5 Tips for Online (and Offline) Success

Dianna Huff has written a great, free, no registration required, ebook about on (and offline) success.
Click here to check it.

It contains advice applicable to any blogger as well as anyone with a professional or commercial Web site.

I paraphrase (and slightly modify to make more generic) her 5 tips below, which are focused at B2B but contain advice applicable everywhere.

This is well worth a read by everyone.

1. Figure out what your audience wants and then give it to them.
2. Figure out what you want BEFORE you start writing.
3. Integrate online and offline tactics -- they really aren't separate worlds anymore.
4. Build your online presence around what the people you want to attract  desire.
5. Focus on your audience/customer/prospect. Not yourself, your company, your stuff.

The ebook is called Five B2B MarCom Strategies to Increase Sales Now.

I've read it twice (in it's entirety) so far, and found lots to apply in many of my online areas, include B2B (business to business) and much more.

How to Sell Blogging to your CEO and Clients

How to Sell Blogging to your CEO and Clients, my slides from my talk for Search Engine Marketing New England are now online.

It was a lot of fun with a great group who keep me there until the end asking some very good questions.
I'll be attending more SEMNE events, assuming I've ever home! The talk was the only week out of the recent six I've been home. Traveling, speaking, and consulting on information lately (and having a blast, although I miss my 3 kids, wife, and dog too).

Topics included:
    * What are the characteristics of the most successful blogs?
    * What distinguishes the successful from unsuccessful blogs?
    * How to present the case for blogs and other social media to management.
    * How to handle the Return On Investment (ROI) issue.
    * How to present ‘baby steps’ to management; simple measures that show results.

Click to Download Here

A Web site updated daily that you can subscribe to?

It's a Web site that's updated daily and that you can subscribe too, says the Rock and Roll Guru about his new blog.

He doesn't use the word "blog" and that word will eventually fade into obscurity. Just like "podcast."
Just like they don't use the term "Chinese Food" in China (OK, bad example, but I think it's funny).

Hmmm, if the term "blog" goes away, I guess I'll need to rename this blog often updated Web site eventually.

BTW, The Rock and Roll Guru loves how I use quotes from rock music in Effective Internet Presence, and almost called me up at midnight when he read it. I'm flattered.

32 Ways To Keep Your Blog From Sucking

No one wants their blog to suck, and Scott Hanselman has a great list to help you avoid 'Sucky Blog Syndrome.'

You may not know Scott, but he's a super popular tech programming blogger.

I even agree with most of what Scott says, although a few things don't apply to most of us, for example "Have a Code Garage Sale" makes no sense if you don't write code (i.e. program).

Here's a partial list, with details. See Scott' blog for the full list/story.
Thanks to Bob Porter for sending me the link.

•    1. Know your audience
•    2. Keep overtly personal information out of your tech blog
•    3. Don't apologize about not blogging enough
•    4. Steer clear of politics
•    5. Don't Blog Bile
•    6. Think before you blog      
•    7. Don't post throwaways
•    8. Avoid "excessive quoting
•    9. Use Spell Check

Web Stats love

I love Web stats. The information you can get is amazing . . .

Why am I posting on "Blog Names" so much? The stats show you care. Yes, my posts on blog names are the most popular (that doesn't mean everyone cares, however, so I'm not "Blog names all the time").

Most popular posts? Yes, I know and so should you. Expand on popular topics.

I have a relatively new Website up on College Speaking -- and I know someone from "Suny Herkimer Community College" looked at it at 10:37AM this morning. I sent them a flyer on my College Speaking ("How to get a great job using the Internet" is my most popular topic).

I also know that 7 people Googled me yesterday and visited my main Web site, demop.com, and about 300 people have read my article on The 7 rules of Effective Email in the last 2 days so it's popular.

I also know some of the stuff I wrote that I thought was fantastic -- well, no one cares :)

I'm using a combo of StatCounter, which gives me real time info, and Google Analytics, which gives me more details, but only from yesterday back.

On yes, and I'm not paying a penny for either!

3 Taboo Topics for Biz Bloggers

Some topics are a no-win, and a possible big loss, as well as inappropriate and possible big losers for you. Here are the big three.

