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Google Is The Number 1 Lead Generator

July 23, 2007 By Leave a Comment

logo-Google At least in our company, we get most of our client’s through Google searches done by companies looking for a blogging consultant or looking to hire a blogger for their company.  I ran through our client list to see the number of companies that have contacted us to provide a professional blogger or to consult them on a social media campaign.  One of the things that struck me was that a large number of them that had reached us or found us as a result of a Google search.

The conversation that prompted me to look at this in this light was a phone call from a prospective client.  We had discussed our services and he was happy with our business model and thought that we would probably do business in the future.  He then told that he had a difficult time finding a service such as ours, but eventually had found it through search.  He explained the roundabout way he happened upon our site, and I recognized a common theme to his search.  Everyone of the other clients had a similar story.

As a small business without a corps of sale people and without a huge marketing budget and a advertising team providing our message, we rely solely upon word of mouth, and being findable.  I preach the same to each of our clients.  In order for your business to be successful, it has to be findable.  It’s nice to see the sermon actually works for me as well.

 

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Metrics, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tips, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Companies Needing Blogs, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Search Engine Optimization, Services, Social Media

A Product Problem is Great Blog Fodder

July 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment

One of our clients have a great communication tool in their hands with a contact page on their blog.  Many people that have purchased their product can come and get information about the products they sell and the industry news and information about the company.  In this particular case, a customer-service consumer had a problem with their product after purchase.  They found the blog on the company website or through a search engine, and used the contact page on the blog.  They could have also used the comment section of the blog as well, but chose to use the contact form.  They explained their problem in the contact page and the blogger was able to immediately help them connect with the proper person to correct their problem or to allow an exchange of the product if necessary.  This all seems very common in many cases, but it also provides a great opportunity to show other consumers that you are on top of customer concerns and work hard to resolve their problems if needed. This scenario offered a chance to post an article about the product problem, the reporting of the problem, and any resolution that has occurred as a result.  This allows other customers to find perhaps the same problem and use the same process for resolution.  A blog can also serve as a great customer service tool, and the resulting service can be used for some very important blog fodder.

[photo by Customers Rock]

 

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tips, Blog Tools, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media

Sustaining your blog, 8 easy steps to keep it going

July 11, 2007 By 3 Comments

Think Before You Blog

When you first start a blog the first two weeks are amazing. You’re reading feeds, you’re posting daily–maybe several times a day–, and it’s very cool! Then reality sets in, commonly called “real life” or “work” or “eating”, and your posting starts to drop off. Hey it’s normal. Look at this blog or my own blog and you’ll see some gaps in the content, we always come back though and sometimes better than ever (sometimes). How do we do it? How have Jim and I, and millions of other bloggers, kept posting for years? Here are some of my tricks:

  1. Remember it’s not the end of the world if you don’t post. Really, missing a day or two won’t stop the Earth from spinning on its axis. You’re allowed a life and a break.
  2. Read and leave comments on your friends’ blogs. Strange as it might seem, I get inspiration by sitting back and reading posts my friends put up. Thinking about what they are saying often leads to a lot of great posts later
  3. Just write something, anything, to get the words flowing. Maybe not even something to post, but just get the brain working
  4. Change your venue. Sometimes I take my laptop from one desk and move to another, or the couch, or a chair. Sometimes just going to a cafe and being around other people helps
  5. Go offline. My best posts are often written when I’m offline. Maybe I’m on a ferry. Maybe I’m just sitting somewhere without access. Without the interruptions of e-mail, IMs, even RSS and other websites, I can focus on the task at hand
  6. Crank the tunes. Find the music that inspires you and crank it. I have play lists with different vibes to them for different writing moods. Right now it’s my “Whatever” mix with a huge range of artists, but generally good beats, lyrics, and intensity. If I need to be more introspective, the mellow stuff comes out.
  7. Take a break. Shower, exercise (yeah I know we geeks have trouble with this one sometimes), have a snack, make some coffee. Just break the routine enough to make your mind start whirring again.
  8. Read. Yep and not RSS always. A book (you know those things made from dead trees). When I was writing my Masters thesis I kept Stephen King’s Different Seasons on my desk, when I was stuck I would open it to a random thought and read for about 20 minutes. Really helps, though it did make parts of my thesis a little dark and creepy in parts.

Those are just a few of my tips. What do you do to kick start your writing?

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Filed Under: Blog Tips, Bloggers and Blogs, Business Blogging, Professional Blogging, Social Media

Moving Beyond Blogging to Community, Engagement, and Networking With Your Blog

July 8, 2007 By 4 Comments

Via Yvonne’s Lip-Sticking (and guest blogger Lena West) comes more advice and insight on why just writing on your blog isn’t enough, it has to go beyond that:

The most common complaint we hear from new clients is “I’m writing blog posts three times a week and no one visits or comments. What’s the deal?”

