Business Blogging Pros

RV Hometown

Business Blogging Pros welcomes RV Hometown and Jaime Bruzenack and Alice Zyetz as our newest client. Jamie and Alice have an online store, RV Hometown in which they dispense advice about seeing the country in an RV, including topics such as working on the road. They also offer a series of books published by various authors providing advice about various aspects of RVing.

Through their blog, Jaime and Alice's will provide advice, tips, and techniques. They will publish reviews of the campsites they stay at, and provide us with tales of their adventures!

Pat McMahon's TV Show

I was a guest on Pat McMahon's TV show on KAZ-TV today and Pat asked a great question:

Why do his colleages, people who host talk shows several hours each day, then go home and blog?

Good question. I suppose the best thing to do would be to ask them, but since the camera was on me I gave it my best shot. I think there are a couple of reasons:

Blogging provides an alternative outlet

Blogging lets them let their hair down and say things they either can't say or don't have the opportunity to say during their workday. A similar question could be asked of me: "Since you work with blogs all day long, why do you go home at night and blog about food?" The answer is that I love cooking and Fumbling Foodie gives me an outlet to talk about it.

Sense of Connection

I suspect that blogging gives them a chance to feel part of a community; part of something bigger than just themelves. Fumbling Foodie is part of a community that spans the globe. I have foodie friends all over the world and we stay connected to each other through our blogs. I suspect that sense of connection and community is something they don't get hosting a talk show.

This was, BTW, my first television appearance. I was nervous as all get-out. My son watched my 'performance' on his TV and said something I thought was interesting: "When I got this TV I never thought I would see my Dad on it."

Finding Time to Blog, Part 2

Yesterday I published Part 1 of this article, which you can find here.

How do you find the time to blog?

A legeitimate question asked by a Rotarian. Part 1 of my two part answer was:

The sad reality is that the average business person won't find time to do even that much. And that's why the average business owner will remain average.

You are probably not average, however. If you were, you wouldn't be reading this. Exceptional busines owners recognize worthwhile activities and find a way to accomplish them.

Blogging can be as easy as writing an email.

Writing an article on your blog is just as simple and easy as writing an email. If you have time to write one extra email each week, then you have time to write a blog post. Don't get all hung up on the words. Just say it. An article on your blog doesn't have to be a novel. In fact blog posts just a few sentences long are great. The give your loyal readers something to do while their report prints out on the office printer or the copying machine is doing its thing. Short is good.

Divide up the work

Your readers love to read the behind-the scenes stuff. You may be the only one in your business that understands the whole thing but I'll bet you've got several people around you that each understand a part of it. Get them to write about it once a month. Then once or twice a month you can write an article providing the high-level picture. Once a month is doable, right?

Delegate

The really time-consuming part is the driftnet fishing, meaning monitoring the blogosphere. You need to be doing it for three reasons:

1. Monitoring what is said out there about you, your company, your products or service.
2. Keeping up with your industry and finding opportunities to engage others in online conversations.
3. Looking for ideas for new blog posts.

Once the driftnet is set up, you can have almost anyone in your company monitoring it for you.

Outsource

I am a Blog Strategy Consultant and part of what I do is to come up with strategies for helping you deal with the load. Among the services we offer is performing some (or in some cases) all of this work for you.

Blogging should be an integral part of your marketing strategy and it's becoming a more important component every day. Start, even if you have to start small.

Finding Time to Blog

I was speaking about blogging to the Scottsdale Airpark Rotary Club today and someone asked, "How does one find time to do this?". It's a fair question. There is an old saying:

To grow your business, you have to work ON your business not IN your business

In general, the average business person does not spend enough time working on things that will build their reputation, exposure and image. They don't spend enough time reaching out and staying connected to their most loyal customers and building relationships with new ones. And this is irrespective of whether or not these activities are done via blogging.

In truth, blogging can consume huge amounts of time, or almost no time at all (If you have time to write one extra email each week then you have time to write a blog post each week). And - crass commercial plug - we are in the business of making blogging as easy for you as possible. Even one blog post helps.

Consider time spent blogging as an investment: If you put a lot in quickly, then it pays off quicky. If you invest more slowly and in smaller amounts, it still pays off: it just takes longer and the payoff isn't as big.

The sad reality is that the average business person won't find time to do even that much. And that's why the average business owner will remain average.

Part 2 of this article can be found here.

Crass Commercial Plug

Greg, Amy, and the rest of the gang at Your Guide to Green are not only my clients they are genuinly nice people. Their online store offers a wide variety of hand-picked environmentally-conscious items. If you are looking for green gift this Christmas please check them out:

http://www.yourguidetogreen.com/shop/

Unsolicited Newsletters

I've lost track of the number of times I've woken up the morning after a networking event to find half a dozen new unsolicited newsletters in my inbox. Handing someone my business card does not - in my mind - constitute my permission to add me to their newsletter mailing list.

I publish a newsletter - and I have vowed that starting next month I'll publish it on a regular schedule. I may even ask you if I can put you on the mailing list. I won't do so just because we met once at a networking event.

Seth Goden talks about Permission Marketing: Getting your permission to martket to you. I am a firm believer in that.

Blogs are permission marketing. You are reading my blog or it's RSS feed because you want to, not because I've decided it is time to remind you that I exist. Furthermore, you are reading my blog at a time and place that is convienient for you.

While I view email as an interruption, I realize that you may not. Some people like email a lot, and for those people, I've made it easy to subscribe to this blog via emal.

I've also noticed that there is almost no overlap between my blog's RSS readership and my newsletter readership, so I am reluctant to drop the newsletter at this point.

So I'm keeping my newsletter for the time being, but I won't subscribe you to it without your permission.

Banther Consulting

Business Blogging Pros welcoms Banther Consulting as our newest client.

Barry and Dave Banther are a Father-and-Son team that I met at CONFAB last week. Barry has authored over fifty leadership development programs used by corporations around the world. Helping people and companies communicate better is Barry's forte. (Barry and Dave are also from Tarpon Springs, Florida, the city that intruduced me to Greek food.)

I look forward to reading Barry's blog.

Leo Gillen Consulting

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Leo Gillen Consulting as our newest client. I met Leo at CONFAB last week.

As Leo says, the world is changing at warp speed. Our markets, economies, and business enviroments are changing, and the pace of change is continually accelerating. Leo helps companies not only cope with these changes, but to actually thrive upon them and leverage them.

Leo has a lot of interesting, thought-provoking ideas and it will be fun to learn from him via his blog.