Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

WordPress Becoming Popular Blogging Platform

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

Conversations with Experts presents…

WordPress 2.0: The Ultimate Small Business Publishing Platform
Wednesday, September 6, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET (no charge, registration required)
Guest Expert: Michael Pollock, solostream webstudio

In the last few years, we’ve seen an explosion of what have been called "push button publishing services" – also known as blogs. Because they’re so easy to use, hosted services such as Typepad, Blogger and LiveJournal have been the dominant players in this market. More recently, however, a stand-alone publishing platform named WordPress has been steadily growing in popularity.

Recent estimates suggest there are currently more than 1 million WordPress users across the planet. And a lot of them are small business owners just like you. During this discussion, we’ll talk about some of the reasons why the WordPress user base is growing so quickly. In particular, we’ll talk about:

Limitations and drawbacks of hosted services like Typepad and Blogger.
What you CAN do with WordPress that you CAN’T do with hosted services.
5 reasons you may want to switch to WordPress.
5 reasons you may not want to switch to WordPress.
Questions and concerns addressed.

Michael Pollock is CEO of Solostream. He has more than a decade of small business sales, marketing and management experience in both offline and online environments. After launching his first online business in 1999, a business coaching practice, he taught himself graphic design and web development, as well as copywriting and web marketing.

If you cannot attend the Conversation, you can pre-order the audio program for $4.95. After the Conversation the price will be $9.95. Save 50%. Use this link to pre-order now.

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line
Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Writing Great Articles – and Getting the Most Mileage from Them

By Patsi Krakoff in Article Ideas

There is a whole new Internet Marketing world out there for those people who like to write articles (and even for those who don’t!) …Did you know that one 250-400 word article can be leveraged to create web traffic and get new clients long after you’ve written it?

Now that’s not a very much of an article. In fact it can be as short as 3 keys, 5 secrets, or 7 tips – you get the picture. This week The Blog Squad interviewed Jeff Herring, The Article Guy, on how to use articles for marketing your business.

Jeff insists you don’t even have to be a good writer. He dropped out of his Ph.D. program because of fear of writing the dissertation. That is all behind him now. Maybe because of that experience, Jeff has more than conquered the world of article marketing. He has been a columnist for Knight Ridley newspapers for 12 years, and also runs a successful article marketing program for others who want to be a success on the Web.

To get access to his important tips and resources for article marketing, read Denise’s post over at Next Level Biz Tips blog. Or continue reading here, I’ll copy her post.

Yaro Starak on Why Do You Blog

By Patsi Krakoff in Writing Great Copy

I read a post over at Yaro Starak’s Blog Traffic School blog about defining your target audience and blog purpose that is worth the read.

He suggests making a list of what you want your blog to do:

Earn $1000 a month from AdSense
Earn $500 a month from affiliate income selling products X, Y and Z
Get up to 1000 daily readers
Attract an audience in their 20-30s with middle range incomes who purchase products online
Use blog to build an email list of 2000 people by the end of 2006
Write at least 1000 articles of 1000 words each to compile into an ebook on the niche topic

I think some professionals give up on their blogs too soon, expecting instant results of high traffic and sales. Certainly being clear about what you want your blog to do will help you see the little steps along the way that are required to get results.

Originally I started this blog to write down everything I know about creating ezines for people doing coaching or consulting. Over the last two years, I have realized that it has expanded to include writing great copy for blogs, web pages, press releases and sales copy.

This helps me to keep my eye peeled for items on these topics to share with you.

How clear are you about what you want your blog to do? Or for that matter, what about clarity for your ezine or newsletter?

