Once you know what niche or industry you will be blogging about, the next step in the process that you need to consider before you actually begin writing is some basic blog design tips. When designing and modeling your blog, you absolutely need to be able to keep your readers in mind. You need to create a design that has enough individuality and pizzazz that it will attract new visitors to your blog, but your design should also be comfortable and warm so that readers will return again and again, and striking this balance is not always simple. Here are five tips that will help you create a design for your corporate blog that is balanced between appealing and comfortable.

1 – Choose your blog theme wisely.

The blog theme that you choose should correspond with whatever industry or niche you have decided to blog about. Don’t go off target when it comes to pictures, symbols and other visual aids if they do not have relevancy or a relationship with the niche you are writing about. Your blog theme may be a subtle part of your blog but it is a vital one all the same, reinforcing the affiliation of your blog with the niche or industry that you are promoting.

2 – Introduce yourself so that your audience can get to know you.

Every blog should feature either an about me page, or an about me section where you can introduce yourself to those who are reading your blog. Tell your readers who you are and why you are blogging about the topic you are in, and even more importantly, what objectives you hope to fulfill by blogging. Your readers will appreciate getting to know you.

3 – Offer your readers methods for contacting you.

Do not keep your contact information obscure or hide it from your readers all together. Your readers should have easy access to you through a phone number or e-mail. This has a very powerful effect on building relationships with your readers and customers so do not underestimate its importance when styling your corporate blog.

4 – Make your best work easy to find.

If you write something that attracts more readers or more commenters than usual, make this post more readily available by categorizing it separately or linking it in a section on your sidebar, such as the “Most popular entries” section so that these posts can be regularly read and accessed by your readers and customers in the future.

5 – Make your blog visually appealing as well as easy on the eyes.

This one ought to be pretty straight forward – Don’t jazz your blog up too much with eye catching details because they can strain the eyes and cause difficulty reading. Good fonts to use include Times New Roman, Georgia and Arial. If you want to get a little fancy without sacrificing readability, consider Calibri. You can’t go wrong with dark fonts on light backgrounds, which are the easiest for readability.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2009-01-30 05:59:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Are you ready to make blogging work for your business? If you already know the benefits associated with corporate blogging, then the next step is to put these concepts to work by creating your own corporate blog and sharing your company with the world. This is part 1 in a short series on tips for making blogging work for you.

1 – The first step is to find your domain name.

If you already have a website for your business, then the most advantageous option may be to attach your blog in some way to your normal business site. The next best thing would be to own the domain name that is most descriptive of your business when creating your blog. Either use your business name for your blog name, or your own name, so that you can help people link you and your blog with the company that you are intending to represent. Some of the most well known domain name registrars are GoDaddy, MyDomain, Register, PacNames and DotCalmDomains.

2 – Figure out which blogging tool or blogging platform is going to work best for you.

There are at least two different camps to consider when it comes to tools. The first is those who prefer self hosted blogs, and the second is those who prefer hosting tools. Where do you feel most comfortable? The decision is ultimately up to you but there are pros and cons associated with both options. Some of the options available to you are easily customizable hosted options like TypePad offered by SixApart, or Movable Type which offers more control than TypePad. If you want to host your own blog, WordPress may be more your style, as it offers a lot of customization and control and you can host it a lot more efficiently by yourself.

3 – Talk about yourself so your readers can get to know you.

Most blog templates have an “About” function. Use this wisely so that you may capture the true essence of who you are and what you are hoping to accomplish with your blog. You should aim to strike an excellent balance between human voice and “business speak” to show your readers that you mean business, but are just a passionate human being at the core.

4 – Register your blog and start spreading the word about your endeavor.

Get comfortable with your blog before you start speaking out about it. Once you have some content, and perhaps even a reader or two, you can start spreading the word about your blog. Register your blog at FeedBurner, available at http://www.feedburner.com so that you can provide RSS and e-mail feeds that people can use to gain access to your content. Technorati, at http://www.technorati.com is another excellent option as well as it will allow you to associate tags with your blog for better “findability”.

