Blogging software

More marketers are practicing organic search optimization

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Stephanie West

A recent article by Advertising Age titled, Digital Marketing: The State of Search Marketing: 2009, has reported that search marketing is continuing to grow. In addition, about 9 out of 10 marketers are practicing organic search optimization. That's a large percentage of marketers that are going organic to get found in search!

http://2medschool.blogspot.com/2007/10/organic-chemistry-alkyl-halides-part-ii.html

The benefits of leveraging your online marketing strategy by organic search are limitless. Since many people are clicking on organic search results, they are attracting viewers to their blog, which can, in turn, draw potential customers into their website.

If you want to acquire new customers and then convert those customers - corporate blogging might be your answer because blogging humanizes your marketing strategy.

Compendium's corporate blogging software is designed to help leverage your blog in organic search - with a humanized approach. Nine out of 10 marketers are trying to position themselves in organic search - which mean YOU (as the customer) are likely to come into contact with one of these marketer's organic search strategies.

For more information on blogging for organic search and how it pertains to you - click here to speak with a blogging expert. They will explain the benefits of using Compendium's blog software to you!

Applying more SG to business blogging

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Brian Millis

Ok, so I try not to do double Seth Godin references but he seems to be so timely for what I'm doing. His most recent blog post begins with this quote:

"The problem with "everyone" is that in order to reach everyone or teach everyone or sell to everyone, you need to so water down what you've got you end up with almost nothing."

This is what I find so hilarious about most of the corporate blogs I read. Often time these busy business men and women spend time manually tagging or categorizing their freeware blog for things like: social media, agency, advice, technology, etc. etc.

These are such general topics for organization. Most of these people tell me that they spend time blogging for SEO and do this organization so they will be found in the search engine by qualified prospects. If you are a branding agency, why would someone search just "branding" or "agency"?! They wouldn't. They would search something like "branding agency in charlotte".

Seth's advice is great to heed when thinking about corporate blogging. If you try and make your blog about EVERYTHING or appealing to EVERYONE . . . . almost NO ONE will find you. Or you could look at it this way: A company that creates one blog and fills it with info ranging from industry news to product information simply waters down the blog, trying to make it about EVERYTHING. This means it will not be found by ANYONE or be a useful vehicle for getting found in search and driving traffic.

And this is why Compendium's structure is brilliant. Blog about EVERYTHING and let the software take care of the organization that actually makes it relevant to the searcher and the search engine.

Another Data Point In Why Search Leads Online Marketing

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Chris Baggott

People don't click on online display ads

Seth's Blog pointed me to some great data out this week from Jack Loechner of MediaPost. Read the story, but here is the punchline in the very first paragraph:

"The results of an update to the comScore highly publicized "Natural Born Clickers" research, conducted two years ago with Starcom USA and Tacoda, indicate that the number of people who click on display ads in a month has fallen from 32% of Internet users in July 2007 to only 16% in March 2009, with an even smaller core of people (representing 8% of the Internet user base) accounting for 85% of all clicks."

What does this have to do with blogging for search? Everything really. Online display ads are not that much different than offline display ads. Most of their value comes from branding, not from direct action. Search marketing on the other hand is almost entirely about intent. Searchers want to solve problems. You are in business to solve those problems. When you show up, everyone wins.

Blog software allows you to go directly to your audience. Display advertising online or off depends on some intermediary to deliver your message right? Typically that adds a cost and layer of friction that doesn't exist when you can simply get in front people who are expressing a need for your products or services.

Be smarter about how you market online

Thursday, November 5, 2009 by Brian Millis

Here is a great post from Seth Godin about online ad clicks. My favorite quote is:

"It's okay to make an ad that isn't easy to measure. If it works, that's enough."

Essentially, this is what every business blog post can be. What other form or online marketing allows you to tell your story from a very human level? As Seth says, the 84% of non-clickers online are looking to make a connection. So use the corporate blog as a way to build familiarity and attention.

This is why we have clients who enjoy over a 10% conversion rate on their Call to Action off of their blog page! People like to buy from people and a blog marketing strategy allows you to take advantage of this MAJORITY of searchers. The stats that Seth discusses in his post also point to why winning organic traffic is so much more valuable (in the majority of cases) than paid search.

