Business Blogging Pros

Elemental Leadership Solutions

Business Blogging Pros welcomes one of our newest clients, Suzan Czajkowski and Elemental Leadership Solutions. 

Suzan helps people in technical roles - particularly women - achieve and feel comfortable in higher-level management positions.

Green Dining Net

 Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Green Dining Net.

Green Dining Net's mission is to turn restaurant's waste cooking oil into biofuel.

They collect Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) from over 1,000 restaurants and resorts in Arizona for the purpose of producing biodiesel fuel for our Arizona communities. Partnered with the oldest and largest biodiesel producer in Arizona, Amereco Biofuels (www.amereco.biz) converts the AZ Green Dining Network oil into environmentally friendly, clean burning biodiesel fuel. The byproducts of this biodiesel production are used to create environmentally friendly, non-toxic cleaning products and products that naturally clean waste water. As a result, the WVO that would normally end up in a landfill or used for other commercial purposes is being used to clean our air every day.

Age Conversation

 Business Blogging Pros welcomes one of our newest Clients, Karen Sadler and Age Conversation.  Karen is a consultant to firms marketing their services to seniors.

Vickie McDermott, Elegant Arizona Homes

Business Blogging Pros welcomes aour newset client, Vicjie McDermott and Elegant Arizona Homes.

Vivkie is a realtor who specializes in luxury homes in a few neighborhoods such as DC Ranch, and providing a full suite of services to help seniors transition into or out of these homes.

ShowUp.com

Business Blogging Pros welcomes out newest client, Alliance for Audience. Alliance for Audience is the organization behind ShowUp.com, Phoenix's Arts and Culture Portal.

Think of ShowUp.com as a Travelocity site for Phoenix Arts and Culture - You feel like going to a theatre tonight?  Click on Theatre and see what's playing, complete with reviews.

I met with Matt Lehrman and his crew a few weeks ago and that work culminated in a social media strategy that includes blogs, twitter, and other elements.

We've now launched ShowUp.com's official blog which is just one piece of that strategy. A lot of work was put into maintaining ShowUp.com's distinctive look and feel - I think we succeeded.

Kenneth LaFave, a well-kbnown arts & culture writer has stepped forward and we look forward to Ken's posts.

The Alexander K Group

Karroll K Alexander, founder of The Alexander K Group hosts these really powerful workshops for public speakers. It was turning into a real pain to have to work though his 'web guy' every time he added a new workshop date.

Several months ago we created a blog for Karroll and his company.  After using his blog for a while, Karrol came back to us asking if there was a way he could have the same ease-of-content-management for his website as well.

The top-tier blogging platforms have enough features these days that fulfilling his request was entirely reasonable.

Furthermore, the cost to create a 'blogsite' like this is very low compared to creating a professional-looking website from scratch.

A Testimonial

I was really nice of Jerry Kadansky to send me a testimonial for the work we did to create his website:

In today's world the phrase "let's get together for lunch next week and talk about it" is just another way of saying, "I will call you when I have time."  When you came over on Friday and we talked and brain stormed about our new  website, you said "I will have something for you on Monday."  I heard "let's do lunch."  To my delight you got back to us on Sunday.  And the website was up and live on Monday.   One of your strongest strengths is listening. The title tells the whole story.  You made it come alive! Thanks again for your creativity and fast response.

Jim Bissonett

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Jim Bissonett as one of our newest clients.

Jim is a top-notch HR benefits specialist and operated the Scottsdale, AZ office of Monterey Benefits.

Monterey Benefits pioneered a new approach for serving the employee benefit arena - "Delivering solutions based upon sound business and insurance practices".

BoldMoves

Business Blogging Pros welcomes BoldMoves as one of our newest clients.

Their mission is help you get in touch with your core beliefs and desires; build exceptional skill in managing limiting self-talk; explore powerful new avenues for self-understanding; make choices based on your own personal passion, purpose and wisdom; and take confident action in a mood of ease and effortlessness.

This is one of the blogs we've recently created on the self-hosted Wordpress platform. One of the issues I've had with Wordpress is the inability to standardize on a theme. This meant that it was not possible to create any kind of standardized training materials, greatly increasing the effort for each wordpress client. I'm happy to say that I've found a couple of third-party themes that are sufficiently flexible that I think we can standardize on them. The result is that it is now attractive to train and support clients on wordpress.