5 – Create a resource section or a blog roll to show your customers what you enjoy reading, or what resources you often visit.

Blog rolls are generous in two different ways, as not only do they allow people who you link to to find your blog, but they also help readers expand their knowledge by checking out the blogs that you recommend.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2009-01-19 05:07:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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If you plan on writing a blog and using it for any purpose other than your own, then you absolutely need to be willing to find ways to effectively publicize it. Some people will tell you that all you need to do is write in your blog and then the traffic will magically arrive, but this is untrue. If nobody knows about their blog, how will they know how to find you?

1 – The first step in learning how to publicize your corporate blog is perhaps the simplest:

You need to simply be willing to talk about your blog, telling everyone you know about it. You shouldn’t randomly tell people you don’t know, but if you share your blog with your friends, family members, co-workers and colleagues, you will already be building a strong readership that will only grow with time.

2 – Use your e-mail signature to tell even more people about your blog.

Your e-mail signature is a small block of text that is automatically appended to the e-mail messages that you send. You can include information about your blog in your e-mail signature and then everyone who receives an e-mail from you will also receive a blog link. Experiment with different types of text and see what changes your traffic numbers and what doesn’t.

3 – Create links from your website.

If you have a website that you are trying to “push” through your blog, then strive not to let it be hard to find. Link prominently from your website to your blog, and from your blog to your website. You should have a link from your website directly to the main page of your blog, and when you reference your company in your blog, you should link back to your website. It should never be difficult to find one or the other, otherwise your readers will give up and move on.

4 – List your blog in every place that you list or advertise your website.

This means online materials and offline materials as well. Put your blog on your letterheads, your business cards, your advertisements, direct mail marketing efforts and even your fax header page. The more you list your blog in your marketing, advertising and communicating materials, the more exposure your blog will get. It really does not get any simpler than this.

5 – Enter into carnivals, which are an excellent way to publicize your corporate blog.

These are best of lists that feature posts on a certain topic, and they have an excellent viral marketing aspect that makes this method of blogging and marketing through your blog extremely important. If you want one single blog post to work real wonders when it comes to advertising your blog, then it is essential that you seek out blog carnivals that you can participate in.

Photo Credits: Duncan Rawlinson

Originally posted 2009-02-24 05:43:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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(ie: should blog design match main site design?)

There are a lot of different considerations that need to be made when you are taking the initial steps to set up your corporate blog. For example, one of the first considerations that you should make is whether design integration is or is not important for your corporate blog. Should your blog design have the same design as your main site, or is there room for some creative license when setting up a site that is meant to be companion to your main site, but not necessarily part of the same website? The truth here is that either option is viable, as long as you are achieving what you intend to when designing the look and feel of your blog in its early stages on your website.

If your website has a distinct design that is classic and simple, then implementing it both on your main site and your blog site will add seamlessness for easy maneuverability, which is something that your readers will appreciate. As long as they can differentiate between the main website and the blog as they move from one to the other, there should be no underlying issues in creating a seamless design that remains the same from page to page. Because so many WordPress blog templates are designed to allow for extra pages, some corporate bloggers build the blog to spec and then add their main site around it, creating an entire blog and website combination from a single blog template. This is not the only option available to you however, so you should not feel locked into it.

On the other hand, as long as you keep a similar theme in place, there is no reason why you cannot create a website design and a blog site design that are unique to one another. If your website has a set of colors and a main graphical theme that is completely unique to your blog, you may be going for something a little too unique. However, design integration when it comes to hooking a blog and a website together does not mean using the exact same template twice – You can create an acceptable level of design integration simply by using the same images, the same basic color scheme or just a similar layout design. These small details will add up to show your readers that they are still on the same website while still making it easy for them to differentiate between your blog and your website, which can sometimes be beneficial to them.

