Blog for Search Optimization

Posted Thursday, August 21, 2008 by Megan Glover

Seth Godin has a great blog post today: Who's telling you the truth about your online personal marketing?

His post makes a great point about the the trend in marketing these days which I relate to transparency. He writes that, "people are judging you", and isn't that the truth.

Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instant Message, etc... have all opened the door fainting the line between personal/professional life. So how does a marketer ensure the judgments of his or her employees don't hurt the reputation of the entire company?

Why not embrace and incorporate those mediums into your own marketing? You know your employees, particularly your Gen X'ers, are all tapped in and participating... why not embrace it and make your presence known too!

It's actually one of the reasons Compendium Blogware was founded. Chris (our CoFounder/CEO) noticed while at ExactTarget that many of his employees were blogging. And, blogging about the company - but Chris had was unable to leverage the blog content they were cracking out.

That's why Compendium is built for multiple bloggers and has an administrative layer which allows you manage the blogger's message as you see fit. So, companies and organizations can give their employees platforms to blog on and yet reap the marketing benefits such as SEO. Not only that, but you're providing a real-life voice to speak out on behalf of your organization which ultimately... humanizes your marketing.

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Online Behavior --- Continues To Prove The Case For Business Blogging

Posted Thursday, August 21, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

This Forbes Article is great! I think one of the biggest takeaways is this line "...the Internet is still about searching for information. Indeed out of the top five sites most trafficked by U.S. visitors...four are portals (search engines) to other Web sites."

The Internet is about search. That's what people are doing. While email is still the most popular activity, the proof of the importance of search is in the rankings (make sure to check out the slides that compare the Top 20 Sites of 2005 to the Top 20 Sites of 2008 --- so amazing how quick we forget 'cool' destination sites, does anyone even remember Gorilla Nation Media from 2005?).

The one regret I have of the article is the fact that the author never did tie blogs into the search world or the idea to blog for SEO. And the mention of blogging is grouped into social networks and forums. While all of these do create the so called "interaction" the idea that businesses only can utilize blogs to monitor the chatter is an understatement --- what about taking the next step and implementing their own business blogging strategy?

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Search Engine Optimization spending increases

Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Eric Romer

A new survey from the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) shows that both advertisers and agencies are ramping up their spending in Search Marketing, particularly organic SEO. This shouldn't be shocking news, as Search Marketing has steadily grown, and will continue to grow as less and less people use destination websites.

It's not rocket science. If I am looking for a particular brand of jeans, or a specific tea pot my mom was talking about, I search. I Google "cast iron asian tea pot", and start my research.

As the survey shows, advertisers are increasing their organic SEO by 28%, and agencies by 73% (the highest increase of all the categories!). So what does this mean? It means companies are trying to optimize a traditional website to be found on many different keywords. The only problem is a website will only be able to capture a handful of keywords. There are hundreds, thousands of different ways I can search for that tea pot. As a business who sells that product, I need to cast a wide net and be found on as many of those terms as possible.

Don't believe me? If you have 5 minutes, check out this Whitepaper that discusses how traditional SEO efforts pale in comparison to a corporate blogging solution when it comes to organic search.

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Google remains "top dog" in the search engine pack.

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Lindsey Young

We like to provide all of our clients and prospects with accurate, fresh data when it

comes to what search engines like . I often find myself referring to Google for search engines like I might refer to Kleenex for a facial tissue. Clients will often ask if we are just focused on Google. The answer is "not really". The algorithm is basically the same for all of the big players: Google, Yahoo, and MSN. However the market share is truly held by our "do no evil" friends at Google.

The latest data from www.searchenginewatch.com: "Google is pulling in 62% of the online searches, with Yahoo at a distant second with 20%". When it comes to blogging best practices when focusing on SEO, you truly have to consider where the majority of your organic results will lie. Good luck and keep blogging!

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The New Age of Recruiting

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by meghan peters

Many organizations are used to posting open positions or internships on their website, compiling submitted resumes and then weeding out for interviews. But what if this process was changed and all the work was done by the student and all the company had to do was show up for an interview? This may seem like a strange idea, but it's not so strange for those ambitious and creative college students. With hard times in the economy and job market, many college students are trying to find another way to land their first big position or internship.

This introduces you to the idea of informational interviews. Informational interviews are basically when a soon-to-be college grad does some research on a company they find interesting then contact a specific department to see if they can conduct an informational interview to get to know the company and positions they offer, and to sneak in some advice from someone who has been in the business for a while.

