Learn how to get found online, position yourself as an expert, increase your search engine rankings, and convert more prospects into clients! Blogging is a simple and effective way to not only give a brand a voice, but to infuse personality, connection, and life into a brand.

Blogging for Business is one of the top marketing strategies that can help you get found more often online, position yourself as an expert, increase your search engine rankings, and convert more prospects into clients… if you do it the right way, which is exactly what Jennifer Bourn of Sacramento Web Design firm, Bourn Creative will be sharing with you.

In this presentation you’ll learn:

• What platform is the best to use for your blog and website and why
• The purpose a blog plays on your website and how it works
• Why blogs are such powerful marketing tools to establish expertise and boost search engine rankings
• How you can easily create new content for your blog week after week
• And more!

Open to both members and non-members.

Register for the luncheon and hear the Blogging for Business Presentation

Valley Hi Country Club
9595 Franklin Blvd. Elk Grove, CA 95758

It’s been almost six years since Businessweek Magazine’s cover story, “Blogs Will Change Your Business.” Since then, the blogging world has evolved and grown in ways no one could have predicted. If you’re a business still struggling to make sense of blogging, don’t miss Social Media Club Sacramento’s next workshop: Blogging for Business.

This hands-on session will be offered by local expert, Jennifer Bourn of the Sacramento web design firm Bourn Creative.

During this 90 minute presentation, Jennifer will focus on the technical aspects of building a blog:

• How to choose a blogging platform
• The differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
• What elements are essential to developing a successful blog
• SEO tips and tricks
• Essential plugins

Jennifer will also briefly touch on best practices for developing memorable blog content that keeps readers coming back.

This is a hands-on workshop; participants are highly encouraged to bring a laptop computer. Free internet access is available.

This event technically SOLD OUT in less than 24 hours! But, if you want to attend, let me know and we’ll see about getting you on the priority waiting list!

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1377360723/efblike

In fact, some of the features I see used the most on blogsites don’t even make sense! Remember, being commonly used doesn’t mean you should include them on your website.

Here are three popular blog features that you may want to forget about or rethink how you use them on your website:

Date-Based Archives

What good does listing May 2010, June 2010, July 2010, August 2010, etc. do for your website visitors? Nothing. Including date-based archives in your website sidebar is simply a waste of valuable website real estate.

Date-based archive links simply tell visitors that you published a blog post in that month. Frankly, that should be fairly obvious as most bloggers publish posts on a regular basis. Date-base archives don’t add value for your website visitors or help them find the information they need quickly and easily.

Blogrolls

Blogging may be a community-oriented activity, but if you are blogging for business, including a blogroll (a list of links to other bloggers) in the sidebar or footer of every single blog post and web page on your website is not a very good idea. A blogroll is basically a list of links sending people away from your website.

Instead of using valuable space in your sidebar to list a blogroll, consider publishing a blog post featuring the bloggers you recommend and link to it in your website footer or on a Resources page.

Social Badges

Social networking is important to create, enhance, and strengthen relationships and social media marketing is a valuable tool to expand your brand online and increase your brand visibility. But before you cram your website sidebar full of social media badges, feeds, and links, ask yourself these questions:

• If you already have graphic links to your social media sites, do you need to also include badges for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter? How do those badges add value to your visitors’ experience in your site?
• Do you need to republish a stream of your Facebook page updates on your website? How does that help your website visitors?
• Is it appropriate to republish your Twitter feed on your website? If you are truly interacting and engaging in conversation with your Twitter community, your feed will show several posts of one side of a conversation. How do your website visitors benefit from that?

What is more important to you? Building your community of blog commenters, loyal website visitors, and newsletter subscribers, or building up your “Likes” and “Followers” on websites that you don’t own and don’t control?

What’s do you think about these features/tools? Do you use them on your website or blog? Share you thoughts below!

WordPress is the preferred platform that we at Bourn Creative build all of our custom small business websites and business blogsites on. WordPress allows us to design and build completely custom, branded, unique websites from scratch, with a complete content management system and blogging platform integrated right into the back end for ease of use.

