Triune Designs Blog: Web Design, Development, & Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Blog Mothership

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Here is a good article discussing the importance of your company’s blog.

Since there are so many social media options available, it is good to maintain some perspective. The post provides a good mental image (for Star Wars/Star Trek geeks like me) to help you maintain that perspective:

Your blog is your mothership. Don’t neglect it for lesser tools.”

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/the-unconventional-guide-to-the-social-web/

The post also provides some useful thoughts on how to maintain your blog as well.

Here is the link: Your blog is your mothership.

Whose Blog Is It?

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

A while ago I read a blog post by a well-known blogger who was irritated by people commenting that they were unsubscribing to his blog. The readers were unsubscribing because they felt he was getting off track from the blog’s main focus. His response to them? “See ya. I am better off without you.” While he was at it, he also pointed out that the blog was his and he could write whatever he wanted.

For me it raised an important question: whose blog is it?

His Blog
It should be noted that his blog is a semi-personal one and not a business blog like this. (However, since he makes part of his living through his blog I am counting it as part business/part personal.) With that said, though, the blogger is right. It is his blog. He can shut it down whenever he wants. He can decide to go in a completely different direction and start writing lemur-themed haiku posts. The same is true for this blog. If we decided to only write about the benefits of oscillating fans during the summer there is not much you could do about it. Or could you?

Your Blog
While the audience cannot completely control the website owner’s actions, the audience does have some power. They have a voice. As was mentioned above, their voices come in two primary forms: (1) commenting and (2) unsubscribing. Voicing displeasure on comments is a great way to provide feedback to the writer(s). In a blogging community (like a business blog should support), responding to feedback is vital to a blog’s health. If there is no response then that blog community moves on to step two: mass exodus. If large masses of people leave your blog then your revenue streams and/or marketing opportunities dry up. That is bad for business.

So, for me, the answer to my question of “whose blog is it?” is simple. The blog is both of theirs. That particular blogging community has part ownership with the final decision-making power lying in the hands of the writer himself.

And, if the blogger wants to go in a completely new direction. He will just have to understand that they might have to find a brand new audience.

Creating A Sticky Post

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Do you have a great post that you want the world to see for a while? Then let me introduce you to sticky post! Sticky post, meet reader. Reader, meet sticky post.

Your Normal Settings
In your default WordPress blog setting, every time you publish a new post the older ones get bumped down one notch. The newest post takes over the top slot and is the first one people see when visiting your blog. This keeps your blog clean and tidy in chronological order.

Being A Little Sticky
There are, however, times when you might want that special blog post to “stick” around for a while in the top slot. WordPress allows you to to do this in the visibility settings on the right side of your post editing page.

Here is what to do:

  1. Find the publish area on the edit post page.
  2. Find the visibility setting (see image below).
  3. Click “edit” to the right of visibility.
  4. Check “Stick this post to the front page” (see image below).
  5. Click ok to save the change.

Sticky Post (Publish > Visibility > Edit

Sticky Post (Check Box)

That is it. You have just allowed that awesome post to hang around for a while longer to bask in all its greatness.

Thanks to Noupe for highlighting this feature in WordPress 2.7. If you want more great tips and tricks to master WordPress check out their article.

Blogging Can Be Dangerous To Your Wallet

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago the Charlotte Observer reported that a South Carolina

advertising agency… won $1.8 million in damages after suing an author of a blog – known for its harsh and sometimes crass criticism of elected officials, business leaders and local media – for defamation.

Man wins $1.8 million in suit against blogger

According to the Observer, court documents state that the blogger called the head of the ad agency a

“failed lawyer” and “criticized one of the firm’s advertising campaigns.”

Man wins $1.8 million in suit against blogger

I know that you will never encounter a problem like this because you are providing information that is helpful and informational for your readers, but a little reminder never hurts.

Always be mindful about how your blog posts impact others. A negative-slanted post might

  • damage your company’s or your own reputation
  • detract from your blog’s overall message
  • take a little extra cash out of your wallet

Here’s to happy and helpful business blogging!