The Article Guy Jeff Herring Shows How to Use Your Articles for Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

Conversations with Experts presents…

Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET (no charge, registration required)
Guest Expert: Jeff Herring, The Article Guy

How to Market Your Articles for Tons of Prospects, Publicity and Profits

In this Conversation with a master of article marketing you will learn:

• 25 ways to market your articles
• One way to market your articles that NO ONE else teaches
• The best article directories for posting your articles
• How to get your articles massively distributed
• How marketing your articles on the internet is more powerful than having a newspaper column
• 7 secrets Jeff uses everyday, on how to post your articles so you could not stop the traffic to your web sites even if you wanted to, and beat the pants off the competition

If you cannot attend the Conversation, you can pre-order the audio program for only $4.95. The audio will be $9.95 after the Conversation. Save 50% and pre-order now. http://snipurl.com/Herring_Preorder

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line
Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

The Blog to Email Connection: We [Heart] Feedblitz

By Patsi Krakoff in How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Teleclasses & Seminars

If you get uncomfortable whenever someone mentions "RSS Feeds," you’re not alone. Only 9-12% of online users understands how blog, website and newsletter information can be delivered using RSS technology.

Never fear, Feedblitz is here! As long as Phil Hollows is around, you can rest easy. Phil is CEO and founder of Feedblitz, a service that automatically delivers your blog (or other web info) to subscribers’ inboxes.

He recently shared his knowledge and innovative ideas with our listeners on our weekly teleseminar Conversations with Experts. If you missed the interview, you can grab a copy of the audio file here. Denise posted about the interview over on Build a Better Blog.

Phil explains that not only is his Feedblitz service a great way to keep readers coming back to your blog, it can be used to deliver your ezines. Just create your ezine on a blogging platform, and then use Feedblitz to broadcast it in email form. Of course. How elegantly simple. Did I mention it is free? The company also provides excellent customer service, even for users at the free service level, unheard of with many Internet companies.

Feedblitz announced early today that in the month of August their active circulation grew a whopping 17.5%, from 700,000 to 822,000. Congratulations, but this is only a fraction of how big Feedblitz will become.

The Blog Squad

Feedblitz!

“Blogiversary” Celebration: The Blog Squad Turns 2

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs, In the News..., Online Marketing

I know, "blogiversary" is a little too cute to make it with the cool geeks in the blogosphere, but it really does describe what we’re doing all next week:

We are celebrating our 2nd year of blogging, and giving away prizes for 5 days next week. Hence, "blog-" "giver-" "sary."…

The big prize is a ticket to Tom Antion’s Great Internet Marketing Retreat in Virginia Beach, and other prizes include luggage, info products, and big discounts on stuff.

You have to be a subscriber to our Savvy eBiz Tips ezine to be eligible to win; if you are not already, then sign up here.

Here, why don’t you read about it in our press release, for details…

By Patsi Krakoff in Uncategorized

Savvy eBiz Tips – Subscribe and Win Prizes and Discounts

NEWS FLASH: 5 DAYS. 5 DEALS. 5 WINNERS.
Subscribe to Savvy eBiz Tips today and you’ll be entered to win big prizes during the week of September 4. The grand prize is a trip to Tom Antion’s Great Internet Marketing Retreat Center for a 4 day internet marketing retreat. (Participants pay $5,000 to attend, but you can win a ticket by subscribing now!)

With your free subscription to Savvy eBiz Tips, you’ll learn how to market your business on the web PLUS get two bonus reports: How to Pick a Shopping Cart and 31 Frequently Asked Questions about List Building. The Blog Squad’s exclusive list building report is part of an indepth program on list building and not available anywhere else.

Learn more and subscribe today to get Savvy eBiz Tips delivered to you every week so you can take your online business to the next level.

From Blog to Email Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

If you’re a blogger or thinking about starting a blog, you definitely should attend this Conversation with Expert Phil Hollows to learn how you can use your blog for email marketing.

Conversations with Experts presents…

Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET (no charge, registration required)
Guest Expert: Phil Hollows, Feedblitz.com

Back to the Future: Growing your audience and simplifying your email marketing with blogs

Blogs are the Internet’s fastest growing sector. Coupled with a new technology called RSS, blogs can recharge and reinvigorate your email marketing and much more. The discussion will cover topics such as how to:

=> Build closer relationships with prospects and customers using blogs and email.
=> More easily differentiate yourself from your competitors.
=> Take the pain out of creating and managing your email marketing, newsletters and ezines.

Whether you have an existing in-house list or are starting out from scratch, Phil will have tips and techniques for improving your list’s quality, tracking metrics and increasing its value to you – simply.

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line
Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.