Blogging Basics: Introduction

Here at Berries and Cream Blog Design, we work with a lot of new bloggers. Often, new bloggers are confused and overwhelmed by the blogosphere’s culture, terms, and unwritten rules and expectations. If you are an overwhelmed blogging newbie, this series of posts is for you.

A relationship begins with an introduction, and it’s no different with blogging. If you decide to blog, you will build an intimate relationship with your blog. So here’s your formal introduction to get this relationship started right.

Newbie, Meet Blog… Blog, Meet Newbie.

Good – you’re now acquainted. Let’s dig into the good stuff, like background information.

What a Blog Is

• a nickname – Blogs were originally called web logs or weblogs; “web” being a reference to the World Wide Web (now commonly called the Internet) and “log” referenced the fact that, like a ship’s log, a weblog was most used as a running commentary on events in the writer’s life. Weblog was eventually mispronounced often enough so that all that was left was “blog.”
• interactive – a standard static website does not offer visitors a way to interact with the site, but a blog encourages visitor participation through frequently updated information and the ability to leave comments
• frequently updated – Websites generally contain information about something that does not change often. With a blog, information that is entered on the site is generally updated very frequently depending on the writer. Sometimes blog writers even update several times a day.
• a library of all the information ever written for that blog - After a website has been changed, that information is gone and cannot be seen again by the reader. On a blog, new entries are added, but the old ones are not deleted from the site. Instead, they are stamped with the date and time that they were created, given a title and added to the blog’s archives.

What a Blog Is Not

• just a personal diary – blogs have evolved from online personal journals and now cover a wide variety of topics including but not limited to thrifty living, politics, technology news, and business promotions. You get to decide what your blog is about.
• hard to maintain – a website oftentimes requires coding skills and a solid understanding of the way the Internet works. With a blog, almost anyone can easily and quickly update a blog. It does not require any special working knowledge of the Internet.
• expensive to start – there are numerous free blogging hosts, like Blogger, where anyone can blog at no cost

We’ve Been Introduced. Now What?

The next step in this relationship is to begin understanding the blogging language and culture. The next two posts in this series will discuss common blogging terminology and blog etiquette.

Please do let me know if you have any questions about this post or about blogging. I’m happy to be of service to you.

Expressing Yourself Through Blogging

People express themselves in many ways.

And for a growing number of people, the need for some sort of public expression of thoughts, feelings, style or creative expression is filled by blogging. Expressing your thoughts in written words, however, is not as simple a task as it may seem to be; many people, in fact, find that it can take hours to accurately transfer what seem to be the most simple thoughts to the written word. The reason for this difficulty lies in the fact that thoughts and feelings do not require the organization or structure that is required by the written expression of those thoughts and feelings.

Are you ever conflicted about how to express yourself on your blog?

Blogging can be intimidating because it does leave you vulnerable to others’ judgments. However, the positive news is that you get to choose what you reveal and how you present yourself on your blog.

Picture these three scenarios:

1. You are at a costume party in a room full of strangers. You are dressed as an 18th Century lady; you’ve studied the mannerisms, have affected the perfect accent and you charm every party-goer you meet. Beneath the facade, outside the realm of this party you may be a banker, a secretary or an unemployed poet, but here and now you are Madame Devereux, the elegant lady who speaks with grace and comports herself with the utmost decorum.

2. You are at work where you are always the no-nonsense professional, respected by peers and underlings and depended upon by your manager to perform your tasks with skill, technical proficiency and a pleasant demeanor — an expectation that is hardly ever unmet.

3. You are at an informal get together with family, close friends and neighbors; you talk about sports, literature and fashion with people who know you and who understand your opinions, your quirks and your few flaws — there is no facade, no pretense, you are unabashedly you!

These scenarios that represent three versions of you in the real world are also three (of many) approaches you can take to presenting yourself to your readers in the virtual world, through your blog:

• as a character of your creation;
• as the professional at whatever you do;
• as the real, unadulterated you, complete with flaws.

Your blog and your blogger persona are your creations and are limited only by your choices. No matter how you choose to portray yourself, keep in mind that whatever it is you write, in whatever form, even if it is spoof or satire, it will be considered by your readers as an expression of your true feelings.

You can take the following steps to make it easier to express yourself in writing.

