7 Step Business Blog

It has meant a few late nights, but the second edition of 7 Step Business Blog is now done and uploaded to the site.

So much has changed about blogging since the first edition a couple of years ago and “social networking” has taken on amazing new dimensions. It has been a challenge to strike a balance between updating information and comments in the e-book, while not attempting to do a totally new book.

Doing a couple of detailed proof reads in the past 48 hours, what has actually struck me is that, although I say it myself, the basic approach and advice in the book are still quite relevant for the person I wrote for originally, the non-techie business owner or manager interested in blogging but not knowing where to start, what would be involved or what he or she would have to do.

There were a few instances of my being surprised at some opinions I held a couple of years ago and have now changed my viewpoint, for example on link exchanges and blogrolls. I was quite positive about both then, with some caveats, but now I am much more cautious and I believe there are better ways to achieve increased traffic and improved ranking.

Link to a page explaining why this e-book is the bees’ knees, the answer to a business owner’s prayer and the best thing since sliced bread, is here.

This is an interesting challenge. I’ve switched this blog about my 7 Step Business Blog book to a WordPress site and will now attempt to import posts from the previous site.

If you have come here for information about my 7 Step Business Blog manual, I apologise for any inconvenience. I expect to have things hunky-dory by the end of the weekend.

(Update Oct 11,2007: wishful thinking, that last para - now quite a few weeks later but things are moving. If you buy the book from the links here, I will send you a link to the completely revised, 2nd edition, due out in the next few days.)

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men etc.

When I launched this blog as a companion to my 7 Step Business Blog manual, I had the intention of keeping it current, adding resources and so on.

A lot has happened since then and a quick perusal will show that I have not been posting here very much or building the resources. So now I'm doing some re-considering: should I keep this blog going or pension it off?

After all, it's not as if I don't have enough outlets for my thoughts and opinions!

I'm blogging several times a week with the b5media network, on the subject of business blogging at the Business and Blogging site.

I'm also continuing with my Thinking Home Business site and have commitments - not kept up with lately as much as I would have wished - to post at Business Blog Consulting and Coachamatic.

And then there's my new Business Blogging Show - mainly podcasts.

But I'm looking at doing a new revision of the 7 Step Business Blog manual and even an audio version, as some have requested, so it's probably premature to close this blog off just now.

Some time ago, I set up an experimental site entitled “Blog from the Beach”, with the intention of developing a more detailed site. Now I have taken that next step.

Last week, I set up my proper “Blog From The Beach” site and explained the basic concept in a post “A Blog of an Idea”:

I often think my ideal way to work would be (will be?) propped under
a bit of shade on the beach with a laptop and wireless connectivity,
blogging away.

The bigger picture is that blogging, like other “Web 2.0? tools,
helps small business owners and solopreneurs have more flexibility than
ever before in modes of operating and in lifestyle choices.

At Coachamatic, blogging evangelist and author of Blogwild!, Andy Wibbels has provided a new  forum for some thirty international coaches.

I have posted about this at Thinking Home Business:

As I've posted just now on my Thinking Home Business blog, I'm one of three presenters this coming Wednesday for a breakfast workshop on blogging and web business.

It's being held at a surfing and tourist mecca, Byron Bay, which is not far from where I live, about a forty minute drive.

The last time I went to a business breakfast in Byron, I found the gathering were pretty switched on business people - friendly but not the laid back (or even blissed out) stereotype a lot of Australians have of the Byronites - not that you would blame them, living in a place of such natural beauty. But they were business people, there to learn and to do business.

So I know I will have to be on my toes, especially as I'm one of three. And as each of us speakers has only 30 minutes, I'm going to have to be very focused and will probably have to trim my usual Power Point presentation, so as to leave time for at least a couple of questions.

Tomorrow I will be driving to Ballina, about an hour and a half away, to do a presentation on business blogging. This is part of a lunchtime "Blogging and Website" seminar as part of Small Business Month in New South Wales.

Last time I went to Ballina for a seminar it was as an audience member and I was impressed by the energy of the place and the very hospitable attitude of the people. I'm looking forward to the event tomorrow and hoping to stimulate some serious interest in blogging.

