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Blogging: How Personal Should I Make My Business Blog

As a "blogmeister" I'm often asked "How personal should I make my weblog ?"

This is a great question. The answer for everyone is different.

There is no set answer to this question. It’s important to remember that your weblog is a living extension of your business, and ultimately you. So keep in mind the image you want to portray, the goals of your weblog and what your audience is looking for.

Howard Stern is a good example. Howard is often challenges his audience to “change the channel, no one is making you listen.” It’s part of his image, his schtick. It’s one reason why people do listen. The part of his audience that hates him tunes in because they love to be angry!

Does that model work for your “toy train” online business? I’m not sure. Let’s use the “toy train” business as a “model” (notice the clever play words).

1. Who is my audience?

Your audience ranges from Neil Young (who owns Lionel) to possibly 10 year olds who build and collect model train sets. Their experience level ranges from the new collector/modeler to the experienced hobbyist. This is important in determining the “feel of the read”…are you writing for a 35 year old who wants hard facts and analysis, or a 12 year old who wants to have fun and learn. The beauty of blogging is you can have both. Think about separating categories for your audience. Have Product Reviews, Product Releases, Kids Corner, How to, Ask the Conductor, Tips and Tricks, etc. as specific categories and post accordingly.

2. How and Why Do They Buy?

Does my audience buy on a whim, or do they buy when they “find the solution”? Are new product releases an important feature my audience is looking for? Do “Product Reviews” increase the possibility that a potential customer will pull out their credit card and purchase?

3. What do I find interesting?

This is probably the best indicator of what to write. If you haven’t already, take some time, visit, read and write down what it is you like about the blogs you frequent in your market target. Chances are if you like it, other people will to. Now take your list of “likes” and combine them and create “a better blogtrap”.

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4. Why would I read this weblog , subscribe, come back or make a buying decision here?

In addition to a weblog being a vehicle for you to get your information out there and attract and keep an audience, your weblog can become an interactive, user supported community. Think about the features you like on other people’s weblog , and maybe even ones that don’t exist. What about having a contest for the best train picture, the coolest design, etc. Let users post their pictures and vote. Offer a prize. Allow members to email and print articles they like. Encourage them to ask and answer questions.

5. Is it fun for me?

Running a successful weblog takes time, but you don’t have to become a shut-in. Structure your weblog from the beginning to fit your schedule and your passion. Try and post something everyday. Your posts don’t have to be 1,000 words each, they can be about something you learned the day before, big or small. Don’t be afraid to ask your competitors or customers to help you keep the weblog going by posting their valuable information. Always give them attribution, or at least a link to their site if they ask. Remember, your weblog is a “service” that transcends petty competition. It has no ego, ex-wives, jealous husbands or personal problems. It just wants to be useful and used.

For me, I like to read blogs where the personality of the owner comes out. I read blogs mainly for the strength of the content, technical information or news, but the blogs I return to the most, the ones I subscribe to and pass on to friends and employees are the ones that are fun to read and provide valuable information.

Sometimes the personality of the owner adds a level of trust and intimacy between the reader and the author that raises the articles/posting above the clutter of the Net.

So decide for yourself how personal you want to get.

When deciding what to write for my weblog (www.theblogmill.com) I like to pretend I’m Clint Eastwood:

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How Blogging Affects Mainstream online Marketing

There has been a lot of buzz around blogging lately, and for good reason. Blogs are changing the way people market their businesses.

If you aren’t familiar with blogging, the concept is relatively easy to grasp. Blogs first began as a shared online journal. A blogger posted diary-like entries about his or her daily life. Recently though, blogging has evolved into a new form of business writing and advertising. Many business owners now use blogs to promote their goods and services.

By adding blogging to their marketing campaigns, business owners are able to market their product with virtually no out of pocket expense. In some cases, bloggers may even be able to make large sums of money with their published weblog . For example, a blogger who employs the Google Ad Sense program can make money from weblog readers. The more readers a blogger has, the more money can be made from the Google ad.

A blogger can also be a guide for shoppers who are looking for specific products and services. This makes blogging an excellent tool for retailers or affiliate marketers. Blogs can also be a source of information and niche industry news.

Because there are virtually limitless possibilities provided by blogging, it is easy to see why blogs have begun to have a significant impact on mainstream marketing practices. Many companies have noticed this and have chosen to hire a blogger to write and post up-to-date information for customers, shareholders, and employees.

Some blogs now get millions of readers every single day. There are so many weblog readers out there, that experts speculate that the world of blogging is rivaling the mainstream media.

If you have not yet established a weblog for your business, you may want to consider doing so as soon as possible. Keep in mind though that it will take work to attract readers to your weblog . It must be interesting and/or valuable to them in some way. A blogger must also concentrate on creating informative pieces that are as honest and up-to-date as possible. Blogging is serious business and if you make a mistake, it will not go unnoticed by your readership. Last, but not least, a blogger must remember to optimize weblog writing for search engines. Blogging is an Internet medium and needs to be approached with Internet principles in mind.

Hurricanes and Blogging

If you are Blogger and you wish to increase traffic into readership and visitors to your web site then it is smart to talk about the weather specifically the major category hurricane named storms. During the 2005 Atlantic tropical hurricane season; we had Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Wilma into these were among the top searched words on Google from August 2005 to be December 2005.

It is interesting that people are always joking about others talking about the weather and just think if you talk about the weather on your Blog, you will totally increase traffic on your web site. What kinds of things do people like to read about on a Blog during hurricane season?

