Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Blogging Tidbits Round-Up

A little bit of blogging this and that today to catch you up on some things I've been up to and that may boost your business and blogging efforts...

1. Have you joined The Blog Squad's fan club on Facebook? The new direct URL is http://facebook.com/BlogSquad. FYI if you have a fan page on Facebook, be sure to get a "vanity" URL for it ASAP before someone else grabs your ideal URL. 

I am now offering exclusive Blog Squad Fan Page deals on the last day of the month. If you want VIP notification of savings on Blog Squad products and services, make sure you join the fan page by clicking on the button that say "Become a Fan" if you are not a fan already. Today's deal is 25% off Online Video Made Easy. You can grab the coupon code on the fan page.

2. Recently I launched a free 5 part video course on Business Blog Mastery: How to Get the Best Out of Your Blog. Don't miss this! Some good blogging tips and includes video, audio, and transcript.

3. On July 15 I'm teaching a free webinar for TypePad with Andy Wibbels on Top 5 Tactics for A Successful Small Business Blog. It will be informative AND fun since Andy has a great sense of humor.

4. Finally a reminder. I'm consistently seeing in my blog stats that Twitter is the #2 or #3 referrer of traffic to my blog. Is your blog feed being delivered to your twitter stream? If not, use Twitterfeed to set that up right now.

Related Posts:
Use Video on Your Blog to Entertain Your Audience
Bloggers - Are You Using Video Yet?
Twitter Helps You Build Blog Traffic

Blogger Jeff Hopeck Interviewed by Denise Wakeman - video

Gotta love the Internet, blogging, social media and my dentist, Dr. Ramsey Amin. Today I met a fellow blogger at a micro tweet up - just the two of us at a popular cafe near my home office. Jeff Hopeck is the brother-in-law of my dentist who connected us through blogging and twitter. The last couple of times I got my teeth cleaned and checked, Dr. Amin was telling me how his brother-in-law blogged and that I should look him up.

Can't remember the sequence of events, but through blogging and twitter we chit-chatted a bit. This week Jeff is in town from Atlanta so we met up for a coffee. We talked blogging and social marketing for nearly 2 hours!

Jeff Hopeck is a former secret service veteran, publisher of HealthyHabitsBlog, a speaker, fitness coach and author of a brand new book Stop Killing Yourself. Pretty dramatic title. It's all about learning to understand how to read food labels so you can make better, healthier choices when dining out, grocery shopping and cooking at home. Before we parted company, I asked Jeff to share a tip for bloggers in a quick video interview...

Michael Stelzner Interviews Denise Wakeman

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting my colleague and King of White Papers, Michael Stelzner. I was in the San Diego area meeting with colleagues and attended a tweet-up with a 100 twitter friends. On my way back to L.A. I stopped in Poway to have a chat with Michael. 

Michael is the brilliant mastermind and organizer of the Social Media Success Summit with which I've been associated, promoting and presenting at for the past four weeks. Wednesday is the final day of the amazing online event (you can still register and get access to all the video presentations, audio, transcripts, bonuses and private forum). My presentation on business blogging concludes the series.

But I digress. Michael grabbed his Flip HD Mino and we did a short interview about blogging. Mike's first question was: is it too late to start blogging for your business?

Got your own questions about business blogging? Submit them here and blog on!

How to Reach 97 Million Americans - Lou Bortone's Video Tip

Lou Bortone the Online Video Guy is my guest "author" today. I guess author takes on whole new meaning with video. I asked Lou to share a video tip with my readers and in the video he talks about why you should be using video in your marketing mix.

I think you can see I'm pushing the use of video on your blog. Not for every post, but to mix it up once in a while. Give your audience a more intimate glimpse at who you are and the chance to connect with you even more deeply.

Don't be intimidated by Lou Bortone's videos. He's been doing this a long time. If you've seen any of my videos, you know they're pretty basic, and they get a point across. That's what you want to do. Nothing fancy or technically complex.

Not sure how to get started? Here's my list of equipment and software.

Related Posts:

Use Video on Your Blog to Entertain Your Audience

Engage Your Readers in Multiple Ways

Recommended Training:

Online Video Made Easy

Recommended Reading

YouTube for Business

Use Video on Your Blog to Entertain Your Audience

Not a day goes by that I don't read something in an ezine or on twitter or Facebook touting the power of video to connect, engage and convert your readers. And it's true. Video is a much more intimate way to connect since the viewer can see your body language, your facial expressions and hear your tonality.

In this 2 minute video clip, which is part of a 5-part 50 minute video program about blogging (free!) I talk about the power of using video on your blog (it's a video clip from a presentation I did a few months ago).

And video is not difficult to shoot, produce and distribute. The tools are soooo much easier than they have ever been. I can assure you that if I can do video, you probably can too!

In this blog post on blogging and video, I list some of the equipment, tools and software I use. Dare I also be shamelessy self-promotional and remind you that with the Online Video Guy Lou Bortone, I created a video course for newbies called Online Video Made Easy...everything you need to know to get started using video on your blog. Really, it requires very little investment to get started and I'll bet you'll have a lot of fun.

