Category Archives: blogging

Three Tips For Choosing Great Blog Topics

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Writers Block
Image by bornazombie via Flickr

I noted this morning a blog post by Dean Rieck on 7 Easy Ways to Energize Your Creative Writing Powers.

His key message is that if you’re feeling like you’re in a creative daze, take a new path. Do something different. That’s one way to discover fresh ideas and energize your creative powers. He then suggests 7 others:

  1. Learn your craft.
  2. Get off auto pilot.
  3. Stop avoiding failure.
  4. Focus on important problems.
  5. Find new uses for old ideas.
  6. Break down false barriers.
  7. Set the conditions you need to create.

If you are bereft of ideas on what to write about, Google has a huge store of other places to find how What To Write About. Two that caught my eye were:

I must admit that I think they are all approaching this from the wrong end.  So much has been written already, why add to the mountain.  They all seem to be approaching this in the way an artist might decide to create a work of art, whether there is an audience or not.  It is what is sometimes called the product-driven way of doing business.

A much more productive way of doing business is to be customer-centric.  Let us see how that concept can be applied.

What are three great tips for choosing great blog topics.  Remember the problem is not lack of choice, but rather too many possible topics you might cover.  The solution is the same as the advice in running a successful business.  Focus, focus, focus.  The three tips to focus on are:

  • Picture your ideal reader and what they will be doing at the time they consider reading your fine prose.
  • Try to home in on something you know about that will really take their fancy and may even be a bit of a surprise and a delight to them.  Remember you bring your own unique perspective to what you will write about.  Make sure this will shine through your writing.
  • Now that you have your topic, think of the 3 most important aspects of that topic around which you can create the best blog post you have ever written.

Of course the fourth unwritten tip is if you are not happy with the result of this process today, then don’t do it today.  Instead make sure that, as you live your life today, you are keenly aware of your surroundings.  Smelling the roses or the coffee or watching how a young child delights in unexpected findings may just be the trigger that suggests what the topic should be when you go through the three tips  again tomorrow.

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BWelford’s Monthly Round-Up For March 2009

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This is the online version of the SMM Newsletter. It is a selection of the most popular posts written by Barry Welford (online name BWelford) during the past month.

We hope you will find this round-up instructive and in some cases thought-provoking. You can receive an e-mail version of this if you prefer. In that case, please subscribe at the top of the right sidebar.

The blogs in which the posts appeared are indicated by the following abbreviations after the date: BPW = BPWrap; DIR = DirJournal Marketing Articles; SGL = StayGoLinks; SMm = Senior Money Memos; SSc = SEO-Scoop, a Search Engine People blog; TOBB = The Other Bloke’s Blog, VC = Viral Conversations
When The Lights Go On Again .. All Over The World – 03/27/2009 OBB
Lights around the world will go off to show support for EarthHour. Darkness is not negative and the lights going on again can be a message of hope.
Alberta Tries Brand Marketing – 03/26/2009 OBB
To help create a more positive image for Alberta internationally, the old slogan, Alberta Advantage, will be replaced by a new brand and slogan.
Weakest Link – 03/25/2009 SSc
Google should ignore low value inbound links in its algorithms. We all should focus on merit-based inbound links.
The Weakest Button – An Open Letter to Matt Cutts, Google – 03/22/2009 BPW
The Google Classic Search web page has remained unchanged for many years. Perhaps modified buttons would give better user experiences.
Grassroots Leadership – 03/22/2009 SGL
Grassroots leaders helped get Barack Obama to become president. They are now being encouraged to get involved in making the stimulus process work.
Ponzi Schemes in Ponzi States – 03/19/2009 SMm
Many are commenting on the parallel between the Madoff Ponzi scheme and the banking meltdown created by gullible bankers and inappropriate mortgages.
When Should You Publish That Blog Post? – 03/16/2009 DIR
By publishing blog posts when the majority of your Twitter followers are around, you maximize traffic generation. 0800 am EST is still preferred.
Stephen Fry On The Internet – 03/12/2009 SMm
In a BBC Radio 4 interview, Stephen Fry provides a superb account of some of the richness of the Internet as he finds it, particularly through Twitter.
Watch Your Punctuation Online – 03/11/2009 SSc
Search engines can be even more picky about punctuation than the most irritating human reader. Make sure your punctuation is not reducing search engine visibility.
Google Is Killing Its Golden Goose – 03/06/2009 OBB
Twitter is seeing remarkable growth but all is behind ‘nofollow’ tags. Google must resolve whether it wishes to catalogue all information and if so how.
How to Integrate Web Videos into your Marketing Plan – - 03/05/2009 VC
Marketing makes contacts with prospects and customers to maximize the chance that they will select products and/or services from your company. If they watch a video that shows what your product or service can do, then this is almost as good as having a face-to-face meeting with them.
How Long Should That Blog Post Be? – 03/04/2009 DIR
Given the growing popularity of Twitter with its micro-blogging tweets, regular blogs should have slightly shorter posts that encourage comments.

