All About RSS Feeds & Content Syndication

Now that you know what blogging is all about, and a little bit about how to make your blog work for you, it’s time to learn about what RSS is all about.

When you have a blog, and write your posts – people are only going to read them if they take the effort to remember to regularly come to your blog and read your most recent content.  And if people like to read a lot of blogs, it is easy to remember which ones you have read, and which ones you have yet to catch up on.  This is where using RSS and blog readers comes into play.  RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and basically makes it very easy for you to syndicate (simultaneously publicize your blog to many places).  People can use a blog “reader” to subscribe to your blog (using RSS) and then here is where the magic happens:  every time you write a blog post, it will automatically be delivered into the inbox of your readers’ blog reader!  If you have a blog that you created using any of the major blog services (Blogger, WordPress, TypePad), then your blog already has RSS available to your readers.

So let’s talk about how to use a blog reader to keep up to date with all the blogs you like to read.  My favorite is Google Reader, although there are many others out there such as Bloglines and newsgator, or you can even signup to have blog posts delivered directly to your email inbox using a service such as Feed My Inbox.

Here’s another neat tip:  If you have an email newsletter that you send out to a list of customers, you can automatically have your blog posts delivered to the inbox of your email list members using MailChimp‘s “RSS to Email” feature.

So now you’ll know every time you see the RSS logo what it means.

What is Blogging?

Blog, short for “web log” is simply a type of website where information is posted in a chronological style, sort of like a journal.  People have personal blogs to share information about their lives & families, and businesses have blogs to share information about their company, products, services.  Or to share knowledge and information that their readers find helpful.  Some businesses use their blog as a company “newsletter”, where they will regularly post information about their business (maybe a current sale going on, or schedule of events or activities).  A blog makes it very easy for the owner of the blog to write posts without knowing much of anything about creating websites, or HTML, or anything technical like that.

Why Should I Blog?

Blogging is a great way to communicate with your clients and prospective customers.  The goal is to write articles or “posts” to your blog that are helpful and informative to your readers.  If you can supply information and knowledge that others want to know about, it will keep them coming back to read more.  And better yet, it will eventually get internet searchers to find your blog, and ultimately your business.  Hence, you can use your blog as a sales lead tool.  Or as a customer retention tool.  Either way, posting good information to your blog about your industry or service will help shape people’s view of you – they will start to see you as a professional in your field.  And someone who is open and willing to share their wisdom with others.

How Do I Setup a Blog?

To setup a simple stand-alone blog, it is very easy.  There are lots of online services that do it all for you, and they are free.  Yes, I said FREE.  Here are a few that I would recommend looking at:

• Google’s Blogger (probably the simplest & easiest to use, and you can use your existing Google account)
• WordPress (very powerful with lots of options, still very easy to use, it’s what this blog uses!)
  
• TypePad

If you want to take it a step further, you should setup your blog at its own domain.  So instead of having a blog at a web address such as http://yourawesomeblog.blogspot.com, you would have it at www.yourawesomeblog.com.  It looks more professional, and will be easier for people to remember.  If you already have a website, then the best thing to do is to integrate your new blog directly in with your existing website.  This means it would look & feel the same as your website, and would be part of the navigation on your site.  You can have a separate page on your website be your blog, or you can even integrate your blog postings into an existing page on your website (such as a sidebar on your homepage).  To do this, you’ll need to have your web designer/developer do this for you, as it’s quite technical to setup the blog & database at your domain and intregrate it into your existing site.

Getting Your Blog to Work For You

Now your blog is setup.  You’re posting some great information to it regularly.  Now what?  It’s time to get your blog to start working for you.  First, get your blog listed on the major search engines.  The best way to do this is pay a small fee and use an online service to do all the work for you, such as GoDaddy’s TrafficBlazer ($30/year).   Then tell all your friends about your new blog; spread the word. Do this by sending our email newsletters, and posting links to your blog on your facebook, linkedin, and other social networking sites.  Another great way to market your blog is to work with other bloggers.  You can at least comment on other blog posts and include links to your blog, where visitors with the same interests may follow the link.  Or you could even be a guest writer on someone else’s blog, or have someone write a post for yours.

The key is to post fresh information to your blog regularly.  Keep people coming back for more.  Or better yet, they can subscribe to your blog using an RSS feed.  More on that in the next post!  Stay tuned!…

• It will show that you care about your community
• It will provide ample opportunity for you to network with new people and groups
• It’s free marketing
• You can include this in your advertising (ie: “we are a local sponsor/volunteer for xxx organization”)
• The organization/charity your volunteer for may be willing to advertise your business for free in some of their flyers/posters/etc.
• You’ll feel better about yourself for donating your time and energy to a good cause

Some ideas for local organization to work with:

• Your local town (help clean up or run an event)
• Your local Boy/Girl Scout troop
• Habitat for Humanity
• Adopt-A-Highway
• Churches
• Schools, camps
• Environment protection agencies (your local forests or lakes)

Creative Ways To Distribute Brochures For FREE

First, make sure you have a great looking and informative brochure!

