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I have recently found a new addiction, TopRank Marketing is my new guilty pleasure.  They have a fantastic site filled with great hints, tips, and tricks to help you to continually improve your site. 

Their most recent article touched on blog best practices that we highlight each and everyday here at Compendium Blogware. They also dive into blogging trends that are present in today's blogging community.  Their focus this month revolves around the following points:

  1. Content - Write often and make it relevant is the rule here.  It is simple, the more you write, the more the search engines see you writing which will help you with rankings and gaining traffic to your site.
  2. Frequency - We have seen that there is a direct correlation between the number of posts our clients write and the amount of traffic that gets driven to their blogsites.  The more they write, the more people are visiting their site and taking action.  In the long run this means ROI for the client.
  3. Linking in - This can be critical when trying to get your audience to take action on the site.  Whether it is a purchase or viewing a whitepaper, taking them to pages in your own site can push them to take action.
  4. Linking out - This can help to build a community.  By linking out to other sites who do what you do, could get them to link back to your site.  This can help you to gain even more traffic.
  5. Blog with keywords in mind - Using keywords is one of the most overlooked pieces when it comes to writing a post.  It is most helpful to use keywords throught the post and in the title of the blog as well.
These are a few blogging secrets to get you on your way.  Happy posting!



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Don't get me wrong, when I was in college I used Internet Explorer.  Then I learned about Firefox and it changed the way I performed actions on the web.  I advise most of my clients that the browser they should be using is Firefox.  I am fixated on this topic for many reasons.

Firefox is the most desirable browser to use not only with our blogging platform, but with everyday pages that you are going to.  It offers everything from anti-virus software to parental controls to pop-up blockers.  My favorite feature, however, is the add-ons that are available with Firefox.  Some of the plugins I use the most are Firebug and Quicktime

An article by Flexbeta, "13 Reasons to Use Firefox" gives some more examples of why my love for Firefox grows.  Most of my articles center around blogging best practices, but this week I wanted to share with you some browser best practices.  My goal is to have everyone I know using Firefox by the end of the year!



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I have been back in the office for 2 weeks now and am back to my regular writing schedule.  One of my clients, Indianapolis Tennis Championships, has what they call Casual Blog Friday's.  The posts are always entertaining and keep me wanting to read more. 

I am going to post a nice casual blog.  This is not going to be my usual post about blogging for seo or content control.  Rather, I am going to add another post about the wedding.  It was almost a month ago now and I thought it might be nice to finally add the pictures from our photographers for people's viewing pleasure.  Maya Laurent did our photography and we must say they are amazing!  To view our entire album click here



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I have had quite a few inquiries about what free surveying tools are available to contribute to an organizations blogging success.  After doing some research into these programs, I have found that some are good and others, are not so good.  Most of them do offer a free version of their survey tool with upgrades that you can purchase. 

Why are organizations looking to add surveys to their blogs?  Seth Godin has a great post centered around this idea.  To read his post click here.  They can do several things:
  1. Help you learn from your customers.
  2. Help your customers learn from you.
  3. Organize your marketing strategy from what you learn through these surveys.

The three tools that I have found the easiest to use are all free.  Again, they do have upgrades that you can purchase.  However, if you are looking to add a simple survey form into your blogging platform the following three programs can be of assistance to you:

     1.  http://www.surveygizmo.com
     2.  http://www.vizu.com
     3.  http://www.surveymonkey.com




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In my last post you read about the 5 compelling reasons that your organization should be blogging.  At the American Marketing Association's Digital Marketing Summit I learned about what businesses are doing to increase their presence on the web.  Since I was speaking I did not have the opportunity to hear all of them, but the ones that I did sit in on were fantastic. 

Each speaker gave some good tips and tricks to how they are able to fully capitalize on search engine optimization. 

Pete Blackshaw was the keynote speaker.  He is a marketing phenominon and touched on the basics that we need to know when getting our company name out there along with some secrets on how he markets his business personally. Ted Murphy, from Izea, was my favorite presenter of the day.  He is a social media guru and blogging for business enthusiast.  It is almost sickening how many sites he is on at once.  Unfortunately, I missed John Atkinson, from Pimp My Keywords and Chris Heile from Hyperquake

To listen to each of these speaker's podcasts click here

 



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A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of speaking at the American Marketing Association's Digital Marketing Summit.  Naturally, I shared my knowledge of blogging and what it can do for businesses in today's technological world. 

In this presentation I covered the following 5 blogging for seo tips:

   1. Online Democracy
   2. Search Engine Optimization
   3. Higher Prospect Interaction and Conversion
   4. Email Acquisition
   5. Employee Retention and Customer Engagement

Each of these items are reasons why blogging continues to be so successful.  Online democracy puts every single person and organization on the same playing field.  More importantly, it gives your employees a voice which is what people really want.  Our blog writing software also gives every organization the ability to fully capture search engine optimization.  Our "compending" process gives the organization the ability to have one post be placed into several different categories.  This allows them to fully maximize the keywords they are trying to target. 