Candy Fun TV Episode V

CBN Building Maintenance

Business Blogging Pros welcomes CBN Building Maintenance as one of our newest clients.

CBN is not your average janitorial service.  For example, during a recent visit Bob demonstrated the hand held airborn particle counter they use to monitor their clients' indoor air quality, revealing real quantifiable metrics about the quality of work his employees are doing.

Candy Fun TV Episode IV

Our New Website. Or 'We Eat Our Own Dog Food'

The Business Blogging Pros website makeover is done.  With this new website I wanted to accomplish several things:

• I wanted to convey that even though our name is Business Blogging Pros, we do more than just blogs and utilize all the significant social media platforms for our clients.
• I wanted a site that is more personna-based.  Each of the rotating photos is clickable and represents a specific problem we solve for a specific kind of customer.
• I felt it important to eat my own dog food.  I advocate the idea that today's top-tier blogging platforms make really good websites as well, so it was important to me that the site be blog-based.

"Are You a Wordpress Convert?"

I guess I'm known as a TypePad kinda guy because I've been getting this question a lot since launching the new site.  I have always tried to pick the best platform based upon my client's present and future needs.  Usually the result of that process is that I pick Typepad but I've put a significant number of clients on Wordpress as well.  By having the website on Wordpress and the Blog on Typepad, I hope i'm demonstrating competency on both platforms.

Paul Schween

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest Client, Paul Schween Seminars.

Paul is a sales trainer who turns average performers into top performers.  He recently spoke at a networking function I attended and can say that he is also a dynamic and entertaining speaker.

The Alexander K Group

It looks like a website, doesn't it?  A couple of weeks ago, Karroll K. Alexander of the Alexander K Group asked me to provide him with a proposal for replacing his existing website with a Typepad-based blogsite.  The result is what you see here.

More and more, small business owners are opting to use a high-end blogging platform as their sole web presence, taking advantage of the platform's content-management features to provide them with an easy-to-maintain site.

Captivated Customers

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Norma Huibregtse and Captivated Customers. Norma's company is dedicated to helping your increase sales through improved customer service.

Norma's blog is another great example of something we're creating a lot of lately: A single combined website and blog that is the client's entire web presence. The best part of one of these blogsites is that the owner can maintain it herself. We are teaching Norma how to maintain the site, create new pages, add them to the menubar, etc. It's really pretty easy, and it's very empowering for Norma.

Candy Fun News Episode III

Candy Fun News Episode II

It's a little long (over three minutes) but the footage of our Official Taste-Tester is worth it:

Joanna O'Neal

Business Blogging pros welcomes one of our newest clients, Joanna O'Neal. This is Joanna's personal blog, chronicling her experiences as she settles in to a new community and a new life. This is the first blog I've built using Typepad's new Journal theme. Journal has some oddities and inconsistencies but he managed to overcome them.

Change Catalyst Group

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Jean Lasee and Change Catalyst Group as one of our newest clients. 

The Change Catalyst Group accelerates the process of moving organizations through the change they face, with better results and more positive outcomes. In other words, organizations accomplish significantly more with their help than on their own

Ray Meurer, the Drive Time Millionaire

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Ray Meurer as one of our newest clients. If I were going to get into MLM it would be with this guy. He understands it. He understands why most people fail and why some succeed. Working with Ray has been a lot of fun. By that I mean that I like to 'teach people to fish' rather than 'fish for them'. I taught Ray to fish, teaching him how to modify and arrange his sidebar content, modify the colors of his design, etc. Before I knew it, Ray was using what he had learned to make hi own changes and updates. What go go, Ray!

Arizona Mortgage Experts

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Gary Lau and Western American Mortgage Company as one of our newest clients. With the changing real estate and mortgage market here in Arizona, Gary decided use a blog to help keep people informed and up-to-date on the latest news and conditions.

