An early blogger and startup founder who had recently launched a new business focused on health and fitness, Allen Stern passed away last week and was remembered by his friends and blogging colleagues. Read more »
Writer-turned-venture-capitalist MG Siegler recently reignited a long-standing debate over whether blogs should have comments or not. Critics argue that comments are mostly noise and are a waste of time, but blogs that don’t have them risk being seen as just a soap-box for their authors. Read more »
I recently received an email advertising a webinar from HubSpot, an inbound marketing company. The subject line was provocative enough to get me to open it, and it got me thinking about all the hype we’ve seen over social media. Where is this thing going? Read more »
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If you’re a blogger, your most common problem is likely not knowing what to write. You open your word processor or editor to find a blank canvas staring back at you, which causes the same thing to happen to your mind — it goes blank. Read more »
Social media calendars are being created, modified, enhanced and utilized on an ongoing basis to better manage blogs, microblogs and social network content and messaging. As you are looking to fill in the blanks in your social media calendar? Read more »
The Guardian newspaper in Britain has launched a plugin for the blog-publishing tool Wordpress that allows websites to embed the full text of Guardian news stories for free, provided they also embed the newspaper’s advertising. It is the latest step in the company’s open platform strategy. Read more »
Citibank has admitted that a staffer blocked the bank account of gay-networking startup Fabulis and threatened to terminate the company’s account because of what it termed “objectionable content” on the Fabulis blog, but says it has now clarified its internal policies for Internet business accounts. Read more »
Without question, blogging provides an effective way to market your business. And most folks know that, generally, the more frequently you blog, the higher your traffic. But does that mean you should follow the advice of many to create a new post every single day? Read more »
Jason Goldberg, co-founder of socialmedia.com and Jobster, says that Citibank blocked the bank account of his new startup Fabulis due to what the bank called “objectionable content” on the company’s blog. Could it have something to do with Fabulis being a social network for gay men? Read more »
In early 2007, the Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF) and APCO Worldwide partnered to learn more about interactions and relationships between public relations (PR) professionals and bloggers. Findings showed that PR professionals who understood blogger “culture” were having more success in communicating in this online […] Read more »
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Yesterday, I recently shared four ways to market your business with content, after a reader asked for a more detailed list of specific things small businesses could do to have a continuous marketing/promotional program. You don’t have to limit your marketing and promotional efforts to content […] Read more »
A colleague of mine, also a freelance writer, deleted his blog last weekend. When I asked him why, he cited comment trolls as the primary reason as to why he had to shut it down. “I wanted to showcase my work,” he said, “not spend a […] Read more »
In the wide world of business there is still an enormous resistance to embracing newer communications tools such as blogs, microblogs and social networks as part of fully-integrated marketing strategies. Here is how that can, and should, change. Read more »
I’ve been thinking about the idea of “free,” and not in the context of freemium business models and tangible products or services being given away, as explored by Chris Anderson in his book “Free: The Future of a Radical Price.” I’ve been thinking about how many […] Read more »
“What is Twitter, anyway?” I’ve been asked questions like that many times, as I’m sure most web workers have. “The Social Media Marketing Book” by tech writer Dan Zarrella, attempts to explain Twitter, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Second Life, Yelp, and even such sites as Rate […] Read more »
This weekend I was on an “SEO Smackdown” panel at our local WordCamp Portland. Two of us were from the content side, while the other two panelists were SEO experts. My take on SEO is that writing compelling, interesting blog content that people will want to […] Read more »
The first week of September has seen a deluge of new arrivals at the App Store. It’s time for me to search through the latest releases for iPhone and hand-pick my recommendations for the past seven days. This week I’ve been looking at Button, Facebook, BlogPress […] Read more »
Yesterday, I read the Unconventional Guide to the Social Web, and although I found a lot of useful information in it, one thing has stuck with me since reading it. Your blog is your mothership. Don’t neglect it for lesser tools.
This is an important thing to keep in mind when marketing your business online. There are tons of ways to build a web presence, including a variety of social media and networking sites, but nothing is as important as your blog.
Maintained correctly, your blog is the one tool that will get you the most traffic, and it’s the tool over which you have the most control. If you set out with the intention of posting three to five times per week, within a year, you will begin seeing significant activity around your site. Within two to three years, you could easily be an authority in your particular niche.
But, how can you make sure that you don’t neglect your blog (or mothership)?
#1 Spend time there.
Visit your site or blog frequently (ideally, several times per day). This helps you stay connected with your vision for your business, and it also helps you stay in tune with the usability of your site, as well as find ways to improve it.
#2 Keep it updated.
It’s very easy to allow a month to go by without posting a single blog entry. Naturally, the frequency of your posts will depend on a number of factors, most important being your own goals for your site, but you should post on a regular and consistent schedule so that your site content remains fresh.
#3 Engage your audience.
