Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

FeedBurner Problems? Check your Feedflares...

If any of you Typepad bloggers have noticed strange changes to your FeedFlares, we were alerted to problems with Feedburner yesterday. Thank you to Debra Dalgleish, an independent computer consultant, who's eagle eyes noticed the changes. Here's the message Debra sent:

Hi Patsi,

At the bottom of your latest article How NOT to Write an Email Promotion Message... there's a link "10 comments on this item" and it leads to http://www.hotsauceblog.com/hotsaucearchives/pimp-your-sauce-v3/

The "Email this" link looks suspect too. The previous article also has incorrect links in the Add a comment and Email this.

Regards,
Debra Dalgleish
Contextures

Please check your FeedFlares if you're using that FeedBurner feature on your blog that ends a post with Add a Comment, Email this, Twit this, or other choices. Fortunately, it's easy to deactivate FeedFlares on your FeedBurner account until the issue is resolved.

For more information on the issue, there's a FeedBurner Help Group on Google Groups. Even though it's apparently a FeedBurner issue, I was pleased to get a Typepad response within a couple of hours of opening a support ticket to say they were investigating with FeedBurner.

Got Burning Blogging Questions? Ask The Blog Squad!

A New Year's gift for you...

Ask The Blog Squad

A free, open forum teleconference for you to ask your burning questions about business blogging and social media marketing.

Here's your chance to learn more about how you can get massive online visibility with blogs,
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools.

So much has happened in 2008:

• Business blogs continue to be the #1 way to attract web traffic
• Facebook and Twitter have exploded as marketing tools
• Video is easier than ever to create and use on the Web
• New ways of marketing are being defined: Content, relationship, personality & conversational marketing tactics emerge

We'll look at these emerging trends and answer your questions about how you can stay ahead of the curve in 2009.

Please join us:

What: Free Ask The Blog Squad TeleConference

When: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT)

Where: The comfort of your home or office, on the phone or via webcast

Why: Our New Year's gift to you, answering your questions, providing information you need & want

No registration required. Just show up. Use this link to get the dial-in details and post your questions about business blogging and social networking.

Click here: http://www.asktheblogsquad.com/

Hope you'll join us.

Best wishes for the New Year!

Patsi & Denise
The Blog Squad

Business Bloggers Group on Twitter

Are you using twitter yet? I find twitter to be one of the most effective ways to stay in touch with my network and then drive them back to our blogs so they can get more in depth content from us. At this point about 50% of our blog traffic is coming from twitter and Facebook!

There are a lot of great tools to help you effectively use twitter. A couple days ago I wrote about Tweetworks on Biz Tips Blog. In a nutshell it allows you to set up groups of twitter users so you can have much more focused conversations. It's helpful for finding and connecting with people in your niche who are interested in your topic/service/business.

I set up a group called BusinessBloggers. The conversations about challenges business owners, entrepreneurs and service professionals are having around their business blogs and how to use them most effectively. It's a great way to get instant (or almost instant, depending on who's on twitter at the moment) feedback and share information. It's free to participate, too!

If you're using twitter as part of your blogging and marketing strategy, you're invited to join us and join the conversation.

Are you following us on Twitter?

Denise on Twitter
Patsi on Twitter

BTW, have you seen our new Better Business Blogging program?

How to Get More BAM! Out of Your Business Blog

Last Saturday my tennis pro, Woody Yokum, asked me to keep my left hand on my racket a little longer than usual as I bring my racket back for a forehand. This helped me get more shoulder rotation.

Then I unleashed my stroke and hit the ball. BAM! The ball flew faster and harder than I’d ever hit before AND landed deep inside the court.

Wow! Did that ever feel good. This small tweak to my stroke means I get more power from rotating my entire body core.

So I got to thinking about how that applies to business blogging. (Hey! When you’re the Blog Squad, we’re always thinking about better blogging, just can’t help it.)

Adding tiny details to your blog posts makes your writing more alive, more human, more real. You never know what detail will resonate with a reader who has the same experience. That’s what makes the difference between blogs that get comments from those that don’t get much interaction.

Do you want blog BAM!... or blog bland?

Geo-based Blog Directory: Loaded Web

I received an email today from LoadedWeb.com letting me know about their new blog directory. The difference with this directory is that it's based on location rather than subject matter. So, you can look up a city (limited to U.S. and Canada right now) and find bloggers in that city. Cool.

It's free to submit your blog. Can't hurt, can only help.

How to Build a Better Blog in 30 Minutes a Day

Drum roll, please! The new edition of our Build a Better Blog ebook and Learning System is now officially launched! Get out the hats, horns and confetti, QUICK!

