Mikey Mioduski is a creative designer at Compendium Blogware, designing stuff and blogging about it. He sometimes writes about stuff that others have designed, wishing he'd designed it. He sometimes writes in third person. Enjoy!Mikey Mioduski is a creative designer at Compendium Blogware, designing stuff and blogging about it. He sometimes writes about stuff that others have designed, wishing he'd designed it. He sometimes writes in third person. Enjoy!
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
- 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.
Jay-Z called for the Death of Autotune, I'm calling for the death of Stock Imagery.
Yeah right. Stock images are ok I guess because you can find a visual that represents what you're writing about in your blog kind of. Like if you're writing about "social media" you can find a stock image of some little icon people in a circle... you know, to really drive the idea home.
Stock images are easy. But the most memorable blogs and websites in my mind are the ones that create everything from scratch. Obviously I don't practice what I preach... But I just want to give props to these very cool sites that really deliver one of a kind content, because content is really what separates a succesful business blog from an okay one.
IDEO and alistapart.com are two examples that I know of who create custom graphics and illustrations to represent their content. Not an easy task! But it pays off brilliantly. The old design saying goes something like this: you're supposed to design around the content. Chances are a stock image can't express exactly what you wanted to say and also maintain the graphic standards of your brand. Granted not all of us have the budget for such customization, but maybe it's as easy as asking a local art student to pump out some drawings for you. Or asking your buddy the aspiring photographer to get some shots. Whatever it is, wouldn't it make for a much more beautiful internet if each site we visited had it's own unique look and feel, even in the content.
Here's what the heck i'm talking about in case I've lost you.
Exhibit A. Ideo.com's patterns... Awesome illustrations (please don't tell me these are stock or my whole theory is kabosh.)
Exhibit B. Also from Ideo. Notice they have their own style, yet they still speak to the content with the imagery. Even the layout is super unique.
Exhibit C. Alistapart has a darn good illustrator pumping out top notch watercolorings (?) makign each article that much more compelling and interesting.
Exhibit D. See what I'm saying?
It's definitely more time consuming, but again, this customization is another way to make for a more engaging, more memorable experience for visitors to your business blog, which is not an easy task online.
Gracias for the inspiration IDEO and Alistapart.
Yeah right. Stock images are ok I guess because you can find a visual that represents what you're writing about in your blog kind of. Like if you're writing about "social media" you can find a stock image of some little icon people in a circle... you know, to really drive the idea home.
Stock images are easy. But the most memorable blogs and websites in my mind are the ones that create everything from scratch. Obviously I don't practice what I preach... But I just want to give props to these very cool sites that really deliver one of a kind content, because content is really what separates a succesful business blog from an okay one.
IDEO and alistapart.com are two examples that I know of who create custom graphics and illustrations to represent their content. Not an easy task! But it pays off brilliantly. The old design saying goes something like this: you're supposed to design around the content. Chances are a stock image can't express exactly what you wanted to say and also maintain the graphic standards of your brand. Granted not all of us have the budget for such customization, but maybe it's as easy as asking a local art student to pump out some drawings for you. Or asking your buddy the aspiring photographer to get some shots. Whatever it is, wouldn't it make for a much more beautiful internet if each site we visited had it's own unique look and feel, even in the content.
Here's what the heck i'm talking about in case I've lost you.
Exhibit A. Ideo.com's patterns... Awesome illustrations (please don't tell me these are stock or my whole theory is kabosh.)
Exhibit B. Also from Ideo. Notice they have their own style, yet they still speak to the content with the imagery. Even the layout is super unique.
Exhibit C. Alistapart has a darn good illustrator pumping out top notch watercolorings (?) makign each article that much more compelling and interesting.
Exhibit D. See what I'm saying?
It's definitely more time consuming, but again, this customization is another way to make for a more engaging, more memorable experience for visitors to your business blog, which is not an easy task online.
Gracias for the inspiration IDEO and Alistapart.
Online video is here to stay. I probably didn't need to tell you that.
I'm not sure exactly what qualifies as "U.S. Internet audience," but according to these recent numeros from comScore, Inc., over 80% of this demographic watched online video in August. In fact, the numbers for the month of August, 2009 proved to be the highest in online video's history.
161 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month, the largest audience ever recorded. Online video reached another all-time high in August with more than 25 billion videos viewed during the month, with Google Sites accounting for more than 10 billion.
