Search Engine Optimization spending increases
Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Eric Romer


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

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

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

Don't believe me?  If you have 5 minutes, check out this Whitepaper that discusses how traditional SEO efforts pale in comparison to a corporate blogging solution when it comes to organic search.
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There's no such thing as a free... blog?
Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by Lindsey Young

We've all heard that old adage, "there's no such thing as a free cat".  Well the same can most definitely be said for blogging.  You get what you pay for, plain and simple.  And trust me, free isn’t always free.  A lot of objections have come up lately here at Compendium.  People interested in our software asking why they can't use a "free" platform and get the same results.  I can sit here and list the differences between the other platforms and the numerous features our software offers in comparison, but I'd rather focus on our target audience at hand; marketers.  In a recent post by our CEO Chris Baggott, he referenced a technology focused blog that stated:

          "I complained to him that one of my annoyances in life is how complex Wordpress actually is. Why? Because you don’t just have to configure Wordpress to get anywhere. To get it to perform acceptably you can either throw powerful hardware at the problem (which is how Club Troppo has done it since our donation drive last year) or you can implement a whole rogue’s gallery of tweaks and adaptations."

While it might be the goal of the IT department to tinker in applications, it is not the goal of the marketing departments of the world.  Marketing departments strive to drive in new leads, and progress forms of customer acquisition.  Our blogs do that through engaging content, traffic through SEO, and increased search engine rankings.  That is not the goal nor the outcome of free blogging platforms built for individuals.  With Compendiums corporate blogging platform, blogging for a purpose is what our clients are doing.  Marketers aren’t wasting valuable time managing the platform; they’re using our Software as a Service, and realizing their ROI.  Let us do the heavy lifting; we are a solution for marketers, not another stray cat draining valuable time and resources. 

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Blogging for Freebies
Posted Monday, March 24, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu
Blogging pays off.  Those 3 words can improve your business in ways that you never thought possible before.  The blog software that we use at Compendium has helped me score a few freebies and show others what it can do for them along the way. 

One of the blogs I use for training purposes focuses on Indianapolis restaurants.  After going out to a new place, I blog about it and use that post to train others.  Recently, I was able to score a few gift certificates from local Indianapolis restaurants. 

Free Blogging Trends ReportNot only does this help that particular business, but it also serves as a benefit to my clients.  I am able to take a real life situation in which I enjoy blogging about and apply it to my training classes.  The students then feel engaged because they see a direct result of what blogging can do for their business.  It also gives that certain restaurant more exposure and essentially free marketing. 

This certain blog I am speaking of has only been up for 2 months and already it is seeing an astonishing number of new visitors to the site.  In comparison to websites, blogs go above and beyond.  Blogging is the best way to market you and/or your business.
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The Race For SEO
Posted Thursday, January 10, 2008 by Daniel Wale

I was recently in the market for a racing scanner. I think owning one brings me into  compliance with an obscure zoning law within Indianapolis (where I live) requiring possession of such a gadget.  While usually one to succumb to impulse purchases, I decided to be responsible and diligent in the form of conducting research and checking several websites during the course of reviewing price, different brands and quality factors. 

 Team Ethanol - Rahal-Letterman Racing / Indy Racing League

Having never purchased such an item previously, I wasn't immediately aware of the differences between individual units in terms of channel capabilities, headsets, sound dampening, reception, etc. Reading product description sheets was cumbersome, but websites that allowed for side-by-side feature comparisons certainly proved beneficial.  Operating under the assumption that more is better -- more channels of reception and more decibel dampening -- I was able to narrow choices down to three units. 

One site in particular employed a feature that directly influenced my buying decision -- the ability to read product reviews from actual customers who have purchased the same item.  What a novel idea.  Rather than read specification documents, I was able to enjoy, and relate to, field testing and feedback from people just like me within a similar situation. 

This gets me thinking about blogging for customer acquisition.  In my experience of buying a product based upon recommendations and the phenomenon of similar situation, the use of blogging as a sales and acquisition tool draws great parallels.   In drawing upon niche knowledge and doing so in a manner that projects a personal connection with prospective customers in the form of blogging for business, we tap into the human condition of buying from a person, company or source that we like and feel connectivity with.  


While the source I ultimately purchased from is certainly on the right path of facilitating similar situation by posting actual customer reviews, room for improvement exists.  Imagine if their testimonials were in the form of blogs that position for search optimization.  Imagine the power of combining testimonial blogs with blogs drawing upon knowledge within the organization regarding new models, sales, service and support.

Might have cut my research time in half by leveraging those blogs for SEO.

Interested in learning about easy to use organizational blogging software?
Reach Daniel Wale and Compendium directly at (317) 777-6110

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What is the right Blogging Solution for Schools?
Posted Tuesday, November 6, 2007 by Chris Baggott
School Blogging Compendium BlogwareI saw a fantastic post yesterday from what must be an amazingly progressive school.  These people are discussing potential issues related to finding a blogging solution for every student in the system.  (by comparison, my daughters high school doesn’t even discuss blogging in journalism class.)

This is an excellent discussion and a great concept. Compendium Blogware is a SaaS blogging solution designed specifically for organizations. Our clients are typically Corporations or Business Bloggers, with a lot of non-profit blogging. We have not worked with a school, but the way they describe their challenges I think this might be the perfect solution.

Compendium is On-demand (hosted, ASP, SaaS whatever term you are familiar with) As a result it is easy to deploy to lots of people such as students in this case. We have a layer of control so that all posts are reviewed by someone before they go live…the same is true for comments. In most cases this is all about insuring compliance with standards, not necessarily about editing out content.

An interesting challenge they pose is how to organize content. The definition of a Compendium is a collection of similar writing. What our system is designed to do is “Compend” content based on content or posts.

Usually, our blogging solution clients compend content based on keywords for SEO, but it seems completely feasible to organize a single post from a student around various compended blogs…so if Billy posts on 9th grade history and Algebra, the post appears on Billy’s blog, the 9th grade blog, the history blog and the Algebra blog…without Billy having to do anything other than write…no tagging. That seems like a great way to implement blogging best practices in an educational institution.

Anyway, I would love to test some of these concepts with a school if they were interested.  Not that I’m already tired of Corporate Blogging Software :-)  We want everyone using our Blogging Solution.

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Corporate Blogging is Measurable
Posted Tuesday, September 4, 2007 by Chris Baggott
Corporate Blogging as a measured marketing toolSo how do you describe yourself? Are you an Enterprise, a Corporation, a Business or perhaps even a non-profit? However you describe yourself, at this point you are probably considering blogging as a tool for your organization....

So why would a Company or organization blog? As we get beyond best practices for blogging, we need to know if this is actually doing any good or not.

If you know anything about me, you know that I despise any marketing that can't be measured. One thing I love about Business Blogging is the simple fact that it's measurable.

Any easy to use blogging software platform should have included analytics that will tell you some key performance indicators such as the normal visitors, the source and keyword search terms visitors used to find your Company Blogs and where they went after they came to the blog.

How do you use this simple data to measure ROI for your Corporate Blog? Well, do you use Pay Per Click? This is a simple comparison for you...how much do you Pay for a click on specific keywords? You have already set the value then. If you see your corporate blogs getting those clicks then you have an easy way to measure your success.
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