Of course, we feel your blog SHOULD be optimized for clicks, but the human nature of a blog works much better for those 84% of non-clickers. Our corporate blogging software makes content creation easy and maximizes its visibility online. With Compendium, you can get in front of that majority of search and use good content to increase conversion.

Proof that brick and mortar purchases begin online.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Megan Glover

Our refrigerator went kaputs last week. After debating whether to fix or toss we decided to purchase a new one.

So, into a cooler all of our food went and our appliance shopping began. But, before we even stepped foot into an appliance store, I searched. I knew I wanted, a stainless steel refrigerator no larger than 20.6 cu ft,and 33 inches wide. (Small spaces in a house built in 1938!) I also wanted a good deal.

My search returned some great qualified results and I was really pleased to see a Compendium client, HHGregg, among the contenders. HH Gregg is a home appliance store that uses our blogging software to target keyword in organic search.

After an hour or so of "window" shopping online we'd identified a handful of refrigerators we wanted to see in person. We jumped in the car, went to the store, and within 45 minutes we had our brand new refrigerator paid for and scheduled for delivery the next morning.

While it was painful to incur an unexpected cost of a new refrigerator, my buying experience (thanks to search) was absolutely not. I'm just one "real-life" example as to how consumers are using search engines to find solutions to their problems. As a marketer... please make sure you follow HHGregg's lead, and be the solution I find.

Demonstrating your point

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Stephanie West

The best way to know how something works is to just listen and learn about it. Professors do this all the time. They stand in from of a classroom and lecture. How effective is lecturing though? Personally, I don't respond well to lectures. I just don't comprehend everything that's being said when a professor stands in from of a classroom and talks.

I need professors to show me what they're talking about. I need a professor to demonstrate his/her point to me.

Demonstrate your point.

It's one of the most effective ways to get the other party to comprehend and fully understand what is being discussed. Both audio and visual aids are the components that make your point most effectively communicated.

Compendium understands this - we offer demonstrations of our product so that you can better understand the software that we offer. Compendium's demos are designed with visual aids that you can view on your computer screen as a blogging expert is talking to you on the phone.

In the demonstrations, the blogging experts at Compendium outline how our blogging software will help you leverage your company in search marketing.

So don't hesitate - schedule a demo today to get a better understanding of what Compendium has to offer, and how your company will benefit!

Exciting Product Release to Preview your Blog Post within Your Template

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Abby Brosmer

This morning, Compendium proudly released the ability to preview your blog post within your live blog template. Prior to today,when creating post as a user the options available were to save as a draft, submit my post to the administrator for moderation or preview the post in new window to ensure video worked properly.

Today, when a user selects preview post, they will now view their content as it would appear live on the web. A nice enhancement to our easy to use blogging software which allows users an extra reassurance that their content will represent the company well on the corporate blog.

As a member of the product support team, we are always working to request enhancements to the product that will enhance each users experience and provide the best blogging software to our clients.

If you have a suggestion, fill our the web form and we will add it to our product log for enhancements. Yes, these enhancements are prioritized by customer request, so every vote matters.

Pros and Cons of Compendium Substance Abuse Training 2K9

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by mikey mioduski

When I first heard that Compendium employees were undergoing a mandatory Substance Abuse Training session, I was initially filled with rage. Maybe not rage. Maybe fury. No, fury's probably an exaggeration too. How about this, I was slightly distraught.

I was initially slightly distraught because I'm 26 years into my life. While today is the oldest I've ever been, tomorrow I will be one day closer to my late twenties, which is daringly close to what I call the point of no return. Sure I tested my limits in college, and grad school, but how am I supposed to know the effects of substance abuse on my professional life if I can't bring them to work with me?

Having said that, I believe in the power of optimism. My scotch glass is always half full, so I tried to keep an open and limber mind, and yesterday, when the nice woman from Management 2000 came and explained why Substance Abuse at the work place sucks, I really tried to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The training session changed my whole perspective. It turns out substance abuse at work is not cool at all. Plus, Compendium is growing like crazy. Our simple blogging software is helping tons of clients get found in organic search. In fact, we are doing such a good job that we won a very large grant. And part of keeping that grant means that we must abide by certain concessions, ie we can't be hammered all day at work.