Well, there you’ve got your answer.

Let me put it another way:

Let’s say you decide that you don’t have enough friends. Maybe you’ve been busy with your life and  you haven’t taken the time to really connect with other people. But, now you could use a good friend or two. Someone to share potluck dinners…a movie…emotional support…yada, yada. So, you set the intention to expose yourself to as many people as you can (not in THAT way!). Night after night, you sit at home hoping, wishing and waiting for a friend to knock on your door so you can start sharing, planning and gossiping. Not one person calls. Not one person knocks. What’s wrong here?

If you’re bright enough to read this blog, you can see immediately what’s wrong. I bet many of you were thinking, “To make friends, you have to first be a friend.” Or maybe you were thinking, “Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll come.” True indeed.

It’s a very similar situation for bloggers.

To be a successful blogger, you have to take the initiative to actively connect with other successful bloggers — the operative word being ACTIVELY. That means not JUST sitting behind your keyboard and creating blog posts about interesting topics. Oddly enough, that’s the easy part.

[snip]

Bottomline: If you want people to read your blog, you can’t just blog. You might consider the novel idea of reading and being active on other blogs. *Gasp!*

From: Why Blogging Will Never Get You the Results You Want by Lena West

The actively portion is extremely important.  Jim and I spend most of our days not just chatting with each other (via Skype, of course) but chatting with other bloggers.  IM, Twitter, Comments, Pownce…all day.  I don’t even see it as something that I have to do, I just do it.  When we’re not actively engaging with bloggers, we’re reading them.  Jim and I scan upwards of 800 RSS feeds each…that’s probably thousands of articles in a given week.  It’s from the chatting, the commenting, the reading that we can get to the writing.  Once a post is written, guess what it already has an audience because our friends are ready to receive our latest musings via RSS.

Jim and I are engaged in a bunch of different communities.  Both of us in the general bloggy, social media group, I tend to hang with the other geeks as well chatting about vagaries of templates, RSS, and plugins, Jim more in the mommy and daddy blogger groups.

So if you’re wondering why no one is reading your blog, or linking, or commenting…step out, find other blogs in your niche.  Read them, leave a comment or three, start a conversation, link to them, send an e-mail, just start that friendship building process and the rest will follow.

Filed Under: Bloggers and Blogs, Business Blogging, Professional Blogging

Stellar Advice for the Corporate Blogger from Matt Cutts

July 5, 2007 By 1 Comment

There was a kerfuffle recently over on the main Google blog last week.  While what was said and how it was handled is long over and done, I’m not going to pummel that deceased equine, Matt Cutts published a set of must read tips for the beginning blogger, especially the new business or corporate blogger:

The easiest time to make a blogging gaffe is when you?re starting out. When you?re about to start blogging, ramp up slowly:
1) Ask someone experienced to read the first several blog posts you do. They can flag inaccuracies or tell you if you misjudged the tone of a post.
2) Write a few posts that you?re willing to throw away. You still get the practice, but without as much pressure.
3) Do a guest post or two on someone else?s blog first. At Google, we have lots of official blogs. It?s better to try things out as a guest before you step into the spotlight on your own blog.
4) Practice on forums first. For example, Google has a lot of discussion and help forums where Googlers chime in from time to time. For Googlers, that?s a great place to start. For other companies, find the most relevant forum and practice chatting with people (make it clear that you work for your company so that people don?t think you?re astroturfing).

Don?t criticize other companies or people. This isn?t a hard and fast rule. But for a company blog, it?s usually unnecessary and unwise to throw dirt at other companies. For one thing, it lowers the level of discourse. Plus Silicon Valley and the blogosphere is a small place; the person that you publicly rake over the coals now might work with you down the road. I know that the temptation is strong, but resist it as often as you can.

Don?t post when you?re angry. Pretty much every time I?ve posted angry, I?ve regretted it later. The pace of the blogosphere conversation can be torrid, so reacting quickly can be critical to get your side of the story out on Techmeme or other places. But if you can afford the time, take an extra day to get a little perspective. Sometimes other people make the same points that you would have made.

Learn which stories matter and which ones don?t. You don?t have to respond to every criticism that someone makes. If a story is little more than insults, maybe it?s better to work on developing a thicker skin. And sometimes people are just baiting you trying to get attention. Usually there is a core issue that someone is angry about though. Tackle that issue and don?t sweat the insults.

If you make a mistake, don?t clam up. If you work hard enough for long enough, you?ll eventually make a big mistake. Think of it like skiing: if you never fall down, you?re not pushing yourself hard enough. The important thing is to keep participating in the conversation. Post again to clarify your stance. Don?t yank the original post. If you have to change the original post, make it clear how you changed it, e.g. adding a postscript or striking out what isn?t right.

