Article submissions are a powerful technique for adding additional readers to your blog.

By writing and submitting informative and interesting articles, on your topics of interest, free long term publicity for you and your blog are achieved.

Here is a website that lists many article submission sites, where you can send your columns, posts, and articles. Most of the listed sites are free for some or all of your written submissions.

The various listed directories are also categorized so your article can be targeted directly to its intended audience.

Articles are selected, from the article submission sits, by many website owners for inclusion as content on their own websites. When your article is chosen, and placed on another site, there is link right back to your blog.

You gain some of their visitor traffic for your own blog. Because the site using your article is highly likely of the same topic as your blog, the new visitors could become regular readers for you.

You also gain the added link popularity power for your blog in the search engines.

Everyone wants a little added Google Juice.

A few extra readers are a good thing too.

Now all you have to do is start submitting those great articles today.

Tags: articles, traffic, Google, submissions.

READ MORE - Article submissions: Where to send them

Jeremy Wright of Ensight and Inside Blogging needs our help.

He is very short of cash, and has many unforseen bills and expenses that he is unable to pay. Following his very well publicized non-admittance into the United States, on a business trip that would have helped both his company and his American client, Jeremy is needing a job.

Immediately.

If anyone has ideas about jobs, either online or offline, in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada region, Jeremy would appreciate a referral.

As to the types of job he is seeking, Jeremy writes:

If anyone knows of anything I’d be qualified to do (consulting, business, communications, blogging, IT, project management, writing, customer service, sales, etc) I’m willing to listen. Beggers can’t be choosers.

If the work can be done online, I’m open to working with just about anyone from just about anywhere. I just figured local’d be easier.

As a guideline about Jeremy's excellent employment qualifications, he has an online resume available.

There you have it.

If you know of any jobs for Jeremy Wright, in or near the Greater Toronto, Ontario area, be sure to let him know.

It's bloggers helping bloggers after all.

Tags: employment, resumes, Toronto, bloggers helping bloggers.

READ MORE - Bloggers helping bloggers: Jeremy Wright

Corporate blogging guidelines are really making the rounds of the business blogs these days.

Of course, with the burgeoning interest from corporate boardrooms, on the potential of business blogging, this shouldn't be much of a surprise.

Along with thoughts of business blogs dancing in the executive suite, are concerns about what information might land on the blog's home page.

Enter the corporate blogging guidelines.

As with any new idea, the recommendations for what should or should not be blogging fodder, vary from company to company.

In an effort to provide an outline of what to include in a set of company blog guidelines, Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing has done precisely that.

While her suggestions are themselves an outline, and not carved in granite for all time, they are definitely an excellent starting point.

By using Toby's great suggestions, many of the concerns of the boardroom are successfully addressed, while maintaining topic flexibility for the company bloggers.

As with all guidelines, it's important that they don't morph into hard and fast rules. One size is not for clothing every business blog. Adapting the ideas to your own business and company culture is important.

Let the bloggers share in the creation of the handbook, and they will take ownership of the ideas. Once internalized, the chances of major public relations disasters are largely averted.

At the same time, the need for strict enforcement is reduced. Edicts from on high are rarely as powerful as ideas formed with all of the stakeholders involved in the process. In this case, the bloggers themselves most certainly should help to shape and establish the company's blogging policy.

The power of the business blog can then be employed to benefit the business as a whole. Blogger involvement in establishing the business blog is the key to its long term success and overall value to the company.

Corporate blogging guidelines are becoming a hot topic in the blogosphere.

Other business bloggers are displaying a keen interest in the concept of blogging guidelines for companies.

The bloggers include, among others:

Susan Getgood of Marketing Roadmaps

Paul Chaney of Radiant Marketing Group

Michael Fitzgibbon of Thoughts from a Management Lawyer

I fully expect to see a many more discussions of businesses developing their own blogging guidelines in the very near future.

They are moving onto the corporate agenda as blogs begin their appearance throughout the entire organization.

Tags: guidelines, blogging, business, management.

READ MORE - Corporate blogging guidelines

The showcase of Canadian blogs known as the Cavalcade of Canucks is up and ready for reading.

The 17th edition of the Cavalcade is live at Robert McClelland's political and social commentary blog called My Blahg.

If you haven't read the writings of many Canadian bloggers, and their thoughts on issues ranging from Canadian and American politics to science, with a little humour tossed into the mix, here is your chance.

I have a post included in this week's edition as well.

My post is titled "Business, blogs, and consulting: Heads or tails" where I discuss how one business blogger handled a unilateral cancellation of a contract by a client.

Canadian bloggers wishing to participate in the next Cavalcade of Canucks can enter their posts by sending them to:

robert.mcclelland - at - sympatico.ca

More information on the Cavalcade of Canucks can be found in this brief summary.

In the meantime, ski on over to the 17th Edition of Cavalcade of Canucks and enjoy some Canadian blogging treats.

Bring your own Canada Geese and canoe, eh?

Tags: Cavalcade of Canucks, blogging, carnivals, Canada.

READ MORE - My Blahg has Cavalcade of the Canucks

The 132nd edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities, is up at Eric Berlin's puzzle blog aptly named Eric Berlin.

Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities entries include politics, literature, science, medicine, technology, business, culture, and sports.

I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Vanities as well.

My entry post is entitled "Blog Posts: Don't lose them" where I discuss ways to avoid having your carefully crafted blog post from ending up in the trash can at the end of the cyberspace housing development.

To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.

Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the host of the week.

That's what I do.

I have the honour of hosting Carnival of the Vanities right here at Blog Business World on Wednesday, June 1, 2005.

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities will be at the well known political and economics group blog known as INCITE.

In the meantime, head on over the Eric Berlin hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new blogs.

Tags: Carnival of the Vanities, blogging, carnivals, promotions.

READ MORE - Carnival of the Vanities at Eric Berlin

This week sees a controversial split posting approach for the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a stop at a blog where technology and mobility are the order of the day, in two parts, with the second section appearing today.

This week's tremendous lineup of posts feature a technology, economics, and business approach as we visit Russell Buckley's well known business and technology blog called The Mobile Technology Weblog.