People are looking for alternative news stories and events, which are not in the mainstream media but are of public interest. You may also find people who either live in the devastated or destroyed region from a major tropical category hurricane or catastrophic tropical storm, which flooded their area, who are willing to tell their stories on your Blog.

This firsthand knowledge will help drive traffic to your web site and it is a public service to the citizens to know what is really going on from real people who are really involved. Please consider this in 2006.

Ready to Start Blogging? Check out WordPress

Ready to start blogging, but don’t know where to start? Try WordPress.

WordPress is an open source blogging software tool which affords pretty much anybody with basic computer skills to weblog their way to stardom! Well, maybe not to stardom, but it an easy to use, easy to learn content management system…and it’s FREE!

I’ll get into some of the features and benefits in a second, but here’s some steps and considerations you want to take first.

1. Do you want to tag your weblog onto your existing site or setup a new domain name?.

There are two schools of thought on this one and both are valid. Tagging it on to your existing site most certainly has it’s benefits such as just having one set of logins to remember. It can get a bit tricky with 404 errors if you don’t know what your doing in the configuration stage, and you may lose some of the external linking benefits if you’re looking to increase your rankings on the search engines.

2. Do you want your weblog to match your existing web site’s look and feel?

Designing a customized weblog with a new look and feel is basically easy to learn and there is a ton of support out there for even the novice PHP and CSS code writer. If you don’t have the time, or have no hair left to pull out after designing and managing your existing site, you may consider outsourcing your weblog design. Costs on that can range from $50 to several thousand dollars depending upon the sophistication of your weblog ’s functionality. Check out http://www.blog-template-layout.com for some ideas and links to themes and plug-ins.

3. What is the purpose of your weblog ?

It’s a good idea to map out on a piece of paper, a cocktail napkin or whiteboard what exactly you want your weblog to accomplish, how many hours a day do you or your staff have available to accommodate fresh content, promotion and optimization. Blogs can help you create a social network, act as a customer service tool, an internal employee communications vehicle, generate new members, customers, supporters, sales, donations, you name it. It’s important to do a bit of a core dump in advance and set some goals and timelines for implementation. Remember, your weblog is a living organism and new features and plug-ins are always coming online so be flexible to change.

4. How much do I have to spend?

Figure hosting (if you need it) will cost around $10-15 a month on the high end. A new domain, anywhere between $2 and $20 (beware of cheap domain name registrars that won’t let you point the domain to your nameservers of choice and sucker you in with $2 domain name registrations only to stick you with an expensive hosting plan). Design, if you don’t do it yourself will cost between $50 and several thousand dollars for a massively feature rich content management system if you are a membership organization, a mid-size business, a media concern, have a ton of existing content you wish to leverage or just want to dominate your market space.

WordPress Features and Benefits

FREE
Easy to learn
Easy to Post, Edit and Manage
Lots of cool plug-ins (be careful if you don’t know basic PHP, they don’t all work)
Open Source (lot’s of smart people making a better system)
FREE
Build a subscriber database
Easy to do basic customization
Easy to setup
Lots of hosting companies already support it (see Fantastico
FREE
Great support forums
Pretty much search engine friendly
Pretty stable
Pretty secure (beware of some PHP formmailers)
Did I mention it’s FREE?

So, if you’re ready to start blogging, check out WordPress, make a list of objectives, set some goals, do a content inventory and get started. And keep an eye out for more articles on blogging, or subscribe to http://www.theblogmill.com and get the latest delivered via your favorite aggregator.

Photoblogging: Explosive Persuasive Power

Perhaps it all started with the advent of music television; perhaps the portability of the digital camera, or ‘cool’ factor of the camera phone, but nowadays we are all about the visuals. We experience our world through a constant stream of sound and colour and have taken it on as an integral part of our daily existences. This could be what has led to the rapid growth of the phenomenon of photoblogging.

In November of 2003 there were discussions about the end of photoblogs; as displaying photos of people without their permission was brought into question. In fact Italy has restricted the use of images of people if permission to display their photo has not been expressly granted. However, this clearly hasn’t had any effect on the growth of this exciting new trend with roughly 17000 registered photoblogs on photoblogs.org. Books have even been written on the subject, such as Create Your Own Photo Blog by well-respected photographer and blogger, Catherine Jamieson

The photoblog community is growing and people who had little or no knowledge of photography are being exposed to different points of view as well as being asked to comment constructively on the work. There is the feeling of a supportive atmosphere – a place in which professionals and amateurs can come together, showcase their work, learn from and appreciate one another. The vast array of sites is also testament to the creativity evoked by the combination of concept and immediate online contact. The mirror project is a site where photographers are encouraged to submit work in which they have used reflective surfaces to capture their images, with some startling and compelling results.

The benefit of setting up your own photoblog seems to far outweigh the usually minimal yearly cost. Photographers have access to an almost instant response to their work. They can judge their success directly from comments and suggestions as opposed to the traditional way of having to find a gallery to display their work, or trying to sell it to shops or vendors.

This means that everyone can be a photographer or even photojournalist nowadays. Take this photograph from Jide Alakija, for example. Jide has been using shutterchance.com, one of the preeminent photoblogging sites, to exhibit a series of photographs taken during demonstrations against organ harvesting in China. His photos have produced quite a following and in this way he has been able to bring the petition to a larger audience.

With instant access to a multitude of viewers around the world, photoblogging is becoming a powerful tool. If the pen is mightier than the sword and an image is worth a thousand words, then the photoblog could be the most influential new instrument of the 21st century.

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