1) Politics

Politics have little to nothing to do with business! Avoid at all costs.

I don't care if you like Hillary Clinton, and you shouldn't care if I think Greece should revert to a Monarchy. However your or my opinions may offend or upset others unnecessarily, and are way off topic and inappropriate.

2) Religion

Religion is personal and not a business topic.

Your love for the Catholic Pope and his most festive hats, or my following the teachings of Zoroaster and praying in front of fire, or your sister sacrificing bananas to the only true god (in her opinion), a giant Troll who will descend from Fresno to free all true believers, is not our concern.

And if you can't speak without constantly mentioning  Zoroaster or Jesus or Ballingham (the Troll your sister worships), well keep in off your business blog.

Go start on another blog on religion if you'd like -- that's absolutely fine.

3) Sex

If you're gay, straight, promiscuous, or if squirrels get you off, that's your business. And if you believe that interspecies marriage, like your brother and that smoking hot squirrel Sandy in Sponge Bob, is evil, well keep your views off your business blog.

Politics, religion, and sex -- no win topics on your business blog.

Besides, you should be staying on topic, right?

Addendum: Obviously politics, religion, or sex may be your business, so feel free to blog away.
For example, Nia Dark and Lovely certainly can blog on sex, Hillary Whatshername could blog on politics, and the "Dude with the Cool Hat "could blog on religion (even in Latin) if he wishes!

Your URL When Commenting

When you leave blog comments, most blogs ask for your name and URL. But if you don't have a blog or Web site or don't want to leave your blog URL for whatever reason, do you leave it blank or what?

Many people who actively read and comment on blogs do not blog themselves -- no big surprise. And sometimes I don't want to leave my blog URL if off topic, if for example I'm reading and commenting on a fishing blog.

Jason Alba, author of I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What???, suggests using your LinkedIn profile. This makes a lot of sense.

Also, your LinkedIn profile makes a good home on the Internet if you don't have a blog or Web site as Google and the other search engines rate LinkedIn profiles highly. When people Google you. it's likely to come up first or at least close to first if you're blogless and Websiteless.

Conversational Media Blog Traffic Tips

Conversational Media, not only blogs, but things like Twitter, Facebook, MyBlogLog, etc. can be used to grow traffic to your blog.

Admittedly, I use all three mentioned, but certainly not optimally!

Paul Chaney has a great post where he lists 5 additional steps you can take using conversational media to build blog traffic.

He ends with his sage advice:

If you don't do anything else, at least do these two things (make that three things):

1. Write exceptional content that's of interest to your readers.
2. Do it everyday and keep it keyword optimized and topically-relevant. Google will absolutely love you for it. So will your human audience.
   
3. Actively participate in topically-relevant communities and blogs (emphasis mine).

11 Tips for Getting Your Comments Noticed on a Popular Blog

An interesting and insightful list from Problogger:

1. Be the Early Bird
2. Share an Example
3. Add a Point
4. Disagree
5. Write with conviction, passion and personality
6. Use Humor
7. Ask a Question
8. Formatting Comments
9. Helpful Links
10. Comment Length
11. Lists/Break it down

Full details at Problogger.

And I'll add that a "me too," "I agree," "good post" or similar comment won't get noticed!

Blog Directories - Should I Submit My Blog?

A common question is "Should I submit my blog to blog directories?"

When starting a new blog I think it IS worthwhile to submit to a few blog directories just to get some links for the search engines, not because anyone will necessarily follow the links. The search engines may find your blog faster due to the links, and search engines like links. A new blog likely will have few or no links.

How many blog directories to submit to? Hundreds of blog directories? Some people do, but I say that's silly. Maybe 5-10 blog directories max is enough.

Now not everyone agrees with me on this. Some experienced bloggers feel submitting to blog directories is entirely worthless and conversely some believe submitting to hundreds of them is worthwhile.

So how do you find blog directories? Simple, Google "blog directory"

Submitting is usually easy and fast, although some may make it difficult (skip those!).

The only essential one in my mind is Technorati.com, which is actually much more than just a blog directory, but that's a topic for another post.