Improve Your Grammar

As a rule you should always write to your audience — they are the ones who need to understand you. Perfection may be necessary only when you are writing for an audience of scholars and grammarians who require it, but, regardless of your audience, the better your grammar, the better you will be understood, and the easier it will be for you to transfer your thoughts to paper.

Don’t think that improving your grammar means you have to sign up for an English course at your community college or spend a lot of money for a handbook of English grammar and composition. There are literally hundreds of English grammar guides available online, and very reasonably priced English grammar guides are available in bookstores. Good grammar is a tool you will never regret learning to use; always work to improve your mastery of the English language.

Improve Your Vocabulary

Finding the right words to express your thoughts is much easier when you have more words in your armory to choose from. You may be tempted to learn some suitably obscure words to impress your readership, but too much of that will only confuse them and turn them away from your writing. Research has shown that the average adult in the U.S. reads at an eighth-grade level so arming yourself with a recondite vocabulary will not be helpful (nor was that reference to a ‘recondite vocabulary’ unless you knew that recondite means “difficult to understand”). Arm yourself, instead, with a good dictionary/thesaurus.

Write Often

Practice makes perfect … or, to be honest, it at least helps you approach perfection. Try to make a meaningful entry in your blog every day. That may not always be possible, but do try! Two of the wonderful things about blogging are its flexibility and availability — barring computer problems, your blog will always be there when you need it, and you’ll find that the more you write, the easier it will be to write. Keep in mind, however, that even a professional writer who writes for hours every day is seldom completely satisfied that the words that came out adequately express the thought that went in, so don’t allow yourself to get too frustrated if your efforts don’t meet your expectations. Instead, take a short break and then try again.

Need help finding your voice and/or improving your blogging?
We offer one-hour blog coaching sessions.

MadMimi Newsletter Service

GetResponse, Aweber, Constant Contact, iContact, Mail Chimp, RatePoint …

sometimes the list seem inexhaustible. Newsletter service providers or email marketing services – whatever you want to call them, they provide an invaluable service: allowing you to gather visitor information and market your services to a list of interested prospects.

With so many options available, which newsletter service provider do you choose?

While I can’t answer that question for you, I can offer you a recommendation based upon my experience. I have extensive experience working with GetResponse and Aweber and moderate experience working with Constant Contact, MailChimp, and RatePoint.

I’ve been there, done that, and I just switched my newsletter service to MadMimi.

Here’s why I chose MadMimi:

• MadMimi costs quite a bit less than many of the other services. If you have 100 subscribers or less, your account is free. 101-500 subscribers costs only $8 per month. And there are affordable plans for every list size.
• There is no restriction on how many emails you may send per month. Unlike other services, you will not be charged for exceeding the allowed number of emails sent per month. Have several offers for your subscribers? Send away with no worries about cost.
• MadMimi is incredibly user-friendly. You don’t need to know HTML or hire a designer to create attractive custom email newsletters. I’m a designer, and I did create my own custom email template in my former service. It was 10x easier and faster when I created my MadMimi newsletter.
• MadMimi’s customer support is fabulous. They provide online tutorials, and if you need more help, you can get one-on-one help from MadMimi’s support teamthrough their Chat feature.
• MadMimi offers add-on services at affordable rates. I’ve chosen to add on the RSS feed option which will automatically send subscribers a roundup of blog posts at a specified interval. (My monthly cost is $5 less than what I was previously paying, a savings of $60 per year.) I’ve also added the free Google Analytics integration. I’ll be able to see newsletter referrals in my Google Analytics stats. If you have an e-course, you can also add on the Drip email option.

So far, I am very happy with MadMimi. Of course, I’ve only been with them a short while, so I will post an update after a few months.

Which email newsletter service do you use? Are you happy with them? Would you recommend them to your friends and associates? Why or why not?

Note: I am an affiliate of MadMimi and used affiliate links in this post. I am not being paid for this post. This post represents my honest opinion regarding this service.

Why Choose WordPress for Your Business Website?

So you need a website for your business

and you’ve stumbled across Berries and Cream Blog Design. You’ve noticed that we prefer to work with WordPress, and you are thoroughly confused.

“Isn’t WordPress a blog?” you wonder. And in one sense, you are right. WordPress was created as a blogging platform.

WordPress, however, is so flexible that it makes a fantastic foundation for many, many different kinds of websites.

Here are some features to consider:

WordPress is a template-driven platform, meaning that your design will automatically be applied to all of your posts and pages without your having to do any coding.

