Earlier I mentioned how a famous blogger is having problems switching from her old blog platform  and I’m struggling with more headaches around a similar issue.  When I started way back in 2001, one of the most inexpensive ways to get online was using Yahoo! for a domain name and email.  And it worked fine for several years.  Now, however, I am trying to get the domain name back so I can control it and it has been a huge headache including international phone calls and verifications.

At the time, it seemed like a great idea to save money and get started inexpensively. I had no idea how much trouble it would cause later…but now I wish I had actually used the best tools rather than the cheapest ones.

So I’ve adopted a new money rule… The best tools win over the best price!

How about you? Where is your setpoint for price vs. functionality? How do you decide which to purchase?

Are you looking for the best way to get more search engine traffic? Be sure to jump on the blog bandwagon. Search engines love blogs because they frequently have new content and automatically notify them when a post is made. For example, when I publish this post, Google will get a “ping” that says, “There is a new blog post on YourBlogTeam.com. Come and review it.”

Here are some statistics I gathered recently on how some of our sites rank in Google. These are all sites that have been alive and doing blog posts for at least six months (we set up the optimal system for them and they did the legwork of getting incoming links and posting regularly.) –

WellnessCoach.com (currently #1 for wellness coach)
DrewStevensConsulting.com (currently #2 for drew stevens)
PathwaysforAging.com (currently #1 for pathways for aging)
GreatChristmasBook.com (currently #1 for great christmas book)
MinutestoMoments.com (currently #1 for great mom book)

(Please note: These results may change. The search engines love new content so if these site owners quit posting or the content becomes older, Google may move them down in the rankings.)

Your first step in getting some of this traffic is to set up your blog to be search-engine friendly (we have a proprietary combination of plugins and features we use). Your next step is to determine what phrases are most commonly searched for. Use Wordtracker or the Google Keyword Tool and search your topic area (read more about this at How to Blog: What Should I Blog About? Part 1). Then create a post using the phrase in the title and and a couple times in the post. This will get you started attracting the search engines.

The Internet can be such a faceless place with every website starting to look and sound the same…. how do you make your business website stand out from the crowd?

With a blog, of course!

KansasCity.com posted a great article today on how businesses are using blogs to give a personal touch to their websites. A Kansas City real estate agent uses her blog to get more clients who are interested in moving to the area, and a local bistro uses their blog, the Business Bistro, to quickly and easily introduce specials to their clients.

Several of the advantages to blogging are listed in the article and are worth repeating:

• You can keep your site updated in as little as 15-20 minutes per week.
• You need to update at least once a week with really good content that fits your audience.
• Responding to criticism through your blog comments is a great way to show responsiveness to your market.

I’d also add that you want to inject just enough of your personality that your visitors get to know you-without knowing too much!

So why do you blog? Have you seen it change your business?

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we discussed some easy ways to find topics to blog about.

This article lists 11 Quick (and Good) Content Ideas for Your Ezine or Website (and I would add or Blog to the title!

by Alexandria K. Brown

Publishing articles, especially via an e-zine, is the ideal opportunity to showcase your business. By sharing your knowledge and expertise, you build credibility as an expert, while spreading the word about your services and products.

While I’m sure that sometimes you have dozens of content ideas, I bet other times you find yourself staring at a blank computer screen, grumbling that it’s publishing time again. Well, have no fear! Here are 11 quick (and good) content ideas for when you’re in a pinch.

1. Give real-life success stories.
Describe a problem you’ve solved for a client/customer, and use that as a springboard to offer more general advice. Show your readers how you’ve helped customers address challenges — “case studies” if you will. This positions you as the expert in your readers’ minds more than your coming out and saying so.

2. Think of three areas in which you’d like your clients to think of you as a resource.
Now develop content in those areas. For example, in my past life as a professional copywriter, I really enjoyed writing for Web sites. To help encourage my clients and prospects to hire me for these projects, I published several articles on how to write Web copy that sells.

3. Read industry publications for ideas.
Are there any hot issues in your field right now? The more controversial, the better. Don’t be afraid to offer your own opinion — your readers want to know it. After all, YOU are the expert in their eyes.

4. Jot down 8 questions your clients have asked you in the past.
You know, the ones they ask you over and over. Answer each in a short article. If you publish weekly, that’s two months’ worth of content, right off the bat! And if you can’t think of any questions, send all your current clients/customers a quick e-mail, asking them what topics they’re most interested in learning more about.

