Vanity vs. Blog

Came across an interesting post by Suzanne Vara, Managing Partner at Kherize5, titled “Is Vanity Killing Your Blog?“  It’s good… go read it.  I’ll wait.

The point about the pressure to constantly strive for more, create fresh new content, put forth more “conversation and connecting” into the WWW is incredibly timely.  Essentially, with all this talking, who is listening?

We all have been taught that the way to be the most interesting person at the party is to be the most interested (in others, the host, the food, etc.), which means asking questions and enabling the next logical and engaging comments from the other person (in other words, basic etiquette).  Gut check:  Does this type of etiquette happen on your blog?  On your Facebook fan page?  In your Twitter stream?  Hmmmm…

Twitter Comments

WordPress or Woodstock

Over the weekend, my sometimes-partner-in-crime, V. Scott Ellis, wrote a post for WebLogTools Collection called “Exploring the GPL, Viable Models, and Business Risk.”  WebLogTools is a blog about blogs, blogging, WordPress and best practices therein.  It is extensively read and contributed to by the WordPress (WP) developer community, and since Wendistry and all our client sites are built on the WP platform, I (being non-technical) feel the need to wander by this site once in a while.

First, a definition before you start reading the post:

GPL– General Public License; GPL is one of the most commonly-used open-source sofware licenses.  The distinctive feature of the GPL license is that it requires that any code derived from GPL code also uses a GPL license.  What that means is any plug-ins or bolt-on applications that are created for the WordPress platform ALSO must be open-source.  If you are a developer, that doesn’t mean you have to give them away for free.  However, it does mean that if I create a widget for WP and I sell it to Person A for $29, once A pays for it, A then has full legal right to turn around and sell it on A’s web site for $25 (under-cutting my, the creator’s, price).  If A sells only 2 widgets, not only has he recouped his investment, Person A has made a profit on MY work.  Now, let’s take this further…

Person B buys Person A’s widget.  Now, Person B turns around and sells the widget on his web site… for $20.  Again, same principal.  B now has undercut me (the creator and person who did all the work) and Person A.  Eventually, the whole model breaks down because you finally end up with a product that Person Q paid only $1 for and is perfectly willing to give it away for free.

Now, I agree that money is not the only reward for hard work done well, but as the widgets/ plug-ins/ bolt-ons for WordPress become more complex, the need for deep expertise and ever-increasing amounts of support enter the picture.  At some point a person’s (or organization’s) ability to match the demand will not scale.  The need to make a living or support your family though other means becomes the top priority.

When that happens, by default, the amount of time a developer can dedicate to writing more code or providing support tapers off.  If a developer has provided something of particular value, then the WP community suffers when that developer can’t be there, and it’s especially sad when the main reason is because he/she can’t afford it.  The more complex these things become, (expertise required) the higher the barriers to entry.

Free “love” and free items work perfectly well in a small, “community-like” environment (like the WordPress community has been so far) with limited market size and limited complexity involved in widget/ plug-in/ bolt-on creation.  Where all this gets sticky, and the reason why this discussion should be read by business owners/ founders/ designers/ creators, no matter the industry, is because BUSINESSES EXIST TO MAKE MONEY. A commune is not a sustainable business model.

Finally, to show how truly passionate and committed Scott is about supporting developers financially, he launched “Make a Donation to Your Favorite WordPress Developer on March 1st” before the opportunity for him to write this post on WebLogTools even came up.

Twitter Comments

Marketing Mistakes Bloggers Make, Part 2

Creating a business blog that increases your search engine visibility, establishes your credibility, generates quality leads and helps you grow your business.  Yet, too many small businesses and non-profits jump into blogging without a plan in place.  This mistake leads to lots of missteps, false starts and costly errors.  Here are final five of the 10 biggest mistakes small business bloggers make… and how you can avoid them.

6.  They don’t leave comments at other blogs: Leaving intelligent comments on other blogs serves many purposes.  It shows that you’re an active, contributing member of the community.  It generates good will with the blogger in question, and it creates a link back to your own blog.  Why does the link back matter?  If you’ve said something of value, visitors to these blogs will follow the link back to your blog to see what other brilliant insights you might have.  WHAT TO DO:   Leave intelligent, appropriate comments on the blogs you read.  However, if your comment comes across as a crass attempt to lure new prospects to your blog, expect that these other bloggers will delete your comment, and might even ban you from commenting again.

