Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

TypePad for Dummies - Blog Interview on April 7

Attention TypePad bloggers:
Save the date - Wednesday, April 7

I'm hosting the authors of TypePad for Dummies in a blog interview on April 7 (the Q&A will be posted here) and authors Shannon Lowe and Melanie Nelson will be answering your questions as well.

You can submit your questions between now and then in the comments on this post and/or you can post them on the interview post on April 7. Shannon and Melanie will be popping in throughout the day to address your questions about TypePad and blogging in general. I may even jump into the discussion! :-)

The TypePad platform has evolved tremendously in the last year and it's not even recognizable from the platform I started on in 2004. If you're an old-timer trying to figure out all the new bells and whistles or a new blogger looking for guidance, this is a great opportunity for you to engage with two people who know the ins and outs of the TypePad platform better than most people.

By the way, no matter what platform you use for your business blog, you're most welcome to post your questions for Shannon and Melanie - they know blogging and use multiple platforms themselves.

As of writing this post, TypePad for Dummies is doing really well on Amazon. Out of millions of books on the site, it's #3315, a remarkable achievement.

So, what are your burning blogging and TypePad questions? Post them here and I'll make sure they get addressed or come back on April 7during the TypePad for Dummies blog tour stop on Build A Better Blog.

Your Business and Your Blog - Interview

Last night I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Profitable Social Media Show hosted by Warren Whitlock. The subject was Your Business and Your Blog with a focus on how authors have successfully used blogs to market their books.

I was especially interested to hear the stories from three authors in the last 20 minutes of the show...definitely tune in to learn their strategies for using blogs to leverage their books.

Promoting the show was done very effectively. I've known Warren Whitlock for a few years, both online and having met him a couple of times at BlogWorld Expo. My invitation to be on the show came about after Warren made a comment on something on my Facebook page wall. The comments evolved and he mentioned something about his show and why I hadn't been on it. I replied that I had never received an invitation and promptly got one!

We followed up via private email and Warren asked if I had an article he could post on his Best Seller Authors blog. Even though I was pressed for time, I realized (as you should too when asked) it was a great opportunity to get in front of a new audience so I went through my stash of articles and found one I had written specifically for authors and sent it to Warren for a guest post. 

13 Mistakes Authors Make on Their Blogs

Wow! Got a great response from the guest post. I added a call to action to get my free blogging videos and as a result added a lot of new people to my database. Warren heavily promoted the post on Facebook and twitter; I retweeted and shared his posts, as did many others who follow each of us. This gave both me and Warren additional visibility. Warren even urged his fans to connect with me on LinkedIn and I got several new connections there as well.

What's the point of all this?

To illustrate that visibility and opportunities are created in circuitous ways. You've got to be out there (and for an introvert like me that can be a challenge) at live events, blogging and demonstrating your expertise, connecting on various social sites and the opportunities will show up.

Maybe someone who listened to the show and opted in for my free videos will love what I share and decide to register for a program or attend my live event in Raleigh or hire me to coach them on how to optimize their blog for their business or become an affiliate and promote my products and services or refer me to a colleague or interview me for another show or publication...you never know.

I do know though that if you do not take action and do not participate and do not connect and do not create a lot of content, it will be whole heck of a lot harder to build your business and attract the opportunities you want.

By the way, the show was a lot of fun and I'm happy when the host and the audience are happy!

How can you put these tactics into practice for your business? What can you do this week to expand your reach and create more visibility and opportunities?

The Basics of Content Syndication and RSS

The Basics of Content Syndication is a guest post by Dr. Rachna Jain of MindShare Corporation.

Content syndication is a hot topic in social media, and there is a lot of confusion about what it is, and how to do it. In the most basic sense, content syndication refers to the process of efficiently distributing your content around the internet. Since effective content syndication does require a little bit of technical know-how, most people's eyes glaze over when they hear about it. The problem is that if you're ignoring the power of content syndication, you are only getting about 1/3rd of the value from your social media efforts as you could be.

Done correctly, content syndication can help you accomplish four main business goals.

1. It can help you generate more targeted visitors to your website and blog
2. it can help you improve your search engine positioning
3. it can help you build your following
4. it can build your expert status

All of these are valuable outcomes for a process which doesn't really take a lot of time.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is in creating content (for their sites, blogs, teleseminars or trainings) and then only using the content one or two times. This means that your time to create the content is only paying off minimally.

Far better to repurpose your content into multiple formats, and be able to use it multiple ways, so that you are getting maximum value from the time you spend creating the material in the first place. Repurposing efficiently and regularly is one of the key underpinnings of an effective content syndication strategy.

An example of repurposing your content would be to take a written blog post, convert to an audio (see audio option above - instant podcast), turn to a slideshow, and then convert to a video. Your one blog post then becomes deployable in multiple formats, and can be sent out to the various article, audio, and video sites. So, in essence, you get four times the value for your content. There are multiple other ways to repurpose your content, and you'll find, as I have, that once you get good at doing it, it's kind of addictive.

So now that you understand the background of content syndication, let's look at some easy ways you can get started:

How to use blog analytics to improve your blog

Recently I was the featured guest expert on the Social Media Examiner Facebook page, where I answered a bunch of questions about blogging and a few about social marketing. If you missed it, here's one question that I think is worth sharing because it does come up often in conversations I have with clients:

What can bloggers do when looking at their analytics to make sense of the stats and data and improve their blog?

This is a great question and every blogger should have some way to get stats for their blog. Many people use Google Analytics which can be added to both Wordpress and TypePad blogs (you need to set up an account on Google Analytics, then you can use a wordpress plugin to add or follow TypePad directions to install). Long ago, before Google Analytics, I set up SiteMeter for my blogs and continue to use it, in addition to Google Analytics.