Here?s a bonus tip specific to this situation: include a datestamp on all your posts. The posts on Google?s health advertising blog are currently month-stamped and time-stamped, but not date-stamped. I?d recommend changing that template to be like most other Google blogs. That lets people see that a clarifying post went up within a day or so after the original post. Source: Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO » Company blogging 101

Let me pull out the second-to-last tip on mistakes and expand on it.  You will make a mistake.  There will be a gaff at some point.  It is human nature.  Lord knows I’ve had my share of posts that had to do and “oops” update or say I’m sorry in some fashion to someone.  So don’t stress over it when it happens, just deal with it.  As Matt says, don’t clam up.  Take a little bit of time to collect yourself and then deal with it and be done.

Blogging, especially business blogging, gets easier with time and practice.  Just sit back, write, have a laugh at yourself sometimes (especially over your typos), and enjoy the ride.  It’s worth it, really.

Filed Under: Bloggers and Blogs, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Media, Professional Blogging, Social Media

Too Many Social Networks Causes Headaches

July 2, 2007 By 8 Comments

I’ve been hearing of many people getting to the point of overload on the number of social networks they belong to and the number of networks they are following.  I have a handle on the feeling and have experienced the same headaches that many suffer from as a result.facebooklogo

I spent Sunday actually building my community of social networks.  I try to make sure that I always know how to use the tools available and to be knowledgeable about the use of the latest of the networks out there.  The first social network I tackled was Facebook.  This seems to be one of the largest growing social networks lately and I decided I better get on that  bandwagon.  I added friends I knew and some I actually didn’t know personally.  My apologies if I sent you an invite to be my twitterfriend as I ran the easy to ask application that spams all your email files. 

I have been an early adopter of the Twitter social network and have really enjoyed Twitter as a way to follow along with my friends, clients, and peers.  I have spent a long time growing the number of friends and the number of followers to my Twitter page.  This does cause problems when you ever want to switch to another social network that might be very similar or the next generation.  Such a thing happened when I decided to check out the Twitterish type of application in Jaiku.images

Jaiku was the next type of Twitter type social network that offered a different user interface and some other features.  I was not very enamored with the service and barely stayed long enough to see if it was worth my time.  It was not the most favorite of networks following the Twitter explosion, and was launched to close to the same time.  This was not the same with the latest of networks to launch.

pownce_logo The next network I decided to try was Pownce.  This network in my opinion launched at just the right time.  They took the best attributes or the other networks, expanded them somewhat and made it very nice to look at as well as operate.  I was able to grow this community much faster than I was when Twitter first came on and it could be because I promoted the building of my Pownce page and community through the use of Twitter, which in itself is an irony.

www.STADTAUS.com_btn3910742 Tomorrow is our scheduled radio show at Blog Talk Radio.   We will be discussing this new onslaught of social networks and we will talk about the headaches others are having as a result of trying to keep up with the the madness.  We are always going to be able to tell our clients about these applications and how best to keep up with them.  Our most beneficial service is actually providing a social media manager or community watcher for companies. 

UPDATE:  [7-3-07]  Thanks to BL Ochman through Twitter, she points us to an article by Mashable about Mini Blogging, where they compare 8 different applications.

 

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Platforms, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogonomics, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media

"Content Is King" But There Is More To Blogging

June 20, 2007 By 2 Comments

This week’s radio show that Tris and I did at Blog Talk Radio had a topic that was dear to our hearts. Content in blogging is king, but it is not the only thing there is to blogging. Many people believe that you can set up a blog start putting content on the blog and suddenly the company is a success. This is just not true. Blogging is more than just words on a web page or words typed into a blog platform. Blogging is so much more than writing cool content.

We discussed this at length today in our podcast. You can listen to the podcast or download it to get our take in what blogging is and what we define as a blogger and their duties.

Blogging is understanding not only how to write really good content, but understanding the back side of the platform, with using analytics, using RSS feeds, and many of the tools out their that will help you produce good content. Blogging is more of a whole concept and job description and a expertise. What expertise does a blogger bring? We think they are Community Managers or Social Media Managers. What do you think a blogger is and what do they bring to the table?

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Filed Under: Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Mediasphere Radio, Professional Blogging, RSS, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media

Can WordPress Compete Against Moveable Type?

June 10, 2007 By 1 Comment

I was reading Anil Dash’s post today about the launch of Moveable Type 4. My blog life was born using the Moveable Type Platform. At the time I began blogging, I was of the opinion that MT was the one and only platform for me. It was the choice of many of the top bloggers and had many features that I wanted. When I buy things I do lots of research and checking things out then make my decision based upon my findings. This is what I did when choosing my blogging platform.

