Text Blog Software

If you get the opportunity to pick up a copy of Age of Conversation 2, please do.  All profit goes to charity and the book is a collection of short stories from Social Media and Marketing professionals from around the globe.  It was an honor to be on the author list of this fine book!  Special thanks to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton for doing all of the work to bring it together!

The book hits on all chords, "Why Don't They Get It?" provides 237 different stories on the turning tide of marketing in our culture. It fully supports why blogging for business is such a necessity!

Thanks to all the authors who gave selflessly of their time to write this incredible book: Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G. Kofi Annan, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going&Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne&Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw and James G. Lindberg, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Now you can!   Check out Write or Die

Now, I know the title sounds a bit ominous, but it is a great little widget to help you stay on task and get your post written in the time you allotted for it on your calendar. I have spoken with many of Compendium's clients who all talk about the time management of fitting in best practices of 2 blog posts per week, per blogger.  This is the perfect tool to help you get this accomplished.

The widget allows you to set your goal of "X" number of words, the time you want to accomplish this, as well as set the settings of the widget strictness (Such as Forgiving, Strict, or Evil - again I promise this is all in good fun). 

Once you set your goals, it opens a text editor that allows you to write your thoughts down.  If you pause for too long the screen will turn from white to pink, to hot pink, eventually to red....then the screeching violins kick in... all a reminder to keep writing!  Once you've hit your goal, simply press done and it give you the text to copy into your blog. 

This is a great tool to keep you focused and on task to better time manage your schedule to assure that you are getting in your 2 blog posts per week.

A question that I seem to get more and more from customers is "Should I use affiliate programs on my blog."  The answer, it really depends on your business.  If you use the affiliate marketing programs, will they help add to the success of your organization? 

In a recent article by Darren Rowse, he gives 10 tips for using affiliate programs.  He adds great insight on how to best leverage these sales marketing programs by doing the following:

1. Consider Your Audience - Step into the role of your reader when considering what they would want to see on your blog.  Avoid adding affiliates that have nothing to do with your business.
2. Genuine Recommendations and Personal Endorsements - Try them out yourself to ensure what you are recommending for others is something that you would use yourself.
3. Link to Quality Products - Have you ever been sold a "lemon" car?  Even if you have not, you have probably known someone who has.  This is not a good feeling so avoid selling unsatisfactory products. 
4. Contextual Deep Links - These work best because they pair up like products/services with what you are blogging about. 
5. Positioning of Links - Do not position them above any calls to action or products that your company is selling.  Keep them visible but not to where they will take action on the affiliate before they do your product.
6. Traffic Levels are Important - You can build traffic by adding content on a consistent basis. 
7. Diversify without Clutter - Avoid too many flashy ads on your blog site.  These will just confuse your readers.
8. Be Transparent -  Don't try to fool your customers, they know what you are doing. 
9. Combine with Other Revenue Streams - If you have other marketing revenue streams combine them.  Like the old adage, two are better than one, it is true in this case as well.
10. Track Results - Tracking your results is key.  Obviously, if it is not working you do not want to waste money on that program.  If it is working, continue promoting it on your blog and enjoy the ROI!

Blogging for business is essential in today's era of technology.  Corporate blogging software paired with the correct revenue streams can combine for one dynamite combination.  Again, these affiliate programs are definitely not for everyone.  Do your homework before adding one of these sites.  If your analytics shows that it is a success, then continue to build on that.

One of the barriers to blogging on a regular pace is the ever dreaded scourge of writer's block. One of our recurring goals is to help our readers overcome that with tools like the keyword tag cloud and the keyword strength meter. And rest assured we continue to work on new features that will aid the content author.

However, for those customers whose inertia seems insurmountable, there is a much more draconian solution, a tricked out simple text editor called Write or Die. The editor was plugged today on the personal productivity blog Lifehacker. It might well be one of the most extreme forms of timeboxing that I've ever seen!

To start using Write or Die, the user completes a form that specifies the following parameters:

• number of words to be written
• amount of time to be spent writing
• severity of negative feedback

Once you've completed the form, the editor gives you a countdown clock and a word count to remind you of your progress. If you stop writing, the editor will use effects to remind you that you aren't keeping pace. You will see flashes of red in the page background, perhaps an annoying noise.

At it's most severe settings, it will start to delete words from your content from the end of the text going backwards. The only way to mollify this demanding master is to keep writing.

