Blog Tools

Official Blogging Tournament Rules

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The tournament began on August 11th and we are now moving into round two. Customers will compete to advance in a Compendium organized blogging tournament based on number of posts written by the client, week-by-week. The Blogging Tournament is designed to create some spirited competition amongst our customers in a battle of the ultimate team game—business blogging. You will be pitted randomly against another Compendium customer in the ultimate blogging championship.

Tournament Rules

You need do nothing to enter the tournament. To participate write blog posts as you normally would, or with a great deal more frequency to more effectively compete.
Winners in the tournament will advance from a field of over 100 on a weekly basis based on the amount of posts generated by each team.
If there is an equal number of posts between the two teams over the course of the week the previous week’s posts will be used to determine who will advance. We will review as many of the previous weeks as necessary in order to break the tie.
A week's worth of posts start on Monday and end on Sunday.
In order for a post to count it must be considered legitimate blog posts. This means that the post must be at least 5 sentences long and contain at least two keywords.
Remember that you’re writing on a corporate blog so talk about appropriate topics that relate to your industry and company.
Please note that sticky posts don’t count.

Tournament Prizes
The winner of the Championship earns a handsome trophy denoting blogging superiority and a bottle of Champaign. There will also be a $50 gas card for the account Administrator and a $50 gas card for the top blogger on the team. The other three final teams will receive a $50 gas card.

Tournament Contact Information
Please have fun with the tournament - use this as a tool internally to mobilize around content development. Keep an eye on Chantelle Flannery’s blog and the tournament bracket for updates.

Write content. Get found in search. Convert traffic. Demonstrate ROI. Crush the competition in business blogging, tournament style!

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.

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!

Monon Coffee Company

Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

On a day to day basis here at Compendium Blogware, I spend a lot of time with clients, working with them on template creation, content development for their individual blogs, question and answer periods, going over blogging metrics, etc.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with one of our original clients, Monon Coffee Company.

The Monon Coffee Company is located in Broad Ripple, IN, right off of Westfield Blvd. They are the ideal (non-commercial) coffee shop, offering a relaxing, inviting, and warm atmosphere. The barista's greet you when you walk in the door, there is ample comfortable seating - including stools right at the counter so that you can interact with the employees. They also feature artists often so stop by frequently to see whats new on display. For the technology obsessed, like myself, they do offer free wifi.

I was impressed with William Powell, who is the owner, as well as, the author of their company blog. He greeted every customer and took the time to chat with them. He remembered every one of them, along with what was going on in their lives. If you are looking for your modern day "Cheers" look no further. Monon Coffee Company is the place you need to go.

While I was there, it was a hard choice to decide on what to have. They offer everything from snacks, to treats, to smoothies, to (of course) coffee. I was persuaded by John to try the daily special - The Zebra Mint Mocha. A blend of crushed peppermint, white and dark mocha flavoring, milk, and coffee. I had mine iced and it was just the right accent to go with the sunny afternoon.

When you get a chance, stop by and say hello to William and the gang. Let them know if you've checked out their company blog, which you can do so here.

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.

The Best $0.87 You Can Spend on a Business Blogging and Internet Marketing Book

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by jeff lefevere

Some people like to know what time it is. Others want to know how the watch works.

As a nation of learners, oftentimes, we want to understand context, the situation around the situation. Besides a mellifluous voice, this is probably one of the reasons that we enjoy radio personality Paul Harvey so much; he helps us understand the “Rest of the Story” in regards to a situation concerning business or humanity.

This story/back-story element also is a reason why blogging is such a rich tool for the marketer. In addition to being “human” with your prospect you have a tremendous opportunity to present context, which aids sales.

If you’re interested in picking up a book that will give you incredible context and “The Rest of the Story” to blogging and social media, the best $.87 you can spend is a series of 95 theses written in 1999 and posted on the Internet before being born in book form in 2000. The Seminal book, “The Cluetrain Manifesto” is as good of a primer as any that I can think of to help somebody make sense of some of the large, seismic dynamics that are taking place in the Internet space, a space you are presumably participating in or considering by developing, executing and continuing to enhance your blogging for business program. The preface of the book says:

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organised and put forward as a manifesto, or call to action, for all businesses operating within what is suggested to be a newly-connected marketplace. The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the Internet on both markets (consumers) and organisations. In addition, as both consumers and organisations are able to utilise the Internet and Intranets to establish a previously unavailable level of communication both within and between these two groups, the manifesto suggests that the changes that will be required from organisations as they respond to the new marketplace environment.

