Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Blogging Class: Call to Action

Our next business blogging class is on Wednesday. I created a video postcard for you...

http://tinyurl.com/blogclass

Join me and Patsi, for a free* 60-minute expert blog training session focused on how to get your blog readers to take action so you can get more clients and make more money!

The training session is on Wednesday, October 1 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. ET).

Get the details on the video...

http://tinyurl.com/blogclass

*Free for members of The Master Business Building Club. You get a 30-day free trial when you join so you can attend this class + get access to all previous training programs and a whole lot more cool resources.

Andy Wibbels Shows off Blogs.com

At BlogWorld Expo I had a chance to talk with Andy Wibbels, currently working at Six Apart. Andy told us about his latest project at Six Apart - blogs.com - a human edited "best of blogs" site. Currently they have over 1100 handpicked blogs.Check it out. And be sure to submit your blog if you think it's one of the best in your niche!

5 Call to Action Tips for Business Bloggers: how to get blog readers to become clients

When it comes to using calls to action on your business blog, we suggest you continuously throw them out there to your readers. Here are 5 ways to include calls to action in your posts.

With business blogging, the call to action is an ongoing process and a style of blog writing. Usually copywriters use a call to action to get you to buy something. But for business blog writing, the call to action is much more subtle and complex.

It includes:

1. Building trust and rapport with your readers - write in a conversational tone, as if you are writing an email to your favorite client. Share a few personal things to build that connection.
2. Engaging your readers in conversation and interaction with you – ask readers to hit the comment link and share or answer a question. 
   
   You also do this by inviting them to think about how they would approach a problem or solution. Readers aren’t going to bother to leave comments unless you stimulate or inspire them beyond just educating them.

Blogging Success Story: Mark Siegel

Mark Siegel is a blogging success story. Mark runs the Thailand Golf Zone blog which we helped him set up and optimize about two years ago. Periodically Mark sends us updates about the success of his business which he attributes to the success of his blog.  In January we got an email from Mark saying he could directly attribute $875,000 in new revenue to his blog. 

Yesterday, we got another raving (in a good way) email from Mark Siegel:

It's me again, Mark Siegel, and I just wanted to say keep up the great work on blog education! What you did to help me create the Thailand Golf Zone, continues to be the single biggest marketing action that has helped fuel my Golf business' (Golfasian) yearly TRIPLE DIGIT growth.

Rich Brooks on the future of blogging (video)

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Rich Brooks of flyte new media at BlogWorld Expo again this year. Rich was the moderator of a panel on small business blogging so we also got to share the stage for the second year. Rich and The Blog Squad started blogging around the same time in 2004. I asked Rich about the changes he's seen in blogging over the last 4 years and where he thinks blogging is headed. We share the belief that your blog IS the central hub or foundation for your social marketing.

Check out flyte blog and follow "The" Rich Brooks on twitter at @therichbrooks.

David Bullock Shares His Insights from BlogWorld Expo

We caught up with David Bullock at BlogWorld Expo and got a snap shot of what he had learned from the panel sessions. David is a very smart dude so pay attention to him. I met him this past Spring at Liz Strauss' Biz School for Bloggers and was blown away by his approach to business development. He says he's a newbie at social media, but he's a quick study.  David spoke on a panel about how to monetize social media and presented a case study of how Barack Obama is using social media. Check out http://www.barack20.com.

Contest: What's Your Biggest Blogging Challenge?

I've started a new discussion topic on The Blog Squad fan page on Facebook:

What's your biggest blogging challenge?

Post your comments and challenges around business blogging. On September 30 we'll pick a random comment and do a post here, on Build a Better Blog addressing your challenge and giving you some link luv from our popular blog. Plus you might even get a bonus prize too!

Go to the Fan page and post your business blogging challenge on the discussion topic that I've started there. Only comments on the Fan Page count for the contest!

Blog on!

Denise aka The Blog Squad
@BlogSquad

Mari Smith Talks to The Blog Squad

Mari Smith, The Pied Piper of Facebook, is da bomb! We've been virtual friends for several years and finally got to meet F2F (face to face) last week in Las Vegas. First, we spent 3 days with Mari and her husband Ty, at an intensive seminar with Kevin Nations. Then, it was off to BlogWorld and New Media Expo for 3 days. We took advantage of our time together, to get Mari on video.

Mari Smith shares her some of her impressions of BlogWorld as well as a renewed commitment to blogging!

Small Business Blog Panel at BlogWorld

BlogWorld Expo was quite the scene this past weekend in Las Vegas. On Saturday, I had the pleasure of being on a panel with Rich Brooks (right), John T. Unger (left) and Des Walsh (he split so didn't make the picture). Our topic was How to Plan, Build and Promote a Small Business Blog. 

If you were not able to attend BlogWorld or our panel, you can still get a flavor of the discussion. Twitter was all the rage and every single session had dozens of people posting tweets about the content. Our panel was no exception and to make it easier to capture all the content in one place, Rich Brooks set up a hashtag (#sbb08) to code all the tweets.  You can scroll through 4 pages of tweets to get sense of what we discussed.

And, to help you out even more, here are the handouts we provided:

Download small_business_blog1.pdf

Download small_business_blog2.pdf

More thoughts, reports, musings, videos and photos from BlogWorld in come in the next few days after I catch up on a whole lot of work!

BlogWorld TweetUp on Friday

BlogWorld and New Media Expo starts on Friday in Las Vegas. Will you be there?

Even if you cannot attend BlogWorld, if you're in the Las Vegas area, let's connect. There is a BlogWorld Tweetup (like a MeetUp but for people who use Twitter!) on Friday night at the Hilton next to the convention center. We're meeting at 7:00 p.m. in the Tempo Lounge.  See you there?

BTW, I'm speaking on a panel on Saturday at 2:45 p.m.: How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog for Small Business. I'm speaking with Rich Brooks, Des Walsh and John T. Unger. If you're attending BWE, please stop by and say hello!