Business Blogging Pros welcomes one of our newest clients, Suzan Czajkowski and Elemental Leadership Solutions. 

Suzan helps people in technical roles - particularly women - achieve and feel comfortable in higher-level management positions.

'Bomb', as in 'Fantastic'.

I've started a TypePad Micro blog as an alternate stream for my foodie blog. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I tweet the progress of my Sunday evening meal preparation.  Just to torment you, this Sunday I prepared:

• Sliced FIlet Minon on a bed of Cippolini Onions and Wild Mushrooms
• Prosciutto-wraped Mozzarella on a bed of diced Heirloom Tomatoes

I usually include photos of the preparation as well as the finished product. While I can do so via TweetDeck, its a lot of button-pushing.

With TypePad Micro there is an easier way.

1. I created a TypePad Micro blog under my main Fumbling Foodie account.  I called that blog 'Fast Food''. 
2. TypePad provides each blog with a special email address.  You can create a blog post be simply sending an email to that address.
3. I take a picture using my iPhone and then email it to that address.
4. My TypePad Micro blog is connected to my Twitter account.  Each time a new blog post is published it will automatically tweet it for me.

BTW, you can see photos on my TypePad Micro blog of meal here and here. 

Now you can have one for FREE.  

Typepad has created TypePad Micro, a new free version.  The layout is intended for content that's somewhere between the 140 characters of Twitter and the longer content of a traditional blog (though as far as I know there is nothing limited the length of your posts).

And while it's called MIcro, it appears at first glance to have all the features you would expect from Typepad.

I apologize if I'm sounding a little like an ad for TypePad but the truth is I'm ecstatic about Micro. TypePad is the premier platform for hosted blogs, IMHO.  Great support.  Reliable.  The best integrated connections to other important services like Twitter and Facebook and Feedburner.  The best community-related features, bar none.  Built-in SEO that is world-class and second to none.

And now you don't have to sacrifice that to have a free blog.

I'm thinking about all the ways I can make use of Micro: It will be a great adjunct to my foodie blog.  I'll probably create one as an adjunct to this blog and use it specifically for video.

 Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Green Dining Net.

Green Dining Net's mission is to turn restaurant's waste cooking oil into biofuel.

They collect Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) from over 1,000 restaurants and resorts in Arizona for the purpose of producing biodiesel fuel for our Arizona communities. Partnered with the oldest and largest biodiesel producer in Arizona, Amereco Biofuels (www.amereco.biz) converts the AZ Green Dining Network oil into environmentally friendly, clean burning biodiesel fuel. The byproducts of this biodiesel production are used to create environmentally friendly, non-toxic cleaning products and products that naturally clean waste water. As a result, the WVO that would normally end up in a landfill or used for other commercial purposes is being used to clean our air every day.

If you are looking for a simple store to sell a few products online, this is an easy and inexpensive solution.

We've seen a flurry of new Wordpress versions recently:

11/12/2009 - Version 2.8.6
10/20/2009 - Version 2.8.5

08/12/2009 - Version 2.8.4
08/03/2009 - Version 2.8.3
07/20/2009 - Version 2.8.2
07/09/2009 - Version 2.8.1
06/20/2009 - Version 2.8

That's seven versions in less that five months. Frankly that's too much for you - a business owner with a company to run - to have to deal with. 

That's why - for most business owners - I prefer TypePad.

It's a ridiculous comparison and it's meant to me.  The two are designed for two completely different types of people and two completely different types of driving.

Mashable doesn't seem to see the distinction.  Last week they did a 'WordPress vs TypePad' poll, and it's just as ridiculous as the 'Convertible vs Pickup' comparison - the two are designed for two completely different types of people.

WordPress' template system is simpler and easier to understand.  If you need to heavily customize your blog then you are probably better off with WordPress (Having said that, I customize every client's TypePad blog and so so with only a few CSS changes.  I never modify the templates themselves).

The big issue is this:  Do you have the technical ability to host your blog, and understand all the maintenance issues that go along with it?  New Wordpress versions seem to appear every month.  Yes, WordPress has made the upgrade process easy, but is your theme compatible with the new  version? Are your plugins compatible? What if they are not? Are you prepared to handle it if something goes wrong?

My clients are business owners.  Their business is running their business, not running their blog.  For most of them, TypePad is a better choice.

A few days ago, my friend Mark Roberts wrote a great blog post about smores (Social Media Whores). From his comments to me this morning it's obvious that he stirred up something.  It's a topic I feel strongly about so I want to elaborate:    

You may know how to use a hammer, level, and saw but that does not mean you know how to design and build a house.

Gary Vaynerchuk said the same thing using a different analogy at the AZ Entrepreneurship Conference last year:

The Telephone is not a Marketing Strategy.  It's a Tool.

When I started this business - way back before the term 'social media' became popular - a business owner could start a blog almost anywhere, write anything anytime to anyone and he would likely get noticed. Maybe even end up on the front page of the NY Times.  Businesses that blogged were that rare.

It's different today.  Technorati's 2008 State of the Blogosphere says that one million new blog posts are being created every day. "If you write it they will come" doesn't work any more.

As another friend and colleague Dave Cooke says, you must start with a strategy.  Who are your clients?  What does your perfect client look like?  What are the problems you solve for them?  What are their reasons for not buying from you now?  

For example, in my Twitter webinars we talk about using Twitter as a branding tool, but if you don't know what you want to be known for then you've got the cart before the horse.

There are a lot of consultants and 'experts' who only want to talk about the tools. Why? Because tools are cool.  Particularly bright shiny new tools.  Several months ago I mentioned to one of these smores that I was planning to offer webinars.  He immediately replied that I should use XXXXXX for that.  Why did he recommend XXXXXX? Because it was new and it was what he was currently fixated on.  A quick review of XXXXX revealed that it did not fit the needs of my business.  It wasn't even close.

Don't focus on the tools. Focus on the business.

Mark Roberts has some great recommendations for steering clear of smores.  I'll add my own:

Look for someone who starts with, "Tell me about your business".  Questions like "What's your target market?", "Who's your perfect client?" and "What problems do you solve for your clients" tend to indicate that you are taking so someone who understands business and marketing, not just the tools.

When you engage us to create a blog for you, we spend over half of the entire engagement focused on issues like these.  We help our clients answer these questions.  The results is not just a better social media strategy, but a better business strategy as well.