Some of the “theses” of the book are downright Nostradamus-like. When the book first came out, it was heralded and then dismissed as a part of the collateral damage that occurred with the downturn in the economy. Now, these simple maxims, some eight years later, couldn’t be more on target, correct and downright visionary, especially since they were released in the pre-blog era. A couple of examples:

* The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

* Companies that don’t realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.

* Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.

Go to Amazon.com, search for “Cluetrain Manifesto” and buy the book used for under a buck. For $0.87 you can’t even buy a cup of coffee and I guarantee this book will have a more lasting impact than a Venti with cream and four sugars.

Obsession...

Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry

Alright, I admit it. I have completely given into to the iPhone craze (although, I still retain some pride as I did not stand in line for 5 hours to get the phone on the first day, I waited until day 2).

iPhone

This is my first Apple product so I am certainly no apple-head, but I can now understand the passion expressed by Apple users. However, this conversion of loyalty is not caused by what you would think. As Jon Fortt over at Fortune Magazine mentions in his article:

"The iPhone’s magic isn’t in the features – not the 2-megapixel camera, or the Safari web browser, or even the music and video capabilities. It’s in Apple’s knack for making all those features easier to locate and use." Not only is Apple making it easier for consumers to use, they are also reshaping the wireless game by making a move "from phone sales to software development".

The iPhone's impact on business is monumental as well. There are endless choices out there for the professional looking to be mobile; but with the iPhone's ease of use, larger screen, quicker web access and user-friendly internet tools make it an easy choice for me. Having access to the internet no matter where you (as long as you have a signal) without having to carry around a clunkly laptop/computer bag will only breed more and more users surfing the web.

The next time I'm standing in line, have a lay over in the airport, or waiting on my friends for a get together - guess what I'll be doing - that's right, checking in on all of my clients blog posts (ha ha).

In all seriousness though, with the focus on technology, it is important that a business get their name out there and be searchable. Corporate blogs are a perfect answer to this, as search engines love the fresh, relevant, and frequent content that blogs create. Our blogging platform keeps the process simple, as well as, delivers powerful results (like the iPhone). Not to mention, we also partner with our clients, and provide day to day support, and are available to answer any questions that may arise.

Millions of searches are run every day, and we here at Compendium Blogware want to help ensure that it's your company that is showing up in those searches, for your targeted consumer. With our easy to use software, active support and customer service, your corporate blog will see success and perhaps you'll become "obsessed" as well...

Does the Thought of Corporate Blogging Make Your Head Explode?

Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by Ali Sales

You're not alone. This article, 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog, made me think of how daunting business blogging can be for any kind of organization.

There are some good tips in this article, don't get me wrong.

It's just a lot to think about, and you're a busy person, right? I am a big fan of using subject matter experts (SMEs) as much as possible. I don't want to be an accounting pro or a legal pro -- I want to have a basic understanding and then pay and rely on people around me to help.

Okay, so you know where I'm heading with this:

Wouldn't it be great if you could do the same thing with a corporate blogging program?
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a blogging partner who can worry about all the details so that you can focus on writing content for your company blogs?
Oh, and wouldn't it be great to use a blogging solution that lets you log in, type your content, and then the blogging software itself structures that content in a way that helps you get found in the search engines?

Well, stop the head explosion and accept that you don't have to know all the answers in order to get started. You just have to find the right partner, and by default, the right blogging tool.

Cuil Search Engine: An Outsider's Review

Posted Tuesday, July 29, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

Another search engine? Are we really in need? Maybe if it is drastically better, maybe if it makes my life easier; but in general I am not sitting there wanting a new search engine, but I also have to assume that most marketers aren't sitting wanting for a corporate blogging tool --- it's my job to show them that they need one. So has Cuil convinced me to switch from Google? Not quite. Although Cuil was founded by Google engineers and brags about the increased number of pages that are combed through and the ability to search the so called 'deep web'. In addition, the search results look more like a magazine than a list, as traditional web searches do. Not to mention the $33M in venture-capital money.

Interesting concept...but a bit confusing for my first try. Also, was a bit surprised with the results of a few test searches. Unfortunately, it looks like this evening that their servers were a bit overloaded and I wasn't able to get results for a few terms. I like the innovation, pushing every search engine to be better and better. However, this doesn't seem game changing for Compendium because at the end of the day --- a search engine's success will always be based on its ability to serve up the most relevant results based on the search terms in the quickest and most user friendly way.

