Archive for December, 2005
How To Communicate Using A Business Blog
Posted by: | CommentsA blog (short for “web log”) is a web-based diary that represents frequently updated web site about any given topics in reverse chronological order. Several years ago, back in 2001. blogs were still a “buzz word” and now they are mainstream. Blogs are popular because blogger services offer content management system (CMS) so that even if you are without any technical knowledge you will be able to have your own site and to make posts.
Blogs are hot topic. There is even a name for the blogging community called a blogosphere. Blogs were one of the most read news sources about politics after September 11th and the war in Iraq. Many people read several political blogs because they are un-censored.
According to research made by Pew Internet & American Life Project more than 50 million Internet users read blogs regularly, every day 12,000 new blogs has been created and there are more than 10,000 blog updates per hour! You can see that blogs have quite a big importance.
All major Internet players have their own blog services. Google has Blogger, Microsoft has MSN Spaces and Yahoo has a service called Yahoo 360°. Also, the most famous computer magazine PC Magazine in their traditional election for “People of the Year” for 2004. chose founders of Blogger.com and Six Apart.
To start blogging you will need a blog service or application. There are several good free and fee-based blog software. In some of the next articles we will write in more details about blog software. In this article we will only make several recommendations. Good free services for blogging are Blogger (www.blogger.com), b2Evolution (www.b2evolution.net), NucleusCMS (www.nucleuscms.org), WordPress (www.wordpress.org). The most popular fee-based services are Movable Type (www.movabletype.org) and TypePad (www.typepad.com).
Business blogging
Business blogging can be very useful in establishing one company or individual as an expert in their industry. There are more and more business blogs written by high-level executives like marketing gurus Tom Peters and Seth Godin, Jonathan Schwarz COO of Sun Microsystems, Bob Lutz VP of General Motors, Bob Parsons President of GoDaddy.com, Alan Meckler CEO of internet.com and many more…
Blogs written by high-level executives are often very popular and their posts often get many comments from their readers. Business blogging is a better way to communicate than using classic Press Releases. People like to read posts from humans and not from some faceless entities like corporations.
If you want to become a business blogger you have to decide what will be your niche or target area. You have to take your business blogging seriously because your prospects and clients form opinion about you and your company reading your blog. You have to be aware that you will have to spend at least an hour per day to keep your content up-to-date and to have repeat visitors. Your blog posts should be short and concise because many people don’t have time to read lengthy articles.
You have to focus on needs and interests of your visitors and clients, to focus on your business. So you shouldn’t write about politics and religion in your blog unless your business is related to those areas. If your focus group are owners of small and medium businesses that want to use the power of the Internet for their business you should write about topics like Web and email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), web hosting, branding, current industry news and happenings from those fields. It is important to create your own personal style and to give your comments on latest news. Some high-level executives that have blogs make mistakes so they write about some personal topics or topics that are not related with their business.
One of the benefits of blogs is that search engines give better ranking to blogs. It is because of the fact that bloggers often make links to related blogs, refer to other posts in their posts or using a so called trackback feature so you can have a good link popularity that is one of the most important things in having a good placement on search engines. Also, one of the main reasons for good search engine placement is that blogs are usually often updated and search engines like sites with fresh content.
Some high-level executives have their links on hundred even thousand web sites. Also, many blog services automatically offer content syndication using RSS/Atom so your readers will be able to read your blog using news reader without having to visit your blog. Every time you add a new post they will know it. Syndication is very important because of promotion, too. Using content syndication and ping you will be indexed on major blog and feed search engines like Technorati, Feedburner, Feedster, Bloglines, Blog.gs, Weblogs.com and etc.
Happy blogging!
New category - Google
Posted by: | CommentsWe all know what Google means in today’s Internet so I’ve decided to have a separate category just for Google.
Top Searches On Top Search Engines - 2005
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve just seen this interesting link compilation of the most searched keywords on major search engines on Serbian Biznis Blog.
Different search engines - different results. It seems that favorite calebrity for Googlers is Janet Jackson for Yahoo! users it is Britney Spears and Lycos users like Paris Hilton :-).
Exclusive Interview With Ms. Anne Holland, MarketingSherpa President
Posted by: | Comments{Author’s Note: This interview was made earlier this year for my blog on Blogspot}
Anne Holland, president of MarketingSherpa is an 19-year publishing industry veteran, previously served as the Head of Marketing for Holland Phillips Business Media, a $100 million publishing company. She helped launch one of the world’s first profitable subscription sites in 1995, and the trade publications Interactive Marketing News in 1994 and MIN’s New Media in 1995. Holland founded MarketingSherpa, a privately held media company, in January 2000 with the mission of helping marketers, advertisers and PR pros improve results, by publishing real-world marketing data and Case Studies.
Dejan Bizinger: Your company MarketingSherpa is highly recognized as one of the best e-marketing resourceS. What is the secret of your success?
Anne Holland: I wish there was a secret because that would make our work easier! But, it’s just very, very hard work and persistence. Everyone asks how we get our exclusive case studies. I find that very funny because it’s nothing more than good old fashioned journalism.
DB: You sell many publications in your SherpaStore, both in printed and in PDF version. What is the ratio in buying between printed and PDF books?
AH: Good question! It started out at about 60% printed, 40% PDF. But now five years later it’s about 30% printed and 70% PDF. The length of a report can affect things — some of our reports are more than 200 pages long and lots of people don’t want to print that many pages out.
DB: What is your opinion about future Internet trends?
AH: RSS will not replace email, it’s a supplement that has yet to be tested in mainstream. Search marketing will continue to grow substantially as a staple in most marketer’s budgets. Email is now fairly steady as a budget item and marketing tactic, I expect slight growth. Same for banners and contextual ads. Rich media and behavioral ads will growth 30% or more in the next two years and then level off. Wireless ads may finally penetrate US marketplace as the big cellular providers merge. And ecommerce will continue to grow outside the US as international consumers learn to trust online and credit cards.
DB: How much do you work daily?
AH: I work pretty typical hours for a president of a publishing company… I get in around 9:15am and leave around 7pm, and don’t ever take lunch. Now that we’re in our fifth year and fairly established, I only work weekends occasionally. Plus I’ll be able to take my first vacation in five years this summer in conjunction with a speaking engagement in Zadar Croatia!
DB: What is the last book you read?
AH: I’m reading several books about Yugoslavia, Serbia and Croatia to prepare for my trip.
DB: What is the favorite reward for yourself?
AH: Hiking in the wilderness and in national parks.
DB: What is your favorite web site?
AH: Mapquest.com - I use it constantly.
Email Authentication-Debunking the Myths
Posted by: | CommentsEmail Service Provider (ESP), SKYLIST Inc. published an interesting report about email authentification myths. There you can find out what are those top reasons why 50% email marketers aren’t authenticating messages.
Click here for the report.