Now you are probably wondering how this pertains to blogs? In a recent blog post on MarketingSherpa by Anne Holland she found that the blogosphere is a great place for college grads to do some research on potential future employers. Not only does blogging boost your SEO but it also puts a human voice to your company, which helps students identify with your company a bit easier.

There are a lot of students that graduate from college every summer and companies want to be sure they get someone who is going to bring something to the table. So why not attract some bright stars? I'm sure you already have plenty of great reasons to implement Corporate Blogging, but I think you can add this to your list!

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Corporate blogging is like gardening

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Eric Romer

Or traveling to Florida for vacation.

Or throwing a party.

Or building a house.

OK, so my point is, you can fill in just about any analogy and it would work. The desired outcome is an award-winning garden, or arriving in Florida, or having a fun party everyone talks about, or seeing the house in its final stages. How you get there is by using the proper tools or tactics.

This is mostly inspired from reading a great post by Shel Holtz, co-author of "Blogging For Business", along with other communication-focused books. (Not to be confused with Shel Israel, co-author of "Naked Conversations", another book on corporate blogging)

Gardening Tools
I've talked about the issue of time in several posts on this blog, and you can count this as another. My biggest issue with that argument related to business blogs is that it's an excuse, not a valid reason.

If all of the sudden, there was a revolutionary new tool that could improve the way I garden, I'd probably want to know about it. I would never say "I have no time to use that tool." Take the picture above. There are a lot of different tools that a gardener can use to achieve his/her end goal - to make it the most healthy, attractive garden around. (if that's not the goal gardeners, speak up) The end game is the same, but the tools are up to each individual gardener.

It's the same thing with business. Any business has to communicate with it's shareholders, employees, existing customers, and most importantly potential customers. To drive business, you need leads. You need to introduce your business to a qualified prospect, build trust, prove value and convert them into a happy customer.

Blogging is just a tool. A simple, easy tool that scales content and allows you to communicate more effectively.

Shel writes:
Blogging is a new communication channel. Before blogs became widely available and accepted, executives made do with the channels available to them: one-on-one phone calls, conference calls, speeches, road shows, letters, email and so on. I have heard from a number of CEOs that blogs are more effective than any of these tools for a variety of communications. Therefore, they have replaced the use of such channels with blogging. In aggregate, though, they’re spending just as much time fulfilling their role as the company’s chief communicator.
And he's just highlighting an executive's reason to blog. We at Compendium preach to allow employees, not just C-level exec's, to blog for your business. As the Edelman Trust Barometer shows us, an employee blog is "five times more credible than a CEO blog." Shel also has some good tips on time management, group blogs and ROI. Read the rest of his post HERE.

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Finding Time to Blog

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Jim Hyslop

So I know that I have already blogged about this issue but it seems to come up a lot. In fact I just read a post by Shel Holtz where he also addresses the issue that I hear all the time, "my staff is already maxed...we just don't have time to blog" and it got me thinking again.

The truth is by saying you don't have time to blog you are really saying I don't have time to communicate. I know I would never hear the same answer in regard to email or phone calls. The idea of not communicating by phone would be unheard of! We need to re-tune our minds to look at the blog in this exact way....as another form of corporate communication with our clients and business prospects on a human level. The beauty of the blog is now our method of communication is serving multiple purposes. Engaging our prospects, optimizing your company in the search rankings, and turning visitors into customers by your ability to do both of the first two things. But to do so you need the tools that allow you to do this.You need to incorporate methods of advanced business blogging.

The real time issue with managing a corporate blog does not come from communicating...it comes from managing the blog for ROI. There is a lot of lifting that happens to leverage that communication for your maximum benefit. At the end of the day if your company uses the right blogging tools to do this for you, you will inevitably secure the many benefits of blogging you deserve while at the same time never allowing your clients and potential customers to rank below the number one spot on your lists of priorities.

Driving business comes from the ability to acquire new customers by communicating to them you have exactly what they need. So by saying you don't have time to blog you are really saying I don't have time to obtain new forms of revenue. From a business perspective that just doesn't make sense. Blog for SEO. Blog for engagement. Blog for ROI!!!!

Business growth = Good Stuff..........Happy Blogging!

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Page titles are so money. By money, of course, I mean search-awesome.

Posted Monday, August 11, 2008 by mikey mioduski

If any of you are just getting the hang of this SEO thing, like me, you, like me, may have recently discovered the grande importance of page titles in SEO. This is relevant to blog titles as well.