Now here's my response to the question:

Blogging for Business Success with Sugartone

Blogging is a great way to promote your business expertise and craft top level visibility online. But the path towards success is a long one and it's not always easy to stay on track.

Learn How To Make Your Blog A Success

Of course, one of the first things you can do is make sure you start off properly. You can learn a lot about the best business blogging practices simply by reading this blog and following my programs. But what else can you do?

Communities of Business Bloggers

As you get into the routine of blogging for your business, you'll probably also enjoy hanging out with other business bloggers. Here are 2 places you should look into: BizSugar is a social bookmarking platform for business articles. So if you are blogging about business, you can submit your articles here. But it's also a small and friendly community to network with other business bloggers who come here to read the articles. Bloggertone is a community of business bloggers. It's based in Ireland and after only a few short months Bloggertone has already developed a friendly social business networking community.

Sugartone: the Sweet Business Blogging Contest

As it happens, both BizSugar and Bloggertone are teaming up to run the Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest March 15^th- 19^th 2010. It should be easy for you to join in the Sugartone event because there are 2 different ways to participate:

• Write an original business article writer with a great title
• Vote and comment on the business articles submitted for the contest

And this means there are 2 sets of prizes for the:

• Top 10 Titles
• Top 10 Commenters

$6921 in Sugartone prizes for professionals marketing their business online.

• Lead Page Machine - a software to automatically generate squeeze pages so that you can use this to tailor your squeeze pages to specific audiences, to build your email subscribers and increase your sales conversions. Valued at: $5200
• Animoto - a year's membership to this easy tool which creates videos from photos. Valued at: $249
• Traction Call - a 45 minute call with the Traction Coach Gary Barnes to help you to quickly get some "sand under your wheels" so you can move forward toward the life you want to live. Valued at $175
• ClickMillionaires - 2 x 6-month membership to Scott Fox's social network helping business owners upgrade their marketing to make more money online. Valued at $174
• 5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success - this is my own CD and special report on how you can easily make your blog a winner. Valued at $97
• Start.Grow.Run - 8 x a software package with 45 essential tools and services for the 3 different phases of your business. Valued at $49.95 each

Plus there are 2 books for the winners of the Top 10 Titles and the Top 10 Commenters. And the books include:

• Wordtracker Masterclass: Blogging For Business - 50 Steps to Building Traffic and Sales by Chris Garrett. 5 books valued at $39 each
• Sociable by Shane Gibson & Stephan Jagger. 5 books valued at $25 each
• New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg. 5 books valued at $16.49 each
• Guest Posting by Chris Garrett. 5 ebooks valued at $10 each

Click through here to find out more about the contest and how you can win a copy of my CD and special report 5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success as well as the other prizes there.

Ask The Blog Squad! I'll Be Answering Your Questions on Friday

Have a burning question about business blogging? I'll be answering questions LIVE on the Social Media Examiner Facebook page on Friday, March 12.

I'll be checking in several times during the day and answering your questions about business blogging, social marketing and boosting your visibility on the Web. This is a brand new feature of Social Media Examiner, for which I'm a guest author, and I'm the first featured "Ask the Expert." 

I hope you'll drop by on Friday and post your questions on the Wall. 

Blog on!

Check out Related Articles on Business Blogging

How to Use Editorial Calendars for Your Blog

One of the challenges for business bloggers that I constantly hear about is the never-ending need for fresh, relevant and timely content ideas to keep one's audience engaged. I've covered this in depth over the years, however I was discussing this with Shannon Cherry, known as the Power Publicist and founder of Penny Pinching Publicity, and she told me about how she consistently out-scoops the media with her content. As a result she gets tons of traffic to her blog, positions herself as the go-to expert in her industry, and she gets free exposure for her business and those of her clients.

I asked Shannon to do two things for me:

1. Speak to my Online Visibility Secrets students and share her strategies
2. Do a guest post about how to use editorial calendars to position your blog as a go-to resourced

The exclusive, members-only teleseminar with Shannon Cherry is on March 17 and you're invited to join us when you join Online Visibility Secrets.

The guest post by Shannon Cherry follows...

Do you want to get your hands on to the 'secret' information that tells you what media outlets are planning to cover in the future?

TypePad Tip - Making Reblog Better

Last November we released a new feature called Reblog, which makes it easy for your readers to share your content others in their network.  When someone reblogs your content part, or all, of your post appears on the reblogger’s blog with attribution link back to your original post so you get the credit you deserve.

via beta.typepad.com

If your blog is hosted on TypePad, and millions are, you may be interested in this relatively new feature on your blog. Activating the Reblog feature gives your readers a new way to share your content with their own community of readers.

And that's what it's all about, right? You want to extend your reach, boost your visibility, and drive more traffic to your blog.

Your audience wants great content and they want to share it with their readers. It's a win all the way around.

Check out the details about TypePad's Reblog feature. And hey, even if you don't use TypePad, you can still use Reblog when you want to share great info you find on a TypePad powered blog (like this one!).

Blog on!

Related Post:

Two Blogger Resources for TypePad and Wordpress

Beauty Supply Stores Need Blogs Too

Today I was interviewed for an article in a trade magazine for beauty supply store owners. Last year the same writer interviewed me for a similar story that was published in Pool and Spa News for owners of pool supply stores.[Just reread the article and there's good info, if I do say so myself!]

Apparently, most beauty supply stores are what the writer refers to as "mom and pop" retailers. One or two stores, usually in malls and located near a nail salon (that's my observation). At least here in Los Angeles, it seems like you'll almost always find a beauty supply store near a salon.

While we talked mostly about why a blog is a great marketing tool for small business owners, we did also touch on social media. I was informed that most of the smaller store owners have been slow to come to the Web and don't have much (brochure style website) if any web presence.