Sample Page
This is an example page. It’s different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this:
Hi there! I’m a bike messenger by day, aspiring actor by night, and this is my blog. I live in Los Angeles, have a great dog named Jack, and I like piña coladas. (And gettin’ caught in the rain.)
…or something like this:
The XYZ Doohickey Company was founded in 1971, and has been providing quality doohickies to the public ever since. Located in Gotham City, XYZ employs over 2,000 people and does all kinds of awesome things for the Gotham community.
As a new WordPress user, you should go to your dashboard to delete this page and create new pages for your content. Have fun!
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 1:47 am in Blog Writing, Uncategorized | 2 comments
If you really want to build readership, then you have to keep at it – when you’re tired, when you’re busy and when you’re uninspired. It will get easier. And then it may get hard again, and then it will get easier…like everything else in life.
I was reminded of this by a recent post by a colleague, Kevin Haynes. He’s past his eye balls and up to the crown of his head setting up WebmaxedU, a new website to help small business owners do great things on the web. Yet in the midst of his frenzy, he’s taken up the blog challenge and turning it into a habit.
One of the best things Kevin has done is to define his goal for the blog and how he plans to achieve that. This is the best way to start. You can change things as you go along, but if you know where you want to go, you are more likely to get there.
So what are your goals? Do you want to get a lot of readers? Are you getting material ready for a book? Are you trying to add value for customers? How will you know when you get there?
Oh, by the way — another great thing Kevin did was to post a link to his blog on Facebook. If you want to build readership, it’s important to think about all the ways you can reach people who might be interested in what you’re writing.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 3:25 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
In my last post, I talked about one way to get comments – today, I have an example. This morning, I took the rare step of making a comment on another blog. (Okay, I confess it’s not so rare – I’m not an indiscriminate commenter, but I’m not one to hold back either.)
The subject was one too near and dear to my heart not to say something – it was about grammar rules and when to (gasp) throw them out the window, so to speak. It was written by a blogger for whom I have great respect and who has great insight. Amy Harrison wasn’t saying the rules are bad, she was just pointing out the difference between ad copy and copy that gets you an A in English. As a writer and and editor, I’m generally a stickler for the rules because they generally exist for a reason. When used correctly, they work as friendly traffic cops keeping your sentences moving. Amy’s point was that people get so hung up on the rules that they waste time and drag down the copy. This could be true. At the very least, her post got my attention and made me think about what I think about that.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 3:29 am in Uncategorized | 0 comments
So you’ve got a pretty good blog following and people like your blog – well, at least your best friend and your mom assure you it is pretty good. But, your comment section remains an empty echo chamber. You’ve asked questions. You’ve begged for comments and yet there is a big ole’ goose egg in the box.
If you really want to get ‘em talking, you have to take off the gloves. Say something mean. Say something controversial. Say something people will have to be compelled to respond to.
Let me give you an example. If you are walking down the street in Boston, (not the friendliest of cities) and you say to someone, “Hey, nice tie.” He may give a half-hearted smile but he will more likely raise his eye brows and step quickly away. On the other hand, (and I’m not recommending that you try this) if you say, “That is the ugliest tie I have ever seen,” you are likely to get a very colorful response perhaps laden with some words I can’t repeat here.
I’m not suggesting that you randomly go around insulting people just to get a response. What I am saying is that an effective way to get people’s attention is to say something that’s hard for them to ignore. Write about the reasons you hate Twitter or write about why you love Walmart. In other words, take a strong on stand on something. Open up the debate.
There are good reasons to do this with caution. You may not want to run the risk of offending your readers, especially if you are running a business. Or, you may not want to wade into online arguments with people. There are ways around this. You can write about a controversial topic but stay neutral. Find something that will get people talking. Find something that everyone can get upset about.
What’s a good barometer? Pay attention when you’re offline to what gets people gabbing.
Here are some other people’s thoughts on how to generate comments that you might find interesting:
6 Ways to generate more B2B Blog Comments
How to Generate Blog Comments
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 6:51 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
Blogs are so passe, it’s all about Facebook now, according to a recent article in USA Today.
This is, on the surface, a tad bit alarming to me as someone who is devoted to helping others develop their blog strategies. Is this mode of communication really on its way 
out?
I don’t think so. Rather, I think the falling numbers support what I’ve long contended – that blogging is not for everyone and that in order to be effective, a blogger should have a strategy.
The article sites a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth survey that indicates that the percentage of companies maintaining blogs dropped to 37 percent in 2011 from 50 percent in 2010. The number of Fortune 500 companies maintaining a blog was flat after rising for several years.
Blogging is “free,” but it’s not cheap. It requires the most valuable thing we have – time. The question you have to ask is whether it’s worth it. I’d like to unequivocally say the answer is yes, but more realistically, I say it depends. Is blogging badly better than not blogging at all? Would spending more time on Facebook or Twitter be better? Can Pinterest serve as a decent replacement?
All forms of social media have benefits, but they also have their limits. What do you want to get out of it? How do you want to connect with your readers?
Will blogs significantly decline in popularity? Please, dust off your crystal ball and let me know what you think.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 5:32 pm in Uncategorized | 12 comments
I promised to post ideas that bloggers could use for their own blog posts and I thought I had this week’s post nailed. I 
was planning today to suggest using the blog to share news and then demonstrating with an announcement of my own, but technology got in my way.
I was going to announce that I’m developing a newsletter and that anyone interested in learning more about writing better could sign up on this blog. As of the posting of this post, however, no such sign up exists. I signed up create the newsletter using Mail Chimp. This is easy. Then I went to WordPress to set up the sign up. This is not easy.
At this point, I could have just put off posting until I get it figured out, except that I sort of started this blog challenge and how would it look if after telling everyone how easy it is to post at least once a week, I didn’t?