Veggie Teens Cookbook

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Elyse May as one of our newest clients. Imagine you are a teenager and have decided to become vegetarian. How to you explain it to your meat-loving parents? Veggie Teens is not just a cookbook. Elyse wrote it to help teens convince their parents to let them try becoming a vegetarian. Elyse wrote this book while in Junior High as a school project. Her dad is a chef and her mom is a doctor so a vegetarian cookbook seemed like the perfect idea to her. From the moment she started, she knew this would be more than a school project because there had to be thousands of teenagers out there just like her.

Chappie

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Ann Eiland as one of our newest clients.

Anne's father was an Army Combat Chaplain in World War II, serving throughout the European theatre.  

In Anne's words,

I was an adult when my father handed me a well-worn, black notebook that had been tucked in among his numerous books and asked me if I wanted to read it.

I was amazed. It was a diary that he had apparently kept during his years in combat - a document that I had not know existed. As I began to skim through the entries, I discovered that he had been in almost every major battle with the Germans in North Africa and Europe. However, it was not just dates and places. Instead, he had noted details, included descriptions, and inserted his own opinions about the various events, places, and people. 

It read more like a story than a diary, and it was unique because it had been written as these events were occurring around him, not written from memories of the past. Once I was able to convince him to let me turn his diary into a manuscript, he and I began my work, and we had three wonderful years before his death to complete the task. Chappie World War II Diary of a Combat Chaplain is the result of that effort. It is the account of an ordinary man’s response to extraordinary events going on around him.

Anne worked with her father prodding his memory in order to flesh out the cryptic notes in the diary and the result is one of the most compelling stories I have ever read. This wa a blog that I wanted to build. The banner is comprised of some of her father's actual photos (just to the left of the third photo from the left, you can just see her father delivering a Sunday sermon). The background is one of her father's actual WWII combat maps which she graciously loaned to me for scanning.

Dry Cleaning Zen

We've built several blogs for Steven Phillips and Z Cleaners over the past couple of years. This time we decided to re-purpose his Dry Cleaning Zen blog. 

We designed the banner a couple of years ago for a narrower single-column template and as a result we modified it to fit the new wider Typepad templates. We also added a horizontal navigation menu and links to badges specific to various levels of service he offers.

One of the things that makes Type such a pleasure to work with is that everything you see here was done without modifying templates.  Upload some graphics, add some stylesheet overrides and presto - a professional-looking blog.

Perfect Weddings

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest customer Nick Pappagallo and his professional DJ service. 

Nick offers a professional DJ service for weddings, sweet 16 parties, and proms (We set up a separate blogsite for his prom market too.)

Bobbies Flowers

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Bobbies Flowers.

Bobbies Flowers is a family-owned flower shop in Temp that has ben around since the fifties. Jim and Megan Davis are great people and they produce the finest floral arrangements in the valley.

That flower in the header and lower left corner is an orange gerbera daisy.

Perfect Prom Resource

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Nicjk Pappagallo and his professional DJ service as our newest client.

We actually built two sites for Nick, the second one specifically for weddings, will be up here in a few days.  

Nick provides professional DJ services for proms, sweet 16 parties, and weddings.

Candy Fun News Episode 1

Women Living On The Edge

Business Blogging Pros welcomes ore newest clients, Maureen Weisner and Maya Balle of Women Living On The Edge.

Maureen and Maya are about helping women dust off their dreams, getting out there, and living - really living.

One of the things that was the most fun about this project was coming up with the banner. Usually our client has an existing website, collateral, or some artwork that we can use as a starting point. This time however, Maureen and Maya wanted a fresh look that would be a complete break from their existing designs. When I showed Maureen what our designer came up with she said, "You nailed it!". That made my day.

As with many of our recent clients, Maureen and Mayaa needed a website as well as a blog, and were very interested when they learned we could create a blog as a website for then.

The best part of one of these blogsites is that the owner can maintain it herself. We are teaching Maureen and Maya how to maintain the site, create new pages, add them to the menubar, etc. It's really pretty easy, and it's very empowering for the site's owner.

The Living Well Retreats

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Dawn Rutledge and The Living well Retreats.

Dawn offers The mission of The Living Well Retreats is to provide faith based wellness programs.

As with many of our recent clients, Dawn needed a website as well as a blog, and was very interested when she learned we could create a blog as a website for her.