If there was any skepticism about online video's future, I think it can be safely dispelled at this point. This data from comScore and also some numbers rounded up by Luke Wroblewski (Senior Director of Product Ideation & Design at Yahoo!) are probably just specs in the mass of information telling us that video is a fundamental piece of the online world.Moving forward with online content and business blogging.
That being said, try to pay attention to what you as a consumer or business person tune into online. What kinds of video are you watching? A few years ago, I would wage that YouTube had the stronghold on our online video viewership-- funny quirky weird viral videos passed along in emails. But today, there is more substance to online video as traditional media streams have really embraced the concept. We can catch up on our news, sports and even our favorite tv shows. I bet even my mom knows what Hulu is.
Or for those self actualizers out there, your can teach yourself new Photoshop tricks, nasty guitar licks, or just kick back and listen to some of the world's thought leaders for an afternoon on places like Ted.com. Some of the best videos online give us the chance to educate ourselves and others, or spread the word about things that we're passionate about. This is just the beginning.
Online video and the future of business blogging.
The proliferation of online video does not mean that all video will be watched, in fact it means quite the opposite. But if you are a marketer with a story to tell, and you understand the value of search marketing and business blogging, then exploring this popular and powerful medium is yet another way to engage your audience. Video blogging is growing in popularity because it is so accessible, and great for those of us who don't like to read. Just being honest. I tuned in last week to Crispin Porter + Bogusky's "Fearless Q&A," a live webcast integrated with twitter and whatnot, and I definitely plan to tune in again this week because I found it interesting, relevant ... something I can learn from. Long story short, these new online video outlets such as webisodes, live webcasts and video blogging can give visitors another reason to return to your site. Which is nice.
Thank you for reading.
Don't look at me, look at our CEO and Co-Founder, Chris Baggott. His upcoming webinar, "What every marketer should know about the future of Business Blogging" is this Thursday, October 22, 2009, from 2-3 est.
I've been working here for well over a year now, I've heard Chris talk about business blogging week after week, and it never gets old! If you've never tuned in to one of his webinars, I can honestly say it is well worth your time. Not only will he educate you, he will probably make you a believer. From the many case studies of real companies blogging successfully, to first hand encounters, Chris' stories and ideas are both entertaining and enlightening.
If you have a chance and are available Thursday, you should check it out!
Sign up here.
I've been working here for well over a year now, I've heard Chris talk about business blogging week after week, and it never gets old! If you've never tuned in to one of his webinars, I can honestly say it is well worth your time. Not only will he educate you, he will probably make you a believer. From the many case studies of real companies blogging successfully, to first hand encounters, Chris' stories and ideas are both entertaining and enlightening.
If you have a chance and are available Thursday, you should check it out!
Sign up here.
Maybe you work for someone else, maybe you work for yourself. That aside, if you aren't a business owner, try to imagine that you are, for a moment. If you are one, you probably already know the value of search marketing.
So imagine you own a business. Try to imagine how you are going to deliver your message, your product or service to people who could really use it, or improve their lives somehow by utilizing what you have to offer, but might not know you exist. You yourself hate advertising, and you don't want to cram a message down the throats of people who might not need your service, but you want to be found by the people who honestly and truly want to find you. So how do you do it?
Where is the first place they will most likely look to solve their problems, anymore? If you haven't already guessed, they're going to search online. Not only does online search give us instant direction, if not instant results, it is becoming easier and easier to access. And even if your company is a household name in your town, state or country, you will still benefit from ranking higher in search. And time is of the essence. Companies that establish a presence online early will have much greater momentum in search results than a company that waits and waits because they're hesitant, or just not ready to adapt. As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Or something.
So, let's say you own a business. Do you think you'll benefit from being found online? One of the most scalable, honest and human-friendly solutions to establishing a strong presence online is through business blogging. The best time to start was awhile ago. The next best time is now!
Why should Chris, Ali, and Megan consider sending me, their loyal creative designer, to SXSW Interactive this coming year? Aside from the top ten reasons listed on the SXSW site, and aside from the fact that I do partake in the designing of things interactive for Compendium, and aside from the fact that it seems like the place to be in the industry, I am a tremendous note taker, a pretty decent listener, and a person who really enjoys learning new things from experts.
Also, I've never been to austin, but I have a few good friends there who just might be able to put me up on a rather nice couch, which means, I'm also a cheap send (unlike those high maintenance sales folk (just kidding high maintenance sales folk)).
As the leaders of the 3rd generation in business blogging, I feel it is appropriate that Compendium has a strong presence at the conference this year, and I would like to get that seed planted right now, with this post.