Fortunately, the editor comes with a Pause button in the event you have to stop writing. Moreover, it plays triumphant music when you achieve your writing goal within the allotted time, so it does offer some positive feedback.

I really hope they don't follow through on the "electric shock" feature, though. :-)

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A good reason to blog for your business is to boost your company's reputation.  Search engines find your content, and search engine users find you.  If your content is compelling, a relationship may be established.  Your blog is a chance to make a first impression with a potential customer.

Amid all the buzz of blogs and business, something usually gets short shrift -- application security.  The multinational law firm Pinsent Masons maintains an IT and e-commerce issues blog called OUT-LAW.COM, and a recent post takes up this issue.

Citing some statistics and advice from a white paper by computer security system vendor Network Box (free registration required), the post gives some ideas on the scope of the issue and recommendations on what a blogger can do to mitigate the risks, which include potential damage to your company's reputation.

The white paper identifies comment spam and SQL injection as the top threats to a blogging environment. 

Comment spam is one of the ways that malicious third parties can abuse the visitor content creation features to your detriment.  This was one of the forms of "virtual blight" that Google spam fighter Matt Cutts discussed in his talk from this past Wednesday.

Compendium addresses from several angles:

• Comment forms require a name and a syntactically valid e-mail address. The comment will be rejected if these form elements are not provided.
• A CAPTCHA must be successfully completed, otherwise the comment will be rejected.
• The text of the comment is stripped of all HTML tags.
• URLs are converted to hyperlinks with the the rel="nofollow" attribute to prevent spammers from feeding off of your search engine reputation.
• Comments must be reviewed and approved by the company's local blog administrator before going live.  There is no way for the spammer to bypass this.

SQL injection attacks are an ulcer point for all web application developers who have to interact with a database.  This is where a malicious party determines, through either good guesses or trial-and-error, how to create inputs to the application that allow the execution of database commands that he or she shouldn't be running.

Cautious parameter validation on the server side provides a first line of defense.  The next line is using care in how query strings are formed.   Consideration of these points is an integral part of our development process, not an afterthought.  Moreover, they are backed up with regular code reviews and continuous refinement of our coding standards.

Unfortunately, bugs are a tough thing to completely eliminate in the real world, so vendors typically have to issue security updates.  The Network Box white paper recommends that corporate blog applications be updated when new releases come out.

Here is where relying on sotware as a service, like Compendium Blogware, has a distinct advantage.  Instead of tracking when a vendor updates and then going through the process of rolling out the new version to production, the hosted application provider takes care of the updates for you.  Here at Compendium, releases are usually pushed out on a weekly basis, so when isues are found, it won't be long before a fix is on the way.

When you base your corporate blogging platform on Compendium Blogware, many of the issues of maintaining a secure blogging environment will be taken out of your "worries" tray.  Isn't that a price worth paying?

"Relevancy starts on-page and is confirmed off-page." 

What am I talking about?  SEO of course!  This actually comes from a comment on one of Chris Brogan's recent posts "The Vital Importance of Links". (note my well thought out anchor text to help Chris out here).  This comment from Jacob Morgan really answers the big question as to the importance of linking for SEO and for a business blogging strategy.  At Compendium we are constantly being confronted by questions about link-building...and while no, this is not our business --- we do work with our mature clients on doing this and how they can best do their own blog seeding, however, as Jacob points out Step One of a successful page is related to on-page factors, or in other words --- CONTENT!  Once this is under control...content is recently and frequently updated; organized around keywords into narrowly focused, highly relevant pages then it is time to seriously consider a do-it-yourself or hired non-spammy link building strategy.  Even with that --- no one will ever link to you naturally without some great content.  So before sidetracking your business blogs with a link building strategy, get the on page factors solved with an easy to use blogging platform.

Web application programming interfaces (APIs) allow website creators to harness the data and computational resources of other web-based applications.  They are the underlying glue of the so-called "mashup" sites that rose to prominence a few years ago, but they can do a lot more than just create composite views of questionable value (like an overlay map of locations of people who have Nickelback's latest CD on their Amazon wish list, complete with links to their MySpace profiles).

TechCrunch had a post yesterday devoted to the proliferation of APIs.  The motivation for the post was the observation of the 1,000th API to be tracked by the definitive portal for this area -- ProgrammableWeb.  The post wraps up by asking readers to talk about which APIs they find useful.