Higher prospect interaction and conversion is just one more reason why blogging continues to gain popularity.  The math is simple here.  More customer interaction equals a higher conversion rate.  Email Acquisition can play a huge part in your companies success as well.  By getting their email you are able to send them constant updates which they are more likely to take action on with the more they receive.  Finally, employee retention can be increased by just blogging.  Giving your employees an outlet can not only help you gain new clients, but it can help you keep them at their place of employment for longer.

To learn more about these 5 compelling reasons to blog, go my video podcast  or visit my audio podcast.




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Congratulations to Shelly at BabyPlus for joining their team.  Shelly joined this wonderful group a few months back and has really shown her abilities and skills.  Moreover, she has been a shining beakon through blogging!  Blog best practices says that an individual should post at least 2 times a week.  Shelly has gone above and beyond. 

Cindy, Helen, Lisa, and Doria also contribute to this fun loving squad, as you can see from the picture below.  To check out their blogs click here.  Just be ready to laugh and enjoy, they write some of the best content I have seen. 





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I had to post this blog to say thank you to one of my favorite people.  As some of you know, I was gone for 2 weeks on my honeymoon.  While I was out, one of my most entertaining clients/friends left me a wonderful gift.  A certain somebody from Visit Tampa Bay adorned my office with Twizzlers (which my colleagues informed him that I cannot stand the smell of them) and post it notes. 

Two days has passed and I am still finding both of these in places I did not even know existed in my office space.  This was a great welcome back surprise!  As you can see from the picture below, we are not just about blog hosting software, we are also known for our fun and vivacious personalities.  Thanks again for the many laughs, Jerm. 





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As blogging continues to take off and transpire into an incredible platform for reaching customers, Yellow Pages are slowly declining.  I had a funny conversation with my mother while she was here two weeks ago for my wedding.  She needed to find a store specializing in bridal items and asked me, "Where do you keep your yellow pages?"  I responded with, "On the computer.  It is called Google."  Of course, she just patted my face and said, "Okay smart alic, I get it." 

Then I started thinking about the last time I opened up a Yellow Pages book?  I could not remember when that was.  Furthermore, I continued to think harder about the last time I looked at YellowPages.com for anything.  That did not ring a bell either. 

The point is that almost no one uses these tools anymore.  When people need results and need them now, they go to Google.  Google is one of the best seo tools out there.  An article by Christopher Hosford goes in depth on money lost by using this tool.  It goes even further in depth to explain how blogging is a good strategy to gain search engine optimization ranking.  To read his article click here.



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I am returning back to the office just in time to find out who the winner of the blogging tournament will be.  We had two tough teams competing against one another.  Comperaser and Widen were the bloggers who gave it their all and never stopped writing content. 

I must give Bill Reynolds from Comperaser quite a bit of credit.  Not only did he blog an average of 30+ posts a week, but he is single-handedly adding content himself!  He is utilizing the blog post software to not only gain new readers, but to possible increase his ROI!  Now that is what I call blogging for search engine optimization. 

To view these spectacular blogs click on the following links:

Comperaser:  blog.comperaser.com
Widen:  blog.widen.com



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I decided that for my first day back I would write a fun blog for people who follow this.  After all, the point of having a blog is to inform readers of the happenings in my life and Compendium.  My goal is to update all of my wonderful clients on the wedding and talk about our blogging platform.


I missed all of my clients dearly while I was away.  However, it was nice to have a two weeks in sunny Antigua and Orlando, FL.  After planning a wedding, I must say that we deserved it.  The funny thing is one of the things that helped me most with the wedding planning was by reading other people's blogs.  A few sites that I would like to mention include Forever, Style Me Pretty, and MyWedding.com.  Their helpful blogging tips were helpful for finding vendors and creating our special day. 

The wedding day went off without a hitch.  It was entertaining and emotional.  To get some more stories on what went down on September 13, you can visit www.bandk.nearlyweds.com.  You can also view our photographers site (www.mayalaurentphotography.squarespace.com) by going to page 2 and clicking on the slideshow.  Our good friend and wedding day florist also provides a fantastic explanation of the day.  Her blog can be viewed at www.samandemilyjackson.blogspot.com.  I hope you enjoy!



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After doing some more blog research, I have found that Compendium remains king in the world of corporate blogging.  While others are adding plug-ins and administrative features, this is something we already do for you.  And can I mention that we do it for no extra cost.  Our software comes with a variety of different plug-ins that we utilize such as ShareThis, AddThis, and a pinging service. 

