Successful Blog

What to Find Out Before You Start a Business Blog – 25+ Web Resources

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How to blog series

We All Start Somewhere

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Most of us who started a blog before LinkedIn and Twitter, while Facebook was barely finished code, got to the blogosphere one at time. We picked out our templates and our blogging platforms and decided what we would blog about. We learned the culture, the rules, and how to use the tools. And all of us learned HTML — the alphabet of blogs.

It was an apprentice culture. We learned the craft from other bloggers. At the same time we linked our blogs, read and commented, we got to know and connected to other bloggers. Much of the information was passed on as we got to know each other. If we needed to know how to do something, we just asked someone who had been blogging longer than we had. Some started building courses and putting together tutorials, probably because they realized they were repeating themselves — an audience existed to learn these things.

Then things changed. Somewhere around 2006, bloggers got serious about making money, running business from their blogs. Social media brought millions of people who had heard that blogs could help their business have a presence online.

It’s no longer an apprentice culture. Still, we all start somewhere. Now, resources exist in the form of blog posts written to answer frequently asked questions and courses to teach the masses. Still, the best way to start is to have someone point you in the right direction.

What follows are 25 how-tos and guides that represent over 65 resources that offer top-notch information for a solid start on a successful-business blog.

What to Find Out Before You Start a Business Blog – 25+ Web Resources

You wouldn’t build a business or a building to house one, without doing a little research first. At least, I hope not. Before you start or restart your business blog, do some research to give you context as you make the initial decisions so that you be confident about the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Here is what to find out before you start a successful business blog.

  1. Prelaunch Blog Review Checklist
  2. 10 Blogger Best Practices: Guides as You Extend Your Reach
  3. Don’t Buy that New Domain Name Yet
  4. 10 Questions about Starting a Business Blog Answered
    An FAQ with links to articles answering basic questions for starting a brand new business blog.
    1. Why should I start a business blog?
    2. What blogging application should a business blog use? WordPress or Blogger?
    3. What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
    4. Are there any advantages to hosted vs. self-hosted (through a third party)?
    5. Should comments be allowed?
    6. Is it okay to moderate comments?
    7. What should I write about on my business blog?
    8. Are there any rules to business blogging such as content, ethics, etc.?
    9. Are there any security issues that I should be aware of?
    10. Is there anything else I should know about starting a business blog?
  5. How to Start a Business Blog Series
    A ten part series for starting strategically:
    Part 1 covers the basics and benefits of starting a business blog
    Part 2 is on determining the purpose of a business blog
    Part 3 is about choosing authors for a business blog
    Part 4 covers policy-making for business blogs
    Part 5 is about blog platform and website/blog integration
    Part 6 is a continuation of blog platform and site integration
    Part 7 covers business blog design considerations
    Part 8 is about how to choose blog categories for a business blog
    Part 9 tells you what you need to know about creating initial blog content in the pre-launch phase
    Part 10 was a very interesting look into business blog crisis management planning and its importance
  6. 8 Things to Do Before Starting a Business Blog
    WeBlogBetter SlideShare Presentation with notes.
  7. Blogging to Build Your Business
    Why and how a blog builds a marketing platform essential for growth.
  8. Which Business Blogging Strategy Is Right for You?
    Resource Nation defines distinct approaches to business blogging
  9. Checklist: How to Start a Business Blog
    A brief checklist from Hubspot
  10. How To: Choose The Right Platform For Your Business Blog
    Criteria for choosing the blogging tool that will be your home.
  11. Blogging for Business: How to Choose the Best Blog Platform
    A quick comparison of Blogger, WordPress, and Tumblr

    12. 7 Real Ways a Blog Raises Influence and Increases Expertise

  12. 8 Sales Rules for Writing – No One Kills a Messenger who Writes for Readers
  13. Cardinal Sin #1: Launching With No Content
  14. How Images Can Make Your Blog Post Demand to Be Read
  15. Writing a Good Business Blog
    by Dummies.com
  16. HOW TO: Create a Successful Company Blog
    by Venture Capitalist Mark Suster for Mashable
  17. Do You Know the Five Cornerstones of an Outstanding Business Blog?
    by David Hobart, Managing Director of Pure Content
  18. How to Hire a Great Web Writer, Copywriter, or Blogger
    What they do, What to look for, Where to look, What to ask.
  19. 10 Steps to Creating a Network of Guest Bloggers
  20. Paid Guest Blogging-Why Business Owners Must Hire Professional Bloggers
    The benefits of getting professional blogging help
  21. The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy (And How to Beat It)
  22. Blogging policy examples
    Sample policies – every company and blogger will have to modify them to meet their own needs
  23. IBM Social Computing Guidelines
    A great example for enterprise level policy
  24. 24 (of the) Best Business Blogging Guides, Tips and Tools of 2011
  25. The Most Important Blog Post You’ll Probaably Never Read

Take a look at the ones that answer the questions you’ve got right now. Then revisit this page to revisit it when the new questions come up tomorrow and the next day. You might also visit the New Business Blogger Page to find out more about building a successful business blog.

