BusinessBlogAngel

Links On Your Blog

Back in April, I blogged a tutorial on how to keep visitors on your blog when inserting links.

The issue was that if you place a link to another website (an external link) on your blog or blogsite using the standard 'chain link' icon ( pictured left) in the Compose Post view, that site will open up in the same page or window as the one your reader is currently on - which could mean you've lost them.

The tutorial shows you how to add a tiny string of code which will mean that an external link will open in a new window/page. You do this in the Edit HTML view of your post after you use the 'chain link' icon and I promise you, you do not need to know or understand HTML to do this successfully.

Then just a couple of weeks later, Typepad introduced a new 'widget' which means that you can have links automatically open in a new window - so no need for the code string.

"Wonderful!"- or so I thought and set about adding this widget to my clients business blogs. BUT and this is a big 'but'...

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

Business Blogs - the next big thing?

As if more evidence were needed that having a business blog (or b-blog) is the way to go, Inc.com ('the daily resource for entrepreneurs') reports,

"Now, with entrepreneurs developing lots of creative new uses for business blogs (or "b-blogs," as serious practitioners call them), the technology appears poised to become the "Next Big Thing" in business communication."

They also append a great glossary to a recent feature they've published on Blogging for Business...

B-Blogs: Business blogs, usually external
Blawgs: Lawyers' blogs
Intrablogs: In-house blogs
K-Blogs: Knowledge blogs, also usually kept in-house
Warblogs: War correspondents' blogs

To read the full story - click here.

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Business Blog Confessions - technophobe to blogger (episode 1)

This first episode of Blogging For Business features an interview with Shilpa Unalkat of www.Staflow.com who went from 'self-confessed technophobe' to prolific business blogger in a matter of weeks. She shares her inital fears and how she's finding the whole blogging experience.

The Business Blogger Pick of the Week is the BewareTheSharks Blog.

Listen to Business Blog Confessions - technophobe to blogger, episode one of my Blogging For Business podcast, here.

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Do As I Say, Not As I Do!

The one thing I tell ALL my clients is that you absolutely must blog regularly to take advantage of the benefits of blogging... so what do I do? Yup, not blog since June 21st! Shocking behaviour. It's that strange phenomenomenomen isn't it, you know, the landscape gardener with a concrete and weed back yard. Or the marketing consultant who's too busy doing other people's marketing to do their own etc.

And that's the reason why I haven't been blogging - well one of them. I've just finished a couple of new Blogsites for clients and have another 4 at various stages in the creation process. Plus I'm putting together a new podcast series as part of that course I mentioned a couple of posts ago with Leesa Barnes (which is brilliant I must say - highly recommend it!) and I'm still doing my NLP Practitioners certification course. So it's all go at the moment. 

Anyway, enough of my excuses - the message is (and I thank my dear old dad for this one) - Do As I Say, Not As I Do!! Later today, after I've caught up with various bits of dull, but essential admin, I'm going to blog again about some recent and very cool developments on Typepad.

How to Bury Content

Judith Morgan, my friend and colleague, gave me and BusinessBlogAngel a mention on her blog yesterday. She wanted to include testimonials on her blog and I suggested that she simply create a new category called Testimonials and then post them as normal blog entries as they come in.  In the post above, she was warning - and apologising to - her readers that the next few entries would be 'a veritable testimonial fest' as she posted all the historical ones in. BUT there's really no need to worry about that, because she can simply 'bury' them by backdating - let me explain...

Step 1

Post your blog entry as you would normally, assigning the Testimonials category to it and saving it as a Draft only.

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...
 

Another frustrated website owner...

Sorry things have been so quiet lately, I've been on a course; after 13 years using NLP, I've finally gotten around to doing my Practitioner's Certificate. I'm doing it with PPD Learning who I thought were a newish company. Ha! Going through my old notes, I discovered...

More on Google Page Rank

Following the post about Google Page Rank, I've had a couple of emails asking how I know what my page rank is?  Before I explain, please accept my apologies - I can't believe I forgot to tell you that bit!

Now for the answer... what you need is the full size Google Toolbar. This is something that will sit at the top of your browser page along with the toolbars you currently have displayed.

Keeping visitors on your Blogsite

The majority of bloggers don't know any HTML - which is fine, you don't really need to know any since most blog engines work in the same way as Word does eg. if you want a word to be in bold, you just highlight it and click on the 'B' button. But there are times when a little HTML can be really useful.

For example, you want to include a link in your blog entry to another site, but you don't want that link to take people away from your site.  You see, unless you place an additional command in the link 'mark up' code, anyone clicking on a link will leave your site and go to the new one. I am now going to teach you how to get round that in plain English and a few pictures to help!