Syndicating Your Content

On Wednesday, February 17, 2010 from 10am to 12pm Pacific Time you can learn how to create, and use, a WordPress.com blog.

If you want to really start getting your message out to the world, blogging is the tool you need.  It’s the beginning of syndicating your passionate message, world wide!

You can bring your blog into many of your social networking sites, making it a very effective tool increasing your online visibility and elevating your credibility. Now is the time to start blogging!

In this online webinar, using desktop sharing tools, you’ll work with me learning:

• What is a post
• What is a page
• What is the sidebar
• What is the content area

Dashboard Orientation

• What are the settings and what do they mean

How To Create and Manage A Post/Page

• Adding Images So your blog will also be visually appealing
• How to use the Timestamp
• Tags – what are they and how to use them
• Categories – what they are and how to use them
• Linking Strategies in Posts/Pages Linking keywords or phrases helps the search engine know what text is more important than other text
• Keyword Strategies

Managing Links, Categories and Comments

• Links – Creating them, managing them
• Managing Comments
• How to control them through the settings
• How you find out about comments on your blog
• How to determine whether you spam them or not
• What to do if you get a negative comment

Click Here To Register

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
10am to 12pm Pacific Time
1pm to 3pm Eastern Time

What You’ll Learn Blog Orientation

• What is a post
• What is a page
• What is the sidebar
• What is the content area

Dashboard Orientation

• What are the settings and what do they mean

How To Create and Manage A Post/Page

• Adding Images So your blog will also be visually appealing
• How to use the Timestamp
• Tags – what are they and how to use them
• Categories – what they are and how to use them
• Linking Strategies in Posts/Pages Linking keywords or phrases helps the search engine know what text is more important than other text
• Keyword Strategies

Managing Links, Categories and Comments

• Links – Creating them, managing them
• Managing Comments
• How to control them through the settings
• How you find out about comments on your blog
• How to determine whether you spam them or not
• What to do if you get a negative comment

Click Here To Register

Blogging has incited the curiosity of millions of people all over the world; it represents a great opportunity for those who create blogs and for those who use them. In the beginning blogging was seen as keeping personal diaries online, however, blogging is far more complex owing to the fact that every blog carries the touch of the owner’s imagination, interest and wit. The range of topics blogs deal with is incredibly wide: from politics and religion to sky diving and scuba diving. The next very important aspect after blog content is actually the interactive format of the pages that allows users to take action on the site by commenting. I liken it to “joining the conversation.”

In the early days of blogging around the mid-90s, people enjoyed the experience of belonging to the online community that went beyond all sorts of boundaries. This was the time when the very first combination of text, pictures and videos were included in a blog, as the most accurate way of reflecting one’s life. Sometimes, bloggers transmitted live images with the help of various portable devices, creating the so-called semi-automated blogging.

At that time, blogs were not individual pages, as they mainly functioned as components of larger websites; nevertheless, with the rapid development of technologies, it came into everyone’s power to create and support a personal independent blog. Successful blogging focuses on high quality content that makes any visitor return to the site and even take action on it.

Presently, you can find guides to creating successful blogs, since, many small business owners perceive the phenomenon as a great chance to promote products and services online. Blogs are presently part of the Internet marketing strategies anyone should use as included within online advertising campaigns; the great advantage of blogging is that it mainly targets potential customers, reducing the number of uninterested users. We could say that thanks to advertising and Internet marketing, blogging has actually become a very promising type of business.

So how do you get started? I’d suggest WordPress.com. It’s a free blogging site and you’ll quickly discover whether blogging is something you can use to leverage your business online. Sign up for access to Syndicating Your Content’s exclusive “members only” area (subscription box is to the right, at the top of the column) to view the WordPress.com video tutorial I created for you! Also, check out the Category section of Syndicating Your Content. There’s a lot of content on blogging on the site. Let me know what you think about blogging by commenting!

Thomas Mangum, Virtual Coffee, interviewed me today for his online radio show.