Along came WordPress and I heard some great things about that platform. Contributing to a number of blogs over the years, I have seen many different applications, and once I used the WordPress system, I was sold. What was different from Moveable Type? To me it was more user friendly, and the most important reason was spam blocking. I was having a horrible time with Moveable Type’s spam blocking ability. I spent more time deleting spam comments and trackbacks than I was actually writing the posts and reading comments. WordPress was my answer to that problem.

Now Moveable Type has released its newest version of its application, Moveable Type 4. I wonder if they are as user friendly as WordPress and I also wonder about the widgets/plugins/features and whether they have the same coolness as WordPress. I waffled about maybe testing the MT4 Beta, and quickly looked through the site and saw the features offered by MT, and then I finished with the last navigation tab, “Pricing and Purchase”. I was able to quickly make my decision, because one word I did not see…FREE. Until MT decides to offer their application to us commercial users that are on a tight budget, I guess I will have to say that MT will never compete with WP.

 

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Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Platforms, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Corporate Blogs, Media, Partnerships, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media, The Site

Mediasphere Radio: Beginning Blogging 101

June 8, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Tris and I had a great time talking about how a business or individuals can get into blogging. We talk about the very basics and things to think about and tips on how to get your company up and blogging.

You can go and listen to the show!

Tags: , Bloggers For Hire, , , Hiring Bloggers, Jim Turner, Mediasphere Radio, One By One Media, Professional Bloggers, , , Tris Hussey

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Metrics, Blog Mining, Blog Platforms, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogonomics, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Search Engine Optimization, Services, Social Media, The Site

Continuation of yesterday’s show: more on linky love to advertisers

May 30, 2007 By 4 Comments

Andy Beard left this awesome comment one the post announcing the show yesterday (if you’d like to listen to the show–listen to Shel Israel really–I have the show archived here):

I caught the end of the show and then listened to the recording.

I would love to know what you guys think of

1. People thanking their advertisers with followable links
2. People frequently tell me I undercharge for the amount of time and effort I put into all my reviews, so that would make any links I supply in a review purely editorial (which is what I firmly believe) – I write my reviews partially as a kind of consultancy, but also to demonstrate that compensated reviews can be high quality, whether compensated by affiliate sales or by a direct payment.
3. Free software which is monetized by the links (many notable Open Source Projects)
4. Providing links to people who pay you a retainer as a consultant. When you get someone like Rand Fishkin mentioning a few of his clients in a blog post and deliberately (that is what it seems to me) not including a link to them, then policies on linking really need to be specifically clarified on a blog that doesn?t have a legal disclaimer
5. Links from charities where you donate
6. Other forms of donations to people who decide to give you a link back

Everything about the discussion was very much “black & white” whereas in fact there are so many shades of grey that are perfectly acceptable, and actually in many ways darker than a comprehensive review written for some kind of compensation.

Does a company like Hewlett Packard or Universal Music Group really need to buy links for SEO, or is it really just for Buzz?

I told Andy in a comment that his comment was worth a post of its own, so without further ado…

Andy is bang on, these issues are not black and white. We covered this complex issue in about 20 minutes and didn’t have alternate points of view on for discussion. Can we do that? You freakin’ bet we can!

This might be a post where Jim and I don’t agree 100% (which is good), but IMHO I don’t have a problem with, and often do, thank advertisers with a link in a post and we (Jim and I) do link to clients. Part of it is SEO, but a lot of it is so you can visit their blog! Same for charities. If I support them, I link to them. Again I’m not thinking about an SEO benefit, I’m thinking about people finding the charity. This is probably why I didn’t even think about PPP posts being Google gaming bait.

I agree Andy, I think the cost to a company for a review is pretty paltry. Heck if I’m given a piece of software for free I’ll review it. A free copy doesn’t buy me or a good review, but I will take the time to give it a good shot. I don’t think a review on one of my blogs is equal, though, to one on yours Andy, so … well maybe I’m priced about right.

I also don’t mind links in free software in lieu of paying. Now, the bigger question is whether or not they work. That I don’t know.

As for large companies…no they don’t need the SEO, buzz, sure, SEO no. Frankly the big companies have the budgets and connections to get stuff in our hands.

I’m sure this post will bring up more questions than it answers, but hey that’s a good thing of course. If we need to do the next radio show on this topic again … so be it.

Update: Lots of great comments on this post (as I had hoped). Connected Internet poses more questions on this topic as well. One thread is why not go direct instead of through TLA or PPP:

I really can’t see the logic of signing up to the scheme. If an advertiser has decided based upon looking at your site that they want to buy a review, then why not just do the deal directly and keep all the money? By all means keep your site listed in the PPP directory so that you don’t miss out on any potential reviews that might come in via that route, but I really think that any advertising sales generated via your site should be done directly. If you’ve generated the sales lead directly, then why pay commission?

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Filed Under: Bloggers and Blogs, Blogs and PR, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media
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