Blog software

Blogging is for SEO, Not Old People

Saturday, February 6, 2010 by Frank Dale

I read an article today in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Blogging is for old people, Pew report finds.” The title references the author’s conclusion after looking at Pew’s study of the millennial generation’s internet usage patterns. If I ran a consumer-to-consumer blogging service, I might be concerned. If we are talking about B-to-B or B-to-C blogging, the Pew study data does not apply.

Blogging is still very much about communication. It is just not primarily focused on C-to-C communication anymore. Blogging is now in its third generation. We have moved past blogs dedicated to cats and into an era of blogging for customer acquisition.

Business blogging works, because it is an easy way to provide relevant content that search engines love. Search engine providers like Google and Microsoft need to provide relevant results to keep searchers happy and loyal. Blogs are particularly good at providing relevant content, because blog content is topical and easy to update. It’s a great match, because the incentives are aligned for the search engine provider and the blogger. Bloggers provide topical content that search engines use to keep searchers happy. Search engines provide bloggers with prospective customers already interested in the product or service the blogger provides. We know this because the searcher specifically entered keywords corresponding to the topic that interested them. You don’t type “business blogging software” into a search box for fun. At least I don’t. You search based on your interests or needs.

Millennials may not blog, but they will certainly read blogs. We trust search engines because they help us solve problems. When you use a search engine to solve a problem, you are looking for a relevant, credible answer. If the best solution to your problem is found on a blog, you are going to visit that blog not a random twitter page. At Compendium we know this is true, because we use our own corporate blogging software to acquire customers. If you would like to learn more about blogging for search engine optimization, you can download our free whitepaper on Third Generation Blogging.

2010 New Years Resolutions..It's Not Too Late!

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

Wow...I blink and January is already over. I have

already completed four weeks at Compendium Blogware and I am still learning every day. So today, I am watching a huge snow storm come towards Indianapolis and I found a very interesting article on Geek O Pedia about your 2010 Social Media New Years Resolutions. Did you make any plans/resolutions for your business?

Congratulations if you did but as I can expect, many of us didn't. And it's not too late to make those resolutions. For some easy tips, check out the same article I read here. However, if you want some guidance on what you should do to fix your social media woes, get some information on our affordable blog software or you can check out a demostration of our easy to use blog software with some smart bloggers. They can help you with some of those resolutions.

For fun, check out Brian Millis's blog from Compendium's website. He has an surprising video about the importance of social media into the future.

Business to Business People Can Blog Too!

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I know so far in my blog I've only written about business to consumer case studies that Compendium Blogware offers as evidence of the reason why our software works. Compendium Blogware also serves business to business clients as well and they have used the best blogging software to drive organic search results which equate to more conversions.

One of Compendium's clients is Widen Enterprises, who sells premedia/prepress software, has seen huge results from their blogging efforts. They have purchased 15 more blogs from Compendium since the beginning of their blog in December of 2007 and now they rank in Google's top searches. If you're a business to business type, then you really should check out this case study here.

Greater Exposure Through Strategic Blogging

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Jason Harvoth

Is your company looking to take its sales to the next level in 2010? Perhaps bring sales back to pre-recession levels? The budget that was put in place for customer acquisition in 2007 may not work in 2010. So, you'll spend the remainder of the year reactively trying to "Fix It."

Compendium's business blog software focuses your search marketing dollars on driving more relavent traffic to your drive. This traffic is then converted through your Calls to Action. Empower your employees to create blog content through Compendium's simple blogging software, and lower your cost of customer acquisition immediately.

Or, you can take Sammy Stevens' approach below and craft a catchy video? Good luck with that.

Clean code = better SEO

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

Parthenon image - http://ancient-greece.org/images/ancient-sites/acropolis/images/110_1033c.jpg

I've been involved in a few longterm branding projects and I must admit that it's exciting to watch that evolution.

A logo matures.
Messaging gets clearer.
Design stays cutting edge.

As a designer, so much of the evolution has to do with the outer shell that people see. It can be easy to think, "if it looks right, it must be". It can be easy to impress an audience with unneccesary, flashy spectacles. However, if you desire to truly engage your audience then discipline and attention to detail cannot be overlooked.

The latest evolution to consider is under the hood. Looking at the code. Keeping style separate from content is key to optimizing load time. When it comes to SEO, this makes your code cleaner for search engines to understand what is going on, giving you a higher ranking in search.

Much like the Greeks who sculpted every element in the Parthenon Piedmont in the round (even if the back of the sculpure would never be seen), we must put forth the effort to create clean websites.

Herein lies another benefit of blogging software hosted in the cloud. With a weekly release, our engineers are continually sculpting and optimizing our product in places that we may never see, but each tweak further benefits our clients when it comes to SEO.

