Alphablogs

On her blog, Isabella wrote a post about linking that you might find interesting. Here are a few samples:

Linkfarming, linkbait, link begging and, urgh, link whoring.

These words don’t sound very nice, do they?

How about link love, blogging generously and building links?

Much better.

When I link to a fellow blogger, I want to do it with the intention of acknowledgment, generosity and out of the sincere desire to assist my readers in accessing more quality content (I often spend way more time looking for good links than writing a post!) Similarly, when I connect with someone outside of the blogosphere, I have the intention to enrich both of our lives, even if it is just in the most minute way.

Since Isabella is big on having fun, she joined Hootin’ Annie in handing out Hallowe’en link treats to other bloggers – particularly bloggers they don’t know (just like handing out Hallowe’en treats to the strangers who come to your door). Let’s do that here, too, ok?

Our treats go to

1. Indie publisher Trula Breckenridge
2. Scott Clark’s Blog - he’s got a great Hallowe’en theme on today!
3. … and how about macho-macho 100% injury rate, who also has some cool Hallowe’en pictures up.

(And since this blog is geared towards people new in the blogosphere, just in case you don’t know what a link treat is - One of the ways search engines like Google or Yahoo establish which web site comes up on top in your search is by seeing which site has a lot of “in-bound” links - people linking to their site. That’s why getting linked to is a treat.)

When using your blog for marketing and PR purposes, it’s vital that you turn on your visual thinking and come up with great ideas that can communicate energy around your project. Using a blog to promote your message and to connect to your current and potential community is now commonplace. But if you want people to talk about it, and spread the word, you need to make a visual impact.

How do you stand out from the crowd?

Here’s an example using a very simple project. Because it’s hypothetical, there are no photos for it. Let’s say you’ve self-published a recipe book, made up of recipes your family has loved for the past 20 years, with a few really old ones from your mother’s day. You want to use a blog to promote it beyond your close family, and to create strong visual meaning so people will remember it.

Number one: who loves your book the most? Your family, and possibly a few friends. How can they provide visual impact for your project? Simply by being photographed (in good light) laughing and enjoying one another’s company at the table. Pop it in the blog and voila!

Let’s say you connect with a worthy group or association, willing to support your efforts. If they were to have a fundraising dinner made entirely from your recipes (with participants receiving copies of your book) you would have plenty of opportunities for photos of a positive event to include in your blog - plus a link into a good cause as well. Or go for a school event, something other than family, where your recipe book can bring out the good times and good feelings in people. Again, document the whole process, not just the final meal.

Endorsements are standard workhorses of the photo-op, and if you do find a prominent person to endorse your recipe book, don’t think only of a text blurb. Try to get a photo of yourself and the endorser together, with the book, or perhaps sharing one of your cupcakes! Very blog-worthy indeed!

No external endorsement or organization? Use your extended network to get a couple of cooking teams together, to make your recipes, then celebrate by eating the results and reviewing the creations. All this can go into your blog. Be sure to photo-document the whole process of each team. You could even go so far as to select a couple of “judges” to determine who wins the “bake-off”!

One tip to remember: nothing looks less appetizing than food that has been badly photographed. If you don’t have access to great lighting and a good camera, stay focused on the interactions between people - go for the smiles and the good times rather than the plate of limp-looking yam fries.

Okay, that’s enough of the recipe book example. The main thing to remember is that everything you do in getting your project to fruition is bloggable. It is never too late to start. You can use the old documentary trick of “recreating” if you didn’t start out documenting your process. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a tagged picture can speak even louder.

And one more tip: Be yourself! It’s a lot more fun.

Welcome to this edition of Canada 9-5!

Canada 9-5 showcases blogs by Canadian professionals, workers, businesses and associations. There are many such blogs by internet technology specialists but very few that use the amazing technology of blogging. The blogs you see here are literally pioneers of Canadian business blogging.

Book Publishing in Vancouver
In a post on client confidentiality, our own Carol Sill says

So often we have good ideas that we feel are unique, only to find someone else is also incubating the same thought, or one so similar it is hard to believe there wasn’t some kind of “security breach”. I have had several cases of two potential clients showing me plans for projects that were remarkably similar, and both within the same week! This kind of synchronicity always amazes me, but still I keep the two projects separate in my mind, and do not disclose them to one another, let alone to the outside world.