• Find local bulletin boards to pin up your brochure (or business card).
• Search out local businesses that are complimentary to yours and ask them if they could place a stack of brochures somewhere in their store/office.  Make sure you offer to do the same for them.
• Find busy parking lots and place your brochure under the windshield wipers of the cars.
• Attend local events where you can hand out your brochures and get your name out there.
• Always keep some of your brochures in your car. You never know when you’ll meet someone that you really want to give one to.
• Always send a copy of your brochure along with anything you mail to prospective clients (letters, estimates, proposals, etc)

And here are two ideas that cost some money, but get your brochures in more places:

• Join your local or regional Chamber of Commerce (usually an annual fee, mine is around $200). They will usually distribute your brochures for you to all of the other fellow members and their businesses.
• Find the organization who places all the brochures in the highway rest areas and welcome centers in your state. They will charge a hefty fee, but you’ll get your brochures in places where there is lots of traffic.

Use Testimonials!

Testimonials are a great way to add credibility to your products or services.  You can put them on your website, brochures, or even on the back of your business cards!  It gives your prospective (& current) customers a sense of ease that you are tried & true, and that people are happy with your business.  A sentence or two from a happy customer says a whole lot more than you taking a whole webpage trying to sell yourself.

And it’s easy to do.  Simply ask some of your best customers if they would be willing to write a few sentences about their experience with your product or service.  (and ask their permission for you to publish this text.)  If they are willing to have their name or business name associated with the testimonial, that’s also some free advertising for them.

If you are a small business, you should be using the power of the internet to aide you in accomplishing your marketing goals.  The internet is a WEALTH of information for doing thing such as:

1.  Networking. Find other people in your industry.  You can learn from people who are in the same business as you.  Learn from their mistakes.  Learn what they have done that works well.  Get advice.  Have them review your work.  The best way to find these people are to join groups on some of the more popular social networking sites such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, or Twitter.  If you’re not familiar with all these types of social networking sites, I will have a blog post soon describing what they are and how to use them.

2. Advertising. When you advertise online, your ads can be focused and yet reach many people.  Typically a much bigger “bang for your buck” as when compared to traditional print advertising.  Check out Google AdWords as a great place to learn about starting to advertise online.

3. Finding Sales Leads. Having your own website of course is a great starting point.  But just building a website does not mean people are going to come to it.  Using some popular online services such as craigslist is a good place to post your product or service, and it’s quick & easy.  Posting to the groups of the social networking sites mentioned above is another great place to produce leads.  Email marketing campaigns are another great way to produce leads, if you have a good email list you can send it to.  MailChimp is one of the best email marketing services I have come across.

Take 30 minutes out of your day today and do a little research and browsing around on the web.  Maybe explore some of the links above. See what’s out there that could help your business.  And then maybe just pick one of those things and work on it this week.  Then see what happens to your marketing efforts when using the internet.  You will see results.

What is your company image?  It is your logo, your business cards, your brochures, and your website.  Even little things like your email signature and letterhead.

The key here is to have consistency between all the sources of your company image.

Step 1:  Your Logo. Hire someone to create an awesome logo for you that represents your business well.  Don’t use clipart and a word processor to create your logo (people will know).  A professional designer can provide you with several versions of a logo to choose from, and should work with you until it’s just exactly what you want.  He or she will also provide you with your logo in a high resolution file format to be used on things like business cards, posters, banners, maybe even shirts.

Step 2:  Use Your Logo Everywhere. Put this logo on everything: business cards, brochures, letterhead, website.  Again, consistency is the key here.  Even if you’re a very small business or an individual, you will come across with a very professional image if all your marketing collateral has your logo on it and is professionally designed and printed.

Step 3:  Consistent Fonts & Colors. Take the font and color scheme from your logo, and use them everywhere else.  This is a detailed touch that will tie everything together.

Step 4:  Professional Photography. You may have a great logo and business cards.  You may even have a really nice looking website.  But if your website or brochures have images on them, make sure they are taken by a professional photographer!  Your whole company image will go down the drain when people see a poorly photographed product or image on your website or brochure.  It’s true what they say:  a picture IS worth a thousand words.  I know it takes time and money to get good pictures.  But this is one place where you’ll see a very clear return on your money.  And then you’ll have the images to use in many places in the future.  Don’t have money for a professional photographer?  Maybe you have a friend or relative who is an amateur photographer.  Or maybe you can just take some time to read through some photography tutorials to improve your skills.

Do you feel like you have a successful company image?  Feel free to call me sometime to chat about how you can work at making your company image remarkable.

Go Green!

Do what you can to be environmentally-friendly.  More and more people today are looking for products and services that come from business who practice eco-friendly techniques.  Maybe this just means starting with some little things, like making more of an effort to recycle paper and other waste in your office environment.  Maybe you could even replace some of your products with recycled or organic products.  Once your company makes the switch, then you can advertise yourself as being more environmentally aware.  It could be something that sets you apart from your competitors.  It definitely couldn’t hurt.

For more information you can visit these sites:
www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/en
www.ecofirms.org
www.greensites.com