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Monthly Archives: February 2009

RSS Tips: How to Feed Blog-News Subscriptions into Outlook 2007

Posted on February 4, 2009

Do you know what RSS stands for? Do you care? You do, if you want to get news delivered somewhere to you automatically online. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s like ordering online subscriptions to blogs, news sites, twitter updates or any content that has an RSS feed. Sounds kind of fancy to have your own syndication system when you think about it, but every blogger and person on twitter does.

If you’re on our email news update list [powered by aweber: affiliate link], you get emails twice a week: a weekly blog collection on Tuesdays and a personal communication that doesn’t appear anywhere else from me on Thursdays. What most people don’t know, and I forget to tell them, that you can subscribe to all of my updates with RSS distribution. I wish every email provider offered this service. How many times have you had to go back and mine your inbox for news from a community group?

Once you order your RSS subscription or feed, it has to have a place to go where you can find in online. Lots of people like to use Google’s reader to organize their feeds. Some people follow hundreds of blogs so they like to have a system that lets them choose favorites and share like Google’s reader does. Here’s a video from Common Craft about how RSS works.

 

Even if you have a feed reader [AKA RSS newsstand], you might still like to get your feeds in your email inbox. And, there is way to do that – as long as you have Outlook 2007. Some bloggers also offer email updates. Here’s a video that walks you how to sync your RSS feeds with your Outlook 2007 inbox from Robert Imbriale.

rss-via-email

I like the way Robert shows you exactly how to set up your Outlook Inbox to receive blog feeds. Every time you click send/receive any recent blog or news updates go directly into your Outlook 2007 inbox. You can monitor all of your RSS and email activity all on one screen. Thanks to Robert for telling me about this resource so I could share it with you.

How do you manage your RSS feeds?

 

1 Comment - Posted in Publicity Tagged with: ,

How to Write a Professional Speaker Recommendation

Posted on February 3, 2009

Groups give speakers get all kinds of gifts: flowers, chocolate, gift certificates. One of the best “gifts” you can give a speaker is a recommendation. Although I use critique sheets for reviews, it’s not often that a get a group review like this one from West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs.

What I like about this format:

  • includes group comments
  • talks about usable ideas
  • gives ideas on how to expand the presentation

Professional Speaker Recommendation for Barbara Rozgonyi’s How to Build Your Business with Online Networking for Women Entrepreneurs

Thanks so much to everyone in the group who wrote the following recommendation:

West Suburban Woman Entrepreneurs would like to acknowledge Barbara Rozgonyi from CoryWest Media. She joined us January 15, 2009, at William Tell in Countryside to share her wisdom and insight about “How To Build Your Business With Online Networking.”

The WSWE Speaker-Evaluation opinions about her presentation were all in agreement: Barbara definitely met our expectations! Her program gave insight on the timely topic of online networking. Her material was useful to our current business needs. Her presentation style was interactive, engaging, and thorough. She was friendly, focused, exceptionally knowledgeable, and relaxed. She inspired and motivated members and their guests, many of whom reported they plan to sign up for or update their listings in online networking communities like “LinkedIn.”

Some comments that WSWE members shared include:

  • Great information for those not familiar with the topic

· The handout allowed audience to focus on the speaker. (Many) liked the size and content of handout.

  • “Great speaker and great topic for today’s techno savvy consumers!”
  • Speaker presented ideas for every level of experience

The most usable ideas gained from his presentation were:

  • Taking small steps to implement this way of networking
  • How to set up for a new user
  • Reserving individual domain names
  • Forming accountability groups
  • Suggested action steps and accountability groups

If we had more time or if we could have added something more, our members would have appreciated:

  • Walk through a sample “LinkedIn” setup
  • How to specifically use sites to stimulate business

We recommend Barbara to any professional group seeking to educate and inspire its members.

Sincerely,

Members of WSWE ~ West Suburban Woman Entrepreneurs ~ www.wswe.org

Are you an event planner? How do you recognize your speakers?

3 Comments - Posted in PR, Publicity, Speaking Tagged with: ,

Blog Redesign Priorities | Reader Survey

Posted on February 2, 2009

I’m getting ready to redesign this blog and I’m asking for your help. After writing over 550 blog posts, it’s safe to say I like what I’m doing.

But, do my readers? How can I make visiting this blog a better experience for them?

Click Here to take a quick blog redesign survey

Now that I’m ready to upgrade, I made this list of priorities. What’s missing? What changes would you like to see?

Blog Redesign Priorities

  1. Always on –find a host that can handle traffic
  2. Easy to remember – www.wiredprworks.com is redirected to the actual URL, http://barbararozgonyi-wiredprworks.com, a temporary [at the time-September 2007] URL. How will changing to the new URL affect my traffic and rankings? Is there a way to roll over my posts, should I start fresh? What’s the best way to move to a new URL?
  3. Is www.wiredprworks.com the best choice?
  4. Get a logo, a header and a headshot. Although I have a logo for my company, I don’t have one for the blog/publication.
  5. Establish an editorial calendar with guest interviews and monthly themes.
  6. Lower the bounce rate – do people think the site’s too plain or are they not finding what they’re looking for?
  7. Add places for product and service promotions so that readers can expand their knowledge.
  8. Clarify the calls to action in the post footer and in the sidebar, maybe add a popover?
  9. Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.
  10. Show readers where to connect: twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
  11. Display most popular posts, recent posts and comments.
  12. Be memorable and welcoming – have a type of home page now, but is it working?
  13. Design based on usability – look at flow, pages and patterns.
  14. Make RSS feed more prominent.
  15. Reflect branding.
  16. Optimize search capabilities.
  17. Rank higher on Google.
  18. Invite first time readers to subscribe or add a header in each post with an invitation.
  19. Decide if the company site should be integrated with the blog.
  20. Partner with a designer who understands SEO, blogging, WordPress, affiliate marketing and ecommerce.   

That’s what I came up with, now let’s check in with the expert.

Here, Problogger Darren Rowse talks blog redesign and why first impressions matter – check out the way he changes his look in the beginning of the video.

 

How would you upgrade or enhance Wired PR Works?

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6 Comments - Posted in Marketing Blog