When Russell Buckley of The Mobile Technology Weblog isn't busily hosting controversial carnivals, he is an avid participant in skiing and loves to travel.

This week's two part edition of Carnival of the Capitalists highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, education, legal issues, spam, insider trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, politics, and of course technology.

As you would expect from The Mobile Technology Weblog there are many discussions of business, marketing, and technology ideas galore.

It's always great to read Carnival of the Capitalists and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.

As I am always privileged to do, I have an entry in this week's second part of Carnival of the Capitalists as well.

My entry post this week is entitled "Blog comments: Don't fear the spammer" where I discuss how blog comments are far too important, for the value of a blog as a conversation builder, to let concerns about blog comment spam cause them to be turned off. A good blog is an interactive blog, and comments are part of that conversation, between blog writer and blog reader.

If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors can't sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will make a visit to the University of Wisconsin Law School's group blog (ably sponsored by my good friend Gordon Smith) called Law & Entrepreneurship News.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to The Mobile Technology Weblog hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will help you get mobile.(groan)

Tags: carnivals, Capitalists, business, technology.

READ MORE - Carnival of the Capitalists: The Sequel

Search engine optimization, better known by its initials SEO, is the topic of the next Duct Tape Marketing teleseminar on Local Online Marketing to be held on Wednesday, March 30.

Discussing the always fascinating topic of search engine optimization will be noted SEO expert Aaron Wall of SEO Book.

As you know, SEO is about gaining higher rankings on the various search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, A9.com, AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, and Teoma.

The teleseminar begins at 12:00 noon Central Standard Time; 1:00 pm Eastern Standard Time; 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time; and GMT -6 hours.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing and Blogging Business will serve as host and moderator for this very interesting discussion.

About the seminar, John had this to say:

Local prospects, search locally. If you want your web site to be found in your town then you must follow documented search positioning tactics. A Kansas City consumer looking for a day spa will search "Kansas City Day Spa." Being able to rank high in Google, MSN or Yahoo for that term is the your most important task. Learn the basics of local search from the author of one of the best selling books on the topic - SEO Book

The free teleseminars lead up to the grand finale Local Online Marketing Workshop event in Overland Park, Kansas (Kansas City, Missouri area) on April 20.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about search engine optimization from SEO professional Aaron Wall.

Spaces are very limited and a filled very quickly.

Sign up for the SEO discussion with Aaron Wall right away.

I know, I will be listening.

SEO is a topic near and dear to me as well.

Tags: teleseminar, SEO, Google, marketing.

READ MORE - SEO teleseminar scheduled for Wednesday

Best seller book lists are everywhere.

You see them on the internet, and in the popular mainstream media.

Achieving a top position on those exalted best seller lists is the holy grail for many authors. I could make a bad pun here, about the Dan Brown runaway bestseller The Da Vinci Code, I suppose.

I'll try to fight the urge.

I don't think I succeeded.

Anyway.

Author and blogger Vikk Simmons of Down The Writer's Path is conducting a marketing experiment on best seller lists.

Her new book is called Exploring Texas History : Weekend Adventures.

You might notice that Vikk's name is not listed on some of the Amazon.com links. They are being corrected and updated to include her name as well.

Vikk is attempting to move her new Texas history book up the Amazon.com best selling titles list. She is employing a combination of linking and blogging, as part of her book marketing campaign.



Blogs have already proven to be a author's dream for marketing their books, whether a novel or a work of non-fiction.

So far, Vikk's book marketing experiment is working very well.

Her campaign is moving her Exploring Texas History : Weekend Adventures ever higher on the best seller lists.

A combination of writer creativity on the part of Vikk Simmons, and the power of blogging, and a best seller can be achieved.

Blogs, books, and best sellers.

A winning marketing combination.

Tags: books, marketing, history, Texas.

READ MORE - Best seller list book marketing experiment

Carnival of the Capitalists is split into two postings this week.

Today is part one of the controversial decision by Russell Buckley, of the technology blog named appropriately enough The Mobile Technology Weblog to divide the postings into two separate sections.

Part two will appear on Wednesday.

Click on over to part one of Carnival of the Capitalists and don't forget about part two on Wednesday.

Tags: carnivals, capitalists, business, technology.

READ MORE - Part one of Carnival of the Capitalists at The Mobile Technology Weblog

Bloggers marrying other bloggers.

Talk about wonderful news to start off the week.

Yes, Monday often has that make a person smile requirement for many people, so here's the good news blogging story of the day. Hat tip to Jay Solo at Accidental Verbosity.

Sarah K. of Mountaineer Musings is happily betrothed to wed Frank J. of IMAO.

As with the marriage of Jay and Deb Solo, of Accidental Verbosity fame, the fact that bloggers are finding their life mates among the blogging ranks, is great news.

I have long advocated bloggers joining with other bloggers as business partners.

Shared interests in outlook and goals has already resulted in many bloggers united in business startups.

Now, we are seeing the logical extension of bloggers meeting bloggers.

Those connections, formed from mutual interests in life and love, have culminated in holy matrimony.

When you think about the power of blogging, the possibility of blogger to blogger marriages is not likely at the top of the list.

On closer examination, blogger weddings are a very logical outcome of the blogging process. Writing and maintaining a blog is about creating and nurturing a conversation.

Blogs are about relationship building, for the longer term, based on mutual interests and respect.

Bloggers who know one another by reading and enjoying one anothers blogs. They continue that familiarization process and friendshp through e-mail and instant messaging. Eventually, they add a live and in person meeting.

The rest of the story is left to the bloggers themselves, who started as friends, and let the relationship grow.

The perfect basis for marriage.

As the blogosphere grows, and bloggers become more personally involved, expect to see many more blogging nuptials in the future.

Congratulations to the happy couple.

And the bloggers lived happily ever after.

Tags: marriage, weddings, relationships, friends.

READ MORE - Blogger weddings: A future trend?

Jennifer Rice of the essential What's Your Brand Mantra is hosting a webinar series on blogs and branding on March 31 and April 1.