 

 Thomas Mangum, Virtual Coffee Interviews Debra Simpson, Syndicating Your Content [30:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (164)

We discussed why you’d want to syndicate your content and some of the ways to develop your own intellectual property to sell online, as passive income.

Of course, I discussed blogging, in particular using WordPress as a launching point. I then shared about importing your blog into Facebook and Linkedin. I shared some tips on creating your first ebook to give away from your website as a list building tool.

Let me know what you think about the interview by commenting.

According to Wikipedia….A blog (a contraction of the term “weblog”) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Personally, I think blogs are the beginning of your ability to syndicate your content online. If you have a passionate message, your reach expands online. The world can now be your oyster.

I like blogs as websites. You can easily add audio and video, as well as a variety of “widgets” that will help you do almost anything.

So where do you start?

I suggest getting a free blog at WordPress.com and start there. You won’t have the flexibility at WordPress.com that a self-hosted blog like Syndicating Your Content or North San Diego Business (the blog I built to show the business community in my home town what a blog was) has, but it will give you a good feel for blogging. If it’s something you find works for you, and your business, you can always self-host it down the road. All the work you put into your WordPress.com blog can be brought over to a self hosted blog.

(shameless pandering here…) If you join my email list (up on the right), you’ll get access to my private members only page. On that page is a video “Build A Blog In 90 Mins” which will walk you through an overview of WordPress.

When you create your account at WordPress.com secure your name and business name as usernames.  So, my blog would be:  debrasimpson.wordpress.com, or syndicatingyourcontent.wordpress.com. The reason for securing your name and business name is so that no one else can start a blog with your name or bus name. In fact, you should tie up your name at as many of the social sites as possible, especially if you well branded.

Now you can start syndicating your content, or passionate message. One of the first things I would do is create links (you’ll find “Links” on the left side of your dashboard) back to your business, or html website. Just “Add New” link, and fill in the blanks.

This will help the search engine spiders find your traditional site as they index your blog content. That’s one of the beauties of blogs, they are naturally search engine friendly. Just the act of posting will create activity. Make sure to include some of your keywords in your blog content, and if you can use them as a text link, all the better.

So, your challenge…get a free blog at WordPress.com and start playing with it. Try it for a three months and see if it doesn’t help drive more traffic to your website and raise your visibility in the search engines.

Add to the conversation by commenting.

Blogging is taking off like a wildfire. People are blogging about just about anything you can think of. From the daily routine of their cat, to technology reviews, to politics.

Until the blogosphere sorts itself out and matures a bit more, it may be difficult to tell exactly how this new frontier of instant publishing can help you and your business grow. But don’t worry – you’ll start getting a flood of new ideas in the coming months.

For now, the most important thing you can do is develop the right mindset about business blogging. What you think about something, and how you strategize applying it in your business very often has more to do with success than the technology, tool, or resource itself.

With that in mind, here is the most important thing you can do. Keep your eye on people.

DO NOT get stuck on the “technology.” That’s what drove all the pie-in-the-sky dot.com dreamers into the financial abyss. It’s people and personal communication that matter most, and should always be a the center of all your thoughts, strategies, and actions.

Blogging is just a tool. But it’s a tool that can and should become a major support arm of your business. Why?

Because it exponentially multiplies the world’s oldest, most favored, and trusted form of information sharing — word of mouth.

Just ask yourself, whom do you trust the most to give you advice, recommendations, and information about opportunities, purchases, or choices? Someone you know and trust, right? Someone who you feel is just like you.

That type of trust comes from personal communication, social interaction, and the joining together of like-minded individuals. Blogging simply magnifies and expands that sense of community and more personalized communication, and then expands the reach across the entire world!

Link trust; with respect, positioning, and word-of-mouth and you have the makings of a powerful marketing arm that can initiate an ever-growing stream of highly targeted prospects.

Remember, it’s the relationships that matter most. Keep your eye on that fact, and you’ll always have the right mindset for business blogging that’s a benefit for you and your readers.

So are you blogging yet? Please share your comments and/or stories by commenting below.