WHAT IS A BLOG, AND WHY IS IT CRITICAL TO THE GROWTH OF MY BUSINESS?

That, my friends, is a question that I am frequently asked by entrepreneurs and business owners. Therefore, I’ve decided to start teaching about blogging on, well, my blog site!

I am excited to announce the start of a long series on the topic of business blogging. People these days want to know if blogging is something they should consider for their business, their profession, or other special line of work. And the answer to the question is a resounding yes. Blogging is critical to the growth and future success of your business.

A little history on this strange word, a “blog” is actually short for the word “web log”. It was coined by Jorn Barger in December of 1997 to describe a website that acts like an “online journal” of sorts. Just as you would enter daily updates into a journal with pen and paper, you can create “blog posts” on a blog site to update readers who are interested in what you are writing about within your area of expertise.

Blogging can be a great way to build an audience and gain credibility in your field. It is a relatively low cost (and even no cost) marketing strategy that has the possibility of getting you instant exposure. Blogging can be significantly cheaper than traditional means of advertisement like billboards, newspaper ads, radio spots, and television commercials.

The Transformation From Websites To Blogs

When the Internet first started, the common practice was to build “static” web pages. I use the word “static” to mean that they basically sit there and do nothing. The main purpose of a static website is to give basic information about the business and how to reach them.

As time went on and the Internet progressed, people learned how to transact business on their websites, and e-commerce was invented. Not only could you get basic information about a business, but you could also make purchases and have the items shipped to you.

But the next big transformation that the Internet went through was the social media revolution, and the expansion of the “blogosphere“. This phase brought us real interaction among people on the net like never before. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter hit the scene with great fanfare. At at the same time, blogs started comprising a great percentage of the sites on the Internet that were also getting significant traffic.

Instead of just presenting basic contact information like most boring static websites, the blog site allowed businesses to publish cutting edge information on a regular basis just like a newspaper service. They also afforded people the ability to make comments and interact with the people reading their articles.

The biggest advantage for business bloggers? Their customers will find them first before finding non blog-using competitors. That brings me to the next topic for your learning pleasure, “search engine optimization”.

Search Engine Optimization

In this day and age, people go straight to Google to find businesses versus the old days of thumbing through the phone book. You, as a business owner, want your website coming up on the top of the search engine results pages (or “SERPS“) for maximum exposure.

That’s where “search engine optimization” (or “SEO“) comes into play. SEO means designing and tweaking your site to give you the best chances of landing at the top of the SERPs for the search terms that relate to your product or service.

For example, if you own a local plumbing business, you want people seeing your website on the first page of the SERPs when they type in “fix broken pipe” on Google. If they have a leaky pipe spraying water all over the house, they aren’t going to sift through page 10 of the search results, they are going to pick a plumber from the first page!

If you are looking to harvest all of the Google searchers within your local community, you don’t really have any other choice. The blog is the king of the hill for SEO and its ability to magnetically attract Internet traffic.

Because a blog site is comprised of articles written on a regular basis, be it daily, weekly, or monthly, the search engines always detect that there is something fresh and relevant being added to the site. Google and the search engines love new and updated information. Current info gets lots of credit when it comes to website ranking.

Once you have a blog up and running, it is highly advisable to stay up on the latest SEO techniques to keep your high ranking on the SERPs within your niche. It will pay you great dividends in the long run.

So I Need A Blog… What Is My Next Step?

If you are a business owner, professional, or expert in your area of knowledge, you have gotten this far in the article, and you don’t own a blog site, it’s time for you to take action. If you seriously want to harvest the high number of your potential customers using Google each day, make an action plan and get started.

There are three different ways that you can take the blogging for business strategy to the next step. They are as follows:

• start a blog site on your own using a free blogging platform
• purchase a “canned” blog site from a professional service provider and manage it yourself
• hire an SEO expert and blog designer to set up your site provide regular content

On the next edition of Blogging Basics, I will give you several choices of free blog services that you can use right away. I’ll also talk about some of the paid blog services, and why you might prefer to use them over the free services. We’ll also talk about real results that local business owners are getting from using the blogging strategy.

Until then, make sure to bookmark my site, and also subscribe to my RSS Feed by clicking the link below so you don’t miss a single post!

