Get 10% off for life on TypePad blogs when you use the coupon code TypePadspring10!
Open a Typepad Plus or Pro account before the end of FEB 2010, enter the promocode:
RESOLVE2BLOG2010 when creating you account and receive 20% discount for life (yes, that's as long as you keep your Typepad account life).
Get A Professional Looking Blog Today!
From everything.typepad comes this New Years Offer:
Open a Typepad Pro Account (the one I always recommend you use for business blogs) and get 15% discount.
The only thing you have to do to profit from this offer (which runs till the end of January, so get your skates on!) in to quote "2010RESOLUTION" in the discount code field when you register before the end of January 2010.
Another excuse for not starting your own blog down the drain: 15% discount and I promise you the blog platform is a piece of cake to get started with. You'll be up and running within a few minutes!
Remember to quote "2010RESOLUTION"
AWeber announced the imminent arrival of their brand new web form builder - making it even easier for everyone to design/create those all important forms to capture names and email addresses to start your ethical marketing conversation with your prospects.
Watch the video and read the exciting list of new features (soon to be released) on AWeber's blog.
Underneath the post you can find a Web Form to subscribe to AWeber's blog alerts. Now the rss feed of AWeber's blog is already part of my blog-reader, but I thought: what the heck, let's submit my name and email address and subscribe to the alerts.
The first email - after confirming my subscription - came into my inbox promptly and in it AWeber informs me of another list I can subscribe to: email delivery tips.
But it was the paragraph underneath it that made me turn to my trusted Typepad blog to write this post:
How Do We Make These Emails Automatic?
Many websites have blogs that they regularly post new information to. The most common way for visitors to get notified of new posts on a blog is via RSS.
Unfortunately, according to a study by Yahoo, up to 96% of your visitors have no idea what RSS is.
Using the Blog Broadcast tool, we automatically convert the blog's RSS feed to an email newsletter format that more visitors are familiar with.
We - as bloggers and email marketers - know all about rss and feed-readers, but how many of our website/blog visitors have the same knowledge? Are we - bound by our own learning curve and experience - forgetting about how we "discovered" slowly how all this Web2.0 technology can work together and assume everyone else must know this too?
96% of your web visitors don't - so help them (and yourself) out by offering blog-alerts. In Typepad you can so easily insert a web form in the sidebar (see right) and when the new - soon to be released - web form builder becomes available my guess is you can design your web form is such a way it will entice your visitors even more to pop in their name and email address.
So don't forget what is so obvious to you might be absolutely undiscovered territory for most of your web visitors (96% - blimey!)
Not on AWeber yet? Open an account now and try it out for 30 days.
Today I encountered plenty of tweets about the Blogging FaceOff at Mashable, The Social Media Guide. This week they turned their attention to blogging platforms: WordPress or Typepad.
I found this in the comment box underneath the poll:
DaveWeissDotNet Yesterday 11:47 PM
3 people liked this.
via mashable.com
The conversation in the comment box is more interesting IMHO opinion than the whole vote for....
(but of course I voted for Typepad ;-)
What's your opinion? (Not just about the platform but about Dave's comment)
As with everything online: you have raving fans for the one and equally raving fans for the other option. This review will focus on my own personal experiences with both platforms and why I recommend Typepad for business owners who want/need an easy to use, SEO ready and quick to edit/add platform.
Why would any business use a blog?
So far I've come up with 7 key reasons, see here for the long version
No matter what type of business you are in, service or products, using a blog (or as I prefer to call it: a dynamic and interactive webpresence) is one of the fastest ways to grow your presence online in a sustainable and none-time consuming way. It depends on the amount of time you want to spend and your knowledge of IT, CSS and HTML which of the two most used blog platforms will suit you and your business best: "paid for" Typepad or self-hosted "free" WordPress.org.
Why Typepad?
Let's face it: Typepad (from Six Apart) is a "paid for" blog platform starting from $ 49.50 annually (+ £ 32.00) I normally recommend to opt for at least the Plus account for more functionality, although IMHO the Pro account gives you even more, such as creating you own template (without having to know much about CSS or html)
The software of WordPress.org is free to download, but you have to have your own domain, hosting and FTP access to set it up, the reason why I always place "quote marks" around the word free where it concerns this platform.
