Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Blogging for Business Success with Sugartone

2010-03-15T08:02:00-07:00

Blogging is a great way to promote your business expertise and craft top level visibility online. But the path towards success is a long one and it's not always easy to stay on track.

Learn How To Make Your Blog A Success

Of course, one of the first things you can do is make sure you start off properly. You can learn a lot about the best business blogging practices simply by reading this blog and following my programs. But what else can you do?

Communities of Business Bloggers

As you get into the routine of blogging for your business, you'll probably also enjoy hanging out with other business bloggers. Here are 2 places you should look into: BizSugar is a social bookmarking platform for business articles. So if you are blogging about business, you can submit your articles here. But it's also a small and friendly community to network with other business bloggers who come here to read the articles. Bloggertone is a community of business bloggers. It's based in Ireland and after only a few short months Bloggertone has already developed a friendly social business networking community.

Sugartone: the Sweet Business Blogging Contest

As it happens, both BizSugar and Bloggertone are teaming up to run the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest March 15^th- 19^th 2010. It should be easy for you to join in the Sugartone event because there are 2 different ways to participate:

Write an original business article writer with a great title
Vote and comment on the business articles submitted for the contest

And this means there are 2 sets of prizes for the:

Top 10 Titles
Top 10 Commenters

$6921 in Sugartone prizes for professionals marketing their business online.

Lead Page Machine - a software to automatically generate squeeze pages so that you can use this to tailor your squeeze pages to specific audiences, to build your email subscribers and increase your sales conversions. Valued at: $5200
Animoto - a year's membership to this easy tool which creates videos from photos. Valued at: $249
Traction Call - a 45 minute call with the Traction Coach Gary Barnes to help you to quickly get some "sand under your wheels" so you can move forward toward the life you want to live. Valued at $175
ClickMillionaires - 2 x 6-month membership to Scott Fox's social network helping business owners upgrade their marketing to make more money online. Valued at $174
5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success - this is my own CD and special report on how you can easily make your blog a winner. Valued at $97
Start.Grow.Run - 8 x a software package with 45 essential tools and services for the 3 different phases of your business. Valued at $49.95 each

Plus there are 2 books for the winners of the Top 10 Titles and the Top 10 Commenters. And the books include:

Wordtracker Masterclass: Blogging For Business - 50 Steps to Building Traffic and Sales by Chris Garrett. 5 books valued at $39 each
Sociable by Shane Gibson & Stephan Jagger. 5 books valued at $25 each
New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg. 5 books valued at $16.49 each
Guest Posting by Chris Garrett. 5 ebooks valued at $10 each

Click through here to find out more about the contest and how you can win a copy of my CD and special report 5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success as well as the other prizes there.

Ask The Blog Squad! I'll Be Answering Your Questions on Friday

2010-03-11T15:59:00-08:00

Have a burning question about business blogging? I'll be answering questions LIVE on the Social Media Examiner Facebook page on Friday, March 12.

I'll be checking in several times during the day and answering your questions about business blogging, social marketing and boosting your visibility on the Web. This is a brand new feature of Social Media Examiner, for which I'm a guest author, and I'm the first featured "Ask the Expert."

I hope you'll drop by on Friday and post your questions on the Wall.

Blog on!

How to Use Editorial Calendars for Your Blog

2010-03-07T08:21:00-08:00

One of the challenges for business bloggers that I constantly hear about is the never-ending need for fresh, relevant and timely content ideas to keep one's audience engaged. I've covered this in depth over the years, however I was discussing this with Shannon Cherry, known as the Power Publicist and founder of Penny Pinching Publicity, and she told me about how she consistently out-scoops the media with her content. As a result she gets tons of traffic to her blog, positions herself as the go-to expert in her industry, and she gets free exposure for her business and those of her clients.

I asked Shannon to do two things for me:

Speak to my Online Visibility Secrets students and share her strategies
Do a guest post about how to use editorial calendars to position your blog as a go-to resourced

The exclusive, members-only teleseminar with Shannon Cherry is on March 17 and you're invited to join us when you join Online Visibility Secrets.

