Archive for March, 2007

Blogger of the month - what they are doing right.

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

At last night’s Blog seminar a prize was presented to the ‘Blogger of the month’: Desk Coach (Shirley Thompson)

The decision was based on number of posts, quality of posts (measured by number of people commenting) and general style. When analysing the posts from Shirley it was clear that they started in an article style (giving information) and ended with a question. It was agreed that this was a great way to stimulate thought and encourgae responses.

Well done Shirley - enjoy the wine!!
Wayne

Blog as a Marketing Tool

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

We have embarked on this project to raise awareness in the Wessex region of the value of blogs as a marketing tool.

Whether you are one of the 9 involved in this project, or someone else looking for blog advice, you need to be clear about why you are blogging. It can be a time consuming activity and requires commitment over a period of time.
To make your blog an effective marketing tool you need to remember the following;
1. Do not rely on your blog as your only form of marketing. To have one form of marketing is never effective. Make sure your blog complements the rest of your marketing and is part of a planned approach to marketing.
2. Know your audience. You need to know what interests your target audience and how to get their attention AND get them coming back for more.
3. Have a focus for your blog. You are far more likely to get word-of-mouth promotion for your blog if the focus is clear. Visitors that find it of interest will know who else would be interested and be able to tell people what your blog is about!
4. Take a look at other business blogs. Find ones that you like and try to replicate the features and/or style. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
5. Set targets that can be measured. You need to know if the blog delivers or not. If after a while, it does not deliver then it may not be an effective marketing tool for you.

You are doing this for business reasons - but you can still enjoy it!!

Have fun
Wayne

More Blog Hints and Tips

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

The software powering the Blogs for this project is WordPress.

WordPress provide a number of guides, how to instructions and lessons. Many of these are for advanced users or web designers. There are some that are very helpful for beginners too. I have transferred the content into PDF files so that you can easily access them for download to read at your leisure.
They should help you get used to the basic features within the blog package.

wordpress-blog-lesson-1-introduction-to-blogging.pdf

wordpress-blog-lesson-2-wordpress-basics.pdf

Happy reading
Wayne