Hi! I’m Krystal Featherston. I am an Product Support Manager here at Compendium. My goal is to make our clients “blogging experience” as seamless and easy as possible. I work to resolve changes and issues - both internally and externally. I serve as the support and work to ensure Compendium's blogging software is the best.
The purpose of this blog is to help inform readers about blogging techniques and trends, and will provide some best practices for posting a “great blog.”
On a personal note, I’m your average 25 year old trying to find her way in this strangely complex world. I graduated from Illinois State University in 2005, where I was a collegiate diver. Then unsure of where to go or what to do I ventured back to the place I call home – Indiana!
I love the Colts, Cubs,&the Hoosiers! I also love my newest hobby – snowboarding
(I must admit I’m not very good – but practices make perfect)!
I just wanted to share something I found to be very interesting today, I was on the phone helping a client with an issue they were experiencing while designing their blog template - and when I opened their template I was very pleased!
Fusework Studios, one of Compendium's Clients, who has control over the design of their blog has done a great job! I am a big fan of well designed templates, websites, landing pages, etc. and when I opened their blog I was speachless
(in a good way)! So I just wanted to give them a shout out! Check out their blog, visit
blog.fuseworkstudios.com!
If you like the look of their blog and want to be able to customize your own blog, well your in luck! Compendium has a new functionality related to the product -
Designer Role.
If you have a good understanding of web design and web development, the designer role at Compendium may be a good fit for your business blog. Once you have designer access you can completely control your tempalte design, and make changes as often as you wish. This is espeically great for our clients who are consistently testing their calls to action!
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or fill out the
online submission form.
So every month our Marketing Department has great blogging incentives for Compendium Staff. The past couple of months we've blogged for drinks/candy, Indians Tickets, gift cards, and free PTO days.
However, this month it is the "
Blogging Bucket and Content Cooler,"which is filled with yummy snacks and drinks for the week. Each department in this contest and the first to reach their goal of blogs for the week receives the bucket and cooler exclusively in their department for their blogging efforts. Last week my department won, and we got lots of yummy snack - below is just part of what we got ....
... so that's why I'm blogging today! I want to keep those snacks coming! Everyday around 3pm I need a candy pick-me-up!!!
I think that our Marketing Department does a great job at helping to keep everyone here at Compendium motivated. Also, by providing your employees with incentives is a great way to get your company blogging about your business. It also allows for your customers to see the "inside" of your company and it can allow them to connect with your company on a deeper level.
So create a blogging incentive program today and see if you can get your bloggers blogging!
So just recently, Compendium has released a new functionality related to the product - Designer Role. Now, you might be wondering what this means for you ... well you will have access and complete control of your blog template.
This role was created for clients who:
- Are designers themselves and have a good understanding of HTML/CSS
- Are creating CSS for their blog
- Want frequent changes made to their blog
If you have a good understanding of web design and web development, the designer role at Compendium may be a good fit for your business blog. Once you have designer access you can completely control your tempalte design, and make changes as often as you wish. This is espeically great for our clients who are consistently testing their calls to action!
If you are interested be sure to reach out to your Client Success Manager today, they will be able to give you some more information!
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or fill out the
online submission form.
Have you looked at your blog and wondered how you can make it look more like your website? Well
Abby,
Allison, and
I get this question quite often - and our answer is .... "You can write a customize CSS stylesheet."
What is CSS?Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple mechanism for adding style (e.g. fonts, colors, spacing) to Web documents.
How do I apply CSS to by blog template?Compendium's templates are 100% CSS compliant, and can be highly customized by applying CSS to your blog. If you chose to apply CSS, we recommend hosting the file on your end and providing Compendium's Support team with a
link to that file. This will allow your organization control and will allow you to make changes at any time.
Compendium's template is a great example of a highly customized blogging template
(there is more than just CSS, but a great example a customoized template). However, writing CSS is not something that you have to do - we will design your template and match your website as much as possible. Here are some of our clients that are on the standard template
(which happen to be some of my favorite designs):
Also, another route if you don't want to write CSS, you can provide us with images and we will insert them into your blogging template. Get image specification sizes
here.
These are just a few suggestions for some ways to make your template design a little more appealing if you'd like. However, contiuning to write quality content is more important for your business blog - but if you anything like me I'm a visual person and love a great design.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to our team, by either calling us at (317)777-6255 or
filling out our webform.
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or fill out the
online submission form.
