BusinessBlogAngel

Business Blog Marketing Booster Part 1 - Feedburner

So you've listened to the blog marketing experts and understand how blogging can grow your business. Now what? Well, besides blogging at least twice a week, there are of number of other things you can be doing to further enhance your blogging for business activity.  In this series of 'plain-English' articles, I'd like to share 5 powerful tools and techniques to really boost your business blogging strategy, all of which you will master on my Advanced Blogging Telecourse.

Part 1  - Feedburner

When you create a blog, you will almost certainly have created a 'feed' which means that each time you post, subscribers to your feed will automatically receive your new content. Feedburner is a 'feed management service' and there are several reasons why you should set yourself up with one of their free accounts.

One reason is that Feedburner makes subscribing to your feed a whole lot easier -

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...

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.

The Power of Blogging

I've been doing a bit of work today for my good friend Beryl Whiting.

Beryl has been blogging for just under a year and had set it up herself and it worked just fine. But I have been itching to get my hands on it and reconfigure it to work harder for her - which as you can see, I have now done - its's now more of a Blogsite.

But I want to share with you something she achieved without my help that clearly illustrates why you absolutely should be using blogging as a marketing tool for your business...

From Blog into Blogsite, #2 (Blogging for Business podcast)

Ever wondered, what's the difference between a Blog and a Blogsite?

Business Blog Angel Claire Raikes reveals all and invites you to 'listen in' on a Typepad tutorial, with Relationship Coach Barbara Bradbury, in which she explains how you can create an archive of Testimonials by assigning posts to a Testimonial category and 'bury content', turning your business blog into a business blogsite. And the Business Blogger Pick of the Week is Karen Knowler's Living In The Raw.

Click on "continue reading" link below for full notes and links.

3 Ways to Listen

• Free Subscribe to this podcast's feed

• Download MP3

• Listen Now - just press play...

Got a Blogging Question or Comment?

Do you have a burning question about blogging, blogsites or blogging for business? You do? Great, because I'd love to answer it and I have just created a new Comment & Question Line especially for that purpose...

Get an Answer and Promote Your Own Site or Service!
Simply call my dedicated Comment & Question Line on (001) 214 615 6505, then enter the extension number 8446 followed by '#'and leave me a message when prompted. Each time I produce a new episode of my Blogging for Business podcast (about once a fortnight), I will select a question and answer it as part of the show - so do be sure to leave your  name and URL so I can plug your site/service at the same time.

You can also use this line to leave comments on previous episodes of Blogging for Business as well a general blogging soundbites you would like to share with the world via my blog or podcast.

I look forward to hearing from you!

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Turning your blogsite into a powerful Sales, Marketing and R&D department

Most of my clients understand the value of building a database, but there are so many ways of doing so, that the choice can be bewildering. The route you choose very much depends on what you want to do with your database once you have it. A simple autoresponder service and a PayPal account, may be all you need. But if you want to be able to create and sell products and services online and deliver them automatically, then perhaps you should consider a service that offers you a fully integrated sales and marketing solution.

I have just finished recording an interview with Mark Quirk - the man in charge at ValuedClientSystem.com (above left). You'll be able to listen to the interview when I publish it as part of my Blogging for Business podcast. In it, Mark explains how by adding an email datacapture form to your blogsite, you can set up powerful permission marketing campaigns - and

RSS Readers and Feed Readers

A couple of days ago, I blogged about making it easy for your readers to subscribe to your blogsite or business blog.  I mentioned RSS Readers or Feed Readers - sometimes called 'feed aggregators'.

There are many free readers and aggregators available to download and to use online. Some are free, others you pay for.

My favourite solution BloxOr which is a free online reader pictured left. (click on image to enlarge)

I love it and here's 5 Reasons Why I use and Recommend BloxOr

1. Its so simple to use
2. There's nothing to download