If you want to leverage the positive results blogging for business can create for your small business, there are four things you need to take into consideration (other than using WordPress) when building a small business blog:

Blog Design

Don’t settle for a basic, cookie cutter theme that everyone else is using too! Can you customize a cheap out of the box theme? Of course. But let’s be honest. It looks like it. When 5,000 other businesses are using the same theme with a different header, your differentiation just got a lot harder. Show your audience that you believe in yourself, your business, and what you’re offering by investing in a website that truly reflects your brand personality. After all, if you don’t believe in yourself enough to invest in you, why should I? Hire a professional, custom theme designer/developer to create a site that is completely unique to you, your business, and your brand message. Your custom theme should include templates for your website pages, your blog, and a sales/landing page at minimum.

Blog Code / Programming

Your friend’s neighbor’s son is not the answer to building your business blog or website. There are a lot of programmers that call themselves web designers… the problem is that most only know enough code to be dangerous, and while they can make it work, they usually can’t make it look good! Hiring a professional who understands design, web standards, search engine optimization, advanced SEO programming, content management systems, and marketing is the only way to go. With an experienced professional, you can be sure your website will be beautiful, the code will be clean, bug free, and well organized, and that your site will be built to grow with you as your business grows.

Blog Content

Once your website and blog have been designed and developed, your number one concern is consistently creating the high quality content that your target market is looking for. The content should be the main focus of your entire website and needs to be updated frequently to keep visitors coming back over and over again.

Blog Marketing

Many entrepreneurs and business owners view their blog as a necessary evil. What they don’t realize is that a blog is the most powerful business marketing tool they have. Your blog, when posted to frequently with valuable content, will generate more traffic to your website, attract more prospects and leads, increase your search engine rankings, and provide more opportunities to be found online. Your business blog is your opportunity to show off what you know, share your expertise with your audience, help other people, educate your prospects, and position yourself as an expert and leader in your industry.

Jennifer will be presenting “Blogging Your Way to Celebrity Status and Google’s #1 Spot”

No longer is blogging a fad, a trend, or a hip form of journaling for the Internet obsessed. Blogging for business is here to stay. With its ease of use, simple format, and undeniably staggering results, blogging has taken the business world by storm as a critical component in the online marketing success of entrepreneurs, business start-ups, and global corporations alike. Blogging, a component of social media marketing, thrives off the very things that we as women excel at naturally – interaction, communication, sharing, expression, and community. That is why blogging for business is a perfect fit for the female entrepreneur.

In this keynote presentation you will learn Jennifer’s best blogging tips
and insights into her blogging strategy, as well as:

• What is a blog and how do I get one
• How your blog can get you more clients than you ever imagined
• Why blogging is a perfect fit for women entrepreneurs
• The three most common mistakes new bloggers make
• Five simple strategies to get the results you want from your blog

eWomenNetwork Folsom, California June Dinner Meeting:

Register Online to learn how to Blog Your Way to Celebrity Status and Google’s #1 Spot by Clicking Here Now!

Register by phone by calling (916) 521-2540 or emailing Stephanie Sherwood, eWomenNetwork Executive Managing Director, South Placer County Chapter and Folsom Chapter.

Jennifer, a member of the Keynote Speakers Collaborative, is the owner of the award-winning online marketing agency Bourn Creative, based in Sacramento, California. Jennifer helps business owners build powerful brands, increase visibility, and leverage the Internet – the most critical tool of today’s marketing landscape. Through the strategic use of social media marketing, blogging, content marketing, and website marketing, Jennifer regularly helps her clients turn their big ideas into reality. Known for her vibrant, passionate, and energetic approach to business, Jennifer acts as strategist, consultant, and “get it done” specialist for smart, savvy entrepreneurs and business owners who are committed to taking their business to the next level.

When it comes to social media, it doesn’t matter how many LinkedIn contacts, Facebook friends, or Twitter followers you have in your network.

In fact, guess what? No one really cares!

