Website Words that Work!

I’m always on the lookout for great business blogs — ones that demonstrate the possibilities of blogging for a business. And I do see tremendous possibilities for small business marketing via blogs. Beyond just getting to know you, and that in itself is a huge blog benefit, customers and clients can begin to count on you for expert information. Or just the inside scoop. So, I trolled the Web a bit, seeking great business blogs.

I’m looking for those written by owners of retail shops, service businesses (plumbers, carpenters), professional firms (attorneys, physicians, consultants), and businesses I have not thought of. Maybe a hair salon, for instance, or an organic farmer. But I’m looking for those written not about the business of blogging but by the businesses themselves. Good ones.

I found this one, Cork Cellars, and it’s a friendly one and I found myself liking the proprietors, though there is a huge gap of non-blogging in there. But if I were near that Cork Cellars wine shop, I’d have a feed on that blog just to know what’s new and available too at my nearby store. Nothing beats a fine “Cab” on a cold winter’s eve. But back to the business at hand: blogging for business.

I’m still trolling, hoping to find terrific examples of small businesses — managers and owners – blogging successfully, preferable somewhat regularly, as well. They’re not as easy to find as I thought they’d be.

yours, Judith

Tags: Small Business, Small business blogging by Judith
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The never-ending need for content on your blogging site will catch up with you, so “they” say. And here’s proof that “they” are right: it will. Or, at least, it did for me. I’ve been off in the last couple of weeks writing magazine articles, setting up a couple of Websites for small businesses, and a workshop on blogging.

But what have I NOT done? I haven’t blogged.So that’s how easy it is for blogging to get thrown by the wayside. Business interferes. Life intervenes. Mea culpa. I allowed it. But what to do about such things if you are setting up a blog yourself? (And you know that when you set up a blog, you set up expectations in your client base.) Excellent question. From my experience here on the Harlan Editorial business blog, I’d say,

• Make blogging a priority.

• Put it on the Calendar — Make time for it.

• Keep a notebook handy for flashes of insight to include.

• Don’t just read other blogs, drop in formally and share your thoughts.

 (Now, if I can just listenn to my own advice and remember to do some of this stuff myself, you’ll see me back in a mere day or two or three.)

 Back online, Judith

Tags: Business blogs, How to blog, Online Content, Small business blogging by Judith
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I just signed up for the upcoming global teleseminar, and in my books this is a Do-Not-Miss opportunity, a chance to tune in on leading marketing and career gurus  – all free — and it’s coming up fast: Nov. 8. . 

What am I talking about? If you’re asking then you have not yet heard: there’s an all-day global teleseminar on Nov.8; it’s sponsored by A Brand You World, and features marketing leaders such as David Meerman Scott (New Rules of Marketing & PR; See what he says about the event on his site), also Richard Nelson Bolles (What Color is Your Parachute), John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing), and, as they say at the carnival, So Much More! Come one, come all!

This is one of those free and valuable Web events. I’ll be there. Check it out. I’m betting there’s something there for all small business owners on marketing in this new Web world.

Tags: Free Advice, Marketing Blogs, Small Business, Small business blogging by Judith
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Connecting, engaging, listening.

I think these are my three big reasons to blog. I’m not sure they’re everyone’s, but they seem to resonate with me. Here’s how:

• Connecting with the community makes it easy for clients to find me, makes it easy for me, too, to find others in fields related to mine, to share knowledge and experiences. And by golly, I learn alot from these great blog colleagues!

• Engaging with the community — blogosphere as well as local business clients — pushes me to think further, past the generic to what works for each individual, to see that what’s working for me is not what might work for you, to combine and create. (That’s the sort of thing that keeps a writer’s brain engaged, too! And that’s always a good thing.)

• Listening helps me shape my business to meet your needs. That close listening led me to create a NON-blogging site for my client this month. Life lesson: Blogging’s not for everyone. Business lesson: Build for the client, not for yourself. And above all, listen. But back to blogging and listening: great place to tune in to you who email me and post here, as well as to lots of others blogging in the Web world. And who said, “listen and learn”? Probably mom, a wise wise woman.

Tags: Blogging, Small Business, Small business blogging by Judith
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Don’t talk.