With a Typepad account the hosting is included where your account name is part of the domain name, e.g. http://woodyoulike.typepad.com/furniture/ From the Plus account on you can domain map any of your blogs on your own registered domain name (without the need of having FTP access) e.g. www.woodyoulikefurniture.co.uk
Or "mapping" your blog to a subdomain of your main domain will change the http://woodyoulike.typepad.com/tips/ to faq.woodyoulike.co.uk
Another pro for opting for Typepad is the included Technical Support that comes with any account type. Besides an extensive knowledge base you can submit tickets to the support team and it is my experience these are quickly and adequately addressed and answered.
WordPress.org is a free open source which has "how to" documentation on many items and forums on various subjects where you can ask for help from other users. However I found 2057 pages (x 31 questions) that received no answer at all. Fortunately there are many WordPress.org users who write blog posts and even training manuals for you, like my friend Martin Malden. (expert on all things WordPress.org)
"Free" is good, but in cases where you're stuck it pays to pay for support.
Typepad: 10 minutes tops from starting your 14 day free trial (by creating your account), editing your design and style of your (first) "blog" using one of the 1000 plus templates Typepad offers you to publishing your first page or post. I'm pretty experienced in setting this up, but all my blog-studio students never take any longer to do the same.
I've asked my friend Martin what his best ever time was to do the same with a WordPress blog (from downloading the software, uploading it to the server your domain name is hosted on to editing the css for one of the two standard templates and publishing a first page or post): 20 minutes (and he's very experienced in this). He does state that including searching, finding, uploading (1-click install on most hosting providers), editing a different theme and getting ready to publish a first post/page a "first timer" should allow for up to one hour.
Then there is the matter of creating a second (or third, fourth) blog (our business has two divisions: natural wooden flooring and natural wooden furniture - both with their own dedicated "blog" - and then there are various other subjects I write about - each with their own blog, our family blog plus the community blog we manage for our village).
With Typepad Plus account you can instantly create 3 individual blogs, with the Pro account it is absolutely "limited less" - limited only by bandwidth (10GB) and storage (1000MB). All individual blogs on your account can have their own specific design and settings AND share custom made side-bar items (the typelists).
Again, I asked my friend Martin Malden if you can manage more than 1 blog on WordPress.org account as easy as with Typepad. 'Fraid not: either you have to create a WordPress account per intended blog or download and install WordPress MultiUser. The readme text of this product starts with:
"WordPress MU is a multi user version of WordPress.Third party widgets (plug-ins): one click only
If you're not comfortable editing PHP code, taking care of a complex webserver and database system and being pro-active about following developments of this project then run, don't walk, to http://wordpress.com/ and sign yourself and your friends up to free blogs. It's easier in the long run and you'll save yourself a lot of pain and angst."
Both Typepad and WordPress.org have standard widgets and allow you to add third party widgets to your blog (of which most will end up in your side-bar). Most third parties have "quick" install options to add their widget to the three most common blog platforms: Blogger, Typepad and WordPress. Clicking the Blogger or Typepad Quick Install options sends you to your existing account and the widget is automagically added to your side-bar items. Quick install = log-in - drag new widget to where you want it to show in the side bar (Design - Organise Content).
WordPress.org account holders are directed to an instruction manual because the widget (plug-in) has to be uploaded to the plug-in folder of their self-hosted domain and from there it can be activated through the WordPress account. Quick install = download - upload - activate - drag new widget (plug-in) to where you want it to show in the side-bar (Presentation - Widgets)
Another advantage IMHO that a paid for blog platform like Typepad gives you is not having to download, upload and activate newer versions than you first started with. WordPress.org is on stable release 2.8.4 at the moment and have improved the Automatic Upgrade but you still have to deactivate all your plug-ins.
I know that plenty of WordPress.org users are still on the version they originally installed because to the 'hassle' and time involved having to go 'through it' all over again. (Friend of mine is still on version 2.2.2 and told me he truly cannot find the time to upgrade).
Typepad is constantly evolving its features, options and possibilities. Once everything is de-bugged through the Beta-team everyone having a Typepad account automagically benefits from the newer version without having to lift a finger.
Both Typepad and WordPress.org platforms are SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) ready. To be honest the speed of how quick one of my new blogs gets indexed by Google and other search engines keeps amazing me. My latest project had one of the posts listed on page 1 within 2 days! (On a Google.com search that brought up 5,310,000 results).
