The Compendium Advantage

I'm a Blog Admin! Now What?!

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Allison Bowen

As an employee for Compendium Blogware, my job every day is to help our clients with our blog software. This often means that I find myself updating calls-to-action, explaining how clients can add users and answering other various questions that our users and admins might have.

But recently, the tables have turned. I have now become a blog admin myself! Now what do I do?!

Both Amber Mohling and I are fellows with the Orr Fellowship program. The Orr Fellowship program provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students searching for their first salaried, full-time position following graduation. It's been a great opportunity for both of us!

Well wouldn't you know it, we recently were able to set up an Orr Fellowship blog. And I'm the new blog admin! Check it out -- http://blog.orrfellowship.org. I now find myself actually performing some of the duties that we discuss with clients each day. So as a new blog admin, what have I done? Followed Compendium's blogging best practice tips, of course!

Updated our calls-to-action
Added ShareThis to our blog (visit here and send the code to help@compendium.com)
Encouraged my bloggers to blog frequently and consistently
Made sure each blogger has a sticky post set up
Monitored my Google Analytics statistics (admins should get them each Monday by e-mail)

It has definitely been an adventure, but I'm really enjoying being a blog admin. When I saw the number of click-throughs from our blog and our most recent search results, I was thrilled. Compendium really does provide the best blogging software!

CNAME - What is it? How to set it up?

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Krystal Featherston

Now that you're on board with Compendium and you've filled out your getting started form, the first thing you'll need to do is set-up your CNAME.

Now if your wondering what a CNAME is, well .... let me explain:
A CNAME record or Canonical Name record is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies that the domain name is an alias of another, canonical domain name. This helps when running multiple services from a single IP address. Network administrators also use CNAMEs when running multiple HTTP servers on the same port, with different names, on the same physical host.

What does this mean for you ....
At Compendium, we require our client select a domain or sub-domain for their blog and create a CNAME Record for this domain. As a software as a service, Compendium hosts all of our clients blogs, including content and images. By using a CNAME Record, and directing to the Domain of www.compendiumblog.com, we have the ability to add to and modify our infrastructure when necessary without affecting service to our clients.

When a CNAME record is set for the URL of blog.EXAMPLE.com, and the CNAME record points to www.compendiumblog.com, the browser will resolve to the content at www.compendiumblog.com, but the browser would show http://bog.EXAMPLE.com in the address bar.

Now that you know what a CNAME is and why Compendium require our clients to create one, its time for you to get your set-up. Click here for some basic instructions. However, if you manage your DNS records through your registrar, here are links to some step-by-step instructions to some of the main registrars that will help you with this action.

After you get your CNAME set, your just a few days away from blogging for your business! So get your CNAME set and starting blogging today!

REMEMBER: if you have a question you can search Compendium's Knowledgebase RIGHT NOW - or fill out the online submission form.

Gen Y women. What influences their brand discovery?

Friday, November 13, 2009 by Chris Baggott

Can I buy stock in eMarketer?   Every day they send me this great email with relevant content to my business....and yours.

Like this report for example.   Clearly this blog is about education, and persuasion that we offer best blogging software for Business.   Our firm belief is that that Social Media helps a company serve two masters. One is the search engine, and two is the need to humanize your business.

When you see a chart like this, it really helps make the case that if you just look at the responses related to search, online profile, and the two blog mentions (blog written by someone like me and professional or subject experts), you can clearly see that Corporate blogging is the critical hub of todays marketing strategy.

Blogs drive search traffic better than almost anything else...and it's a lot easier and legitmate to simply write often about how you help customers and solve problems than a lot of other SEO tools you might be tempted with.

I also love the phrase: "someone like me".   Obviously, you have people in your organization who fit the professional/subject expert catagory.    But think about it.   Among your employees and your current customers you also have lots of people who can be classified as "someone like me".

Now either Gen X or Gen Y women represents an extremely large catagory.   If you had to make a persona around everyone who could be slotted into these groups you would struggle.   But tactics like triggered emails to existing customers are amazing ways to solicit relevant blog content and engage the long tail of this diverse yet consistant audience.

Take a lesson from the NFL: Momentum Matters

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Michael Burton

After watching football all day Sunday, specifically the Colts game, I realized how much momentum plays into a game of football. It can either hurt you or help you, but the important thing to realize is that it just takes a small jolt of success to get the ball rolling and everything else just starts to fall into place.

Take the Colts game for example; in the first half, Texans quarterback Matt Schaub had about 60 yards, completed very few passes and was sacked multiple times. By the end of the game, he had completed 75% of his passes for over 300 yards and came up 5 feet wide left of winning the game.