The guest post by Shannon Cherry follows...

Do you want to get your hands on to the 'secret' information that tells you what media outlets are planning to cover in the future?

Then you need to know about editorial calendars. Understanding this all-important calendar can help your organization to get some much-needed and best of all, free, exposure.

Besides including months and the year, these calendars bear little in common with the ones you are familiar with. An editorial calendar is a strictly functional item: There are no swimming suit models or adorable pets here, just lists of the essential issues and approaching features slated for future stories. While most people wouldn't be all that interested in these calendars, they can be a gold mine for those looking to get more coverage.

More than 7,000 publications in the U.S. And Canada publish editorial calendars and a few thousand do so for TV and radio shows.

Typically, editorial calendars can be found in advertising sales kits. The calendar topics are included so advertisers can tie their ads into topics covered in the publication. The smallest niche publications (those put together by a single enthusiast, for instance) generally don't work with an editorial calendar. Media outlets which are not supported by advertising may not use one - or just may not make it public; the same goes for publications whose content is entirely reader-contributed. Most new media outlets also don't use editorial calendars, since they're generally still trying to find their way in the industry.

There are even nationally recognized publications which don't use editorial calendars; these tend to be weeklies focused on current events (such as Time or People). These media outlets need to be flexible enough to cover events as they happen and can't plan within the confines of editorial calendars.

Once you've looked over a media outlet's calendar, you can determine which of their upcoming stories you may be able to offer your knowledge as a source. If you're looking at a trade journal, you may want to look at the calendar in terms of what topics you could offer an industry-insider opinion piece on.

Review editorial calendars regularly, since these calendars are updated as the news dictates.

Don't wait to the last minute to pitch your idea, however. If the publication isn't working on a tight deadline, a good rule of thumb is that they will be looking for information about 4 months ahead of publication.

About Shannon Cherry

A former TV and newspaper journalist, Shannon has developed hundreds of innovative public relations strategies. Her clients have appeared on the pages of USA Today, the New York Times, Money Magazine, Associated Press, and Parenting and have been featured on the Today Show, CNN, The History Channel, Good Morning America, and Oprah.

An award-winning publicist and published author of two books, Shannon Cherry was named one of the top 60 business bloggers in the world and one of the top 30 PR bloggers.

Don't miss the opportunity to learn more from Shannon about PR Secrets for Bloggers: How to Find Perfect Content for Your Audience on March 17. Join Online Visibility Secrets today so you can get this valuable and exclusive bonus gift for members only. Learn more about OVS and Shannon's program now.

TypePad Tip - Making Reblog Better

2010-03-06T15:34:34-08:00

Last November we released a new feature called Reblog, which makes it easy for your readers to share your content others in their network. When someone reblogs your content part, or all, of your post appears on the reblogger’s blog with attribution link back to your original post so you get the credit you deserve.

via beta.typepad.com

If your blog is hosted on TypePad, and millions are, you may be interested in this relatively new feature on your blog. Activating the Reblog feature gives your readers a new way to share your content with their own community of readers.

And that's what it's all about, right? You want to extend your reach, boost your visibility, and drive more traffic to your blog.

Your audience wants great content and they want to share it with their readers. It's a win all the way around.

Check out the details about TypePad's Reblog feature. And hey, even if you don't use TypePad, you can still use Reblog when you want to share great info you find on a TypePad powered blog (like this one!).

Blog on!

Beauty Supply Stores Need Blogs Too

2010-03-03T21:05:18-08:00

Today I was interviewed for an article in a trade magazine for beauty supply store owners. Last year the same writer interviewed me for a similar story that was published in Pool and Spa News for owners of pool supply stores.[Just reread the article and there's good info, if I do say so myself!]

Apparently, most beauty supply stores are what the writer refers to as "mom and pop" retailers. One or two stores, usually in malls and located near a nail salon (that's my observation). At least here in Los Angeles, it seems like you'll almost always find a beauty supply store near a salon.