Everyday, the A-team (
Abby Brosmer,
Abby Greenbaum, and
Allison Bowen - I'll explain later!) and I get to help our clients with any questions or issues they encounter when using Compendium's Blogging Platform. We have questions ranging from Google Analytics and SEO, to how do I retrieve my password, to what is an RSS Feed ....
We always recommend to our clients to first check out our
knowledge base for answers and if they cannot find and answer, then fill out the
webform. Here are links to some of our top questions...
- I forgot my password
- My blog is set-up, Now What?
- What does this Google Analytics report mean?
- What is RSS
- What is a CNAME?
- What is a sicky post?
These are just some of the top questions ... So, if you have a question, don't be shy - ask, we are here to help your blogging program succeed!
I know, I know ... its been a long time since I've blogged (insert frown face here ....) However, keeping in tradition with my posts - something that clients have been requesting a lot of lately is read only access to their Google Analytics Account.
Here at Compendium we provide everyone with a Google Analytics Report for tacking their blog and weekly PDF report of your blog analytics and statistics. But, if you want more details - All you need to do is let us know! You can request access to your Google Analytics Account by simply
filling out this form with contact information and be sure to include a gmail account or the email address associated with your Google Account!
So we understand that it’s the summer and July 4th is just around the corner, and you'd probably rather be outside enjoying the weather than writing blog posts. Luckily, Compendium has a solution for you …. All you need to do is write some blog posts before the go outside or before the holiday's and schedule them to go through while you're out!!!
If you anything like me … I like to write my blogs post for the week on one day and schedule them post throughout the week!!!
If you know how to schedule a post …
here are step-by step instructions! Also, before you start scheduling your posts you need to make sure you've set your Time Zone up correctly -
here are step-by-step instructions for doing that too!
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or fill out the
online submission form.
Do you have questions? Do you want to change your call to action? If so, here's how you can get help ...
- Search Compendium's Knowledgebase
- Submit your request Compendium Online Submission Form (and we will respond to you with 8 Business Hours)
Do hesitate to ask all the questions you have!! That's what Abby and I are here for ... we want to help you succeed!
Don't know what to write about? Are you have writters block? Believe me I have this all the time - I always try to over analyzing what i'm writing! After reading this a little light came on in my head!!
However, our
Client Marketing Team here at Compendium put on this great webinar "
50 Content Strategies," that provides in-dept ideas & topics for your coporate bloggers.
Be sure to visit our
help page to watch this webinar and many other to help with your blogging program!
If you have specific questions concerning your blogging program, you can send an email to
clientsuccess@compendiumblogware.com.
Recently we've had a lot of clients who have forgoten passwords. Luckly, Compendium has has a back-up - and the best part its really easy!
If you forgotten your ..... Password, all you need to do is follow the steps below: - Go to www.compendiumblog.com
- Click on "I Forgotten my Login Information" Link
- Enter your Username and Email Address Associated with your Account
- Click Recover
- An email will be sent to you with a new password
- Go back to www.compendiumblogware.com and login
Once you are in the system, you can change your password by clicking on the "Account" tab, modifying your password and then clicking make changes. The next time you login, you will need to use your new password.
If you have any questions about how to retrive your password you can always do 1 of the 3
Call: (317)777-6255 |
Email: help@compendiumblogware.com |
Online Submission Form
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase.
We've recently been getting a lot of requests to add social media icons and links to our clients blog. Below are the social media icons and links that Compendium has on our blog.
If you'd like to have social media icons added to your blog, all you need to do is send an email to
help@compendiumblogware.com. What you should include in that email is ....
- Social Media networks you've like included
- Links for those each of those networks
Compendium has a variety of icons avaiable, so all you'll need to do is provide us with the information and we will get it added to your blog.
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or shoot us an
email or fill out the
online submission form.
Recently, we've had several question come in concerning Google Alerts and how to set them up for your blog.
First,
"What is a Google Alert?"Google Alerts are emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for your search terms. You can also choose to have your alerts delivered via feed to the feedreader of your choice.
Second,
"How do I set them up?"Simply visit the
Google Alerts home page, enter your search, the type of alert you'd like (News, Web, Video etc.), how often you'd like us to check for results, and your email address. When you're done, click the 'Create Alert' button. We'll send you a confirmation email; clicking the link in this email will activate your Alert.
Compendium uses a combination of
Google Analytics and custom analytics to track each client's blog. The custom analytics within the application provide a basic tracking analysis overview, but do not provide the in-depth detail we are able to pull from the Google Analytics Reports.
We recommend that clients use Google Analytics for tracking your blogging success!
