Gimzoo

Unique blogger auction to get links

Holding a blogger auction as a way to attract incoming links is the brainchild of Australian blogger HeroineGirl.

The concept of the HeroineGirl Auctions is to earn bidding dollars from links and clicks to her blog.

The more links and clicks to HeroineGirl Auctions, the more blogging dollars are available for bidding on the donated items.

In effect, the links are the currency for bidding on prizes. The more links to the HeroineGirl Auctions blog, and the more clicks sent, the more link dollars a bidder has to compete for prizes. The "wealthy" bidders in the auction are heaviest linkers and traffic providers.

Note that some of the donated prizes are rather whimsical in nature, as befits a humour blog like HeroineGirl.

As a technique for attractive visitor traffic and incoming links to her blog, HeroineGirl Auctions has developed a truly creative concept.

As with all new ideas for attracting blog links and visitor traffic, there is no guarantee that it will work.

The early indications, from a visit to the auctions blog, are that there are quite a few participants in both the traffic and links generation side, and on the donated prizes side. The idea appears to be working.

Warning: some of the language and commentary on the HeroineGirl Auctions page is not for everyone.

Thanks to hilarious offbeat humour blog Fat Eye For The Skinny Guy for the link.

Tags: ideas, links, traffic, auctions.

Voting starts over in The 2005 Business Blogging Awards

Voting for The 2005 Business Blogging Awards has resumed.

Following a huge number of voter irregularities, and numerous voting system malfuntions, with all of the previous vote totals were discarded.

Voting has begun again, with all of the previous vote totals returned to zero.

That means that everyone has to vote again.

Of course, if you were already voting for your choices for best business blogs, you can just keep doing what you are already doing.

The link has changed for the voting, so anyone following an old link will be disappointed as all that appears are the old discarded totals.

This is the new voting link.

As you know Blog Business World has been nominated in two categories.

Best SEO Blog

Best Overall Blog

I appreciate the strong support that my Blog Business World blog has received in both categories. Your support is still needed for and for the many other tremendous blogs that were honoured with nominations.

I know the vast majority of the nominated blogs very well, and I can assure that they are all worthy of support.

The previous voting term was to end on February 9. The date for casting ballots has now been extended to noon PST on Wednesday, February 16, 2005.

Surf on over to The 2005 Business Blogging Awards and cast your votes.

The support received in the voting tells everyone in the internet community of the importance of business blogs.

You can vote every day until noon PST on Wednesday, February 16, 2005.

Vote for Blog Business World now!

Tags: Business, Blogging, Awards, voting.

Danger - Quicksand - Have A Nice Day: Download now

Danger - Quicksand: an unconventional guide to surviving corporate employment is a brand new must read book from one of the finest bloggers anywhere: David St. Lawrence of Ripples.

If you haven't been reading David's Ripples blog, you have been missing out on one of the treasures of the internet. His unique combination of business knowledge and wisdom combined with his personal warmth and humanity is unsurpassed.

As if his Ripples blog weren't enough, David St. Lawrence has written a new book about the corporate experience and preparing for a career in entrepreneurship.

The book is called Danger - Quicksand: an unconventional guide to surviving corporate employment.

About the book, David wrote the following:

My whole point in writing Danger - Quicksand: an unconventional guide to surviving corporate employment is to prepare corporate employees to take their lives back and get them under control.

The book is excellent, as I expected from David St. Lawrence. He never disappoints me.

And even better...

You can download the book as a free pdf file!

That's right. You read correctly!

In fact, this free book is the one pdf download you will want to have in 2005.

Get the free book download of Danger - Quicksand: an unconventional guide to surviving corporate employment now!

You will be glad you did.

Tags: book, pdf, employment, download.

Blogs still not well known in business community

Business blogs are still not mainstream concepts in the business community.

Many otherwise very knowledgeable business people, whether business owners or corporate middle managers, are not aware of the power of blogging.

I know. I was shocked to find that information too.

As many of my regular readers already know, I belong to many internet message boards. I post regularly on forums about search engine optimization. Along with the SEO forums, I post on several small business ideas and information boards.