Thank you for your consideration.
** speaking of bosses, happy b-day Springsteen.
We all know what blogging is.A few years ago, when Compendium was just starting out, I think our sales team spent just as much time explaining what business blogging was as they did our product. Today, the benefits of business blogging are much more widely known and accepted, and I think this transformation will best be explained tomorrow afternoon by our CEO Chris Baggott.
If you haven't signed up for upcoming webinar, "What does the 3rd Generation of Business Blogging Mean to You?" you should take the opportunity right now to sign up. It's tomorrow. I am definitely looking forward to it, because I think it's a topic that hasn't gotten too much coverage, but certainly should.
I think Chris is onto something here with the state of the blogosphere, and he seems to be very excited to break it down and answer questions afterwards.
Details:
September 17th, 2009
2pm EST
Free to all
At a computer near you
Sign up for the webinar here.
From the Fuel Your Blogging site, David Leggett gives us some good pointers
on some easy steps to make our blogs more user friendly, even if we aren't UX Designers ourselves. Check it out here, "Non-UX Designers Can Pay Attention to User Experience Too!"
I like Leggett's first point, to "walk a mile in the user's shoes." It's really easy to get caught up in what we do, in our company or industry's bubble, and to also assume that our blog visitors have been to our blog before, and are familiar with what we do, who we are, what we offer. That's not always the case.
Because blogs (especially-- ahem, blogs powered by Compendium) are so great tools for search marketing, a good amount of the traffic coming into a blog is there for the very first time. We use Google analytics to verify this for our own blog, which tells us that over 80% of our traffic falls into the "new visits" category, and the overwhelming majority of our entire blog traffic comes from search engines.
So try to remember that these visitors are new, they might not know as much about the industry or your product as you do, and if they found you through search, they are probably in research mode. Think of your own search habits, think of sites that you really like, some that you don't, and try to figure out what it is that makes some easier to visit than others. If your users hav a hard time finding what they were searching for (that's where the UX design comes in), they are likely to leave and find their solution elsewhere.
So, make it obvious and simple for them to find what they need. Easy, right?
on some easy steps to make our blogs more user friendly, even if we aren't UX Designers ourselves. Check it out here, "Non-UX Designers Can Pay Attention to User Experience Too!"
I like Leggett's first point, to "walk a mile in the user's shoes." It's really easy to get caught up in what we do, in our company or industry's bubble, and to also assume that our blog visitors have been to our blog before, and are familiar with what we do, who we are, what we offer. That's not always the case.
Because blogs (especially-- ahem, blogs powered by Compendium) are so great tools for search marketing, a good amount of the traffic coming into a blog is there for the very first time. We use Google analytics to verify this for our own blog, which tells us that over 80% of our traffic falls into the "new visits" category, and the overwhelming majority of our entire blog traffic comes from search engines.
So try to remember that these visitors are new, they might not know as much about the industry or your product as you do, and if they found you through search, they are probably in research mode. Think of your own search habits, think of sites that you really like, some that you don't, and try to figure out what it is that makes some easier to visit than others. If your users hav a hard time finding what they were searching for (that's where the UX design comes in), they are likely to leave and find their solution elsewhere.
So, make it obvious and simple for them to find what they need. Easy, right?
There is simply no denying it. You can't live without search. You love it. You use it. You bath in it. Even when you're not thinking about it, you're probably doing it. You like big fat searches. You do it at work. You do it at home. You do it on your way from work to home on your phone. You like to type in questions like, "How do I rank in google?" or "what is the best month for blueberry picking?" because you know someone has already searched this exact same phrase, which means your search will bring you the exact answers you're looking for. You love big fat fatty searches. Sometimes you even clarify your searches with a date or a geography, "best blog software for business 2009," or "implant dentist northern colorado" because you know it will give you the most relevant information possible.
You can't live without search. Trust me. I tried it. I almost died. In fact, I think a little piece of me did die that week. I wasted time that I will never get back. Not cool.
When we have questions, we want them answered immediately. It's a fix, it's instant gratification, we demand it, and maybe that's sad, but that's the era we live in. If you are a business trying to stay with the times, you will be better to realize that your future customers and prospects are no different than you. They have problems that they need answered. Like you, and like me, they can't live without search. Put yourself in your customers shoes and you will see the importance of search marketing. So as the saying goes, "If you don't like change you're going to like irrelevance even less." I don't know who said that, but if you search that exact phrase, you'll find out.