The series is titled "Brand Humanity: How Social Technologies are Changing the Way We Do Business", and it's certain to be jam packed with practical and powerful information.

Jennifer is a leading expert on the subject of branding, and has coached many of the world's leading corporations, on improving their company brands.

When Jennifer Rice talks brands and branding, people listen.

Information on the websinar series is available here, here, and here.

To share in Jennifer's outstanding webinar series, click on over to What's Your Brand Mantra for all of the details.

One thing is certain, the information provided will be worth many times her very modest registration fee.

To register for the webinar series, click here to enrol.

Keep in mind that seating for the webinars is limited.

Spaces are selling out very quickly.

Tags: brands, branding, webinars, learning.

READ MORE - Blogs and branding webinar series

Easter gifts are truly wonderful to receive.

Along with the usual chocolate bunnies and decorated Easter eggs, a well thought out gift is especially appreciated.

I was just blessed with such a surprising Easter present.

A spurtle.

The gift was courtesy of Canadian blogger, artist, and master craftsman Derek Andrews of Marketing Mania

Derek Andrews is located on Canada's breathtakingly beautiful East Coast, in River John, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Along with writing his highly informative business blog, as a marketing component for his crafts and woodworking website, Derek is a craftsman in the truest sense of the word.

One of the absolutely beautiful items that Derek creates is the spurtle.

A spurtle is a traditional Scottish wooden kitchen tool used to stir the classic Scottish pot of oatmeal porridge.

The high quality spurtles that Derek makes, are about one foot (30 centimetres) long, and are a similar diameter to table knife. Made of wood, expertly turned and decorated, Derek's spurtles are polished to a finish much like fine china.

In the spirit of gift giving, I gave my Mom the spurtle for Easter. She has Scottish lineage (nee Buchanan), and is very proud of her heritage.

Each year, my Mom and I attend the local Scottish Highland Gathering. Along with hearing the skirl of the bagpipes, there is highland dancing, more bagpipes, and heavy games.

And did I mention, more bagpipes.

With that in mind, she now has given the spurtle a place of honour in the kitchen, as an art piece.

The spurtle is simply too beautiful to use.

Since I know that you will want your own spurtle, to add to your kitchen and even art collection, be sure to visit Derek Andrews' crafts website called Seafoam Woodtruning Studio, and his Marketing Mania blog.

Tags: Eater gifts, spurtle, kitchen, Scottish.

READ MORE - An Easter gift: Spurtle

Guest blogging posts wrap up today at Rosa Say's wonderful Talking Story blog.

Today's special guest author, on the subject of business reinvention, is Yours Truly.

Yes, that's me.

My guest column is titled "Reinvention: Whole Business Marketing" where I discuss the importance of having everyone connected to the business as part of the marketing team.

Everyone from the employees to the customers are part of the marketing effort for the business, and should be encouraged to participate in every way possible.

In that regard, I wrote the following:

The first step to reinventing marketing, to include everyone connected to the business, in the overall marketing of the company. While that might appear to be radical thinking for traditional marketers, it’s really more in the line of common sense.

Multiply the overall number of people thinking in terms of marketing, and selling the products and services, and those regular revenue reports will look much more pleasant.

Continue reading my guest author post on the reinvention of marketing at Reinvention Week.

Here are all of the featured Talking Story guest authors:

Monday - Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft

Tuesday - Yvonne DiVita of Lip-Sticking

Wednesday - Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends

Thursday - Christopher Bailey of The Alchemy of Soulful Work

Friday - K. Todd Storch of Business Thoughts

Saturday - Yours Truly of Blog Business World

At the conclusion of the series, Rosa Say will have a complete wrap up and summary, including all of the guest authors' posts.

Tags: marketing, ipods, reinvention, business.

READ MORE - Marketing guest blogging article at Talking Story

Blog posting frequency is a question, that faces and confounds every blog writer, from time to time.

Occasionally, more often than that!

The problem concerns how often should a blogger post a new entry to a blog.

The answer is more complex than thought at first glance. While it's relatively easy to place a firm number of required weekly posts, for most bloggers, the answer is not so simple.

As a very qualified answer, I would suggest that a blog should receive three posts per week, all appearing on separate days.

Of course, that doesn't solve any of the blogging life dilemmas, as anyone could make that arbitrary distinction. It's almost as much of a non-answer as pointing out that a person should post to a blog as often or as seldom as they choose.

So much for anything concrete or helpful from that incedibly weak response.

Talk about avoiding the question entirely.

Let's try some more solid ground instead.

For example, for most of its existence, I've posted to Blog Business World about once per day. Each daily post has been more of an informational column than a standard shorter blog post. That's the way I like to write. It's definitely not a blogging technique I would recommend to everyone.

Over the past month, I have increased my daily blog posting totals. Instead of one major article, I have written two or even three per day. The idea was to compare traffic from the one posting per day level to several columns appearing each day.

The results have been amazing.

My traffic levels have increased by a very significant amount.

More posts per day has resulted in heavier visitor traffic levels.

Whether that phenomenon is unique to this blog, or is a widespread occurrance, is difficult to say. Without some hard data from other bloggers on the matter, there is really no way of knowing with any certainty.

Perhaps more posts per day works better than once per day.

Maybe. Maybe not.

More research is required on the issue.

Now, back to the number of posts per week.

Before setting a hard and fast posting rule, it's best for each blogger to consider the goal of the blog. If the goal is to share information (like this SEO blog), then more frequent posts should be considered. If the blogging objective is to raise awareness of the business related to the blog, then fewer posts per week will be sufficient.

As I said, there is no surefire answer for all occasions.

I would recoommend that a blogger begin at the three post per week level. Once a posting routine has been established, consider adding a fourth or fifth post per week. It's not a blogging requirement, handed down on stone tablets, that a blogger post every day.

New bloggers should consider taking the weekend off from posting, for example. Many established bloggers, with huge traffic levels, don't write weekend posts.

Remember as well, that you don't have to write all of your posts as they appear. You can write them in advance. Many blog hosts accept pre-written posts, scheduled by their internal clock system, to appear as planned at established times.

