Archive for business blogging – Page 12

Your Business and the Web: Getting Better?

How has your business been affected by the Web? Have you felt the difference like a Tsunami or a soft summer drizzle? I’m curious.

I know it’s completely changed my life and the way I work. Both the quantity and quality of my business are vastly improved in terms of marketing ease, deliverability and profits.

Yikes, …I feel an urge to create a new poll coming on! But hang on, I need to clarify my ideas first…

I know people who are still doing business without the Web, saying things like,

  • “My clients don’t spend time surfing the Internet.”
  • “I get all my customers from referrals.”
  • “I’ve got a local business, I use Yellow Pages.”

Others may have put up a crappy 1-4 page website and then wondered why it doesn’t bring in leads. And these people are all smart professionals, they’re not idiots, they’re all busy and profitable.  They’re just not web-savvy.

There are those who started a blog because they heard that would bring in business. And they want to know why they aren’t on the first page of searches.

So, no, the Web hasn’t changed the way most people do business. Just some of us. I know there are many who feel it’s just too overwhelming to learn, especially now with all the social media chatter. To them, it’s not a Tsunami but a giant sink hole of wasted time and energy. Read More→

Sales & Landing Pages Using WordPress: Learn How

If  you want to learn about formatting sales and landing pages using WordPress, please register for the free Webinar I’m hosting Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 4 p.m. ET.

I’m interviewing Suzanne Bird-Harris, developer of the WP Sales Page wizard. We’ll show you how to easily publish pages using your WordPress platform. The class is on the phone and on the Internet, your choice.

Can’t make the call? I’ll send you the audio file, plus any notes, but you’ll need to register:

Name
Email

Want to learn more about this great $37 product that makes landing pages easy to format and publish? Here’s Suzanne’s product page (affiliate link): WordPress Sales Page information.

There are a few drawbacks to using WP, if you are using it for product pages, affiliate product landing pages or email squeeze pages: Read More→

Blog or Website: Do You Use WordPress as a Website?

Do you use WordPress for your business website? Many people do.  And I’d like to know if you do, how long you have used it as a website, and what your opinion of it is. Leave a comment if you’d like, since the poll only gives you a yes/no choice.

My content business, ContentforCoachesandConsultants.com, is built on a blog platform, although I don’t use it as a blog. I use it as a traditional website for my business, with product pages, etc.

I see a trend here. Many independent professionals want to be in control of their sites, without having to go through a webmaster, and without learning coding or programming.

WordPress makes it easy for anyone to update their own site. You can create pages, just like a website. It can be customized to look like a traditional website for any business, or you can get something customized specifically for your needs.

There are a multitude of talented web people available for customizing it for your needs. Once set up, you can easily publish fresh content, write sales copy, add product pages, and benefit from the facility with which WordPress works with the search engines. Smooth.

I stopped using Dreamweaver software for my websites over two years ago, and started afresh using a custom-designed WordPress platform. Together with my merchant cart, KickStartCart, it gives me everything I need to run an online business, build my marketing database, provide digital products and attract clients with content that’s optimized for search engines.

And, trust me, I’m not someone with a lot of tech skills. I didn’t grow up in the computer age. Demographically, I’m probably in the cohort of  “techno-old-farts.”

Please vote, either yes or no. The results will be shared as we gather more opinions. And if you’ve got a WordPress story to share with us, tell us in the comments how you’re using it for your business, please share your url so we can come check it out!

Twitter: the little bird that grew up strong

Why Twitter Is Such a Powerful Social Media Platform, this week’s guest post by Phyllis Zimbler Miller,

When I first heard Twitter mentioned two years ago – in a teleseminar with the BlogSquad! – I checked it out because I valued Patsi’s advice.

At the time the Twitter home page question was something such as: “Let your family and friends know what you are doing now.”  I thought to myself: Why should they care about this and why should I join the site?  Thus I didn’t join.

But because I trusted Patsi, I went back to the site a few days later and signed up, getting the username @ZimblerMiller.  Another few days later I got my business partner Yael K. Miller to get the username @MillerMosaicLLC to tweet under our company name.

And then something happened!  I began reading about how to use Twitter and observing what was going on – and I got it!  I saw the power of Twitter and embraced it wholeheartedly.   Read More→

WordPress Beats Out Typepad 4 to 1 in Poll

Two-thirds of readers of this blog use WordPress as a blogging platform,  according to results of the poll set up 6 days ago. If you haven’t voted yet, please do so here.

Typepad users make up 14.5% of my blog readers, and the other platforms are in the single digits. Of WordPress users, 25.3% use a platform hosted by WordPress.com, 44% use a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Because of the overwhelming majority who use WordPress, my next teleseminar will be designed for WP users. Specifically, I’m going to interview an expert about how to create a sales page using WordPress. Stay tuned for a date, and… of course, a WP sales page where you can sign up for the free class and learn more WordPress tips.

As you probably know, I switched from a Typepad hosted blog a couple of months ago to self-hosted WordPress, with a Headway theme. So far, I’m very pleased with both the ease of posting, the design and widget features, and the SEO results. Read More→

Blogging for Blind Users: See What They See

I just got a phone call from Jacqueline Fernandez in New York City. She called because she wanted to know why a comment she left on my blog hadn’t yet been approved. I had been out of the office for several hours. What she said after that, blew me away.