5. Learn anything neat lately from an industry conference, workshop, seminar, or insightful article?
No one says you have to reinvent the wheel of information! Pass on any gems of advice you’ve learned elsewhere — just give them full attribution. Or give your opinion of the event or article itself. Your readers will appreciate your frankness.

6. Offer a list of your top 5 or 10 tips on a certain subject.
It’s much easier to bang out a list of tips than to put together a real article. Of course, the tips can evolve into an article if you wish! Be sure to list your best tip first, or at least close to the top. (If you “fire your biggest gun” last, you risk losing your audience before they get to the good stuff.)

7. Interview associates whose expertise would interest your readers (while not competing with yours).
E-mail interviews are incredibly easy to do. Just send your interviewee 3 to 5 questions via e-mail, edit their answers, and have them approve the final version. Be sure to give them a short plug in your e-zine as a thank you. (A one- or two-sentence description of their business and their Web address should be fine.)

8. Recommend books and resources that you use, and offer full reviews on them.
In one issue of my old e-zine, “AKB MarCom Tips,” I featured reviews of my favorite four copywriting resource books. I’m glad I also gave my Amazon.com associate links, because I ended up making some nice commission, to boot!

9. Invite clients or readers to write you with their own questions, and answer one in each issue.
Right after their question, publish the person’s name, business, and Web address, with their permission. They’ll enjoy the attention and free publicity!

10. Invite readers to send in profiles.
Ask them to tell you about themselves — their names, businesses, locations, and how they use the information gained in your e-zine. Feature one profile in each issue or one every few issues.

11. When all else fails, borrow an article!
There are dozens of Web sites offering hundreds of articles that you can use in your e-zine. The articles are free and available for you to use immediately. The only catch is you’re required to leave the entire article intact, including the author’s promotional information. One of my favorite places to search for articles is www.ezinearticles.com.

One last note: Keep in mind that if your e-zine’s main objective is to get you more clients and customers, you should NOT feature other writers’ articles more than once in a blue moon. Remember our main goal is to continually showcase YOU. : )

© 2001-2008 Alexandria Brown International Inc.

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown publishes the award-winning ‘Highlights on Marketing & Success’ weekly ezine with 28,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at www.AlexandriaBrown.com.

One of the challenges users of Wordpress face is the choice of a Wordpress “theme.”

Wordpress themes determine:
• The fonts used on the site
• The basic layout of the site
• The color scheme
• How the navigation is listed (are there tabs, etc.)

On the one hand, we love Wordpress themes because you can drastically change the look of a site just by choosing a different theme. You can easily incorporate a graphic look without hiring an expensive designer. On the other hand, there are some features that cannot be changed without some re-programming.

Internet marketing guru, Alice Seba, explained what she loves and changes in her Wordpress themes in her post, Is Wordpress REALLY All That? She makes some very valid points about the limitations of the Wordpress site (for example, that what shows up on a standard page of a Wordpress site is the same on nearly every page unless you alter it).

Overall, though, the feeling is that Wordpress can be one of the easiest ways to get your content onto the Internet, especially without having to pay a designer every time you want to add or change something.

One of the most common (and easiest) changes to make to a Wordpress theme is what appears on the home page. Some of our clients choose to have a static home page where they may have a sales letter or a standard introduction for their visitors. Others want their blog posts to appear on the home page. We can set it up either way–you should pick the solution that will lead your visitors to your next step, whether that is to sign up for your newsletter or buy your product or something else!

I came across this great blog post today about the most common flaw in author websites.

Any guess what it might be?

Focus.

Determining what you most want your visitor to do and telling him or her exactly how to do it.

The post also has examples of 5 different sites and what’s good or bad about them. I’d recommend visiting the Exhibit links before you read the commentary to see if you can spot the good or bad parts of each site. This is a great way to see if you have the gene for “good design” (and if not make sure you hire someone to help you design your websites and your book covers)!

You can read the entire post here.

A couple more website challenges I see are

1. not enough info to help me decide if I should buy/if I really want it,
2. bad graphic design (including poor/jagged graphics),
3. too much focus on the author and not enough focus on how the site can help the visitor,
4. too hard to buy,
5. no contact info and
6. no way to subscribe for more info/no reason to subscribe.