What are you doing to get your company found in search? Stay relevant, and get found with a business blog from Compendium.
You can't live without search. Trust me. I tried it. I almost died. In fact, I think a little piece of me did die that week. I wasted time that I will never get back. Not cool.
When we have questions, we want them answered immediately. It's a fix, it's instant gratification, we demand it, and maybe that's sad, but that's the era we live in. If you are a business trying to stay with the times, you will be better to realize that your future customers and prospects are no different than you. They have problems that they need answered. Like you, and like me, they can't live without search. Put yourself in your customers shoes and you will see the importance of search marketing. So as the saying goes, "If you don't like change you're going to like irrelevance even less." I don't know who said that, but if you search that exact phrase, you'll find out.
What are you doing to get your company found in search? Stay relevant, and get found with a business blog from Compendium.
I lost $25 monday night, and I blame it on the fact that I am not using online search this week. In case you're just tuning in, I'm running a little experiment this week testing the importance of search marketing and business blogging.
You might blame this loss of $25 on my naivety, my inability to say no, or my willingness to trust in the good nature of all mankind. But I blame it on not Googling for an entire week.
What happened?
I was pumping gas Monday night on Indy's west side, around 6pm, minding my business, when a middle aged man in a flannel and jeans approached my auto. He looked like a slightly more weathered Jim Crocce, but with red hair, and a massive beard. So maybe more like a lumberjack. [note: I would put a picture of Jim Crocce or a lumberjack here, but I'm not using search this week, and i have no clue how I would accomplish such an insertion.]
"Oh you went to DePauw? I saw your plates. I went to Purdue, great school that DePauw, I know it well..." This red hairy man continued about our respective Indiana schools, and I listened. Then he told me he was a farmer, at an organic milk farm in laffayette. he was in a sticky situation because he had a dead cow in a truck down the road that ran out of gas. He needed $18-33 dollars precisely to get his dead cow and his empty truck back to his organic dairy farm before there was trouble.
"I know what you're thinking, I'm just gonna use the money for booze or crack. But I don't smoke crack any more, and anyway, I promise you I'm a cow farmer, just smell my clothes." His clothes did in fact smell like those of a cow farmer's. An organic one at that.
"Have you ever seen a cow placenta?" he asked me. I said no. But I was beginning to really believe that he was a cow farmer.
The man repeated the name of his organic dairy farm a few times, telling me that he didnt have the cash because he left in such a hurry, but if I loaned it to him, he would take my phone number, and have Stacey, the farm's receptionist, arrange to wire me the money the following day. Not only that, he said if I gave him the money, he'd arrange some free organic milk to be shipped my way, and even offered to take me and my friends fishing on his awesome fishing boat.
"No drinking on the boat, though."
Well, like I said, I [used to] trust in the good will of all mankind, even dairy farmers. So I gave this guy $25, with obvious hesitation, but I did it. He wrote my first name and phone number on the palm of his soiled hand so that Stacey could call me and arrange the money wiring.
I realized as I drove off and saw the man with the manure-eating grin on his face, that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't going to see that money ever again. I've done so many dumb things in my life, but if you were to Google "the top 10 stupedist things mikey mioduski has ever done," this would surely make the list.
It is my feeling that if I could search "organic dairy farms laffayette, indiana" maybe I could at least make myself feel like less of an idiot. I can't remember the name of the farm, but chances are if I found a list of a few, one might ring a bell. But I'm not using online search engines this week, so until I come up with another way to figure out the name of that imaginary farm, I will just have to wait on that call from Stacey.
You might blame this loss of $25 on my naivety, my inability to say no, or my willingness to trust in the good nature of all mankind. But I blame it on not Googling for an entire week.
What happened?
I was pumping gas Monday night on Indy's west side, around 6pm, minding my business, when a middle aged man in a flannel and jeans approached my auto. He looked like a slightly more weathered Jim Crocce, but with red hair, and a massive beard. So maybe more like a lumberjack. [note: I would put a picture of Jim Crocce or a lumberjack here, but I'm not using search this week, and i have no clue how I would accomplish such an insertion.]
"Oh you went to DePauw? I saw your plates. I went to Purdue, great school that DePauw, I know it well..." This red hairy man continued about our respective Indiana schools, and I listened. Then he told me he was a farmer, at an organic milk farm in laffayette. he was in a sticky situation because he had a dead cow in a truck down the road that ran out of gas. He needed $18-33 dollars precisely to get his dead cow and his empty truck back to his organic dairy farm before there was trouble.
