Business Blogging Pros

We're More Than Just Blogs

I just thought I'd point out that though our name is Business Blogging Pros, we're about more than just blogs.

I've been active on Twitter for almost two years and have started giving webinars to help businesses use Twitter. 

You hear a lot about Social Media Marketing these days.  I've been teaching business owners how to engage in social media marketing programs for two years - we just haven't been calling it that.

Over the next several months, you can expect to see a broadening of our focus though - some way to make the brand be known for more than just blogs. Part of this process is deciding on a name.  Business Blogging Pros is a great name and one of our challenges is to come up with a new name - be it a variation or extension of the current name vs an entirely new name - that is as memorable as Business Blogging Pros.

Whatever happens, it will be an adventure.

Blogs Make Great Websites

Starting your own business? A blog makes a great website.

Get Your Site Up Quickly

Using a blog, you can have a web presence in hours or days, not weeks or months. If you've just escaped from cubicle nation, you know you need to move fast. You're running on what's in the bank and the sooner you can get established, the better. And face it, you are not looked upon as a legitimate business unless you have a website.

Low Startup Costs

Sure, there are web-hosting companies and domain registrars that tell you they can deliver a website tonight.  It usually looks that way too.  First impressions are important, and you want your clients (as well as your friends and family) to see a professional-looking site,  Even with custom graphics, the cost of a blog will be much lower than what a reputable web-design firm would charge.

Your Own Domain Name

Yes, your blog/website can be at www.YourDomainName.com.  'Nuff said.

The Best Reason

You don't need a webmaster.  If you've had a website in the past, you know the drill:  Type up the changes and give them to your web guy.  He makes the changes. You review the changes and make corrections.  He puts the corrections up there.  When you're finally done he makes the changes live. Sometimes it takes weeks.

With a blog as a website, you are using and very easy simple online tool.  You login.  You bring up the text you want to change.  You make the changes.   You hit 'Save'.  That's it. Doing without a webmaster saves you money, but more importantly it gets everyone else out of the way. You are in control.

We're doing a lot of these 'Blog As A Website' projects lately. And we have several underway right now.  We can turn these projects around very quickly.

Times Have Changed

Overhaul your marketing engine. Now more than ever, you're going to need to be able to create an authentic relationship with your buyers that are based on a solid understanding the realities they face and how they want to do business with you. Provide a more flexible mix of services vs. hype that builds an experience that they'll appreciate.

Times are different, you have to act differently.  Don’t do nothing.

Embrace the idea of your 'tribe'

Add 'Tweet This' to your Typepad Blog

In a recent blog post Guy Kawasaki talked about the value of making it easy for people to tweet on your behalf by including some kind of ‘Tweet This’ link or icon with every piece of content. The Twitter equivalent of Digg This, so to speak. 

This article describes an easy way to add such a link to each blog post on your Typepad blog using Feedburner’s FeedFlare service and a Personal ‘Twit This’ flare provided by Eric Olson. 

If your blog is not currently connected to Feedburner:

1. Go to http:/www.Feedburner.com and click on Register. Fill in the registration form. Remember the username and password you supply. After registration, you don’t have to do anything else right now. Go ahead and sign out.
2. Sign into your Typepad account. Click on the Configure tab. Click on Feeds.



3. Halfway down the page, locate the Connect to Feedburner button and click it. supply the Feedburner username and password you created in Step 1.
4. After connecting your blog to Feedburner, click on the Design tab. Click on Content. Look for a checkbox labeled FeedFlare. Turn it on and click Save Changes.
5. Time to log out of Typepad. Continue with step 6, below.

If your blog is already connected to Feedburner, start here.

6. Log into your Feedburner account. Click on the Optimize tab.
7. About halfway down the left sidebar is FeedFlare. Click on it.





8. Scroll down until you see this Add New Flare field. Click on the Browse the Catalog link.     
9. Scroll down until you see the Twit This! entry. Right-Click on the word Link and copy the link/shortcut.
10. Close the popup window, paste into this field and click the Add New Flare button. “Twit This” and a pair of checkboxes should appear just above the Add New Flare field. Turn ON both checkboxes.
11. Click the Save or Activate at the bottom of the screen.

The next time you create a new blog post, Feedburner will add the Twit This link to the end of every post in your blog.

Navigation Bars in Typepad

One of the little-noticed features of the new Typepad platform is that your blog can now have a horizontal menubar just below the banner. 

If your blog is on the new Typepad platform here's how to add and maintain your own menubar:

1. Click on the Design Tab
2. Click on Content 
3. Look for 'Navigation Bar' and turn it on.
4. Click on the Edit icon the little pencil) associated with the Navigation Bar feature. 
5. FIll in the titles and URLs in the popup window 

Up until now, the only way to have a menubar was to have a geek set it up for you.  Usually, this meant using 'Advanced Templates' which means giving up a lot of flexibility and control over changing the layout and content f your sidebars.

In the past, the method I used was to add some javascript to the page that would re-write the banner layer and add the menubar.  This lefty you in control over the sidebar content but it still didn't allow the non-geek to manage the menubar.

This is great news, particularly for people who want to use their blog as a website as well.