I've posted about the event and Ballina in more detail on my Thinking Home Business blog.

Tags: Ballina, blogging, business, Northern Rivers, NORBAS

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There are signs that blogging and other 'Web 2.0' tools have finally caught the attention of the Australian business community - and also of the government sector, at least that part of government more closely involved with information management.

A lead article in the Business IT section of national daily The Australian this week by journalist Andrew Colley, Testing the Web 2.0 water, declares that, although there is an upsuge of interest in Web 2.0 tools among consumers and lobbyists, 'Australia's business community is struggling to find ways to reap value from Web 2.0'.

There are the obligatory quotes from research company experts, with a bit of a contest on whether the real buisness significance of Web 2.0 is in 'social computing' (thus Forrester Group's analyst Charlene Li) or whether it's 'really' about the technology creating a richer functionality in the browser (as per Gartner analyst Dion Wiggins).

Whether one or other of those views is more accurate in the great scheme of things, my interest is squarely on the social computing side of the discussion, or more specifically the 'business social', than the computing aspects.

A couple of weeks from now I'm speaking at a Blogs, Wikis & RSS conference in Sydney, on some of the obstacles businesses (and government) experience or perceive about using these collaborative tools. As companies have decided to pay for people to attend, that is an indication of interest.

On the local business front, I was pleased to be invited, as mentioned in a post here yesterday, to be one of the presenters at a breakfast seminar on business blogging. It will be held in the beautiful seaside town of Byron Bay, on September 27 - more details here when I have them.

Frank Arrigo wrote about business blogging in Australia the other day after taking a call from the Australian Financial Review - Another Press Interview on Corporate Blogging. The post is a good milestone and has attracted comments from two very well-informed guys, Mark Jones and Trevor Cook, including Trev's observation:
“I agree that blogging is gaining traction in corporate Australia, mostly at the 'I better find out what this is all about and stick my little toe in' stage”.

And for those wanting more reference points on blogging in Australia, see Frank Arrigo's own comments on the Web 2.0 article which triggered this post.

I'll discuss the government aspects in a separate post.

Tags: blogging, business blogging, The Australian, Web 2.0, Australia blogs, government

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I've been invited to participate in a breakfast seminar on blogging, as part of Small Business Month - September - on the calendar of my state's department of state and regional development: 'regional' meaning - all the bits outside Sydney, the state capital.

So after a chat with our region's business advisory person who is organising the event, I jotted down some notes for her to include in the program.

It was interesting to try and condense the business case for blogging into one page - and to include an explanation of what blogging is, briefly but sufficiently to encourage local small business owners (we don't really have big businesses in these parts) to come along to breakfast. Loading it up with stuff about RSS and other aspects of blogging did not seem a good idea.

Anyway, here's my go at it and I welcome suggestions to improve it.

The Business Case for Blogging

A ‘blog’ or ‘weblog’ is a website which has some extra tools that make it possible for even the most non-technical person to update online content regularly, add pictures and even sound to text content and generally interact more effectively with customers and prospective customers. Blogs are very low cost in dollar terms (try between $0 and $20 a month) and can be integrated with a traditional website or set up separately. Internationally, blogs are used by Fortune 500 multinationals and solobusinesses in a new approach to marketing and customer relations.

Technorati – - which tracks the number of blogs, reported August 2006 that it is now tracking 50 million blogs: the number continues to double every 6 months, with 175,000 new blogs being created every day.

A few examples of businesses large and small, using blogs:

• CEO and President of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz - Jonathan's Blog
• CEO of motorbike company Ducati, Federico Minoi, connects directly with his customers and invites their feedback without intermediaries or spin doctors on the Desmoblog
• Savile Row bespoke tailor Thomas Mahon has created international business through his chatty, friendly English Cut blog
• Signs Never Sleep, weblog of the Lincoln Sign Company in the town of Lincoln (pop. 1,271), has promoted the company internationally and brought a measurable 10% increase in sales in 2005 ($35,000 of total $350,000) - as quoted in Debbie Weil's The Corporate Blogging Book.

The rest of the page was filled up with some Australia-focused information on blogging - subject of another post in the next day or so.

Tags: blogging, Technorati, business blogging, business case, small business

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