Just turn to the tickler files, right? Well, as will sometimes happen, nothing there inspired me. So I went on the hunt through other people’s blogs (as suggested in last week’s blog) and came across an excellent explanation on how to use Twitter by J Cambell. It’s a great post about how to effectively and efficiently use this quick-hit social media too.
At this point, I’ve fulfilled the requirements, found something to say and I could file and flee. That’s fine if you’re pressed for time and you feel you have fulfilled your overall goals for your blog. But what if you want to say more? (more…)
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 7:28 pm in Uncategorized | 4 comments
One of the best resources in your ongoing challenge to find fresh blog material is other bloggers. As you surf the web, 
you may come across other posts that spark your interest or that you think might be relevant to your readers. There are a few ways to do this. You could get permission to reprint the blog with credit, but generally the better alternatives are to summarize the post and refer to it, or add your two cents about the subject and refer to it. Allow me to demonstrate.
Marvin Kane, a web developing colleague at kaneworks.com raised the complex issue in a recent blog post of how to define success. His conclusion is that it varies from person to person and changes over time.
What struck me is how relevant this topic is to blogging. What is success in blogging? How will you know if you are a “successful” blogger? Is it the number of posts? The number of readers? The number of comments?
Once you’ve determined what success is, how are you going to get there?
In his post, Marvin offered a few quotes on the topic. My favorite is this one:
“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” –Arnold Glasow
Regardless of how you define success for your blog or yourself, you have to make it happen. For instance, you have to write posts – even if you’re not sure they’re good enough or you’re afraid what others will say about them. Simply put, you will get no more out of a blog than you put into it.
What is your definition of success for your blog? How will you know when you’ve achieved what you want?
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 9:09 pm in Uncategorized | 6 comments
What was that thing I was going to write about? It was a great idea. A blow-your-socks off insightful bit of brilliance. If I 
could just remember what it was. I was driving somewhere, I think. Heard something on the radio that made me think about something I knew would make a great blog entry. Or maybe I was watching television? Or maybe it was at the beach last week when summer dropped in just to tease us.
Now here it is Tuesday and I’m a day past when I wanted to post and I’m pressed for time because of deadlines and I’m tempted to push it off a few more days or maybe just forget this week. But then, what happens next week? And the week after? And the week after that? Why would anyone come to read a blog when all they’re going to find is what they’ve already read?
Part of the solution is to (drum roll please) write down those snippets of ideas as soon as they occur to you! That way, when you are pressed for time or you’re brain dead from a big project, or you’re just plain out of ideas, you’ll have some at your fingertips. Collect them in a “tickler” file that you can dive into when you need a reminder. In fact, you may want to have a few – one on your computer for the electronic items you come across, one on the desk top for papers and one that goes with you. (If you’re feeling crafty, you can make decorate your own like the ones in the photo.)
Save everything and anything that you think might be useful, even if you’re really not sure why just yet. Those ideas will sit in the folder simmering and they might just be ready when you come back to them. You may be surprised to find that you have a completely different idea about what to do with them.
I’ve used this concept on the job with success for years. I have two pieces of advice based on hard earned experience:
- Make sure you put the files in a place where you can find them again
- Don’t forget you have them
Now that you know one of the secrets to generating content for your blog, why not join the 90-day blogging challenge starting April 1? Blog just once a week (or more) through the end of June. I have a top designer working on a Badge of Honor to display on your blog for anyone who completes the challenge.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 3:51 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
The creator of the world’s thinnest wallet is getting ready to release his first infomercial. It’s a big step for the Big Skinny, 
which up until now has largely been sold at shows and on the Internet. This sort of mass exposure has incredible potential, so every detail has to be just right. Take, for example. For this ad, there are just two: luxurious tuxedo black for the daring, dashing and discerning customer and comfortable chocolate brown, for the steady, dependable, let’s just hang out sort.
It would have been easier, and just as accurate, to say that the wallets come in black or brown, but studies have shown that adding a descriptive word increases sales. This make sense; the simple addition of a word creates a story around the color. It’s just a hint, but enough to spark the imagination.
Why settle for plain pink fingernails when they could be painted in pink celebration? And certainly a “racing red” car is more fun to drive than an plain red one.
These words matter just as much in your writing as in advertisements. This goes way beyond colors. (more…)
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 4:37 pm in Uncategorized | 0 comments
One of the best things you can do as a blogger is to share content that you come across on the web. You will find things that could be of interest to your readers, or you might see something that illustrates a point you want to make. In general, bloggers are happy to have their content disseminated by others and you will likely be thrilled if other bloggers pick up your posts.
However, although it seems sometimes that it’s a free-for-all and technology makes it easy to cut and paste, the laws still apply. You can still get in trouble for things like infringing on copy rights and defamation. This was the topic of a recent South by Southwest Interactive Festival panel discussion. You can read more about that panel discussion at SmartBlog on Social Media.
Posted by Jennifer Powell on 9:28 pm in Uncategorized | 2 comments
Do business bloggers suffer from Rodney Dangerfield syndrome? Getting “No respect, no respect at all?”
Yes, according a recent survey of ten well-read bloggers by the Ten Company and Gotham Research Group.
These bloggers working for top tier national, regional and trade outlets said they believe that chief executives don’t take them seriously enough. They said there is a lack of appreciation for their power and potential influence. They also said they feel that companies are slow to respond and public relations staff are too controlling.
As a veteran journalist, I can tell you this is not new. It’s long been an issue for reporters. It is probably a challenge that dates back to the ancient scribes. Sometimes it’s because of the media outlet for which they work. Sometimes it’s because the reporter lacks creditability or respect. Sometimes it’s because companies simply don’t recognize the importance or potential of good media relations. (more…)