While we talked mostly about why a blog is a great marketing tool for small business owners, we did also touch on social media. I was informed that most of the smaller store owners have been slow to come to the Web and don't have much (brochure style website) if any web presence.

Previously I wrote about why locally based businesses need a web presence. I stand by that and assert that no matter whether you own a bakery or a beauty supply store or you're an optician or an orthodontist, you need to be visible on the Web because that's where people are looking for solutions to the problems you solve. They're also looking for validation from others in the form of reviews before they make buying decisions.

For that reason, I also talked about Facebook for retail stores as well as setting up a business page on Yelp. I'm not a big Yelp user but I know a lot people swear by it to find great restaurants as well as many other types of service providers and just about any type of business you can think of. Even my dentist has a page on Yelp. I looked up "beauty supply store" in my neighborhood and 5 results turned up. Not one had a blog. One had a Facebook Fan page with over 6000 fans.

6000+ fans is great and the page is pretty active so I was pleased to that. In addition a beauty supply store could create a lot of fun content for a blog. Aside from featuring new products, styles, colors, etc., they could solicit photos and videos from customers about their fave products, do video demonstrations, interview manufacturers, discuss new trends, offer blog-only coupons, etc. They could also partner with complementary services (those salons that are always near by) for events or contests or fundraisers.

I'm curious to know what you, as a customer, would want to see on retail store's blog, beauty supply store or otherwise? What kind of content would convince you to make the trek to the physical location? Share your ideas in the comments below...your feedback could help a new business blogger!

Two Blogger Resources for TypePad and Wordpress

2010-02-26T13:09:28-08:00

If you're a new blogger or a do-it-yourselfer, I have a couple of recommendations for you. Part of my job, as I see it, is to stay on top of blogging resources and tools to make things easier for you.

As you probably know, this blog is built on the TypePad platform and I've been using TypePad since 2004. At the time I started blogging I didn't know what options I had and TypePad was recommended to me. I love the platform. Its evolution has been tremendous and in late 2009 the entire system was upgraded.

In 2005, Patsi Krakoff and I wrote Build a Better Blog (no longer available), a manual to help people set up a business blog on TypePad. We revised it two times. Let me tell you, creating a manual for software that is constantly being improved gets to be a tedious process. It's usually out of date before it's published.

Now, however, the platform seems stable and while TypePad and it's parent company Six Apart will undoubtedly continue to add features, I think it's probably not going to change significantly for awhile.

This week, I received my copy of the just-published "TypePad for Dummies" (I don't like the word Dummies, but it's a successful series so who am I to criticize!). I'm proud to say that this blog is a featured resource and gets a full page recommendation (pg. 324)!

TypePad for Dummies is a comprehensive, A to Z guide for newbie bloggers and intermediate alike. I haven't gone through every page yet, but what I have read is detailed, easy to understand, and covers everything you could possibly want to know about set up, writing content, making money, design and customization.

If you have a blog on TypePad and are looking for more tips, or if you are planning to set up your blog on TypePad, this is a great book to get you on the right track.

For you folks who prefer Wordpress, I recently discovered a program called Beginner to Blogger in 4 Weeks. I met Traci Knoppe, who created this program, at the Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop. She told me about her simple, step-by-step program and I was curious. Traci was kind enough to give me a review copy.

A couple weeks ago I worked through the video and written tutorials. I had a new wordpress blog set up in 10 minutes. Seriously. With 10 more minutes of time invested, I had all the standard recommended plug-ins installed.

Where I got slowed down is with the customization and choosing a theme (design) for the blog. There are thousands of themes, free and fee, for Wordpress and I ended up getting lost in trying to decide what I wanted. Ultimately I went with a free, recommended theme because I was only creating a test blog. The last thing I need is another blog to publish!

The bottom line is that the program, which is only $39.95, was so simple to follow and complete. Literally, in about an hour I had a blog set up on Wordpress and was ready to roll.