Improving search results on both platforms are easy, add relevant keywords and/or tags to your posts and pages - besides of course your overall general keywords and key phrases that are relevant to the subject of your blog. Alt Text (text behind an image or a link on your blog) can be added easily too on both platforms.
Plus all blogs come with an integrated RSS feed (Real Simple Syndication): an standardised format to easily share headlines and content online. Regard it as a "What's new on your site" automated feature. It also means your blog content is picked up by many more online services and channels than just search engines.
Side-note: 'burning' your blog feed through Feedburner gives you plenty of more options to be picked up and shared than just relying on the rss feed on its own.
Many businesses already have a website - designed and managed by a web designer - over which they hardly have any control (at least that's the complaint I hear often). Adding new content to the site takes communication between owner and designer, time from the designer and money from the business owner.
You can add a blog to any existing website and start managing your frequently to be updated content yourself. All your designer has to do is add a link on your website to the blog.
There is however a more simpler way: set up your blog as if it is your standard website (with fixed pages) and use the 'blog-index' feature as integrated blog.
Three big advantages here:
A few (IMHO) fine examples:
Plumbing & Heating Service in Glasgow (note how Tony informs his potential clients about every aspect that is involved in the works without any 'hard sell') - "Need to know" is the blog-index
Better Water Solutions (again note how Peter too informs everyone about issues and even news items regarding fresh water supply to your home) - "Tips, Advice & FAQ's" is the blog-index
Community website: Lovely Charing where "What's On and News" is the blog-index informing the village and the Charing Businesses there's always something going on. Using an AWeber blog-broadcast brings every new article straight to the inbox of everyone who subscribed to the so-called blog or news-alerts.
As said in the beginning of this article: both blog platforms have raving fans.
My own opinion is that if you are looking for:
Definitely Go for Typepad
(For business owners I recommend to opt for the Pro account, or at least the Plus account.)
Update Feb 2010:
Open a Typepad Plus or Pro account before the end of FEB 2010, enter the promocode:
RESOLVE2BLOG2010 when creating you account and receive 20% discount for life (yes, that's as long as you keep your Typepad account life).
Coming back to a recent article on the Kiss2 blog-site: Calling a spade a spade and some recent blog posts I read from well-known A-list bloggers.
To most bloggers, specially those who are deeply involved in social media communities, a blog should mainly be used to create a community. Conform to the expectations of Web 2.0
As a ‘brick and mortar’ company director and owner of various blog-sites I have a very different idea about what a blog can be. In that recent article mentioned above I consider any accessible entity on the world wide web as a ‘web-presence’, also those created on a blog-platform.
A web-presence build on a blog-platform is an effective marketing tool – a very simple, self-manageable tool that so easy gathers visitors to it – due to its embedded search-engine friendliness – and drives qualified traffic to your (if you have/need one) ‘static’ website and/or webshop.
For small businesses – be it "brick and mortar" or services – it is not specifically about building a community that Web 2.0 advocates have in mind; it’s about growing your business by building trust.
Building trust by writing articles about your products, services. Written with – if I may be so bold – an educational value in mind: explaining to your web presence visitors in all honesty when, where and why your product/service might be the most suitable for them at that specific moment in time or later.
Educational because that’s what the world-wide-web is used for too: searching for information, specially when looking for new products/services to purchase. Perhaps that’s the most significant reason most ‘surfers’ (or is that a too much out-dated term?) start up their browsers for: looking for information.
And write in all honesty, because that’s nowadays also a very significant feature – if not the most significant for most of us - of the world-wide-web: almost every statement about your product, service you make can be checked against other statements, reviews by users or respected web journalists. Tell a porky nowadays and you’ll be ridiculed/told off/slapped on the wrist/loose credibility in no time at all! There are many global brands out there who know how true – and painful – it is by not taking this aspect of the world-wide-web for granted.
Building trust, because no matter how much information is out there on the world-wide-web, everyone will still look up to the ‘expert’, to the one who turns information into knowledge – and is very willing to share his/her knowledge to all who come looking for it.
And using a blog-platform - that self-manageable, search-engine friendly, simple to set-up, use and edit to your own likings, plus enormously interactive if you choose so – to establish all points mentioned above is IMHO the best ‘invention’ the Web 2.0 brought us as one of the most effective and powerful marketing tools any small business could ask for.