If you have great ideas or advice for starting up a Business Blog, tell us in the comments. If I get enough I’ll pull your comments together into a new post.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Talk About Your Goals: Goal Setting Success

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Andy Crestodina

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Talk About Your Goals

Research shows that writing down a goal increases the chance of achieving that goal. The same research shows that talking about your goals makes success even more likely.

When Dr. Gail Matthews conducted a study of 149 participants, she found that committing to your goals in writing has a positive impact on your chance of success.

Here’s how the study worked

149 subjects were divided into several groups and each subject was asked to select a goal. Some were asked to simply think about their goal. Other groups were asked to write their goal. A final group committed to their goals in writing and shared that commitment and progress reports with a supportive friend. At the end of four weeks, each subject reported the extent of their goal setting success. (see the research summary here)

Sharing with friends makes goal setting successful

When goals are written and the commitment and progress updates are shared with a supportive friend, the likelihood of achieving the goal was the highest. Why? It may be fear of disappointing them. It may be a fear of embarrassment. Or it might be that encouraging boost of confidence that only a friend can give.

“There was support for the role of public commitment: those who sent their commitments to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who wrote action commitments
or did not write their goals.”
– Dr. Gail Matthews

Find an Accountabili-Buddy

Find someone supportive whom you respect. Someone you don’t want to disappoint. Schedule a regular time to meet or talk on the phone. Tell them your goals and ask them to hold you accountable. Or make it mutual and work on goal setting and success together.

Personally, I hope to one day be an author, so I found a friend who has published books. I meet him twice a month at 8am. We drink coffee and share progress. He holds me accountable and I hate to disappoint him!

What are your goals?

You are moments away from leveraging this simple but powerful principle. Right now, you can state your goals to the world. Just tell us your goals with a comment below. But be careful! We may hold you to it…

Author’s Bio:
Andy Crestodina is the Strategic Director of Orbit Media Studios, a web design company in Chicago. You can tell Andy your goals on Google+ and on Twitter.

Keep Time Working … For You

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Keeping Time

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I think my life has sped up in the last few years.
Do you feel the same way?

Things that need doing seem to pile up faster.
Things I want to do keep coming up more quickly too.
Are you having the same experience?

These days I think of time off as the luxury of time to do what I want to.
And I ease into Mondays with ideas of keeping time working for me.

Keep Time Working For You

Time is flexible. We can waste time, spend time, invest time, have a good time, even use time to plan how we’ll use it. We’ve been know to stretch time and cram things into it. Some people actually speak of killing time. Why would you do that? The only thing we can’t do is get more of it. Twenty-four hours in a day is what we get no matter what we do with it.

I’ve spent some time considering the time I spend when I’m feeling like I don’t have enough of it.

If you want to know what you value, look where you spend your time and who you spend it with.

We Make Time for Things Important to Us

Here are a few truths about time that I’ve become aware of. You should too if you want to keep time working for you.

  • We make time for the things we know are important.
  • We find time for the things we want to do.
  • We use time to find things that will save us time. Sometimes using up the time we had do it whatever we would have been doing.
  • If we can’t find time to do something, we don’t value it as much as what we’re already doing.
  • When we take time for ourselves, we’re not so tight on the time we spend on others.

Time is the only resource we can’t renew. We need to use it while we have the time to. Time well invested gets us closer to the people we care about. When we spend time focused on what the relationships, projects, and businesses we’re building, we build them better.

This week, before time gets away from you, take a few moments to choose one goal that’s important to you. Decide to focus your attention for a set amount of time each day on that important goal and see what happens. Quality time focused in that single direction will have an exponential effect. But you knew you.

Be aware of the things you’re doing and the time you’re spending doing it.
Are you spending your time on what you value?

How do you keep time working for you?