So here's my list of Pros and Cons in regards to Compendium becoming a Drug and Alcohol free workplace. You will see that my initial rage / fury / distress can be quelled, because the pro's seem to outnumber the cons.

Cons:

no in house blogging for liquor incentives. ask Megan Manning who is our blogging czar... it works.
no more kegerator.
no more of Brian Graham's home brewed beer
no pregaming for the bus ride home

Pros:

no drunken sales calls to the clients that "got away."
turns out a lot of work related deaths are attributed to substance abuse. we will have none of that.
the elevators here are pretty old. not sure how substance abuse plays into that, but if you happened to be on crack or acid, and an elevator got stuck, your bruce willis-like instincts might betray you.
not everyone drinks alcohol, so these non drinkers wont feel left out of anything
kanye west
we get to keep that awesome grant. come on!
we get to make more field trips for any substance induced fun.
more fridge space for... food?
research indicates that that people have to make up for colleagues who abuse drugs and booze, and we have enough work to do as it is.
we don't want an *asterisk next to our name in the SAAS hall of fame as the best business blogging software, or best search marketing tool with aid of Captain Morgan, or heroin. no way. we did this the right way.
nobody really drank out of the kegerator anyway. can i take that home?

The pro's have it. Downtown Indy won't be the same, but overall it's a change for the best. And congrats again to Compendium for winning the grant, truly awesome news.

Google Software Engineer Discusses Rankings

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Amber Mohling

What's the main focus of your company's blog marketing program and search marketing program?

Recently Matt Cutts, a Google Sofware Engineer, posted a youtube video disucssing ranking, and he challenged companies that they should be more focused on converting better instead of getting obsessed with ranking.

In the Client Success department at Compendium, we do focus a lot of time on helping our clients receive great search results on numerous keywords related to their business. However, we believe that the success of a blog program is looking at tangible ROI results, i.e. online leads developed and then ultimately conversion.

To learn more about the success of our clients' blog programs, check out some of their case studies by clicking here.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 by Allison Bowen

Today I officially feel old. Okay, okay, I know 23 is not very old... But STIL

L! 23 is one of those ages that I've always considered to be "old." And now here it is, already! Wow does time fly by!

One thing I know for sure is that birthday wishes today are nothing like they used to be. When I was a kid, I might have a few friends at school tell me happy birthday if they happened to remember the right day. I might even get a birthday cake on our class calendar with my name on it.

But at age 23 I can officially say that I've received the most birthday wishes I have ever received. Is this because I now have so many more friends? Well, maybe in part. However, the more likely scenario is that there are now so many more social media avenues in which friends can offer me well wishes. Facebook provides everyone with my exact birth date; meaning it's just after 4pm and I've already received 56 wall posts. One friend Twitters "Happy Birthday @alliebb44" and all the sudden all my Twitter followers are retweeting the sentiments. Times have certainly changed!

Is your company up to date with this new world of social media? One great place to start is with a corporate blog. With Compendium's easy to use blog software you can quickly and easily write a post that relates to your clients and gives them an insight to your company, which can in turn lead to search engine optimization and sales.

So why not give it a try? Give us a call here at Compendium today!

Keep It Simple

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 by Lee Jorgenson

When considering whether or not your company is going to use a blogging solution for search marketing, keep it simple. It's easy to get side-tracked talking about fancy plug-ins and all of the bells and whistles and end up losing sight of what you are trying to accomplish. Oftentimes, businesses can get so caught up with shiny widgets that they compromise the end goal.

Choose a simple blogging software that focuses on what really matters. Stick to your guns on the end results, and don't get lost in the weeds. While slick plug-ins might whet your appetite for tech-toys, they don't necessarily put food dollars in your pocket.

Don't Be Scared of Keywords

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Tyler Bender

I've been writing for years. I have a background in Journalism and was beat over the head with APA format writing in college. I have written websites, press releases, brochures, video scripts. I thought I'd seen the in's and out's of this "web 2.0" movement. The basic principles for writing for the web: keep it simple, put yourself in the shoes of your audience, tell them what you want them to do. Don't screw up gramatically, and don't have typos.

Got it.

Now, I've only been a part of Compendium's team for about three weeks as an internal content writer, and one of the things I have seen multiple times in some of our client keyword lists look something like this: (I'll use Compendium as my example)

Compendium Blogware
Compendium
Blogging Software
Corporate Blogs
Compendiums
Comppendium
Compendiam
Compendium Blog Ware

Notice something odd? The name of the company is misspelled. more than once.