It is a rather low-instep media also. Anyone who is able to create a Word-document can write and publish an article on a blog-platform. A media that doesn’t need extra hosting, specific web-design or HTML-coding knowledge (if you do have those it can only work to your advantage but it is absolutely not a pre), can be edited by yourself without having to spend extra money (and time to explain your ideas to) a web design business.
It’s like using follow-up messages to any of your prospects and existing clients: if you don’t use this honest and effective marketing tool you’re definitely leaving money on the table. In these economical different times perhaps even more than ever.
Yes, I know. This is turning into a kind of ‘hobby horse’ of mine, but as managing director of a small brick & mortar business and owner of 7 blog-sites I see the positive results of using a blog-platform to grow your business on a daily basis.
I definitely plan to write more about this particular ‘hobby horse’ of mine in the near future and have already written other articles on using blogs and webmarketing to grow your business in a simple, effective and honest way. If you like you can pop-in your name and email address in the top right corner to subscriber to the free and ever growing number of articles. They will land in your inbox at regular intervals, so you can learn and use them on your own pace.
Greetings from the 1 plus 1 makes 3 experts
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Last year my friend Lesley (The IT-girl) and I organised 4 blog-workshops for local businesses on how to use a blog-platform (Typepad) to grow their businesses. Some of our 'students' are now using this extra web-tool to help grow their business; some - although impressed of what it could mean for their business - never got further than a first try. That happens. And then it is no use of asking yourself why they don't see the benefits of doing more with it - they all set-up an account, wrote their first post and/or page, were very enthusiastic - but don't continue with it.
The only thing you - as teacher - can do about it is to reconsider the method of training/instruction. Of course a workshop is fun and gets the enthusiasm going. But then we all go away to our normal daily, most times hectic work-tasks and 9 times out of 10 the enthusiasm and plans wane quickly.
That's what we did: reconsidered our method, reconfigured it first to one-on-one sessions with a slightly better result. Time to read back the notes they took on the instructions, the how to's and where to find this or that turned out to be the biggest 'stumble'.
So we are now in the process of reconfiguring the whole training again in two ways:
And we've found the most perfect 'little' program that can do both - and more - at the same time!
A few months ago Ed Rivis (author of The Ultimate Webmarketing Strategy) made me aware of a 
software program he uses frequently to write his own knowledge programs: ScreenSteps, the Documentation Tool (from Blue Mango Learning Systems). I only had to take one look at it to see what benefits it had for our purpose! And I opted immediately for the Pro version.
With ScreenSteps you can:
But there is more! And this makes ScreenSteps even more versatile!
Since discovering ScreenSteps writing the lessons for the online 'practical typepad-guide' has become so much easier. Some days I'm able to export 4 or more lessons to my (still hidden) special blog-site and still can email every individual lesson to one of my 'blog-site' clients when they get stuck on some item of their site. Answering questions from them turn into lessons and are added to the manual. How simple can a trainer's/coach live be? With one simple and versatile program - of course combined with other simple programs (Typepad to name but one): ScreenSteps.
Give it a try and be as pleasantly amazed as I was. And the price! The Pro version costs only $59.97 which is around £ 30.00
A simple, practical and extremely cost-effective program
Most small business have a web presence. Most small business have delegated the creation of their web presence to web design companies. Most web design companies want to put Glitz on your web site to show off their talent.
What do your web site visitors want?
Above are all samples of web presences created on blog-platform (Typepad).
Potential clients want to know what you can do for them, not how fancy or glitzy your web site is.
Blogs (short for weblog) are mostly know for their ability to 'produce' articles (also called blog posts). It is a misconception that blogs are only used by freelancers in the service business - mainly in the marketing or finance sector - geeks dissecting software packages, teens fantasizing about their 'heroes' in tv-series, movies or about boy-bands, social media pioneers about the latest social media communities.
Nothing could be further from the truth than this. Of course there are many of the above mentioned blogs around, but there is an increasing trend for small business to use a blog to increase 'brand-awareness', to give advice on various subjects and much more. Many multi-nationals use blogs to keep in contact with their clients/users all over the world. It's simple, straight-forward and effective. And not to mention: profitable.
Every business - small, medium or large - should consider creating a weblog. If done properly (and consistently) it has a tremendous positive effect on a business' turnover, nett profit and brand awareness. Subscribe to the Blogging and Webmarketing Tips below to discover more. A Report "7 Reasons to use a blog-platform for your business website is just one of the tips you will receive. Just pop in your name and email address in the form you can find in the right top corner of this blog.