This just goes to show that it only takes a small push and some precise adjustments to turn things around and find success. It wasn't until I really started thinking about the ideas of momentum that I realized how much that relates to the world of business blogging software.

No matter what your former marketing strategies looked like, taking the step to starting a blog for you business will be the perfect jump start to getting your new marketing campaign underway. Once you get into a "blogging groove" and find your niche, creating powerful, effective posts comes naturally and helps to further the success of your blog.

Peyton Manning leads all current NFL quarterbacks in most 4th quarter comebacks, meaning that he is the expert in changing his team's momentum when it really counts. He does this with a great coaching staff leading him along the way... Take a page from his book and contact Compendium today for some great coaching on how to utilize blogging in your business!

Happy Blogging Customer Story

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Jess Wehner

I recently received a great note from a client who just joined Compendium a month or so ago. Hendler Law is a law firm that focuses on mesothelioma lawsuits and other toxic exposure cases. They recently finished setting up their blog networks and attended our new live training with Allison Bowen. Here's what our contact had to say about the services so far:

"I did the training on Friday....thanks so much. Allison did a great job! Compendium's customer service is the BEST!"

I'm proud to say that not only does Compendium offer the best business blogging software on the market, we also have the best customer service reps (product support and client success alike) out there. Ok, maybe I'm biased - but if you don't believe me, just have our sales team set you up with a demo and you can hear even more success stories from satisfied Compendium clients.

Applying more SG to business blogging

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Brian Millis

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exciting Product Release to Preview your Blog Post within Your Template

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Abby Brosmer

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

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

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

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

Pros and Cons of Compendium Substance Abuse Training 2K9

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by mikey mioduski

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

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

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

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

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

Cons:

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

Pros:

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

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

A Good Rule of Thumb For Content Creation

Friday, October 30, 2009 by Jess Wehner

Many clients wonder how much content it will take to start receiving traffic on their keywords - and the answer we most often tell them is you can never write enough! But the truth is, depending on the keywords you are targeting - it could take writing content to each of those keyword phrases as much as one time a day. When you decide to go after words organically, it takes a bit more work than targeting them via a pay per click campaign.

Using Compendium as your business blog software is only the first step in a great SEO strategy. Writing frequent, relevant content is the next step. I found a great post that gives one person's opinion on how much content you can actually expect to write: SEO Copywriting Frequency. Ian Lurie says to look at the competitiveness of the term, and then gives this scale for how much content you should be producing based on the number of competing pages showing up when you search for that term in Google:

<10,000 competing pages: Write once a week.
10,001-100,000 competing pages: Write twice a week.
100,001-200,000 competing pages: Write three times a week.
200,001-2,000,000 competing pages: Write every day.

Keep in mind, these theory applies to each keyword - so if you are targeting 100 keywords, you need to write a lot of content! (You can see why we just tell people to write as much as possible).

Fortunately, Compendium gives each of your posts the biggest bang for your buck, pulling each post out to several different pages based on the number of keywords you use. So instead of having to write 100 posts a day for 100 keywords, our software will take 1 post and put it towards 2-5 keywords (or however many you target). For more information on exactly how our software works, view a demo with one of our business development managers.

Explaining Compendium to Friends

Friday, October 30, 2009 by Allison Bowen

I have always loved the fall season. Football, changing leaves, chilly fall days... and HALLOWEEN! What's better than that?! Despite the fact that I'm now an adult, I still find it fun to dress up and go out on the town. This year, my friends and I decided that our own little Halloween night was just what we needed. Of course this meant that we had to carve pumpkins.

I am one of the lucky individuals who is still best friends with their high school friends; last night's Halloween party was with girls that I have known since kindergarten. As we all sat around reminiscing about the past, our conversations quickly turned to what we are doing know. One friend is a hairdresser, one works for a local health company, two are in grad school.... and then there is me. How do I explain what my company does?

"Oh that's easy," I always say. "We provide the best blogging software for search engine optimization." That's the point at which I always get blank stares.

Compendium's product is really quite easy when you think about it. By writing blog posts, you are able to increase your company's position within Google's rankings for certain keywords. Does your company sell bicyles in Indianapolis? You would probaby want your company to appear first when someone searches for "Indianapolis Bicycles" within Google. Our product helps you do just that! Of course there is a bit more to it, but overall, Compendium helps your company rise to the top of search results through blogging.

We Want Your Ideas!

