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Posts tagged: Business Blog

ooVoo Hosts Blogger Video Chats as Frozen Pea Fundraiser

Posted on February 7, 2008

Hat tips to Gavin for letting me know about My ooVoo Day and to Abraham Harrison for the details.What would it be like to talk to your favorite blogger in person? Thanks to ooVoo, you don’t have to travel to a blog or social media conference to find out.In a brilliant promotion [check out this video chat example from their agency, crayonville], the company enlisted top bloggers and asked them to give away their time – in 15 minute increments – in exchange for supporting the Frozen Pea Fund to Fight Breast Cancer.To schedule your session, go to the My ooVoo Day site, pick your blogger and your time slot. You’ll need to download the ooVoo software that makes it possible to chat live via video.As a former helloWorld affiliate who began using online video in 2004, I can see the benefits of using this free product. Here’s the line-up . . . let me know who you’re signed up with and how your chat went.

Find the ooVoo group on Facebook.

Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

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Instant Blog Builder Workshop: Bring Your Laptop and Click |3-15 Chicago

Posted on February 7, 2008

BarbaraRozgonyi-RaySilverstein

3-11-08 Update

Workshop rescheduled. Stay tuned! Contact Barbara to set up your web PR publishing platform. 

When Ray Silverstein [that's me with Ray in the photo] contacted me to talk about doing a Blogging for Business workshop in Chicago, the power went out and our phones were dead – talk about an electrifying conversation! We got back in touch and set a date. After the presentation, several people came up and asked me to present a live blog workshop event.

Knowing how long it took me to get enough courage to set up my own blog, 2 years, I decided to set a date, announce the workshop and see who shows up. If you’re reading this, you may already be a blogger or at least you know something about the blogosphere. Know anyone in the Chicago area who wants to blog, but doesn’t know how to get started? Then, send them to http://www.howtoblogworkshop to sign up.

Here’s the promo . . .

Ever wished you could have a blog, but didn’t think you had enough technical expertise or content to add a blog to your marketing mix?

Then, the How to Build a Blog workshop is for you!

Presented by: CoryWest Media, LLC

Speaker: Barbara Rozgonyi, social media genius and master blogger, will walk you through every step it takes to build your own business blog in a hands-on workshop setting.

Best for: entrepreneurs, small businesses, nonprofits and aspiring subject matter experts

When: Saturday, March 15, 2008 from 9:00-1:00

Where: Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, 645 W. North Avenue, Lombard, IL

Fee: $297 before March 1, $397 after (includes coffee and continental breakfast)

Register online at: http://www.howtoblogworkshop.com

Bring: your laptop and credit card to purchase hosting – around $90

Curriculum

Why Blog: An Overview

Essential Elements: Key Ingredients for Blog Success

Behind the Screen: Setting up Your Self-Hosted WordPress blog

Presenting Your Blog: Selection Themes and Widgets

Communicating with Your Community

Guarantee: You will walk away with a live blog and the resources you need to submit your blog to directories, track your progress and keep the content flowing. If, at any time after the first two hours you decide this program is not for you, let Barbara know and she will cheerfully refund you registration fee.

Rave Reviews from Blogging for Business 101

“Since your presentation, Barbara, I have activated one new blog, at wordpress, which I had never previously heard of, added a couple of posts to another new one, upgraded my profile on LinkedIn, signed myself up for Google Alerts, checked myself out on Google and was amazed at some of what I found, and followed up on a conversation with another attendee who may be a new business lead. Not a bad ROI for my time. Thanks.” Larry

“Thanks, as always, for sharing such good info. You are a wealth of knowledge … and my favorite resource for what’s up and coming. clip_image001And thanks to the seminar, I’m moving ahead with getting a blog launched. Can’t wait for the bootcamp!” Jenny Hamby

Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

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20 Reasons to Begin Blogging and Forget Updating Your Site

Posted on February 6, 2008

bubbleblog You don’t have to choose between blogging and updating your website. You can do both. If you don’t yet have a blog, get one – now. Waiting another year or two to jump in will put you way, way, way behind your competition. The race for SEO keyword market share is on and there’s one sure way to stay in shape: become a blogger with an opinion.