Don't Let Writer's Block Stop You

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Heather Benfield

Lucky for me, I write a lot of content for Compendium Blogware so I'm able to re-distribute the content in my blogs making is easy to stay on track with my "Don't Break the Chain" goal. So far I'm 12 days in and haven't missed a day blogging!

But, I am human which means sometimes I develop the condition that all writing professionals dread...WRITER'S BLOCK! Ahhhh.....

So today, I'm not going to provide any compelling statistics, put my two cents in on a cool study or even try to find a piece of old collateral to re-use. I'm just here to tell you that it's okay to get writer's block every once in a while and show your human side in your blog posts. People don't trust big brands or CEO's, they trust PEOPLE!

Don't just not write a blog post becuase you can't think of any earth-shattering news. Tell people a little bit about yourself, have some fun and at the end make up an excuse to tie in a call-to-action like:

If you're searching for an easy to use blog software that feeds content ideas to you so you'll never get writer's block again, view a demo of Compendium's Blogging Platform!

See? Isn't that easy? :)

Internet Trends Are Shocking

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

After you start working at Compendium, you learn so much more about the web and how complex it truly is because it affects businesses so much. I still remember the days when you would have to type out the full website name to reach it. Now you just search for it and click. According to Piper Jaffrey, 44% of all web visits begin with people search for something...and that statistic is growing!

The trend of people finding business by searching is the reason why your company needs to find easy to use blogging software. Fortunately if you are reading this blog, you are interested in Compendium Blogware's affordable blogging software. If you are interested in reading more about the trends of the internet and why blogging and SEO tools are important for your business, check out this Whitepaper! You will be surprised by what you find out!

Like to Read? Send a Lead!

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Compendium Client Marketing

If you haven't heard - Compendium just launched a brand new referral campaign to our clients. The details of the promotion are very exciting and we want to make sure that everyone has a chance to take advantage of this great offer!

Here's how it works:

1. Think of someone you know that could benefit from Compendium's powerful blogging software.
2. Fill their information in the box provided under Step 1.
3. Fill in your information under Step 2 so that we can send you a $25 Amazon gift card just for your referral!
4. If the referral you sent us starts blogging with Compendium within 30 days - we'll send you an Amazon Kindle!

It can't get much easier than that! And the best part is that you'll be helping your friends and contacts get one step closer to building a successful search marketing strategy with Compendium Blogware. Start referring today before this offer is over!

Raising the Bar: Business Blogging Software

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Brittan Bright

Being a sales professional and new to Compendium, I've had to wrap my mind around my personal perception of blogging. I had never fully understood it's function as a business tool. It's cool, it's trendy, it has potential to engage our current clients, but who cares? I, like many of you, didn't get the point because I couldn't see any measurable way that corporate blogs drive business, a.k.a SHOW ME THE MONEY!

I also had to overcome my perfectionist (blog)writer's block caused by my B.A. in English. Thankfully, my competitive sales nature trumps the literary standards that stood in the way of my understanding the actual function of a business blog: new client acquisition.

I am not here to write a book, I 'm here to win your business. What company, sales pro, or marketer, is not trying to do the very same thing?

Being open to a new perspective, a new idea, service, or tool, isn't that where innovation comes from? Don't we all want to be, or be part of, or believe in, "the next best thing"? Isn't that what any business needs their potential client's to do?

Seth Godin writes, "You can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it's getting raised regardless."

Compendium is raising the bar, let us show you how. Be as open to new ideas as you would like your potential customers to be. Think of all the people out there with a problem that you have the expertise, product, or service to solve. Now think about how you got to my blog and consider giving us a shot.

How do you Measure Your Business Blogs' Success?

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 by Heather Benfield

The beauty about working at Compendium is that not all of our clients have the same goals and objectives, but we are still able to provide a solution to whatever their business blogging need may be.

For example, I was writing a case study today about a successful client of ours, Indium Corporation, and while I was gathering information about what makes their corporate blogging program so great, I noticed there was no ROI information available.

Errrr...uh oh. What do I do now? WELL...after talking to the company's Client Succes Manager, Jess Wehner, she said that Indium measures their blogging success on organic search exposure and online lead generation. So I went back to gather more information and realized they are rocking it out!

755% increase in online presence and 83% increase in online lead generation!

Check out what else they're rocking out on by reading the success story below:

Indium Corporation develops and manufactures electronics assembly materials, but that’s not the only thing they developed before meeting Compendium Blogware. Indium had 9 blogs in operation with 12 contributing authors however; blog scalability, organic search exposure and lead generation were all missing from their blogging success equation.

Indium chose to integrate their old content into Compendium’s corporate blogging platform in order to manage and organize content in one area as well as increase their number of blogs from 9 to 68. This solution allowed the company to increase organic search exposure without increasing resources.