The scheduling system is similar to that of various greeting card sites, where you can write out your Thanksgiving cards today, and have them delivered at the calendar date of the holiday.

Alas, the Blogger hosting system has no such advantages.

What Blogger users can do, however, is to write advance posts and store them as drafts. A few clicks on the appointed day, and the post appears on the blog. At least the main writing work has already been completed on a previous day.

As always, blog posting frequency remains an individual choice, with no set in stone rules.

When you think about it, that's yet another advantage of blogging.

Tags: posting, blogging, traffic, writing.

READ MORE - Blog posting frequency and other dilemmas

Reinvention for business guest blogging week continues at Rosa Say's Talking Story blog.

Todd Storch of ktoddstorch@businessthoughts provides today's entry. Todd writes about how the resulting relevance, is more important than than the reinvention process itself.

Reinvention is the process and relevance is the result.

In a post titled "Reinvention...buzzword for laziness", Todd takes the opposite point of view from the other guest bloggers in the series.

Todd writes about relevance and reinvention:

I know, I know. I'm taking the contrarian view to this topic, but let me explain. The definition of reinvent is "to make over completely".

There are many processes and things that we and companies do that need to be improved dramatically (ie. customer service for one ).

But when asked to write this post, I began thinking about "what needs to be reinvented" and how does this affect my life?

Using the example of the ipod and itunes, Todd's provocative and thought inducing ideas continue in his guest author post.

They are also mirrored at his own blog.

Remember to catch the final contribution to this tremendous guest blogging series on the specially created Talking Story Business Reinvention page.

Here are the featured Talking Story guest authors:

Monday - Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft

Tuesday - Yvonne DiVita of Lip-Sticking

Wednesday - Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends

Thursday - Christopher Bailey of The Alchemy of Soulful Work

Friday - K. Todd Storch of Business Thoughts

Saturday - Yours Truly of Blog Business World

At the series conclusion, Rosa Say will have a complete wrap up and summary, including all of the guest authors' posts.

Be sure to read each and every special guest article, even if you choose to skip mine which appears tomorrow.

You've been warned!

Tags: relevance, ipods, reinvention, itunes.

READ MORE - K. Todd Storch discusses relevance

Public relations professionals, and anyone else interested in the public relations industry, are requested to take part in a PR survey.

The survey is devised by Tom Murphy, of the well known public relations blog called PR Opinions.

The survey asks for your opinions of the public relations industry, its current state, and its future prospects.

It's a short one page survey, and only takes a few minutes to complete.

This is the second annual edition of the PR Survey, and Tom provides the results of the first public relations survey on his blog.

The survey is private and Tom won't be displaying any of your personal information.

Trevor Cook of the highly informative PR blog Corporate Engagement is also recommending participation in the survey.

Thanks to Trevor for reminding me of the second annual PR survey. I followed his suggestion and completed the survey myself.

Be sure to make your voice heard in the second annual PR survey.

Tags: public relations, survey, PR industry, opinion.

READ MORE - Public relations survey: Take part

Rivers of Revenue

Author: Kristin Zhivago




What do you do if your job disappears?

Where do you turn if your business fails?

You need a way out of the nightmare, and author Kristin Zhivago provides the roadmap. Her book Rivers of Revenue is a step by step plan to get the income flowing your way once again.

Bringing over 35 years of hands on experience in helping businesses reach their goals, Kristin Zhivago offers the reader the same advice that has worked so well for others. Written in a conversational style, like that of a patient and supportive friend, Rivers of Revenue reads more like a blog posting series than a business book.

The secret to getting your business, your career, and your life back on track is to stop trying to sell to people. Whether it’s ideas, your products and services, or yourself, no one wants to feel like they are getting a sales pitch. Instead, everyone wants you to support them and their buying process.

In turn, they will support you.

Kristin suggests that life should be a pleasure, and not simply hard work and drudgery. By taking the time to find out what people really want, you can work with your clients and customers in a winning relationship for all concerned.

She teaches you to avoid time wasting wild goose chases, and how to find and develop concepts that help everyone to achieve their needs and goals. You will benefit right along with your customers, who will stay with you permanently, because of that caring approach.

For those climbing the corporate ladder of employment, Kristin shows you how to earn and keep the respect of your peers, and to gain the attention of those at the top rung of the corporation. Instead of office politics, your career will blossom from achieving the company’s goals.

Take away:

Kristin Zhivago teaches, in easy to understand step by step lessons, how to find what your customers want and need in the way of products, services, and customer support. By taking that time on their behalf, your customers will enjoy buying from you, as a person who supports them in their goals. As a result, the Rivers of Revenue will flow freely for everyone.

Rivers of Revenue by Kristin Zhivago is highly recommended for business owners, corporate managers, and sales and marketing professionals. Your success in business and life will be achieved, by helping others reach their goals too.

Rivers of Revenue: What to Do When the Money Stops Flowing

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Note: This review appeared previously on Talking Story.

This book review, of the highly recommended Rivers of Revenue, is included here as part of my special tribute week to Rosa Say's marvelous Talking Story blog, and her intriguing concepts on developing a blogging community.

Tags: businessbooks, Rivers of Revenue, Kristin Zhivago, careers.

READ MORE - Rivers of Revenue: Book review

Guest blogging continues again today at Rosa Say's delightful Talking Story blog.

Today's guest blogger is Christopher Bailey of the wonderful The Alchemy of Soulful Work. With a blog title like that, you just know his blog will be a powerful combination of the practical and the philosophical.

Even more than that, Christopher's blog is also extremely well written, and is rapidly gaining some much deserved attention around the blogosphere.

Christopher Bailey's contribution to the Talking Story Reinvention of business series is titled "Let's Reinvent Professional Development in Our Organizations".

Christopher writes:

The great innovative organizations understand this and cultivate cultures that stimulate and reward learning. However, when I ask clients and other professionals about their organization's attitudes toward and structures for professional development, they are woefully inadequate. Too often, professional development is treated like a job perk, rather than as a systemic part of the organization's greater purpose of growing its business and its people.

Christopher's ideas on oganizational professional development continue in his special guest author post.