7.  They don’t engage their community: Personally, I don’t believe that comments reflect how effective a blog is.  Certain blogs and topics are just going to attract more feedback than other.  Want comments?  Start a political blog or take a stand on a controversial issue.  However, when people leave comments on your blog, they’re most often responding to something you wrote, or an experience they had with your company.  They’ve taken time out of their day to add to the conversation on your blog.  WHAT TO DO:   When someone leaves a comment on your blog, do your best to follow up with them by answering their question or addressing their issue.  You may also want to email a copy of your response directly to them, in case they don’t revisit that post.

8.  They make it difficult to subscribe: There are two kinds of readers at your blog: those who discover it via a search engine of a link, and your subscribers.  Once someone has subscribed to your blog via RSS or email, your content is delivered to them automatically.  Almost all blogging platforms offer RSS feeds right out of the box, and many also allow your readers to subscribe to the feed via email, delivering each post into their inbox.  However, some small business bloggers don’t enable these tools, or make them difficult to find on the home page.  WHAT TO DO:   If your platform doesn’t offer RSS and/or email options, or if you want more control over your feeds, you can use a third party service like Feedblitz or Feedburner.  Both of these services offer RSS feeds, email feeds, tracking tools and more.  In addition, you’ll want to place your subscription options “above the fold” on your blog, making them easy to find.

9.  They don’t take advantage of social media: A blog is not an island.  It’s part of your social media activity.  These days, sites like Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, or StumbleUpon can deliver substantial targeted traffic to your blog.  Ignore this at your own risk.  WHAT TO DO:   Encourage your readers to share your content on a wide variety of social media platforms with a tool like ShareThis.  Although it might seem redundant if you already have ShareThis enabled, you can also get great results from a “TwitThis” or the “Retweet This” button that appears at the top of blog posts encouraging people on Twitter to tweet a link to your post.  Of course, you don’t need to wait for others to promote your post.  However, people who only submit their own work usually don’t see the same level of results as people who also promote the work of others.  If you are going to use StumbleUpon or a similar tool, try and promote other people’s work in an 80/20 ratio to your own.  Trust me on this one…

10.  They measure the wrong things: They focus on how many comments they receive, how many “followers” they have, or how many people have subscribed to their blog.  Comments aren’t customers, and subscribers aren’t sales.  Measure what matters… what moves the bank account.  WHAT TO DO:  Review your business goals, then take a look at your traffic reports to determine if you’re achieving your goals.  If you wanted to increase your search engine traffic, your analytics will show that.  If you wanted to double the number of qualified leads to your web site, your analytics can show you that as well.

Final Bonus: They’re not committed to the blog’s success:   Too many entrepreneurs are excited about the idea of a blog, but aren’t willing to put the work into it that it requires.  Or, they start strong, but after a few months with little to show for it, they cut back on their blogging.  Few blogs are successful in the first six months.  They take time and commitment to the process.  WHAT TO DO:  Budget 3 hours a week to blog for a minimum of six months.  In that time, you should be able to generate at least three posts a week, and leave comments on a handful of related blogs to drive traffic back to your blog.  Don’t use the excuse that you don’t have time.  One of the great things about blogging is that it can be done at off hours.  Fit in some time on the weekends and when the kids are in bed.  Sacrifice a night of TV each week, or eat lunch at your desk and create another post.  It’s your business after all.  Probably, your blog is the most versatile tool in your web marketing toolbox.  It powers both your search engine optimization and acts as your social media hub.

By avoiding these Top 10 11 Marketing Mistakes, and by committing time and resources to your blog, you’ll increase your online visibility, drive more qualified leads to your web site, and help convert those leads into real business.

Twitter Comments

Marketing Mistakes Bloggers Make, Part 1

It’s easy to start blogging… If you’re just wanting to talk about your cat and what you’re planning for dinner, you can start a free Blogger blog.  For businesses who are serious about utilizing blogging to drive sales, blog CMS systems like Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal make it inexpensive, powerful, a snap to learn AND not only host the entire web site, but offer plugins to capture memberships, customer data, facilitate e-commerce and more.

However, it’s a lot more difficult to blog successfully.  Creating a business blog that increases your search engine visibility, establishes your credibility, generates quality leads and helps you grow your business.  Too many small businesses and non-profits jump into blogging without a plan in place.  This mistake leads to lots of missteps, false starts and costly errors.  Here are 10 of the biggest mistakes small business bloggers make… and how you can avoid them.

1.  They blog without a strategy: Blogging is a tactic, not a strategy.  Too many entrepreneurs start blogging because they’ve bought into the hype or they’re playing the “me too” game with the competition.  They have no idea how to create a blog that will attract the right audience or build their business.  Directionless, they flail, wondering why their blog is providing no ROI.   WHAT TO DO:  Answer these questions-  What are your business goals?  Who is your audience?  What problems or concerns does your audience have that you can help solve?  Once you have a clear vision of your business goals, you’ll know if you’re best served by a blog that’s built for inbound marketing, thought leadership, communication, product support, monetization, or some combination of these types.  Once you know your audience, and what they’re looking for, you’ll be able to create content that addresses their questions and problems.

