The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

Ah, blogs. If you’re like me (and many others building their or someone else’s business), you may have created a web log to communicate more intimately and more frequently with your audience. It’s supposed to be easy. After all, the technology is simple, the style casual and the content brief.

But after the initial wave of enthusiasm, you may find it increasingly difficult to generate ideas for the blog that began with so many thoughts – and so many posts – just a few months ago. Worse, you might be guiding a boss or colleague who may not be a fluent writer, but is the appropriate representative whose voice must be present in the Blogosphere.

How do you help that person refresh her well of inspiration when she’s run out of ideas to draw upon? Tape the following list of ideas, prompts and suggestions over her monitor. Chances are, one of the following blog formats will give her just enough push to get through the next post.

1) Announce something
The most obvious choice: announce something new and noteworthy, like a product release or an upcoming seminar. Keep in mind that the best content is both germane to your organization and relevant to your audience. If your blog is aimed at investors, don’t hammer them with technical data; likewise, if you are indeed speaking to techies, don’t waste their time with personnel notifications.

Blog bonus point: Humility rules. Traditionally, announcements have been made via press releases to the media, where some hyperbole (“…the cutting-edge in process management solutions…”) has been tolerable. But blogs are like cocktail hour conversations and any affectation of superiority comes across as rude.

In your blog, instead of trumpeting the importance of your announcement, ask for feedback. Suggest that readers take a look at your product, article or whatever, and request their input. Rather than playing the role of Prometheus carrying fire from the gods, be one of the gang – and write as if your subject were something that would be improved by their contributions.

2) Respond to an article or news item
Stuck? Pick up the paper. Or visit a website that offers news relevant to your industry. Then follow your gut: the more visceral your response, whether it’s in ardent support of the author’s message or in hostile reaction to it, the more likely it will inspire a passionate and interesting blog post.

Blog bonus point: Consider directing your readers to an unexpected source of insight. Much of the time, it’s entirely appropriate to discuss the stories that appear in the sources most relevant to your industry; they form, after all, a common ground you’re all likely to share. But once in awhile, it’s a great idea to dig up a nugget of insight from an unlikely source.

In my copywriting blog, for example, I once directed my readers to a Wall Street Journal movie review that discussed the career of the late director Alexander Mackendrick. What did it have to do with copywriting? Deep within the article was Mackendrick’s keen observation about storytelling: “A story in which someone wants or yearns for something becomes dramatic only when obstacles to the wanting are established.” By discussing a source outside of the norms for copywriters, I guided my readers to something they wouldn’t have discovered in the usual copywriting references. And I reinforced my blog’s value as a resource for ideas not found everywhere else.

3) Reflect on an event
Meetings, seminars, speaking events, conferences and more – your industry probably offers dozens, if not hundreds, each year. Why not post about the ones you attend? And offer your perspective on the ideas discussed?

Blog bonus point: Bring in your observations about the attendees, as well as the speakers. Chances are, there’s a web page somewhere that offers summaries of the presentation content. But as an actual attendee, you can offer insight into something the summaries will not provide: the reactions of the audience. How did they respond — with enthusiasm, boredom or hostility? Were there a lot of questions? Any good ones worth repeating? By reporting audience reactions, you offer important insight to non-attendees that probably will not be available anywhere else.

4) Respond to a reader’s concerns
Blogs are supposed to encourage “dialog,” yet too many posts sound like voices in the wilderness. Or like that tipsy uncle who just doesn’t know when to shut up. Look at the best “guru” blogs and you’ll see that the bloggers take pains to build posts around comments and e-mails they receive. You build confidence and credibility when you explicitly address issues raised by your readers.

Blog bonus point: Prime the pump by inviting reader questions and comments. And be explicit: it’s perfectly acceptable (and even wise) to end your posts with, “What do you think?” or “Has anyone else experienced this?” With a few simple questions, you can gather material for future posts while encouraging greater reader involvement in your blog.

5) Share a personal anecdote
Good blogs make personal connections and one of the most effective ways to strengthen these bonds is buy sharing your own personal stories: your first sales call, an unusual contract negotiation, an unexpected windfall to harvest or a disaster to recover from.

Your real-life memories, warts and all, may offer subtle shades of insight that are often obscured by larger theories or “best practices.” They provide crucial details text books can not, and they add that extra seasoning of empathy – of allowing readers to walk in your shoes – that can give your message added urgency.

Blog bonus point: Don’t be afraid to reveal a mistake or weakness. You don’t have to be a superhero to your readers; in fact, they’d prefer to see you as one of them. So don’t neglect those stories of failure, lost opportunity or disappointment – your hard-won wisdom may be your blogs most precious gift to readers.