Carlton Flowers
Your Business Blogging Coach

Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

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WHO WANTS A FREE $25 WAL-MART GIFT CARD, AND WHY AM I GIVING IT AWAY?

We all know that we’re in the midst of some pretty tough times right now. But tough times call for tough measures, and it forces us to get creative. I have had an idea brewing that I think will lighten the load for everyone during this so-called “recession”, and I think it will be a load of fun getting it started!

As we struggle during this stagnant downtrend, people are now looking for the best deals and breaks in the local market economy. At the same time, businesses are making an extra effort to connect with people in the local community on a grassroots level. I’ve got an idea that will help people find the best deals in our local area, which will also help business owners connect with and serve their local customers better. And all the while, if this works just right, we’ll be able to give away things like Wal-Mart gift cards and gas cards in a monthly or weekly drawing for all of the registered participants!

Here’s how it will work…

To get the attention of the local business owners, and to motivate them to give US better deals, we all need to stand together strong and united. When we speak as a group, we can get things done. I’ve created a private email list where people in the local community can register their names, addresses, and email addresses. It’s important to gather the address information to show the local businesses that these are really their local customers, and not just random people across the country. The email list will be owned and maintained by me, and will not be shared with anyone outside of the group for any reason whatsoever. The only people who will see the information will be the local member businesses, to verify that we are who we say we are.

Next, I will have a monthly or weekly drawing for free shopping cards. This will be done on my new web page. What will happen is that we will end up with a highly targeted amount of local traffic to our member web site, and this will attract local advertisers. Member businesses will be able to “sponsor” a spot on the giveaway page, which will fund the free cards. But they will also have to provide some special deal or discount to the members of the email list exclusively, that nobody else has access to. That will be our sole advantage!

On a monthly or weekly basis, a name (or names) will be drawn from a hat from numbers assigned to each member when they get on the membership email list. That person will receive a giveaway card! As long as people remain on our special email list, they will be in the drawing for the free cards. All they have to do is check in every week to see who has won. And the winners will be displayed on the webpage in a picture or short video!

This will be a load of fun, and thus far I’ve had a lot of people who have said they’d be interested in getting free Wal-Mart gift cards or gas cards. I did a survey, and the Wal-Mart card idea edged out the gas cards by 60% to 40%, but I still think it will be a good idea to try a gas card every now-and-then.

What will make this work the best will depend on people telling their friends and family in the local community. The more people are on this list, the more businesses will take us seriously and offer us better deals. My goal is to get 50 people on the list the first day it goes live, and then build it to several thousand people. So when the site goes live, pass the word and increase your chances of winning a free gift card! The more participants, the hotter the site will be. The hotter the site, the more the local advertisers will want to sponsor a spot on the page. The more businesses sponsorships we get, the more free cards will go to the members in the drawings!

So that’s the long and short of it. I don’t know what the official site name will be, but for now I’m hosting the signup page on one of my own domains. If you want to get a head-start and get on the list, go to the Local Jefferson City Giveaway Page by clicking the link right now!

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INTERNET SALES SET TO GROW 14% IN 2009

With the recession looming and financial institutions nursing their wounds, can you believe that internet sales will actually GROW by 14% in 2009? Yes, it is true. Right smack dab in the middle of the worst recession our country has ever seen, spending will increase on the web.

Experts (other than myself) are predicting a total market share of $141 billion for web-based retail sales & service this coming year. This is mind-numbing. I tend to believe the prognosticators who are making this rather bold prediction. As people tighten their wallets, the general tendency is to find bargains any way possible. What better way is there to find the lowest prices and highest value other than the internet?

I’ve been saying for quite some time that we will be seeing two major shifts in the local business world. The first will be the impact upon traditional media advertising due to the meteoric rise in social media site usage. The second will be the stampede of local business owners and professionals rushing to get connected to the majority of local residents who are using the social media sites on a daily basis. Critical mass will occur once the first local business owner reports tangible gains utilizing social media for marketing purposes.

This brings me to the question in the title of this post. Local business owners and professionals, when it comes to advertising and marketing investment, where’s YOUR wallet? (forgive me, Capital One, I had to use your snappy catch phrase to make this point!)

