Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Weblog Usablity Mistakes

Thanks to a friend for pointing me to this article by Jakob Nielsen on Weblog Usability: The Top 10 Design Mistakes.

Summary:
Weblogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.

This article serves as an excellent checklist for all bloggers, new and experienced.  Here's a list of the mistakes, and it's well worth your time to review the article in full to learn why and how to remedy these issues.  Patsi and I cover all these issues in our ebook, Build a Better Blog.

1. No Author Biographies
2. No Author Photo
3. Nondescript Posting Titles
4. Links don't say where they go
5. Classic Hits are Buried
6. The Calendar is the only navigation
7. Irregular publishing frequency
8. Mixing topics
9. Forgetting that you write for your future boss
10. Having a domain name owned by a weblog service

Power of the Blogosphere

If you ever doubted the power of the blogosphere, you must read this post by BL Ochman about what happened when Media Blogger Terry Heaton blogged about having to have surgery without insurance.  It is truly heartwarming, a testament to the goodness of humankind, and reveals the power of participating in this thing called the blogosphere.

This has nothing to do with business blogging, but how the relationships and "tribes" that are formed by those relationships extend well beyond business.

Blog Squad Store Expands

The Blog Squad Store has just expanded its selection of groovy merchandise.  Now you can get buttons, magnets, t-shirts, caps, tote bags and a Blog Notes Journal.

Smart at Love Wins Seal of Approval

The Blog Squad has awarded their coveted Seal of Approval to Annie Dennison and her Smart at Love blog. After 4 weeks of weekly coaching sessions, Annie's blog is now generating more traffic -- up from practically nothing to an average of 200 visitors per week, she's creating dialogue with her readers and the blog is easier to navigate.

Annie's blog, Smart at Love: For the Single Woman who Wonders "If I'm So Smart, How Can I be So Dumb About Love?" is a great resource for both men and women who are looking for smart advice about dating, mating and relating.  Annie is smart, funny, an excellent writer and very charming.  Check out her blog!

Small Business Bloggers Wanted

My colleague Paul Chaney of Radiant Marketing Group is working on a new project to feature small businesses and how they're using blogs.  He calls it 52 Small Business Blogs in 52 Weeks.  He says:

I have to admit there is a selfish reason for asking you to do this. I want to prove to the business blogging community that small businesspeople are making use of this media format and use your blogs as a rationale for why others should. Much is being written about how large corporations can use blogs and, frankly, I'm sick of it. I believe small businesses can make the best use of blogs possible and I want to build a case to prove it.

If you would like to be included in this project, please read Paul's post to get the details and contact Paul directly.

Blogging Coaches - Where are you?

Calling all coaches who are bloggers AND are planning to attend the ICF Conference in November.

The Blog Squad will be at the Conference and we'll be blogging on our new blog at The Blog Squad Live!  We're looking for 4-5 coaches who would like to be guest bloggers on the blog.

We're looking for blogger coaches who will commit to blogging about the conference before, during and after -- reporting on your experience and observations about the conference.

What do you get?  Lots of great exposure for you, your business and your blog, of course.  You'll get a link from our blog to your blog.  Your posts will be categorized by your name and we'll be promoting this blog/event heavily over the next few weeks before the conference.

Interested?  Contact Denise and Patsi ASAP.  Send us a link to your blog and tell us why you want to be a Blog Squad Guest Blogger during the ICF Conference. Send an email.

See you in San Jose!

P.S.  If you're not going to be at the Conference and you know coaches who are attending and may be interested in this opportunity, please let them know.  Thanks!

IMBlogs.net Blog Directory

There's a new blog directory in the blogosphere.  IMBlogs.net has 'a vision of being “where internet marketing and blogging collide.”'  If your blog deals with any of the following:

• Internet Marketing
• AdSense Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Blogging
• Copywriting
• Keyword Research
• Niche Marketing
• Private Label Content
• Product Reviews
• Programming
• Streaming Media

then check out the directory and submit your blog.  Every entry is reviewed by a human before it is added.  You will also be given directions for how to ping the directory every time you post so your entry will show up in their recently updated list.  Here's a press release about IMBlogs.net.  Click on the logo to add your blog today.