Friday, October 30, 2009 by Allison Bowen

Here at Compendium, we know that we provide our clients with the best blogging software available. Not only does our product allow you to easily write a blog post, it will also help you actually blog for search engine optimization. We know that our product is great, but there are always areas in which it could be better. This is where you come in.

We want to hear from you! Have an idea? A suggestion to improve our product? We are always open to ideas from our clients. Our main goal is provide our clients with the most powerful blogging software that will help them get the best results.

If you have a suggestion for something we could improve within our system, please let us know! Send you ideas and enhancement requests to help@compendium.com. We take all the ideas submitted and enter them into a database. Each idea is prioritized by demand, so the more clients that ask for a feature, the more we want to make it happen! Every week, our engineering team takes a look at the enhancement requests submitted and tries their best to upgrade our software accordingly.

Keep an eye out for more new features that you, our clients, have requested coming soon!

Changing User Information

Friday, October 30, 2009 by Allison Bowen

Have you noticed the many new features that are now a part of our Compendium blog software? Our engineering team has been hard at work making our simple blogging software even more user-friendly.

One recent new feature has been the ability for administrators to now add users to their

accounts. But did you know that admins also now have the ability to change a user's name and e-mail?

Did someone in your company recently get married? Did you change the e-mails of everyone in your company? No problem!

It's simple to make these changes! Once you add a user (for instructions, click here) you can make any changes by simply clicking on the user's name or e-mail. A box will appear; type in the appropriate changes and hit update!

That's right, the best blogging software just got better.

A frustrating search experience

Friday, October 30, 2009 by Brian Millis

So I have an Ipod Nano that is the 2nd generation, which is slightly different in size and composition from the new nano. My belt clip that I used when running recently broke and I have been on a mission to find a replacement that fit my older ipod. After Target, Walmart, and the Apple store provided no solution, I went online . . . .

. . . . and had one of the most frustrating search experiences EVER!!!!

I typed in exactly what I wanted, 2G Ipod Nano Belt Clip. I got bombarded with great shopping sites, none of which provided me with the item I wanted. So I started adjusting my search phrases, trying nearly 30 different options. Finally, I found a site at the bottom of the search page after about 20 min of search and digging in eCommerce sites. This site sent me to Amazon.com, which I had already searched and struck out, and I found my item for less than $5.

Had any of these businesses targeted ONE of my 30 search attempts and given me a clear call to action to buy the item, I would have spent far more than $5. This reminded me why Compendium is such a great search marketing tool. We help our clients think like marketers and convert on searchers like me, by offering a powerful blogging software that auto-organizes large volumes of content around relevant search phrases. Because it's such an easy to use blog software, any company can start blogging about products, services, and more to win on as many search phrases as possible. The more targeted blogs you cast out, the more likely you are to capitalize on a vast world of qualified searchers.

Don't believe me on how easy it is? Call me (317)-777-6254 and I'll tell you about an eCommerce client who scaled back their PPC by $7,000 in one month while driving 50,000+ MORE unique visitors with their Compendium blogging solution.

What's the deal with social media?

Thursday, October 29, 2009 by Michael Burton

So you may be asking yourself, "What's the deal with all this talk about social media? It seems like people are talking about it everywhere, but I have no idea what they're talking about..."

That is a common question these days. Social networking has been growing for the past couple of years and recently has boomed into playing a huge role in business and marketing.

At Compendium, we know the potential of social media and the seemingly endless ways it can be used in helping your business.

In a recent webinar, Compendium Co-Founder Chris Baggott teamed up with Kyle Lacy, the CEO of Brandswag, to discuss why marketers and consumers are becoming obsessed with social media and how it can play a role in your company.

If you would like more information on this topic, as well as ways to combine business blogging software with social media to create ROI, I suggest checking out the replay of the webinar.

If you still have questions after watching it, contact a Compendium representative, and they can help you figure out where exactly blogging fits in your business.

What scares you the most this Halloween?

Thursday, October 29, 2009 by Michael Burton

Only days away from Halloween and it's a time when people start thinking about all the things that scare them the most. You know, like zombies, vampires, and ghosts, right?... Wrong.

Tame your fear with our blogging solution

Yes, when we were 8 years old those may be the things that kept us up at night...checking under the bed, hoping they would not enter our dreams, but what about our fears today?

My guess is that most business owners and employees are way more scared about the status of their business than any giant werewolf. Ghosts aren't keeping us up at night; the latest news reports on the economy and the upcoming holiday season are keeping us awake.

Well, just as a stake takes care of a vampire and a silver bullet will silent any werewolf, Compendium Blogware's business blog software can take care of your business anxieties and fears. Rest assured that when your company signs on with Compendium, you are in good hands and have no reason to fear.