Here at Compendium, we leverage several well-known APIs.  Amazon Web Services like SQS, S3, and SimpleDB help us with several behind-the-scenes aspects of our application.  We use the Annotated Timeline from the Google Visualzations API to create nice charts of post and comment activity for our blog administrators.  We use Browsershots for cross platform browser testing.

While third-party APIs can provide a quick path to new functionality, they must be used with care. 

First of all, one must keep in mind the stability of the provider.  It's not worth the effort to code on top of something that may disappear tomorrow. 

Second, reliability has to be taken into account.  If the API fails a good percentage of the time due to heavy loads on their server, your customers are going to blame you, not the original provider.

Third, terms of use are important.  Some providers limit the usage to non-commercial applications.  Others place limits how many times you can invoke the APIs in a given day.

APIs aren't just a good idea for third parties.  They are also good for internal use.  A growing percentage of our core functionality is exposed through service endpoints that can be reused in multiple locations throughout the application. 

The benefits of reuse comes at a price, though. 

The APIs require lots of up front design because they may be used in a wide variety of contexts. 

Consistency in parameter names, URL paths, and data payloads has to be enforced to minimize learning curve steepness.

 Finally, the APIs have to be documented thoroughly so that all developers are aware of their availability so that wheels don't get reinvented, let alone misused.

Still, the payoff of modular APIs is worth well enough that we'll continue to use this approach into the future.

Compendium has not simply designed our user administration interface with simplicity, we've extended that simplicity out to our standard template.  During the sales and implementation cycles, we're often asked to mimic a complex web design, or customize the interface with lots of 'stuff' per other Blog CMS platforms.

We push back... hard.

The templating system we utilize is open and 100% CSS driven so that anything is possible.  The problem is that anything is not the thing that will drive results to your business.

The value of blogging is simple from an SEO standpoint:

1. People search.
2. Search engines provide the relevant answer.
3. People read the answer.
4. Some people engage further.

There are quite a few articles and a couple of books on maximizing conversion rates and landing page optimization.  All of them agree:

• Show the relevant content that people were looking for.
• Provide a compelling call to action for the person to engage your business future.

Sidebar widgets and gadgets and other information are diversions from the task at hand.  They clog the interface, divert attention from the answer, and confuse the person's next step.

Here's an example from fellow blogger, John Chow:

This statement is simply NOT true.  Blogging is an essential piece to a well prepared internet marketing strategy.  Blogging allows your business to earn customers by having a consistent voice on a topic relevant to your industry.  Most importantly, Blogging is a proven way to be found on the search engines when properly implemented.

textual content still thrives on the Internet due to the fact that it is easily indexed by the search engines.  When you Blog for SEO your presence becomes textual content that can be indexed.  Successful Internet marketing is about being found by highly qualified people and then engaging those people in a conversation that leads to a relationship that leads to your bottom line.

Earning customers through Blogging will work for your business because you'll be leveraging the same stories that keep your current customers happy.  You will also be delivering the type of specific solutions that potential customers are searching for right now on Google.

If you're questioning whether Blogging will work for your business, give us a shout at Compendium and we'll get the conversation started. 

I'm frequently accused of being anti-brand.   I want to set the record straight that branding is important, not critical to online marketing success.   In the old days, branding alone could make the sale.  Not true anymore.  Today at best, branding earns you consideration...if you are in the right place at the right time.  Which is where a great search strategy comes in.  Gerry Randall cornered me on Monday and told me that he's seen search results lift conversions 3x after a concentrated branding effort....I'll dig in to that and report later.

Meantime, I saw a great post by Gord Hotchkiss yesterday.  Gord tells us that most search has nothing to do with Brand and in fact people search hoping for an alternative.  If the Brand doesn't show up in the top results, it's probably a lost opportunity:

"When I use a search engine for consumer research, I'm thinking in terms of the specific thing I'm looking for, not a specific brand. Generally, when I start, I will not use a branded search term. I am building a consideration set. Yes, I likely have brands I have an affinity for, but I won't explicitly include them in my query. I'm looking for the search engine to provide me some alternatives to consider. Typically, searchers will look at four to five results before making their selection. These are usually the top sponsored, and the top two or three organic, results. This represents the prime and very limited "shelf space" of the search results page. If a brand appears that the consumer has an existing affinity for, the chances are good that the site will capture a click-through. If the brand doesn't appear, the company has likely lost the opportunity to connect with a consumer that will soon be ready to buy."

