BusinessBlogAngel

Twitter Gold - 3 Really Useful Social Media Marketing Resources

Had a conversation with @JoannaYoung today in Twitter... went more or less like this:

Me: Ur experiment's pushed me to add 'subscribe by email' to [this blog] Not that there's owt new to read :)
Joanna: Maybe the new subscription box will tempt you to blog something...?!
Me: I have a lot of explaining to do - and lots of great stuff to share! But no idea where to start!
Joanna: You could start with just that - where do you start when you've so much to share?
Me: You're so wise! This'll sound like procrastination :) but I promise to post something by the end of the day!
Joanna: I'm not wise Claire, but I have learned that writing what you know and where you're at is best way to go :-) 

Well, technically, the end of the day happened over an hour ago. However, since I'm still up, fuzzy logic says the day's still going... ergo, I made it.  So "where do you start when you've so much to share?"

 

Sharing content - ShareThis er... share research

I know, I know... it's been ages since my last post... there's just so much going on. I'll update you on all that as and when, but in the meantime, I just had to share this with you:

Remember that ShareThis research I blogged about early August, well there's more... the following is taken from the latest ShareThis update:

* Email is still primary channel for sharing – 69% of adults cite email as the primary source of sharing information

* Less than 1/3 of online adults said they learned about the new content from generally shared content sources such as YouTube, a wiki, or social networking sites

Writing with confidence - project confident writing

Was coaching a client this morning - teaching her about the technical stuff, showing her round the admin interface and talking about effective blog writing etc. when the topic of 'what to write when you don't know what to write' came up.  I immediately thought of a brilliant post on this topic which Joanna Young wrote on this blog.

Here are 3 super simple ideas to try when you're stuck:

1. Post a video. Got to YouTube, search one of your keywords and see what comes up. Chances are there'll be something fun or interesting or both. Use the 'embed' code to have the video appear on your blog.

2. Post a quote. Google 'quotes about xxxx' replacing xxxx for one of your keywords. Simply posting a really thought provoking quotation can sometimes be enough. Or at least provide the inspiration you need to write a quick 'top' and 'tail' for the quote.

3. Post about a post. Go to Technorati and search for your keywords under Blogs to see who else is writing on your topic. You'll almost certainly find something recent and relevant that you can create a post around - inserting a key paragraph of theirs, or simply linking to them. Remember to Trackback, or comment on, the original post.

There are loads more ways to get inspiration - what are your favourites?
Where do you go for blog content inspiration?

Smart Twittering, Twhirl and an invitation to Twitterers

Last month, I promised an new article on Twitter... I've still not got around to it, but I've just opened up the latest issue of the SubHub Insider: Publish for Profit newsletter and found a great article on that very topic. This isn't the first time I've borrowed an article from SubHub.com - and I'm sure it won't be the last... well, they produce great content and I've checked and they dont mind provided I link back to them. So here it is:

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Twitter - The Smart Way
by Mark Ramskill, SubHub.com

Twitter - http://twitter.com - is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post regular updates (otherwise known as 'tweets'), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.  Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.

The aim of this article is to give you more of an idea about how to use Twitter (and by association other micro-blogging services, such as Pownce or Jaiku) for following and engaging with the world's top bloggers and top websites.  I call this 'Smart Twittering'.

ShareThis - social bookmarking to promote your blog

I haven't really being saying much about social bookmarking here at Business Blog Angel, have I?

It's the classic small biz 'issue' of spending so much time working 'in' your business that you can't find the time to work 'on' your business, and rightly or wrongly, maintaining this blog always takes second place to client work.  BUT, if you are a business blogger and you are not yet using the wealth of free social media tools to promote your content, then you are missing out on a lot of the power of blogging for business. I'm talking now about social bookmarking, social networking, blog directories & communities and micro-blogging.

Revealed: the challenges with social media sites the experts don't tell you

So, after my video tutorial and post last week Claire was persuaded to give StumbleUpon another go.  She'd bought my argument that it was a good way to connect with readers, to share information on other sites you enjoy, and to learn more about people who are stumbling your stuff. 

But how would she get on when she signed back into the site and attempted to start stumbling?

Well she was thoughtful enough to capture the experience on video as she went along, so we can follow, live, what turned out to be her Stumble Struggles...

A thumbs up to StumbleUpon

I keep on reminding Claire that she should get into Stumbleupon as another extension of her social media networking strategy... and she keeps on telling me that she will once I explain to her how it all works.  There's nothing like a challenge to get my creative juices flowing, so I decided to combine an illustration of three approaches to stumbling with my first attempt at creating a video tutorial to show as well as tell you how it works. (Note from Claire: Yeah, in fact, I did sign up for an account a while back, prompted by 2 fab clients - Emma Bird and Claire Chapman - who both 'friended' me or something, but even after joining, I found the whole thing a bit confusing.  Having said that, seeing that traffic to this blog usually triples if a post is Stumbled is sufficient motivation to learn more! So, back to Joanna...)

Now when I first stumbled across StumbleUpon it was as a way of finding new sites.  I think it must have been in a quiet period when I was looking for new material and discovered that you could jump to new sites in the blink of an eye just by hitting the "Stumble!" button over and over again.  And yes some of the sites were relevant and interesting (you set it up by indicating what kind of material you're looking for) - but after a while you find yourself hitting the refresh button over and over with hardly a glance at the sites you're reading, and start to wonder if it isn't time to switch off your PC set and do something more interesting instead.

But that's only one dimension of stumbling.  There are loads of other ways that you can use it to make connections, to learn from your readers, to extend your blogging network and develop your online brand.

The business of blogging just keeps growing: news from BusinessBlogAngel

You know what it’s like when you don’t blog for ages – there’s always so much to say it can be hard to know where to start.  Especially when there a lot of big changes at Business Blog Angel that I’m just itching to tell you about…

So, where to start?  Well, I’ll start with the client blogroll that I’ve finally added to the sidebar here.  Maybe you’ve been noticing some traffic come through to your site from it already?  I hope so – that’s certainly the intention. 

Pulling the blog roll together was a great way to look back on all the client work I’ve been doing over the last year or so – there’s over 50 blogs out there already – and a lot more in the pipeline.  But keeping up with that level of demand for new blogs means making some big changes in the way that I run the business – like getting the right support systems in place, for you (and for me!)

Passive income online - how to work less and earn more with a membership site

Can you be in London for 9am on Friday 12th October? 9.15am on Friday 16th November?
 

I'd say that c.99% of my clients want to work less and earn more by creating passive income streams online. For many, this translates as affiliate links and Google AdSense on their Typepad blogs, websites and social media profiles. Others step it up a little and 'profit from their passion' by creating e-books and courses.  These strategies are great, but if you are really serious about generating passive income online then you might want to consider a membership site. Now... if you think that sounds like a lot of hard work, heartache and expense, then think again...

SubHub.com - experts in 'publishing for profit' provide a complete solution for designing, building and running your own money-making, content-driven membership website.  Having worked with SubHub on no less than 4 projects now, I have first-hand experience of  3 crucial key facts which make this recommendation a 'no-brainer':

Inserting Google AdSense into Typepad Blog Posts - Video Tutorial

Had an email from a client this morning asking about inserting Google AdSense into blog posts - as opposed to 'in the margins' as a Typelist.  I've been meaning to start doing this myself so thought I'd knock up a quick 'how to' video on the topic. As you will see when you watch, my first attempt fails - but I have a little 'hot tip' up my sleeve which cures the problem.

I'm actually in two minds about whether to post this one or not as (a) the video quality is not great  - not sure why - I'm still getting to grips with Camtasia - think it might be too big too, and (b) I feel very exposed by it - you can hear me thinking and talking to myself like a nutcase. :o)  It takes a while to load too, but I think it's worth it.  As always, we're talking TypePad here (Get a 14 Day Free Trial!). If you are already blogging, you can get started right away. The entire video (including my mistakes) is about 11 minutes long, so you should be able to complete this exercise in a much shorter time.

Now you can show ads like these in your posts! :o) Happy Days!