In his whitepaper, What is Blogging’s Role in Search Engine Optimization & the Social Networking Phenomenon?, Compendium Blogware Co-Founder and CEO Chris Baggott quotes SEO expert Steven Bradley:

By far the most important piece of writing you’ll do on any given page is your page title. Search engines consider your page title to be very indicative of what can be found on the page.

Chris goes on to make the following recommendations.

Think about your keyword strategy for PPC and use that as a guide for your blog titles. For example, if ExactTarget wants to rank well on the search term “blogging best practices,” they should name a blog this. And by “name,” I mean that they should title it “blogging best practices.” Titling by the appropriate keyword phrase is a highly scaleable strategy, meaning that ultimately, you would have a blog titled with every one of your PPC keywords.

Along those lines, here are some tips:
• When writing page titles, place your keywords as close to the front of the title as you can.
• Don’t “stuff” with keywords. Titles still need to be readable and need to convince someone to click on them, even in the organic results. (Remember, it’s the actual page title that will show as your result and link in the search results. Obviously results that include the search terms that the searcher has used will be the most compelling ones!).
• Be wary of using titles such as “Rob’s Ramblings.” Every blog should have a meaningful title that includes specific keyword phrases for which you want to rank.

Page titles are money. They're like this huge bear, with these massive claws. Search engines are like this cute little bunny, and if you don't have a relevant and powerful blog title, that little bunny's going to slip away off to some other big bear's cave. Search engines love blog titles, and we should too.

So I changed my blog title to something that may be more search-awesome, in hopes of catching that beautiful baby bunny. We'll see what happens. Who's the big winner here tonight in Indianapolis? Anyone blogging for business that's who.

Author's note: I refrained form embedding one of my all-time favorite scenes from Swingers here, as there is no made for tv version that I could find on YouTube. If you know of the whereabouts of the bear-claws-rabbit scene online, sans colorful language, please comment on this post! Gracias.

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Compendium Welcomes the Eugene Chamber of Commerce

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

Compendium Blogware is happy to announce that our newest client, Eugene Chamber of Commerce, is blogging. Not only are the blogging, but they are already seeing results! In just one month of posting content they have seen all but one of their keywords ranking in Google.

How have they accomplished this in such a short time? The answer is, and will always be, content. The way to get better rankings in the search engines is by adding updated and relevant content on a regular business.

Blogging for SEO is a growing business trend that companies are continuing to see the benefit of. Our blogging platform is easy to use and makes blogging fun. The Client Success Team at Compendium will help you get your blogs off the ground and provide you with continuing support for the life of your blog. We are here for questions, consulting, and getting your company the results that you are trying to achieve. What other blog software can say that? Well, none to be exact.

If you would like to view Eugene Chamber's Blog click here. Leave them a comment while you are at it!

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Boating... and business blogs

Posted Monday, August 4, 2008 by Eric Romer

I had a great weekend at a friend's lake house, which consisted mostly of relaxing, boating and eating. However, I managed to sneak in some talk about business blogging as well.

One of my biggest struggles with being on the cutting edge of a new blog software is how to break it down to layman's terms. In any form of communication, you have to speak the language of your audience. If I'm talking to a business that is well-versed in SEO and Paid Search Advertising, my discussion will be more granular and technical. However, some people don't want to know how the engine works, they just want the car to run.

Our host for the weekend, Harry, was intrigued by Compendium's solutions for business, but needed a quick explanation. OK... so what's the best way for me to describe what we do, cocktail in hand on the boat, so it's relevant to Harry? I got it... his hip replacement surgery next week.

Me: So, before your surgery, did you do any research?
Harry: Well, yeah, of course.
Me: Did you use a search engine?
Harry: Like Google? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did.
Me: Well, what we do is provide software to businesses, and in this case it would be a doctor/surgeon/health care provider, to tell relevant stories about hip surgery and recovery. So, when you, the potential patient, goes to do research, you find a human being giving you up-to-date, relevant information. It looks similar to a website, but with more of a conversational, personal communication.
Harry: Sounds like it makes sense...
Eric: (pulls out iphone) Here, let me show you...

Then I went on to do a Google search of a Compendium client. If you want to hear how this process works from one of our clients, Tampa Bay Convention & Visitor's Association, click HERE to sign up for the Webinar Thursday, Aug. 14th.

