Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Contest: Friday's Blogging Question

Friday's Blogging Question:

How has blogging impacted your business?

Enter to win today's contest by answering the question in the comment section below.

Good luck and blog on!

Contest Details: Each day this week, through Friday, we're giving away a $12 Amazon.com gift certificate to a reader who comments on that day's blog post, answering a specific question. The winners will be chosen at random from the submitted comments. Your comment post must answer the daily question and every comment counts as an entry for that day's give-away. Make sure you include your correct primary email address in the email field so we can contact you if you're the winner.  You may play every day!

Contest: Thursday's Blogging Question

Thursday's Blogging Question:

How do you use social media to market your business?

Enter to win today's contest by answering the question in the comment section below.

Good luck and blog on!

Contest Details: Each day this week, through Friday, we're giving away a $12 Amazon.com gift certificate to a reader who comments on that day's blog post, answering a specific question. The winners will be chosen at random from the submitted comments. Your comment post must answer the daily question and every comment counts as an entry for that day's give-away. Make sure you include your correct primary email address in the email field so we can contact you if you're the winner.  You may play every day!

1000 Blog Post Contest: Tuesday Winner

Congratulations to Michael Louie of Mewie blog, the randomly drawn winner of Tuesday's 1000 Blog Post Contest.  Michael won an Amazon gift certificate.

Responses to our question about how much time you spend blogging every week ranged from 20 minutes a day to 8 hours a week.

Have you entered today's contest?

Expert Spreads Myths about Business Blogging

I just watched a video interview by Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today of Andy Beal on How to Get Started in Business Blogging.

Unfortunately, Andy perpetuates some of the commonly held myths about blogs. I just hate it when this happens. Here Andy Beal is an Internet expert: I'm sure many viewers assume what he says is the whole truth.

It's not that he lied - he told part of the story and omitted some important details that could cost new bloggers time, money and frustration. [See comments...]

The myths, as Andy proclaims them:

1. Blogging platforms are free - for example Blogger.com. Because it's owned by Google, it's search engine friendly.

The truth: (as Patsi proclaims it:)
           a) Just because something is free doesn't mean it's good and doesn't mean it's good for your business... Your business deserves a better blogging platform than Blogger provides.
           b) All blogs are search engine friendly, and Blogger isn't more search engine friendly than another.

    2. Wordpress is completely free -

The real truth...

Contest: Wednesday's Blogging Question

Wednesday's Blogging Question:

Who is your favorite business blogger and why?

Enter to win today's contest by answering the question in the comment section below.

Good luck and blog on!

Contest Details: Each day this week, through Friday, we're giving away a $12 Amazon.com gift certificate to a reader who comments on that day's blog post, answering a specific question. The winners will be chosen at random from the submitted comments. Your comment post must answer the daily question and every comment counts as an entry for that day's give-away. Make sure you include your correct primary email address in the email field so we can contact you if you're the winner.  You may play every day!

1000 Blog Post Contest: Monday Winner

Congratulations to Nate Lee, the randomly drawn winner of Monday's contest answering our question on "how do you think blogging will evolve over the next few years?". Be sure to check out all the terrific comments on that subject.

Nate Lee of Point Group Ideas has won an Amazon gift certificate.

Contest: Tuesday's Blogging Question

Tuesday's Blogging Question:

How much time do you spend blogging each week?

Enter to win today's contest by answering the question in the comment section below.

Good luck and blog on!

Contest Details: Each day this week, through Friday, we're giving away a $12 Amazon.com gift certificate to a reader who comments on that day's blog post, answering a specific question. The winners will be chosen at random from the submitted comments. Your comment post must answer the daily question and every comment counts as an entry for that day's give-away. Make sure you include your correct primary email address in the email field so we can contact you if you're the winner.  You may play every day!

Contest: Celebrating 1000 Posts

This post is #1000 on Build a Better Blog. Whoo hoo! The first post - a pretty boring one announcing the new blog - was published on February 16, 2005. It's been a great ride. As of this moment, we've had 105,914 visitors and 185,432 page views.

Now we're celebrating. Each day this week, Monday through Friday, we're giving away a $12 Amazon.com gift certificate to a reader who comments on that day's blog post, answering a specific question. The winners will be chosen at random from the submitted comments. Your comment post must answer the daily question and every comment counts as an entry for that day's give-away. Make sure you include your correct primary email address in the email field so we can contact you if you're the winner.  You may play every day!

Monday's Question:

How do you think blogging will evolve over the next few years?

Enter to win today's contest by answering the question in the comment section below.

Good luck and blog on!

Tips from the Experts about Using Photos on Your Blog

I'd like to follow up on Patsi's post about using photos on your blog. There are a lot of well-known bloggers who swear by using photos to beef up their blog posts and make them more compelling for their readers.

First, check out Patsi's blog at Coachezines.com. She loves using photos and puts one in just about every post to illustrate her point. Patsi and I mostly use Stock.XCHNG for free stock photos.

Next, I posted about this and included links for free stock photos in September 2006.

Another resource, not free, used by Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame is Big Stock Photo. Also study Copyblogger since Brian very effectively uses imagery on his blog.

A post on Problogger talks about how to make your blog stand out and includes the use of images. Another post by Darren Rowse talks about Using Images to Take Your Posts to a New Level.

Get creative and let us know how it works for you.

Got a Blog? Guest Author Bea Vanni Shares Her Blogging Success

The following article by Bea Vanni, was originally published by The Well Fed Writer. Disclosure: Bea Vanni is a member of our Blogging and Beyond Mentor program. She does give The Blog Squad credit for contributing to her blogging success, but we did not lobby for inclusion in her article! We're reprinting this article to give you a perspective about business blogging other than our own. Enjoy!

GOT A BLOG? ADD ONE AND YOUR BIZ COULD SOAR!

Got a blog? Just like milk builds good bones, blogs build good business. As solo professionals, we know information helps us cut through the struggle of marketing our business. Knowledge solves our challenges and also those of our clients. As writers we live or die by the written word, and if a potential client hears the human voice behind our passion, they're more likely to trust us. A blog can create that connection and trust if you share your unique perspectives and teach useful techniques to fix problems.

Did you notice that you aren't in the business of doing that thing you do, but more in the business of marketing it? Does it make it you crazy? Well, a business blog drives more traffic quicker than a website and elicits demand for your services because you show how much you care by sharing what you know. That's what happened to me.