Blogs

Syndicating Your Content
Show Notes: November 29, 2010

Free Blogs versus Self Hosted Blogs [ 15:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (15)

In today’s episode I shared information on having a free blog at WordPress.com or Blogger.com versus having a self hosted blog like Syndicating Your Content.

Have you ever said the words “Here’s my website, but the information’s a little out of date” and blushed a little out of embarrassment to anyone who’s asked for your web address? Or do you Google your name, business name or keywords and your site doesn’t show up on the results?

You know, it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.

People expect you to have a relevant, up-to-date web site. Especially if you’re a small business. It’s as common as a handshake, and now it’s just about as simple as one too.

Enter WordPress.

WordPress is an open-source (read: free) content management system (aka CMS) that’s taken over the internet. Over 13 million websites (http://en.wordpress.com/stats/) are running on WordPress including People, The New York Times and Wired Magazine as well as Syndicating Your Content.

So what’s the fuss?

Isn’t WordPress just for blogs?

WordPress is for more than blogging. One look at The New York Times will tell you that it’s not just for telling everyone about your dog’s latest escapades anymore.

Over the past few years WordPress has grown from a simple blogging platform to a robust publishing system that can do just about anything you want it to, provided you have the coding skills.

And if you don’t have the coding skills, WordPress is perfect for getting your web presence set up in a matter of hours instead of weeks. And you don’t have to bug that recalcitrant web guy to change the copyright date on your web site.

So why should you use WordPress?

1. SEO: Google loves wordpress, and you can easily get on page 1 of google with strategic keyword placements in your blog posts.
2. Control: Once you have WordPress installed, you have control over all your content. You can edit your pages to your heart’s content, as easily as you can create a Word document.
3. Looks good out of the box. WordPress comes installed with a clean, professional-looking default theme that allows you to change the header image and background without touching a line of code.
4. Change when you want to. Since your content is completely separate from how the site actually looks, you can change the theme whenever you feel like it without touching your content.
5. You can blog. Or not. There is no rule that says you have to blog. Honestly. But if you want to, WordPress is built to handle this. Or you can just hide the feature if you don’t care for it. I would, however, keep some sort of regularly-updated something on the site. Make use of the blog for news, announcements, coupons, specials or sales instead.
6. Huge user base and support. There are millions of WordPress users. And you’ll be able to find the answers to your questions and problems pretty quickly out there on the web, or find someone to fix your problem for you. WordPress.org even has a pretty extensive knowledge base and well-monitored forums.
7. Inexpensive. There are thousands of free and inexpensive themes for you to install to change the look of your site. If you’re the DIY type, you can learn enough to be able to make WordPress look how you want for free. If you’re not the DIY type, there are more than enough people out there who can make your site look the way you want it for anywhere from $500-$3000.

Gone are the days where small business web sites are held captive by too-busy web guys. And gone are the days where a small business had to pony up a second mortgage to pay for a site that looks halfway decent only to never be able to change a thing.

WordPress puts control back into your hands, right where it should be.

Today I listened to an audio interview with an online marketer, branded as a platform specialist. During the interview it was mentioned that you really don’t need a website. The interviewer was taken aback and asked what the marketer meant. The marketer replied, “you can use a blog instead of a website.”

I’ve heard that so many times….”oh, it’s a blog.” While I can appreciate that at one time blogs really were not visually appealing, but baby, those times have changed. There are so many free and premium themes to choose from, and so many ways to customize the blog that the days of you seeing stacked posts are long gone.

One of my favorite themes is WP Remix. It has ten different homepage designs, fifteen plus interior pages, gallery pages, photo and product pages. It’s extremely flexible and doesn’t require programming knowledge to create new pages. It also has a blog page for all your posts.

WordPress has come a long way and is an ideal solution for a small business owner with a tight budget, but plenty of sweat equity. Additionally, the benefits of having a blog if you’re using social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube are tremendous. You can let the blog do all the heavy lifting by syndicating your content online.

If you want to give blogging a try, go to WordPress.com, which is the free blog site and open an account. If you really love blogging, you can easily export out all your content and bring it into a self-hosted blog, like Syndicating Your Content.

Syndicating Your Content

Syndicating Your Content
Show Notes: February 8, 2010

Blogging Tips [ 14:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (179)

Today’s show shares how RSS and Blogs start the content syndication process.