The design details are ultimately up to you as you put your corporate blog together. What you should be aware of is the fact that both of these options have merit, and you can always add and change elements as you go to suit your style and to respond to comments from your readers. Your corporate blog and website do not have to have the same exact design implemented into both, but seamlessness can be nice when showing readers that the two sites have the same common goal.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-11-06 05:59:20. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Once you’re ready to set up your own corporate blog, you’ll need to figure out what your audience is since this will determine how you write your blog. If you already have a set group of customers that you feel will be reading your blog, you’re already pretty much set. However, if you want to reach out to a new audience, there are a few things that you will have to do first.

1. What is your demographic?

This is actually quite important when it comes to writing your blog. A younger crowd is going to want to see a blog that is more fun and integrated with social networking features, while an older crowd may feel more comfortable with a more staid blog. It will really depend, but these are some wide guidelines to help you. If you don’t know your demographic, it’s best to shoot for the middle of the road when it comes to style and the types of features that you offer on your blog.

2. How do you plan to find new readers?

Once you know your demographic, this will determine how you go about attracting new readers to your blog. For those under 35, promoting your blog on social bookmarking sites such as Digg will deliver your audience to you. However, these readers are very savvy and don’t appreciate over commercialized posts. You’ll need to learn how to walk that fine line between that and getting your message across.

Other readers can be reached through a PPC ad campaign targeting keywords that are well suited to your blog. This is a little expensive and most companies prefer not to have to spend money to promote their blog, but this is a good method. A secondary choice would be to release a press release detailing what your new blog will be doing.

3. The third option is just to let your readers discover you through search engines.

This will take the longest amount of time when it comes to building up your readership and it is a bit hit or miss. You’ll need to be very patient if you’re trying to grow your blog using only this method and you may never have the results you’re looking for.

The best bet is to combine all of these marketing tools into one to help you target your key audience. Once you’ve done that, word of mount will help you continue to grow your blog. Remember that you’ll need to keep writing compelling content if you want your audience to stick with you. A blog management company can assist you in writing posts that will get attention and they are also very useful when it comes to promoting your blog and handling the every day tasks that are associated with it. If you don’t have a lot of time to devote to building your blog’s audience, this is a very good solution that works well for most companies, big or small.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-07-10 05:05:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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So many people focus only on the post portion of their corporate blog that they miss out on great opportunities to further promote their business. Unless you have integrated your blog into your company page, there are a few things that you need to add to make sure that you are taking full advantage of this medium.

1. An About Page –

This is a vital step that simply cannot be avoided. This is your chance to establish yourself or your company as an authority and promote your services. While this should not be turned into a sales letter, it can still serve to give your visitors an idea of who you are, what you do, and why they should be reading and listening to you. Without an about page, you are completely missing out on that opportunity of building authority. You might be surprised by how many people actually do read the about page on a blog – and you don’t want to miss out on this.

2. A contact page –

Simply asking your visitors to connect with you via comments, or occasionally posting an email address is not enough to establish that link with your readers. At the bare minimum we recommend adding a contact form that can be filled out by your visitors. No one wants to deal with spam, but if you’re not giving your readers a chance to reach out to you, once again, you have missed the boat on a very powerful opportunity. You can add your physical address, phone number, fax number or anything else you may need to make it easy for your readers to contact you.

3. An update page –

Sometimes blog posts aren’t enough to promote a new service, but a news page is. Consider keeping one page set aside for news and updates and feel free to get a little more promotional in here. Your readers will expect it since it is quite common and it gives them something to be excited about to. Don’t miss this great promotional opportunity!

4. Extensions, Plugins and Widgets –

If you are on Twitter – you need to let your readers know if you want them to follow you. There are numerous similar services out there that will help you connect with your readers and build strong relationships. You can easily add these to your blog with the use of extensions, plugins or widgets. Most are free and will display the latest updates you’ve made. Just keep this in mind when you are tweeting, since these will be published on your site as well. No matter what social media service you’re using, it should be integrated with your corporate blog for better results.