And I'm expected to throw those keywords into my content like that? Whhhhattt? This concept takes some catching on. And for someone who has spent the greater part of his life trying to edit and perfect his writing so that it never has a typo, learning how to include typos into content on purpose is like telling Peyton Manning that it's ok to throw passes to the other team. At first, it was like nails on a chalkboard, only the nails were buckets of acid and the chalkboard was my eyes.

But it makes sense.

People don't check Webster's Dictionary or the phonebook before they visit search engines to search for your company's keywords. Sometimes they're going to misspell their searches and you want to win those searches - even if they're "wrong." Right?

When you're bloging for search, you should always account for the searches that aren't perfect. It's okay. Wouldn't you rather have someone find your blog even though they mistakenly typed in "Acmes Solution" instead of "Acme Solutions," than someone completely miss your content because you weren't comfortable including the misspelling in your content?

Part of the beauty of blogging is that it's not perfect. Actually, I think some imperfections in corporate blogs make the writers more "relatable" to their audience. If I saw a typo in a brochure, I'd think that the company was lazy, didn't care enough to edit their material and all-around not very professional. If I see a typo in a blog, it's easier to remind myself that an actual human being is on the other end of the blog, constantly updating their content, and it was probably a simple oversight.

So don't be scared of your keywords just because they're mispelled. They'll still work, and strategically, it makes sense to use them. The goal is to reach your audience - even if they're not sure how to spell your company name.

"Real" Blogging

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Allison Bowen

Many people think that in order to write a blog post, you need to a be a subject matter expert. We at Compendium know that this is just not the case. In fact, in order to blog for business all you really need to do is blog! Using our powerful blogging software to write a post, you can get you the search results you are looking for.

We often get the question "Who should be blogging for my company?" Our answer? Any one you empower with an e-mail address you should also empower with a blog. Every person in your company has a story to tell and they should be given the opportunity to tell it!

Take for example students at M.I.T. According to an Oct. 1, 2009 article in the New York Times titled M.I.T. Taking Student Blogs to Nth D

egree, these student bloggers are free to write about whatever they want. One blogger even writes that she was "bored out of her mind" in a class. While this may seem like bad publicty for the school, it's really not. It's a real thought from a real student. This is what your readers will be most interested in.

Your readers will appreciate the posts where your writers offer up their advice or suggestions and they'll enjoy posts of cute stories. But they'll really get into posts were your writers tell exactly what is going on within your company. A product recall? A down quarter? Blog about it! Explain the issue, how it occured and how your company is working to fix the problem. Blog posts should be an area in which you can "get real" with your readers.

So go ahead, let your employees blog about anything they want! Who knows - it could even end up in the New York Times!

Common Mistakes in Blogging (#2)

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Sarah Sedberry

Recently I started writing about common mistakes we see when a company begins a blog marketing program. To continue with the series, I wanted to discuss the expectations regarding the amount and frequency of content generation.

(2nd in a series of 5)

Common Mistake #2:

This is one of the most common misconceptions we see with new clients, is the understanding of how a search marketing effort becomes effective. When looking at our most successful clients, it is when they continue to fuel their content machine, and frequently put out new blog posts.

Think about blogs that you read on a regular basis - how often do they publish content? Typically it is multiple times per week, and is on a scheduled basis. So that you as the reader begin to count on when you'll see new information. Same story with the web crawlers - the frequency that your network creates content will train the crawlers to come back and crawl your site more frequently and see you as an authoritative answer.

Answer:

Blogging on a regular basis is a hard habit to get into, but similar to going to the gym, once you get in the routine you'll find that it is an enjoyable experience, and the results will encourage you along the way. Get other individuals at your company to help write content, so that not one person is shouldering the load.

Also, with our easy to use blog software and post scheduling feature, you'll be able to schedule when a blog post shows live to the web, so that if you aren't able to put content out everyday, you'll at least look like you are! ;)

Remember that anything can be good blog fodder so talk about that great conversation you had with a client, or a new product that's coming out, or a recent article in your industry and how your company plays a role.