2.  They don’t get their own domain name for their blog: The problem with piggybacking your blog on someone else’s URL, such as mycompany.typepad.com or mybusiness.blogger.com, is that it locks you into that blogging platform.  If that company changes or goes out of business, you’ll lose all of the incoming links you’ve so carefully cultivated.  The most important reason, though, is branding… It’s not your domain name.  You lose a ton of valuable SEO opportunities and it just plain looks unprofessional because domain names are now 9.99 and hosting is cheap.  Finally, you’re losinge control over whatever content management capabilities and functionality you may want to have on your web site and blog.  WHAT TO DO:  From day one, get your own domain name for your blog and make sure it’s set up properly at the CMS system of choice.  Then, if you’re forced to move, you’ll be able to keep all your domain URLs to articles and posts, and all of your incoming links.

3.  They don’t customize or brand their blog’s design: One reason it’s so easy to get started with blogging is that you can start blogging moments after you’ve signed up… as long as you go with the default settings of the blog platform.  From design templates to color choices to pre-chosen categories for organizing your content, a lot of the decision-making process has been simplified or removed for those who want to jump right in.  Unfortunately, these are the same template, the same color schemes and the same categories that so many other bloggers are using… including your competition.  EVERY communication from your company, including your blog, should be representative of your brand.  The more branded, the more customized your blog is, the more authority it radiates.  WHAT TO DO:  If you don’t have a talented designer in house, hire a professional to design a branded blog for your business… incorporated into your company’s web site.  You’ll likely have this blog design for 3-5 years, so it’s worth the price.

4.  They don’t realize how essential SEO (search engine optimization) is to the success of their blog: Search engines will deliver the majority of the traffic to your blog, including almost all of your first visitors.  All too often small business bloggers write content that’s filled with industry jargon or is just out-of-sync with what their prospects are searching for on Google.  These actions result in poor search engine visibility, anemic traffic and little to no new business.  WHAT TO DO:   Start with a keyword analysis to determine what phrases your audience is using at the search engines.  Either hire a search engine marketing firm or use a tool like Keyword Discovery to uncover these phrases yourself.  Writing great content about “rhinoplasty” is pointless if everyone’s search for a “nose job.”  Once you’ve uncovered your best keywords, make sure they go in the titles of your blog posts.  Titles are the most important element of your blog post. Good titles improve your search engine visibility, engage your audience, and often get people to share your content before they even read it!

5.  They don’t read other blogs: Blogs are often the best way to stay on top of trends that affect your industry and your clients’ businesses.  By ignoring these blogs, you’re missing a real opportunity to stay in the loop and establish yourself as an expert.  In addition, by reading other blogs, even ones not in your industry, you can get a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.  The best chefs eat at other great restaurants.  WHAT TO DO:   Use a blog search engine like Technorati to find blogs in your niche, as well as popular bloggers in other niches.  Subscribe to the ones you enjoy through the RSS feed or email subscribe box.  This way you can keep track of dozens of blogs every day without having to visit each one.  Not sure how to subscribe to an RSS feed?  Watch this video.

That’s enough for everyone to absorb today… check back tomorrow for the rest of the 10 biggest mistakes.

Twitter Comments

Blogging and Your Brand

Let’s say that your company is brand new.  Or is launching a brand new product and you feel the need for an alternative web presence to your company’s main site.  What is the FIRST STEP you should take in today’s Web 2.0 world?  Establish a Corporate Blog.  Here are the steps:

1.  Build a platform: Define your company purpose.  Be able to convey to the world your brand and your message.

2.  Design: Create a look and feel that matches your theme/message.  Why use a Wordpress (or Joomla, or Drupal) CMS theme, instead of just a .Blogspot.com blog?  Two reasons:  1.) SEO  2.) First impressions.  You may say, “Why not start on a free .typepad or .blogspot blog and move to a more expensive theme when the blog takes off?  Think about the number of visitors needed to create a successful blog.  Now, think about those visitors as potential customers.  Like the shopping mall on Rodeo Drive vs. a small town flea market, you want visitors to see an impressively designed structure.  If your blog looks like a flea market, how many customers will turn around and walk out?  Not only will they be turned off by the appearance of your “mall,” but they’ll also go and tell their colleagues that your mall stinks.  Those potential customers will have an impression of your mall, without ever having stepped foot inside it.  So, you’re already down levels of influence with a snowball’s chance of getting any of them back.  Instead of wasting time trying to chase customers, why not wow them right out of the gate?

