Training

Blogging Hooks

by blogmistress on August 10, 2012

Joe B. loves the analogy of the fishing trotline to explain the benefits of blogging for business:

blogging for businessWell, you have to look at your website like a trotline in fishing. Every page on your website, or post on your blog, is a hook on a trotline. And every one of those pages (hooks) has different bait (keywords). So every one of your blog posts gives you a new opportunity to be found in the results of a search in a search engine. The more blog posts, the more opportunities.

Let’s say you and your biggest competitor have websites with an equal number of pages (it could be 10 or 100 pages, it doesn’t matter). Now, let’s say you have been blogging between 1 and 5 days a week for the last 2 years. That would give you between 104 and 520 additional indexed pages which could appear in search results when people are looking for your products or services!

If you aren’t blogging, you should be. And if you blog enough before your competitors start blogging, you will have a big head start on the number of indexed pages you have.

This is not rocket science, it’s basic math. So, start blogging!

He has a good point there. However, many people in business may not know how to get started. Join me next Wedensday, August 15th for the Blogging for Business 101 webinar and I’ll show you how to get started and do it right to start getting traffic and leads for your business. Click on the button below to register. The webinar is free of charge.


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Why Aren’t You Blogging?

by blogmistress on August 8, 2012

We know the stats. Businesses that blog get:

  • 55% more traffic
  • 97% more inbound links
  • 424% more indexed pages
  • converting 40% more leads

Blogging for Business 101So, why aren’t you blogging? For many businesses, the bottom line is fear. Fear of not having enough time, ideas, and/or skills. Blogging is actually like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get at it. However, you may need a little help in getting started.

Join me for the Blogging for Business 101 webinar on
August 15th
2 p.m. Central Time
You will learn:

  • Best practices for setting up your blog
  • What types of content you can create
  • How to come up with blog topics that will reach your target market
  • Time saving tips and tricks
  • How to use keywords effectively

This webinar will give you a plan for your blogging that will help you get found by people who need you, convert traffic into leads and customers; and we will also go over what you need to analyze to keep you on track.

You can sign up for the webinar at: Blogging for Business 101 registration

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Facebook News Feed | How Do I Control What I See?

by blogmistress on September 29, 2011

The Facebook News Feed has undergone some major changes. Sometimes, this can cause a bit of frustration. I am a fan of Rocky Ridge Refuge on Facebook. Janice Wolf, at the refuge, does a wonderful job of rescuing abused and neglected animals. I’ve noticed many of her fans have mentioned that her daily pictures are not showing up in their news feed. I’ve put together a video tutorial to show you how to create lists that will help you control what you see in your news feed. First, let’s look at what Facebook has to say about it:

How do I control what I see in my News Feed?
Filter by friend lists
Click the name of one of your lists on the left side of your home page to view only stories by people on the list you’ve selected. Hide a person or a story type (e.g. a quiz)
Click the drop-down menu that appears when you hover over the top right corner of a story you want to remove from your stream. Then, select an option from the drop-down menu:

  • “Hide story” will remove the individual story
  • The “Hide all by” and “Unsubscribe from” links will remove the post and prevent all future stories from a person, Page, group, event or app
  • “Report story or spam” will remove the post and help keep your News Feed clear of similar stories in the future

Unhide stories from a person, Page, group, event or app

  1. From your home page, hover your mouse to the left of the left side News Feed menu.
  2. Select Edit
  3. A list of people, apps, Pages, and groups you’ve hidden or unsubscribed from will appear in a pop-up box. Click the X next to each one you’d like to remove from this list. Removing someone or something from your list of hidden stories means those stories can appear in your News Feed again.
  4. Click Save.
The first option listed by Facebook is to control what you see with lists. Of course we’ve always had the option of creating lists, but, now, Facebook is making them even more important. Ready? Here is how to create lists for your favorite pages.




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Blogging Inspiration | Where Do You Find It?

by blogmistress on September 28, 2011

Finding inspiration is one of the biggest obstacles to actually writing blogs articles. In fact, “what should I blog about” is one of the questions we are asked most frequently. Sometimes, just coming up with the idea is half the battle. I’ve written in the past about how to find blog article ideas. Sometimes, inspiration comes from our daily activities.

Yesterday, I spoke to a wonderful group of people about website strategy. This group inspired me. I often find inspiration from talking to business owners who have some really great ideas and are wonderful about helping each other out with their ideas. One of my favorite remarks yesterday concerning blogging has to be, “I though blogging was just some people getting online and being lip-y.”  Just writing that down makes me smile today. These business owners inspired me with their commitment to their businesses. We discussed how their products and services help solve a problem, and seeing how passionate they were about what they are doing, even in this difficult economy, was truly inspiring.

Where do you find inspiration? Do you get it from books, reading other blogs, talking to others? Blogging doesn’t have to be too complicated. It is really just a way to share your knowledge and passion for what you do every day. Your product or service solves a problem. What problem does it solve? Tell me about it on your blog. Write about it and show me why you are the best solution.

Thank you to everyone who attended the seminar yesterday. You inspired me, now, go inspire others!




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Looking for Internet Marketing Training?

by blogmistress on September 1, 2011

internet marketing trainingTechnology information can be quite overwhelming. In fact, new technology information doubles every 2 years! According to former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 may not have existed in 2004. The knowledge a technology student in college learns in their first year will be obsolete by the time they graduate.  Karl Fisch tells us, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented yet, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

In early 2004, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Yelp and Twitter didn’t exist yet. At that time, WordPress and MySpace were the newest kids in town. While MySpace has declined, WordPress continues to grow and, at this time, over 50% of new websites being developed today are built on the WordPress platform.

Technology has certainly changed the way we do business. Three years ago, we used to say, “If you don’t have a website, your are invisible to a lot of your customers.” Now we say, “If you don’t have a website, a social media presence and a comprehensive internet marketing strategy, you will be left behind.” The ROI of learning about and effectively using internet marketing is that your business will still exist in the years to come.

What are today’s businesses to do? It seems that we are overloaded with so much new information and so many new opportunities, it’s just hard to make sense of it all. I think author, Corbin Ball has it right, “Information is cheap, the value is in wisdom.” Businesses need someone to help them break down the information and show them how to make new technologies work for them.

Businesses have some options. One is to seek out training from your area’s Small Business Development Center. These centers often offer great training. I am one of the speakers for the SBDC at Arkansas State University. I am always impressed by the center director, Herb Lawrence. Herb understands the need for businesses to keep up with technology. If the center director in your area is as savvy as Herb, you may be able to find some great group training that will help you.

Another option is to obtain in-house training. This is something that Wharton Marketing now offers. We spend several hours per week on education in the latest and most effective internet marketing technologies and techniques that are available. Because of my background in training and education, it is a natural choice for me to turn around and teach others what can help their business.

It may be that your business needs to learn how to use Facebook effectively or how to integrate social media into your marketing plan. It may be that you need training on how to update your website. I can come to your business and work with your team to train them on the best in internet marketing. I can also speak to your association or convention about internet marketing.

There are two opportunities that you can take advantage of today.

  1. Go check out my speaking page to see some of the past topics that I have trained and get more information about how internet marketing training can help you and your business.
  2. Register for the ASBTDC seminar that I will be teaching on September 27th on Website Strategy and Planning. Just click on the “register” button below.




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