Last night on Twitter, I was part of the #sbt10 chat, part of the Start Blogging Today project (disclosure – I’m a partner in the project). As usual, there were a ton of great topics discussed on how to make your blog work better for you.
One of the conversations that arose was how to reward loyalty – i.e., how to make sure that your blog community knows you appreciate them.
Michael Schechter asked how you’d go about that, and I suggested exclusive [...]

Sometimes being a blogger is no fun.
I don’t mean that from a, “Oh, woe is me, I have to blog” point of view. Nor do I mean it from a, “Why hasn’t my blog been turned into a book yet?” viewpoint.
Besides, how much of a letdown would a book that’s made up of recycled blog posts be?
No, it’s more from the perspective of getting the best user experience, without overloading that same experience with too much clutter (and when I [...]

I’ve loved the idea of Posterous from the start.
As a quick-start blogging platform, Posterous offers a pretty robust platform to build your blogging expertise from.
One of the biggest things that puts many folks off from starting a blog is often the time commitment needed. Yet with the ability to post via email, Posterous allowed anyone to experiment.
I’ve introduced a few clients to blogging via Posterous, and it’s given them the confidence to swap to “full-on” blogging via WordPress and self-hosting.
And I [...]

Hi guys. Since you helped me immensely when I asked your views on a blog redesign (which will be unveiled soon thanks to Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer), I’d like to ask your views again, if that’s okay?
Currently I have an account at Posterous, which I use for short and punchy thoughts. They’re mainly ideas and views that I always refer to as too little for blogging and too much for Twitter. They also helped provide the content for my free [...]

There’s a great post over at Blog for Profit today called Blog Comments Are Not Roadkill, about blog comments and some of the discussions around them.
Written by Grant Griffiths, it’s a great counter to the numerous posts on why blogs don’t need comments.
The reason I love this post is because, reading it, it’s clear Grant has balls. Big balls.
He doesn’t care about reputations, or whether a viewpoint is by a blogger usually revered by the masses and who can (in [...]

While becoming more mainstream, social media still holds fear for many businesses, especially small local business.
Fear of time involved; fear of where to start; fear of where to be.
While this fear is understandable, it also means that many local small business owners miss out on social media and all the benefits it can offer, especially when it comes to competing with the big boys.
While I’ve written before about how expensive social media can be from a corporate campaign viewpoint, for [...]

When it comes to the Headway premium WordPress theme, there’s no question I’m incredibly biased about what it can do for bloggers.
I’ve written about it more than once on here, and I use it on the three sites I’ve created so far, with more to be shared soon. In fact, it’s the only product that I’ve fallen in love with so much that I’ve signed up as an affiliate. So yes, when it comes to premium WordPress themes, Headway stands [...]

So this week’s been really quiet on here, due to a particularly busy project over at Maritz Canada. Now that project has at least resorted to more normal activity levels, I’ll be jumping back in here and reverting back to normal frequency.
First up will be the continuation and conclusion of the 7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub series, and this will be followed by some thoughts I’ve been having around operational social media and marketing [...]

Almost as regular as Tila Tequila’s shameless self-promotion efforts, the question of blogging being dead keeps springing up. I’ve spoken about it before (my take – most definitely not dead) as have many others.
One of the best posts I’ve read about it, though, is by Grant Griffiths, where he takes “Steve Rubel and his cronies” to task about claims that are often contradictory.
It’s a great read, and the comments add some excellent insights. Check it out now, and be sure [...]

Here’s a quick thought I just want to share with you, in case you’re wondering whether you should start a blog (or even if you’re currently blogging and are thinking you need to up your content level).
Stop thinking about it so much. Stop analyzing every single word you’ve just written. Stop holding your finger from the Publish tab. Stop trying to find that perfect phrase to say what you’re thinking. Stop giving yourself reasons not to post.
Instead, offer the one [...]