are
building your audience and some of your readers may not be familiar
with a news reader but comfortable with emails, instant messages
and browsers. Use these resources to keep your readers coming back
while helping get comfortable with news readers.
Blog Change Bot
http://www.neuronwave.com/bcb/
Blog Change Bot is a blog monitoring service which updates you via AOL
Instant Messanger when a blog you are interested is updated.
Bloglet
http://www.bloglet.com
Bloglet offers an email subscription service for your blog.
Blogarithm
http://www.blogarithm.com/
Receive change notification via email.
Bot A Blog
http://www.botablog.com/
Receive SIMPLE text email alerts when blogs updates (no images, no
html)
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Tips on Writing & Creating a Better Blog
Writing tips resources
How To Write A Better Blog
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writebetter/
Ten Tips For A Better Blog
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/ten_tips.html
Business Blogging Classroom
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/index.php?cat=3
Videos to get you up and running with your blog
Video for How to Set up Your First Blog
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=13
Video for How to Host Your Blog
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=24
Video for How To Be a Blog Reader
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=11
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Steps to Getting Started with your First Blog:
Feel free to make a copy of the next two pages to share with a friend who is
getting excited about starting her first business blog.
You can get started blogging - for fr>ee - by going to the Business
Blogging Classroom category on http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com
and read all the tips, strategies and secrets of how to boost your
business using business blogs and RSS technology – in an easy to
understand format.
OR – simply go to: http://marketingwithbusinessblogs.com/ and get a
F.R.E.E. eBook on Boosting Your Business Using Business Blogs, and
an audio coaching session with worksheets to follow along and take
vigorous notes to organize your learning.
Below are a few direct links taken from
AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com that will give you audios and videos to
listen to and watch to get you setting up your first blog in less than
10 minutes, AND get you on the fast track toward business blogging
success!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What’s a blog?
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=5
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
10-minute VIDEO - How to set up your First Blog - in 600 seconds!
(for beginner bloggers looking for a FREE, easy to set up blog)
How to Blog Video: ―Setting Up Your First Blog‖
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
How to become a Blog Reader – for FREE
17-minute VIDEO - - How to set up your FREE MyYahoo Reader
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=11
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
How to Use an Advanced RSS Aggregator (aka: Blog Reader)
15-minute VIDEO - How to use RSS, and set up FeedDemon
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=12
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Your Business Blogging Classroom:
45-minute PODCAST ~ PART ONE:
How to Increase Traffic, Build Trust, & Win More Clients with Your
Business Blog
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=117
(Hear what marketing guru, Seth Godin has to say about the power of
blogging.)
45-minute PODCAST ~ PART TWO:
“Boost Your Business with Your Own Business Blog”
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/?p=118
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Whether you�re new to business blogging or you�re blogging for your
business with little results — this two-part podcast for business owners
will reveal the core secrets to the successful integration of business
blogging, business podcasts, and RSS into your overall marketing
strategy.
With what you�ll learn in this two-part podcast you�ll have a huge jumpstart on your competitors. And you�ll have a decided advantage over the
vast majority of business bloggers struggling to get it right on their own.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
For more educational links use the archive beginning page for the
Business Blogging Classroom
http://www.advancedbusinessblogging.com/index.php?cat=3&paged=7
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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Blogs making the news!
http://starbulletin.com/2005/01/09/business/success.html
Published Sunday, January 9, 2005
Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek
and John-Paul Micek
Ready or not, here come the blogs!
ON Sept. 8, 2004 a power shift that's been simmering below the surface for years
finally boiled over into national recognition.
Like Goliath being slain with a lowly slingshot, the mainstream media (in the
form of Dan Rather) came to the undeniable realization that they were no longer
in control of information.
Within 30 minutes of the now-infamous TV special on "60 Minutes II" broadcast
bloggers were digging into the facts and questioning the validity of what had just
been presented by the 42-year broadcast veteran. In less than a week, CBS
admitted it could "no longer vouch" for memos questioning President Bush's
National Guard service. And just weeks after the November election, Rather
announced his retirement.
No matter what your political affiliation is, this incident is one very public
example of the power of blogging. Blogging is quickly accelerating into a
steeping, sloping growth curve of popularity and application.
ABC News selected Bloggers as "People of the Year," and Merriam-Webster
declared "blog" its "word of the year."
It puts the power of information and the impact of influence in the hands of the
average Joe. It makes instant publishing a reality, regardless of your technical
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skill level. And it's a business growth tool that the savvy small business owner
can no longer afford to ignore.
It's the world's oldest, most effective form of communication and marketing on
steroids!
So why is blogging gaining popularity so quickly? What's the attraction? And
why is it so darn powerful?
The answer is quite simple when you consider history and human nature.
Blogging is an unstoppable technological force that exponentially multiplies the
world's oldest, most favorite, and most trusted form of information sharing -word of mouth.