In other words, I read a ton of posts written by some very sharp business people. Many of them are professionals in the search engine optimization field.

As all of you are aware, I write constantly about the power of business blogs for SEO.

A business blog, with its regular updates of keyword rich content and the blog's abundant inbound links, ranks very high in the search engines. Whether we are talking about search engine leader Google, Yahoo, or MSN Search, blogs score very highly for searches for their keyword phrases.

Blogs are one of the most powerful search engine optimization tools available, for any business person, and for strengthening any online business.

You would think that SEO profressionals would be recommending blogs to their clients for those reasons. After all, search engine optimization is all about improving a site's visibility in the various search engines.

Well, SEO professionals or not, many are not aware of the power of business blogging in the search engine field.

I see this phenomenon first hand in the search engine optimization forums. I am constantly answering basic blogging questions that even the newest entrant into the blogging arena could answer.

The good word about business blogs still has not reached the wider business

community.

When we talk to business people about our blogs, we often have to start at square one. The concept of blogging is still not as widespread as some of us would like to think.

Even me.

After answering the same old basic questions, on SEO forums about blogging, I think we need a fresh educative approach to business blogging. We simply can't take for granted that other business people are aware of the blog difference.

As far as blogging has come over the last year or so, there is still much work to do in helping business owners and managers understand the true value of a business blog.

As experienced bloggers, it's up to us to educate them.

Whether we teach blogging techniques, provide professional blogging services, or simply point the business people in the direction of a blog host, we are the source of blogging information and knowledge.

We have to spread the word.

No one else will.

In the meantime, I'm back to some SEO forums to continue posting and spreading the word.

Business blogs work for your business and your bottom line.

Pass it on!

Tags: SEO, blogging, business blogs, search engine optimization.

Defending the mistake

Defending the mistake.

It happens all the time in business.

A choice was made and it turned out to be the wrong one.

Very wrong.

It could have been choosing the wrong equipment, location, employee, or giving the reins of power to an undeserving but favoured relative.

Following the decision, everything went bad. The error could even threaten the very existence of the business itself.

So, the decision makers corrected the mistakes, right?

No, they didn't.

Instead, they defended the mistake as being the right choice all along. They refuse to admit that they are indeed capable of actually making a mistake.

Instead of rectifying the situation, they choose to pretend to themselves, others involved in the business as staff, suppliers, and customers, and to the outside world, that they made the proper choice.

The mistake gets defended.

The worst part of the defending the error problem is everyone knows that a mistake was made. Well, everyone but the decision maker, who refuses to acknowledge the problem at all.

Since the decision maker is often the business owner, there is little the other people affected by the bad choice can do, to help with the problem. They can try to offer suggestions, advice, and cost effective alternatives, but those ideas are often flatly rejected in many cases.

Too much ego is at stake.

The small business owner chooses to defend the mistake, rather than admit it even happened. The decision maker might not even consider the possibility, that the choice was even an error, in the first place.

The results are often a nightmare for everyone involved.

In a large company, a serious error can often be absorbed. It might affect profits and shareholder value, but usually the company survives.

But not always.

In a small business, a major mistake often means the doors close on the business for good.

Small business owners and managers must accept that a mistake was made and correct it as soon as possible. Defending the problem only causes it to get worse. Like an untreated wound, it only becomes infected and is often fatal.

The key is to admit your fallability. You do make mistakes. We all do. Even the most successful business people have made major blunders.

Correct them and move on to the next business problem.

Defending the mistake might sooth the ego for awhile, but the long term consequences of the action are seldom pleasant.

So, fire that problem employee with grace and some nice post employment help, get that incompetent relative off your payroll, buy some different equipment, and get on with business.

Your business associates, staff, and everyone else will be happier as a result.

And your business will have a healthier bottom line.

Don't defend the mistake.

Correct it before it's too late, before your small business goes down the tubes.

Your ego will survive, and so will your business.

Tags: ideas, business, small business, mistakes.