&copy;<script>document.write(new Date().getFullYear())</script>Your Company Name

It’s a quick fix that will take you less than 5 minutes to implement and you’ll never have to worry about it again!

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!…

When there is too much stuff in the design, there is nothing to draw your eye to, and your message is going to be lost in the mess.  Make sure there is plenty of whitespace in your design.  Whitespace is just areas in your design that are empty, or blank.  So here’s my motto:

The more whitespace in your layout, and the simpler the design –> the better it will look, and the more attention it will grab from your readers.

As you browse around the internet, or look at advertisements in a magazine – what catches your eye sooner:

• the “busy” ads where they fill up as much space as possible?
• or the simple ads that communicate their message quickly and easily?

This doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to have lots of information on your website.  Just make sure it’s organized in a simple way, and broken into sensible areas that are easy to navigate.  But if your website is too “busy” – people are going to leave.

Are your website visitors:

• prospective customers or clients?
• your current customers?
• buyers?
• employees?
• who else?

Priority #2:  Fulfill Your Site’s Purpose Easily
Now that you know who your audience is, you can figure out what the main purpose of your site is.  If it is prospective customers or buyers, your focus should be on showing your product or service in a very attractive way.  If it’s current customers, you need to allow them access to their information easily and quickly.  So many people make the mistake of creating their website the way THEY like it – which is not necessarily the way the visitors like it.  Think about what it is about your site that is going to make it EASIEST for your intended audience to get what they came for out of your website.

Priority #3:  Simple & Consistent Navigation
There is nothing worse than going to a site and not being able to find your way around easily.  Everything (yes, EVERYTHING) on your site should be quick and easy to find.  The navigation links should be obvious, it should be clear where they each lead, and everything should only be a click (or two) away.  The navigation area should also be consistent – it should be in the same place on every page.  No matter where the person is on your site, it will be easy to get anywhere else on the site because they know right where to click.  Make it easy for them.

Priority #4:  Keep It Dynamic
Have you ever visited a website, only to see the exact same homepage every time you visit?  Your website is not a static brochure (although many businesses use it as such).  Your website should be dynamic, vibrant, changing, fresh, and new!  Do this by updating the content and images on your homepage often.  Even if it’s only once a month.  Don’t change the whole look & feel of your site (that’s important to maintain brand identity).  Just give people something new to read, new pictures to look at.  A reason to keep them coming back.  A desire to learn something new.  After all, you’re the expert in your field, whatever that is, right?  Provide tips, articles, answers.

Priority #5:  SEO & Marketing
Your website designer or webmaster might know more about this than you.  Just make sure your website was created in such a way that it is optimized for the search engines to find it and index it (hence “Search Engine Optimization”, or SEO).  There are many technical things that your programmer needs to do to make it easy for people to find your site.  Such as keyword optimization, inserting metatag information, using CSS compliant layouts, and much more.  SEO is just part of marketing your website.  There are many other ways to market:  online advertising (such as banner ads or pay-per-click), blogging (& other social networking), linking with other websites, and more.

Priority #6:  Make It Beautiful
You’d think this would be #1, wouldn’t you?  Being a designer I would love this to be #1.  But the reality is there are some pretty darn ugly sites out there that aren’t very user-friendly, but they are highly successful because they provide what people are looking for (certain products, services, or information).  But once you have a site that is fulfilling its purpose – make it look beautiful.  Make it so people really enjoy visiting your site.  Make it simple.  Clean.  Organized.  Use a color scheme that works for your business.  Have a design that draws people in to the content it surrounds.