It’s irresistible to be generous with your time.
Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Teens, the Financial Crisis, and Lack of Summer Jobs

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Ideas and Infographics

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Mihaela “Mig” Lica

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Signs Of Our Times & Not So Good Trends

You are all feeling it, aren’t you? The weight of the financial crisis, creeping in past even the most positive attitudes, this has become as prevalent (almost) as the morning alarm clock. Politicians talk of recovery, so do bankers and Wall Street titans, every news day some new hope of a full recovery hits our sensibilities. And then the next morning arrives.

Indicators abound to tell us the ups and downs of our current existence. But the real telling details arrive in the form of news friends and relatives are having a tough time. Out of work, homes foreclosed, blah, blah, blah, are you immune yet? The infographic below focuses on some more news from the negative side. For those who have teens headed into the workplace this Summer, be grateful, many don’t get the chance. Check out this economic indicator.

Cruel Summer - Where the Jobs are this Summer Infographic
Via: Bolt Insurance

This Summer will be “cruel” indeed for a lot of young and older Americans. Just because things seem to be holding together, this does not mean we should lose sight of our problems, the problems of our neighbors. Infographics, as you can see, are a great way to solidify and remember information. You already knew the neighbor’s teenager was having a tough time finding work, now you know he or she is not alone. And even if you want only good news in your day, it’s a good idea to act on this bit of bad, just as a start. Please share your good and bad news Summer stories with us.

Author’s Bio:

Author’s Bio:

Mihaela “Mig” Lica founded Pamil Visions in 2005 where she uses her hard won journalistic, SEO and public relations skills toward helping small companies navigate the digital realm with influence and success.

You can find Mig on Twitter as @PamilVisions

Thanks to Week 354 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Targeting Customers with Your Online Email Marketing Strategy

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Olga Ionel

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Targeting Customers with Your Online Email Marketing Strategy

If you are like most that have a business online, or at least a site for your business, you know just how important online marketing is going to be. Marketing on the web might have some similarities to traditional marketing, but there are enough differences that it takes a new approach. In addition to marketing through content, advertisements, and word of mouth, one of the best options for a business owner today is going to be email marketing.

Using email for online marketing has been around since the advent of email, and it can still be quite effective. However, you have to be careful if you are going to use it, and you have to make sure that do the marketing the right way. Otherwise, you risk alienating and angering the very audience that you are trying to reach.

Why is Email Marketing a Good Idea?

When a customer visits a website, there is no guarantee that he or she is going to buy anything or come back to read more content. Rather than having only one shot with a customer, you should offer an email newsletter signup that is going to let you keep in contact with those customers. This will provide you with the email address that you can keep in your database, and you will be able to provide the subscribers with more content that they can use.

You do not have to offer a newsletter, but it can be a great online marketing tool. People want to feel as though they are getting something when they provide their email address, and this is a good option.

Getting Visitors to Provide Email Addresses

Visitors do not often part with their email addresses. They know all the tricks in the online marketing book by now. They fear that you will sell their email address or that you will send them spam. You have to be very upfront about what you are going to do with the email and what you are going to be emailing to those who provide their email address.

Having a trustworthy site is the first step. You have to have a site with a good reputation, and that has content that the reader finds useful or interesting on the first visit. This is going to make them more likely to provide you with an email address. If you do offer a newsletter, you need to make sure that it is just as valuable as your site. Those who sell products might want to get provide some coupons or discounts in the newsletter, thus adding even more value to it. Perhaps offer an extra 5% off for getting others to sign up for the newsletter.

You can have an opt-in form on your site. It should be easy to integrate a form for email signups with many of the premium wordpress themes available today. If you can’t find a plugin or feature that can accomplish this with the theme, you can always have someone build the form for you. Make sure that you have the form on more than just one location on your site too. While you don’t want to inundate them with the form, you should have it on your homepage, about us page and other key locations on your site. If you sell products, have a form on the checkout page as well.

Using email addresses certainly isn’t the only type of online marketing that you are going to do, but it can be quite helpful. When it comes to online marketing strategies, you want to do everything possible to give your business the best advantages.

What success have you had with using customer email addresses to connect with them?

Author’s Bio:
Olga Ionel is a creative writer at ThemeFuse.com. She is passionate by WordPress, SEO and Blogging. Don’t forget to check out stunning Premium themes for wordpress. (warning: no boring stuff)

Thank you, Olga. Too many of us are overlooking the opportunity that email marketing offers our online business.

–ME “Liz” Strauss