Now you may be like George W. Bush the other day and react with a big "So what?" Here's why it's important:

This is not just another ebook telling you how great blogs are. You may already have a few ebooks gathering dust on your virtual shelves. This is a comprehensive learning system, time-released, and based on 3 different levels of blogging needs. What the heck do I mean by that?

• You download the digital ebook and read it whenever you want
• You get lessons via email every few days with assignments
• You get modules, tutorials, and audio files with time in between to implement and practice

Studies show that people learn better when they focus on one or two lessons at a time, and have time to practice before learning more. It's also a known fact that people learn best through their own preferred learning style: some people learn better with audio, others prefer reading, others prefer experimenting with action steps.

Denise and I show you how you can get spectacular results (like massive visibility and lotsa money!) with a business blog in just 30 minutes a day. Our ebook and training system make it easy for you to learn the short cuts to better business blogging.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: Back to Business Blogging Basics

There's a reason the release of the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still will sustain movie ticket success even though it's a remake. Even if you're too young or can't remember the original, there's a reason people will flock to see it:

The message is crucial and relevant for today's economic and environmental crises. The details have changed, the 'how' of the plot is different, but the 'why' is pertinent to our daily lives and how we misuse our planet's resources.

There's a lesson here for business blog authors, bear with me.

The original movie's premise (1951) was that an invading race of super-robots was trying to protect the earth from being destroyed by our use of nuclear war power. The remake focuses on our exploiting of the earth's energy resources.

Here's the lesson for your business blogs: Even though you change your content to post new material as often as possible, never stray from the 'why' you write, why you blog.

We see business bloggers go off on tangents in an effort to provide interesting content, but they forget the basics. It's better to repurpose and republish your core messages than to try to be more original.

5 Business Blog Starter Steps

A big round of 'amens' to Drew McLellan with his post 5 musts of business blogging over on  Drew's Marketing Minute blog. I discovered Drew's helpful messages because he is on the list of Top 42 Content Marketing blogs over on Alltop.

This is exactly what Denise and I tell our new blog clients who are eager to just jump right in and start blogging: "Hold your horses. Stop and think before you begin to blog." We don't like to see our clients crash and burn and become blogging drop outs.

At a minimum, do these 5 things for your business blog:

1. You must have a clear purpose
2. Listen at least twice as much as you write
3. Jump into conversations and add value
4. Write and then write some more
5. Be in it for the long haul

Blog Content Calendar: Make a Plan

One of the reasons blog authors get stuck for content ideas is that they start blogging without any forethought or plan. I know this because I did this myself. But it's never too late to stop and make a plan for your business blog, including an editorial calendar.

At the very least make a list of keywords that your readers would use if they were searching for your solutions to their problems. Make a list of categories that define the topics you write about. Then make sure your blog  posts cover all these categories and that you use the keywords in titles and in the body of your posts.

Lee Odden is my favorite search engine optimization expert (even though I only understand half of what he says! ;-)) He's got a great post out today called 5 Tips for Successful Blog Optimization. I particularly appreciate his tip #3:

3. Plan editorial and source content. Unlike traditional publications, blogs do not typically have editorial calendars but why not?  Use categories as an indication for the topics the blog should be posting about. Category keywords should support the business goals defined in the blog’s objectives.

Other People's Content: Let Your Fingers Do the Walking

Sometimes easy is better than hard. Finding great blog content for your business blog doesn't have to be such a struggle. You can make great use of OPC - other people's content. I stumbled upon this tactic while trying to find blog content before going away on vacation.

Remember the old Yellow Pages ad, "Let your fingers do the walking?" Here's how to let your fingers do the heavy lifting. Everything is done by email, except of course the actual posting to your blog, but then, your fingers do the work there too.

The idea is to write a series of interview questions (5-7) about your core topic. Send them off by email to the 10 top experts in your field. Ask them for 5 minutes of their time to complete the emailed interview, and let them know you'd like to feature them on your blog.

Then run the interview series on your blog. This provides your blog readers with valuable, relevant content in addition to your own experiences and perspectives. Your readers will deepen their understanding of your topic.

Your interviewees, for the most part, are grateful for the opportunity. Not everyone will take the time, but those who do will provide you with insights and stories you never could have known about.

I am currently running a series of interviews from content marketing experts over on my Writing on the Web Blog. This is an invaluable opportunity to get to know colleagues who are writing about similar things, with a different perspective. As a bonus, I may compile the interviews (about 20 so far) into an ebook or special report on the topic of Content Marketing.

Here are the exact steps I took: