BusinessBlogAngel

WillMeOn.com - will you will on Will Maybanks to London 2012?

Before I go 'short and sweet', I have to tell you about one of the projects that's been keeping me busy over the last month or so - www.WillMeOn.com. 

William Maybanks is a talented, British table tennis player with an Olympian goal; to compete for his country at London 2012. Table tennis has had it's funding for 2012 drastically reduced, so if Will is to realise his dream and compete on the world stage at London 2012, he will have to raise the necessary £300k himself. Given the current economic climate, securing a large sponsorship deal from any one business or individual is no longer a realistic proposition... and so the idea for WillMeOn was born! 

I know nothing about Table Tennis, but my 'entrepreneurial spirit', thirst for all things 'personal development' and professional obsession with social media and personal branding meant that from the minute Chris Ogle told me about Will Maybanks and the WIllMeOn idea he was hatching, I was on board.

Chris Cree's Back In The Saddle - Yee Ha!

If you visit regularly, you will know that I'm a bit of an erratic blogger. I have no shortage of things I want to share with you - in fact, I have a really exciting list I keep - but sometimes, I either just can't face it (being too 'blogged out') or I'm just too plain busy - with other people's blogs!

Well, today - I have found the perfect therapy for this condition - courtesy of another fantastic business blog consultant Chris Cree over at SuccessCREEations.com. In his post 'Back In The Saddle' Chris says,

"Like getting thrown from a horse you have to climb back aboard at the soonest available opportunity. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes. Our minds have this weird ability to build up these huge mental barriers to getting started sometimes."

As I said in my comment on said post - I need to print that one out and pin it to my wall!  How reassuring to know that I am in good company with this issue and how wonderful that Chris is so open and honest about it. Truly inspiring. Thanks Chris. :o)

Lorelle VanFossen asks 'Conversation Blog or Answer Blog?'

Been beavering away on various blogs all evening and I really want to chill now, so this is going to be short and sweet!

Want to share a fantastic post on BlogHerald about why some blogs attract more comments than others.  The writer is Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on Wordpress, a superb blog for Wordpress bloggers.  It's so obvious when you think about it.

So what kind of blog is yours? This blog's got to be something like 90% Answer 10% Conversation, I'd say.

 

What 5 Things Do I Do Nearly Every Day To Be Successful

My good friend Judith Morgan has been blog tagged again. This time by her top Tech Coach Sandra de Freitas. Judith didn't actually tag me this time - i suspect this is because I didn't join in last time. Hey, I was moving house! Anyway, I've tagged myself this time and am ready to play...

My 5 things I do nearly every day to be successful are:

1. I eat with nutrition in mind. Eg. Breakfast is a low carb, high protein, high omega affair. Typically, fresh berries, mango or apple with a combination of nuts, seeds (particularly ground linseeds), spices and organic, natural bio yoghurt.  This sets me up beautifully for the day - keeps my blood sugar and energy levels steady and reminds me daily of the importance of loving myself and caring for my body accordingly.

Scurvy Elephants in the Garden?

Headed over to the Mouse and Trowel Awards voting area today to vote for my new friend Heather Gorringe's company Wiggly Wigglers. (That's Heather left, winning another award.)

Her team are up for Best Gardening Podcast - and so, so deserve it. Check it out here.  As I commented on Heather's blog today,

"I live in a city in a gardenless flat. I used to watch the beeb's Countryfile for my weekly fix of country culture fantasy. No more. The Wiggly Wigglers podcast has taken over - its utterly superb."

I run another blogsite for the Scurvy Elephants Society and it dawned on me that Heather is a perfect example... (What's a Scurvy Elephant?)  She is building such a strong brand - a genuine 'global micro-brand'  - and it seems to me to be a brand based on passion, values and authenticity. 

Blogging and podcasting is just so good for that - for being yourself, sharing your passion and your values, and in my opinion, this gives small business a huge advantage over big business in the social media marketing 'space'.  I'll be interviewing Heather v soon for the podcast so that particular issue is bound to come up. It'll be interesting to hear her take on it.

Are you a Scurvy Elephant? Join us here and let us share your Scurvy Story with the world.

What's your business blog saying?

I came across a great post today on a blog called ConverStations.  It tracks a conversation between a blog and it's owner.  The blogger in question is Mike Sansone, an independent business consultant specializing in business blogs and conversational copywriting, and I just love what he has to say.  From his 'About' page...

• I believe that at the core of ourselves, we are each still very much like the 5-year olds we once were, just wanting to be liked, have fun, and be curious.
  
  
• I believe that I've used the word "that" too much in this biography. I believe I can see you smiling as you read that. I believe if you're not smiling right now, you will be after you say this out loud: supercalifragilisticexpealidocius (good thing that's not a website).

I'm always banging on about how business blogging allows you to build relationships with your target audience, by 'giving a little bit of yourself', in a way that a formal company website just doesn't. In those 2 bullet points, and the silly (that's good silly) and oh-too-familiar Conversation (Argument) with My Blog post, I have completely warmed to this man. 

I feel empathy towards him, trust his opinion and I'm ready to listen to what he has to say.

Now wouldn't you like some of that for your business or brand? Get business blogging!

Guide to RSS and Feeds

On his excellent blog Blogging Tricks, Scott Bourne of www.BourneMediaGroup.com has written a fantastic, easy-to-understand 'guide to RSS and feeds' which explains perfectly why they are important to us all.  I think I'd like to invite him onto the Blogging for Business podcast to explain some more...

Click here to read it now

Based on some of what he shares, I have created a perfect 'subscribe to this blog' button pictured above. Please feel free to 'right click' and 'save image as' if you'd like to use the button on your blog. For whatever reason, some people still choose not to subscribe to the feed, preferring to provide an address for emailed updates and/or digests. Until feeds are fully embraced, I will continue to provide a list sign-up box (with a no-nonsense privacy policy) too.

Free Subscribe to this blog feed

Podcasting Expert

Leesa Barnes is a Podcasting Expert. She has a real knack for clearly explaining techy nerdy stuff in plain English. She recently did a teleclass entitled How Coaches Can Use a Podcast to Attract New Clients but actually it is relevant to a much wider group of people and talks about blogging and search engine optimisiation too.  It is available to listen to for free for a couple of days only (until 26th May 06) so don't hang around! 

Click here to find out how to use podcasting to build your business

I am so going to use this stuff - I'd be crazy not to. Check Leesa's Blog, Podonomics too...