What does this mean to our business? Not much --- we measure some of our client's success with Google and benchmark search standings there as well; but the topically driven corporate blogs that are created from the Compendium system are search engine neutral.

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)

25 Ways to Market Your Blog

Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

We focus on a wide variety of marketing tactics surrounding our blog writing software. In a recent article by Lee Oden, he goes on to discuss each one of his secrets to blogging for search engine optimization. I do have to disagree with his second point where he names his favorite blogging platforms. This is probably due to the fact that this author is not familiar with our better blogging software.

One of the major differences between Compendium and our "competitors" is that we walk you through each one of these 25 marketing initiatives. Where as, the other blogging tools allow you to set up a blog and then leave you to figure it out on your own, we hold your hand through the entire process. Our client success team is trained to get your blog off the ground and have you ranking on keywords as soon as you possibly can.

Blogging for Search: Text Book Example

Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008 by Megan Glover

At Compendium Blogware, we drink the kool-aid. We blog to get found in organic search and our compending software helps us maximize the keywords we're targeting in search.

So -it's always fun to share some real-life examples of blogging success! We had a prospect (now potential client) find us through our blogs yesterday. Here's how it happened:

1. Prospect was looking for blogging software.
2. Prospects googled "Blogging Solution"
3. The Compendium Blog "Blogging Solution" appeared as the #1 search result.
4. Prospect browsed the blog to affirm the information was on point.
5. Prospect clicked on the Live Chat Call-to-Action, which triggered me!
6. Prospect and I chatted she was interested in a demo.
7. Prospect was forwarded on to Business Development
8. Prospect is now a Sales Ready Opportunity - and might close within the month!

Does this pattern of events sound familiar?

Personally, when I'm searching for something, my search starts and ends in the organic section of a search engine. That's why, as a marketer, it's your job to get found in organic search and blogging is a tool that will help you do so.

And, with the right calls- to- action on your blogs you will convert blog visitors into potential customers. In our case, a simple Live Chat feature appealed to this particular prospect. View it here.

Do you have Blogging ROI stories to share? If so, Compendium wants to know about them. Please send blogging ROI results to: megan@compendiumblogware.com.

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Posted Wednesday, July 9, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

Many people think that when it comes to blogging, one size fits all. In other words, they think that one platform will work for every type of business out there. This is not true in today's fast moving technological world.

To Order from Amazon-click here.

In the book, Break From the Pack by Oren Harari, he explains why one size does not fit all. When people are looking to blog and they come to Compendium for solutions, we get asked why we are better than the rest. That is because we are different from every other blog creation software company out there.

If you want to blog for your business then you need the right tools. This includes an affordable blogging software that you can customize to your website and business. It also means that you are able to have many individual bloggers contributing to one site. In return you are utilizing the blog site to gain new clients, sell more product, and market your product or service.

Icann Domain Name Confusion: Why you have to start corporate blogging now.

Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Many of you may have noticed the announcement last week regarding ICANN dramitically increasing the suffixes available for domain names. Here is a blurb from the New York Times:

According to new rules unanimously passed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, at its meeting here, any company, organization or country will soon be able to apply for a new Web address extension, called a top-level domain.

That could smooth the way for Web addresses that end in city names, brands and generic words. It could also sow confusion in the minds of Web users, create a host of new ways to exploit the Web addressing system and start a wave of legal skirmishes over applications to register trademarks — .coke, for example.

Uggh! What a mess this makes for normal businesses & organizations. People are already having a tough time keeping track of your web address. By adding basically an unlimited number of .anything branding by domain becomes just about impossible.

If anything is going to drive people even more into the arms of the search engines, it's going to be this.

What are you going to do?

Incorporate blog management software company wide. The biggest benefit of enterprise or business blogging is Search engine optimization. The more people you have blogging, the more relevant content gets created, and the more likely you are to be found accross a lots of keywords.

Forget people remembering your domain...focus on getting found by using corporate blog tools.

Blogging for Search Engine Optimization

Posted Monday, June 30, 2008 by jeff lefevere

As our Client Success team, the folks responsible for day-to-day work with our clients interact with current and soon to be clients, we get a frequent and re-occurring question … and it goes:

"We love Compendium and we “get” the blogging for search, but what’s the real difference between “blogging” and “blogging for business?”