"I know what you're thinking, I'm just gonna use the money for booze or crack. But I don't smoke crack any more, and anyway, I promise you I'm a cow farmer, just smell my clothes." His clothes did in fact smell like those of a cow farmer's. An organic one at that.
"Have you ever seen a cow placenta?" he asked me. I said no. But I was beginning to really believe that he was a cow farmer.
The man repeated the name of his organic dairy farm a few times, telling me that he didnt have the cash because he left in such a hurry, but if I loaned it to him, he would take my phone number, and have Stacey, the farm's receptionist, arrange to wire me the money the following day. Not only that, he said if I gave him the money, he'd arrange some free organic milk to be shipped my way, and even offered to take me and my friends fishing on his awesome fishing boat.
"No drinking on the boat, though."
Well, like I said, I [used to] trust in the good will of all mankind, even dairy farmers. So I gave this guy $25, with obvious hesitation, but I did it. He wrote my first name and phone number on the palm of his soiled hand so that Stacey could call me and arrange the money wiring.
I realized as I drove off and saw the man with the manure-eating grin on his face, that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't going to see that money ever again. I've done so many dumb things in my life, but if you were to Google "the top 10 stupedist things mikey mioduski has ever done," this would surely make the list.
It is my feeling that if I could search "organic dairy farms laffayette, indiana" maybe I could at least make myself feel like less of an idiot. I can't remember the name of the farm, but chances are if I found a list of a few, one might ring a bell. But I'm not using online search engines this week, so until I come up with another way to figure out the name of that imaginary farm, I will just have to wait on that call from Stacey.
Last Friday I decided to see if I could go an entire week without using a major online search engine. Today marks the second day of my quest, which is not only testing my patience, but also the legitimacy of business blogging and search marketing in today's media evolution.
My coworkers have asked me how it's going so far. As a whole, it's not as life changing as I thought. As it turns out, people got along for quite some time without information on demand. And I'm really happy for them.
For major daily work, my browser remembers all the websites I've ever been to (at least within the past few weeks or months or whatever), and I have no problem getting places like Salesforce.com, or Google Analytics, or some of the blogs I follow. But it's really the little things that are killing me. What I am really missing out on are those mindless little searches that provide details, or context to something else.
What I wanted: Nissan Altima
What I got: Nissan Computer Corp
What is that? I don't know, but they make it affordable.
A colleague of mine cashed in his clunker this weekend for a Nissan Altima, and I wanted to find out more about the car, you know, to get a visual. Had I been using online search, i would have typed "Nissan altima" into my web browser's handy search bar. Then I would have clicked on the first link in my results, and bam, I am 99.99% sure I would have been on nissan's site looking at the specs of the Nissan Altima within 2-3 seconds.
But I'm not searching this week, so instead, I tried plugging the following URL into my browser's URL window display: "nissan.com"
As it turns out, http://nissan.com isn't the site I was hoping for. I don't know if I'm spelling "nissan" incorrectly or if the url contains something else in it, like nissanusa.com or nissanauto.com... The beautiful thing about search engines, like Google, is that millions of others have made the same mistakes or presumptions in exact spelling, and you are often given suggestions .. did you mean "________"? Yes, I did.
And a lot of the time in online search, despite spelling errors, I can still find what I was looking for on the very first try. Such is not the case with old school URL guessing, where searchers are often left empty, or in very weird places.
My coworkers have asked me how it's going so far. As a whole, it's not as life changing as I thought. As it turns out, people got along for quite some time without information on demand. And I'm really happy for them.
For major daily work, my browser remembers all the websites I've ever been to (at least within the past few weeks or months or whatever), and I have no problem getting places like Salesforce.com, or Google Analytics, or some of the blogs I follow. But it's really the little things that are killing me. What I am really missing out on are those mindless little searches that provide details, or context to something else.
What I wanted: Nissan AltimaWhat I got: Nissan Computer Corp
What is that? I don't know, but they make it affordable.
A colleague of mine cashed in his clunker this weekend for a Nissan Altima, and I wanted to find out more about the car, you know, to get a visual. Had I been using online search, i would have typed "Nissan altima" into my web browser's handy search bar. Then I would have clicked on the first link in my results, and bam, I am 99.99% sure I would have been on nissan's site looking at the specs of the Nissan Altima within 2-3 seconds.