Remember to follow the final contributions to this tremendous guest blogging series on the specially created Talking Story Business Reinvention page.

Here are the featured Talking Story guest authors:

Monday - Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft

Tuesday - Yvonne DiVita of Lip-Sticking

Wednesday - Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends

Thursday - Christopher Bailey of The Alchemy of Soulful Work

Friday - K. Todd Storch of Business Thoughts

Saturday - Yours Truly of Blog Business World

Following the series conclusion, Rosa Say will have a complete wrap up and summary, including all of the guest authors' posts.

Be sure to read each and every special guest article, even if you choose to skip mine!

Tags: professional development, guest blogging, reinvention, human resources.

READ MORE - Christopher Bailey on business reinvention

Corporate blogging guidelines are fast becoming a staple (pun intended) of many company employee handbooks.

We keep hearing of more bloggers who have been fired for their on the job blogging activities. As work related blogs become more common, that number of terminated blogging employees is expected to grow.

As a result of those blogging related dismissals, it's important for business management to develop some company blogging rules for employees.

As a proponent of business blogs, and of employees maintaining job related blogs, I think the concept of employee blogging guidelines is a good one.

Of course, that endorsement arrives with a huge caveat, that the blogging rules and regulations be fair and reasonable. The last thing that employee bloggers need is a blanket ban, or very close to it, on their business blogging activities.

Banning work related blogging activity, by members of the organization, actually hurts the business. By failing to take advantage of the blog benefits, including transparency, conversation and community building, and relationship development, a company blogging ban does more harm than good.

Think in terms of being reasonable, and trusting employees to act in the company's best interest, and the blogging regulations and guidelines can help everyone involved.

The organization must keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of company bloggers are helping the business to succeed and achieve its goals.

The employee is able to write relatively freely about the company. The business benefits from the relationships built with current and future customers and clients.

My friend Toby Bloomberg, of the highly informative Diva Marketing, has compiled a comprehensive list of company blogging guidelines.

By reading the various corporate blogging recommendations, from the list that Toby provides, your business can formulate blogging guidelines that help both the company and the employees.

Check out Toby Bloomberg's list of corporate blogging guidelines, and develop your own set of business blogging rules.

The business and the employees will both benefit from the removal of any misunderstandings. When everyone knows what is acceptable to print in the blog, and what areas of business are off limits, problems can be more easily avoided.

I agree with Toby Bloomberg. Bloggers must form part of the team that drafts the company blogging guidelines. The rules simply can't be imposed from above, as top down regulations will only meet with resistance and resentment.

By enabling to the bloggers themselves to be part of the guideline development process, the resulting regulations are much more likely to be followed. The potential problem of employee clandestine blogs will be removed almost entirely as well.

Knowing the rules of the company, regarding work related blogs, helps everyone in the organization.

Don't let the fear of blogging employees keep a company from receiving the benefits of a business blog.

Tags: employment, employee blogging, management, guidelines.

READ MORE - Corporate blogging guidelines: Here to stay

Does blogging have a future?

Is blogging more than the high profile political blogs?

Is there strong potential for business blogs?

The answer to all of these questions is a "Yes", according the very prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

In an article published in the university's high powered Knowledge@Wharton newsletter, the outlook for blogs is viewed as very bright indeed.

The article states:

While most agree that blogging will continue to be popular, its next steps are uncertain. Demopoulos suggests that blogging overexposure is on the horizon. "Right now, blogging is trendy," he says. "I see that lasting a few years, but it will slow down." Hunter contends that blogging is here to stay, as many sites start to incorporate blogging features, and some news sites become more blog-like. The blogosphere will also become known for topics other than technology and politics. Two things are certain: Blogging will remain disruptive to the traditional media, and new uses will surface. "You are going to see blogging move to video and instant messaging," says Werbach. "It's just the beginning."

Even the hallowed Ivy League halls are supporting blogging and its future.

It's beginning to look like everyone is getting behind the power of blogs for business and community leadership.

Tags: trends, blogging, universities, Wharton School.

READ MORE - Future of blogging: An academic perspective

Wayne Hurlbert 

READ MORE - Wayne Hurlbert photo

Reinvention week continues at Rosa Say's Talking Story blog.

Today, my good friend Anita Campbell, of the must read Small Business Trends, adds her valuable insights to the special blogging series on business reinvention.

Anita's guest author contribution is titled "Reinvent your online strategy: 3 Ways to Start".

Anita asks the question:

Businesses will need to reinvent the way they deliver content online to take advantage of this new channel. Small businesses in particular stand to benefit. Most can’t afford expensive publicists or hefty wire service fees.

How do you take advantage of this new channel?

As expected from online marketing and small business expert Anita Campbell, the advice is sound and can be immediately used by any business.

Don't forget to follow the rest of this tremendous guest blogging series on the specially created Talking Story Business Reinvention page.

Here are the featured Talking Story guest authors:

Monday - Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft

Tuesday - Yvonne DiVita of Lip-Sticking

Wednesday - Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends

Thursday - Christopher Bailey of The Alchemy of Soulful Work

Friday - K. Todd Storch of Business Thoughts

Saturday - Yours Truly of Blog Business World

Following the series, Rosa Say will have a complete wrap up and summary, of all of the guest authors' posts.

Be sure to read each and every special guest article, even if you choose to skip mine!

Tags: small business, guest blogging, reinvention, online strategy.

READ MORE - Anita Campbell guest blogs at Talking Story

The showcase of Canadian blogs known as the Cavalcade of Canucks is up and ready for reading.

The 16th edition of the Cavalcade is live at Robert McClelland's political and social commentary blog called My Blahg.

If you haven't read the writings of many Canadian bloggers, and their thoughts on issues ranging from Canadian and American politics to science, with a little humour tossed into the mix, here is your chance.

I have a post included in this week's edition as well.

My post is titled "Blog posts: Don't lose them" where I discuss some ideas on preventing the nightmare of losing your carefully written posting masterpiece to the deepest abyss of cyberspace.

Canadian bloggers wishing to participate in the next Cavalcade of Canucks can enter their posts by sending them to:

robert.mcclelland - at - sympatico.ca

More information on the Cavalcade of Canucks can be found in this brief summary.