3.  Branding: It isn’t just your logo, or a banner on your blog.  It’s the font you use, the graphics, the color of your background, the texture, the look and feel of your platform.  You want a narrow niche and to use content to drill that image into the minds of your readers.  Everything that you write about on your company’s blog should relate to the business, your industry, your products/services, your upcoming events, product roll-outs, promotions, campaigns, “did you know?” factoids, etc.

4.  Building a Tribe: Just as having a mall doesn’t guarantee an income, having a blog doesn’t insure a stream of money flowing into your corporate coffers.  So, how do you get people to not only visit your store, but to hang out, grab a coffee and make it their second home (so to speak)?  The trick is not in convincing people to come over, but in recruiting them to your “cause.”  Your point of view, the information you provide, the connections and conversations you start… these things build a tribe around your corporate blog.  So, what are the steps to building a tribe that will consume every piece of content that you create, and share the crumbs with their like-minded friends?   Three steps:  become entrenched; engage; give it all away

5. Become Entrenched: The road to becoming respect in any niche starts with possessing that which is essential to being an authority… knowledge.  With knowledge comes both the understanding of how to speak to the people within that niche, and the variety of opinions that are required to create compelling and insightful commentary.

6.  Engage: Engaging, not only with your community niche, but with those outside of your own, is the first key to building your small army.  It isn’t just answering comments and replying to emails.  It isn’t just ReTweeting and replying on Twitter in hope of getting reciprocal backlinks.  It requires a full-time dedicated person to give the time and energy that many bloggers aren’t willing to give.

7.  Give it All Away: Not a single blogger can/will begin their career by monetizing immediately.  Building trust and authority takes time, and it isn’t something that you can do easily unless you are willing to put in the work.  You don’t have to post every single day, but sticking to a consistent editorial schedule will help your audience know what to expect.  As long as you’re giving away content, you will be continuously building a bigger audience, which means that monetization options will increase.  Consider giving away the why… and selling the how.  That’s what we do here at Wendistry.

8.  End Benefits: No… it’s not monetization.  Your corporate blog functions as a platform that builds your company’s brand.  It is this brand, over time, that will allow you to earn money behind the scenes.

Do You Need a Blogging Schedule?

The fact is that because of lack of time, commitment, or a good strategy, the majority of blogs fail.  Maybe FAIL is too strong a word because most blogs don’t have a real goal in the first place.  However, as a business strategy, blogs do have a purpose… to generate leads that turn into quality customers.  If a prospect finds an abandoned blog, (either through a forgotten link on the company’s web site or a search engine result) they’re left with a negative impression of the company.

Don’t let this happen.  A blog is a terrible thing to waste.  It does take time and commitment, but with a plan in place, your blog will increase your search engine visibility, establish your credibility, and provide more online leads than you can handle. 

Here’s a regimented workout that will help jumpstart a new or stalled business blog and prevent your company from being just another amateur in the blogosphere.  (Please consult your physician before beginning any new activity regimen, and always remember to stretch prior to the exercise and breathe throughout.)

Write 3 Posts a Week:  Once your blog has an established readership you may be able to cut back your frequency, but to begin you should plan on writing three times a week.  Schedule recurring blocks of time in your calendar with no distractions.  While I have worked up to writing Monday through Friday each week, the most important aspect of writing is consistency… quality of production over a quick blast of effort and then a dead blog. 

Posts can be of varying lengths and styles, but I respectfully suggest that brevity is a virtue for a reason.  Numbered lists, how-tos, and commentary on your customers’ industries are proven topic winners.

Blog Popular Search Terms:  Blog search engines like Icerocket and Technorati often display the most popular current search terms.  If you can work a popular topic into a new post you place your blog in front of thousands of potential new readers.  Just make sure the topic is relevant to your business.  While more visitors are nice, the goal here is to get “viable” prospects reading your blog. 

Make it Easy for People to Subscribe and Share:  Blogs that don’t offer an RSS feed, or those who relegate it to some little dusty corner of the bottom of the web page, are pointless.  One of a blog’s biggest strengths is its ability to syndicate content.  People can subscribe and receive new posts to their email whether or not they’re on your blog or not.  Feedburner and Feedblitz are two services you can integrate into your blog that allows visitors to subscribe via RSS feed or email. 

In a nutshell, an abandoned blog is a black eye for any business.  A regularly updated, narrowly focused blog is a powerful magnet for search engines, new business leads, and journalists looking to speak with an industry expert.  By dedicating the time necessary to building a strong blog, you’ll have your investment returned to you a hundred times over in search engine visibility, new prospects and lower customer acquisition costs.