Well said Gord, and a great arguement for a widespread corporate blogging strategy focused on search.  Blog Companies; meaning organizations that are focused on empowering many if not all of their employees to participate in a passionate, informed dialog about the company, it's products and soultuions will find great success in organic search accross a wide range of topics.   The main point is to be human without being too commercial.  Another quote from Gords post:

"....the act of searching is done with the left brain. It is a rational, logical interaction, not an emotional one. That's why text-based advertising does well, and graphic or rich media doesn't. We're intellectually engaged in a task, and we're looking for information that will help us succeed in accomplishing that task. We're not looking to be influenced by an emotionally charged message. In fact, we block anything that smacks of overt commercialism or looks like advertising out of our consideration."

This is why business blogging is so powerful.   Well organized blog content will not only help you rank highly on the wide range of targeted terms, but blogging win's the engagement (called conversion in the business world) with not-too-commercial human content that talks about the thing I searched on.  Learn more about Corporate Blogging Best Practices at Compendium Blogware.

Blogging for SEO requires effort in an area you already know.  You don't have to be an Internet marketing professional to win the search engine battle.  What you do need is a partner that can take your industry specific knowledge and turn it into keyword rich content to fuel customer acquisition online.

Back in the day the saying, "Don't forget to write!," was made popular as friends and family departed for a long trip.  In this economy the same rules apply, but for a different reason.  Positioning your business at the intersection of a prospective customer and their search, requires content.  Text content is the powerful driver for search relevance.  Blogging about what you do, how you do it, and success stories is how you fuel this machine.

Reach out to us at Compendium to learn how to Blog for SEO.  This is our business, and we're eager to share our success with you.

If you're going to blog for seo, you need to write content that's both compelling to your readers but also useful for search engines.  Case in point, you'll consistently find websites that have a link to an important whitepaper or internal web page with a link on a click here or download here chunk of text.

Imagine, if you will, you were a search engine and your programs were crawling a web page with a link on it called 'click here'.  How would you index that link?  What terms would you index the destination for?

Click here or download here are actionable terms but they have no information about the destination link to provide feedback to search engines on what the destination actually is!

Now - to be totally transparent, we at Compendium haven't always used this blogging tip. (The Compendium Blogware page is a combination of some richly described links and some other 'view' links).  It's easy to throw click here or download here or view on our pages and not even think twice about it.  You're not doing yourself any harm by doing this, but you're also not taking advantage of a unique opportunity!

Chris wrote last year about the importance of anchor text for SEO and for a blogger to have a call to action - but I'd like to take his advice and add some additional color!  Take advantage of the anchor text and put it to work for your keywords and phrases!

Generally, anchor text is written as follows to add a link to text:
<a href="http://yourdestination.com">Click here</a>

For maximum search engine results, though, you can utilize our blog publishing software and enter a title for your anchor as well!  This is a searchable component and very useful to drive results to the destination.  Your links should look like:
Click here to download the <a href="http://yourdestination.com" title="Social Media Whitepaper">Whitepaper on Social Media Domination</a>!

This will look like:
Click here to download the Whitepaper on Social Media Domination!

As an example, take a look at how I am writing this very post:

That's my mom. ------------------------------->

Hopefully she doesn't take offense to the title of this post.  I doubt she will.  She'll be the first to tell you how often we discuss new media and technology.

My mom teaches advanced Performing Arts to high school students in Ohio.  She has a unique perspective, hearing about Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other new media from her students.

I get frustrated sometimes because she sees the pitfalls associated with new technology (students gossiping on each other's walls, text messaging in class, etc.)  I remember when I was starting to work at Compendium, and trying to explain what it is we do. 

"Ma, we're an easy to use blogging software company.  Get it?"

Of course she didn't... at first.  Her initial connotation associated with a blog was the "talk-back" function of an online news article.  Blogging, to her, meant disgruntled people sounding off their opinions, most of the time without regard for accuracy or truth.  This simple observation is SO important to how we approach blogging for businesses and organizations.  Most "normal people" don't have time, or care for that matter, about RSS feeds, Friend Requests, or how many comments are on your blog.  They may not even know what it means to blog.

Why should my mom care about blogging?