And one extra tip:
Leave comments on other blogs you read and admire. The ensuing conversation may inspire your next post. At the very least, it’s likely to draw interested readers back to your own blog.

Jonathan Kranz is the author of Writing Copy for Dummies, http://kranzcom.com/book.html, and the principal of Kranz Communications, http://kranzcom.com, a marketing communications and public relations writing firm specializing in B2B and consumer services marketing.

Have you just started blogging? Or have you been blogging for a while? As you may already know, a blog is an excellent tool to let the world know about your business or your product, to connect with potential customers and promote your expertise. But how can you maximize your blog’s impact? Here are five tips to do just that:

- Blog Consistently. Many business owners get excited about blogging, post 3-6 times, and then promptly forget about the blog. I have seen many blogs that were started a year or two ago, have a grand total of five posts, and haven’t been updated since sometime last year.

To get the desired effect (search engine and human traffic), you need to update your blog on a regular basis. Search engines love new content and keep coming back to index it. Potential customers also like new content; it’s what keeps them coming back to read your blog.

- Use Your Blog For Branding. Your blog is an extension of your business, so make your blog have a look and feel that mirrors that of your business web site.

If your blog is hosted on the same domain as your web site, you should match the look and feel of your web site exactly. This will be more difficult to achieve if a third party provider hosts your blog. However, you should still aim to present the same brand image.

- Use Search Engine Optimization To Optimize Each Blog Post. The purpose of your blog is to get people who are in your target market to read your posts and enter your sphere of influence. Traffic from search engines does not cost any money, and it is a great way to get potential customers to your blog.

Treat each one of your blog posts as a separate file to be optimized for search engines. Use a keyword research tool to find phrases that are related to the main subject of the post, and weave them into the content of the post.

- Have A Special Offer On Your Blog. Do you offer a free special report? Do you offer a mini course as a bonus for new newsletter subscribers? Add the offer to your blog. This will transform people from casual surfers who just happened to find your blog to newsletter subscribers.

- Share Information About Your Events, Products and Seminars. You might think that everyone has already heard about your upcoming teleclass on life and work balance or your e-book about achieving financial success. Not so! The person reading your blog might be hearing about you for the very first time, so they have no idea about your teleseminars or products unless you specifically tell them.

Avoid overselling, as it will dramatically reduce the number of your blog readers. Do, however, let your blog readers know about your seminars and products. If you don’t tell them, nobody will.

A blog is an excellent tool to generate additional web site traffic, get new newsletter subscribers and sell more products. Use your blog to introduce potential customers to your business.

Biana Babinsky is the online business expert who teaches business owners how to make more money online. Learn how to use blogging and other online marketing techniques to drive more traffic to your web site and make more money online in Biana’s Complete Step by Step Online Marketing Course at http://avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zcourse

The internet is brimming with articles, ebooks and hype about using blogs in conjunction with Google’s Adsense program as a means of generating revenue. The formula for success, it seems, is simple. You blog, you place ads, you get traffic, visitors click on the ads and you get paid. The question many people have about the whole process is whether or not the end result will really be profitable considering the time and effort that is required to implement the strategy.

This question has been difficult to answer, in large part, because of the Google Terms of Service for Adsense users. Although the terms have recently been loosened somewhat, users were long prohibited from sharing personal information regarding their success levels and other key statistics that might have provided prospective for-profit bloggers from developing a clear perspective on the profit potential available.

If you are curious about whether or not you can make blogging with Adsense a legitimate moneymaker, it is worth conducting this relatively simple exercise. The results can give you an idea of whether or not it is worth your time.

First, determine how long it will take you build your blog. Consider the set up time and the time necessary to do initial promotion and to write at least ten to twenty starter posts. We can term this variable ST, for “start-up time.” For our hypothetical, we will say our ST is twelve hours.

Second, estimate how much ongoing time it will take on weekly basis to do additional promotion and to add at least two new posts. Multiply this figure by 52 (the number of weeks in a year). We will term this variable MT for “maintenance time.” For this example, we will set MT at 104 hours (2 hours per week).

Third, add ST and MT. This will give us an idea of the total time required (TT). In this case, TT is 116 total hours.

Fourth, investigate the average value of an ad click in your niche. You can use the Overture bid tool, easily found online, to get a reasonable idea of the value of each click. In order to make your projection “safe,” reduce that number by half. This yields PPC, or “pay per click.” Let’s say the bid tool says clicks related to our keyword are worth about fifty cents. Our PPC is .25.