But I'm not searching this week, so instead, I tried plugging the following URL into my browser's URL window display: "nissan.com"
As it turns out, http://nissan.com isn't the site I was hoping for. I don't know if I'm spelling "nissan" incorrectly or if the url contains something else in it, like nissanusa.com or nissanauto.com... The beautiful thing about search engines, like Google, is that millions of others have made the same mistakes or presumptions in exact spelling, and you are often given suggestions .. did you mean "________"? Yes, I did.
And a lot of the time in online search, despite spelling errors, I can still find what I was looking for on the very first try. Such is not the case with old school URL guessing, where searchers are often left empty, or in very weird places.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — At a press conference on Circle Tower this morning, Broad Ripple resident Michael Shaun Mioduski, 26, Creative Designer at Compendium Blogware, shocked the 14th floor when he announced to coworkers that he would attempt to go an entire week without the use of online search engines, such as Bing.com and Google. The stunt is set to begin next monday.
Mioduski reports an "unhealthy dependency" on search engines for tasks such as finding solutions to his daily problems and inquiries in a matter of seconds. To the best of his abilities, the designer cannot recall a single day in 2009 that he did not use search engines, at least once.
Not everyone at the company seems to support the decision. "Nothing good can come out of this," said Kaila Woodside, director of Client Success at Compendium. "What's he gonna' do, remember thousands of URLs?"
"Dumbest idea I've ever heard," said Compendium CEO and Co-Founder Chris Baggott.
The risks involved in not using search are great. When faced with any standard daily problem, Mioduski will be forced to implement an early 1990's style of resourcefulness-- which include things like Yellow Page books, map reading, and asking real people questions. Such practices could take several minutes, if not longer. Colleagues fear that Mioduski's overall productivity level will dip, if not dissappear entirely. They also fear he will ask them a lot of questions.
When asked why, Mioduski simply stated, "Because I need to know if I can."
Search engine marketing, SEM, a practice increasingly common among organizations looking to get the most from their budget, is a form of online marketing implemented by companies who wish to draw more traffic to their websites and blogs by way of search engine results pages. SEM can range from paid placement, to unpaid, or organic, search result rankings.
Blogging for business, or blogging to improve search results, has grown in popularity for the very reason that when implemented correctly, it helps companies rank higher in organic search. More importantly, it helps searchers find what they are looking for. As the overwhelming majority of clicks in search engine results pages occur in the organic section of the page, more companies are focusing on organic SEM by blogging about the solutions they provide.
More updates on the attempted searchless week to come.
I Love Typography is one of the many type blogs and other online resources for graphic designers to tune into and read up on the latest in type design. From discussing trends and new typefaces to promoting some of today's best type designers, ILT's fundamental goal is to "inspire its readers, to make people more aware of the typography that’s around them."
Good type fundamentals are important for designers of every medium... including websites, blogs, and yes, business blogs. Knowing the basics of good typography and choosing the right typeface can not only improve overall readibility-- it helps comminicate tone and contributes to your overall branding efforts. Good designers have a library in their minds full of their favorite fonts. If a project calls for something outside the mental library, a good designer will use their knowledgbase to discover new typefaces until they find the right font with the characteristics they're looking for.
I Love Typography's "The Rather Difficult Type Game" is a fun little way to test yourself and your ability to identify a handful of fonts. Check it out here!
I actually got more right than I thought I would, but I've got my work cut out for me!
Improving your type skills is just another way to contribute to your business blog design and usability. Here's another killer resource for web based type to get you started in the right direction, http://www.webtypography.net/
Good type fundamentals are important for designers of every medium... including websites, blogs, and yes, business blogs. Knowing the basics of good typography and choosing the right typeface can not only improve overall readibility-- it helps comminicate tone and contributes to your overall branding efforts. Good designers have a library in their minds full of their favorite fonts. If a project calls for something outside the mental library, a good designer will use their knowledgbase to discover new typefaces until they find the right font with the characteristics they're looking for.
I Love Typography's "The Rather Difficult Type Game" is a fun little way to test yourself and your ability to identify a handful of fonts. Check it out here!
I actually got more right than I thought I would, but I've got my work cut out for me!
Improving your type skills is just another way to contribute to your business blog design and usability. Here's another killer resource for web based type to get you started in the right direction, http://www.webtypography.net/
Blog marketing is not much more than a case of problems and solutions. Your potential costumers have problems. They need those problems fixed. Where do they go? They search online for the solution. We all do this.