What do you think? Anything else I missed?

Every website (including yours!) needs an email newsletter. Why? Because of the bazillion marketing messages your visitors will receive today. Once you go to all the trouble of learning how to get traffic to your blog, then you have to get your visitor to DO something.

Even though you may want them to buy on the spot, experts tell us it takes 7-9 exposures before a potential prospect turns into a buyer…. and an email newsletter is a wonderful way to get more exposure.

We set up email newsletter functionality for all our blogsite clients, but you’ll notice there are several different email newsletter software programs we are using. To help you determine which one is the best, here are 10 questions you should ask about each service:

1. Does the email newsletter software offer a free or low-cost trial version, a demo version or a money-back guarantee? You want a chance to experiment with the software to see if you like the way it works or not.

2. Does it offer free newsletter templates? Especially if you are setting up your own newsletter, you want an easy-to-design newsletter that lets you incorporate your business logo or book cover.

3. What does the email newsletter cost, and even more importantly, what does it cost as your list grows? Your goal should be to have 10,000 subscribers, and several of the services, while inexpensive at the beginning, start rising in a hurry once you have 500, 1,000 or just 2,500 subscribers.

4. Can you send unlimited messages? Many of the email newsletter programs will charge you per message sent rather than per user. We never recommend these services because we want you to feel confident sending messages whenever you want to (especially when you want to announce something new).

5. What does the service do to ensure deliverability of your newsletters? It can be difficult to get email delivered. Many of the largest services create relationships with the major internet service providers to help track their deliverability. They also require double opt-in which means that when an email address is entered, a confirmation link is sent to the new subscriber to ensure they did want to subscribe (this stops spammers who use email addresses without permission).

6. Do you have unlimited sequential autoresponder services? An autoresponder is a special kind of email functionality that lets you set up a series of messages (for example, a message a week for the next 52 weeks) and then each time someone subscribes, they will receive the messages in order. It doesn’t matter when they subscribe, they always get the first message and then each one in order.

This can be an easy additional revenue stream if you can reposition your content into a weekly or monthly “course” delivered by email (Want to know more? Check out Membernaire here. I’m a member and it’s a thorough step-by-step course.)

7. Does the newsletter service automatically convert your RSS feeds into newsletters? An RSS feed is the technology that automatically notifies readers of your blog that you have new contents. Some of the services automatically create email newsletters from your RSS feeds.

8. Can you personalize the messages? Most services let you collect your visitors’ names and then let you put the names in the newsletter so you can say, “Hi Julie” at the beginning of each message.

9. How long has the service been around? The real challenge for email newsletter services is staying power. Many of the free services, especially, started out strong but then their policies prevented them from being a long-term solution, and they shut down leaving their publishers without a way to reach their subscribers.

10. Does the service support CAN-SPAM requirements? The CAN-SPAM legislation has some very specific requirements for email newsletter publishers, and many of the services handle the requirements for you.

11. Can you schedule your messages to go out sometime in the future? This feature is really helpful when you plan to go on vacation. You can schedule your newsletter so it will continue to go out without you.

12. Is your newsletter archived for you? One of the best ways to get new subscribers is to share past issues with them. Some of the email newsletter services will set up archives for you.

Another common question is whether instead of paying for a service, can you just use one of the free services, like Yahoo Groups, for your newsletter? Can you? Yes. Should you? No, and here’s why….. most of these services put unrelated advertising in your newsletter. Do you really want to send your visitors to someone else’s site–and not even get paid for the advertising? It’s also a challenge to get yourself off these services because you have to resubscribe everyone to your new service (and lots of people won’t take the time to resubscribe). You don’t want to know how I know this (one of my sites is still using Yahoo Groups because of this!)

My number one piece of advice about email newsletter software is to get started with the right service from the very beginning. Moving around later will cost you subscribers. It’s much better to pay a little more now and have a long-term solution.

Here are my favorite email newsletter software programs:

Aweber - Easy-to-use, good deliverability, flat monthly fee for unlimited messages to 10,000 subscribers (6-22-08 updates: Pricing structure has changed slightly based on the number of subscribers - 500, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000 and 25,000), supports RSS and includes HTML templates. Find out more about aWeber here.

iContact - Easy-to-use, includes over 300 templates, archives, pricing varies with number of subscribers. Get more info on iContact here.