In the meantime, toboggan on over to the 16th Edition of Cavalcade of Canucks and enjoy some Canadian blogging treats.

Bring your own maple syrup and back bacon, eh?

Tags: Cavalcade of Canucks, blogging, carnivals, Canadian.

READ MORE - Cavalcade of Canucks at My Blahg

The 131st edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities, is up at Dr. Boyle's award winning medical blog called CodeBlueBlog.

Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

Carnival of the Vanities entires include politics, literature, science, medicine, technology, business, culture, and sports.

I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Vanities

My entry post is entitled "Attracting more readers: Beyond 7%" where I discuss some ways that the blogosphere can attract more overall readers for all blogs in general.

To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.

Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the host of the week.

That's what I do.

I have the honour of hosting Carnival of the Vanities right here at Blog Business World on Wednesday, June 1, 2005.

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities will be at Eric Berlin's "puzzling" blog named, logically enough, Eric Berlin.

In the meantime, head on over the CodeBlueBlog hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new blogs.

Tags: Carnival of the Vanities, blogging, carnivals, promotions.

READ MORE - Carnival of the Vanities at CodeBlueBlog

Guest blogging continues at Rosa Say's wonderful Talking Story blog.

Today, the special guest blogger is my good friend Yvonne DiVita of the essential Lip-Sticking and her new book publishing blog A-Ha Authors Helping Authors.

Yvonne is also a partner and guide in the popular Business Blogging Boot Camp business blog instruction program.

As part of the Talking Story guest blogging series on the Reinvention of Business, Yvonne has chosen "Reinvention, Change, Innovation" as her topic.

Yvonne asks provactively about organizationl change:

In business, questioning is a privilege that is often forsaken. Too many companies remove their employee’s ability to question by adopting strict, dogmatic principles of operation. Rather than give employees direction, these often stern procedures stifle creativity and prevent innovation (more on innovation at the end). A favorite phrase bandied about the business world is, “Let’s not reinvent the wheel.” I say, why not? Maybe the wheel needs reinvention.

Be sure to continue reading Yvonne DiVita's innovative ideas on "Reinvention, Change, Innovation" in business.

Yvonne's article also includes some very powerful ideas for women in business.

Don't forget to follow the rest of this tremendous guest blogging series on the specially created Talking Story Business Reinvention page.

Here are the featured Talking Story guest authors:

Monday - Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft

Tuesday - Yvonne DiVita of Lip-Sticking

Wednesday - Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends

Thursday - Christopher Bailey of The Alchemy of Soulful Work

Friday - K. Todd Storch of Business Thoughts

Saturday - Yours Truly of Blog Business World

Following the series, Rosa Say will have a complete wrap up and summary, of all of the guest authors' posts.

Be sure to read each and every special guest article, even if you choose to skip mine!

Tags: ideas, guest blogging, reinvention, innovation.

READ MORE - Talking Story guest blogger Yvonne DiVita

Listen to a free live e-mail marketing teleseminar with Tom Kulzer, CEO of AWeber Systems today.

AWeber Systems, Inc. is the largest and most successful automated email service in the world.

If you are currently using, or thinking about adding an e-mail newsletter or e-zine component to your marketing strategy, you won't want to miss this free teleseminar.

The seminar is the fourth in John Jantsch's ongoing seven part series on Local Online Marketing presented by Duct Tape Marketing and Blogging Business.

The free teleseminars lead up to the grand finale Local Online Marketing Workshop event in Overland Park, Kansas (Kansas City, Missouri area) on April 20.

Tom Kulzer of AWeber will be on the phone live and in person, hosted by the enthusiastic John Jantsch on Thursday, March 10 at 12:00 noon Central Standard Time; 1:00 pm Eastern Standard Time; 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time; or GMT -6 hours.

John Jantsch described the teleseminar with Tom Kulzer this way:

Your list of prospects and clients are the gold in your business. Have conversations with them frequently and automatically, make them offers they can't refuse, tell them about new products and special promotions with the click of a mouse. With an autoresponder service you can entice web site visitors and market to them all year long. Tom Kulzer is the CEO of a service called AWeber. AWeber is the largest and most successful automated email service on the planet and it's because they understand that people don't want spam, they want useful, timely information, delivered responsibly. Join this innovative marketer and hear about the future of
marketing.

Phone spaces for this rare opportunity to listen to the CEO of a leading internet business will be taken quickly.

Sign up for this free teleseminar with Tom Kulzer of AWeber Systems right now.

The previous teleseminars in the series were jam packed with listeners.

Don't be disappointed.

Enrol for this free seminar now.

Listen to Tom Kulzer of AWeber Systems today.

Tags: teleseminar, e-mail, Tom Kulzer, marketing.

READ MORE - E-mail marketing teleseminar today with Tom Kulzer

Blogs are SEO powerhouses.

More and more online businesses and internet marketing companies are finding out the business blog secret.

For strong search engine rankings in Google, a business blog is the fast track to success.

My good friend Paul Chaney of Radiant Marketing Group has decided to spread the word about the search engine optimization power of blogs.

Paul believes in the SEO attributes of blogs so much, he has started an internet blog meme on the subject of blog optimization, to generate some buzz.

Whether SEO is the stuff of blog viral marketing or not, there is little doubt that blogs achieve high search engine rankings.

Of course, now that blog SEO results are an open discussion, all over the internet forums, the word will travel very quickly.

Paul's SEO meme concept should be a real winner.

I am honoured to have been quoted in Paul's post on the topic of blog related SEO.

Paul takes my quote from a comment I placed on his blog regarding blogs and search engine optimization.

Paul advises the blogging doubters, as only he can:

So, purists, I have one thing to say to you...GET OVER IT! Go whine to your mama if you must, but you need to deal with the fact times have changed. We marketers have discoverd the power of blogs and, as a result, things ain't ever gonna be the same!

Blogs help get high search engine rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, and Ask Jeeves.

In fact, blogs represent the fast track to the top.

Get a business blog working for your online business, and fasten your seat belt for a high speed ride, straight up the search rankings.