Compendium uses Google Analytics because ... - We are able to block certain IP addresses from those reports and do not have the ability to do this with custom analytics found within the application.
- They are easy to read and understand.
- They generate detailed statistics about visitors and help to gain more insight into blog traffic.
- They allow client success managers to elevate the success of selected keyword phrases and look at possible additions to help grow the program.
- They allow for both the client and the client success team to view the information in one central location.
You can visit our Compendium's
help page to view a webinar that will help you understand your analytics for your blogging program.
Also, if you have more questions you can reach out to our Client Success Team at
clientsuccess@compendiumblogware.com and they will be able to answer all of your questions.
Lately, we've been getting a lot of questions about RSS feeds. What they are? Why are they important for blogging?
RSS is used to publish frequently updated work—such as blog entries. An RSS document includes full or summarized text. RSS benefit readers because it provides regular updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.
RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URL into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
Why are RSS feeds important to blogging? - RSS Feeds help writers generate content ideas by knowing what is going on it their industry at any moment.
- Allows readers to receive frequent updates on content that is posted on any specific blog.
Still have questions? If so,
click here to view a video.
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or shoot us an
email or fill out the
online submission form.
Are you wondering the best way to get your questions answered ...
In order to better serve our clients, we’ve created two email addresses to answer client requests.
- help@compendiumblogware.com: email this account when you have a question on the actual software (for example, if you are experiencing an issue within the platform, if you don’t know how to do something, you want to change your CTA, you want to add a user, you have an enhancement request, etc.).
- clientsuccess@compendiumblogware.com: email this account when you have a question regarding your blogging program, or if need coaching (for example, how does my content look, how long should my posts be, how can I get more content ideas, what should my CTA be, how can I increase my traffic, Google Analytics, etc.).
By creating these emails it allows for us to better serve your needs and get back to you quicker. Instead of having one dedicated manager, you now have a whole team behind you, working to make your program great.
Also, you can always check out our help page that has answers to a lot of frequently asked questions.
Click here and search for your question today!
With a special thanks to fellow co-worker
PJ Hinton, for writing a blog post about our Product Support Team here at Compendium!
He wrote his blog post because today is
Ada Lovelace Day, which is "the international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology".
Get to know your Support Team a little better, be sure to check out
PJ's post.
As many of you might know, last week Compendium released the ability for users to select TimeZone and schedule blog posts....
These added features go hand-in-hand with one another!!! In order to schedule posts you must select your TimeZone. Once your TimeZone is selected you can start scheduling out your posts.
Why .... - Vacation. You can still blog even when your not there
- Writing a series. We have a lot of clients that break-up their posts, this way you can write them all at once, but make them live at different times
- To me the most important ... I tend to slack off and not blog regularly - now I can write 2 or 3 blog posts for the week and set the dates I want them to go live. So now I only have to worry about it once a week!
Have you set your TimeZone? If not,
click here! Questions about scheduling a blog post...
click here!
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or shoot us an
email or fill out the
online submission form.
So our Client Marketing Team here at Compendium did a webinar are few weeks ago ... "Breakthrough Calls-to-Action."
Does anyone remember this? Since that webinar we've had a lot of clients change their CTAs and we've gotten some questions in support, so I thought I'd share some of Compendium's best practices!
- Having 2-3 CTAs available on your blog at all times
- Include CTA messages in your blog posts
- Constantly measure test and adjust
- Support will change CTAs out 1 a week
Remember! When creating your CTAs for your blog they should have ....
- A purpose: what is it?
- A benefit: what's in it for the reader?
- A command: tell them what to do next?
- A place to click: a visual of where to click!
Great CTAs will improve your blogging return on investment! Just in case you missed this webinar or any of the webinars, you can view them by visiting
Compendium's Help Page
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or shoot us an
email or fill out the
online submission form.
Now that your posting quality content on your blog ... are you wondering what next?
Well ... now its time to dig into your blog tracking and find out how you're doing. This will allow you to capitalize on the things that are going well and improve your results in other places.
How are you going to do this ... at Compendium's Client only webinar -
Understanding Your Blog Analytics
Thursday, February 19 at 2:00 p.m. (EST)
During this webinar... - Explore the basics of Google Analytics
- Determine the data areas of focus for blogs
- Look at the metrics behind conversion from traffic to lead
- Use the data to determine whats working well
- Finding opportunities to improve your blogging based on your SEO results
For details or to register please send and email to
help@compendiumblogware.com!
REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search
Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or shoot us an
email or fill out the
online submission form.