Entrepreneurial Smarts from Toronto
Canadian Entrepreneur is the blog by Rick Spence: business writer, speaker and content marketer, and former editor/publisher of PROFIT Magazine. He hails from “Toronto and Afghanistan”. Canadian Entrepreneur has a very interesting guest article by Toronto-based marketer extraordinaire Michael Hepworth, the “Streetsmart Marketer”. 10 ways to build your credibility contains some reminders that are practically blueprints for article series for any business blogger, for example

• Educate them on how to buy your product or service. Help customers understand what their buying criteria should be.
• Be sincere. Sincerity is being believable and presenting the facts in a way prospects understand.
• Provide testimonials. Few people like to be the first to use a product or service.
• Establish yourself as an authority. Write and speak on your specialty.
• Support your sales with editorial and articles. PR is important in building your credibility.
• Tell prospects why. If you are offering a discount or a special deal, give a reason for it.
• Point out a non-fatal flaw in your product. This gives special promotions more credibility.

Branding Reflections - Vancouver
Robert Park, “Catalyst” at Vancouver business incubator The Network Hub relates a tale of caution: How to destroy your brand equity: JPG Magazine screwed up.

In the past, corporations held a lot of power as to how to treat their customers. Several factors contributed to this: lack of choice, lack of clear information, and lack of consumer power. Things have been changing over the past few years. Thanks to new social technologies on the Internet, people are a lot more organized and coordinated. They share information with each other and work together. And if you want to sell them something, or utilize their collaboration to create some sort of value, you better understand them well. Or else, they’ll ditch you. And your reputation could get ruined in the process.

Creativity in Ontario
Ken, a creativity coach, talks about perfectionism in The Upside Of Perfect. He quotes Mary-Elaine Jacobsen who shows the positive side of much-maligned perfectionism ..

there is quite a distinction between unhealthy and healthy forms of perfectionism, the latter being present in many gifted individuals…In fact, fulfillment and pleasure may well be linked to painstaking effort and unconstrained use of one’s gifted abilities.

Real Estate in Vancouver
Coal Harbour Vancouver: Living on the Urban Waterfront is a good example of a niche blog. Coal Harbour is a small but very affluent, up-and-coming and beautiful area of Vancouver. This real estate blog talks about real estate and investment opportunities but also about some other tidbits, like this post. Checking Out the Neighbourhood – By Plane shows how a vast country like Canada uses planes like other countries use taxis.

Other contributions include
How to own a house or apartment for free
10 Questions to Ask When Writing Hypnotic Posts (Blog Marketing Tip #17)
Fall TSM Travel Writing Contest: Win $125!

Thanks for all the submissions! Our next carnival will be on December 8. If you want to appear on this carnival, please submit your post here.

(this article can be found in the All Women Blogging carnival)

Why are you reading this right now?

Chances are that you hope to be informed and entertained – hopefully even both.

It’s the same with your readers; or, for that matter, your clients. They spend one of their most precious resources – their time – on you because they hope to get a good return on their investment.

When putting together a blog post – text, images, links, etc. – that’s what we need to keep in mind. That is, don’t come from a position of what you have to offer – come from the position of what your clients need.

Kathy Sierra has a great post on this concept, together with one of her characteristically accurate graphics:

Let’s imagine you’re a commercial real estate agent in Victoria, BC. What do your clients need to read? Put yourself in their shoes. If you were, say, a small business owner in Victoria in the market for a two-storey storefront for an upscale grocery store close to downtown, what would be your concerns? How about

Parking
Property taxes
Mortgage options
Business climate for that particular geographic area
Crime
Local business associations
Local events
Tourism from the US

The interesting thing is that you will do much of this research for your clients anyway, including some of the photographs and web sites. All you need to do is put it in writing and post it. Of course you want to eliminate any confidential topics – but much of the information you provide is common knowledge anyway.

If you’re a real estate agent or have ever dealt with one, what additional information would you suggest to be interesting to our grocery store millionaire-to-be?

A report from an event …

An Inspiration

Yesterday’s second Mental Health Voices breakfast truly left me “inspired and enthusiastic about the possibility of recovering from mental illness”, as Jonathan Oldman, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association put it so eloquently.

Last October, the CMHA’s Vancouver/Burnaby branch put on this event for the first time. It was so successful that this year, six other branches adapted the concept and held a similar event.

