BusinessBlogAngel

Inserting Images Into Your Blog Margins

Had an email this morning from one of my clients, Kelly Cullen.
Kelly is a very successful fitness trainer who also uses her vast experience and knowledge to show other fitness trainers how to 'up their game' by sharing the best tools and techniques to create a successful PT business. Kelly will be using her blog to launch her new Coaching Gym for Fitness Trainers. It's still in development at the moment, but I will blog about it once it's ready.

Anyway, this is what she's written:  "Hi Claire, Have tried to be smart and copy another logo onto blog, ended up with the notes on site instead? Could you possibly, pretty, pretty, please? re do and explain where I went wrong? Logo. FIA, Fitness Industry Ass. Have made Pay Pal Payment. Thanks. Warmest Regards Kelly"

I emailed her a response, but thought it worth sharing here on BusinessBlogAngel.com since the information is the same for all Typepad users who want to create a permanent graphical link.

Advanced Blogging Teleclass Training Series

Get More from your Typepad Business Blog!

For those who already have a business blog - this 7 hour Advanced Blogging Teleclass training series will take you to 'the next level' in your business blogging strategy.

Across the course of 7 weeks, 60 minutes per week, I will explain key points and techniques to enhance your blog marketing and show you how to implement them as we work together, step-by-step, through the course syllabus.  There will be simple homework tasks designed to move you through from week to week and I will provide you with a resource centre where you can download audio recordings of the class as well as written notes.

Start date: Mon 23/10/06     Time: 7.30pm (UK Time)     Course Fee: $369/£197

NB. Since this course is limited to 7 participants only, this WILL BE a 'sell-out' situation. Places are available on a 'first come, first served' basis and cannot be reserved, so...

Book now to guarantee your place and avoid disappointment.

More information follows...

Latest business blog project...

Oh dear oh dear. Another huge gap since I last blogged. Once again, I've been spending more time taking care of other people's business blog needs rather than my own. I've given myself permission to work this weekend in order to catch up... there's so much I want to do. But before I get on with it all, let me share with you the latest blogsite I've created for a Toronto-based Image Consultancy...

Creating Charisma already had a website with a really strong and very stylish look and feel. My brief was simply to 'create a business blog to complement the existing site' - but as usual, I couldn't help sticking my 'marketing' oar in and recommending that we created a couple of graphical links to drive business to some core services. The company's founder, Diane Brooks spent 18 years as a corporate lawyer, so I shouldn't have been surprised by how incredibly quickly she 'got' everything. Check out the result here.

RSS/Feed Readers

So there I was, a few weeks ago, saying how my favourite online RSS / feed reader is Blox0r. So imagine my surprise when a few days ago, I go to read my favourite blog feeds only to discover that the Blox0r domain has been sold. The note on the home page went on to say that the buyer had not stated their intention, so users should export their feeds as a precaution. (I took this to mean, save all your feed addresses since you may need to re-set them all up again in another reader.)

Today the message reads:

"And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for

Talk about Blogging for Business...

So what have I been doing that's kept me from blogging for business?

Well, besides creating and training people on blogsites for business, I've been doing a lot of speaking. Last week, I was invited to speak at a conference in Athens for a group of business leaders and advertising executives. That was really stimulating and great fun. I just hope the delegates got as much out of it as I did! (Click on pic for view from hotel.)

Before I went, I was the guest on an Expert Teleclass Series for dynamic business coach Judith Morgan where I revealed 5 Things You Need to Know About Blogging. Luckily Judith is a good friend, so she didn't seem to mind that I actually covered more than 5 things!  The session's been recorded but is only available to members of her coaching gym at www.ABusinessToLove.com and/or her membership site for solopreneurs www.LonelyEntrepreneur.com.  But she has agreed to let me feature an extract in my next podcast which I really must get on and do too!

And then there was an interview I did with Relationship Coach Barbara Bradbury for her popular podcast Relationship Matters. I'll blog again about Barbara  because she's so impressive - but for now, check out the latest episode at  www.RelationshipMatters.net where I explain how blogging helps build rapport and trust and should be part of every business's customer relationship strategy.

How often should I blog?

"How often should I blog?" is definitely a 'frequently asked question' amongst business bloggers.

Embarassingly, it's been TWO WHOLE WEEKS since I last blogged! That is so naughty and not at all what I advise, but it does serve to demonstrate how challenging regular blogging can be if you are busy working 'on' as well as 'in' your business.  Not that anything 'bad' is going to happen - it's just not good.

In my view, people who are blogging for business should blog at least twice a week. The only situation when blogging less frequently might be okay, is if your business blog's readers' expectations are set that way, or if their lifestyles are so busy they probably won't mind less frequent posting.  But neither of those factors have anything to do with search engine rankings, so if you want to please your audience and the search engines - twice a week's the way to go.