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For quite some time I ran affiliate marketing ads in my feed using the PostPost plugin I developed for Wordpress and Commission Junction advertisements. It wasn’t really a source of any significant revenue, though, perhaps a few dollars a month.

The number of people blogging is still growing (just check Technorati for numbers), but the number of organizations starting blogs is rising, too. After enough staff members and volunteers touted the usefulness of blogs for conversation, news, and general transparency, it seems organizations are looking to give blogs a chance. Organizations of all sizes and sectors are utilizing this community building tool. Here are some examples of how far and wide blogs are being used to reach out to the community.

ARK Adventure

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This is part 2 of a 3 part series. Part 1 was When Should a Company Dive into Social Media? Sorry for the delay on this post, it’s been a heck of a week at work - 3 projects coming to a close, one of them over a year in the making!

I also paused since there was some great discussion around the first post, especially in a post from the folks at Deep Tech Dive:

This is part 2 of a 3 part series. Part 1 was When Should a Company Dive into Social Media? Sorry for the delay on this post, it’s been a heck of a week at work - 3 projects coming to a close, one of them over a year in the making!

I also paused since there was some great discussion around the first post, especially in a post from the folks at Deep Tech Dive:

When the idea of starting a blog for our organization first came up a few years ago, I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. All I knew about blogs was that a few of my friends did it for fun, and the Houston Chronicle had about 50 of them that didn't interest me in the least. And since when was my organization the kind to waste its time on trendy stuff like that?

Looking back, I think my problem was not understanding the purpose of having a blog. I mean, we already had a website where we posted news and pictures - wasn't a blog just another place to put all the same stuff, only with a trendier name? At that time, I don't think any of us really "got it".

Much of our conversation in the Corporate Blogging BlogINDIANA session was when a company should dive into social media, how they should dive into social media, and how they should manage their online reputation. For today’s post, I’m going to take on the question when.

One of the sessions I did today was on integrating external sites to your own site via API’s. Though the talk was supposed to be non-technical, I couldn’t help but dabble in the code a little. I wanted to dispel the myth of how difficult it was to connect to an external site and pull in data via XML. One attendee was kind enough to re-enact her facial expressions of confusion to me after the presentation (I wish I had it on video!).

Today was the first day of BlogINDIANA and it was fantastic. I did a lot of twittering from the event, and even ran a live feed for a little while.

The first session I attended really blew me away, it was on the legal aspects of blogging. The session wasn’t run by an attorney but by a blogger, Andrew Paradies, who really took note of all of the intricacies of the legalities associated with blogging. The topic was so compelling that I immediately edited my footer and added a Disclaimer to my Terms of Service page.

This is more of a question for discussion rather than a comment. My experience with blogging is that consistency is everything. If your readers expect to have new content on a daily basis, they will return to your site on a daily basis to get that content. A good question is:

How many times will a visitor return to your website to check for new content before they stop returning?

I’ve been doing some testing recently. It’s not a very scientific approach that I’ve taken, but when I wrote a blog post on Starbucks that received a lot of attention (A), I decided to let it ride to see what would happen.

If you’ve not bought your tickets already, be sure to get them while you can! (And for a 15% discount, use code BLOGDISC)

Whether you’re a corporate blogger or just have your own blog, one of growth factors of your blog will depend on your ability to reach new readers who are not aware your blog exists. I do this through a number of techniques… in order of importance they are:

When I posted about purchasing some new business cards, I received some great recommendations. Included were metal business cards and even a business card using Wordle.

When it comes to Social Media there has been tons of talk about those few influencers who are able to spread your message like wild fire. But finding those few influencers has been the proverbial challenge.

My son and I are watching American Psycho. It’s a disturbing movie, but the business card scene is my favorite (Huey Lewis is a close second).

I’ve had blog-based business cards for a while, but now that I’ve changed my domain name, I’d like to get something very unique.

Any ideas? Nothing in bone, please.

Have you given much thought to the word Marketing? As with many words, the definition has been distorted and redefined over time. Wikipedia provides the following definition:

Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion often referred to as the 4 Ps) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations. Wikipedia

Source: The Marketing Technology Blog