It’s a simple question and it goes to the core of what Compendium stands for. And, the answer is equally simple and really can best be understood by understanding the division of writing for pleasure, as a hobbyist, what we like to call a “Citizen Journalist,” and blogging for results, or blogging for business.

Blogging for pleasure and blogging for results.

In talking with customers, I usually use myself as my own baseline or example.
I have a personal wine blog (www.goodgrape.com). I happen to like wine and I happen to like to write—hence, I view my blog as a hobby, a creative outlet.
Now, mind you, my blog has yielded some interesting results for me, the least of which are wine samples, wine books and other flotsam and jetsam that are sent to me in order to try and influence me, as others view me as an alpha-influencer.

This influencer model is great and typifies what thousands and millions of other people try to do—cultivate influence with loyal readership. In doing so, you get into a “jetstream” of community in the niche in which you write, but to get to the point where I am at today, (about 1000 - 1200 daily readers, a bunch of hits and pageviews, etc.) it has taken very consistent content creation (4-6 posts per week) and a lot of social networking over the course of 2.5 years.

While this is a fine model for individuals, it’s not that great of a model for businesses. It’s very difficult to get somebody in the marketing department to chew off on a two or three year “influencer” model, and with good reason.

However, and thankfully, the underpinning of Compendium is to blog for business. What that means is that instead of trying to cultivate a readership by writing good content that goes into a category bucket, you try to cultivate content for search engine optimization by writing good content that gets compended into a keyword blog (our equivalent of a category), so people who are searching for those “keywords” can quickly and easily find you in the search engines (Google dominates search) and then subsequently find something you are saying of value-- enough value to want and stay on your site for a while and do some other action that drives to a metric for your organization.

It’s very simple, but a very important paradigm shift in thinking. Social media, as an umbrella over a bunch of different things, including blogging, is great, but it’s really only great in business if it drives a result.

Many people will tell you that influence is the new currency, and they wouldn’t be completely wrong, but the part they don’t get right is that influence doesn’t equal a sales number and using your blog as a business tool to drive engagement with customers is very important, as well.

So, what is the real difference between blogging and blogging for business, or blogging for a purpose?

Results.

Blogging for a purpose with Compendium delivers the kind of results tied to a metric that can be delivered infinitely quicker than a two year slow burn of influence.

logs Provide Good Directions

Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by Jim Hyslop

I recently have been on a vacation with my family to beautiful Destin FL. Sun, sand, and surf were the main intention but even still I couldn't stop thinking about blogging. I figured it made sense to talk about it in relation to our recent road trip.

When looking for things that you aren't familiar with the first thing you need to do is get directions. I know they helped us find our destination successfully and they can do the same for you and your business when navigating the internet.

Jefferson Graham with USA today recently sat down with Matt Cutts, engineer with Google and active blogger, and discussed achieving visibility in Google's organic search rankings and surprise, surprise his advice was to start a business blog for your company.

He outlined 5 easy tips on how to optimize your site:

1. Spotlight your search term on the page
2. Fill in your tags
3.Get other sites to link back to you
4. Register for free tools
5.CREATE A BLOG AND POST OFTEN

Or, if time is limited for you and those in your company like most of our clients, you can skip 1-4 by letting Compendium do this lifting for you on the back end. We have created our blogging software with organizations in mind for the goal of SEO and customer acquisition while at the same time cutting your 5 tips for optimization down to one, create a blog and post often. Easy as that!

If you have been exploring blog tools to allow your company to be found I suggest letting us provide the road map for your customers. It will free up your time to allow you to do what you do best...tell people about your business.

Staying on top of the topics that matter most to you

Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The internet has an unlimited amount of content and is growing daily. It is impossible to read every existing - let alone new article that pertains to your organization and industry. A great tool that will allow you to stay on top of the latest news as it relates to your industry is Google Alerts.

Google Alerts sends automatic emails when there are new search results for topics that you determine in advance. Google alerts comes in 6 different variations - 'News', 'Web', 'Blogs', 'Comprehensive', 'Video' and 'Groups'. I would recommend at the very least subscribing to the Blog Google Alert with your company as a topic.

Not only do you benefit from staying up to date on the newest information it also provides new topics for you to discuss on your blog. Possible posts include:

Article Reviews
News on the latest developments in the industry
Rebuttals to negative attention your company/industry is receiving
Allows you to discover / work with other industry bloggers

For more information check out Google Alerts Help Page.

