CT Biz Blogs

I’ve decided to make the jump to “light speed” (reference to the first Star Wars movie) and upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.

While I was at it, I thought I’d try a new template (called “themes”) for the look of the place.

This isn’t 100% what I want, but it’s a start.

Next step: get some color into this site.

It was amazingly easy to update the site, and playing around with the sidebar elements was fun, too.

Now I have to go back and put back in all the missing elements, such as my proudly displayed “SOB” icon. I was one of the first!

Here’s an example of a real estate blog, which I got from Robert Scoble’s blog

I like how Stan Mackey integrates the blog with his website (Seattle Real Estate), and with a virtual tour of each house.

He uses the blog as a way to highlight interesting details, share funny stories, and talk about things like the “Top 10 most common items found in a Seattle home inspection”

According to Scoble, Mackey says that 65% of his traffic comes from his blog, which has only been up since May. So far, the traffic hasn’t lead to additional sales or listings, which is the ultimate goal, of course.

One of the commenters on Scoble’s post thinks Mackey needs to post more often, but hey, it sounds like he’s getting decent results the way he’s going. Sometimes a blog has to build up an archive of posts before it hits “critical mass.”

Of course, more posts are better. And more articles which show his expertise, rather than simply featuring the houses, would be good. Posts which combine both would be best.

And a webfeed (RSS) icon would help, too. He does have two feeds, but that’s not apparent from the site.

But this is a great start, and an encouraging sign — there are non-geeky people out there who “get” blogging.

So come on, Connecticut Realtors — where are you? If you need help, contact Valorie Luther, or me, and we’ll get you started.

Blogging is still a new idea to most people. And small business blogs are rare. One of the best ways to explain the benefits of small business blogs is by example; we can point to blogs by those brave, ahead-of-the-curve folks who are creating a trail for the rest of us to follow.

When I first started this blog, way back in August, 2005, I wrote about a few small business blogs. But it sure takes a lot of time to find them, and now, my problems are over.

For the past month, I’ve been subscribed via RSS, to Pajama Market Small Business Blog of the Day. Brian Brown has made it his mission to explore the blogosphere looking for examples. Here’s his goal:

Five days a week (not always the week days, depending on my schedule), I write about a small business that is blogging. I do this as a resource for other businesses to turn to in order to get ideas for their own blog.

A few days ago, Brian wrote a post on one of my favorite blogs, The Soap Blog, (and kindly mentioned CTBizBlogs) so I knew it was past time to mention how I read and enjoy Pajama Market.

PR and Marketing folks looking for examples should check this blog out. Small businesses researching blogging or looking for ideas to implement on their blogs, should read it, too. And if you’ve got a small business blog and you’d like your blog to be considered for a post, read his guidelines for what qualifies for a post, and let him know about you.

Thanks for saving me hunks of time, Brian.

(I wish I could remember how I first heard about this blog; it was probably through super-connector Liz, over at Successful Blog.)

Well, it was quite a good conference. As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post, I did some “live blogging,” which means I typed furiously as speakers talked, and hit “publish” when they were done.

I did those on the Creative Concepts blog, instead of here, however.

But here are the links for those posts, for your perusing convenience. Remember, these are my notes of the talks, so take that into account. These are summaries, not transcripts.

• David Pogue at Business Smart Tools Conference
• Mike Dunn on Podcasting
• Matt Kain on Search Engine Marketing
• David Parmet on Blogging

I must say I was a bit disappointed in David Pogue’s keynote speech. Not in the presentation, because he’s a great speaker, but in the content. It seemed to me that he spent too much time on the perceived negatives of blogs. I say perceived, because I don’t think he gave the full picture, just his understanding of the blogosphere. His examples were all news or political blogs, such as Gawker, Wonkette, and the like. I don’t know if he’s looked much at business blogs, or even topical blogs, such as Lifehacker, a blog about technology and productivity.

David Parmet asked him about other blogs, such as TechCrunch. Pogue hadn’t heard of it. Now, if you’re just a regular person, that’s understandable. But if you’re a techie, or a technology writer, that’s not a good sign.

You can read a summary of what he said in the on-line article written by Richard Lee, of the Stamford Advocate: Blogs, podcasts: Are they friends or foes?

“If it bleeds, it leads,” I guess.

Update 6/17/07 : Check out the comments for David Pogue’s reply and Ann Marie Brucia’s view of what she got out of the conference. Did I over-react to the negatives? I was concerned that his talk might scare people off, but Ann Marie wasn’t, so maybe I’m wrong?

Well, I made it to Stamford, CT, for the Business Smart Tools conference. It’s about to start. I made the rounds of the exhibitors, before the rush. There’s some cool technology out there. I talked to folks at:

• Vivapop (interactive web and voice accessible calendar)
• Conversagent (automated customer service agents)
• MarketWire (search engine optimization through press releases)
• Dial-a-Note powered by CiviCom (hands-free notepad)
• 24/7Real Media USA

I’m sure I’ll find out more as the conference progresses. I’m looking forward to the speaking part of the program, which will start at 2 PM.

I saw part of David Parmet’s presentation on blogging as he tested the projector, and it looks great.

He’s also started a Business Smart Tools Flickr photo set.

Today’s the day! I’ll be at the Business Smart Tools New Media Conference in Stamford, CT. I’ll be helping Valorie, and doing a demo or two of WordPress and whatever else people want to ask me about.

I heard a great segment on WNPR, the local public radio station, in their business section. It featured the conference, and an audio quote from Valorie. I wish the station would have audio archives up on the site, the way NPR.org does. Then I’d link to it. But still, it was exciting to hear.