Bloggers are infamous for chattering too much and listening too little.

Use your blog to reverse the information flow: Give customers a place to tell you what they think instead of you telling the customer what you’re selling.

That’s my reason number 3 to have a blog. It can be a place to Listen.

Sound upside down? It is, but that’s the ultimate in a business blog, one that’s so successful that your customer is posting more on it than you are. And when you’ve engaged your customers to that extent, then they have a vested interest in keeping you in business. Can there be anything better than that?

Tags: Business blogs, Free Advice, How to blog, Small business blogging by Judith
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Blogs are great tools to engage your customer. And an engaged customer builds a vested interest in your product.

A bookstore, for example, is an excellent candidate for a blog. Bookstores sell to customers’ passions — passions for literature, learning, politics. And we all love connecting over our passions. Give us a blog that tells us about the next book-signing, has a bit about the author, has a blog posting BY the author. Add in an RSS feed so we’re alerted to new events at the store. Have a section where we can comment on bestsellers. Have a section for the book club that meets there once a month.

Do all that, and you’re steps closer to engaging your customers, to creating that old-time feeling of the general store as a gathering place and of the storekeeper as a friend and confidante. And that goes for whether you are selling a product or a service.

Blogs can create that cozy, general store feeling. As we get to know you, the owner, manager, blogger, we become invested, engaged. We care.

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Online Content, Small business blogging by Judith
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Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Marketing Blogs, Small Business, Small business blogging by Judith
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Here’s a topic that does not go away. How much should I —  must I –  blog? Last month, in response to a blog by Debbie Weil, corporate blogger, I said, maybe not so much.

Maybe that’s not the full answer, though. Nick Stamoulis, blogger, author, at Brick Marketing, weighs in this week with his thoughts. A must-read! So, surf over there and check it out. My blog  on the topic is still live, and you’ll want to see the comments there, too. Chris McElroy picked up on the resurfacing of the conversation and his 2 cents is for more, not less, blogging, as he says in the comments to my blog.

So, do I have the definitive answer for you on how often to do your small business blogging? We need to keep exploring the topic. And maybe, just maybe, the answer is individual as well as SEO-related: as in, what’s YOUR goal for your blog?

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Marketing Blogs, SEO, Small business blogging by Judith
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Just when I’m convinced that the gurus are right — you’ve gotta blog every day if you want your voice to be heard in the blogosphere — one of the top business bloggers breaks the rules.

Debbie Weil, who wrote the book on corporate blogging (The Corporate Blogging Book), is blogging less. Why, you may ask, would a leading blogger and marketing expert cut back on blogging?

Life and its hometown joys interrupted, it seems.

One comment to her blog interested me especially –From David Koopman questioning if we need to blog everyday. Search engines reward you if you do, but just between us, maybe that indiscriminate blogging is what got bloggers their rep amongst non-bloggers as narcissistic diarists blogging about what they had for breakfast.

It’s something to think about as you set up your business blog calendar.

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, SEO, Small business blogging by Judith
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If it’s not on the calendar, it’s not likely to happen. 

One of the biggest challenges to a blog is blogging. Yes, you read that right: the toughest part of a blog is taking time out to blog. As a small business, you’ve probably got a hundred tasks awaiting your personal touch at any minute of any business day. (I know I do.) And blogging adds another to that stack of to-do’s.

And that’s my challenge today, as I sit here on a Friday afternoon. It’s been a terrific week work-wise, which means that I’ve been working hard and steady, and I am ready to close up shop and kick back in my garden. Yet, I promised myself two blogs per week. That didn’t sound like a lot when I created my blog plan.

But it feels like a lot today.

Free advice and lessons learned: Before beginning a small business blog, write some blog times into your calendar. Actually put them in as appointments. And guard them against intrusion. It’s important, for Search Engine Optimization as well as for your conversation with your clients, to upload new, fresh blogs regularly.

Without a blog appointment, I can assure you that your blogging will keep being shunted aside for other, deadline-driven tasks. And you’ll find yourself staying late in your office on a fine, sunny, Friday afternoon and wondering, am I really whining about being too successful?

Tags: Free Advice, SEO, Small business blogging by Judith
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