Write a blog post in 8 minutes...

Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 by Ali Sales

It's 1:52. I have a meeting in 8 minutes. That's not a long time to get much of anything done, but I'm going to write a blog post during it. Why? To prove that generate content for your business blogging program doesn't have to take a ton of time.

Here are a few quick tips for writing good, quick content:

1. Use your arsenal of existing content. We tend to forget how much content all of us accumulate over just a few weeks. There is nothing wrong with re-purposing content for your corporate blogs. Some places to look:

Newsletters
Whitepapers
Old articles
Your inbox
Industry News

Tip: Subscribe to Google Alerts for the terms you care most about. For Compendium, that means things like "blogging software" and "business blogs."

2. Just do it. You can't waste too much time thinking "what should I write about." Look at your arsenal and start typing.

If you're using Compendium Blogware, you'll see the things you should write about on the righthand side of your user account, so that should help you get focused. More doing, less thinking is good for all of us sometimes.

3. Don't be afraid to reiterate and repeat. Assuming that you're blogging for SEO, you can expect that it will mostly be new visitors returning to your blog. They haven't seen your best stuff yet, as content is continually getting pushed down to the bottom of your blogs.

It's 1:59 and my post is finished. I didn't have to spend hours coming up with content (I got the idea for this post based on the conversations taking place at Compendium headquarters around time commitment and content). I logged in. I started writing. I used my keyword suggestion tool, brain, and eye on the clock to keep my content on track.

Successful Website Requires Close Relationship Between Design and Development

Posted Sunday, June 22, 2008 by PJ Hinton

Trade publication eWeek ran a story on Friday about Google promoting it's App Engine as a workflow tool to bring web designers and developers together. The most interesting part of the story was a collection of remarks by Lindsey Simon, a UX software engineer, and John Skidgel, a web designer, both who work at Google.

Both Simon and Skidgel articulated the need for a close working relationship between engineer and designers. So close, in fact, that Simon said it should be almost spousal. Both roles needed to have a respect for each other's strengths and enough knowledge about the other's job to communicate effectively.

Taking the spousal analogy a step further, Skidgel and Simon described what hypothetical personal ads might say. Simon's designer ad read:

"Seeking an unpretentious, scrappy, well-rounded interaction and visual designer." The qualities listed as being sought after were, "Takes criticism without a hissy fit, willing to entertain rants about back-end/front-end code, knows Photoshop kung fu and not afraid of code."

Skidgel's ad for a UX engineer read:

"Takes suggestions without going ballistic, appreciates aesthetics, deep and broad understanding of front-end and back-end technology, and not afraid to express himself visually—he can draw [or] chicken-scratch flows."

At the heart of this humorous exercise was a serious message. Quoting Simon's words:

"You can't really have a meaningful design for these kinds of applications anymore if you really want to separate strict visual design and interaction design from the act of engineering it. That's not really a productive workflow." As a developer, "you want to work with your designer, and from the beginning."

Developing highly advanced blogging software has put this issue front and center with the engineering team at Compendium. Although the overall appearance of our application is drawn up by a professional design team, many of us have to don the designer hat every once in a while as we develop rich user interfaces for things like blog web page customization and content authoring. Soon our team will be growing to include a developer who will be focused on developing more powerful blogging features, the kinds of things that our current and future customers say they want from an Enterprise 2.0 blog.

On a related note, If you know of someone who might be thinking about starting a business blog, you might be interested in taking advantage of Compendium's friend referral promotion, which offers a $50 Starbucks card for each valid referral, up to 10 referrals. Details and disclaimers can be found at Compendium's website.

Honda Pilot commercial

Posted Wednesday, June 18, 2008 by Eric Romer

I was watching Fox59 Morning News today, and saw a commercial for the new Honda Pilot.

It was a few guys talking about the new Pilot and it's features. The commercial ended with one of the men saying "I heard about it on a blog".

I like to see this because it shows that blogs are becoming more of a mainstream word used in conversation. People have been blogging for a few years now, but the word "blog" can sometimes bring negative connotations, or just confusion on what a blog really is, let alone how you can blog for your business.

The less people think of a "blog" as only reserved for the tech-savvy elite, the more they will see how it can apply to business.

If you want to rethink blogging, and how it can be a tool for a business to drive new customers, take Chis Baggott's Blogging Challenge.

Next