After transitioning to Compendium’s blogging software, in less than a week the company increased their online presence by 755%. Within the first four months, 30% of Indium’s keyword blogs were ranking in the top 10 Google search results and 65% ranking in the top 50. This boost in organic search exposure directly resulted in an 83% increase in online lead generation.

To learn more about Compendium Blogware's corporate blogging platform, sign up for a free, 20 minute online demo!

Find New Kids on the BLOGk...

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Jason Harvoth

If you are looking to acquire top talent to your organization, how do you do it? You search for that ideal candidate who can type 1,000 words per minute or can solve world peace...yesterday. The key is that you search. Or, you have someone search for you.

How can your company create a more content-rich experience for job seekers? Many companies try to tell their story through About or History sections of their websites, while the truth behind the "stories" come from your current employees.

Effective, corporate blog software empowers those closest to the product (your company) to give their opinions directly to a captive audience (job seekers).

Compendium's affordable blogging software will help you attract and retain top talent. Schedule a demonstration of this game changing organizational blog software by clicking on this button.

Another Compendium Client Achieves Rockstar Status!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Heather Benfield

One of the best parts about my job is writing and sharing client success stories! I love spreading the word that another company was able to become a Search Marketing Rockstar by using Compendium's corporate blogging software!

I won't keep you waiting any longer...here's the story:

Aprilaire manufactures whole-house solution products for indoor air quality problems. But, this organization had a problem of their own… reaching fresh online prospects on a daily basis.

The company sought a solution to help them achieve two impactful goals: to continuously increase unique traffic from organic search and locate new prospects online. Aprilaire selected Compendium’s software which helps target hundreds of pertinent searched keywords through blogging, to accomplish and surpass their initiatives.

So, how’d they do against their goals? By January 2010, the company experienced a 1,000% increase in unique visits to the blog (80% resulting from organic search). In addition 96% of all visits were brand new prospects, just waiting to be turned into opportunities!

Congratulations, Aprilaire! Keep up the good work!

Read how other Compendium Clients achieved Rockstar Status:

Fairytale Brownies
Widen Enterprises
Virginia State Parks, Monon Coffee Company and Avectra

Don't be Afraid to Ask Questions

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

One of the biggest trends I have seen since working at Compendium Blogware is that it seems that people are confused on exactly what we do here. Compendium Blogware offers the only corporate blogging software as a service to companies. However, even though that statement makes a lot of sense to my 22 year old knowledge, I know it doesn't necessarily make sense to people who haven't grown up with computers.

For instance, I believe my father has asked me over seven times in the last two weeks what I exactly do as the marketing intern at Compendium. I always say the same answer but it still seems to not make sense. If you are confused on what blogging can do for your busniess, please check out a demo or read some of our Whitepapers. Don't be afraid to click on a few links and find out some more information or talk to one of our blogging experts so you can clear up your questions!

Blogging to Win

Monday, February 1, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

Since I'm an Indiana native, I admit that I'm an absolutely ridiculous college basketball fan.

Its kind of our thing for Hoosiers and one of my habits is to always check the rankings of my teams, Indiana and Butler University. It's kind of interesting to see how important rankings are to people and how rankings also affect someone's business.

Compendium Blogware utilizes ranking software, that I check every week by the way, to see how our clients are doing and to help them continuously increase their ranking. Clearly, the higher your ranking, the more leads you will generate and the more business you can close on.

If you imagine your business world as the March Madness tournament, it's noticeable that the #1 seeds have a much easier chance to win the championship than the #16 seed. Blogging is your scoring play so check out a demo of Compendium's affordable corporate blogging software so you win your business championship this year!

Why you need an Enterprise Social Media Platform

Monday, February 1, 2010 by Chris Baggott

Do you use Corporate Blogging Software? Twitter, Facebook? It's been well reported here and pretty much everywhere else that spending by business on Social Media efforts are exploding. Are you keeping up with the best tools for business? What's shocking is the rapid adoption of free or consumer oriented Social Media tools by business with very little diligence into the very real risks posed by incorporating these tools.

Most hopefully remember the well publicized security breach exposed by Robert Scoble in his blog last September where he reported:

Anyway, this time (hackers) they also put some malicious code on my archive pages. Google sent me an email saying they had removed my blog from its index. That got a whole team to look into how they broke in. Now thanks to TechCrunch and Mashable you know there was a vulnerability in Wordpress which let them break in.

Today ZDNet reported on a new release of the annual Sophos Securtity Threat Report 2010 which outlines the results of their survey sharing the current thoughts on Social Media Security.

Here is a great observation by Sam Diaz, senior editor at ZDNet:

"Here’s something that struck me as interesting: 72 percent of the firms surveyed said they’re concerned that employee behavior on these sites puts their infrastructures and sensitive data at risk. Yet, 49 percent of these firms allow their staff unfettered access to Facebook..."

There is no question that there are amazing opportunities for businesses leveraging social media. But, like all other business software, we have to use the right tools that maximize the rewards, while minimizing the risks. Businesses can't afford the free-for-all that all this openess has bred.