These are just a few extras that can be added to your page and when combined, they present a powerful force that you can use to continue extending your blog’s capability and reach, as well as helping you promote your company more effectively.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2008-11-24 05:17:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Running a corporate blog can be quite time consuming, especially if you are new to blogging. Here’s a brief idea of what you can expect in terms of actual work and the time it will take to build a successful blog. The initial stages will be much more time consuming than the maintenance stages, but this should give you a good idea of what you can expect.

Setting up a Blog Site.

This can take a few days or longer, depending on the type of software you will be using and your design customization needs. Most people prefer to hire a designer to handle this, especially if they don’t have their own IT department. There will need to be a few days set aside for bug testing as well, to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Certain features for RSS and social bookmarking will need to be added, but these should not take too long to implement.

Writing Posts.

Depending on how fast you type and how well you’ve thought out your posts, writing each one may take a few minutes or a few hours. It’s a good idea to get a topic list together ahead of time to make it a lot easier when you have to write. This is very useful if you find that you have occasional writer’s block. You’ll just be able to refer to your topic list for some inspiration.

You will also need to decide how many posts you want to make per day as well as per week. Posting at least once daily can greatly increase your chances of a top search engine ranking and the more you post, the better off you will be. However, you will need to take into account the time for each post when scheduling this.

Managing Comments.

If you are allowing comments, but you need to moderate them, you will need to set aside some additional time for their approval. Again, this can take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how popular your blog is. If you’re dealing with a lot of spam comments that need to be deleted, this can further stretch out how much time you’re spending.

Promotion.

Lastly, you will need to take some time to promote your blog, either on your site or by submitting stories to social bookmarking sites. This shouldn’t take very long, but it will add a few minutes on each day.

As you can see, a blog can be labor intensive and it can be a full time job. If you don’t have the kind of resources to devote this much time to a blog, it is a good idea to hire a blog management service. They can assist you in allowing you to spend time working on your own business while they manage your blog for you. This is almost essential as your blog becomes more popular and requires more of your time.

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Originally posted 2008-08-06 05:05:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Many companies don’t consider the fact that they could actually make money from their blogs. The popularity of online advertising has made it easy to include ads from all over the world, and Google Ads in particular make it very easy to target your readers with advertisements that they will be interested in. While it can be very fruitful to include ads on your corporate blog, there are a few considerations you should be aware of before you take that step.

1. Always make sure that you can filter the ads.

The main problem with banner networks is that some of the ads are highly inappropriate for certain audiences. You may not want your company associated with the latest ads for male enhancement – and this happens a lot. It is vital to choose an ad service that will allow you to filter out the type of advertising that you do not want. Be advised however that these filters do not always work. You may need to add actual sites to a list to make sure that their ads do not appear on your site. It is best to monitor the ads that appear on your site as much as possible to avoid getting stuck with reader complaints and a bad public image.

2. Beware your competitors.

The popularity of online advertising means that it is highly likely that your competitors are using it. You don’t want to promote their sites, but if you are using PPC ads that are keyword based, the chances of this happening are very high. Make sure that you collect the URL’s for all of your competitors and then choose a PPC service that will allow you to block ads from that domain. You don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot by promoting another company. This is a frequent problem that affects companies in many different sectors.

3. Do the ads enhance your site or take away from the content?

The whole point of having a corporate blog is to get people to read it. Are the ads going to make them leave your site? While extra revenue is nice, is it worth the risk that your readers are going to click on the ads and as such, leave your blog? This is a consideration that should be weighed heavily before moving forward. Secondly, it is important to make sure that your ads do not diminish your content or make it look badly. Work on ad placement that integrates well with your blog design, and is not terribly prominent.

Having ads on your corporate blog is a bit of a double edged sword. When used properly they can create extra revenue. However, you should always weigh the premise of a two cent click versus a potential sale. If your ads are harming your business, there is just no point in having them. If you do go with advertising, make sure that it is professional and that you do not rely too heavily on it.

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Originally posted 2008-08-21 05:26:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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A corporate blog can be an incredibly powerful sales tool and many people begin this practice simply to sell more products. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but before you start, it is vital to learn the art of product placement. Blogging is similar in many ways to television and other media, but when it comes to product placement, there a few very big differences.