Whichever way you decide to go, just do it. And if you're not a do-it-yourselfer, contact me to discuss how we can work together to get you a custom business blog set up and then coach you on how to leverage it for your business.

Blog on!

Blogging Survey - Preliminary Results Show Desire for Help with Content

2010-02-22T09:55:01-08:00

I've been reviewing the preliminary responses to my blog training survey. It's no surprise to me that the top areas people want more training on are:

1. Content - how do I find/write content that engages my audience?
2. How to I get traffic and get people to see/read my blog? **
3. How do I manage my time?

(NOTE: responses are to an open ended question about challenges with blogging)

I also asked about preferences for various modes of training and the overwhelming choice was for self-study video tutorials. In second place is one-time teleseminars.

I'll be going through the feedback carefully and addressing some specific questions on this blog over the next few weeks.

If you would like to add your voice, please take the survey. There's a gift for you after you complete the survey (no optin).

**If you're really serious about getting more traffic, then I urge you to invest a mere $97 for 14 teleseminars Melissa Galt hosted with top marketers -- every one focused on ways to drive more traffic to your blog, website and products so you can build your list and make more sales. This is one of the best, most focused telesummits I've been involved with, in quite some time.

Survey - What kind of blogging programs do you want?

2010-02-18T15:23:35-08:00

As you may know, a couple of weeks ago I made an offer on Build a Better Blog, to do 3 quickie blog reviews to demonstrate some of the elements I look for when I do one-on-one reviews with clients.

Over 130 people submitted their blog for review. Wow! I picked three and posted the video reviews.

Chronic Illness Coach blog

Apex Gift Basket Pros blog

Become A Better Leader blog

Of course that big of a response told me something...a lot of people want to know how to make their blog work better.

My current blog review service is a 75 minute live review on the web with the client. I do the review as a webinar so my client gets the video to review and study for the post-review implementation. The investment is $497

I know that may be more than some people can afford so I spent some time pondering how I could make an affordable option for more people. I came up with a list of ways I can help you.

Please take this brief, 7 question, anonymous survey so I can get a sense of how you want to learn how to optimize your blog and boost its performance. My intent is to gauge your interest in this type of training. Then, if warranted, I'll develop the programs that get the most response.

Click here to take the survey.

It's my goal to make sure you have the best blog possible for your business.

Blog on!

P.S. After you complete the survey, I have a gift for you. Simply click the "done" button.

Business Blog Review - Become a Better Leader Blog

2010-02-17T08:13:00-08:00

This is the third and final quickie blog review...for the Become a Better Leader Blog published by Harriet Meyerson. I have pointed out 6 tips that will help her optimize her blog so it's more effective for her business. If you study all three reviews, you'll find there are similar issues on all the blogs. So you may have heard this all before, or it may be new for you. The point is that you can make tweaks to your blog and those tweaks can make a difference in how readers respond and interact with you and your business.

Business Blog Review - Become A Better Leader from Denise Wakeman on Vimeo.

Please add your constructive comments and suggestions for Harriet Meyerson below so we can benefit from your experience and wisdom.

Learn more about my blog review program - a 75 minute one on one live webinar (you get a video of the session).

Business Blog Review - Chronic Illness Coach Blog

7 Essential Blog Design Elements

Business Blog Review - Apex Gift Basket Pros

2010-02-14T13:02:45-08:00

This is the second of three quickie business blog reviews...for Apex Gift Basket Pros published by Lorie Obernauer. There are about five tips for Lorie to consider for optimizing her blog along with a question all professionals should consider...what is the purpose of the blog? Keep that in mind when adding certain elements...as you'll learn in the 7 minute video.

Business Blog Review - Apex Gift Basket Pros from Denise Wakeman on Vimeo.

Please add your constructive comments and suggestions for Lorie Obernauer below. We can all benefit from your experience and wisdom.

Learn more about my blog review program - a 75 minute one on one live webinar (you get a video of the session).

7 Essential Blog Design Elements