With the holiday season just around the corner, this is the time to start making changes to the ways you are reaching your customers. Blog software takes the stress out of marketing and allows you to focus what you want to market.

Passion.

Thursday, October 29, 2009 by Allison Bowen

While being a Client Success Specialist here at Compendium, I also have the role of being an Orr Fellow. This means that I am a part of the two-year Governor Bob Orr Entreprenurial Fellowship Program and have had many opportunities within Compendium and Indianapolis because of my position. As a part of the Orr Fellowship, I have recently travelled to many colleges throughout the state to recruit for our program.

Last night I went to a networking fair at Butler University and quickly discovered one thing about recruiting - it only works if you have passion for what you are doing! Isn't this the way it is with everything in life? As I stood at our Orr Fellowship table and looked around, it was easy to tell which employees were passionate about their companies. Students instantly gravitated towards those that seemed excited about what they were discussing.

The same goes for blogging. It's all about passion. If you're a client of Compendium's, you know you're using the best blogging software available. So, shouldn't you be passionate about it? How amazing is it that you can tell your story to the entire blogsphere every day? So c'mon! Write some posts! If you're passionate about what you're doing, your company's corporate blog is sure to succeed.

Announcing Compendium Client Training!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Allison Bowen

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

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

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

User Training

Admin Training

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

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

Customized options

Friday, October 23, 2009 by Stephanie West

I'm going to give a little shout out to Starbucks in this blog post.

Starbucks is located on the first floor of our building, so it is a much-enjoyed treat at Compendium.

Compendium also offers a Starbucks promotion. If you view a demo with one of our blog experts, you will receive a $50 Starbucks gift card. Pretty good deal, huh?

After thinking about Starbucks so much, I realized that Starbucks' menu is much like Compendium's blogging platform.

Starbucks' menu contains a list of the general drinks that they offer, such as: Mochas, Lattes, Caffe Americanos, Teas, etc. The categories are pretty vague. But sporadically located around the menu are additional flavors and options.

You have (nearly) endless coffee options!

The business blog software that Compendium offers is a lot like the Starbucks menu. There are many blog pages available to generate content on. For example, you may have 25 blog pages - so the content you generate will fall under one (or more) of those pages. There are many options of how to "design" a blog post and it can fall under several categories.

Isn't this kind of like that grande, non-fat, no whip, mocha-latte you ordered this morning?! Your blog may be relevant to more than one blog page, kind of like the mocha latte falls under two categories: mocha and latte.

Does all of this talk about Starbucks have you craving it?! View a demo with one of our blogging experts and get a gift card for $50 worth of Starbucks.

Seasons are changing and so are marketing strategies

Friday, October 16, 2009 by Michael Burton

As you look out your window, you see the sad truth: Summer has quickly left us after being kicked out by a bitter-cold fall... In no time, we went from fun in the sun to fun in the... raking leaves. We went from picking out the perfect bathing suits to deciding which big, frumpy jacket to wear just to walk to the mailbox...

As the temperature and the leaves start to change, maybe it's time to take these as signs to start looking at ways to change your marketing campaigns in your business. Just as the seasons are always changing, so are the ways people are looking for products.

Customer approaches are changing and you need to make sure your business is there to meet them. They are heading online to find what they need. They're using search engines like Google and Bing to find the answers to their problems, and the best way for them to find you is through business blog software. With an easy to use blog software solution, you can make it easy for customers to discover you in the search engines.

Take advantage in this season of change to see where changes can be made in your marketing strategy. Compendium is the perfect place to start.

Adaptability is key

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Stephanie West

I love fall... I love the colors, crunchy leaves, the smell, the weather (before it gets really cold), football games... I could go on and on. But the thing I love most about the fall is how the leaves visibly change so quickly. One day they are green and the next day they're bright yellow.

Everything changes quickly. And you can't do anything to stop it. You just have to ADAPT.

Technology is very similar to fall. It changes very quickly - whether you're ready for it or not!

The best thing you can do is adapt. In fall, we wear warmer clothes and rake leaves when they fall. With technology, there are also ways to adapt - and prepare for the future.

Because of technology, marketing is heavily focused online. Adaptability is crucial in order to keep up with this changing technology. As more companies are focusing on their inbound marketing efforts, they are realizing that business blog software may be the solution to search marketing.

Adapting to technology (the same way we adapt to fall) is instrumental to our success. Click here to learn more about Compendium's free Webinar: The Future of Business Blogging. You'll gain insight into the changing technology industry and how to better adapt your marketing strategy for the future.