Pass it on.

Tags: SEO, SEO blog, Google, memes.

READ MORE - SEO blog power: Spread the word

Blogging series.

Guest blogging.

Two proven visitor traffic building concepts.

As a traffic builder, one of the most powerful concepts is to develop a special blogging series. The idea is to gain an additional stream of visitor traffic, as a result of the themed mini-series hosted on your blog.

A second potent visitor traffic builder is to consider guest blogging. As a guest blogger, your post is read by the blog readers, of the blog where your article was hosted. For many of those people, the guest blog may be the first time they have read your writing and ideas.

The guest blogger also helps the hosting blog. The blogger appearing on another blog as a special gues star writer, brings along many of her loyal readers, to the hosting blog.

Once again, many of the writer's regular visitors will be introduced to a fresh new blog, often resulting in a shared growth in blog readership.

The very generous and helpful Rosa Say, of the wonderful Talking Story blog has combined both of these ideas.

The synergy developed, by combining a blog series with guest bloggers, is extremely powerful. The results are beneficial to everyone involved.

The real winners, of course, are the blog readers. Many people will find themselves introduced to previously unknown or overlooked blogs.

By reading some fresh new voices, innovative and creative concepts are shared . Those ideas are then spread by viral marketing and links, throughout the internet in general, and the blogosphere in particular.

The first tremendous guest author, offering advice on the Talking Story Business Reinvention series, is the very knowledgeable author and management expert Lisa Haneberg, of the very informative Management Craft.

Lisa offers a guest column titled "We Should Reinvent Staff Meetings" where she suggests very practical ways to improve the ubiquitous staff and management meetings.

As an added bonus, she delves into some poetry, and even offers a haiku on meetings.

After reading Lisa Haneberg's ideas on reinventing staff meetings, do yourself a favour and visit her great Management Craft blog. You'll find even more powerful and effective management advice.

The rest of this week features more guest authors, writing about the reinvention of business, on Talking Story.

Rosa Say and her guest authors are also graciously answering questions on the articles and the reinvention of business.

I have a guest article on a business reinvention concept as well. My column appears later this week on Talking Story.

In the meantime, check back each day at Rosa Say's wonderful business blog Talking Story.

In fact, I would recommend making Rosa's blog a regular daily stop on your blog readership tour.

Tags: ideas, guest blogging, management, traffic.

READ MORE - Blogging series as traffic builders

This week sees a branded approach for the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a stop at a blog where business and brands lead the way.

This week's tremendous lineup of posts feature a technology, economics, and business approach as we visit John Winsor's highly regarded business blog called Beyond the Brand.

When John Winsor of Beyond the Brand isn't busily hosting carnivals, he is writing books and helping other companies large and small to achieve success in business.

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, education, legal issues, spam, insider trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, politics, and of course brands.

As you would expect from Beyond the Brand there are many discussions of business, marketing, and economics ideas.

It's always great to read Carnival of the Capitalists and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.

As I am always privileged to do, I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Capitalists as well.

My entry post this week is entitled "Podcasting is music to the ears" where I discuss how this great new audio technology has helped more than one business achieve success, and many more will follow in their footsteps.

If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors can't sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will make a visit to Russell Buckley's highly informative technology and business blog called The Mobile Technology Weblog.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to the Beyond the Brand hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will help you get branded and not tattooed. (groan)

Tags: carnivals, Capitalists, business, technology.

READ MORE - Carnival of the Capitalists at Beyond the Brand

Blogs are still a mystery to many people.

When hearing about blogs, many people still equate them with personal online diaries, or the high profile political blogs.

That dichotomy doesn't seem to include business blogs.

Since the mainstream news media tends to simplify most things they report, it makes sense that blogs would receive the same treatment. As a result, the media tends to only acknowledge the personal diary or the political blog.

Obviously, the business blogger need not apply.

Along with the lack of mainstream media understanding of the many different varieties of blogs, is a lack of awareness of how powerful blogs can be in the search engines.

My recent blog post entitled "Blogs equal SEO power in searches", which was reprinted in the widely read search engine optimization and search engine marketing WebProNews opened a lot of eyes. The SEO blog power was simply unknown.

After all, the marketing, public relations, and SEO strengths of blogs are seldom reported in the mainstream news media. Business blogs rarely make a news appearance at all.

In that widely read and commented article, I wrote:

By way of an SEO blog example, here are some search results for Blog Business World for uber competitive keywords.

We'll examine the search for the two word phrase "business world" without the quotes.

On Google, this blog ranks #8 out of an incredibly mind boggling 158,000,000 returns. You read that correctly. 158 million search results.

Okay, I'm not number on on page one. Of course, ranking just behind the BBC and the World Bank isn't too shabby.

Those search result numbers woke up many readers to the idea of how a blog could raise the profile of their business or organization.

My visitor counter totals exploded upon publication of my WebProNews article.

Internet users want to find out about the SEO blog secrets.

Obviously, the concept of business blogs and their SEO value is of interest to most internet marketers. Whether they are looking for passive internet income, or are marketing a brick and mortar company, a business blog can provide local and world wide search engine exposure.

While there might be room for debate of the importance of the search results, the fact still remains that my blog was on the first page of Google. Many far wealthier organizations, with expensively designed traditional websites, ranked behind my little blog.

Whatever they are paying for their SEO efforts is not yielding the same results that a blog receives.

For free!

Gaining higher search engine rankings, for your most important search terms, results in more visits. By having well written sales and marketing copy on your site when those visitors arrive, equals higher sales revenue.

That is money in your pocket.

I consider strong cash flow to be important for a successful business.

That extra traffic can be added with higher search engine placement in Google, Yahoo, A9.com, Ask Jeeves, and MSN Search, to name only a few.

As you now are fully aware, a blog can achieve those powerful search engine results.

SEO blogs for business?

You bet they work!

Tags: SEO, marketing, media, Google.

READ MORE - SEO blog power revisited

Blog hosting services, and which ones to choose for a business blog, are a question tht arises very frequently.

Business people, who are new to the idea of business blogs, require some information on which blog host to select. After all, picking the wrong blog host can hurt your business blogging program.