The reason so many companies blog is because blogging is a great venue to tell stories (the solutions) that customers are looking for. If you have a solution to a common problem, talk about it through a business blog. Even though it seems obvious, unless you're getting out there and intercepting these searchers, they aren't going to find you. Sure you might have a great product or service at a great price, but if you're not getting found you're walking dangerously close to little place called irrelevancy.
So just like Dunkin D's points out to its early morning caffeine junkies, tell your customers what solutions you have for their problems. As so many of our clients can attest, it works to help get you found.
As a business blog software company, we are big advocates of utilizing blogs to grow your organic search presence. By organic, we mean the search results that show up in the non-paid section of any search engine results page. The reason organic is cool is because, well, it's free. It also happens to be the section that gets over 90% of all search engine clicks... So it's really the most bang you can get from your search marketing budget.
Search marketing today is all about establishing and growing your organization's presence in the search engines, so that if Richard Q. Public has a problem, and you have a solution, he will find your solution when he searches for answers to his problem. It's really common sense, and that's why so many smart marketers today are focusing more of their budgets to getting found in organic search.
Compendium helps you "go organic" in a different way. While business blogging enables companies to tell their stories online, unless those stories are organized and indexed carefully, they could be lost in the growing pool of online content. Search engines like pages with fresh, frequent and densely focused content. So unless your story is surrounded by lots of stories like it, then it could lose its keyword strength.
Compendium Blogware answers this problem by organizing blog content around pre-determined keywords targeted by our clients. Our software's unique algorithm does this dirty work for you, so all you and your employees have to do is keep the content coming. Because we also have administrative layers, you can control the content that goes out representing your company. While there are more than one blogging platforms out there today, there is only one built strictly to help businesses get found in search.
So go organic. Blog on Compendium, man.
Search marketing today is all about establishing and growing your organization's presence in the search engines, so that if Richard Q. Public has a problem, and you have a solution, he will find your solution when he searches for answers to his problem. It's really common sense, and that's why so many smart marketers today are focusing more of their budgets to getting found in organic search.
Compendium helps you "go organic" in a different way. While business blogging enables companies to tell their stories online, unless those stories are organized and indexed carefully, they could be lost in the growing pool of online content. Search engines like pages with fresh, frequent and densely focused content. So unless your story is surrounded by lots of stories like it, then it could lose its keyword strength.
Compendium Blogware answers this problem by organizing blog content around pre-determined keywords targeted by our clients. Our software's unique algorithm does this dirty work for you, so all you and your employees have to do is keep the content coming. Because we also have administrative layers, you can control the content that goes out representing your company. While there are more than one blogging platforms out there today, there is only one built strictly to help businesses get found in search.
So go organic. Blog on Compendium, man.
Abeautifullyy designed business blog from the makers of my favorite mountain bikes, Gary Fisher. This blog, http://29ercrew.com, is specifically a blog for and by the company's 29ers, or bikes with big ol' 29 inch tires. (mtn bikes traditionally ride 26" wheels).
The main element that I really dig about the design of the 29er blog is the big fat header graphic. It's beautiful and it really sets the mood for the blog. While I think the blog might be kind of tricky to navigate, you never have a problem getting back to the homepage, that's for sure. Just click that massive header!
This isn't to say that every blog should have an enormous header or banner. You have to do what the brand and the content call for. For the case of Gary Fisher, a brand that has always had stellar graphics, it's cool. Plus, the blog is about bikes with huge tires, so why not have a huge header?
I'm here, now what?
Once they get you to the 29er blog, Fisher has one call-to-action on the sidebar directing you to the company's website where you can get more details about the 29 inch bikes, locate a dealer, and more. Nice integration. A succesful business blog will not only draw in traffic, but will send that traffic to a conversion point where they can be turned from a visitor to a lead or buyer.
How to improve the blog?
We tend to think that the goal of a business blog should be to get found in organic search. This particular blog would certainly benefit from our proprietary Compending process in terms of leveraging the content in the search engines. Our platform organizes content around specific keywords that potential searchers are looking for, as opposed to organizing by month, or by author, etc. By organizing content around these very specific keywords, which our software does automatically, the content goes much further in search because it is much more specific to a searcher's needs.
Don't get what I'm talking about? View a demo to see our advantage for yourself, and we'll even send you a $50 Starbucks Gift Card just for your time.
Ali Sales, President and Co-founder of Compendium Blogware, turned another year today, and instead of writing something on her facebook wall, I will compose a blog post in her honor, on the very business blogging platform she helped create from the ground up. That is pretty remarkable.