Take a look at 20 reasons our clients – small businesses, entrepreneurs, nonprofits and subject matter experts – are either adding blogs to their sites or are transitioning to a blog platform as their main site:

  1. puts your online presence under you control with a easy to set up, host and maintain on your own blog
  2. simplifies content creation, no HTML or Web design software required- article on free blog composer tool
  3. saves money on website design and maintenance [sometimes tens of thousands of dollars]
  4. makes updates instantaneous – eliminates sluggish turnarounds
  5. opens up a community conversation that enriches your client relationships with two-way commentary
  6. allows you to upload multimedia content with a few clicks
  7. submits your posts/articles into multiple search engines more quickly
  8. positions you as an expert in your niche – if that’s what you want
  9. supports sales and customer service functions with categories that
  10. organizes and displays information by topic – automatically
  11. serves as an always-on PR platform for the media and searchers looking for information on your niche
  12. delivers daily measurements/insights you can’t get from a site like who stopped by, where they came from and what they clicked on
  13. sends out updates via email or an RSS feed subscription service
  14. connects you to the blogging community where link love is given freely
  15. differentiates you/your company as innovative, modern and influential surprises you with new connections and business opportunities that pop up when people read your blog
  16. gets you into blog conferences where you’ll meet other bloggy-types
  17. gives you a reason to write and have an opinion
  18. grants you a place to share with guest bloggers
  19. sends updates to cell phones – at your reader’s request
  20. lets you blog from your phone, with text, image and video uploads

What did I miss?

Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

 

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Designing Your Blog for Business on the Web | Model Sites

Posted on February 5, 2008

Problogger is hosting a contest to win a copy of Web Design for ROI. webdesignforROI

To enter, you need to leave a comment about a blog theme you love [Darren's word] and use the keyword web design.

This post is a good place to see what other people find attractive. I found NorthXEast, a 2007 Best Blog Design nominee, on the list at Performancing.

Here’s my entry:

Really enjoying reading this list – just wrote a post about blog themes and am adding this entry as a follow up. It’s hard to choose one absolute favorite blog based on web design – there so many good ones out there, including yours!

Here’s my entry:

What I love about http://www.northxeast.com . . .

Identity
NorthxEast, image shows direction with a compass image

Tagline
Umissable Weekly Articles for Bloggers – states frequency [weekly], for who [bloggers], what the reader will find [articles]; and what kind [unmissable] with a word you probably won’t see anywhere else

Image
Two starfish touching arms on a beach with a surf in the background, especially attractive on this drippy, grey and cold Chicago winter day

Color palette
Black backdrop offsets the teal, orange and neutral elements

Architecture
The list of weekly articles with number of comments on the home page reads like a table of contents, easy to browse

Featured article
Like the big, bold type and the author’s name above the post

Graphic elements
Previous articles icon calls attention as an askew bookmark above the article index. The teal divider band is similar to a graphic element I use on my site. I call it a “ribbon.”

Nav tabs
Simple direction to four pages

Blogroll
Great call to action: Obey the title: “Blogs every blogger should read” – and feed into the collection

Bonus Points
Content is remarkable, relevant and unmissable.

Tell us which blog/design is your “best-loved” . . .

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Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

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Restyling Blog Themes | Free Resources

Posted on February 4, 2008

blogroadsign

If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog [affiliate link], you know how easy it is to change themes. Download, save, upload, extract and click. And, if you’ve checked in here lately, you know I’ve been doing lots of that.

Changing looks runs in my family. If we have an outfit for everything, why shouldn’t our blogs be as expressive?

What I look for in a theme:

- clean and simple backdrop to the content

- room for widgets

- three columns, 2 look nice, but don’t hold everything

- a plain header with room for a banner ad

- quick loads directly from the theme; one I recently purchased loads with all the categories scattered on top lending a refrigerator poetry magnet feel, which is artsy, but cluttered and not the way the template is supposed to look

- colors I like – I like most colors so this is a pretty simple test to pass

- an obvious comment link – my last theme’s comment link was buried in the post footer, making it almost impossible to find out how to respond

- a designer I like, the current theme [probably different by the time you read this] is from a company in India, while I like international design, I would prefer to imagine that someday I would meet the blog designer at a conference

Update: above is now false because the theme is different

- user guide, which is missing from most of the free themes

Some places to find free themes:

Osskins – free WordPress, Joomla and Drupal themes

Free WordPress themes

SkinPress

Design Disease

WordPress Theme Viewer

I must confess I’m on the edge of updating to a more professional, staid presence. What’s holding me back? I’d have to look the same everyday. Maybe I could just change accessories. . .

From a marketing-PR perspective, changing your look may be fun, but it’s also confusing [I know, I should listen to my own advice.] People feel comfortable when they see things that look the same.

Your turn – how often do you change themes?

Contact Barbara about advertising, a creative project or a speaking opportunity.

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