Chris Brogan had a great post today titled "People in the Real World" that focuses specifically on this topic.  Brogan is an internet celebrity and expert in social media.  In today's post, he addresses tech-savvy readers: "Believe in how these technologies make the world different, but always seek ways to tie it all back to the current world."

There couldn't be a better explanation of why someone like my mom can benefit from Compendium's blogging software.  She doesn't need to commit time to learning blogging secrets, or best practices in blogging, nor does she have the time.  With Compendium's turn-key solution, she can focus on what she knows best: playwriting, choreography, stage blocking, dialect training, and a million other things I know very little about.

For her, the benefit is educating parents and students in central Ohio that are looking for the best training in performing arts.  She can tell those stories, projecting them in a way that people can easily find them.  They can read about projects that prepare students for professional careers in theater.  They can see pictures from performances.  They can hear from a set designer about what they learned from opening night.  More in-depth, human, recent and frequent than a website.

Anyone can acheive blogging success - not just the Chris Brogans and Gary Vaynerchuks of the world.  With the help of a Software-as-a-Service provider, assisting with design, keyword research, and ongoing consulting, normal people like my mom can focus on what they know and are passionate about.  Let us worry about the rest.

Many folks differentiate the role of social media from corporate blogging but it's important to note that blogging is simply a subset of social media.  Corporate blogging plays a superior role in a company's social media strategy because it builds a foundation for the company to both control their messaging as well as be non-intrusive.

Looking around at other mediums in the space - micro-blogging, wikis, social networks, email marketing, etc. a corporate message is viewed with a bit of skepticism.  Why else would a company be involved in social media unless they wished to manipulate us? Blogging is not met with the same skepticism.

• Blogging builds compelling content that captures search engine traffic.
• Blogging builds authority within the area of expertise you are engaged in.
• Blogging builds authenticity and a personal relationship with your prospects and clients.
• Blogging builds a knowledge base for clients to find the answers they are searching for.

There's quite a bit of technology behind a blogging application that most companies are unaware of.  The styling of text, the page layout, the submission process, the backlinking, the popularity, the competition, the recency, the frequency... all are components that are weighed and optimized for search engine dominance.

If your company wishes to dominate in its area of expertise, they need to partner with experts whose job it is to provide both blogging software and the service to assist you in dominating social media. Dominating social media should begin with dominating search engines.

It’s been a long, but exciting weekend for me. My brother got married yesterday, so I thought I’d write a post to tell everyone about it.  The wedding was beautiful and I had to read in front of 300 hundred people – and let me tell you something, that’s a little nerve racking – but I executed it flawlessly (so I was told).

As I was getting ready for work this morning I got a text from my brother and my “new” sister-in-law and it got me to thinking…marriage and blogging have a few things in common.

1. Blogging is a commitment. Just like marriage you have to be committed to the success of your blog, setting aside time regularly to write your blog posts.

A blogging best practice is two blog posts per user, per week.    

2. Blogging takes time. Just like marriage, you have to be patience - you have to give your blog some time. But in giving it time, you still have to be committed to posting content regularly.

3. To blog you must have a “thick skin.” In a marriage or in life you’re going to say and hear things that you might not want to hear. The same is true for writing a blog, people are going to comment and give you their opinions – and it may not necessarily be what yours are, but you have to take it as constructive criticism and go with it.

Blogging best practice, if someone posts a comment to your blog, you should respond to that comment by posting a blog.

4. There’s NO turning back.  Just like marriage once you make that commitment there’s no turning back – you’re in it for the long haul.  The same is true for corporate blogging - once you’ve written and posted your thoughts, feelings, and opinions there’s no turning back – it’s out there and ready for commentary.

Just remember that when you write a blog post that you should reflect your personality – as well as share information – BUT you must be committed, be patient, be tough, and remember there’s not turning back!!

Good luck with your business blog and good luck to my brother and sister-n-law!!!

I have a good friend in San Diego--he's a career lifeguard, part-time surfer and all around good guy.  I was visiting him and his wife recently and we spent some time at the beach as he was working (note: career lifeguards hate *any* type of Baywatch reference). 

As he started talking to a surfer buddy, suddenly, in the midst of their conversation, I felt incredibly, totally, out of my element.  I might as well have been in a German hostel negotiating my fruhstuck inbegriffen (free breakfast). 

Clueless was I.  What are they saying?

I'm reminded that all business industries and niches have their own language; a little Google after the fact helped me decode the surfer lingo, too.