A business blog requires all of the latest blogging features. Lacking any of them prevents the business blog from achieving its full marketing, public relations, and SEO potential.

Here are some suggestions of good blogging hosts for your brand new business blog.

The options provided are in no particular order. Keep in mind that some blog hosts are free, while others charge a nominal licensing fee for their services.

Some very good blog hosting companies include:

TypePad and Movable Type are very good. Both are offered by Six Apart as separate programs and licences.

The Six Apart people have strong blog customer support.

Six Apart do charge a nominal fee for their blog licensing, but is well worth the money, for the additional benefits and customer service provided.

WordPress is a very good, and free to use well known blog host. It is a full service system too.

t-Blog and Blog City are also good fully equipped hosts for bloggers. They are also free to use.

There are several other good hosts as well, and a search for blog hosts will probably turn up some other good options.

Most blog hosts will also enable you to publish your posts on your own company website, while using their interface to create the posts themselves.

Google owned Blogger is the blog host that I use, and have used it for several years. That said, I don't recommend it for business blog purposes.

There are too many limitations, as Blogger has not kept up with the most recent advances in blogging technology, including trackback, tags, and categories; to name just a few. I fully expect Blogger to announce some further upgrades in the near future, however.

When looking for a blog hosting company, check out some blogs that use that host first. Read them over and examine their layout and design.

Get the feel of the look and style of the blogs that appear on the available blog templates. Most blog hosts offer pre-coded templates, but in virtually all cases, they are highly customizable as to coding.

For SEO purposes, they usually require some re-coding, especialy in the pre-written CSS code. Most blog templates were written for design, and SEO value was not likely a consideration.

A good blog must include the following basic essentials:

comments, trackback, categories and tags, RSS feed

Comments are necessary for your visitors to interact with you. For a business blog, that is powerful customer feedback. It builds a relationship of trust with potential new customers and clients.

I believe that blogs are a conversation between the blogger and the reader. Comments provide that opportunity for dialogue.

Trackback is used to tell another blog that you quoted and linked to one of their posts. As a traffic builder, it is extremely powerful, as it builds a long tail of interconnected linking, all through the blogging community.

Trackbacks bring targeted visitor traffic back to your own blog, from many other blogs.

Categories and tags are also important. Categories classify the posts by subject matter like a library. Posts on business, customer service, marketing, etc. are all grouped together for ease of navigation and on site search.

Tags are used by the blog search engine Technorati to classify blog searches. Tag searches bring visitors and potential customers every day to the blogs that use them.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a syndicated feed from your blog, that is sent out over the internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators. Your blog post can sit in a news reader, right beside a news article from CNN.

People can also subscribe directly, to your blog's specific RSS feed, and read your latest post as it appears, in real time. Simply place the buttons, to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed, in an easy to find location on your blog itself.

People will readily subcribe to your RSS feed, if your blog offers ineresting and useful information.

All of those traffic and relationship building features are essential for a good business blog.

By carefullly examining the various blog hosting options available, your business blog can look very professional.

A well written and designed blog will reflect well upon you and your company.

Happy blogging!

Tags: blog hosts, business blogs, RSS, trackback.

READ MORE - Blog hosting ideas: Some help

Are you looking for a job as a professional blogger?

Do you want to write blog posts, or help businesses and non-profit organizations set up their own blogging program?

There is a new service available at employment site Indeed.com that searches for blog related jobs.

You can even get the latest professional blogging employment opportunities sent directly to your computer, through their handy RSS feed.

Thanks to my friend Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion for this very valuable professional blogging information.

Keep watching those Indeed.com RSS feeds.

A paid blogging job, that's just right for you, might be just a mouse click away.

Tags: employment, pro blogging, business, RSS.

READ MORE - Pro blogging: Paid job leads

Helping others achieve their own business or personal goals, and to fulfil their needs and wants is good business.

I have always advocated the view that when we help others succeed, we also help ourselves.

While that sentiment might seem trite, and perhaps more suited to a greeting card than a real life business, a real life example bears it out as true.

Jackie Danicki of the very informative The Big Blog Company had just such an experience. It was from the negative side of the coin.

While attending an art exhibit in Los Angeles, California, Jackie experienced some anti-marketing in action.

Jackie describes the action:

I asked the manager - who pounced on me as soon as I entered, which I hate - if my friend could take my photo inside the store. “No,” he replied, in a tone that suggested that he had mistaken me for a retarded child. “We want people to buy the prints, not take pictures of them.”

If this guy thinks he’s selling more prints by limiting peoples’ ability to spread the word about them, I want to know what he’s smoking. The real kicker? There are multiple websites where the images of the prints can be easily downloaded in various sizes. So I can do that, but I can’t take a picture of myself with a print and post it to my blog, along with a link to the artist’s site, thus increasing the chance of him selling some of his work - which, in addition to the prints, includes a whole line of licensed merchandise. Bad business decision, dude. I’ll let one of the artist’s images speak for me, because it really does say it all.

I agree wholeheartedly with Jackie. The manager of the art store, by preventing photographs being taken with individual pieces of art, was actually hurting potential sales dramatically.

Obviously, the manager had never heard of blogs and their marketing power.

At the same time, he was also blissfully unaware of the well known word of mouth advertising and free publicity. I thought those concepts were basic sales and marketing knowledge.

I guess not.

Instead of denying Jackie the opportunity to photograph herself with a humourous painting, the manager should have done all he could to have assisted her.

Instead of preventing the photography, he would have benefited himself, and his artist clients, by offering to place the paintings in the ideal location and the best possible lighting.

Rather than gain some powerful free publicity and free advertising, not to mention goodwill, the store manager achieved precisely the opposite effect.

He failed to help other achieve their goals, and as a result, lessened greatly his chances of reaching his own. The artists selling their paintings were done a major disservice.

Instead of holding back your assistance, provide it.

Help others get what they want, and you will help yourself in the long run.

They say what goes around, comes around.

In this case, that old adage was sadly proven to be very true.

Tags: marketing, sales, success, helping others.

READ MORE - Marketing: Helping others is good business