A woman of many fellowships, Ali graduated from the Management Fellows Honors Program at DePauw University only to be accepted into the Robert Orr Fellowship where she embarked upon a highly successful business career in the Indianapolis area. Named one of the Indianapolis Business Journal's "Forty Under 40," we can only assume that Ali would have also been named one of the Thirty under 30, since she was only 28 years old when receiving the honor. Today Ali leads Compendium Blogware into continued growth in an economy that would try to prove otherwise.
Thank you Ali for your hard work, your vision, and for having the birthday today because the cake was really something else. Happy bday!
In February of 2009 we redesigned the Compendium Blogware company blog in an attempt to make our blog easier for visitors to access the great content we offer, and also make it easier for them to access some of our great resources on our website, from Business blogging whitepapers, to our latest webinars or demo promotions.
Today, like five minutes ago actually, we launched our brand new header system that rotates through our top 3-4 campaigns to bring them to the forefront. We realize that not everyone is on the same level when it comes to their knowledge of business blogging, search marketing and seo. So our goal here is to give more variety in this top converting banner spot. The previous Considering Blogging CTA has been a great converter for us, and we have our fingers crossed that bringing more options to this area will give all of our visitors something to act on.
Again, our original banner was static and looked like this. Notice how perplexed the woman looks.
Our new blog leaderboard with fast action rotating abilities looks something like this. (Worked in a little restyling of the sidebar and a few other behind the scenes clean up as well, but this was the major change).
Because we've been religiously tracking the performance of all of our campaigns (from click throughs and conversions with metrics from Salesforce and Google Analytics) we should be able to tell by the end of the month if this change will improve our overall conversion on the blogs.
The fingers are crossed.
Today, like five minutes ago actually, we launched our brand new header system that rotates through our top 3-4 campaigns to bring them to the forefront. We realize that not everyone is on the same level when it comes to their knowledge of business blogging, search marketing and seo. So our goal here is to give more variety in this top converting banner spot. The previous Considering Blogging CTA has been a great converter for us, and we have our fingers crossed that bringing more options to this area will give all of our visitors something to act on.
Again, our original banner was static and looked like this. Notice how perplexed the woman looks.
Our new blog leaderboard with fast action rotating abilities looks something like this. (Worked in a little restyling of the sidebar and a few other behind the scenes clean up as well, but this was the major change).
Because we've been religiously tracking the performance of all of our campaigns (from click throughs and conversions with metrics from Salesforce and Google Analytics) we should be able to tell by the end of the month if this change will improve our overall conversion on the blogs.
The fingers are crossed.
We here at Compendium tend to blog a whole lot about search marketing, and more specifially, how we believe that every marketer should be utilizing business blogs to boost their organic search rankings. But we are aware that blogging can and should be fully integrated into the other facets of social media and search marketing techniques. You can find tutorials and all that on how to literally intergrate your blog into your twitter and facebook and all that. Pretty easy. The hard part is thinking of a way to intergrate that says something different about you, your company, your brand.
Here are a few standout examples of some more outside the box / beautifully executed sites integrating website and social media. Check these out! They definitely land in the category of "I wish I did that."
Site 1: Tori's Eyes
What it is: "A Twitter visualization tool"
i want to touch it, but i cant.
Site the second: http://www.fl-2.com/itweetedmypants/
What it is: a collection of interactive agency FL-2's twitterings
Flash based and totally sweet
To learn some more about how to integrate blogging and social media, or just to learn more about social media in general from a few experts, be sure to sign up for our August webinar, "Geting a Grip on Social Media," with Compendium CEO/Cofounder Chris Baggott and CEO of Brandswag Kyle Lacy. Should be sweet. Sign up aqui
Here are a few standout examples of some more outside the box / beautifully executed sites integrating website and social media. Check these out! They definitely land in the category of "I wish I did that."
Site 1: Tori's Eyes
What it is: "A Twitter visualization tool"
i want to touch it, but i cant.
Site the second: http://www.fl-2.com/itweetedmypants/
What it is: a collection of interactive agency FL-2's twitterings
Flash based and totally sweet
To learn some more about how to integrate blogging and social media, or just to learn more about social media in general from a few experts, be sure to sign up for our August webinar, "Geting a Grip on Social Media," with Compendium CEO/Cofounder Chris Baggott and CEO of Brandswag Kyle Lacy. Should be sweet. Sign up aqui