If you would like the occasional search-engine visible blog post added to your own blog, why not contact us.

Barry Welford

Footnote: If you are looking for more information on how to run your business more effectively, why not check out these Top Selling Business Books from Amazon. This is an affiliate link but if you do buy a book the small commission does help to underwrite a small part of the cost of providing these newsletters and blog posts.

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Tweet News

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First a disclaimer.  This is not Tweet-News, your online source for R&B singer, songwriter, musician and producer, Tweet. The other Tweet-News.com provides fans with the latest news and information on Tweet, as well as an extensive biography, discography, and media section. There is also a huge picture gallery!!

Rather this is news about Tweets, whereof the BBC declared there was a Tweet smell of success over Digg.

Use of Twitter, the mobile phone-based micro-blogging service, rocketed nearly 1,000% in the UK over the past year, according to industry analysts HitWise.  For the first time, the site has seen more visits than “social bookmarking” site Digg, which allows users to share links to sites.

Now the journalists and politicians are beginning to ask To tweet, or not to tweet?  Apparently almost anything goes on Twitter.

What are socially acceptable rules for when — or when not — to use Twitter at all?

Case in point: President Obama met in a “closed door” session with House Republicans this week. The press was not invited in order to allow the president and congressmen to have a frank conversation outside the glare of media scrutiny. But Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra twittered his impressions of the president’s presentation in real time.  Was that OK?

Let’s be clear this is not a fringe activity. According to Mathew Ingram, The Reuters editor-in-chief now Twitters.

David Schlesinger, Reuters News, has a fascinating post up at his blog, Full Disclosure — a fitting title, given the topic of the post. Schlesinger writes about how he has been Twittering from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and how his Twitter messages (or “tweets,” as people insist on calling them) actually beat his own wire service, as described in a post at Silicon Alley Insider. The news? That billionaire financier George Soros believes the current economic downturn could be worse than the Great Depression, and that as much as $15-trillion might be needed to save the banking system.

If it is good enough for Reuters, then why should the rest of us stand back.  If you would like to be in touch with a friendly face, why not follow me on Twitter. Or perhaps you would like to check out some books on Twitter.

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BWelford’s Top Picks To November 30, 2008

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This is the online version of the SMM Newsletter.  It is a selection of the most popular posts written during the past two weeks. We hope you will find this round-up instructive and in some cases amusing. You can receive an e-mail version of this if you prefer.  In that case, please subscribe at the top of the right sidebar.

The blogs in which the posts appeared are indicated by the following abbreviations after the date:  BPW = BPWrap; TOBB = The Other Bloke’s Blog;  SGL = StayGoLinks; SS = SEO-Scoop, a Search Engine People blog

The Internet is Twitter - 11/29/2008   BPW 
Social media such as Twitter typify the massive communication potential of the Internet. Although it is chaotic, perhaps surveys can provide order.
Reputation Management and Social Media - 11/29/2008 SGL 
Reputation management was possible although sometimes unethical before social media. Now companies must be an active part of the dialogue.
Traditional British Pubs Face Death - 11/28/2008   TOBB 
British Pubs are closing as visitors no longer wish to pay the increasing taxes on beer. The new generation may wish to spend more time online.
Standing Out In Social Media – Miss Manners or Mis-Behavior - 11/25/2008 SS 
Following the rules of netiquette may mean you are invisible in social media. Surprise marketing may be more ‘in your face’.
Benefit of Clouds in Africa - 11/23/2008  BPW 
Cloud computing accessed via cell phones or iphones brings powerful computing to many hands and can open up the way crises are reported.
Tom Clancys Endwar Voice Commands - 11/23/2008 SGL
Tom Clancy’s Endwar from Ubisoft uses voice technology. It works reasonably well in handling problem accents but limits functionality.
Abu Dhabi Brand Faith News Flash - 11/19/2008 SGL
News flashes should not be on Flash websites since they lose Google visibility. The website needs a RSS news feed for best effectiveness.
Happy 150th Birthday, British Columbia - 11/19/2008   TOBB 
British Columbia is 150 years old on November 19, 2008 and some fine companies have grown and prospered. The 2010 Olympics offers a bright future.
Voices mumble, fingers fumble - 11/19/2008 SGL 
As cell phones get smaller, speech technology will be capable of given very user-friendly ways of using them, particularly for seniors.
Five Seconds In The Blink Of An Eye - 11/18/2008  TOBB 
Malcolm Gladwell suggested a viewer makes up his mind about a web page in the blink of an eye. The five seconds test checks out web pages.