With that in mind, Compendium is no different and we have our own language, as well.  It's not as daunting as navigating a German breakfast, or an Aussie one, either -- ever had vegemite? Just the same, some frequently used words are good to point to as a reference.

Herewith, a not complete, but pretty close to being current, Compendium dictionary of important terms to know:

Administrator Account:  The person that approves and declines all blog postings and comments.

Compended Blog:  A category on your blog site that acts as a category repository for your author blogs posts and, with the help of our proprietary algorithm, aids in search engine optimization

Keyword Blog: The same as a compended blog

Author Blog: An account for one individual content creator that writes content that gets “compended” to a compended or keyword blog

Uber Blog: Your master blog that highlights all of your “keywords”

Sticky post: A post pinned to the top of an author blog—typically used to act as an introduction or bio for the author

Pay-per-click search: Keyword search popularized by Google and the main driver of their revenue as customers “pay per click” for advertisements

Organic search: Search results that occur from a natural query to a search engine; preferable to a marketer than a “pay per click” conversion because it is free

Competitive keywords: The top 10-20 keywords for a search for a niche or topic area

Long tail keywords:  Three and four word phrases that are very specific to your business, your product or your industry

Search Engine Marketing: a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages.  SEM frequently includes pay campaigns

Search Engine Optimization:  The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or organic search listings

Recency: When the last time the blog was updated

Frequency:  On average, how often is the site updated.

Age: Recency and frequency of content over a period of time feeds into the age which search engines value as a source of authority, particularly in indexing over newer entrants

Keyword density: is the measurement in percentage, the number of times a keyword or phrase appears compared to the total number of words in a page. In the context of search engine optimization keyword density can be used as a factor in determining whether a web page is relevant to a specified keyword or keyword phrase.

It's a given that a software developer working on a challenging project will stumble across an issue that is pretty esoteric.  After having checked the documentation and the FAQs, the perplexed developer is usually off to the mailing lists and IRC for further guidance.

Depending on the urgency of the situation, the developer may also punch portions of the error message into a search engine.  If all else fails, then a voyage through the source code may be in order.

We ran into a situation recently that fell into this category, and since it isn't well documented, I thought it would be worthwhile to provide some background information on its causes on my blog because it may help someone else down the line.

The problem was observed in PHP 5, using the XSLT extension that's built upon the XSLT C library for GNOME (libxslt). 

The XSLT extension provides a class, XSLTProcessor, which performs an XSLT transformation.  A processor object works with two XML documents, which are represented as PHP DOMDocument objects.  One document is the stylesheet document, and the other is the document being transformed.

The problem arises under the following conditions:

• The stylesheet includes an XPath that uses a same-document reference.
• The stylesheet DOMDocument object was initialized with a string using DOMDocument::loadXML().

A same-document reference XPath has at its root the document() function, with an empty string as the URI argument:

document('')

When the XSLT processor encounters a style sheet rule with an XPath like this, what should happen?  If you think like I do, your guess would be that the processor would use an in-memory copy of the transform XML document, and you'd probably use Section 4.4 of RFC 3986, which deals with URI syntax and semantics, as the basis of your conclusion.  Quoting the text of that document, with my emphasis added we read:

When a URI reference refers to a URI that is, aside from its fragment component (if any), identical to the base URI (Section 5.1), that reference is called a "same-document" reference. The most frequent examples of same-document references are relative references that are empty or include only the number sign ("#") separator followed by a fragment identifier.

When a same-document reference is dereferenced for a retrieval action, the target of that reference is defined to be within the same entity (representation, document, or message) as the reference; therefore, a dereference should not result in a new retrieval action.

The developers of libsxlt thought differently.  When their code encounters an XPath of this form, the engine will attempt to retrieve a new copy of the document using the documentURI property of the document object.  This is not explicitly documented, but a developer made clear that this is the intended behavior in a May 2006 post to the libxslt mailing list.  Quoting from the email:

My previous concern was directed to the possibility of using the document() function for stylesheet trees, which were constructed via the API or parsed from an in-memory representation. In such cases, the stylesheet tree won't have a base URI normally, thus document("") won't work.

After citing some notes about in-progress standards for future versions of XSLT, the developer writes:

So, for me, the conclusion is that it's better handled ony the user's side; the spec clearly rules out scenarios where there's no base URI available.