 

Blogs are a Marketers Dream, Part 3

The last part of this series on blogging for business success…

A Genuine Conversation:  Blogs are also engaging for readers because they provide a convenient forum for genuine dialogue.  Successful blogs build on direct communication.  Once your fresh content has attracted readers, you want to keep them engaged in the conversation you’ve started.  Blogs provide a number of ways to encourage that connection. 

1.  Reader comments– Most non-blog web sites don’t offer a way for people to comment on specific new content added to the site.  Tenacious readers may hunt down your email address and send you their thoughts, but that kind of conversation takes place in private, adding nothing to the vitality of your site.  Blog comments add the voices of your readers to your posts and give you an opportunity to gain priceless insight about your market and its view of your products/services and your company. 

2.  Interaction with other bloggers– Blogging culture encourages conversations that start on one blog and spill over into others.  Blog A discusses (and links to) a post on Blog B, and the readers of both blogs leave comments that link to other sites, spreading the conversation to even more readers and creating the “buzz” that blogging is famous for. 

3. Sponsor or host blogs– A low-risk strategy is to sponsor a blog that contains editorial content that appeals to your potential and existing customers.  This is what Boeing has done with their “inFlightHQ” blog.  inFlightHQ is not a blog specifically about Boeing or its products, but it does contain posts that business flyers find interesting with its “tools, tips, and techniques for being productive at 30,000 feet.”  This approach doesn’t require the company to blog, and presents little risk. 

In conclusion, one of the most beautiful things about blogs is that they don’t require a massive Web design project.  They’re small, nimble, and simply structured, so your company can launch its blog in a matter of hours and immediately begin playing with the medium. 

 

Blogs are a Marketers Dream, Part 2

Part 2 of the blog series… Today, unobtrusive repetition of the marketer’s messaging.

Broadcast your content automatically:  Blogs can broadcast their content via “RSS feeds.”  RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and simple is the key word.  This technology, which is built into most blogging systems and applications, allows people to subscribe to your blog they way they’d subscribe to an email newsletter… without you doing any extra work or managing a list of subscribers. 

Again, let’s look at the paragraph above:  Prospects and customers are opting-in and want to receive ongoing contact and communications with your company!  The importance of the “stickiness” marketers can now create between prospects and customers to their brands through RSS feeds cannot be overemphasized.  One of the most interesting things people discover when they start a company blog with syndication is how soon they get visitors and subscribers.  These same potential customers receive notification via their Web browser, email system, or special news-reading software when your blog is updated.  Your messages don’t get lost in email or mistaken for spam, your clients can read it when they want to, and it all drives traffic back to your site. 

Blogs are a Marketer’s Dream, Part 1

By analyzing public reaction to a blog, reading comments, and directly engaging in the world of bloggers (informally known as the “blogosphere”), companies can gain access to a wealth of information about their market’s opinion of them.  By responding to comments, sponsoring or hosting blogs on other sites, and running your own company’s blog, businesses can build, revive, and extend their brands for several reasons that I’ll explore over the next several days.

Readers LIKE Blogs:  In the age of information overload, headlines and new blurbs that are short, focused, and written in conversational English are much appreciated by online readers (am I feeling your appreciation right now?  just kidding!).    Additionally, it’s now common for people to find answers to questions via search engines.  Due to simple structure, strong link networks, and fresh content, blogs have enormous appeal to search engines, and it’s often easier to find relevant blogged content than to find the same information on traditional Web pages.  Many bloggers have found that their posts often rank higher in Google than the pages and sites they are writing about!

 

Blog on a Schedule

Once you’ve made the wise decision to have a company blog and decided who on your executive team will write and be the “voice” of the business, blog on schedule.  Blogging is about consistency and frequency.  Since you are using your blog to build your company’s reputation, publishing content on a reasonable schedule is key.

At minimum, one to two posts a week is acceptable.  Three or more posts a day is considered overkill and often leads to negative responses from readers. 

Search engine page ranking evaluates a blog’s publishing schedule on many factors including season influences ( ex: blog about skiing more in the winter than in summer) and the time lapse between posts.  Consistency will score higher than frequency. 

When your business blogs on a schedule, it gives your readers a reason to want to come back.  Make it easy for them to subscribe to your blog’s feed, but most of all, make them want to come back. 

Like serial stories, make your readers think about what you’ve written long after they’ve left your blog.  Leave them wanting more… and put them on the edge of their seats to see what’s coming next. 

Next Page »