Archive for About Blogs – Page 44

Blog Post Idea Farm…

By Patsi Krakoff
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

Idea_with_legs
How many different kinds of blog posts are there? If you’re wondering how you can spice up your postings, think about these:

There are:

  1. The link and bait, the ‘me-too’ copy and paste post
  2. The ‘stir-up-the-pot’ post (also known as ‘outrageously oppositional and intentionally contrarian’ post)
  3. The ‘how-many-ways-can-I-repeat-my-core-message’ post
  4. There are email questions from clients
  5. Tutorials & how-to’s
  6. Toot-my-own-horn
  7. Piggy-back post off of current affairs, politics & celebrity gossip
  8. Sports analogies
  9. Outrageous tabloid headlines reworded for your niche

What else? Give me some ideas here… hit the comment link and tell me your favorite short cuts to creating blog content.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content

Build a Better Blog: Going out of print…

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, July 28th, 2008

Babbdummycvr1
In 2005 we published the first edition our premier blogging ebook: Build a Better Blog: The Ultimate Guide for Boosting Your Business with a Professional Blog. Later in 2005 the 2nd edition was introduced.  And now, we’re taking the ebook off the market. Gone. No more copies available…

Build a Better Blog (BaBB for short), and it’s companion of 25 Interviews with Successful Bloggers, has become one of the best known guides for setting up and optimizing a business blog with TypePad.

The current edition will be updated soon with new material. After Thursday, July 31, Edition 2 will not be available for sale. We suggest you get it now. Essentially you can pre-order the 3rd edition, because when you buy the BaBB ebook at the old price, you’re entitled to free lifetime upgrades.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing

Writers Wanted: You can’t do it all yourself

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, July 28th, 2008

Blonde_with_laptop
"Where can I find someone to write and edit my blog posts?" a colleague asked me this morning. That’s a smart question. You can’t do it all yourself. You can, but there’s probably not enough time to service clients, make money, run a business and write on your blog. Get help.

The colleague who asked me this question is a great and prolific writer. He has more ideas and content than he has time to write up. A professional editor could turn his articles into dynamic blog posts that would make a huge difference in his search engine traffic.

But this takes time and energy. You have to look at keywords and be strategic with headlines.

Get someone who:

  • Knows blogging (your platform system, whatever that is)
  • Knows how to write
  • Knows something about content marketing and writing to persuade
  • Knows what a good headline is
  • Is keyword savvy
  • Knows something about your niche
  • Has impeccable grammar and editing knowledge
  • Has a journalist’s nose for news
  • Has personality and can be conversational in writing

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Buying Content, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better

Is Your Blog Working for You? How Can You Tell?

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Crossword_time_and_money
One of the mysteries of the universe may be measuring the exact return on investment for your business blog. You can spend a lot of time writing, tweaking, doing outreach in the Blogosphere, and still wonder what it all means.

Sure, you’ve got traffic stats. But what do they all mean? If you’re not using a blog to generate ad revenues, then sales are indirect. Indirect is hard to measure with any certainty.

The most important questions to ask are these:

  • “Does my blog do a good job for getting my business found online?”
  • "When people find my blog online, do they stay to read and do they subscribe to come back?”
  • "Will readers grow to know, like and trust me from reading my posts?”
  • “Does my blog make it easy for people to interact with me and use my services?”

Denise and I have invited Chris Baggott, an expert in measuring and tracking blog success for an interview. Won’t you join us? It’s free but you’ll need to register to get the call in number.

Get the Results You Want: How to track, measure and adjust your blog

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Ezine & Blog Classes, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

Branding & Blogging: Which Comes First?

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Blog1
Which comes first: a brand or a blog? And, is social media effective at reaching a corporate audience if that’s who your intended clients are?

There’s a heated debate about these questions on some popular business blogs and you’d do well to read up on these posts.

Before embarking on a marketing plan that includes blogging for your business, you need to be aware that there’s still one big-time consultant who isn’t convinced blogging and online social networking are worth it.

Alan Weiss is a self-proclaimed contrarian, and he says, "Blogs are only effective if you already have a brand… a blog follows a brand, not the other way around."

To which a whole bunch of famous bloggers left comments to dispute
Weiss. It got a little nasty and names were thrown around. Read our
complete article on Build a Better Blog along with the others
referenced in these posts: 

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

Content Feeds: Your first 20 words count

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Twitter
Are you feeding your blog posts on Twitter and Facebook? If so, you need to pay attention to the first 15-20 words or 100 characters – usually the title and first few words of the first sentence.

