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.

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.)

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.

I have posted about this at Thinking Home 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.

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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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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I undertook to send him some examples of real estate blogs. I had in mind such blogs as the Wenatchee Washington Real Estate Agent blog, which my colleague Dean Hua told me about.

Some others, in no particular order and with no comment on their 'quality':

growabrain: Real Estate Blog Archive -
includes Australia’s CEO Corner blog from realestate.com.au

Real Estate Marketing Blog

Seattle’s Rain City Guide

The Real Estate Blog

Twin Cities Real Estate Blog

My finally getting around to send the links today to the real estate agent was prompted by my noticing that my coaching and blogging colleague Michele Corey has come up with a downloadable free guide for real estate agents who are contemplating having a blog. Michele’s 5 Reasons Your Real Estate Business Needs a Blog can be downloaded from her new site Wordstreamz Simple Real Estate Blog Solutions.

The report is written in a US context and the examples above are mostly from North America, so it would be interesting to know whether there are many successful real estate blogs in other parts of the world. As noted above, in Australia there is the CEO Corner blog of the online advertising service realestate.com.au but I wonder are there any actual real estate agents out there who are using blogs and if so what success are they having, or not?

And what about Europe, or Asia, etc?

Gold Coast businesses are missing out on the greatest and cheapest Internet marketing asset since websites came into fashion, a leading business coach said today.

Des Walsh, a Tweed Heads consultant, said companies of all types and sizes were passing up growth opportunities by failing to set up and operate “blogs” or “weblogs” – websites which include frequent information updates and the capacity for visitors to leave comments. 

Walsh, who describes himself as a blogging “evangelist”, is conducting a workshop this Friday, April 28, at the Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) national ‘!nnovate’ conference at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, as part of his mission to show Australian companies what blogging offers.

Blogging involves Internet technology which is so simple to use that the least technical business owner can interact personally, directly and immediately with customers as easily as sending an email.

“Some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies in the United States are dedicated bloggers, such as Boeing, Disney, FedEx, Microsoft, IBM, and Mitsubishi,” says Walsh, who established his own consulting business in 1987 and now coaches business owners by phone and online in Australia and internationally.

“Medium to smaller businesses are also discovering the benefits of blogging, like the Savile Row tailor in London. His blog has generated so much business worldwide that he has the business owner’s best dilemma: whether to cut back or expand.

“But Australian businesses do not seem to realise that whether you are the CEO of a multinational corporation or a solo entrepreneur, blogs can actually deliver on what was promised but not always delivered with the Internet boom of the 1990s – more immediate and effective contact and relationships with customers.”

Last year, Walsh set out to test for himself what he was telling others about blogging and business. In less than 12 months, traffic on his blog, Thinking Home Business, went from 30 visitors a day to more than 1000 a day.

“In ten years of Internet marketing using traditional websites I have never had that sort of traffic or the international recognition and business that have come with it,” he said.

“However, local businesses have been slow to pick up or adapt to blogging and grasp the benefits of this extremely efficient, low-cost technology.”

According to Walsh, you can have a functional, fully-supported, professional blog up and working in 15 minutes – with no setup fees and a running cost of less than the cost of a cup of coffee a week.

“Some people don’t believe me when I tell them how affordable and easy it is. Blogging must be the best-kept secret in modern marketing, but it’s a secret that every business should be discovering.”

Prompted by a fellow Gold Coast executive coach, Walsh last year started applying his coaching skills to help companies find their way into the world of blogging. He has since written 7 Step Business Blog, a plain English e-book for business owners.

He hopes his participation in the Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) national ‘!nnovate’ conference will switch participants on to blogging and show them how to make a global impact.

“There are already a number of recognised Australians who are leading bloggers in fields such as education, online journalism, political analysis, marketing, public relations and business forecasting,” he added.

Contact: Des Walsh
Business Coach & Blogging Evangelist
Tel: 07 5536 5658     International: +61 7 5536 5658
Mobile (cell): 0413 089 355    International: +61 413 089 355
Tel USA: (415)-922-4787
Email: deswalsh(@)gmail(dot)com
Blogs: Thinking Home Business -  7 Step Business Blog
Contributor: Business Blog Consulting

“What Des has done is fantastic. He’s boiled down the current landscape of blogs and its impact on business to an easy-to-read digest of ideas and best practices. He provides not just the theory but the procedures to get it all done.”

From the Foreword, by Andy Wibbels, author of BlogWild!

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