Ask questions, make thought-provoking posts, and most importantly, monitor the comments on your blog. If someone replies to one of your posts, take the time to respond, and if you really want to impress the person, email him or her with a thoughtful “thank you for following” message. Read more »
Personal blogs have innumerable benefits for web workers including establishing expertise on a subject, personal branding, online marketing and general desire for keeping your name up there in Google search results. The right hosted blog platform is a time-saver for web workers who may not be […] Read more »
With Father’s Day just around the corner (Sunday, to be exact), we here at TheAppleBlog thought what better gift to get that special father in your life than a thoughtful yet handy iPhone or iPod touch application. Feeling the cash crunch around this particular time? Not […] Read more »
We have all learned that good news travels fast online, but bad news travels faster. Now, with social networks, blogs and microblogs, the speed with which bad news can travel online is staggering, as everyone can get in on the conversation almost instantly. What can any of us — individual, organization, company — do to handle a social media communications crisis? Read more »
It was made public this weekend that an upcoming TV show will be built around micro-blogging service Twitter. Details on the new show are scarce (it involves people tracking celebrities, or something), but it looks like we are moving into a new world of TwitterTeeVee. Here […] Read more »
[appreview] title=Tumblr image=http://gigapple.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/picture-120.png price=FREE url=http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=305343404&mt=8 rating=bronze [/appreview] Developed by Mobelux, and formerly known as Tumblrette, the official Tumblr iPhone app has now arrived. Tumblr is essentially the short ‘n sweet side of blogging: Posts are ultra-snappy, comprised of mixed-media uploads such as images, quotes, audio and […] Read more »
Thanks to a few lucky opportunities at school, my transition from print to web was a gradual process, and a move that I made voluntarily. That’s not the case for a large number of writers currently making the same transition. The print journalism and publishing industries are in big trouble, with no sign of turning a corner anytime soon. More and more print publications are switching to the web, and finding it hard to deal with the fact that they can’t just move their existing content and keep on doing the same thing, business as usual.
Likewise, writers can’t just keep producing the same kind of content for a different medium. The web, and its readers, demand a different kind of writing, delivered in a different way. It can hard to find the right mix, especially if you’ve spent your entire professional life writing one way, only to be asked to completely change that up. Here are some tips and resources to help get a handle on just what kind of change is required. Read more »
It’s easy to get lost in the mix when you’re a creative professional working online. Competition is fierce, and the space will only become more crowded as people are laid off and forced to seek out new sources of work. That’s probably part of the reason […] Read more »
I was recently interviewed as a “web expert” for a national women’s magazine. The reporter kept trying to get me to explain how a professional could build a static web site on the cheap to effectively “manage online reputation.” “Web sites don’t really actively manage your […] Read more »
A video of a supposed assassination attempt in Russia pops up on YouTube and clocks over 400,000 views and 1,500+ comments in under a week. The info directs viewers to MIR-12, a shadowy organization bent on uncovering a deeply rooted Russian conspiracy they claim began in the 1950s. […] Read more »
For many web workers, the central hub from which they manage their online identity and portfolio is, or features, a blog. Using a blog to represent yourself has many purposes, including acting as a C.V., establishing your identity as an authority in your field, and providing […] Read more »
Last week I wrote an article about Liferay, an open source portal app. Today, I’ll be looking at another option, Cyn.in, from Cynapse, an enterprise software solution provider. Cyn.in is an open source collaboration app, and as such only offers a portion of the functionality of […] Read more »
I recently spoke with Ross Mayfield, founder of Socialtext, about his product – an enterprise-level group collaboration platform – and he shared some theories of collaboration that led to the development of the software. He spoke about the construction of a social network and how our […] Read more »
Here are some things I’ve thought about or observed in terms of handling the reluctant social media client. Read more »
Okay, confess. You work hard for hours on end, never budging from the keyboard, and then, you digress. You get distracted. You find a blog or a site or a Web app that is nonsense, that is fun or funny, that has absolutely nothing to do […] Read more »
I was poking around the comments on my Preparing to Live Blog an Event post and came across a conversation about live blogging events at ProBlogger that made me think more about how I’m going to handle single-handedly “live blogging” a 3-day conference. The discussion also made me think more about what exactly “live blogging” means. Read more »
I’ve been asked to live blog an event for a client and their members. Actually, I’ll be live blogging, podcasting, Twittering, Uttering, and live streaming an event. I am putting together my equipment, securing accounts with all the online tools and services I need, and reviewing […] Read more »
When 90% of what you do for work is based online, there are bound to be some glitches, and not just the technical ones. How do you handle the inevitable misunderstandings that come with today’s rapid-fire digital conversations and communications in the workplace? Read more »
There is a lot of buzz surrounding music labels’ agreements to sell DRM-free music in marketplaces other than the iTunes Music Store. The problem is that they miss the big picture. They don’t pay attention to the two things that really matter. People want to be […] Read more »
A month ago, I reviewed Zemanta, the blogging extensions service company that provides contextual images, links, latest articles or blog posts and tags to your blog posts. I was a little harsh on the somewhat lack of relevant images and sometimes even irrelevant links that Zemanta […] Read more »
Brainjiuce has updated its weblog editor Blogo to version 1.1. This update puts it closer on par to MarsEdit (my blogging tool of choice) by adding direct text formatting commands and better file format support (i.e. for posting graphics). The user interface has also been overhauled: […] Read more »
Hulu Heading for Mobile? During NAB keynote, CEO Jason Kilar says mobile phones are “ripe for the Hulu experience”; also says Arrested Development is the site’s top show. (Broadcasting & Cable) Tommy Hilfiger Finds Fit With Online Video; TommyTV will blend fashion and live music performances. […] Read more »
On April 1, Rickrolling became Public Enemy No. 1 to those devoted to serious Internet browsing. Since it’s always best to understand one’s enemy — and since tracking the evolution of this meme is a challenge worth undertaking — we thus present: Rickrolling: A Timeline 1969: […] Read more »
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