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Full Disclosure on Blogs

Posted Sunday, August 3, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

In a recent ruling, the SEC will recognize corporate blogs as public disclosure. IR Web Reports states that, "...companies can rely on their websites and blogs to meet the public disclosure requirements under Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), according to new guidance unanimously approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission today."

This means that more companies will be utilizing public forums such as blogs to relay their most critical company facts and issues to the public. Long gone are press releases, welcome to the new age. From now on organizations will be communicating by using blogging platforms such as Compendium Blogware.

Not only does online distribution meet these disclosures, the art of search engine optimized press releases have the unique ability to appear in search engines tied to the key words your blogging about. This is where Compendium can offer businesses the ability to distribute news with added SEO functionality. When paired with a well-written, SEO optimized press releases, blogs can more than satisfy disclosure, they can inform your customers, investors, and clients on exactly where your company stands.

Additionally, people will be utilizing their social networking sites such as Facebook and LInked In to share these blogs with their social groups. Not only do these sites socialize content and link conversations across the web, they also help bloggers and other journalists write more effective and media rich content.

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Developing Blog Post Content

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by jeff lefevere

Have you ever wondered how others find time in their day to write consistent (and consistently good) blog posts?

You may think to yourself, “If only I had the time.”

It’s easy to de-prioritize blogging in order to stay caught up on email and the real core of your business -- growth.

De-prioritizing your blogging, however, is a mistake, especially in the face of your in-box and business growth.

Simply, you likely write close to two thousand words a day in email. One blog post is the equivalent of 250 – 300 words. So, in the course of business, on a daily basis, you likely write at least 8 blog posts, at a minimum. And, likely, at least half of those emails are internal and operationally oriented, not affecting the acquisition of a new customer.

Secondarily, as an adjunct to your daily email, your real daily focus is helping the business run smoothly and drive growth.

When you think about where you can save time, or shift time to focus on blogging, it would have to be getting out of the email in-box and into the blogging platform.

I say this not for the obvious reason that time spent emailing and blogging is a one-to-one trade-off, instead it’s because blogging for business allows you to create content that is optimized for search engines and that traffic subsequently leads to customer acquisition and a flow of potential new customers.

These two factors combined make daily blogging a no-brainer.

Am I positing that time spent blogging instead of emailing will lead to growth in your business? Yes I am.

So, say no to those four emails that don’t advance the situation forward, though they may advance your opinion forward, and drive that energy into growing the business, using blogging as a tool to do so.

A couple of tips to take your creative brainpower into overdrive:

1) Start to view your work life in terms of story vignettes

The customer situation yesterday that was resolved and made the company look good? It makes a perfect blog post!

2) Think about your business and blogging tangentially.

That Fortune, Men’s Health or Cooking Light magazine you read in your personal time is a treasure trove of cultural currency that can be cross-pollinated with your business for pop culture relevancy. That article about the healthiest cities in America? Well, if you’re a healthcare blog, there has to be some relevant tie-in to your business

3) Keep a notebook handy to scrawl down the genesis of an idea when it strikes

You won’t remember the idea later, but just the scribbled note will jog your memory.

I hope these tips help drive your blogging success forward.

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Video and Business Blogging: Fun and Profitable

Posted Thursday, July 31, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Big Corporatations try and make things so complicated. I always say that innovation starts at the bottom...the so called Minor Leagues. Think sports marketing, everything cool in sports marketing (bat night, concerts, fireworks...even frisbee dogs) started in Minor League Baseball.

This is especially true in business blogging. With the advent of Affordable blogging software, some of our best bloggers turn out to be coming not from the ivory towers of the fortune 500, but from the SMB's. Forget Jonathan Schwartz or Robert Scoble...

If you want to emulate great Blogging Best Practices, pay attention to Lizan Brand.

Lizan is focused on Blogging for Search. She highlights high value and unusual products using all the best SEO tactics including the right keywords, geo targeting and blended search favorites like video. Why?

So when someone is looking for a specific product or a drink recipe in Greenfield or any of the surrounding communities like the big city of Indianapolis, she's the number one choice.

As a result, she has been featured in the Indianapolis paper which is over 20 miles from her store. This week she was featured in DMNews (trust me, she doesn't consider herself a direct marketer) and the things that she blogs about, she is now buying by the case. This is the best thing about Business Blogging, telling a great story about things that move your business forward.

Sure Greenfield Liquors sells 6 packs of cold Miller Lite, but her profits come from high end wine and Liquor. Blogging on these topics rings the cash register.