Ms. Fernandez is a blind person who’s trying to navigate the Web, read blogs and leave comments. Here is her comment left on my blogging poll post, and I’ll share it with you because she deserves to be heard. If any of you out there have a suggestion to help her, please leave a comment, or go to her site and connect with her.

“I’m so frustrated and I’m about to throw in the towel with Social media. I am a blind person trying to make it on the internet for over two years now, but its been a total nightmare for me due to the lack of accessibility [for blind people] on the ‘Net.

“At the moment I’m using Posterous. This is the only blogging platform that works with my screen reader, but I am noticing that they are adding new features [graphics] and that means that I have to pack up my bags full of my content and find another Blogging site.

“I would love to be on the cutting edge and use WordPress so I can get indexed by Google and get traffic, but its so hard for me to set WP up with all the plugins and themes.

“For all those taking this poll try this little experiment. It can open your eyes a little bit into an unfamiliar world & hopefully you will understand the importance of having [enhanced] accessibility in your web sites.

“Are you ready? Here you go: take the test & experience my world of darkness . http://j.mp/9JYHHm”

Thanks, Jacqueline, for opening our eyes to your world. I’m glad you were able to read my posts, and to respond to the poll. You’ve given me, and others, something to think about…

Click, Read, Learn: B2B Marketing Zone Is
Fast Food for the Brain

B2B MarketingAre you staying informed with the latest marketing tips and trends? If you’re in any kind of business trying to use the Internet to get found, get known and get clients, you know you can easily get overwhelmed with information.

Why? Marketers are particularly vociferous and the Web is a perfect platform to gather and write, speak, and film. The problem is, it’s too much. Too much information, too many tips, too many fads, and it’s hard to sort out what’s important.

Where can you go to get the best, most important marketing tips written by easy-to-read experts? Let me introduce you to B2BMarketingZone.com. This is a topic hub, aggregating blogs posts from a group of 48 best business-to-business marketing blogs.

I’m happy to have been added as a contributor. When you go to B2BMarketingZone, you’ll be able to quickly scan what other marketing experts are blogging about. You pick which posts are relevant to you and your business.

Click, read, learn. I like that. It’s like a snack for your mind. Fast food for the brain. Would you like fries with that?

I recently had a conversation with creator Dr. Tony Karrer, CEO of TechEmpower. First, let me share how this blog aggregator site works, and why it’s important for you to subscribe and bookmark it… then I’ll tell you some ideas Tony and I discussed.

Read More→

Poll: What Blogging Platform Do You Use?

I’m curious… what kind of blogging platform do you use? I’m going to offer some free teleclasses soon on blogging tools and best practices, and this information is necessary so I can know what’s needed most.

Please take the poll, or just leave a comment if you use something not mentioned here… thanks!

Why Use Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn for
Content Marketing?

True confession time: I am not even close to being smart about using social media for online marketing. No big surprise for those of you who know what an introvert I am. But still, I am using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and I think you should too. Here’s why…

I am a psychologist who helps others get found online, get known in their niche, and get clients. If you’ve read my story, you know how I started using the Web ten years ago, as a complete techno-klutz. All that changed in 2004 and 2005 with the popularization of blogging platforms like Typepad and WordPress.

This ushered in new business success for me and my former partner as The Blog Squad. If you’ve been online for a few years now, marketing your business using the Internet, you probably experienced the same phenomena… all of a sudden you don’t need to be a computer geek to get a site up and start making money.

Around 2004, sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter came along, but they didn’t really pick up steam until 2006 and later. What happened is beyond comprehension on some levels… and totally natural.

Now Facebook boasts one of the highest web traffic numbers and Twitter has become a news source re-broadcast on network TV news stations. Read More→

Don’t Jerk Blog Readers Around:
5 Tips to Keep on Track

What’s the most frequent complaint I hear about blogging? Next to “I don’t have enough time,” it’s “I don’t know what to write about.”

Guess what? The two questions are related to the same problem: not enough clarity about business blog goals. Here’s how I help my clients solve this problem of clarity:

  1. Define your business Ps & Q – (3Ps + 1Q):
    => What Problem do you solve?
    => Who are the People you serve?
    => What Products and services do you offer?
    => What makes you uniQue??
  2. Create a course outline or a table of contents as if you were writing a book or teaching a class on this problem, i.e., your expertise
  3. Make a list of keywords, categories and topics you’re qualified to write about and that must be addressed to solve the problems of your readers
  4. Make an editorial calendar for each day of the week you’re going to be blogging. Make sure you cover all the topics and categories, and that your keywords are repeated frequently in posts and titles (search engine optimization).
  5. Make a weekly blog schedule to include writing the content, sharing it on social sites, researching and commenting on other blogs, and formatting, editing, linking, etc.

Don’t underestimate the time it takes for all the peripheral upkeep of blogging. Maintaining a successful blog takes more time than just writing a post. And it almost always takes longer than the 30 minutes required for writing.

Do you jerk readers around?

When I’m working with my clients on their blogs, I often find their content is all over the map. Quite often, they Read More→