Right now, the overwhelming majority of local business owners are keeping their advertising bucks in stonehenge media (my pet name for the age-old media venues). However, while the status quo continues pouding their hard-earned dollars into stonehegne media, a select few are going to flank their business sectors on the battlefield for customers and launch a surprise attack with social media marketing. Smart business owners will start to balance their advertising dollars between stonehenge media and online social media. If you don’t believe it, just watch what happens in 2009 and call me in a few months so I can tell you “I TOLD YOU SO!”

There will be a large percentage of local business owners and professionals in due time who will wise up and want to make the investment in social media, but many will be completely clueless on how to go about doing so. When the time comes, Mr. & Mrs. Local Entrepreneur, you better be looking up Carlton Flowers in the Yellow Pages and making a fast phone call for help.

Carlton Flowers, Social Media Expert

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Blogging for SERP Results & SEO

If you are blogging or writing articles to gain SERP rankings (that stands for “search engine page” ranking), there are some great sites that I have been using that will get you maximum results. I would recommend using a combination of 2 or 3 of these sites at a time for each new article that you post to your blog. You will notice a jump in your page rankings if you use these sites, and you will also gain exposure. It’s an all-around good idea to start posting your relevant articles
on sites like these.

Here are my three favorite sites to post articles on, and a brief description and web address to get you started on your way:

1. Hubpages (www.hubpages.com)

This site is made up of articles submitted by participants which are called “hubs”. When you post an article on your area of expertise, Hubpages will actually score your submission based on how unique and relevant it is. It will later adjust the score based on how much traffic you pull on that particular hub.

You can add things to your article to increase the effectiveness like pictures, keywords, and links. You are allowed to link to your blog site or professional web page for further information.

I have been testing Hubpages for about 2 months now. About 5 articles that I have written have an average number of “hits” or page views of about 10 to 15. However, one article that I wrote has nearly 500 hits within the shortest period of time. Since then, I have updated the article with additional information, and this has increase both the traffic and the overall Hub score.

Hubpages will generate humongous traffic on Google if you dig up the right hot topic. Try to find topics of general relevant information that relates to your business or service that you provide. If you keep the articles interesting and chock-full of good content, you will drive more traffic to your site and build trust among your readers. Be careful not to post pure affiliate offers as your hub will be removed.

2. Squidoo (www.squidoo.com)

Squidoo is very similar to Hubpages. But instead of a “hub”, you post a “lens”. The same rules basically apply. Like Hubpages, Squidoo is apparently hot when it comes to Google ranking. Articles get indexed rapidly, and will generate traffic just about overnight. Squidoo has more advertisements and distracting stuff than most of the article submission sites, but due to the power of their Google ranking, it is worth using.

3. Utterli (www.utterli.com)

Utterli is a social network. It is similar to Twitter, but far more robust. You have no limit on the number of characters you write on a post. Also, you can upload a picture, a graphic, or a video with each post. Something else that is quite unique is the ability to either call in to the Utterli phone number and record an utter, or use a microphone to record an utter and upload to the site. I haven’t found a site with an easier ability to add multimedia. Lastly, you can tag your posts with good keywords.

I use Utterli just to test out the strength of certain keywords, and the effectiveness of certain graphics. Utterli includes a page counter for all posts. I think it is based on page views and not unique visitors, but it is still useful (this means that each time you refresh the page, you will increase the page counter one time on all of your posts). I generally will divide the number by ten to get a more realistic number of hits to that post. Plus, you can compare how many hits one post gets over another when you change up the keywords. It is very useful for that reason alone.

Many people don’t realize this, but Utterli is one of the hottest Google-ranking social media sites on the web. They don’t “no-follow” their links. That basically means that whatever you type in your posts and the keywords that you add to each post can be found by search engines outside of the site. I have had the most rapid results from using certain keywords with Utterli than any other site. One night, I was able to hit page 1 on Google for two keywords and the name of my local city within 2 hours flat. That is fast!

Give these three sites a try and let me know what kind of results you get. I think you will be as amazed as I have been when you use them correctly.  Next week, I will write another article on three more hot social media article submission sites that are smashing up the search engines!

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