Blogging, The Next Generation: Typepad Connect

Maybe that title is an exaggeration but I've spent some time using Typepad Connect (I've turned it on for this blog) and though it has some rough spots I think it is going to be a big plus for those of us who want to build a sense of community around what we do.

The best part is the fact that you can now have threaded comments. In plain english, this means that when a reader leaves a comment, it is easy for a second reader (or you) to reply to the first reader's comment.  You can see in the snapshot to the right that my comment is indented under Larissa's, indicating that my comment is a reply to hers.  In the past with unthreaded comments these sort of conversations were very difficult to follow and participate it.  Typepad Connect makes it very intuitive and natural.

The second interesting thing about Typepad Connect is that you can click on the little picture next to my comment and see my profile.  You can learn a little about me, the conversations I am participating in around the blogosphere, and get a feel for my credibility, authority, and trustworthiness.

Typepad Connect has it's rough spots: the 'Post' and 'Preview' buttons are sometimes missing, and currently Typepad Connect's login screen is case-sensitive (Typepad's main blog login screen has always been case-insensitive) and this will cause great consternation until it gets sorted out.

The big deal here though is at a slightly more abstract level.  Typically (unless it's a community blog) the conversation on a blog is one-to-many, meaning that the blog owner is having conversation between himself and his readers.  There really have not been a good way to have conversations that are many-to-many (In other words, for readers to converse with each other).  

A tool that supports those many-to-many conversations is necessary in order to effectively foster a sense of community. (I realize that at a much higher level, we do have that with multiple blogs and the foodie blogosphere is a great example.) Up to this point we've resorted to using other tools such as Facebook groups, Ning, discussion groups, forums, etc to fill the gap.

Though it's not all the way there, Typepad Connect now makes it possible to build these ckinds of communities using our Typepad blogs.

Creative Therapy

Business Blogging Pros welcomes out newest client, Creative Therapy. 

Norma Anderson and Heather Penkava needed a website for their new business. After some discussion, they realized that they also needed a blog. Fortunately, top-tier blogging platforms (Wordpress in this case) make that easy. 

Norma and Heather not only needed a professional-looking web presence, they needed something they could maintain themselves without a webmaster. That is where the real benefit of using the blog as a website comes in. They can maintain and update the sites content using the same content management system as for the blog. 

As an aside, we're doing a lot more of these lately. With all the downsizing, layoffs, merger,s etc due to the current economic climate, a lot of people are taking the opportunity to strike out on their own and start their own business. Of course, the first thing they need is a website. If you are in this position, we can provide exactly what you need very quickly and very inexpensively.

I Hate Captcha

What is Captcha? It's that obnoxious little box you see with the hard-to-decipher letters and numbers you have to type to prove you are a real human. Take that fourth character in the captcha box you see here: Is it an el?  i?  t?  

The last time I left a comment on a blog that used Captcha, the letters were so distorted that I needed to do it two or three times before I figured it out. Usually, if what I type fails on the first attempt, I abandon my attempt to leave a comment on that blog and simply move on. 

Feedback from your readers is too valuable to let this happen to you. 

You should set your commenting system up so that the barriers are as non-existent as possible. You want it to be easy to leave a comment. If you are having trouble with spam comments, don't shift the burden to your readers. That's being lazy. Moderate comments to deal with the nasty ones and use some sort of ant-spam function to deal with the rest. 

If you have done a good job with your blog, the people reading it are your fans. They are emotionally invested in your success. Their feedback is priceless. Don't make it hard on them.

Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

Small Business Owners: Consider what you are facing. Not "the worst economy since the Great Depression." Not "the worst unemployment rate in 26 years."

You have before you an opportunity that may occur only once in your lifetime.

The playing field has suddenly been leveled. Money has been neutralized as a weapon. Last year the 800-pound gorilla in your market had a million-dollar advertising budget and three marketing people, and he beat you up mercilessly with them. He doesn't have them any more. Now it's just you against him. Mano a mano.

And he's coming to this battle at a disadvantage. He's still in the mindset of playing by the old rules. You have a new tool available to you: Social Media. It allows you to build your brand and spread your word globally for almost no money. Social media allows you to accomplish what big companies with millions of advertising dollars cannot do.

Yes, It takes time and energy to successfully leverage social media, but a ton of time and energy is a lot easier to come by than a ton of money.

The playing field has been leveled. Seize the advantage.

December 15: Free Blogging Seminar

Now more than ever, you need to create an authentic relationship with your present and future customers that is based upon a solid understanding of the realities they face and how they want to do business with you.

Nothing is Better For that than a Blog

• Have you heard of blogs and wonder what they are all about?


• Are you wondering if a blog could help your business?


• Do you want to be known as an authority in your field?


• Do you want to leverage the most cost-effective means for boosting your business’ image, exposure, brand, reputation, and revenue?

Come to this seminar and find out

Blogging has evolved into a cutting-edge marketing tool that is immediate, personal, and engaging. Blogging can boost your image, exposure, reputation, and revenue. Best of all blogging is within the financial reach of everyone.

Done well, a small company can achieve results that large firms with millions of dollars to spend on marketing would be hard-pressed to achieve.

In this FREE seminar you will learn:

• What a blog is


• How they work


• Why they are so effective


• How to get started