After reading the article "Critique View on the Future World of WordPress", it further validated the reason why our blogging platform is so successful.  We do all of the hard work for you.  As the author notes, "learning how to use plug-ins is a full time job".  The good news for you is that we do all of it for you.  I can completely understand why he makes this point, because I do it for a living and believe me it is a full time job. 

Blogging is what we do best at Compendium!  To learn more visit our website at www.compendiumblogware.com.  Join our blogging revolution!



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 We are down to the wire in our "Content for the Crown" blogging tournament.  We only have 6 teams left and I am proud to announce that 5 of them are clients that I have the privilege of working with on a daily basis.  I am happy to announce that these 5 teams have a chance of winning the one of a kind, blogging trophy. 

Each of the 5 companies below has done an outstanding job of blogging for their business.  Not only are they blogging for seo, but they are gaining more readership on their blog sites.  Let's say congratulations to these 5 times who are still in the running.

Thank you for your participation and keep blogging, we will see you at the finish line.




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This past week, I received one of the best emails I have ever read at my time with Compendium Blogware.  It was from one of our clients who uses our blogging software.  She had a question about one of the features of our platform.  The impressive part is that she was blogging from Greece!  I have never been so proud of anyone in my entire life.  She was not only blogging from another continent, but she was doing so while on vacation. 

The best part is the blogging benefits they will receive from continually adding content to their site.  By adding continually updated content, they will see their keyword rankings and traffic continue to rise.  To get a glimpse of Betsy Haines' impressive blog click here.  Betsy is part of the Netsmart Technology's community of bloggers. Thank  you Betsy for showing us what dedication means!




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You might wonder what this picture is all about.  It is my demonstration on how to blog about nothing but make it fun.  I am pleased to introduce you to Mrs. Compedium.  She is our business blogging bear.  Mrs. Compendium is my own personal mascot that I keep at my desk to remind me to blog. 

She was given to me by a fellow co-worker and I keep her at my desk to remind me to post twice a week.  Since my job is to train others on our blogging software and remind them to post often, I cannot be a hypocrite.  In fact, I should be blogging more than most.  Although I do have several clients that excel in this area.

What does it take to get you to blog?  Do you have to mark it down on your calendar?  Maybe you prefer to set up Google Alerts.  Please comment on this post and send me your ideas on what you do to remind yourself to post.





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We are one step closer to crowning the winner of the Blogging Tournament.  With three weeks under or belt, we have seen people fighting a good fight.  We have had an outstanding number of blogs posted, not to mention it is fun too.  Who do we have left in round 4?  I am proud to announce the following company's as winners of the 3rd round of competition. 

You can view each of these company blogs by clicking on the links below.
To view our exciting nail bitting tournament click here



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We just finished our second round of the Compendium Blogware Content for the Crown.  There was an amazing amount of effort put in from so many bloggers!   Even though, BabyPlus did not make it to the third round I must commend them on their outstanding 29 blog posts!  Great job and keep up the good work.

Who is going to win the gas cards and the fabulous Compendium Trophy?  We are down to just 24 finalists.  Congratulations to the following companies for making it this far:
To view the standings and see who is battling who in this blogging battle royale click here.



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 Compendium Blogware welcomes PRICE Systems into the blogging family.  They are using blogging to win search engine optimization.  PRICE Systems is blogging as a business and will soon reap the benefits of doing so. 

What does PRICE do? They improve their customer's profitability by optimizing planning, budgeting and management.  PRICE solutions accurately estimate the effort, schedule and cost of projects using unbiased models and benchmarks that eliminate inaccurate biases and misconceptions. As customers improve on their accuracy using PRICE, they realize better returns on investments and higher profits.

You can learn more about PRICE by going to their blog.  Hear what their employees have to say about PRICE and download both of their whitepapers!





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Congratulations to our newest client GlaGla Shoes!  They are now blogging and ready to start a new chapter in their companies life.  GlaGla shoes are not only some of the coolest shoes on the market, but they are versatile as well.

These shoes come in a variety of fun and fashionable colors.  You can even order them with your favorite college teams logo.  Are you an Ohio State fan?  Maybe you prefer IU, then these are the shoes for you. 

GlaGla shoes can be worn when running, biking, hiking, walking, in water, or just for a leisurly stroll throughout the neighborhood.  Not only are they comfortable, but they stand the test of time (and exercise).  Check out GlaGla's blog to learn more.



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Week 2 of the Content for the Crown blogging tournament, and we have some winners.  This past week brought on some friendly, yet firm competition.  Every client gave it their all, and in the end we had 48 teams advance to the second round.

Round 2 started on Monday and already people are battling it out.  What are they fighting for?  Not only will these teams receive the coveted Compendium trophy, they will also have the pleasure of winning $50 gas cards for the administrator and all bloggers.  Now, who would not want that when gas prices are $4.00 a gallon? 

Thank you for all teams who participated and we look forward to seeing how this pans out.  To view the brackets click here.

Congratulations to the following clients:



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