Mental illness is still a taboo; this despite the fact that today in North America, mental health related disability claims are higher than any other disability claims.

It was encouraging to hear the voices of people who are willing to stick out and break that taboo.

Vancouver’s Chinese community

And none more than Jim Wang. In a video vignette (beautifully and professionally done by Lemongrass Media), this sprightly elder spoke about CMHA’s Chinese Community Program, a mental health program for Vancouver’s large and vibrant Chinese community. Traditionally, in Chinese culture, too many people are afraid to share their stories of adversity and particularly mental illness.

But - “I am very proud to tell my story,” said Jim Wang. Every person has a story that needs to be told. His was of a hectic professional schedule, filled with music and tennis in his time off work. And then suddenly, his motivation dropped. He fell into a deep depression, one that required his concerned family to take him to a hospital.

Volunteering - Becoming happier and happier, and healthier and healthier

In the course of his mental illness, he came across one of CMHA’s Chinese Mental Health Screening booths. Soon, he became a volunteer. “CMHA is like a home to me, and I needed to do something that was beneficial for other people.”

Says Stella Lee, who operates the Chinese Mental Health Screening program: “At our first booth at a health fair, people just walked by us, some saying, ‘Oh, that’s for crazy people.’” But that has changed.

When symptoms of mental illness are observed, the traditional reaction by many people of Chinese origin is till often that they want to deal with it themselves and don’t want to see a doctor. However, through outreach efforts like this and ambassadors like Jim Wang, there are now many more who participate in the mental health screening events.

“We must share our difficulties,” says Jim Wang, “Life is so valuable. CMHA helps people to live life more fully, to become healthier and healthier and happier and happier.”

Mental Health Voices

Mental Health Voices is CMHA Burnaby branch’s signature fund raising event. The event takes place annually during National Mental Illness Awareness Week. It is a complimentary breakfast by special invitation. During the hour, CMHA presents an award to a local, public or community figure who has openly discussed the impact of mental illness on their lives.

Most importantly, the event showcases how people who use CMHA’s services are successfully dealing with the challenges of living with a mental illness. The program is lively and mixes video with speeches by a wide variety of people involved in the CMHA, from program users to staff to volunteers.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the people who accompanied me to this great event and generously donated, including web developer Zoe Neill-St.Clair and her partner, real estate investor Gary Herriot, wellness coach Billie Sinclair, real estate agent MJ Ankenman and financial advisor Vanson Field.

We’ve been extolling the virtues of blogging for quite a while. But just to prove that we’re not alone, here are examples of others talking about the usefulness and profitability of small business blogging.

A summary of Wayne Hurlbert’s Business blogs: small business secret weapon

Business blogs are a secret weapon for the small business owner. The power of a business blog is that it is global.

Startup entrepreneurs used to be confined by geography and limited cash flow to a very localized area, which was often insufficient to develop a viable customer base. Opportunities for minor niche markets were simply not possible.

The introduction of the internet removed those distance barriers and entrepreneurs began to add an online component to their business. However, often, their internet activity started and ended with activating a web site and dreams of customers surf magically to the site, were soon dashed.

The business blog is the great equalizer for small business. With a blog, and its built in search engine optimization ranking power, the lone entrepreneur can compete on a level playing field with the giant corporations.

Bill Slawski of Searchengineland talks about the positive impact encountered by the first business blog he worked on.

In the years that it has been operating, the blog has had a very positive impact upon his business:
1. Repeated mentions in local newspapers and magazines
2. Profiled in national publications like USA Today
3. Appeared as an example in a book on blogging as a way of enhancing a professional reputation
4. Attracted business from local customers as well as national and international clients
5. Ranked high in search engines for a wide variety of keyword phrases, ahead of much larger competitors
6. Engaged other practitioners in the same field to discuss and enter into consultation on a variety of topics
7. Suggested other services that he might provide to his clients

Finally, at Pajama Market, 101 reasons for small businesses to have a blog. Here are 10 of them:

1. tons of repeat traffic
2. receive testimonials through the comments
3. gets links from tons of other websites
4. your posts can be emailed easily
5. create a user poll
6. you will become connected to your audience (i.e. your customers)
7. angry customers will leave comments, but
8. you will be able to respond publicly and fairly, and
9. other customers, good customers, will defend you
10. your company will be more transparent, more accountable, and more honest, and your customers will respond to that