The best part of one of these blogsites is that the owner can maintain it herself. We are teaching Dawn how to maintain the site, create new pages, add them to the menubar, etc. It's really pretty easy, and it's very empowering for the site's owner.

AKA Fitness

Busines Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Alisa Keeton and AKA Fitness.

AKA Fitness helps women who are overweight, out of shape, and unhappy about it.

As with many of our recent clients, Alisa needed a website as well as a blog, and was very interested when she learned we could create a blog as a website for her.

The best part of one of these blogsites is that the owner can maintain it herself. We are teaching Alisa how to maintain the site, create new pages, add them to the menubar, etc. It's really pretty easy, and it's very empowering for the site's owner.

The Accounting Onion

Tom Selling is a long-time customer who has been extremely successful using his blog to build his brand. The Accounting Onion is read by columnists at all the major financial publications. Bravo, Tom!

A few days ago Tom and I were discussion placing a banner ad in the header of his blog. His blog's existing appearance was looking rather dated, so I asked him if he would allow me to propose a 'makeover'. He agreed and when we showed him the result he loved it.

"How did I get the banner ad in there?" you asked. That's my secret. It did NOT involve advaced templates, however.

Carly and Pete Lollipop, Episode II

Episode II of the nearly famous Carly and Pete Lollipop series is now in the can. I can't tell you how much fine I have with the folks at Southwest Candy while making these.

Builder Marketing Society

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Builder Marketing Society as our newest client.

BMS is a professional organization for companies who perform sales and marketing services for homebuilders who wish to outsource that function.

We're working with BMS on two fronts:

• Help them do a better job of conveying the organization's value to prospective members.
• Help them foster a sense of community within the membership. 

The first order of business was to create a blog.  I was privileged to be able to attend their Board of Governors meeting a couple of months ago and was struck by the immense body of knowledge, expertise, and innovation displayed by the membership. The thought running through my mind was, "Companies could learn a lot by simply being a member of this organization."  I resolved right then and there to help them convey that sense of value.  That will be the purpose of the blog.

The second part of our effort will be to create an online community that is open only to members, with the expressed purpose of providing a vehicle for members to easily communicate with each other, ask for help, and share ideas.

Alexander K Group

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, The Alexander K Group. Karroll Alexander is a remarkable person. What started out as a lunch meeting the other day ended up lasting three hours because I found him so interesting. The Alexander K. Group is sought after by their clients for their mastery in the area of powerful effective communication skills training and coaching for Professionals and Corporate teams. Or to put it another way, Karroll teaches you how to me eloquently persuasive. His 2-day workshop is high on my list of must-dos this year.

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.

The Urban Farm

Greg Peterson and The Urban Farm has been a client for a long time. His blog needed a facelift, we wonted to add a front page with more static content, and we wanted to be able to feature some video we have started doing.

We chose to migrate his blog from Movable Type (version 3.2) to the latest version of Wordpress. We're still working out some kinks and consolidating categories but already the improvement is dramatic.

Accelerating Your Success

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Therese Skelly and Accelerating Your Success.

I've known Therese for a long time. She is not your ordinary business coach. Her passion is helping business owners be happy in their business and showing them how to to allow their businesses to help create a lifestyle of freedom and purpose.

Therese took the initiative to start a blog a few weeks ago, but she soon realized that it needed a tune-up. While I usually set my clients up with a Typepad blog, Therese had already started hers in Wordpress. Wordpress has come a long way in the past two years and we've been spending a lot of time with it lately. I think this is the third Wordpress blog we've done recently.

We are also working on another interesting project for Therese which I hope to be able to talk about soon, so stay tuned.

It's Good 2B Good

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Sandra Zerner and It's Good 2B Good as our newest client. For 7 years, Sandra Zerner has been helping kids recognize the power of doing good. Her interactive and exciting presentation reaches kids through a combination of games, stories, activities video clips and discussion. Sandra has a passion for inspiring kids to bring out their inner qualities of compassion, empathy and kindness; her passion is infectious. Kids feel her caring and respond in a positive way. Sandra's presentation provides the tools kids need to be kinder, more caring and more helpful in their everyday lives.

