Duct Tape Marketing - Latest Comments in The blogging three step

Re: The blogging three step

Karen — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:36:46 -0000

thanks for all of your useful comments. I'm starting out as a guest blogger and let's see where it goes from there. I'm hoping to come back and contribute from my own insights soon.

Re: The blogging three step

LenaSalim — Sat, 17 May 2008 21:02:50 -0000

One alternative to grow traffic to your blog is by participating into online communities and recommend your friends to visit your blog. Communities such as myspace and spacebook has been widely used by companies in doing their businesses. So why don't we try one?
To learn more about this strategy, please ckick at : http://electronicbizniz.wor...

Re: The blogging three step

Daryl Pereira — Sat, 17 May 2008 11:29:10 -0000

Apologies, but this comment is directed more at Chris Baggott rather than the original post.

As far as I understand it, there can be issues with SaaS and SEO - especially if, in this case, the blogs sit on a separate domain. Whereas using software such as Wordpress on your own domain, there is no issue of Google and the other search engines disassociating the blog from your site (which won't help the rankings for either).

Another point is that most small business ISPs offer CPanel/Fantastico solutions that make the setting up of software such as Wordpress a breeze - the whole thing can be up and running in a few clicks.

Re: The blogging three step

nancy — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:54:26 -0000

My website started out with lots of bells and whistles. But it went nowhere. After a while I trimmed it all down and made it as simple as possible and that helped alot. Oftentimes, simple really is the best way to go.

Re: The blogging three step

Alex Patterson — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:00:55 -0000

John,
I am just starting to Blog and I am thankful for your direction. I have concluded that many of the blogs that I read are people that run there own business and very seldom do I get the point of view of the end user, why is that? I would love to hear the perspective of the end-user about their experience with a new technology or product. where would I find a blog like that?
I feel that Management give a view of what they like about it and why they made a decision of why they choose, what they choose.
Any feel back would be appreciated.

Re: The blogging three step

JudyAnn Lorenz — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:28:40 -0000

My readers are after content. While they appreciate IT and I would too, I've found that they respond and sign up and stay with me even though I've not gotten terribly complicated with the template. I've changed the colors on a basic WordPress.org template and given them something to read. Maybe later, I can get fancier. But, I've had to make a choice, write or design. Hiring out a design at this point in time isn't an option.

Re: The blogging three step

Rich Rogala — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:13:28 -0000

@Meredith:

This is very true. It's important to not just blog to hear yourself talk (type?). Really think about what your audience needs and wants to hear, and focus on that. If you're not sure what that is, then you need to figure that out before you bother with a blog.

Re: The blogging three step

MarketingTwins-Randy — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:34:26 -0000

I remember when I first started, thinking "but what do I have to say that is unique?" AND "if my clients were to look at my blog NOW, all they'd see is a few posts that don't exude alot of expertise."

First - on being unique - I found that it is not always necessary to have totally unique content - like you said, John, by pulling hot blogs into my Bloglines, I get fed fresh content from blogs that are talking about important matters. Often, my blog posts simply borrow from them (with proper source info) or I'll just link to them. Rather than having to be THE one and only expert, I become a resource for my clients who do't have time to read all those other blogs. I use my blog to be a resource for them so they don't care if I'm unique or not - as long as it is practical for them.

Secondly, I just started writing. At first, I did something every 2 or 3 days, sometimes daily. With my feeds into Bloglines, I was actually stacking up content for potential blog posts so that on those busy days (or when I had writer's block), I could pull from my blog posts that were "on deck". Now, it is several months later and I've got a pretty good archive of posts on a variety of topics. So you gotta just START and in no time, you'll have a reservoir of information, education and inspiration for your clients and readers!

Re: The blogging three step

Roger — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:33:22 -0000

John,

I’m somewhat new to blogging for my business and have followed your 3 steps out of common sense (or I’m a genius). I’m still in a beta/testing state with my site so my expectations of results are low. I am having a good time and the writing for my blog or posting on blogs is expanding my knowledge in my area of expertise (Photoshop).