Think about it. Who do you trust the most to give you advice, recommendations,
and information about opportunities, purchases or choices?
If you're like the vast majority of people, it's the opinion of someone you know
and trust. Someone who you feel is just like you. That type of trust comes from
personal communication, social interaction, and the joining together of likeminded individuals.
Blogs and the blogging community deliver all that -- and more.
Now is the time to master business blogging and put it to use for you! Do it
before other proactive business owners step into your ideal niche and muscle you
out of this primetime opportunity.
You can learn more about blogs and business blogging in particular at
www.advancedbusinessblogging.com.
See the Columnists section for some of their past articles.
John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach and COO at RPM Success Group Inc.
Reach him at JPM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.
Deborah Cole Micek, chief executive officer of RPM Success Group, is a business
success coach and life strategist. Reach her at DCM@RPMsuccess.com or tollfree at (888) 334-8151.
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Business Blogging Student Gets Press Coverage While Boosting Her
Bottom Line:
Blurb taking from the May 20, 2005 print edition
Retailer's blog communicates efficiently with staff, customers
By Stewart Yerton
Pacific Business News
Stewart begins his article noting, ―When the staff of Off The Mat yoga
equipment store in Kaimuki needed to communicate with each other in
the past, they often would use a simple tool: Post-it notes stuck to the
computer terminal near the cash register.
Now they use something decidedly cooler: the shop's Internet Web log.‖
…"The owner or businessperson can have no technical knowledge
whatsoever, and they can update their Web site," says John-Paul Micek,
an Oahu-based partner in RPM Success Group, a consulting firm that
runs the Web site www.howtobusinessblog.com. "It's no more difficult
than working on a normal [computer] desktop."
Micek, who is advising Beaton on setting up her blogs, says it is
important for business owners to focus on serving people, and not just
pushing their products. This, he says, will help the blog take on a life of
its own and grow organically by bringing in traffic. To this end, Beaton
has created the "Off The Mat Informer."
Located at www.offthemathawaii.com yogablog, the site has information
about more than a dozen yoga and Pilates studios and personal trainers.
"When I first did my mission statement for my business plan, I really
wanted to help yoga, to spread yoga to as many people as I can," Beaton
says. "So it was almost like I was sitting around waiting for this to come
along and help me do this."
The blog has put Off The Mat, which sells items like mats, foam blocks
and yoga togs, at the center of Hawaii's yoga universe.
For the full article published in Hawaii�s #1 Business publication, visit:
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/05/23/smallb2.html?
page=1
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MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
Business Blogging Student Gets Press Coverage While Boosting Her
Bottom Line
Posted on Monday 6 June 2005
Here�s another reason you�ll want to add to the list of why insightful
business owners should learn advanced business blogging strategies —
mainstream press coverage.
After barely completing the ―How to Master Business Blogging‖ multimedia coaching course, and within just three weeks of completing two
new blogs, one of our clients was profiled in Hawaii�s #1 weekly business
publication Pacific Business News (and we got interviewed as well. )
The business without blogging
Vanessa Beaton has a thriving retail store in downtown Honolulu, but
she�s always had a challenge with the staggered work schedules of the
―Off The Mat‖ team. Because of the mix of full-timers and part-timers it�s
been difficult for her to consistently communicate with her team so
everyone is on the same page.
When the staff of the Off The Mat yoga store needed to communicate with
each other in the past, they often would use a simple tool: Post-it notes
stuck to the computer terminal near the cash register.
Now they use something decidedly cooler, and infinitely more effective:
the shop�s team blog.
The new business blogger immediately boosts her bottom line
Titled ―Team OTM: Off The Mat�s Team-Building Blog,‖ the site lets the
staff communicate with each other by reading and posting messages
from their home computers. Messages can be read instantly. And Off The
Mat�s owners Jim and Vanessa Beaton don�t have to come into the store
to read those old-fangled Post-it notes — something that�s especially
convenient now that the Beatons have their hands full with their 6month-old son, Briscoe.
In addition to policies and procedures, Vanessa is able to communicate
with her employee team using the Team OTM Blog. Now they get updates
on new products, merchandise soon to be added, and general
information on the company in addition to any other ―corporate
housekeeping‖ that Vanessa wants to bring everyone up to speed on.
―I don�t have to repeat myself, they don�t have to repeat themselves,‖
Vanessa says of the staff. ―Everybody�s on the same page.‖
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This is another example of the diverse uses of business blogs and how
the technology can boost your bottom line without having any direct
connection with your marketing and client relationship building.
Vanessa is also getting increased traffic and new customers from her
second blog http://offthemathawaii.com/yogablog/ too! Our hats off to
Vanessa for taking the business blogging ball and running for some
serious scoring early in the game!
