blogging

Two Quick Ways to Promote Your Blog

Although it may seem like an obvious question, do your blog readers know who you are?

Do they know what you do, how you do it, and how to ask you to do whatever it is you do for them?

While there may be a host of reasons for you to write your blog in the first place, none of it means anything if you don?t offer a clear-cut picture of who you are, what you do and why you should be read. After all, if your blog readers don?t know who you are why should they read you over the next guy?

The good news is, you can take this out of the equation with just some minor house-keeping.

Tell Your Readers All About You

No, this isn?t an invite to go all broadcaster mode and start spouting off all the great (and not-so-great) things about you. It is, however, one of the first things any blogger should have ? an About Page. This is the single most important aspect of your blog when it comes to letting your visitors know who you are,? after the content itself.

Sure, your content may be great but who?s the person behind it? While an About Page can have whatever information you want on there, some of the key information should be:

Bio ? who you are and what you do.
Contact ? either? a link to your main Contact Page or a contact box (either on-page or in the sidebar).
Outposts ? where else can people find you online.

How in-depth your About page is is up to you. You can have testimonials, projects, clients, etc ? the limitations are yours to choose. Just make sure you do have an actual About page, though ? even if you?re a personal blogger, it?s part of building that relationship with your community.

Tell Your Readers Why Your Blog

There are over 180 million blogs online today, and that?s just the recognized number from Technorati ? the true figures are probably much, much more. So why should readers choose yours over the hundreds or thousands of others in your niche? Let them know why with an About This Blog page.

Why an About This Blog page when you already have an About page? Simple ? new readers of your blog can immediately see if it?s for them or not, and it?s your blog?s elevator pitch, as opposed to simply who you are. Features of this page should include:

Topics ? what you write about. For added effect, break it down into categories and link to each tag for that category.
Sitemap ? this helps readers old and new navigate your blog. Again, this can be on-page or a link to it.
Subscription Options ? if people like what they see about your blog, you are offering a way for them to get the latest, aren?t you?
Archives ? perfect for allowing new readers to see just what it is that makes your blogging voice stand out.

The Benefits to Bloggers

A great About This Blog page acts as the perfect complement to your personal About page and really lets your blog readers know all about you and what you do. As a blogger, there are key reasons you want to do this:

Business ? allows potential clients to see why you?d be a perfect fit.
Personal ? the first steps to building the relationship with your community.
Portfolio ? if you have external resources elsewhere online, your About pages can direct your visitors there.
Search Engines ? you want to be found. About pages help strengthen your online visibility.

These are just some options for having a solid About This Blog page. There are more ? the choice really is up to you.

How about you? Do you have About pages? If not, what other ways are you using to help your blog readers know who you are?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure to hop on over and subscribe to For Bloggers By Bloggers, where we share a ton of free blogging tips daily.

image: Choconancy1

How to Create a Custom Menu in WordPress

This post originally appeared on the blogger resource site For Bloggers by Bloggers, one of the new projects from Bonsai Interactive Marketing.

I wanted to share this here to show some of the cool stuff happening over there. The site’s already picking up some great traction, due in no small part to the awesome team that’s coming together on there.

It’s a multi-platform blog resource, and offers a mix of free resources and some great upcoming offers to help your blogging be the best it can be. We’d love to see you over there, so come on by and say hi. Cheers!

With the introduction of WordPress 3.0, bloggers can create a host of different menus for use either on the blog template or as a sidebar widget.

This allows you to create child pages, sub-categories, navigation tabs with external links and much more.

Here, we show you how simple it is to create and get a custom menu up and running in a matter of clicks.

This post contains a video. If you can’t see it in your feed, click here to view it directly.

Email or RSS – Feeding the Inbox

If you’re a blogger, how easy are you making it for people to subscribe to you?

Sure, just having the standard RSS feed is fine, and a lot of blog readers use this and this alone. Yet email subscription ? or the option of one ? is becoming more popular and offers your readers more choice ? always a good thing.

My personal preference is email subscription. I do use Google reader but I find I can miss some great posts, as well as get swamped in the amount of updates. Maybe I don?t use it effectively, who knows?

But here?s the thing.

As I write this, approximately 30% of my subscribers use the Subscribe by Email option you see at the top of my sidebar and end of my posts. If I didn?t offer that option, there?s a good chance I?d be missing out on not only their readership, but my chance to interact with them via blog ideas, comments and more.

The best of it is, setting up an email subscription option is pretty painless. Set yourself up with a Feedburner account and claim your blog. Then use the Publicize option to both set up your email subscription form and get the code to place it on your blog.

