Business Blog Boost

I only recently installed the Wordpress Stats plugin to Business Blog Boost and my travel website blog. I thought I was getting enough information from the stats from my web host 1and1.co.uk. I knew how many visitors came to the blog every day and the number of views each of the blog posts were getting. I’m wary of having too many stats as they can either confuse you and/or you can spend far too much time looking at and analysing them.

Statistics are there to help you so you should not be intimidated by them! That’s the beauty of Wordpress stats, no gimmicks, impossible to understand data, just simple numbers. I’ve found many ways to use the additional features of Wordpress stats to improve my blog performance.

1 Search terms - You can see which terms were typed into search engines that led visitors to the blog. If you know which search terms are most popular you can write more entries on these topics and compose the post titles so more visitors can find your blog. I saw that “improve your blog” was a common search term for Business Blog Boost, so I incorporated the phrase into the title of this post.

2 Inward links - You can see which links lead visitors to your blog. If visitors came from a link in a comment you have made at another blog then you can judge which blogs you should visit and comment at regularly. If visitors are coming from a social networking site such as Stumbleupon then you can try to submit posts there more often.

3 Outward links - There are also stats for which links in your post were clicked by visitors. This lets you know which links readers find most interesting and useful. I want to encourage readers of my blog to click through to guides and articles on my travel website, so that some will book accommodation or car hire through the affiliate links on my site. However I think it is also important to include links to any relevant information sources as this makes your blog a more valuable resource to readers. Therefore readers are more likely to subscribe to your blog and read posts regularly because the blog is perceived as more than a promotion vehicle for you business.

[tags]Wordpress statistics plugin, blog statistics[/tags]

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When I read that it’s free to sign up to the basic business package on BT Tradespace. I was a bit suspicious. However, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I decided to sign up my travel business, Europe a la Carte. BT describes Tradespace as a directory listing with an interactive web presence combined with the power of BT marketing, sounds impressive!

When you go to the sign up page the superior paid for option comes up, which may be appealing to some businesses because for £15 a month your customers in the UK and abroad can phone you. I didn’t look into the small print for this as I don’t receive many phone enquiries for my travel business, it’s mainly email enquiries.

You fill out a business profile with a link to your site. You can upload photos, podcasts, rate other members, participate in forums and join various communities. You can also start a blog (no thanks 2 is enough for me] but it could be a good way to dip your toe into the world of blogging. It would certainly make your entry more eyecatching and interactive. BT recommend that you post an entry to your blog at least once a week, which is not too arduous.

I think that if you want to get the most out of Tradespace you’d probably have to spend quite a bit of time keeping your content fresh and networking. It also depends on the type of business you have, if you sell your product/service to other businesses, Tradespace could be more beneficial to you.

Have you boosted your business since registering with BT Tradespace?

[tags]BT Tradespace, online business directory[/tags]

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I blogged about this topic on my travel blog today and thought I would duplicate the post here. I read about the social network aggregator Wink last week and decided to join. It sounded like a good idea to have my websites, blogs and input to other sites like Flickr and Stumbleupon in one place. I set up a profile adding the urls of all my “places”. Then I made a widget which you can see below and in the sidebar.

Find me at….

people search by

make your own Wink Widget!

I will wait and see if winking is an effective way of promoting my business. I believe the Wink Widget makes it easier for readers of your blog to see what else you are doing and increases the possibility of readers visiting and/or subscribing to your other sites and/or blogs and social networking input.

Have you used Wink or any other social network aggretators, how useful have they been to you as a method of spreading the word about your business?

Technorati Tags: social network aggregators, Wink.com

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Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days. My travel site, Europe a la Carte was hacked. I was able to get the main site up and running again fairly fast but the blog took a bit longer. I was amazed that my site was hacked, it’s not as though there is anything of value such as credit card details. The hacked site had a photo of a Goth and large letters saying “Hacked Pit10 OwnZ Yo”.

Hacked by Christos_m2001

I found my host oneandone to be extremely helpful and efficient.  I phoned them as soon as I discovered that the site had been hacked and they were able to get the main site up and running again within minutes.  It took a bit longer, around 20 hours, for the blog to be put right as oneandone had to retrieve the files from their back up.  I know small businesses are always looking for value for money and I don’t think that oneandone are the very cheapest. I did do some research and choose them because they received high ratings for reliability and customer service.

It was really annoying and frustrating. It damages your reputation because if a visitor to the site/blog sees a message like this they will immediately leave and never return. Some blog subscribers may unsubscribe too. Has you site/blog been hacked? Do you believe that it had any serious effect on your business in the long term?

[tags[hackers[/tags]

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Reading and making worthwhile, relevant comments on other blogs is good way of raising your profile and marketing your blog. I would stress that the comments should stay on topic and contribute something interesting to the discussion. If you just type in a few words and hope this will do the trick you’ll be disappointed. You want to become known and respected as an expert in your field.

I generally leave comments on travel related blogs to market my travel blog. However it could be a good strategy to leave comments on any blogs which you think potential customers may read. For example if you have a blog for a gardening business, you could leave comments on a home improvement blog because home owners who are doing projects inside their home are good bets to also spend money on their gardens.

When I leave comments on blogs I make sure that I read the post a couple of times and that I have something to say which is relevant to the post and demonstrates my knowledge or experience. With most comments there will be a link back to your blog, so if readers like your comments because they are entertaining or informative then they are more likely to click that link, read some of your blog posts and even subscribe to your blog.

Like everything else involved in maintaining your business blog this takes time and effort. You have to read other blogs and compose your comments. There’s not going to be a sudden deluge of readers and subscribers to your blog because you leave a couple of comments.

