Alphablogs

Recently, we’ve been assisting one of our clients’ blogs, Coal Harbour: Living on the Urban Waterfront start a series of posts on luxury hotels in Vancouver. In my journeys through the internet in search for useful material on the topic, I found an interesting blog, Vagablond. I’d like to tell you a little about it because it shows yet another twist on how you can use blogging.

This blog focuses on travel, food, wine and shopping – and it caters to a very specific audience. Here’s what they say in their “about” section:

At Vagablond, our team of editors, writers and designers are all frequent travelers who live and work all around the globe.

We are determined to bring you the best and most interesting news, information and directory listings for web sites, articles and resources related to fashionable travel, food and wine.

• We’re selective. Unlike other travel blogs, we only select a handful of writers to offer stories about upscale travel, food, wine and shopping.
• Second, we’re elitists. We are now only publishing articles with an upscale, fashionable, stylish travel slant about the best restaurants, hippest boutique hotels, most posh spas, coolest gadgets, best foods and finest wines.
• We’re growing a global audience that wants and expects to read this kind of content.

I admire the clarity and specificity of this. No ifs and buts. Maybe they’ve taken to heart ProBlogger’s suggestion to have a mission statement for your blog – always a good idea.

This approach to blogging could easily be adapted to different circumstances. For example, I could see this working as a platform for professional experts (call centre consultants or engineers, just to name two examples) as a form of professional journal.

Vagablond is really a type of online magazine, providing specific information to a specific audience. A paper-based magazine requires an immense amount of effort, capital and time. An online journal such as Vagablond is a perfect alternative to that.

(P.S. If you’d like to see what Vagablond has to say about Vancouver, click here)

Blog contests are fun. They’re interactive, they build community, and they have that certain little edge of hope that maybe you’ll be the winner.

Blog contests take all shapes and forms. They can be as simple as giving away a gift certificate for McDonald’s for every 100th commenter. They can be very involved, where you have to write a 1000-word essay and then submit it to a number of sites. Blog contests are held to increase overall popularity of a blog, and specifically to get links pointing to it.

Blog contests are so popular that there are a number of web sites that specialize in announcing them (talk about niche marketing!) – like Contest Blogger.

The most “radical” blog contest I’ve seen lately is David Airey’s $4,000 Graphic Designer Prize Giveaway.

What do you have to do to win? Not very much, it turns out. All that’s needed is to write a blog post talking about the prize giveaway. Chances to win can be increased by linking to prize sponsors like Search Engine Optimizer Andy Beard; The Blog Experiment (a forum for bloggers); Brad VanAuken, who has written Brand Aid, a how-to-guide on building winning brands; business growth consultant Rebecca Caroe or Wordpress expert Lakshmi Mareddy.

See how easy that was?

There are a variety of digital corporate assets that you can create as a small business owner or entrepreneur. Three of these are blogs, an online forum and an ebook.

Build a Blog
By building a blog for your business you create a valuable corporate asset. Not only can the blog act as a knowledge base reflecting your expertise and personal viewpoint, it also can reveal your company’s strengths in a form that ultimately adds value to the worth of your enterprise.

Adding to and developing your blog can only enhance your corporate presence, muck like attending trade shows across the country, or sponsoring events that get your name out there. But unlike those one-off events that reach only the people who attend at the time, the blog postings remain available to be accessed at any time by anyone anywhere. Over time the asset aggregates value. We don’t know how this value translates monetarily, but we do know that tracking its presence reveals increasing connection with others over time, and increasing stats mean greater popularity, awareness and word of mouth referrals.

Create a Forum
Along with your blog (and integrated website) you can create other digital assets to enhance your company’s worth. An online forum gives customers, clients and those interested in the topic areas of your work an opportunity for connectivity and community. From your side, you have access to immediate market research through the forum as an ongoing focus group. In addition, your forum shows consumer interest in your product, and through the community your transparency as a corporate citizen brings trust and accountability to the equation. Your forum members are also seen as corporate assets in the form of your digital community, and as examples of your reach. The greater the numbers, the frequency of posting, etc. all add to the value of your enterprise.

Produce an E-book
Everyone says write an ebook to add value to your efforts, and to position your expertise in the marketplace. We add that your ebooks can be perceived as digital corporate assets. Your knowledge base can be redistributed in ebook format and circulated through your clients and community of interest. By developing an ebook catalog, you enhance your worth as an author, and heighten the position of your enterprise.

Welcome to our second edition of Canada 9-5, a stroll through some interesting Canadian business blogs.

Instigator
First we have Instigatorblog by Ben Yoskovitz, an entrepreneur specializing in turning ideas into thriving businesses. He hails from Montreal. In We’re Not All Ready To Be Media Outlets, But So What? he talks about the media noise that’s all around us and that we’re often encouraged to produce. He says,

Not all content is created equal. We know that. But there is an audience out there for almost everything. People like all sorts of stuff. Take country music for example. I could live without it, but millions of raving fans would not be too pleased.

Athletic Coach
Next there is 10 Reasons Why I Love Google at Speedendurance.com. Jimson Lee, Masters Athlete, Coach and President of the Metro Athletic Club based in Vancouver, BC. tells us this article is about “How we used Google for our non-profit Canadian Track & Field and Bobsled team for our web hosting, email, and other apps, all for free. Free is good.”

Accountant
Neil McIntyre is a professional accountant at a mid-size firm in Toronto and a graduate of Brock University’s Accounting program. Here he talks about his own experience: Pay off debt, then start saving and investing:

I took the plunge this weekend and expunged my debts to the depths of the hell from whence they came. It was a tough move for some reason, even for a cold, calculating accountant. Subconsciously, I held on to the debt in order to keep my asset balances high. Artificially high.

Commercial Pilot
Cockpit Conversation is a blog that “traces the Adventures of an Aviatrix, in which a pilot travels the skies and the treacherous career path of Canadian commercial aviation, gaining knowledge and experience without losing her step, her licence, or her sense of humour.” In My Job she opens our eyes a bit:

I am a commercial pilot, but probably not the sort of commercial pilot that comes to mind when I say those words. I’m not a clean cut male strolling briskly through the main passenger terminal, rolling bag in tow, and I don’t wear a crisp white shirt with little stripes on the shoulders, or a captain’s hat. “Commercial pilot” means simply that I am paid to fly aircraft. You’ve probably never heard of the company that employs me. I do in fact have a flight case and one of those rolling suitcases, but you’ll only see me in the passenger terminal if I’m commuting to a job where the airplane is already on site. I work in t-shirts, work pants and sturdy boots. Add a sweater and parka as necessary for the climate.

Gardener
Doug Green is a writer and gardener who works and lives out on an island in the 1000 Islands region of Lake Ontario. He’s a great example of someone using a blog to let people know about what he does. He freely shares information from his vast store of knowledge. If you love plants, then his tip on how to increase the length of time you have Amaryllis bulbs blooming indoors is timely - they’ll soon be blossoming in our homes when it gets cold and windy outside.

Real Estate
Finally, there is Maggie Chandler from Kitsilano, a lovely neighbourhood in Vancouver. On her blog My Kitsilano, she shows many images of lovely houses from this great Vancouver neighbourhood, such as this one on Cornwall Street, right close to the beach.

*****

As we mentioned in our previous edition, Canada doesn’t do much business blogging yet. There are quite a few technology blogs but very, very few business people who work in other areas.

These here on Canada 9-5 are the pioneers.

So - if you have or know of a Canadian business blog, let us know here. The next edition of Canada 9-5 will come out on October 28.