Fifth, determine how much your time is worth. Do you feel your blogging time should generate at least $10 per hour? $20? This is a matter of personal preference. We will term the resulting variable DR for “desired rate.” We will assess the value of our time at $15 per hour for this exercise.

Sixth, assume a click-through rate of five percent. This is a low figure, as many blogs can generate click-through rates approximating 25%. Click-through rate is expressed as CTR.

Now it’s time to perform the critical calculation. One needs to determine the required number of visitors necessary to produce enough money to make process worthwhile. If we express that number as V, the equation will look something like this:

V x PPC x CTR = DR x TT

This translates to:

V x .25 x .05 = 15 x 116

Or
V x .0125 = 1740

Thus, V must be 139,200. In order to make the process pay, you will have to drive 139,200 visitors to the blog over the course of one year. That translates to approximately 391 visitors per day, on average. Obviously, that is a very “doable” number based on the amount of time we have set aside for the process.

So, for our example, blogging for bucks with Adsense is a winner.

Perform these calculations based on your unique circumstances and you can determine the viability of earning money with a blog and Adsense.

Learn more about blogging at http://www.blogging.internetdiscussionforum.com

Kind regrads
David hobson

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Wikipedia says:

The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz. He broke the word weblog into the phrase “we blog” in the sidebar of his weblog in April or May of 1999.

Basically a blog is a website where a blogger enters “posts” in reverse chronological order ( meaning that the newest “posts” are displayed first ) using some sort of blogging software that allows readers to comment on posts, effectively adding new content to the blog.

Initially blogs were generally private affairs with bloggers using them to keep online diaries. These days blogs have expanded to a virtually unlimited number of uses, including helping to build businesses. While a number of unscrupulous business men have resorted to publishing “splogs” or spam blogs, we will focus on how you can utilize blogging to help build your business while contributing to the blogosphere.

The blogosphere ( the community of blogs or the social network of blogs ) has a certain set of rules that have to be followed in order to publish a successful blog. The first rule is that your blog must contribute to the blogosphere - that is you must actually publish real content and not advertisements. A sure way to produce a blog that flops is to pump it full of advertisements disguised as content.

While the goal of a business-type blog is to build interest in your product or service, there is a right way to go about it and a way that is sure to fail. Instead of trying to sell products in each of your posts, think about trying to open a dialogue with your customers. That brings up another point - if you are not 100% confident in your product or service then a blog is not for you.

With the way that the blogosphere works if you are not willing to get behind your products and services completely. then you are going to have problems. When your customers or clients post comments to original posts, there are bound to be some problems or issues exposed - it is just the nature of the beast. If these issues are not addressed satisfactorily ( or even worse if comments are not followed up on or even allowed to be posted at all ), then your company is not going to have a very good reputation in the blogosphere. If you are not willing to have an open discussion of your business with the readers of your blog, don’t blog.

The goal is to build up a reputation for your blog that reflects positively on your company. If you can do this, you are well on your way to building a successful blog. If a potential customer comes to your blog and notices your clients that had a problem were satisfactorily appeased, then they will view your company in a better light than they would without that information.

And that brings up a huge advantage to having a blog for your business - you can out flank the media, your competitors and all of the other traditional information outlets with your blog. If you successfully optimize your pages and build up a reputation for your blog ( think Google pagerank ), your posts stand a good chance of coming up first in search results for a particular product or service. Obviously if that page reflects well on your product or service this is preferable to your clients getting their information from a different source.

Another advantage of creating a blog about your industry is that you can set yourself up as an expert on the topic. While this only works if you have substantial knowledge of a given subject, most business owners are well versed about their industry - at least more so then the average reader of their blog. So capitalize on this knowledge by posting “insider” information about your industry - and where appropriate highlight your company’s, products or services strengths.

You have to remember however that your blog is not a press release. If the readers don’t feel like you are posting in the true spirit of blogging, then your blog is doomed to failure. So don’t let your PR guys write the blog; take the opportunity to make real connections with the readers of your blog. Blogging done the right way is one of the best ways to truly achieve 1 to 1 marketing.

Your blog will have to be integrated into your whole net strategy - for example in your online catalog you can have links to posts that discuss that product. If customers contact support, they should be sent links to blog pages discussing the information they are looking for as well as the product pages or the FAQ. And don’t forget to include your blog in your marketing strategies, new product launches, etc.

The bottom line is that if your are confident in your company and its services and/or products, then blogging is an important piece of the online puzzle. If you are not blogging your company, you may be losing out to your competitors who are.

James Kendall has been developing websites for over a decade and has founded and co-founded several companies concerned with web development since 1994. Currently he runs http://www.jtkconsulting.com and focuses on one on one interaction with select clients.