[tags]business blogs, blog comments[/tags]

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The first thing to consider is whether your blog should be written by someone in your company or if you will secure the services of a writer. I didn’t consider hiring someone to write the blog for my travel business. I wanted there to be continuity in style and content between my website and blog. It really depends on the business you have and if you feel confident about writing yourself. If you find a writer who has experience in your industry and as a blogger, they may well be able to produce a more effective blog and the writer’s fees could be a good investment. However I do think it makes the blog more authentic if it’s written by someone who has direct experience of working in your organisation. A good blog is not all about spin and perfect presentation.  Readers will see straight through that and there will be nothing compelling to make them come back a blog written by a somewhat distant third party.

If you make the decision to author your blog in-house, who is going to do the writing? For me this wasn’t an issue, as I don’t have partners or employees. I sometimes think it would be great for my blog to have several authors because then I’d only have to write a post a few times a month, the load could be spread. I think multi authoring could also make the blog more interesting for readers as they get variety of writing styles and perspectives. I have regular guest interviews and guest post to add some fresh content to my blog.

The downside is that the blog may lack coherence and focus if there are several writers. I wouldn’t advise trying to force participation in writing for the blog. as it’s better to have a fewer enthusiastically written posts than more insepid, disinterested posts. If several people in your organisation spend time researching and writing for the blog you could experience a loss of productivity which would have to compensated for by a increase in revenue brought about by the blog.

There is not a definitive answer to “Who should write your blog?”. You have to look at your own business and how you can best achieve the aim of your blog.

For me it was a relatively simple decision to write the blog myself because I enjoy writing posts and have experience in writing destination guides and articles for my travel business. My business is very much a reflection of my personal preference to get off the beaten track and see more of the real Europe.

What’s your opinion?

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When I first started with my Wordpress blog I didn’t realise there were so many additional features that you can add to the blog. Here’s a list of the ten plugins I’ve found most useful in the blog for my travel business.

1 Subscribe to comments - allows readers to receive updates on any comments made on a post, so they can keep in touch with ongoing discussions. You want to get readers involved with your posts so this is plugin is essential.

2 Adsense Deluxe - makes it easier to manage your Adsense ads in your blog. If you decide that it makes sense for you to have Google Ads on your blog, this plugin will make your life simpler.

3 Chicklet Creator - simple way to add feed buttons to your blog to make it easy for readers to subscribe to your blog.

4 Related posts - lists 3 posts which are related to each post to enable readers to read more about a topic of interest.

5 Message for new readers - welcomes new readers and asks if they would like to subscribe to the blog.

6 Category Cloud - instead of a list of categories in sidebars, you have a cloud with different font sizes depending on the number of posts in each category.

7 Sociable - makes it easy for members of social networking sites such as Digg and Stumbleupon to tag your post.

8 Google Sitemap - makes it easier for your blog to be indexed by the major search engines.

9 Simple Tags - simple method of adding Technorati tags to your posts so that the main blog search engine, Technorati, can catergorise your posts.

10 Feedburner Smith - detects all the ways to access your blog feed allowing Feedburner to track your subscribers.

If you’ve found any other useful Worpress plugins please let me know.

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I have started a Swicki, a cross between a search engine and a wiki, for Business Blog Boost as a new resource for business bloggers. The swicki is now in residence in the sidebar of the blog.

Together we can built a really relevant, useful intelligent search engine to help boost your business by blogging. Visit the swicki below to find information about business blogs, vote for your favourite sites, ask questions and suggest new content.

check out the Blogging for your business swicki at eurekster.com

[tags]swicki, business blogs[/tags]

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With the benefit of hindsight and experience blogging for my business, here’s my list of 10 ways to improve your business blog. You have to bear in my mind that I author a travel blog as part of my main website. The blog is self hosted using the Wordpress publishing platform. However I reckon that many of the tips will be relevant and help you boost your business with a blog.

1 Start the blog now. If you have already started focus on how to improve your blog. I wish I’d started my travel blog earlier. I was prompted to start blogging for my business by an email from a business studies student researching for a disseration about travel business blogs.

2 Make it easy for readers to subscribe, have an obvious suscribe button. You want to build up a core of regular, loyal readers. For the first few months of my blog the only way to subscribe was to click on text under a post. I also recently added a Wordpress plugin where a “Welcome and would you like to subscribe?” message appears on the first two blog visits.

3 Add Technorati tags to your posts. Make it easy for Technorati, the main blog search and rating engine, to find your posts by using these topic labels. I use Simple Tags plugin to do this.

4 Use more photos. A photo of a destination on my travel blog conveys a lot more than a well written description. It makes the post look more appealing then screeds of text. While that my be true for my travel blog, I don’t think adding loads of photos in this blog is relevant.

5 Add the 3 most recent blog headlines to your website home page with Buzzboost. Visitors to you home page can see that you have a blog and what sort of topics you are blogging about. You want to publise your blog as much a possible.

6 Analyse your stats more thoroughly, Feedburner is good for this. See which posts are popular so you can evaluate which topics and styles of posts appeal to readers and replicate this winning formula whilst still being fresh.

7 Submit to social networking sites. So far the most useful for me has been Stumbleupon.

8 Install Google Adsense. The blog is one of the top earners of Adsense revenue on my travel website.

9 Use the facility to set a future publishing date for posts to avoid bunching of posts. Some days I have the time and inspiration to write several entries and then nothing for a few days. As soon as you have an idea for a blog post, scribble down that idea on a list. Otherwise that idea may just slip your mind and in few days you’ll be racking your brain wondered what on earth to blog about.

10 Be more focused in your posts. Think are you satisfying readers and promoting the business as much as possible when planning and writing a post?

Please let me know if you have found any of the tips useful or if you have any that you think I should add.

[tags]business blogs, Technorati., Google Adsense, Feedburner, Stumbleupon, Wordpress plugins[/tags]

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