Search engines love WordPress websites.

• Regularly updated content, like blog posts, will make your site rank higher and be visited more often by the search engines than sites with outdated content
• Meta tags are automatically generated in WordPress, and there are plugins to give you the ability to customize meta tags, titles, and descriptions for not only your home page but for every single page and post on your site
• Permalinks (the direct link to a post or page) settings allow you to choose title-based permalinks, which mean that keywords in your title are also in the permalink to that post or page

Plug-ins (small programs that can be added to your WordPress site to create specific functions) are available for nearly anything you could ask:

• turn your WordPress blog into an online store
• automatically Tweet for you when you publish a new blog post
• block spam
• create contact forms, information requests, and many other kinds of forms
• allow people to share your content via their favorite social media site – FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, etc.
• turn your blog into a real estate website with featured listings and more
• create an online portfolio – great for photographers and other artists
• create an image gallery
• showcase important information using slideshows and rotating images (the link goes to a bra boutique)
• create an online magazine
• create a subscription site
• and so much more…

Creating a custom WordPress website typically costs much less than creating a standard custom HTML.

• WordPress is free; there are never costs associated with the WordPress platform itself, although you do need a hosting account and domain name
• customizing WordPress is generally easier than creating a custom HTML website; less time spent on project = more money in your pocket
• unlike many sitebuilders, there is no limit to the number of pages you may add to your WordPress site, nor is there any charge for adding pages to your site

WordPress automically allows you to create multiple users with differing permission levels, and there are plugins that allow you to further customize the user levels and permissions.

WordPress not only allows you to have a blog but also includes the ability to create static pages (like a home page, about page, contact page, and the like)

WordPress is user friendly.

• Static pages and blog posts are easily added, edited, and deleted from you administration area – no HTML knowledge or special software (like Dreamweaver) is required
• both visual and HTML editors are included, allowing you to create and edit pages and blog posts in a visual format using the WYSIWYG editor (has toolbar buttons similar to Microsoft Word) or to edit the actual page code, if you are knowledgeable enough to tackle that

Need more convincing to consider using WordPress as your small business web solution?

WordPress was awarded the Overall Best Open Source CMS* Award in the 2009 CMS Awards.
*CMS stands for Content Management System, which is a system used to manage your website

There are many companies, universities, and high-profile people that use WordPress for their whole site, not just their blog:

• Ford
• Texas Tech
• Timberline Lodge
• Andy Roddick
• Wall Street Journal

… to name just a few

WordPress boasts a thriving community, meaning you can easily find help if you need it.

Interested in getting your own custom WordPress design?

1. Take a look at our portfolio to see a sample of what we can do for you.
2. If you need more information, contact us with your questions.
3. Order your own WordPress-based small business web solution.

What Makes a Good Web Design Client?

So you’re in need of a custom blog design or small business web solution…

You know you need a web/blog designer, and you begin your hunt. You search for sites with design and functions that appeal to you. You track down the designers. You then contact the designers to find out if they can meet your needs and your budget. Your search is focused on finding the best designer you can.

That’s great. You should put in the time necessary to find the best designer for you. (Of course, if you are the right kind of client, we hope that we are your choice!)

But have you considered that even the best web designer is limited by you, the client?

It’s true. No designer can meet unspoken expectations. The best designs are a result of good teamwork between the client and the designer- the client verbalizes what they are looking for, and the designer offers advice regarding the best way to achieve those results and makes the client’s design dreams become a reality.

“So how do I make sure that I am a good web design client?

Before I share with you traits found in my best clients, take a look at this funny, yet sadly true-to-life, video.

Can you believe those people? I am sorry to say that I’ve had my share of these nightmare clients, and I often stop by Clients from Hell to laugh at/sympathize with  the latest horror story.

Unlike the people in the video and the site referenced above, a good client normally gets the results they want.

Here’s why:

• they are prepared and know-
  • the goals they want their site to accomplish
  • their target market
  • the pages they need
  • the functions they need their site to perform
  • the look and feel they want their site to present
• they have realistic deadlines – they aren’t asking for 6 weeks’ worth of work to be completed in 1 week
• they respond quickly to messages
• they promptly provide any information, content, or images the designer requests
• they are honest about their expectations and their budgets
• they offer solid, constructive criticism instead of a vague, “I don’t like that!”, Make it pop!”, and the like.
• they don’t micromanage – it is counter-productive for a client to constantly request changes, point out glitches, and otherwise harass the designer while the work is in progress. Please be patient enough to wait for your designer to tell you your project is ready for review. That is the time to go over it with a fine-tooth comb, not before.