Have you ever stayed up late and watched an annoying infomercial? Most have, and even if you are vaguely interested in the product, it’s still pretty tough to get past the hype. Now, let’s put this in terms of a blog. If your blog is one long infomercial with no actual content of any value, chances are your efforts will be in vain. No one likes to read an infomercial – especially one that stretches on ad infinitum.

So, how do you still sell products on your blog, but avoid this trap? The answer is actually pretty simple. You need to develop a ratio of informative posts versus posts that contain product placement. You also need to work on inventive ways to integrate product placement into informative posts. Let’s cover the first one and then move to the second.

A good ratio to have to avoid sounding like the world’s longest infomercial is three informative posts for every post that contains a product placement. Yes, this only gives you about one chance a week to sell a specific product if you only blog once a day. However, the chances of that one post being effective are much higher than if you post nothing but product spam all week.

The key is to give your readers what they want. That would be informative content that they can use, enjoy, or relate to. No one can really relate to a commercial. Most blog readers are savvy enough to know that companies need to promote their products, and they are okay with the fact that occasionally there may be a post about a specific product. They are not okay with endless promotional posts that offer no value to them as a reader.

Now, let’s cover inventive ways to handle product placement. These are not overt sales pitches, but they can be even more powerful than a direct product placement post. The key here is to find a way to incorporate your product into your informative post that:

1. The flow of the post is not disturbed.
2. The product provides an answer to a problem.
3. The reader is interested in learning more about the product.

This is not as hard as it sounds. A simple well placed link to one of your products and a brief sentence about how the reader will benefit from it can be incredibly powerful. Test out a few techniques to see how well your audience responds to different variants of this technique until you find the one that is right for your blog.

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Originally posted 2008-10-31 05:45:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Every week, new corporate blogs spring into existence, but many are doomed to fail from the start. How can you be assured that your blog is going to be a success? Follow in the footsteps of the leaders and learn from their mistakes! There are three main secrets to successful corporate blogging, that any business owner can implement. They are easy to follow and you’ll be able to start seeing the benefits right away.

1. Be Original.

This can be broken down into three main sub categories: Design, Content and Promotion. Let’s look at the first one, design. There are thousands upon thousands of free themes out there for most blogging platforms. That doesn’t mean that you should be using one. When you’re running a corporate blog, you don’t want to have the same theme as some crazy teenager that’s a little bit emo and a whole lot desperate. It gives the wrong impression. Spend the money to have a theme designed for you that is original.

Next, let’s look at content. Sure, it’s easy to lift content or use snippets of other articles that have already been published. But why would anyone want to read that? You’ve got to put yourself in your reader’s shoes. You may be busy and a blog post may be the last thing on your mind, but you’ve got to take that time to write an original post. It will pay off. Lastly, promotion. You’ve got to find an original way to get your site noticed. This means using social networking, PPC ads and having a great campaign that will get the attention of readers.

2. Be Prolific.

The best blogs are the ones that publish every day, and in many cases, more than once a day. Frequent publishing has many benefits. First, you’re giving your readers an excuse to come back more than once and to visit every single day. Second, you’re building more opportunities for search engine indexing. The best corporate bloggers take the time to really knuckle down and commit to producing lots of original content every single day. It does pay off.

3. Be social.

Today’s online world is social and if you’re not taking part, you’re missing out. Encourage comments on your blog, talk to your readers, not at them. There are many little ways that you can be social on your blog. We’re not saying drop that veneer of professionalism, but you’ve got to find a way to reach out to them. Remember their names, use social networking sites, leave comments on other blogs. These are just a few ways that you can be social and increase your readership.

If you’re not comfortable commenting on another blog, mention one of their more interesting posts. Chances are they’ll be thankful for the publicity and they’ll return the favor. This is an easy way to build up your blog’s readership and make some great contacts in the blogging world. Corporate blogging is a great tool, especially when it is utilized the right way.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-09-01 05:04:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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