What does matter, and what people do care about is the value you add to your network and how you contribute to the communities you are a part of.

What matters is that you understand and invest in learning what your audience cares about, what they need, and what would help them the most!

Social media is about sharing and giving without expecting anything in return.

With this approach, you will build your reputation and soon be considered a valuable resource for your network. You will also elevate your expert status and increase your brand visibility.

Here are some ways you can add value to your social networks and leverage social media to build your brand and market your business.

Participate in LinkedIn Answers. Look for questions from other business professionals that relate to your products and services. This is a great opportunity to contribute to your social network, share your expertise, and build your website traffic.

Post links to valuable information you find online. While social media does provide you an opportunity to share your own blog posts and information, it is also important to share links to other good information and content you find online. You can increase your return on sharing other people’s good blog posts by leaving a valuable comment on the post before you share the link to it.

Engage in conversation! If someone comments on a post or forwards it or retweets it, respond and thank them or comment back. Your replies, comments, forwards, and retweets are just as valuable as your original posts because it shows your audience you’re listening to them too.

Recommend other experts. If someone in your network provides great value or helps you out, give them a little boost and mention them in your social networking communities. Show them you appreciate the presentation they gave, the blog post they wrote, the lunch you had together, or the ebook you read, etc. Mention them by name and include a link to their website, program, registration page, or blog post. Some social networks like Twitter, have applications (Mr. Tweet) specifically for recommending other Tweeters.

Remember, social media is about providing value and social networking is about contributing to a community. If you always think first of your audience and how you can help them, you will become a social media rock star in your niche and seriously build your brand equity.

When we build websites and blogsites for our clients, we almost always recommend a custom designed WordPress site with an integrated blog. In fact, part of our intake process with new clients includes explaining the value of blogging for business and how it can help them increase website traffic and attract new clients. You can learn more in the article 6 Reasons Why WordPress is Perfect for Small Business.

Relevant, targeted, and fresh content is what search engines like Google want, and high rankings within the search engine results are what every website owner wants.

So how do you feed the search engines regularly updated, focused content and increase your website rankings?

The answer is blogging. The main pages of your site tend be more generalized and provide an overview about you or your company, your products and services, or your programs. A blog however, allows you to focus content on specific topics that your audience wants to know about. And, guess what? The search engines reward you for your efforts.

Want the proof?

We launched the Bourn Creative blog in the summer of 2009 and since then have had several blog articles appear in the top ten search results of Google for targeted keyword searches. The posts that appear in the search results link directly back to the blog posts and articles, not the Bourn Creative home page.

The Bourn Creative home page didn’t even appear anywhere within the same search results. These first page rankings on Google resulted directly from publishing well written and targeted content that focuses on our readers and the information they want.

So, blogging helps your website visitors, your prospects, and your target market cut through the labyrinth of search results and find a direct path right to your content.

Also, after analyzing the Bourn Creative website in Google’s Webmaster Tools, we found that the majority of external links or inbound links to our site pointed straight to some of our best blog articles.

When it comes to search engine optimization, getting a referring link (a link to your site from another site) is like getting someone to vote for your site and say that your content is good enough to share with their readers too. Building inbound links, or external links, is one of the hardest parts of search engine optimization (SEO) and one of the most important.

Want more proof that blogging is great for business?

Through Google Analytics, we found that during the last month 5 out of our top 10 landing pages were blog articles that were reached through our email newsletter, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, search engine results, and other referring sites. Also, we found that the majority of our new visitors reached our site directly through a blog article.

So what do all these blog stats mean?

For us, publishing a blog with well written, frequently updated content has attracted new visitors to our site via search engines, enticed friends from Facebook and followers from Twitter to click-through the links we posted, and has earned the Bourn Creative site external links from other websites.

Overall, blogging has been one the most effective ways we have been able to increase website traffic with new and regular visitors and that IS the whole goal of marketing your business online!

If you want help with your blog or want to start a blog of your own, I invite you to read more of our articles on blogging for business and web design, or contact us to help you build your online presence with a custom blogsite and blog training.