The best blogging software is SaaS based, incorporates workflows for control and compliance and integrates sharing to other social networks.

Save Money by Blogging

Monday, February 1, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

Are you trying to generate more leads for business or increase your businesses exposure? If this is the case, you're like everybody during these economically tough times. You know you need business to make money, but you don't know how to market your company when you have no money and no one to sell it to.

Well luckily, Compendium Blogware offers affordable blogging software that is a software as a service to marketers. It's easy to use blog software that is made for corporate blogging. I hope you know that you don't need to spend thousands of dollars to increase your ability to be found when you can easily maintain a blog that saves you money. Compendium has an interesting Webinar about blogs being your #1 search marketing tool. Just click here. Enjoy and get to blogging soon!

Writing Sticky Blog Content is Great...As Long As People Can Find It!

Monday, February 1, 2010 by Heather Benfield

As I was sipping my Cinnamon Dolce Latte this morning from Starbucks (a recent addiction since the Compendium office is conveniently located above the coffee company) and reading recent Twitter updates, the article "10 Tips for a Sticky Blog" quickly caught my eye.

Hmm...I blog every day (or at least try to)...I'd like people to stick around and read my content...sure, I could use 10 tips!

The article was a good reminder to make sure I’m including Calls-to-Action (CTA’s), personality and constant updates, but I got to thinking…this is all great information for those who DO find my blog...but how can I make sure that happens?

By creating keyword-rich content in my posts, Compendium's simple blogging software structures it in the ideal way for search engines to read and rank. This allows people to easily find my blog if the content in my posts is relevant to their search query.

For example, if an online marketer types the question, “How do I win the #1 spot in organic search?” in Google search, my blog post “Winning the #1 Spot in Organic Search: The Long Tail Approach” comes up as the #1 and #2 organic search results.

By having a search marketing strategy that focuses on generating many pages of content housed in blogs, specifically targeting as many keywords as possible (without being spammy), allows even the smallest business to be successful in organic search without big company resources.

To find out how your business can start ranking #1 in organic search results, sign up for a free demo today or check out the Compendium Blogware Resource Library!

Winning the #1 Spot in Organic Search: The Long Tail Approach

Friday, January 29, 2010 by Heather Benfield

I ran across an interesting Compendium post that said 56% of all keyword queries are now three word phrases or more. Wow.

So, why should corporate bloggers pay attention?

A few reasons. Third Generation Blogging (a term coined by our CEO, Chris Baggott) is all about search. Specifically using blogs to get in front of peoples intent when they type in keywords and phrases into that little box. Using long tail keywords in the titles of your blogs and within the content will not only expand the amount of traffic you reach, but the terms are also much, much easier to win.

Take one of our clients Fairytale Brownies as an example. They’re an eCommerce gourmet brownie business, accomplishing this goal by utilizing Compendium’s blogging software. Employees throughout the organization generate blog content that the Compendium platform automatically organizes according to keywords.

For example, instead of targeting high search volume (and highly competitive) keywords such as “brownies” or “chocolate brownies”, Fairytale focuses their content around lower search volume keywords such as “delivery brownies” and “order brownies.” This strategy allows Fairytale to obtain the coveted #1 spot in organic search when consumers search with keywords such as these.

By having a search marketing strategy that focuses on generating many pages of content housed in blogs, specifically targeting as many long tail keywords as possible, this allows even the smallest business to be successful in organic search without big company resources.

How Important Is Page Title?

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Jenni Edwards

Would you ever buy a book with a boring title? How about name your child with a ridiculous nonsense name?

I didn't think so!

So why would you name your business blog with anything different than a keyphrase? Our business blog software makes that easy! Page title is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT factor when it comes to on site factors for search marketing. Page title lets the search engines (i.e. - Google) know what your page is all about. I am willing to guess there is more than one keyphrase that is relevant to your business blog. Compendium's unique, easy to use blog software makes ie easy to target multiple keyphrases with the same pieces of content.

Do I have your interest? How about you sign up for a demo of our blogging software here.

You've Copy/Pasted from Word. Now what?

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Allison Bowen

You have written an amazing blog post using Compendium's simple blogging software and suddenly notice that your blog post is not appearing correctly. And your font is not the same as the others. What in the world?

Well, then you remember that you copy/pasted from Word. Oops! Now what? Microsoft Word and other similar text editing programs apply hidden formatting that interferes with all web formatting.

There is a way to save your post and regain that awesome blog for your business.

All you need to do is simply copy your text and paste it into a Notepad file. Then copy your text from there and paste it back into the text editor. Voila! It's that easy! Notepad will automatically strip your text of the formatting. You will need to replace your links and images, but it's a lot better than rewriting the entire post.

And -- you'll remember better next time! :)