Need A Website?

• Do you want clients to find you through a Google search?
• Do you want to dump your webmaster?
• Are you a start up business and need an inexpensive website?

You need a blog! And, you can have a blog in 90 minutes, or less! Debra Simpson, Syndicating Your Content, is holding her monthly webinar on building a WordPress blog on Wednesday, March 17th.

Blogging is here to stay and business blogging builds your online visibility.  It can be inexpensive, can build search engine traffic, and can position you as an expert in your field.

Learn how you can build a blog in 90 minutes or less and how marketing your business through blogging has tremedous value by helping your clients find your information.

I’ve been waiting for many years for the small business community to see the benefits of blogging. One of the first reactions to any suggestion of blogging was met with “isn’t that something kids do?”

No, it’s not. I spoke last week to the Association of Bridal Consultants in San Diego about using social networking, especially blogging, Facebook and Twitter as a marketing strategy. The single comment I hear most is, “I don’t have time.”

I want to suggest that you look at your competition. Do they have time to blog? If so, they are leaving you in the dust. Why?

Blogs are naturally search engine friendly and a perfect self-publishing tool.

First, search engine friendly….do you know what the traffic to your site is? Do you want more traffic to your site? Do you know how to get more traffic to your site? A blog can be tremendously helpful in driving traffic to your site. The Internet is hungry for fresh content and you could be providing that content, if you blogged.

You don’t need to be a programmer to add fresh content to a blog. Blogs are meant to be self-publishing. With your blog, you can add pictures, video and audio.

You don’t have time?…..There are may tools, like the Firefox AddOn, Scribe, which is what I’m using to write this post.

Where will you get content?….There are many different ways to get content. Subscribing to other blogs for inspiration (which is where this post came from), personal experience, sharing expertise, etc. I could go on and on, and I have…you just need to dig around for the info on this site and my Syndicating Your Content site.

Here’s an article that shares what I feel about blogging, with the exception of using WordPress.com. WordPress.com is a great, free tool, but it has it’s drawbacks just at Blogger.com has it’s drawbacks. My suggestion is to start at one of the free blog platforms, but if you decide you really want to exploit blogging to it’s greatest potential in marketing your business, you’ll want a self-hosted blog like mine.

So here’s my suggestion. Read the linked article.  If you think you want to try blogging, check out WordPress.com or Blogger.com.  If you want to know which would be a better choice for your goals, give me a call or use my contact page to reach me and I’ll help you with that decision.

If you want to learn more about blogging, Facebook, Twitter or Podcasting, check out my webinar schedule.Technorati Tags: business blogging

If you don’t have a Facebook profile for your business, it’s something to consider. Especially if you’re looking to market your business online. However, for as much buzz as Facebook is getting, the heart of social networking is your blog. It’s the RSS feed that pumps your message to the masses on the Internet.

I have had solopreneurs tell me they need a website, not a blog. For all intents and purpose, a blog is a website as far as the search engines are concerned. So why would you want to blog for your business?

Blogs, especially blogs set up for social networking, offer you a complete, easy self-publishing platform for your business. Often I hear solopreneurs complain that they can’t get their webmaster to make any changes for them in a timely manner. Now, that’s all taken care of with a blog. You don’t need programming skills to create your blog content.

Then, there’s the RSS feed. With that feed, which comes with a blog, you can start to spread your message, increase your online visibility, your perceived expertise and drive traffic to that static website, if you have one still!

So, a free blog, or self-hosted?

You’re reading a self-hosted blog. The benefits of self-hosting your blog are far too many to share in one post, so let me share the basics. If you self-host your blog, you’ve bought the URL (website address/domain name), you’ve purchased a hosting package and you’ve had the blog installed. Or, you’ve used a turn key blog site, like Blogi360. The important component in all this is that YOU own the blog, unlike the free sites. You own the traffic to the blog and can use the blog as you wish without worrying about violating one of the free blog site rules and finding your free blog gone.

If you already have a blog and want to know what to do next to get your blog seen and heard, tune in Friday, November 21st for Syndicating Your Content at 3pm PT and find out how your blog and a Facebook profile can work to leverage your business online.

I just finished my online radio show on syndicating your content.  Here is a list of the websites I refered to on the show.

• Article Marketing
  http://www.ezinearticles.com/

• Directory of Articles
  http://www.arcanaweb.com/resources/article-directories.html

• Ultimate Article Directory
  http://ultimatearticledirectory.com

•  Submit Your Articles
  http://www.submityourarticles.com

• Blogging – posting regularly – use your articles, or use your posts for articles
  Free at – blogger.com and wordpress.com
  even though Google owns Blogger, I haven’t found it to index any faster – free sites traffic belongs to them, can pull down your blog at a moments notice
   
• Guest Blogging
   
• FeedBurner
  www.feedburner.com – has a feature, Buzz Boost, that allows you to import your content into a website
   
• Social Networking – Facebook has notes that let you post to Facebook – other social sites have blogging features
   
• MyBlogLog – allows you to import your blog feed
   
• Blog Carnivals
  http://blogcarnival.com/bc/
   

Last Friday I held the Free Friday webinar and introducted blogs to the participants. Blogs, and more particularly the RSS feeds are core to the social networking trend we are experiencing right now.

If you have a passionate message you feel compelled to share, blogging is the tool of choice. You’d be amazed at how you can syndicate your content across the web.

Let me know what you think of the video by commenting below.