Footnote:
BWelford’s 6 Top Picks From The 2008 Business Best Sellers

BWelford’s Top Picks To 11/15/2008

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This is the online version of the new-style SMM Newsletter.  It is a selection of the most popular posts written during the past two weeks. We hope you will find this round-up instructive and in some cases amusing. You can receive an e-mail version of this if you prefer.  In that case, please subscribe at the top of the right sidebar.

The blogs in which the posts appeared are indicated by the following abbreviations after the date:  BPW = BPWrap; TOBB = The Other Bloke’s Blog;  SGL = StayGoLinks; CF = Cre8tive Flow (the blog for the Cre8asite Forums); VC = Viral Conversations, a new website from Michael Gray.

Social Media: Please Keep The Noise Down - 11/14/2008 SGL
Tolerance of activities like Live Blogging in social media may be influenced by where individuals sit on the sociability scale.
POW! Surprise Marketing – Push or Pull - 11/13/2008 TOBB
Andy Nulman is the king of Surprise and his new book is a fount of advice and ideas on how best to exploit Surprise Marketing – with POW.
Random Thoughts - 11/13/2008 BPW
Many write random thoughts but randomness is an essential feature of strong and secure passwords. random.org gives true random numbers.
Brand Canada � Aw Shucks - 11/12/2008 TOBB
Future Brand puts Canada at #2 on their National Brand scale, whereas Anholt has Canada at #4. Canada needs to be a little more brash.
Always On The Alert - 11/11/2008 BPW
Systems that provide SEO Alerts when particular conditions arise give an easy way of monitoring performance and competitive activity.
Grow Your Business- 11/11/2008 CF
The final article in the Marketing Right Now (MRN) series on Internet Marketing covers how to continue to grow your business to achieve your goals.
Barack Obama And Grassroots Leadership - 11/10/2008 SGL
The nomination of Barack Obama as President elect signals many things but the most powerful is the Internet support to grassroots leadership.
Tools and Tips to Help You Keep Up With The Latest Buzz- 11/07/2008 VC
Tools are available to identify what are hot topics in social media. These confirm the effectiveness of the Barack Obama organization in using social media.
RightNow Customer Service - 11/05/2008 SGL
Providing the customer service that satisfies customers through online software or chat services is win/win as sales growth covers costs.
Frozen UK Pensions – European Court of Human Rights – Decision - 11/05/2008 TOBB
The ECHR has rendered its Judgment in the case of the Frozen UK Pensions. Only the President of the Court dissented from the negative decision.
SMM (Social Media Marketing)- 11/04/2008 CF
Social media can absorb a great deal of human effort for negligible results. It is important to use time effectively in making your social media efforts count.
Talking Behind Your Back - 11/03/2008 SGL
Conversations will occur massively on the Internet. Companies can get involved through social media or they can leave everyone else to talk.

Footnote:
BWelford’s 6 Top Picks From The 2008 Business Best Sellers

SMM Top Picks For October 2008

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This is the online version of the new-style SMM Newsletter, which you can receive by e-mail by subscribing in the box at the top right.  It is a selection of the most popular posts in the three SMM blogs.  This also includes links to the Marketing Right Now article series we are writing on the Cre8tive Flow blog for Cre8asite Forums. We hope you will find them instructive and in some cases amusing.  Please add your comments below if you have suggestions on how this can be improved.

BPWrap

The Other Bloke’s Blog

  • Take The Google Challenge - 10/28/2008
    Having a high percentage of Google visitors may be hazardous to your long term success.
  • Joe - 10/18/2008
    With many political Joes, it’s good to remember that Canadian Joe.
  • There Is No Space In Brand - 10/09/2008
    Company names with spaces may not perform well on the Internet.     
  • Watching The Clouds - 10/03/2008
    Cloud computing or SaaS (Software as a service) is the next big battleground.

StayGoLinks

  • Bigger Ads For Bigger Screens - 10/22/2008
    With few people with 800×600 screens, now is the time to use that screen real estate well.
  • The Big Footer League - 10/06/2008
    Fact-filled footers that hold the information ‘below the fold’ for those interested in scrolling down are a better use of screen real-estate.
  • Your Call Is Important To Us – Really? - 10/03/2008
    Time is important to the customer since they are not in control of what is happening.