Your Compound Audienceship

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Web marketing is very similar to how you accumulate wealth. When done properly, both activities require discipline and time in order to grow and be successful.

This aspect of web marketing is its biggest hurdle and yet its biggest value. Why? It means that everyone cannot just swoop in, make a half-hearted effort and then subsequently succeed.

This gives small businesses owners, like us, leverage. If you are willing to commit your time and effort to steadily growing your online presence, over the long-term, it will begin to provide the results you are seeking.

Compound Audienceship

Your Very Own Compound Interest
When dealing with savings, you add some money to your account on a regular basis. The interest then goes to work on your constantly-updated balance and increases your overall savings. Over a period of time, you will begin to see the realization of the compound interest.

Three factors determine your success: you adding money, the interest working on your balance, and time allowing the interest to build upon itself.

Your web marketing is very similar. When dealing with blogging, your job is to write frequent posts. Write posts that have good content and that do something for your audience. At first, one or two people will read your blog. As these few readers find interesting information on your blog, they will tell a friend or two. This process will continue upon itself, creating “compound audienceship.”

Similar to above, the key factors here are your effort (i.e. writing posts), your engaged audience telling others about something they read on your website, and time allowing the growing audience to build upon itself.

What You Can Do To Help Yourself
When dealing with savings accounts, there is not much you can do to help accelerate the growth. Mainly, you just try to find the best interest rate that will allow your money to grow a little faster. Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to help yourself out with blogging. None of these are quick fixes, but they will help your cause.

  • Continue writing… do not stop.
  • Engage your audience. Try to reply to their comments as much as possible.
  • Read other people’s blogs and comment on them. Get involved in the community around you.
  • Stay focused on your audience and write material that is oriented towards them.

If you want to read more about blogging being a long-term investment, check out my article relating blogging to a marathon.

The 3D Bar Graph Meeting image above is courtesy of lumaxart on Flickr. You can also find their work at thegoldguys.blogspot.com or lumaxart.com.

Back-up Regularly

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Before continuing, I will give you fair warning: this story is not for the faint of heart. This story is full of anguish, tears, and loss… loss of data that is.

A couple of prominent web services have completely lost their data over the past few months and I mean everything!

Chalkboard

Ma.gnolia
According to SitePoint’s podcast, Ma.gnolia, a social bookmarking site similar to Delicious lost their entire database. Every single person who kept their bookmarks on this website lost everything and will now have to rebuild their store of website bookmarks.

Ma.gnolia

Journalspace
I also heard on SitePoint’s podcast that Journalspace, a blogging platform similar to WordPress(.com), lost all of their data. This means that every single member of Journalspace lost every single blog post. As any blog author knows, that is devastating!

Journalspace

Why & What You Can Do
Why did this happen? These websites did not back up their data properly. As a result, if the information was deleted on one (or two servers) then everything was erased. This is exactly what occurred in both of the aforementioned examples.

When it comes to your data (i.e. blog posts, personal photos, important documents, videos of the children) do not trust anything. Regularly back it up in multiple places.

Here is an example of how I back up this blog. I schedule automatic backups using an easy WordPress plugin called wp-db-backup. I save that back-up file to the computer in my office and then also back-up the entire drive to another location. With your data always err on the side of caution.

Do Not Be the Chalkboard
Essentially, if you do not back up your information, your data is no more than words on a chalkboard. All it takes is for someone (or something) to come by and wipe it clean and you have lost everything.

The chalkboard photo is courtesy of House Of Sims at Flickr.

Friday Feedback – Make This Blog Better

Friday, January 9th, 2009

One simple question. Many great answers.

Make This Blog Better

My last post on writing shorter blog posts got me thinking: what else can I do to this blog to make it better for you, the reader.

So, for this week I want your advice on one thing I can do to make this blog better. Please write your answer down in the comments below.

I look forward to reading everyone’s suggestions!

Do you like the photo in this post? It is courtesy of bonimo’s events on Flickr.

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