Archive for About Blogs – Page 46

Blog Writing Habits: Can I Break My Blog?

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I thought this question was cute and it touched me deeply. As a recovering techno-idiot, I remember many times I was afraid to click a button for fear of "breaking" my blog. Guess what? It never happened.

One of our students in our mentoring program asked about copying and pasting from a Word doc into their blog. So I thought I’d remind all you new bloggers and non-techies out there: don’t do this. Anytime you copy and paste from a Word doc, an email, or a website, there is hidden coding. When you paste into your blog software, it codes your text automatically for you, so that means coding on top of coding – not good.

What you get is double coding – once from your original document, and once from your blogging software. End results are helter-skelter and crazy formatting. Best to delete that post and start over since you can’t really fix it on the blog.

I know this is elementary for most of you, but anyone can get busy and forget this important step: whenever you copy, be sure to strip out the hidden coding by dropping your text into Notepad first, then copying and pasting out of Notepad into your blog software. On a Mac, your plain text editor is called something else besides Notepad but I can’t remember what that is.

The Blog Squad Interviewed by Guru Knowledge

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Dale King runs and interesting site called GuruKnowledge.com, with plenty of articles and interviews to enhance your understanding of Internet marketing. This week he interviewed The Blog Squad.

To read our story, go to this page and read our answers to such questions as our one piece of advice, favorite books, and who influenced us the most.

Blog Writing: How to find the time…

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We asked about your questions concerning better blog writing, and even though comments on this blog have been sparse, we got a ton of responses over on LinkedIn, a social networking site that many professionals participate on.

The number one question was, "How do I find the time to write on my blog?" Is ‘finding time’ an issue for you when it comes to writing?

For me, you can never "find" time because there’s only so much of it – and never enough. You can, however, schedule time. Since I know that this blog needs updating 2-3 times a week,  I know that every other day I must post.

If I schedule 20-30 minutes first thing in the morning, it gets done. It’s not difficult but it can be tricky. For example, if I open email first, it doesn’t get done. The trick is to post on your blog first, before you get captured by any other task.

I don’t think time is really the issue. It’s seeing results. You don’t have to "find the time" for something that’s important for business. You certainly find time to deposit checks into your bank account, so why would you wait to post "when you have time?"

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Men with Pens Squeaks Out 1 Point Victory in Blog Match Up

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In a hard and close battle, this blog lost by a measly 1 point to those big bad Men with Pens, Harry McLeod and James Chartrand. (Just because they are prolific bloggers with a huge archive of valuable posts and a community of raving fans who adore them…really!)

John Hewitt of Writers Resource Center is doing the equivalent of March Madness of writing blogs, pitting two blogs against each other, and generating valuable feedback on how to make blogs better.

I can’t disagree with anything he said about this blog, and will take his suggestions for improvement to heart. You can read his critique of Writing on the Web here.

John has been so generous in sharing his wisdom and perspective. On top of which we all had a great time leaving trash talk comments about the contest on each others’ blogs.

Here’s James’ and Harry’s report out of the contest from the victory box. Good luck to Men with Pens in the next round where their blog is matched-up against Brian Clark of Copyblogger.

Here’s what else I learned from John Hewitt of Writers Resource Center:

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The Blog Squad Teaching @ Butt Camp

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Sorry if the name offends anyone –  but hey, isn’t "the butt" an acceptable word nowadays? I’m not sure but there must be some word police on patrol to let me know…

This Sunday Denise and I will be preaching the Blog Squad Gospel at Tom Antion’s famous Butt Camp – How to make money on the Internet sitting on your butts… It’s in Los Angeles at CBS Television City CafĂ©, 7800 Beverly Blvd. Just tell them you’re with the Nat’l. Speakers Association.

This is a seriously valuable workshop sponsored by the NSA. It’s not free ($309 for non-members at the door) but it’s extremely valuable for anyone – not just speakers – who needs to market themselves on the Internet.

Be prepared to take a lot of notes. Tom always over-delivers and gives you the latest strategies you need to know about how to make Internet marketing easy. Well, he won’t hide that it takes some work to make it work, but there are short cuts and insider secrets. So come meet Tom and The Blog Squad if you’re near LA.

Blog Contest: We face off against Men with Pens

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What’s a little blond girl to do when her blog faces off in a match-up contest against the big bad Men with Pens?

We’re being judged in a fabulous contest that pits two blogs against each other, mano-a-mano. This is the brain child of John Hewitt at Writers Resource Center that was hatched as part of a March Madness event.

We’ll I’m not racing off to bake cookies for the judges. What you see is what you get. I didn’t even change out of my jammies and slippers.

I’m a little concerned though, cuz even though Denise and I dish out blog critiques to our clients, it’s hard to take a dose of your own medicine. Here are some of the points this blog will be matched up against those big guys Harry and James, the Men with Pens

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Blog Writing: What would you like to learn?

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I’ve got my head buried in books as I am researching ideas for an advanced blog writing class.  My question is this to readers: What would you like to learn that would make your business blog writing easier, faster, and more effective? What questions do you want answered? Just hit the comment link below and submit your question. You can win a book of your choice:

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Ezine/Blog Combos: Here are two examples

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I’ve noticed a trend of combining a newsletter with blog posts. In these two examples, each done a little differently, the focus is on driving readers to read what interests them the most. Whether it’s a special report, an audio file, or weekly blog posts, the reader decides what topic and how they want to get their information.

Bud Bilanich’s Common Sense Ezine
Debbie Weil’s WordBiz Report

What do you think about these examples? And, how have blogs affected the way you do your ezine? Or has it not changed things for you at all? Do you feel it’s essential to have both a blog AND a newsletter? Hit the comment link and share.

Related Posts:
Blog or Newsletter? Which is best for building a list?
Ezine Success Stories: Newsletters still get results for business
Top Ten Reasons to Do an Ezine AND a Blog
Newsletters & Blogs: Marriage or Divorce?

Blog or Newsletter? Which is best for building a list?

News
"Are
Ezines still very relevant and a popular popular way to establish a list vs. a
blog?"
Amanda from Ft. Lauderdale asks. This is a 2-part question really, about which is best to do, and then about the best way to build a list. I’ll try to sort out the overlapping components.

An ezine, or emailed newsletter, has been a major marketing tool for online businesses since the 90s. In 2004 along came blogs; business blogging has quickly become an easy way to publish your message online and get found by the people who need your services.

The Blog vs Ezine debate isn’t new, nor is it finished. I posted previously what others were saying about the ezine/blog debate on this blog.

And our answer (in most cases) is to do both. But you should get them simplified so that neither task takes up too much of your time and energy.

Building Your List

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Wall Street Journal & Blog Squad: Denise gets quoted

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Find out what Denise, my Blog Squad partner, says in a Wall Street Journal article about getting publicity through blogs…Attention, Bloggers by Shelly Banjo.