The Corporate Mac

Business Blogging Pros welcomes David Banther and The Corporate Mac as our newest client.

I met David and his father Barry Banther at CONFAB last year when I spoke there and subsequently set of a blog for Barry.

David is a fellow Mac lover, and is doing a great podcast about deploying Macs in corporate America.

Synergy Home Care of Mesa

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Synergy Home Care of Mesa as our newest client.

Mike Endredy and his team provide all manner of non-medical in-home care including transportation, personal hygiene assistance, Alzheimer's care, Bathing and showering, Assistance with dressing, etc.

International Advantage

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Lisa Koss and International Advantage as our newest client.

International Advantage is a speciality consulting firm that supports leaders within global or culturally diverse work environments to navigate organizational change.

One of the strengths of Lisa's firm is that they are excellent listeners, and since blogging is as much listening as speaking, I suspect that she will do well with her blog.

Showerbuddy

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Zoe Industries and Showerbudy as our newest client.

Showerbuddy offers shower heads, faucets, and sinks, and is probably most famous for recently bucking the low-flow trend and providing a shower head for those of us who like a high volume of water in our showers.

TazMedia

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Jim Taszarek and TazMedia, Inc.

For the last ten years Jim Taszarek has provided seminars, consulting, new revenue and management systems to radio and television groups, stations and and newspapers in the US, Canada and Europe. Taz is now focusing his knowledge, experience, and talents on helping us New Media people create an maximize our revenue as well.

Norwood Furniture

Business Blogging Pros welcoms our newest client, Norwood Furniture.

I have visited Norwood Furniture in Gilbert Arizona several times and I wish I had known about them when my Sweet Lady Wife and I were picking out furniture for our new house. I was really impressed by the quality of what they sell.

Todd Brundrett, Norwood's Manager invited everyone in the company who has a specialty to participate in writing the blog. I spent a couple of training sessions with them and what was pleasing to see was how eager they are to share their respective passions and expertise with the world.

One bit of trivia: Todd Brundrett was instrumental in getting Gilbert's new Water Tower Park established.

Plate It Up!

Business Blogging Pros welcomes my long-time very good friend Heather Burton and Plate It Up! as a client.

Those of you who read my foodie blog already know that I spend all my extra money at her gourmet kitchen tools store in downtown Glendale, AZ. The products she carries are very high-quality, she knows them inside-and-out, and more importantly she makes it a point to stay tuned in to her customers.

Clave Body Care

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Clavé Body Care. Clavé offers several lines of all-natural, organically-created soaps and lotions.

Their hand-crafted soaps are made by artisans all over the world. One of their most interesting products is Candle Caress, a fragrant candle, massage oil, and moisturizer all in one.

A Financial Speakeasy

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Michelle Evard and ME Financial.

Michelle provides financial pallning and advisory services for her clients. Michelle began her own practice to change peoples' lives and was fascinated by the relationship they had with money. Her vast knowledge about emotions and money and her quest for good, honest advice inspired her to open her own practice. A practice where people could trust their advisor and not expect to be sold to. She truly has her clients' best interests at heart, and seeks to nurture and grow their wealth. She'll explain what you need to know, in depth, and in terms you can understand.

Your Business Detective

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Bonnie Mattick and Your Business Detective.

Bonnie and her team are focused on solving some of the stickiest problems a business can have - like disengaged employees, workplace behavioral problems, and under-utilized subject matter experts - to reinvigorate companies and help them grow.

Bonnie is a great example of why I believe that every consultant should have a blog. It's difficult for Bonnie to distinguish herself from her competitors using a few sentences on a website, no matter how well-crafted the words are. Get her talking in an informal setting however and it's easy to see how her methods are unique and why they are so effective. Her blog will give her a platform to tell those same stories, provide that same education, and let her passion and skill shine.

The goal is to develop Credibility Upon Entry, meaning that by the time the prospect picks up the phone to call Bonnie, he already knows three things:

1. He has a problem
2. Bonnie is an expert at solving his problem
3. Bonnie is the kind of person he is comfortable doing business with

Credibility upon entry means the prospect has already made the buying decision before making the initial call to you. Used this way, your blog can be a tremendous time-saver.