Summary of scenarios:

1) If the user has an environment, where stylesheets are constructed via an API (i.e., no XML document source available):

a) If document() must be supported: He has to provide a base URI and serialize the tree; either simply to file, or tweak I/O to use an in-memory representation.

Although this is a clear break from the RFC cited above, it might be difficult imagining why this would be problematic.  That's where the second criterion comes into play.

If you instantiate a PHP DOMDocument object via a string rather than a file, the code behind the DOMDocument extension assigns PHP's current working directory as the documentURI property.  The net effect is that you get libxslt going off on a wild goose chase for a file, using a path that corresponds to a directory. 

If the rule containing the XPath fires hundreds of times, you will not only get a barrage of PHP warning messages, the operation will proceed painfully slowly because it will be attempting to access the file every time the rule fires.

You can reproduce the behavior using the following example. 

Here is a stylesheet with a same-document XPath, shown in boldface.  We will refer to this document as "foobarbaz.xsl" later on in the post.  The transformation rule matches a foo element in the source document and then appends to this element the text node of the data:baz element that resides within the style sheet.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:data="http://foobarbaz.org/data" >

 <!-- start transform at root of document -->

 <xsl:template match="/">
 <xsl:apply-templates />
 </xsl:template>

 <!-- <foo /> -> <foo>bar</foo> -->

 <xsl:template match="foo">
 <xsl:copy>
  <xsl:value-of 
   select="document('')/xsl:stylesheet/data:baz/text()" />
 </xsl:copy>
 <xsl:apply-templates />
 </xsl:template>

 <data:baz>bar</data:baz>

 <!-- identity transform -->

 <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
 <xsl:copy>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
 </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Here is a document that is to be processed.  We will refer to this later as "fake-document.xml".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<fake-document>
 <foo />
</fake-document>

And here is a PHP snippet that uses the XSLTProcessor class to perform the transformation.

<?php

$transform_document = new DOMDocument();
$transform_string = file_get_contents('foobarbaz.xsl');
$transform_document->loadXML($transform_string);
echo 'Transform document URI ', 
 $transform_document->documentURI, "n";

$source_document = new DOMDocument();
$source_document->load('fake-document.xml');
echo 'Source document URI ', 
 $source_document->documentURI, "n";

$xsl_processor = new XSLTProcessor();
$xsl_processor->importStyleSheet($transform_document);
$destination_string = 
 $xsl_processor->transformToXML($source_document);

echo $destination_string, "n";

?>

Here is what we observe when we run the script.  Note that the transform's document URI is a directory.

$ php -f testfoobarbaz.php 

Transform document URI /home/developer/
Source document URI /home/developer/fake-document.xml
PHP Warning: XSLTProcessor::transformToXml(): 
 /home/developer/:1: parser error : Document is empty in 
 /home/developer/testfoobarbaz.php on line 15
PHP Warning: XSLTProcessor::transformToXml(): 
 in /home/developer/testfoobarbaz.php on line 15
PHP Warning: XSLTProcessor::transformToXml(): 
 ^ in /home/developer/testfoobarbaz.php on line 15
PHP Warning: XSLTProcessor::transformToXml(): 
 /home/developer/:1: parser error : Start tag expected, 
 '<' not found in /home/developer/testfoobarbaz.php on 
 line 15
PHP Warning: XSLTProcessor::transformToXml(): 
 in /home/developer/testfoobarbaz.php on line 15
PHP Warning: XSLTProcessor::transformToXml(): 
 ^ in /home/developer/testfoobarbaz.php on line 15
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<fake-document>
 <foo>bar</foo>
</fake-document>

Note that the output is what we would have expected, so libxslt manages to eventually fall back on the in-memory copy of the transform document.

Although the above example is admittedly contrived, we encountered this behavior in a real-life setting.  In our case, the XPaths to same-document elements served as dummy elements upon which to do replacement operations in attribute strings.  Our workaround was to move the dummy points from the stylesheet to the source document, eliminating the need for the same-document reference.

You got some people to your blog, thanks to awesome content which boosted your SEO. Now these former searchers are found, and they've begun reading through your blog. They read, they nod. They read, they nod. They laugh. They cry. So now what?

Enter the CTA. Call to action– one of the many blog tools that every business blogger should embrace as a way to convert a passive reader into an active customer. There are so many types of call to action opportunities within each and every blog. Two easy ones are the Text Link and the Side Bar Button.