Watch this video and see if you don't end up thirsting for a Root Beer Cocktail :-)

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Best Practices Blogging Q&A - Comments

Posted Monday, July 28, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

Question: Comments – what should I do about them? Should I be accepting all comments or ignoring all comments? Is there a happy middle ground?

Answer: The truth is that having comments on your blog is truly up to the organization that owns the blog however there are several guidelines you should know about. First of all a blog with no comments at all will look a little suspect to people who understand blogs. It immediately throws up a red flag to the reader that says you’re not interested in two way communication. Even if you’re not going to accept comments you should still have the comment link. By having the link and functionality in place people still have the ability to reach out to you. When someone comments they leave their email address so you will have a way to respond back to them. Finally you can receive some value from an SEO perspective by having comments.

Remember you are in control of approving the comments. If an inappropriate comment is left make sure that you address the comment via email with the individual who left the comment. The most important part to remember is that comments are used for two way communication.

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Finding Time to Blog

Posted Monday, July 28, 2008 by Jim Hyslop

It seems as we move along in this new realm of blogging with a corporate focus for search engine optimization and return on investment one of the largest concerns expressed by management is access to the resources necessary to make a corporate blog successful. What we need to remember here is blogging is simple. Do not over think it. We all know a lot about our business but we don't have to get it all out in a single post. That is the Beauty of a blog.It is not America's next best selling novel instead it is a coffee talk conversation and should be focused on human engagement.

Best practices in blogging- by Compendium tell us that these posts should take 10 -15 minutes MAX! 200-250 words MAX! Remember...the key to SEO is recency and frequency of your blog posts NOT how much you say per post. So don't be worried about who will contribute and how much lost productivity may come from people needing to allocate time to blogging, instead think of it this way, by allowing people within your organization the 20-30 minutes they need each week to contribute a couple posts they will actually be building your lead generating machine.

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Is Blogging Only for SEO Wrong?

Posted Friday, July 25, 2008 by Ali Sales

Blogging for SEO isn't wrong, but it can't be your only goal. Why? Because it's the tip of the iceberg. Of course you want your business to get found through search as many ways as possible, but your goal can't stop there.

You want a prospect to find your business blogs through search, and then what?

There is a next step. What is it? You want them to find one of your corporate blogs and then read sixteen posts before leaving the page? You want them to find one of your blogs and then subscribe to an RSS feed in order to come back over and over again and do nothing but read?

You see what I'm getting at here of course.

Your corporate blogging strategy can't focus on only the search engine optimization aspect. SEO is a means to the end, and your end is to make money by creating new relationships. That's it. If someone clicks to your blog from search and finds a webpage that's impersonal, unprofessional, and full of pointless information, then your blogging program is completely falling flat.

Today Compendium's very own Chris Baggott, will be hosting a webinar that goes into more detail on these topics. The webinar will also cover blogging tips, blogging best practices, and more. This is a great opportunity to ask any burning blogging questions. Get details and sign up for the webinar here.

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Corporate Blogging from another voice.

Posted Friday, July 25, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Douglas Karr touched on a topic near and dear to our hearts here at Compendium Blogware in his post yesterday: Blogging for Business: New Tricks for Old Dogs.

Douglas does a great job breaking down how blogs are emerging as a marketing source for companies.

He addresses the pitfalls businesses are falling into, such as:

Dull conversations aren’t attracting readers
Business blogs turn into regurgitated press releases.
The topics don’t spark comments or trackbacks.
The posts lack personality and thought leadership.

"In short, the reason why business blogs are failing are because corporations are substituting a blogging application for their content management system."

At Compendium Blogware we help focus your posts and give you the tools to help make your corporate blog successful. We stress blogging for a purpose and assist in creating a strategy with your business to get a return on your investment.

Douglas also touches on what they can do to ensure success.

"Gaining authority and search engine results"
           - This is part of the package with Compendium - our expertise in SEO"

"Implementing a blogging platform that guides the blogger effortlessly through the posting process"
         - Our platform allows the user to easily create and post content, provides a                 list of keywords to focus on, and an indicator letting the blogger know                     how strong their post is.

"Blogging is a not an overnight success. Great blogging results require momentum and constant analysis and improvement."
           - Our Client Success Team is here to provide support and guidance                             regarding content ideas, best practices, tips and tricks to keep the                         process simple and stress-free.

Another feature of our platform is that there is an administrative layer that monitors the content that ends up published.