Fun though it may be, you also want results. Typically people respond much more favorably to videos: they're more apt to click your links, sign up for your programs, buy your products and generally heed your calls to action.

If you're using video on your blog, what's your experience been? Do you get more comments? More subscribers? I'm curious how video is working for you. And if you're not using video yet, what's stopping you?

How to Drive More Qualified Traffic to Your Blog - TeleSeminar

** Business Building Mastery Expert Teleseminar Training Series **

TOPIC: How to Drive More Qualified Traffic to Your Blog With Denise Wakeman (interviewed by Travis Greenlee

WHEN: June 9th, 2009 - 10am Pacific | 1pm Eastern

In a hurry? Grab your FREE seat: http://budurl.com/BizMastery

Every blogger wants to know how to get more readers. And of course readers are the life blood of your business blog if you want to grow your business. Readers create your community and when they become
raving fans, they become your clients.

There are myriad ways to drive traffic to your blog. And, there are some simple tactics that can exponentially increase the right traffic to your blog. This program will give you 7 specific tactics to drive
more qualified readers to your blog.

You will learn:

1. How to create compelling headlines
2. The strategic way to use keywords in your blog posts
3. How to automate your social networking sites to get a flood of traffic
4. Two elements that absolutely must be on your blog
5. Two simple habits that will continually encourage traffic

As Travis Greenlee says, This is going to be one ROCKIN' call...

Grab your seat now --> http://budurl.com/BizMastery

Why blog? William Reed Shares His Success Story

I am often asked if blogs really work to build a business. I say "yes." The next comment usually is, "your business is about blogging so of course it works for you." Well, to that I say, there are hundreds of success stories about how blogging has helped a business build more awareness, get more traffic to their web site, build a database of prospects, attract new clients, media coverage and myriad opportunities. Most of those businesses have NOTHING to do with blogging or online marketing.

William Reed, author of Entrepreneurs Creative Edge, shares some of the huge opportunities that have come his way as a result of being visible on the web with his active blog.

What do you think of that invitation to write a weekly column that gets in front of more than 80,000 people? Not bad, eh?

Now, William Reed and I have decided to partner on offering blogging programs for the English speaking population of Japan and possibly the rest of Asia! We're offering a free teleseminar on using a blog to build online visibility, to gage interest and then we'll decide where we go from there. Now tell me that blogging doesn't work to create business opportunities!

Want some more proof?
Blogging Success Stories Wanted! (read the comments)
GolfAsian Blog: 3 Years Old & Still Posting
Blogs Build Your Business: You Want More Proof?

Using Social Media to Promote My Cause

Just in case you're not reading Biz Tips Blog, I want to bring your attention to an "event" I'm working on during June. It's my Big Five-0 Kiva Birthday Challenge and I need your help to meet my goal.

Here's the info about my Kiva Challenge. Check out my video.

Here's a post I wrote about how I'm using social media to spread the word. You may get some ideas about how you can use blogs, Facebook and twitter to spread the word about your favorite cause.

Related Post
Contests and Causes Drive Blog Traffic

Tony Laidig Reveals How to Create Expert Content for Your Blog

My interview with public domain expert Tony Laidig struck a chord. Even after the event was over, people have been registering so they can get the audio replay (497 so far!). Tony over-delivered, as I knew he would, when he shared a successful case study and step by step details about how he uses an overlooked source to fill his niche blogs with content (and it's totally legal!).

Whether you have an authority blog for your business or niche blogs for your hobbies, Tony Laidig's system for generating content can help you with the never-ending quest to publish consistent blog posts.

I've received so many requests for the replay, that I'm making it available to everyone because content creation is a universal problem for bloggers (and you can apply this information to articles, ebooks, mini courses, videos, etc., etc.).  Here's the link to the replay on how to create expert content for your blog...

 

8 Content Writing Tips for Your Blog

Everyday I have conversations with clients about how and what to write on their blog. Yesterday I was talking with a client who will have multiple authors for the blog. Blogging is brand new to their company and they freely admit that they have no clue how to transition from academic journal-type articles to conversational, editorial type blog posts. Here are eight tips I shared with them that focus on how you serve your client/customer.

When contemplating your content ask yourself these points so you can address the readers' potential questions right up front:

1. Why is this post important? If readers ask "what's in it for me?" will they know right away?
2. Does this content appeal to their pain, needs, wants, desires?
3. Does this post describe a problem?
4. What is the problem? Is it clearly articulated?
5. So what? Do readers understand the consequences of having this problem?
6. What's your solution? What are you educating readers about that they might not know? What's your unique perspective? How is your solution different from widely accepted knowledge?
7. How would readers apply this information to their lives and to their work? Explain to them how to do it. Get them to do it for themselves.
8. Why should anyone believe you?

What would you add? There are many, many different ways to approach blog content and it does depend on your audience. If you're a service provider, these tips may provoke some content ideas for you.

Related Post
8 Reasons Why Client Questions Make Great Blog Content
Business Blogging Tip: Write for Your Ideal Client (video)