Sites or services discussed:

HootSuite – check out the Hootlet
Google’s Reader – subscribe to blog rss feeds with Reader

Internet markets today understand the immense benefits of hosting their blogs on their own domain.

If you are serious about wanting to earn money on the internet, then you will need to set up a blog and host it on your domain. Outlined below are some of the main benefits which you can enjoy from hosting your own blog on your domain.

• If you have a blog hosted on your domain, you have control over everything about your blog. You can have your own layout and design for your blog, which means you can have a blog that matches your website logo. You can make your blog as unique as you want. This gives you an edge against other competing blogs in the same niche which may have similar layouts. You also have complete freedom to do anything you want with your blog. By hosting your blog on your domain, you can control your blog in many ways you want and you can add any features you want.

• By hosting your blog on your domain name, you make it easier for people to remember your blog.

• Hosting your blog on your domain means that you can develop and promote your own brand using your blog. You can make your blog headings similar to your website. In terms of search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising, this is very important because you will be advertising and optimizing your own domain and your own brand. SEO is also effective to do with your own domain name that includes your keywords. This will increase your blog’s visibility on search engines.

• By hosting your blog on your website, you have added security. This means that you don’t have to worry about losing your information or getting locked out of your account.

• You present a professional image by having your online business logo on your blog. This gives you ad edge against other competing website or blogs.

• Hosting your own blog gives you much more flexibility and extendability, meaning you can more easily monetize your blog, creating passive income.

Based on the advantages outlined above, if you are serious about your online business, you must consider hosting your blog on your own domain.

Join the conversation and let me know what you think by commenting!

Ok, another new word, scraping.  I was notified that I had comments awaiting moderation. These comments showed a small portion of my original post, including a link back to my blog.  Usually I check the website address for the comment to see if it’s legit and found that these types of comments were on a useless blog.  I couldn’t figure it out….until today.

I have made it a practice not to approve comments that don’t really add to the blog, that are blatantly bogus. I subscribe to a ton of blogs and I found this post, "One Sure Way To Stop Scrapers From Earning Off Your Blog", from Blog Content Provider.com to explain it well.

Let me know what you think by commenting below.

Small Business Webinar Series on Blogs and Blogging

 Monday, March 24th 3pm PT – 6pm ET

• Want to know where to submit your blog?
• Want to learn how to share your blog content?
• Would you like to be recognized as an expert in your industry?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, blogging is for you. Magic In Blogging will host a small business webinar on blogs and blog marketing. Whether you go the full route of having a blog site as your main site, like Magic In Blogging, or if you add a blog to your existing site, there’s no doubt that blogging will drive more traffic to your site.

Don’t miss this webinar! Participate from the comfort of your office with only an internet connection and speakers. What are you waiting for? Sign up now, learn about blogging and bring more traffic to your site.

Small Business Webinar Series on Blogs and Blogging

 Monday, March 10th 6pm PT – 9pm ET

• Do you want more traffic to your website?
• Do you want to improve your search engine rankings?
• Would you like to be recognized as an expert in your industry?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, blogging is for you. Magic In Blogging will host a small business webinar on blogs and blog marketing. Whether you go the full route of having a blog site as your main site, like Magic In Blogging, or if you add a blog to your existing site, there’s no doubt that blogging will drive more traffic to your site.

I know, you’re asking, “how’s blogging going to help me?” Those are the questions this webinar will answer for you.

• What is blogging?
• How will it help my business?
• What do I have to do?
• Do I need any special programming skills?

Don’t miss this webinar! Participate from the comfort of your office with only an internet connection and speakers. What are you waiting for? Sign up now, learn about blogging and bring more traffic to your site.

This is a tutorial on adding a custom header image to your Blogger blog. You’ll want to make your blog look as much like your branded business as possible.

Let me know, by posting a comment, if this has been helpful.

We all want to make a little money, or maybe a lot of money, on our blogging efforts. In a continuing desire to assist you in developing monetization strategies for your blog.

I’ve also talked about using Google News Alerts to help you discover content for your blog posts. I’ve really been put to the test by participating in the 24 Days ‘Til Christmas Blogging.

I found a great post on developing an advertising strategy for your blog and wanted to share it with you.

I’ll be sharing more opportunities for you to create a passive income from your blogs and blogging efforts. If you have any to share, please feel free to leave a comment.