These are all reasons why Compendium Blogware can be the best answer for any business looking to begin a corporate blog.

(Also a thanks to Douglass for the plug!) :o)

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Increasing Referral Sites

Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

As a Client Success Manager here at Compendium, it is my responsibility to stay on top of my clients blogging efforts and to help guide them with best practices in blogging.

The first and foremost important thing about having a successful blog is posting frequent content. Best practices are to blog a minimum of 2 posts per week, per individual blogger.

We have several clients who are doing a phenomenal job of this; Visit Tampa Bay and Big League Tours are just two examples. Due to their frequency of posting their SEO rankings are following suit, as well as, sites referring traffic to them.

A key tactic that these corporate blogs are using is simply putting links in their posts, referring readers to other sites for articles, pictures, more information, etc... Search Engines LOVE the traffic that is generated by these embedded links.

Whats more is that if you start to link out to other sites, they will start to link back to you (as long as your content is relevant). Then as readers are perusing their sites, it will direct traffic to your blog. Therefore increasing your traffic, number of referring sites, number of new visitors, and ultimately the number of potential consumers!

For more information on how to begin building links into your blog posts, check out this article, from SEOBook.com, on 101 Link Building Tips. It provides insight on link baiting and multiple ideas on how an individual can add links to blog posts.

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Managing Time AND Blogging

Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

Lately, I have been serious about getting better time management and organizational practices in place as lately I seem to have been a day late and a dollar short too many times --- and mostly, at my own fault. Although, the picture isn't actually my desk --- it sometimes feels as if I am not too far off of this mess!

Being a start-up at Compendium it's been too common for me to get distracted with big picture conversations (i.e. - How business blogging will change the face on online marketing?) and personnel/procedure changes have also contribute to some time wasted. I am working on focusing on the day to day things that I need to do to introduce more prospects to Compendium and grow our client base --- and with some help from some new Salesforce reports and dashboards, have been trying to do just that.

So in saying this --- I also am trying to get more organized about blogging itself. It seems as if lately I either have so many topics to blog about or nothing at all and that steady stream of content that blogging for SEO needs is lost out on -- thankfully, there are many of my colleagues within Compendium that are stepping up their blogging game and luckily, with our unique software which allows for all of our content to compend into keyword driven blogs; my organization and time management woes don't impact our overall blogging success as much as if I was the lone blogger.

Here are some of the ideas I am hoping to use to organize my own personal blog entries and would love other suggestions that you all might use!

Writing down blog ideas in the same place (whiteboard, notebook) rather than a million different places.
Not writing for perfection the first go around...rather go back and editing the post 30 minutes later with a clear view.
Sticking to my set aside 1/2 hour to blog on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and hopefully being inspired enough to get an additional post in over the weekend).
Looking at my blog and other Compendium employee blogs before blogging --- What are some good ideas? Did I just talk about this? Is this relevant to the reader?

Hope this is relevant to you --- blogging isn't hard, but just as in everything in life; being organized makes it even easier!

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Universal Search & Blended Search....threat or opportunity for business?

Posted Wednesday, July 9, 2008 by Chris Baggott

There has been a lot of talk about the changes in search results brought on by Universal Search & Blended Search.

Basically, what this means is that Google and the other search engines are considering a lot more than just your website SEO when deciding what results to deliver.

Specifically, It's becoming really important to have frequently updated Corporate blogs, pictures and even video to greatly increase your chances of ranking on a wide range of keywords.

Blended Search is actually great for the marketers that are really trying to build trust and engagement with prospects and customers (although in this case we are mostly talking about prospects since your customers typically shouldn't be searching for you).   This is where people really need to rethink everything they have been taught about the Goals for Corporate or Business Blogging. Business blog strategy has to take into account and focus on the goals of Search Engine Optimization and Conversion.

When I read about Blended Search I tend to hear a lot of panic that these new strategies are both hard and expensive.   BALONEY.

Let me introduce you to my friends & client of Compendium Blogware, Greenfield Liquors. This is a tiny small town liquor store in Greenfield Indiana and they totally take advantage of Web 2.0 marketing strategies and business blogging with very little effort and lots of great results.    Take a look at this Video that appeared in their blog.     The winery featured is Paige 23.

Paige 23 Wine from Compendium Blogware Post on Blended Search

Now, Type Paige 23 wines, Greenfield into your google search box and see what happens.

Home run! Another great example of a Blogging Best Practice. Blog management software for business is affordable and easy. Try it!

www.compendiumblogware.com

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