I wanted to make a comment about the process of creating a blog. Since part of my business is spent in helping customers with new web sites, including blogs, I can say from hands-on, day-to-day experience that setting up a blog can be a bit of a challenge (that’s why my clients hire me). But if you don’t want to hire me (or someone else) there are hundreds (thousands?) of resources available to help you set up a blog for free or at a reasonable cost. The great thing about WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and many others (I use Drupal), is that there are hundreds (thousands) of add on modules. So once you have a basic blog and are comfortable with the process it relatively painless to add functionary to your blog.

I say, if you have a small business jump in and give it a try (if you’re not a genius like me follow John’s suggestions).

Re: The blogging three step

Meredith — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:33:33 -0000

This advice is all well and good but the one thing overlooked when telling a small business to blog is encouraging them to really think through what they're going to blog about. Too many small business blogs just blog about themselves/their business rather than blogging about something their target audience finds interesting. It's fine to post that you've got some new items in your online store or that you're having a sale but these types of posts do not make for a good sticky blog. To keep the attention of their target audience/customers it's crucial that the small biz blogger consider a coming up with blog topics that are going to really appeal to their audience.

Re: The blogging three step

ducttape — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:38:57 -0000

@Brock - I agree completely - I think the reason it is so tempting to sell the SEO aspect is because it's pretty immediate and tangible. The long term conversation building the real reason to blog, but it's just so, well, long-term, and that's not always very sexy to sell - but, yes, it's the reason to play the game.

Re: The blogging three step

Marketing Integrity — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:29:58 -0000

John, I endorse your 3-step process. I followed the same basic steps as I entered the blog-world and the first two definitely help develop your blogging mindset. I would say however that you really do not start developing your blogging "voice" in step one. That only comes once you begin writing on your own blog and it certainly is refined over time.

Re: The blogging three step

Brock Butler, D.Sc. — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:20:43 -0000

John,
May I make a contribution from a sales professional’s perspective?

Is it possible that the focus on SEO aspects of blogging causes us to lose sight of the primary business objective of blogging – building a relationship of trust with our prospective customer.

Getting my prospect to engage, and continue to engage, in a dialog that delivers value to him and the community is the metric that I care the most about. That requires a blog template that makes it easy for him to subscribe to a blog, search for the information within the blog that interests him, comment on it, and receive notification when other people comment on his post. I have found WordPress to have more publically available Plug-Ins to deliver these “best practice” capabilities than any other platform.

Another consideration is the capability to use your Blog to drive the content in your website. WordPress driven websites are always fresh and relevant with dynamic content that links to your website. It also gives you the advantage of tracking the analytics of your visitor across both your website and blog. If you structure your blog categories correctly you can gain valuable information about your prospects area of interest and where he is in his buying process.

While search optimizing blog tools like Compendium are attractive in theory, I question what you give up in usability and community engagement. With thousands of WordPress aficionados developing new plug-ins and new templates, I am doubtful that the proprietary blogging platforms will ever catch up.

In summary, using your blog for SEO purposes is just one aspect of why we blog. Getting your visitor to trust, engage, and contribute valuable content is the primary driver for a business blog. Anything less is just a scam to affect the Google rankings. My vote and my money goes to WordPress.

Brock

Re: The blogging three step

Arielle Scott — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:29:25 -0000

I definitely agree with you, John.

I am developing a youth-oriented marketing firm that builds brands, and I am constantly reading different trend forecasting and marketing blogs. Yet, I never knew exactly when I should begin my own.

My only issue is the amount of blogs currently on the web. How do you differentiate from the noise?

Re: The blogging three step

ducttape — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:31:16 -0000

Chris - I'll disagree with you on this one - WP kills for SEO and is worth investing a little money in IT to get it set-up, although, anyone who can read can get it set-up in about 15 minutes or even installed automatically by a host.

Re: The blogging three step

Mark Nagurski — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:21:56 -0000

I think the first two points are very valid - I know when I first started blogging my posts we almost carbon copies of articles I'd prepared for print media (in fact they still are a little too much in that direction).

I've only recently begun to venture back into blogging after spending the last months reading everyone else's.