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MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Without these fabulous people, the book you’re holding in your hand would
not be what it is today.
David L. Hancock, our Publisher from Morgan James Publishing, LLC.
One of the most exciting days of producing this book was meeting you,
and getting our book picked up by a New York Publisher! We�re thrilled to
begin this partnership together with you, and look forward to partnering
on all the books still in our head – that need to get to paper.
Carol Williams, our meticulous and tireless editor – thanks for making
our words communicate our message! It�s great having a quality
controller making sure we�ve dotted our i�s and crossed our t�s! Not to
mention keeping us in check to not break TOO many grammatical laws.
Our Students of the Multi-media Marketing With Business Blogs
Course! Especially for those of you who joined our pre-launch program,
working with us through our business blogging trials and tribulations in
order to test, measure and track what works best. YOU ROCK! All the
Best!
YOU! Our readers! Thanks for picking up this book and APPLYING what
you learn – and then – telling a friend!
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MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
About Your Authors and Coaches
Thomas L. Pierce, engineer and founding member
of the Professional Bloggers Association, has been
leading the blogosphere as he brings an exhaustive
amount of knowledge and research on blogging to
people all over the world.
His ultra-popular blog can be found at:
http://how2blog4funandprofit.com/ and is read by
thousands of people every day.
Pakii's blog http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog highlights
what's happening in both the blogosphere and podcasting community.
He's on our blog roll, and we rely on him to keep us current and on the
bleeding edge in the techie world.
Thomas was recently selected to serve as a founding member on the
prestigious Professional Bloggers Association,
http://www.probloggers.org/about_us.html which is a high honor, and
we tip our hats to him for this accomplishment.
Deborah Cole Micek, (AKA The Communication Coach) and her partner
John-Paul Micek (The Click-and-Mortar Coach) are founders of RPM
Success Group ® Inc. They�ve combined their unique styles to coach
thousands of small-business owners around the world to combine online
and offline marketing strategies and proven communication techniques
to attract more clients, systemize operations, and increase profits by
327%.
Official Life Coach for the Dream Makeover
Hawaii TV show aired on NBC and
schooled in psychology and human
performance. Deborah has a magnetic
ability to enlighten, energize, and motivate
you to reach the top of your game so you�ll
become the king or queen of the hill in
your niche.
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MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
With the secrets of influence Deborah reveals, you�ll have a delicious
platter of decadent strategies that will almost have you feeling guilty for
having them at your fingertips!
Your competitors will be drooling over how easily you attract new clients
and lead your industry. Deborah will keep you focused on track and
quickly moving ahead in today�s fast changing marketplace.
When it comes to taking control
of your business, and creating
the lifestyle you really want,
Coach JP brings his extensive
entrepreneurial experience to the
table for your rapid growth and
expansion (for your business –
not your mid-section).
Starting at age 12 with his first
business, John-Paul has created
a book of secret recipes that show you precisely how to make your
business work hard for you.
After starting and growing four successful businesses, he reveals his no
nonsense system to business growth. He�s developed a Click-and-Mortar
system with a proven track record that gives you practical ―how-to‖ steps
to guarantee your success.
Together, they�ve partnered over the last decade
to create a level of financial success in business
and real estate that would equip most people to
retire. But instead, John-Paul and Deborah
decided to follow their passion, move 6,000 miles
from New Jersey to Hawaii, and live their dreams
while helping other small-business owners do the
same.
Personally mentored by America�s top business
minds with hundreds of hours of face time with
leaders like Tony Robbins, Jay Abraham, Robert Kiyosaki, and Stephen
Pierce – Coaches Deborah and John-Paul now share with you the
strategies and secrets that helped them reach their dreams.
Columnists for the Honolulu Star Bulletin, Hawaii�s daily newspaper, you
can find their weekly Secrets to Success in the Business Section every
Sunday.
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MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
With powerful coaching programs, practical ―how-to‖ products, and
interactive teleseminars, they help you bridge the digital divide and gain
the profits, personal fulfillment, and free time you desire.
Visit www.BusinessOwnersJournal.net and
www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com to see how you can put their
street-smart strategies to work for you today. Contact your coaches at
books@RPMsuccess.com or toll free in the US at 888-334-8151.
Be sure to become a blog reader of these two blogs powered by your
authors:
AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com
AND
How2Blog4FunAndProfit.com
Remember to Get Your
$297.00 Bonus – FREE!!!
Visit
http://MarketingWithBusinessBlogs.com
And Get Coached For FREE!
Take advantage of these author’s FREE click-and-mortar business
coaching right now. Grab the newly revised and up to date, full-color
eBook "21 Ways to Boost Your Business Using Business Blogs" and
listen to the 90-minute AUDIO TeleClass "Boosting Your Business
With Business Blogs."
They're both getting rave reviews from small business owners and
professionals around the world.
(While supplies last.)
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