Articles on the Cre8tive Flow Blog for Cre8asite Forums

This weekly 8-part series of articles on Marketing Right Now (MRN) started in September and the final two will be available in November.

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Windows Live Writer

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One blogger who is always good value is Mitch Joel of TwistImage.  I can vouch for the quality of his post today,The 10 Things You Need For Your Computer. One of his recommendations was Windows Live Writer.

If you Blog, this is one of the better applications to get the job done. You can work offline, save drafts and insert all kinds of multimedia. Once you’re set-up, you can also see how the post will look when it’s live and you can even publish to the Web directly from the software package. The best functionality is the link manager. Once you assign a URL to a specific keyword, all you have to do it highlight it in future posts and the link will be automatically inserted. This saves tons of time and makes linking the pleasure it should be. Windows Live Writer is free.

I have now switched to Windows Live Writer and I echo everything Mitch said.  I am sure my productivity will be double using this software.  I am not usually a Microsoft fan, but I take my hat off to them.  Thanks a million, Mitch.

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Everlasting Footprints, But Not From Birkenstock

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Watch those digital footprints

Wherever you travel on the Internet, you are leaving everlasting footprints. They may be less evident than the physical footprints your Birkenstock shoes might leave, but they are much more persistent as many politicians are now finding out. As Mark Evans asks, Is Anything Off the Record?

The strange part is a lot of people dont really get this digital deal. They dont understand that every time you reveal something about yourself, youre peeling back the onion in a very public way that never disappears.
…
In a survey, CareerBuilder.com found that 20% of employees look at Facebook and MySpace when looking to hire someone, while another 9% said they will start looking at social networking profiles in the future.

There are clearly pluses and minuses to this. Nevertheless society as a whole gains when there is a greater degree of openness. This makes corporate governance an even more important topic, than ever it was before.

Related: Michael Geist has a good piece on this issue entitled, Coming To Grips With An Internet That Never Forgets

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One Blogger Bucks The Trend

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Technorati Blogosphere 2008

The Technorati State of the Blogosphere / 2008 five part report makes fascinating reading on this explosive sector of cyberspace.

Blogging is

  • A truly global phenomenon: Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008, and bloggers responded to our survey from 66 countries across six continents.
  • Here to stay: Bloggers have been at it an average of three years and are collectively creating close to one million posts every day. Blogs have representation in top-10 web site lists across all key categories, and have become integral to the media ecosystem.

There are many fine bloggers and one I particularly enjoy is Mathew Ingram. As he points out, there is one high profile blogger, Jason Calacanis, who is bucking the trend.

Jason Calacanis, the diminutive entrepreneur behind Weblogs Inc. and the people-powered search engine known as Mahalo, seems to be attempting to transform himself from just a scrappy CEO into a Web 2.0 cross between Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins. Its actually been coming for some time, but really kicked into gear when Jason stopped blogging and started sending out an email newsletter to a select group of followers. Of course, his missives routinely show up on various blogs anyway, which is a nice way to have your cake and eat it too. Which is great, because it means that none of us is denied access to Jasons words of wisdom.

Not to worry, we will not lack for fine blogs to read.

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10 Downing Street Twitters While UK Pensioners Freeze

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Ten Downing Street has a new website, or rather blog.

Brown’s website is Web2.0tastic
Based on open source WordPress code, the site ticks off every Web 2.0 word-bingo box – even claiming to be in Beta. It’s got everything the kids want: A Flickr page, a YouTube channel, podcasts and even a Twitter section – “it’s 10 Downing Street here! I’m at 10 Downing Street!”

If you want the latest news from 10 Downing Street, then you can just follow them on Twitter.

Unfortunately for certain UK pensioners, the latest news always turns out to be the same old same old. Today 10 Downing Street responded to a petition from Roy and Joan Brentnall of Canada that closed on 11 June 2008. It asked the Prime Minister to remove the discrimination against British State pensioners who retire to the Commonwealth countries rather than Europe or the USA.

It has taken over 60 days to produce a response.

080813 response 10 downing street

It is largely a copy and paste version of what was given to a petition on January 3rd of this year. Perhaps as a signal of the priority given to UK pensioners, even the copy and pasting created an unintelligible sentence. Presumably the petition that Derek Richards of New Zealand started, which closed 11 July 2008, will get the same response whenever they have time to copy and paste that one.

On the 100th anniversary of Lloyd George setting up the UK state pension system, it would be nice to see the discrimination removed and pension parity restored.

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