Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Forget Traffic: It's Subscribers You Want

I've never been obsessed with page views, search engine optimization, page ranking and other stats like the tech people talk about. I'm a firm believer in organic search results based on a few key best practices: If you write frequently about problems and solutions that your people are interested in, they should be able to find you.

Yesterday Denise and I interviewed Phil Hollows, founder of FeedBlitz.com, the leading blog to email provider about new services they're offering in the realm of newsletter and content distribution. FeedBlitz is rolling out some great new free features for marketing your business.

Brand Your Name with YourName.com domain

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how to maximize your About Page and one of the commenters noted that you should forward or map your domain name to your About Page. This means you should register your name as a domain, i.e, www.denisewakeman.com and then make sure it points to your About Page. I finally took care of this over the weekend.

Then, if someone does a search on my name, it's pretty darn likely that the domain will come up in the results and they'll be directed to my About Page and thus my blogs.

Also, if you missed the announcement, domain registration fees are going up 7 to 10% on October 14 so now's the time to lock on lower rates by renewing your domains now and registering new ones you anticipate needing in the next few months.

Blog Squad Events: 3 Classes Coming Up

Blog Squad Events: October 9 - October 16

How to Use Feedblitz to Boost Your Readership
Interview with Phil Hollows, CEO of Feedblitz.com
October 9, 2007, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Straight from the source, learn how Feedblitz free subscription services can catapult readership of your blogs and newsletters.

Feedblitz is the leading RSS and Blog to Email Service. FeedBlitz is a service that monitors blogs, RSS feeds and Web URLs to provide greater reach for feed publishers. FeedBlitz takes all the headache out of converting feed and blog updates into email digests, delivered daily to subscribers’ inboxes.

You can use Feedblitz to deliver blog updates as well as deliver your newsletter.

This teleclass is free for Blogging and Beyond members. Get a 3 month trial membership and attend for free.

More information here >>>

WidgetBucks: Shopping Ads for your Blog

"How do I make money with my blog?"

We get that question a lot! Well, here's yet another way to earn commissions from ad clicks...WidgetBucks.

WidgetBucks works like Google AdSense in that it pays you per click, but it's a shopping ad network that shows the best price on products related to your blog's content. You can choose the type of content to display or let their system pick stuff based on the content of your blog posts. And they give you a sign up bonus of $25 so you're already half-way to your first commission payout!

I'm testing it on my weight-loss blog so you can see it in action (scroll down, it's on the right sidebar).

If you're already using WidgetBucks, what kind of results are you getting?

Feedblitz Newsletter Option Can Boost Your Readership

Do you use Feedblitz to deliver blog updates by email to your readers? No? You're missing a amazing opportunity to get more readers and drive more traffic to your blog.

Did you know that adding an email option to your blog can boost your readership by over 50%? And did you know that you can also send out your newsletter through a free account with Feedblitz?

We've been using Feedblitz for years now, and love it. But listen to this: recently they made some important upgrades for their paid Premium accounts, AND then made them available to all free accounts.

You need to know about this! It could dramatically boost your readership and subscription lists.

ProBlogger Birthday Bash: How to drive a ton of traffic to your blog

In case you're not subscribed or somehow missed the flurry of blog posts about Darren Rowse's ProBlogger Birthday Bash, here's your notice to check it out. Whether or not you want to play along and enter the daily contests for an opportunity to win one of the $54,000+ in prizes, studying what Rowse is doing could teach you, and me, a thing or two about generating buzz and tons of blog traffic.

First, Rowse announced the birthday bash a few weeks ago and asked for people to sponsor the bash by donating prizes. The exchange would be a lot of publicity for the sponsor and links from ProBloggers PR Rank 6 site. The Blog Squad did not contribute a prize but I'm wishing now that we had since I now see what a tremendous amount of coverage this event is getting.

Then, he announced the list of prizes. And on Monday he started the giveaways. There have been multiple give-aways each day. You can only win once during the Bash.

By doing this though, Rowse is creating a steady stream of traffic to his blog all day long. Every entry usually involves leaving a comment on his blog post announcing the give-away so there are tons of links and content being created. Plus many, many people are blogging about the Bash -- even me.

It's worth subscribing to the RSS feed so you can watch, participate and learn from Darren Rowse's brilliant campaign.

David Sorin Launches The Entrepreneur's Mentor Blog

David Sorin is a Philadelphia lawyer with a keen desire to help entrepreneurs succeed. Denise and I welcome David into the Blogosphere with the launch of his new blog this month, The Entrepreneur's Mentor.

Having been involved in several startup businesses himself, David wants his blog to become “the place” to go on the Web for entrepreneurs and innovators in all types of organizations.

“My purpose in writing this blog is to provide a steadying hand and a voice of reason to those faced with difficult decisions or seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I hope that the dialogue offers answers, but more than that, opens doors in individual thought processes to reveal previously undiscovered strengths.”

David is an excellent writer, with a keen eye towards spotting the "entrepreneurial and innovative spirit" in people. A few recent posts worth checking out are titled, Should Our President Be Entrepreneurial?
Columbia, Ahmadinejad, Free Speech and Leadership Entrepreneurial Networking.

Sorin's company is  Management Mpowerment Associates and is dedicated to helping organizations achieve success through executive coaching, leadership development and  mentoring.  Sorin and his company have worked with law and medical professionals as well as startups.

Be sure to check out David's blog and soak up some of his entrepreneurial wisdom.