Teleseminars Can Boost Your Business

Teleclasses, or Teleseminars, are a great way to create content for a book or info product.  That's one of the primary sources we used when we developed the content for the Build a Better Blog ebook.  Patsi and I taught a 4 week teleclass on blogs, recorded the sessions and then had them transcribed.  The content was invaluable and helped us make intelligent decisions about what we wanted to explore on the blog to get more info from our students. 

Whether or not you have ever conducted a teleclass, you'll want to attend this Conversation with Dan Janal to learn more about the ins and outs of teleseminars.

How to Build Your Business with Teleseminars
Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - FREE
Guest Expert:  Dan Janal, GreatTeleseminars.com

Teleseminars are today's hottest tool to build businesses and sell more products and services. Many coaches, authors, consultants and small businesses use several different tactics to build their businesses with teleseminars with great success. The technology is easy. The marketing can be simple. The payoffs can be great. From the comfort of your home or office, you can produce teleseminars and build your business at almost no cost; and create products you can be proud of for less than $200. In this fascinating conversation, you'll learn: the two major business models and when to use each one; pricing strategies that can make or break your business; how to get people to come if you don't have a big list, and much more.

Dan Janal has produced more than 500 teleseminars with his ww.GreatTeleseminars.com company. He also builds his www.PRLEADS.com brand by offering teleseminars filled with expert advice each week to his clients and prospects. That's right -- he produces his own teleseminar every single week and still has time to run two businesses! He's been called the Larry King of teleseminars. His clients have created six figure incomes from producing teleseminars and he'll share that secret during this call.

Register:  www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

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.

Blog Design: Positioning elements

There's a post on the Blog Business Summit blog about Smart Blog Design and how positioning matters for Google and getting your readers to take action.  Whether it's getting them to click on ads or on links to your products or services, or even to subscribe to your blog for updates, where you put these elements makes a huge difference to the response you get.

The post shares a "heat map" of where readers look and spend time reading.  Conventional web design wisdom has always dictacted that your subscribe form should be in the upper right corner, however, if you go by heat maps, the most important info should be in the upper left.  That's where readers tend to focus their gaze the longest.

I'm doing an experiment on Next Level Biz Tips and have moved my subscribe form from the right sidebar to the top of the left sidebar.  I want to see if it increases the number of subscribers I get.  I'll keep you posted.

I currently have 86 email subscribers on Feedblitz, 22 subscribers on Bloglines, and 38 subscribers through Feedburner. Not tons, and not bad either.

Pinging Technorati

Earlier today Suzanne Falter-Barns posted about how to get your blog noticed by Technorati. I noted that the only way to automatically ping Technorati from a Typepad blog is to manually enter the ping URL every time you post.

So, I contacted Typepad support to find out if they are considering adding Technorati to their automatic pinging service (they currently only ping blo.gs and weblogs.com).  It'd be nice not to have to manually add the URL to every post.  Here's their reply in full:

Hi, Denise!

   As you probably know, currently TypePad does not support a
   way to automatically ping Technorati. Adding additional
   services to ping is on our feature request list for a
   future enhancement to the system.

   In the meantime, when you make a new post, you can Send a
   Trackback(Ping) that would tell Technorati that your site
   has updated.

   There's more information about Sending Trackbacks here:
   http://help.typepad.com/weblogs/post.html#sending_a_trackback

   You would use the Technorati URL in the "Trackbacks URLs to Ping" box:
   http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

   If you don't see that box at the bottom of the Post page,
   you can find instructions on how to add it here:
   http://help.typepad.com/weblogs/post.html#customizing_the_post_page_display

   Or you could use Ping-o-Matic to ping several services at once:
   http://pingomatic.com/ [I recommend pingoat.com instead to ping 50+ vs. 20 directories]

   If you bookmark Ping-o-Matic's results page, you can click
   the bookmark whenever you post, to automatically ping all
   the services you selected in your previous configuration.

   I hope this helps!  Please let us know if you have any
   questions.

   Thanks and have a great day!

   Kymberlie

So, I guess it's in the works, someday.