To sum it all up…

being an informed, gracious, polite, and helpful client means you will find that your project goes much more smoothly and will more often than not meet or exceed your expectations.

Are you ready for a professional design?

Berries and Cream Blog Design offers custom blog design packages and small business web solutions.

Contact us if we can be of service to you.

Free Online Bookkeeping from Outright.com

Last week, I told you about the free IRS Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop. Knowing what your tax responsibilities are is great, but how do you keep track of all that information?

Let me introduce you to Outright.com. Outright is a free online bookkeeping program which was created to help sole proprieters and single-member LLCs “track income and expenses from credit cards, invoices, receipts, or even merchant accounts, or enter records quickly in simple ledgers.”

Not only does this program keep track of your income and expenses, but it also proves to be an invaluable tax tool. It will automatically track important tax deadlines (quarterly filing, 1099 deadlines, etc), manage W-9s, tell you who needs a 1099, and automate Schedule C.

You may be thinking the same things I thought when I first learned about the program. “My financial information is ultra-sensitive. Is this site secure? What happens if I cancel my account?”  Here are the answers I found:

• all information in Outright is encrypted
• the site itself is password protected and encrypted
• data is backup hourly
• all data belongs to you and can be downloaded in a format which can be read by spreadsheet software
• if you cancel your account, you data is immediately deleted

I’m recommending this product not because I receive compensation or incentives for any referrals I may give.  I’m not an Outright affiliate. I’m recommending this program because I use it myself and am ecstatic with the results. Once I had entered my 2009 income and expenses, I was able to view and download a pdf of my Schedule C.  Wow! What a time-saver! My CPA is gonna love me.

What is your preferred bookkeeping method?

Top 5 Fun Traffic Tips for Your Blog

Are you finding the traffic building a bit tiring? Not getting the amount of traffic to your blog that you’d wished for when you started?

Increasing your readership needn’t be tiring or stressful, it can be FUN! If you just have the right mindset when doing it you can benefit immensely and have fun at the same time.

1. Social Networking. This can be too much fun if you don’t watch out.  If you aren’t already on twitter or Facebook I suggest you get on there as soon as possible! Have fund and promote your blog at the same time. Use a service such as Bit.ly to shorten your URL’s and tweet about older posts as well as new. Remember to interact with other tweeters and not only tweet your own content.  Same thing goes for Facebook, reply to statuses of your friends and contacts and make new connections whenever possible. Don’t collect friends for the sake of having friends, only connect with those you really have some kind of relationship to.
2. Join a forum related to your topic. If you write about gardening it make sense to talk to those interested in gardening and not weight loss. Have something in common; you never know what connections you can make on forums. Don’t see it as time wasting, instead as a unique opportunity to meet new interesting people.
3. Comment on other blogs. This is probably one of the most given advice around when it comes to blogging but it works! Making thoughtful comments that show you are actually commenting because you have something to say and not for link building can make a huge difference for your blog.
4. Learn some basic SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is important for any blogger who wants more readers.  Don’t worry if it seems complicated, it really isn’t and you only need to know some basics.  A good idea is to check out Dan Thies’ free eBook SEO Fast Start. Learn how to use keywords in your titles and posts.
5. Write unique content. Show your personality in your posts; don’t be afraid to show a bit of who you are in your blog.  That is what makes your blog so special. Another tip is to write “Ever Green Content”. The term “Ever Green Content” refers to writing content that can be read today, tomorrow and months from now and it will still be relevant.

Actually you could probably put these tips in any order, they are all very effective. What you do with it is up to you. Blogging is supposed to be fun, so make the most out of your blog and have fun with it!

Need to set up some more strategies for your blog to get it going? Sign up for some Blog Coaching with Linda to see what you can improve on your blog!

IRS Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop

It’s that time of year again here in the US – tax time. As a small business owner, you are probably going through the same ritual I am going through – hunting down all of those receipts to make sure you will be able to claim as many deductions as possible. I try to stay organized throughout the year, but I inevitably slack off toward the end of the year. (As usual, I’ve vowed not to let that happen again this year!)

