Here are some excellent tips on what mistakes to avoid in your journey to becoming a better blogger.
Business blogging can be exceptionally rewarding. When done correctly, a successful blog can bring attention to your business, can attract new customers, and can turn your current customer base into the type of fans that companies like Apple, Netflix, and Ben and Jerry’s have: people who will not only buy your product or service, but evangelize it to their peers. Of course, like anything, there is a right way to go about starting a business blog and a wrong way.
Creating a blog for your small business isn’t easy; it requires hard work and the ability to think creatively about your work. But if you avoid the five big mistakes laid out in this post, your chances of building a successful business blog will be much better.
See upcoming FREE Webinars on How to Grow your Business: http://www.meetup.com/smallbizvancouver/
I recommend this FREE online seminar (also called a Webinar) put on by Bizlaunch.ca.
For more web design and marketing tips, visit Seascapewebesign.com
Here's a great article on how to create a favicon for your website. A favicon is the little image that you see in your browser address bar to the left of a website's URL.
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/favicon.html
Download the favicon.ico Photoshop plugin here:
http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/
How to install the favicon plugin into Adobe Photoshop:
If you're using an older version of MS Word, you can download for FREE a compatibility pack so you can view documents created with newer versions of Word. See:
Announcing new website created by Seascapewebdesign.com:
Solarwins.com is a leader in providing alternative energy solutions
for the Vancouver, BC Canada area. By using alternative energy, you will:
For more information:
I recommend DailyBlogTips.com written by Daniel Scocco. I've learned lots of good blogging tips from him.
The Trick I Used to Double The Number of Guest Posts on This Blog
by Daniel Scocco
1. Be sure to backup your mailing list regularly. I recently had a client call me and ask for help in retrieving their mailing list. Someone in the office had cancelled their subscription to Mailchimp to save costs. And now they had no access to their mailing list database. When using third party software like Mailchimp, Constant contact, iContact, Vertical Response, etc, be sure to back up your mailing list monthly. There will be a function on their website that allows you to download your mailing list into an Excel spreadsheet.
Oops, I forgot to post my November newsletter. Here it is:
November 2009
1. Ask your clients for their testimonials.
Many business owners are reluctant to ask their clietns for testimonials. This is especially common in women who don’t like to toot their own horn. Clients love to talk about companies they like and most will be happy to give positive comments when asked to do so.
2. Call your clients as part of your follow up and ask for their feedback.
They may not have time to write down a testimonial for you. Make it easy for them. Call your client on the phone and ask how they like your product or service. And ask for any questions or comments.
3. Offer to write it down for them.
You could say something like "that would make a great testimonial for my website." Offer to write it down for them and send it to them by email. Ask them to edit or add anything they wish and also to authorize it.
4. Ask your clients to be more specific.
If they say something like “you did a fantastic job”, ask them to be more specific and to describe a certain aspect of your service that they liked.
5. Ask for their permission.
Be sure to ask the client’s permission to publish their testimonial on your website or in your brochure. Let them know how you plan to use it.
6. Refrain from editing your client’s wording.
If your client sends you a written testimonial, use it as is. You can remove complete sentences if it’s too long but do not change the wording or the sentence order.
7. Include the client’s full name, title and name of their company, and city.
If you use only the person’s initials, it could be anyone and is viewed as less trustworthy.
8. Offer to include a link to your client’s website in the testimonial credits.
This will help promote both of your businesses at the same time.
9. Include a small photo of the person who gave the testimonial.
This makes it more personal and assures the reader of the truth of the testimonial.
For more Internet marketing tips, visit our blog at http://seascapewebdesign.com/blog
Kathryn Laan, Creative Director
Your Website Marketing Experts
Visit SeascapeWebDesign.com Today!
604.729.4227
katy@seascapewebdesign.com
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Tomorrow I will be attending the Marketing Warrior event presented by Colin Sprake of MYMsuccess.com. It's Nov. 19th and 20th. For more info, see http://www.mymsuccess.com/events_marketing_warrior.php
Colin also gives FREE marketing events: http://www.mymsuccess.com/events_marketing_free.php
Colin gives excellent advice on making a great first impression with your business card.
When your computer dies, are you able to continue doing your business? We don’t like to think about it. But sometimes those little machines that we rely on every day to business, sometimes they do break down. Recently my video card died the day before a site was due to be launched and my computer would not start. Thankfully, I had complete website backups on my laptop and on my development server.