First, the text link. Within your post, talk about something you want your readers to act on, like a new campaign or product.  "... And don't forget about our webcast on Business Blogging and Local Search, tomorrow."  Bam. (And if you don't want to take them away from the post, just check "open in new window.)


If you haven't already tried these two simple CTA's, check them out and see what happens.

Who cares about your products or services?  Who cares about your company in general?  No one should care more than your employees and your current customers.  This is why Blogging for business makes so much sense.  It is a practical and logical evolution in business communications for companies of all sizes.



You are responsible for being enthusiastic about your company mission, products and services.  If your people are not expressing that enthusiasm, there is an obvious disconnect between your brand and what is being communicated to the customer.  This is a big problem.

By using Blog authoring software and applying Blogging best practices  you will be empowering your employees and creating brand evangelists in the process.  When your employees Blog about delivering solutions to customers, problem solving, or resonating why they love their job, that is incredibly valuable to your business.

With an assertive company Blog policy you will be allowing your valued employees to share their experience, prove their understanding of the product/service, and leverage all of the points of difference that make your company competitive in your given industry.

If you choose the right business Blogging partner you will experience tangible rewards both internally with employees that are being heard, and externally with your message being received by potential customers that would have otherwise been doing business with your competitors. 

If Blogging in this context makes sense for your company, join us at our September Webinar: Bussiness Blogging: The Key to Local  Search  September 17^th 1-2 EST

Bu  Who cares?  Answer:  You and your employees do! Take control of your message and get your message working for you in organic search.

A Compendium customer, Lizan Brand, from Greenfield Liquors, was featured in the Saturday edition of the Indianapolis Star.

One of the things that Lizan is doing that is really interesting is mixing in video--highlighting drink recipes, talking about wine and the sorts of things that contextually engage a reader.

In my personal life, I’m well in tune with wine & spirits video blogging as a wine blogger (vlogger) is ascending to national attention.  In fact, wine online darling Gary Vaynerchuk from WinelibraryTV continues to grab the wine world by its shirt lapels and give a good, healthy shake.

Gary continues to not only lead the charge in creating a brand online for himself and his business by proxy, but he also continues to give advice, good advice, to folks interested in growing their business, any business.

Vaynerchuk did an audio interview with an Internet-based business coach and he provided some additional insights that are not just applicable to technology marketing, but marketing in general.  You can find the audio portion of the interview here.

Find the text transcript here.

A couple of the nuggets that I gleaned are:

* Vaynerchuk on putting content out on the web:  “If you put out great content, you will be found.”

* Vaynerchuk on leveraging your expertise: “So, if you are the best guy in your law firm in contracts, instead of waiting eight to ten years to become a partner, start (using technology) about what you know.  Give away that content for free.  It will come back to you in spades 800 times over.”

* Vaynerchuk on tapping your passion: “So you may be good at three or four things, but please site down and analyze where you feel you’re most passionate about, even if that is the most competitive genre, do it because that is where you’re going to win when you really believe it, when it goes through your blood, you’re going to win every time because even if you’re not seeing the mythical success, your heart and soul is going to be happy.  That is going to push through to the point when you will start seeing success."

* The Interviewer on setting lofty goals: “you have to have high ideals. You have to have something that you’re shooting for that’s absolutely spectacular. What you have to realize is that’s the ideal, that’s not the goal. When you achieve a certain level of success, the people that are super successful don’t compare where they get to--to their ideal. The ideal is just where they’re focused towards. To be happy and to be excited about what you’re accomplishing, you have to look backwards to where you were. As long as you make that leap and you look backwards to feel good about yourself then you can keep that excitement going. If you’re always comparing where you are to the perfect (ideal) then it’s very hard to stay excited …

The frenetic interview wraps up with Vaynerchuk’ “Five Steps to Mastering Social Media.”  If you replace the “social media” with “blogging” the same values hold true.  They are:

1)  Make sure you want to engage/learn it.

2)  Now that you know you want it, spend every living second that you possibly can on it.

3)  Put your toe in the pool.  Get involved.

4)  Humble yourself.  If you’re the best basketball player in the world, you’re playing hockey now.  Put on your skates.

5)  Know what you want to accomplish.

Good advice for all and something Lizan, a Compendium customer, is doing successfully and so can you.  Business blogging is hardly hard, it just takes a little bit of the above five items.