January is also the month when you have to issue 1099s to your independent contractors and make sure you are in compliance with IRS regulations. Personal taxes are bad enough to keep track of, but there are so many forms, rules, and regulations for businesses that it is easy to feel overwhelmed by it all.

The IRS has a great resource for us small business owners, both newcomers and veterans. They have created a virtual Small Business Tax Workshop. This video workshop is available at any time and is set up so that you can skip to any section that interests you. Topics include the following:

• Introduction – an intro to the workshop
• Lesson 1 – What You Need to Know About Federal Taxes and Your New Business
• Lesson 2 – How to Set Up and Run Your Business So Paying Taxes Isn’t a Hassle
• Lesson 3 – How to File and Pay Your Taxes Using a Computer
• Lesson 4 – What You Need to Know When You Run Your Business Out of Your Home
• Lesson 5 – How to Set Up a Retirement Plan for Yourself and Your Employees
• Lesson 6 – What You Need to Know About Federal Taxes When Hiring Employees/Contractors
• Lesson 7 – How to Manage Payroll So You Withhold the Right Amount from Employees
• Lesson 8 – How to Make Tax Deposits and File Payroll Taxes Using a Computer
• Lesson 9 – What You Need to Know About Federal Unemployment Taxes (FUTA)

While I have a trustworthy CPA, I’m still going to go through this workshop myself.

What is your best tip for complying with IRS regulations for your business?

Why should my business invest in a blog?

Why Your Business Needs a Blog

As small business owner you might ask yourself  “Why should my business invest in a blog?” A very good question indeed, but let’s turn it around and ask:

• “How can a blog help my business?“
• “What are the benefits of having a business blog?”
  and most importantly
• “How can a blog help my business grow and make me money?”

The real answer is that as a small business owner you need all the help you can get to spread the word about you and your business. Blogging is one way of promoting your business, and by now you should have grasped that you get what you pay for.

3 benefits of having a business blog

A blog offers businesses three very important benefits.

1. It will increase the awareness of your brand and make it easier for potential customers to find you.
Do a search for your company or the services you sell and see how easily you can be found. If  the result isn’t very good, a blog or website can help change that.  Self-hosted WordPress is pretty search engine friendly out of the box, and when you add on a plug-in specifically designed to help with SEO, your blog can become a powerful tool to help you rank better in the search engines.

2. It will help you build credibility.
It will help your potential customers to trust you.  The more you write, the more they trust you – if you give them the right information. Use your blog to inform and educate your customers so they understand what you offer. It is a fantastic opportunity to show what you have to offer without being too “pushy”.

3. It will help you with your marketing efforts.
A Blog is a viral marketing tool: it will make it easy for people to talk about you and your services. A blog makes it easy for others to link to you and to talk about what you’ve written. This will result in more sales opportunities. The time you spend on your blog can be substituted for various other marketing efforts you are doing and still give you a better result.

Visitors know if you are investing in your blog

When you are in business you quite quickly start to understand that you get what you pay for and the best is often worth paying for. Here at Berries and Cream, we like to use free and low cost services whenever possible, but when it comes to making the investment in a website or blog we tell it to you straight: Having your own domain name and paying for hosting is a must if you are serious about your business and about your blog.

Too many times have we seen, and still see daily, small business owners starting a blog on a free platform service without a custom domain and then complaining that their blog is not giving them the results they had hoped for. This goes together with the credibility point above: make your customers trust you by showing them you are a serious business owner.

Using a free blogging platform without a custom domain name (like myblog.blogspot.com or myblog.wordpress.com) often creates a first impression of unprofessionalism. A custom domain name, on the other hand, lets people know that you are serious enough about your blog to invest in it.

Our Recommendations

Hosting: We recommend and use BlueHost and HostGator. Very easy and reliable and to work with. Have your site hosted for a small monthly fee.

Self-hosted WordPress: WordPress is easy and very flexible to use; all of the available add-ons (plugins) make it a great Content Management  System.

A custom design: Make your blog or website unique and memorable. Having a custom design made for you will help enhance your brand and make it easy for your visitors to remember you.

Have questions?

Now let’s go back to the question: “How can a blog help my business?” If you need help to figure that out, sign up for a consultation on how a blog can help your business.

If you have not yet have a blog, it is about time to get one. Need help? Ask us and we will guide you in the right drection!