Since there’s wireless at the conference, I’m going to try to do some live blogging, if I can. No promises, though. But I’ll definitely be taking notes, though, so expect to see at least one post about what went on.

Hope to see some of you there.

Well, it was a lot of fun writing a post for and getting included in the Blogging Goals group writing project that ProBlogger Darren Rowse initiated.

Now I’d like to recommend reading them! OK, not all at once, since there are 130, but a few a day will give you a good idea of the width and depth of the blogging world.

One thing that continually surprises and delights me is how the blogosphere is evolving and growing. People like Darren are a big part of that — he’s great at coming up with new, exciting ideas and he’s very inclusive. He’s created a site people read regularly, comment on, and recommend to others. Can’t do better than that. Oh yeah — he makes a ton of money at it, too.

There’s a lot of good stuff in the posts listed in the blogging goals project; lively writing, frequently funny and full of insights — nothing especially lengthy or ponderous. These posts not only have some good ideas about goals, they also illustrate good blog writing.

If the idea of looking at a list of 130 links seems daunting, quite a few bloggers have written posts about their explorations and recommendations from the list. Check these out:

Liz at Successful Blog writes her thoughts on The Blogging Goals Project — the posts she liked and the reasons why projects like this are a good idea.

Pittsburgh Homes Daily lists My personal ‘best of’ Blogging Goals to date. I made #40, “Most surprising link.” I wonder which link it was?

Phil Newton shares his personal favorites from the group writing project. He’s right — I do have “…a lot of really useful information tucked away.” Thanks, Phil.

Jersey Girl, who is busy Surviving NJ, gives us Top 5 Chosen from ProBlogger.

Now I’ve written a post about posts about the Blogging Goals project. Maybe this is an example of the blog as echo chamber?

Darren Rowse, over at ProBlogger, has come up with a group writing project on blogging goals. I’m taking time out from my posts about blogging risks to write my own thoughts about blogging goals — it’s just too much fun to miss out on.

I’d like to address the small business owner who’s thinking about blogging as a way to connect with customers, share expertise, and build the business. So here are the goals for people thinking about blogging, or about to start blogging. If you’ve just started blogging, it’s not too late to retroactively think about how you did on these goals.

1. Do your research
2. Make your commitment
3. Make your plan
4. Go for it!

(more…)

This is a continuation of the thread I started with yesterday’s post: The risks of blogging.

One concern that people have about blogging is that, with your words out there on the internet, and forever enshrined in Google’s memory banks, what you say can come back to haunt you.

Here’s my take on that:

First, that works both ways. If you make a mistake, it may be a public one, especially if you don’t follow up wisely when it’s pointed out. Then people will come out of the woodwork to watch you self-destruct. But you also have a public record of all the smart things you said. You are building a portfolio, a relationship, a body of work, in a sense. In my opinion, the people who really have to worry about this problem are those who don’t have anything to say, have something to hide, or are just more of the “same old, same old.”

Maybe you see that something you wrote is being twisted and used against you, that’s when having a blog is a great strategy. If someone takes a quote out of context, or takes a cheap shot at you, you can write about it. You can point to the post and show how your opponent is giving out false information. One reason that Mark Cuban started his BlogMaverick personal weblog is because he was tired of having his words filtered through reporters or misquoted, or of having 2 hours of interview cut to 500 words. (Source: I Want Media: One Question, as quoted in Blog Marketing by Jeremy Wright (great book!).

Blogging is a great way to give your side of any misunderstandings.

There’s no way you can control what negative things people may say about you, whether you’re blogging or not. As any professional writer can tell you, people will take your words and run them through their internal filters. Even in the best of circumstances, what comes out is different from what you wrote. The only way to avoid that is to not do anything, not strive for anything, not be anything.

What you can control is how you react to those issues. And blogging is one more tool to use to counter negatives, when done in the right way. (more…)

When I talk to people about blogging, it seems like they almost always want to talk mostly about the negative aspects. The positive aspects have to be explained to them, but the negatives are obvious.

For example, when I mention that blogging allows readers to leave comments, the first thing people ask is “But can’t people leave nasty comments?” or “What can I do when people complain?”

Or else people are concerned that their on line words will be used against them, somehow — honest thoughts will be taken out of context, and used to demonstrate a weakness.

These are legitimate concerns. I just wish people didn’t leap to the negative quite so quickly, however.

But I guess that’s because most of the internet (except regular, static websites) is still uncharted territory for most people. Forums, listservs, newsgroups, on line seminars, Skype — what are those? And what they have heard of, such as chat rooms for instance, seem to be all about lurking creeps and perverts, according to mainstream media.

There are some negative consequences of blogging; it’s no good denying it. I happen to think that in most cases the benefits outweigh the problems, but it’s much harder to get people to see that. Whatever the reason, most people seem to equate being on line with being attacked.

If everyone who thought of opening a store decided not to because of the possibility of being robbed, we’d be in a lot of trouble. Where would I get my coffee? Yes, robbery is possible. It’s a risk.

Well, in project management there’s a little thing called “risk management.” That’s where you take a systematic look at the possible risks, assess the probability of occurrence, decide the importance of the consequences, and devise possible ways to mitigate the risks.

I’ve written some things over the past nine months about the benefits of blogging. This week, I’m going to take a look at some of the risks of blogging, try to separate the real from the imagined, and look at possible risk mitigation strategies.

What do you think are the risks of blogging?

Related posts:

• Why should I have a weblog?
• A blog can be your website, too
• 4 types of businesses that could use blogs
• What’s blogging good for, anyway?
• What if you were blogging?