OrganizedCart.com - Useful if you will be selling downloadable items or doing teleseminars/webinars where you would like your buyers added to an email list once they buy. Bit more complex to use, and may be more than you need. We typically set up the system for our clients, and then train them on the pieces they need to use. Try the trial version here.

Feedburner.com or Feedblitz.com - These two solutions are specifically for bloggers and will notify your subscribers automatically each timen you’ve made a new post.

With a little time spent experimenting, you can find the perfect email newsletter service for you.

In my last post on how to blog, we discussed how to find search-engine friendly phrases to blog about.

Here is another quick and easy way to find something to blog about: comment on current news in your topic area and add your own spin on it.

For example, I typed “what’s new in blogging” into Google. Then I clicked on the News tab to see an article that mentions how libraries are using blogging to increase circulation here. Here is the post I could do about it:

Even Libraries See the Power of Blogging

Libraries are jumping on the blogging bandwagon and are using the medium to increase circulation. The Williamsburg Regional Library in Virginia has recently launched Blogging for a Good Book, and noticed how this new medium has attracted readers of not only the latest titles, but also older titles. As LibraryJournal.com reported in their book survey article, all of the titles being blogged about are circulating, even older ones.

Since blogging is such an interactive experience, libraries can use this medium to connect with their patrons. The commenting feature of blogs could even be used to facilitate online book discussion groups. Libraries and blogs are definitely a good mix, and an area for growth for both librarians and readers.

A couple features for you to note:

• These types of posts can be quick and easy-to-write,
• They provide interesting topics for your readers,
• Include links to the original news article so your readers can find out more,
• Be sure to expand on the topic with your own original spin,

and

• Definitely use the online news sources to find the latest and greatest news on your topic.

Just a little surfing can provide a quick and easy way to blog!

One of the biggest challenges for a new blogger learning how to blog is determining what to write about. We have a list of 15 different ways to blog that we share with our clients, and I’ll describe one of them here.

First, think about the question, “What is something my readers really need to know about?” Make a list of the 10 most common questions you get about your topic. Then do keyword research to see exactly what phrases are used most often in the search engines for that topic.

For example, one of the topics you need to know about when creating your blog is a “blogroll”. So I went to the Wordtracker keyword tool and determined that the most commonly typed phrase is What is a blogroll? So then I wrote a post with the title, Glossary: What is a Blogroll? and back when I created this post, I ranked #11 on Google for this phrase–and I got traffic from it.

The Wordtracker keyword tool will tell you the different phrases people type in and how popular each one is. The best way to start is by typing in a fairly general phrase (for example, I used “blog”) and then look at the list Wordtracker generates. Then you can pick a phrase that is used often and is easy for you to blog about.

So if you’re having trouble determining what to blog about, follow these three simple steps:

1) Go back to basics. What do your readers need to know?
2) Do keyword research with the Wordtracker keyword tool to see how they are looking for that phrase.
3) Create a post with a commonly-used keyword phrase in the title and in the post.

It doesn’t get much easier than that when you are trying to learn how to blog!

I’m sure you’ve heard the proverb that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In the blogging world, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture on a blog is priceless.

Pictures add feelings, emotions, excitement and then you also get to add words for your readers to help explain why the picture has been included. Our client, Erica Ross-Krieger at WellnessCoach.com, does a fantastic job of including photos in her posts.

See how you instantly get a feeling for what this post is about without even reading it?

You want to do the same thing on your blog… give your visitors a feeling for what you’re talking about before they even start.

So where do you get the photos? The internet has plenty of photo sites where you can purchase photos (and some are even free)! Just make sure you read the terms of use on each site to make sure you have the copyright/permission to use a photo on your blog. You may need to pay for the right to use a photo, and sometimes you pay royalties based on how many times it is used.

Two of my favorite places to get budget-friendly images are iStockPhoto and Big Stock Photo.

I was going to recommend a popular site for free images but after checking their terms, I couldn’t….they don’t get model releases for the photos and you could inadvertently post a photo without the proper permission.

Another thing to keep in mind with your blogsite is “How busy is my site?” You’ll notice we don’t have a lot a photos on YourBlogTeam.com…. mainly because the site has lots of places for your eye to land the way it is. Because of the unique design with the offset header, the rolling headlines at the top, and the text fully justified, adding too much more could be overwhelming to the visitor.

So do you use photos on your blog? Why or why not?