Not only are keywords important here for the search engines, but you also need to see what your feeds are going to look and feel like when limited to only a few words. Make people want to read the full post with those first few words.

It’s fairly easy to set it up so your blog posts are automatically fed to your Facebook and Twitter pages. I’m no tech wizard, but I was able to do this, following instructions that I’m sure you can find on the web through Google searches. Denise has posted about this on Buildabetterblog.com. (See related posts at the end of this).

When you do, however, pay attention to the first 15-20 words of your post, including the title. These words are what will show up in the short little feeds on Facebook and Twitter. Make them count.

Here are some examples: Today on my Facebook and Twitter pages, I’m seeing this:

  • BlogSquad: 8 Reasons Why Client Questions Make Great Blog Content: Questions from clients make great blog posts.

I wonder if this could have been more interesting if I hadn’t repeated what I just said in the headline in the first sentence of the post.

Other examples:

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Ask Readers What to Write About

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, June 5th, 2008

Scribit
Use the Skribit voting poll on the right to tell me what you want me to write about. I’m experimenting with this new free voting tool.

It’s fairly simple and easy to install on your blog. There are two options, one where readers have to register and log in to submit a suggestion, and the one here that allows anonymous suggestions. Click on the title "What Should I Write About" to make the box below active, type in your suggestion, hit submit and you’ll see your suggestion appear.

We’ve installed a similar Skribit widget over on BizTips Blog, Denise’s blog about Internet Marketing. But you’ll have to register and log in to submit a suggestion or vote over there. We’ll see which version works the best.

Of course, like any free tool on the Web, making it available to anonymous posters leaves your poll wide open to spammers, unscrupulous marketers who leave their own URLs, etc. We’ll see how long it takes for this poll to be ruined! But I don’t think any of my readers will abuse it, they’re too savvy!

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks

French Open Tennis: More Business Lessons

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Dementieva
Playing on clay courts means the ball doesn’t always bounce predictably. What a great lesson for doing business! You can say/write/do the exact same thing with a different client and get completely different results.

So in business, just like on clay courts, be prepared for the unexpected. Be nimble, be quick and react to surprises with calm.

Example: when we wrote our Better Business Blogging special report, we really wanted to deliver quality information that people could go and apply to better blogging. It wasn’t written to sell anything.

We wanted to teach best business blogging practices. But we did say
that somewhere later on we’d put together a comprehensive multi-media
program to teach more in detail.

Most people who previewed it wrote to give us positive feedback. So we thought we had a successful report to give out. But not everybody saw it that way.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Coaching/Personal Development, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines, Writing Great Blog Content

Books and Blogs: Happily Ever After

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Lnav_pma_logo
This week I’m in Los Angeles with Denise preaching the Blogspell to eager authors and publishers who want to master book blogging. For the last 3 years The Blog Squad has been teaching at the Independent Book Publisher’s Association just prior to the big Book Expo America, BEA. PMA prides itself on offering vital information for authors and publishers.

We’re presenting in two workshops and will be explaining how important blogs are for both authors and publishers.

Here’s the info, in case you’re in the neighborhood:


2008 PMA Publishers Marketing University, Los Angeles
 
The Blog Squad presents:
*  May 28, 2008, 2:00 p.m.: Optimize Your Web
Site to Convert Visitors to Customers.
*  May 29, 2008, 8:30 a.m.: Blogging Basics for
Authors and Publishers

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing

4 Ways to Boost a Business Blog: new free report

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Business_blogging_3d
The Blog Squad releases our free report today: Better Business Blogging: 4 New Concepts for Getting Spectacular Results.

This is a great way to review your business blog for 4 key elements we call the CODA Blogging System:

The CODA System consists of:

  1. Content: writing quality posts that educate, engage, and enrich the lives of readers
  2. Outreach: building relationships with other bloggers to become part of a larger community
  3. Design: the little things in a blog design that contribute towards creating trust and connection with readers
  4. Action: getting readers to respond through
    persuasive writing, encouraging a conversation, and converting readers
    to loyal fans and clients

Better Business Blogging: 4 New Concepts for Getting Spectacular Results, is available for free at www.betterbizblogging.com.

(Whew! Denise and I have been working for such a long time to get this out the door. Can we hear a big Yahoo!!? Be sure to download your report today, it’s worth the read. We’d love to get your feedback too.)

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content
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