(Common Mistake #1)

Why Rankings Aren't Important - from Matt Cutts

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Sarah Sedberry

There are several things that are used to determine whether a blog marketing program is successful, but one of the things that we stress here at Compendium, is that rankings is not the main thing to focus on. We instead focus on overall traffic, search traffic, conversions, etc. These are much better ways of tracking the success of a search marketing effort, than simple rankings.

Recently Matt Cutts, a Google Software Engineer, posted a video about why even the Google kings advise to not pay as much attention to rankings. I wanted to share this video as additional information that a successful blog program does not hinge on a ranking report.

Will blog for Candy

Sunday, November 1, 2009 by Kaila Woodside

Candy, pizza, milkshakes, paid time off, movies during lunch, happy hour drinks, cash... etc, etc. You name it - our blogging administrator has done it. Incentive programs that is. At Compendium all it really takes is a little friendly competition or incentives to get employees to blog. Take me for example: I am not a dedicated blogger. Typically, my name is used when referring to the idea that you "can't appoint bloggers". However, tonight, a Saturday night on Halloween, I am blogging. (and passing out candy to cute tricker treaters from the big bag of candy on the right).

Powerful blogging software needs lots and lots of content to be successful and sometimes its just takes the right type of motivation for each person to become a dedicated blogger. What did I need, you ask? What drives me to blog at 9:00 PM on Saturday night is that it is now part of my job. Each month every blogger on the client success team has a set number of blog posts they need to write. This isn't a huge number - 10-13 posts is all. But knowing that it is part of my job, keeps me motivated to get to that number.

Every day I am talking with blogging administrators on how to keep their bloggers motivated, and sometimes it just takes a little trial and error to find out what motivates the blogging team. Talk with your Compendium Client Success manger today about some ideas for your own blogging program.

Compendium's Newest Client

Sunday, November 1, 2009 by Kaila Woodside

Just yesterday Julie Murphy signed on Compendium's newest client, Western River Expedition.

I for one am super excited about our newest client and am lucky enough to become their client success manager. As a kayaker, mountain biker, rock climber and former river guide myself I love that an outdoor company is taking advantage of powerful blogging software.

Western River Expeditions has a dedicated blog program administrator (which we all know is the one of the biggest success factors for a great blog for search engine optimization), a very forward thinking owner and exciting subject matter to blog about!

Stay tuned for some of Western River Expedition's success stories in the coming months!

Announcing Compendium Client Training!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Allison Bowen

Well folks, it's here! That's right... I'm proud to announce the release of Compendium User and Administrator Live Training Webinars! Your best blogging software just got better! The trainings will be coming to you live from 55 Monument Circle and will take place every Tuesday and Thursday.

On Tuesdays, user training will take place at 2:00pm, followed by administrator training at 2:30pm. The live webinars on Thursdays will take place at 10:00am for users and 10:30am for administrators.

Accessing the live webinars is very easy. You'll simply need to join the "Go-To-Meeting" session by clicking on the following link at the time given above.

User Training

Admin Training

Who should attend these trainings? Anyone! If you are writing a blog for your business through Compendium's blogging software, we would love to have you attend. Please note, you will be asked to tell us your company name, so you must be a client of Compendium's.

If you would like to learn how to operate our system or would simply like to learn some new tips and tricks, please feel free to join in on the fun! I look forward to training you soon!

Top 10 Google Analytics Resources for Corporate Bloggers

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 by Compendium Client Marketing

You can leverage your corporate blog analytics to gain insight into your blog including:

Where your business blog traffic is coming from
What visitors are most engaged with
The search keywords your traffic is finding you for
Guiding your visitors to take the next step

It is important that you listen to your analytics closely when your blogging for search. Don't worry everyone has questions about Google Analytics.

Here are the top ten resources I use to find answers to my Google Analytics questions.

Official Google Analytics Blog

Google Analytics Official YouTube Channel

Google Analytics Support Page

Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

A Guide to Google Analytics and Useful Tools

50 Resources for Getting the Most Out of Google Analytics

AnalyticsSearch: Search dozens of Google Analytics support websites with 1 click

EpikOne: Analytics Talk

Follow & Tweet with @Google Analytics on Twitter

Software as a Service Compendium Blogware's Product Support Team

I hope that these resources help you with your analytics questions. Do you use a resource not listed here? Please just add it to my list via comments.