If you?re a blogger that doesn?t currently use an email option, think of it this way. Have you ever signed up for newsletters from your favourite business or brand/product? If so, why? I?d hazard a guess it was because it allows you to keep up-to-date with the latest news from people you want to hear about.

Wouldn?t it make sense to let your readers know more about you in the same way?

Image: mkalz

My Comment Policy

One of the things I’ve been considering for a while is having an official comment policy.

It’s not because I feel I need one, per se – the community here is one of the best on the web.

I feel incredibly lucky to have you guys come here and share your views, because you always treat both me and your fellow commenters with respect when discussing something I’ve written.

That hasn’t changed.

So why a comment policy? Simple – it keeps everything upfront, so if anyone ever does “step out of line”, they’ll know why I either edited or deleted their comment.

Again, I’ve probably only had to do that 4-5 times in the 14,000+ comments made here since this blog started. That in itself goes to show what a great community you are.

I also want to make sure that you, the reader, feel safe and comfortable when sharing your views. As my comment policy states, I will not accept anyone attacking another commenter for having a point of view. You help make this blog what it is; the least I can do is help make it somewhere you want to hang out.

The blog policy can be found here, but I’ll also replicate it now:

When I write a blog post, it?s obviously my point of view. Once it?s in the open, though, it then becomes a shared point of view with you, the readers ? and your point of view is what builds the discussions around a post. Sometimes you?ll agree with me; other times, not so much. And that?s what makes the comments after a post such a fervent breeding ground for ideas.
I don?t mind if you attack me for my views. Heck, I?m big and ugly enough to take your shots, and it shows me that you?re passionate about a topic ? and I would never discourage passion.
Besides, I?m the person that?s invoked that reaction, so if it?s an attack, let?s have it open and unfiltered (although keeping it respectful would be nice).
What I won?t accept, however, is attacking other commenters. They?re like you ? simply offering an additional view on the starting topic. By all means, attack me ? the blog is my home and as the owner, I?m responsible for what goes on inside. But attacking another commenter ? that?s poor form.
I?m a firm believer in an open comment policy; I don?t moderate before publication, because I feel that stints genuine interaction and conversation. Going by the conversations that have happened over the months, it would appear that most agree.
Let?s play nice and keep it that way. Like I say, attack me if you wish ? as the instigator of discussion, I?m open to all views and words. But let?s treat the guests (and that includes you) nicely. Otherwise, you will be moderated and deleted where I feel it’s applicable.
And let?s keep the bigotry, hate, sexism, profanity and all that other fun stuff off here too. You want that, hit up TechCrunch, YouTube or similar.
What say you ? fair?

I think that covers it pretty well.

Good to go?

Image: Bob.Fornal

Around the Web

For someone who’s written about guest posting a few times, as well as recommended the benefits of it to clients when talking about Blog 101, I haven’t really done a lot of guest posting myself.

I’ve had brilliant guest authors here, but not really written too many myself. Maybe I should revisit my own post…

Having said that, I have been fortunate enough to appear on three blogs recently. Each one offers something different, while still within the realms of business, marketing and good old PR (which seems to have also taken a bit of a backseat here).

Anyhoo… The three posts can be found below, and I’d love for you to jump over and share your thoughts in the comments of the post.

A Message to PR – Don’t Be Restricted, Be Positive and Influence Change. Paul Sutton is a PR pro with more than 14 years knowledge and experience. He recently interviewed me for his Flock Friday Thought Leader series, and we spoke about PR and social media; restrictive agencies; old and new mindsets and why ethics need to start from the top. You can find the whole shebang here.

Stop Killing Your Business. Frank Dickinson is someone who I have a lot of time for. A marketer by trade, he’s also one of the kindest folks I know. Always supportive, always ready to lend a hand. For this post, I look at five things you can implement now to stop your business being another “Remember Brand X?” statistic. You can find out what these are here.

What I’d Like to See from Geo-Location Marketing. Gini Dietrich – what can you say about Gini? Smart, savvy, witty and very driven – everything a business owner should be. Gini’s a seasoned communications professional who runs her own PR/comms agency. Here, I talk about geo-location services like Foursquare, and why marketers need to up their game when it comes to creativity on offers and promotions. The juicy stuff starts here.

So there you go – a little diversity from the usual stuff, and as I say, I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments there.

The blogs also belong to three folks I admire immensely, and their blogs are always worth reading, so make sure you check the rest of their blogs out while there, and subscribe to them if you like what you see.

Have a great Friday!

Image: PaulWB