Which companies are doing great things with business blogs and which should you benchmark as you develop your own business blog?  I’m going to point you in the direction of two companies whose business blogs you should be reading.

First up — Nuts About Southwest from Southwest Airlines

The Nuts About Southwest blog from Southwest Airlines has been a blog to watch for years.  It’s written by Southwest Airlines employees who are given the freedom to write posts with their own voices and telling their own stories.  I’d recap what the blog is all about here, but you really need to read the About page on the Nuts About Southwest blog to truly understand what makes this blog stand out from the crowd and really connect with readers.

And second — Zappos Blogs

Zappos is another example of a company that does great things with its business blogs.  Zappos operates a number of business blogs, but the two you need to check out first are the main Zappos blog and the Zappos CEO and COO blog.  Even though the former Zappos CEO has left the company, his posts during his tenure (pre-May 2010) demonstrate a company executive who actually “gets” social media.

What business blogs do you read to benchmark as you develop your own?  Leave a comment and share your opinion.

All images, pictures, drawings, and so on are owned by the person who originally created them and are protected under copyright laws in the United States.

Therefore, if you’re a U.S. business or using images on your blog owned by an individual from the United States, then you need to either have permission to use that image or pay to use that image.  Alternately, that image needs to hold a copyright license that allows you to use it on your blog without paying a royalty or asking permission.

That’s a lot to consider.  How do you find images to use on your business blog without violating copyright laws and without having to pay or ask for permission all the time?

Fortunately, there are website that provide free stock photography or images with Creative Commons licenses that allow you to publish them on your blog as long as you provide attribution with a link back to the owner (as well as any other requirements listed with the image).

Following are several trustworthy websites where you can find images that you can freely use on your business blog as long as you follow the requirements published with each image:

1. stock.xchng

Stock.xchng offers a variety of royalty-free images that you can use on your business blog for free as long as you follow the restrictions provided along with each image.  The site also offers a lot of premium images, but you have to pay to use those.

2. morgueFile

MorgueFile, like stock.xchng, offers a variety of stock images that you can use for free as long as you follow the specific requirements attached to each image (typically just providing attribution is enough).

3. Picapp

Picapp is a great solution for people who need images of celebrities or current events for their business blogs.  Images are published on your blog with a link back to Picapp where visitors can find more images (it’s like a form of advertising for Picapp and how it’s how they’re able to allow you to use the images for free).  Image owners are paid when their images are used by publishers and bloggers like you.

4. FreeFoto

FreeFoto offers a wide variety of royalty-free images that you can use for free as long as you provide attribution.  These images do include a small FreeFoto watermark.

5. Dreamstime

Dreamstime is another good source that you can use to find free images that you can legally use on your blog.  You can also access Dreamstime images through morgueFile.

Image: stock.xchng

An important part of email marketing is getting permission to send marketing emails to someone before you hit the send key.  That means, you need a way to get people to opt-in to receive your marketing emails.  Whether you send a newsletter or promotional offer, you still need people to opt-in before you can send information that might be deemed solicitous via email.  You also need to provide an easy way for them to opt-out of receiving emails from you later.

With that in mind, you can use your business blog as a tool to collect email addresses.  But proceed with caution!  You don’t want the process of obtaining opt-in email addresses to damage the user experience on your business blog.  Remember, successful social media marketing stems from the removal of the gateways to content sharing and conversations.  The last thing you want to do is insist that people provide their email addresses and opt into receiving email messages from you in order to view your shareworthy content.  That content should be freely accessible without barriers.

Therefore, your goal in collecting opt-in email addresses through your business blog is to make the process not seem disruptive.  Here are 5 easy ways to do it:

1. Hold a blog contest.

People love contests, and a contest offers a perfect time to request email addresses and invite people to opt into receiving your email newsletter and marketing emails.  If you use WordPress.org as your blogging application, I recommend Gravity Forms to help you create the entry form to meet your specifications.

2. Include a message at the end of your blog posts.

The message can invite people to sign up for your emails for special offers and information.  Link the message to an opt-in form page on your business blog.

3. Include an ad in your blog feed.

Many bloggers monetize their blog feeds with ads.  Why not advertise your special offer emails with a link to your opt-in form page on your business blog?

4. Include an ad and link in your business blog sidebar.

You should already have links in your business blog sidebar for visitors to subscribe to your blog or follow you on Twitter, Facebook, and so on.  Why not include an ad or link to the email opt-in form page on your business blog or create a form that’s available directly in the sidebar rather than on a separate page (just keep it short).

5. Use an email opt-in plug-in.

If you use WordPress.org, there are a number of plugins that allow you to easily add a double opt-in form to your business blog.  Check out WP-Opt-in or WP Email Capture or conduct a search in the WordPress Plugins Directory.  For example, follow the link to check out the results for a search on “email opt-in“.

Image: stock.xchng

I often write about cool websites built on WordPress.org that you’d never know are built on a blogging application in the BusinessLogs WordPress for Business Websites series.

Today, I’m going to point you in the direction of 10 websites that are built on WordPress.org that will surprise you.  These sites come from large corporations, political organizations, universities, celebrities and more.

If you’re not sold on what the free WordPress.org blogging application can do for your business blog and website, click through to see some of these examples.  (Note: these are in no particular order.)

1. MTVU

This site is owned by MTV and uses a WordPress magazine theme to draw attention to a wide variety of articles.

2. Boston University Admissions

Several sites owned by Boston University run on Wordpress, including the official Boston University Admissions site.

3. Jay-Z

Many celebrities use WordPress, and if WordPress is good enough for Jay-Z …

4 . Forbes Blogs

I write for a Forbes blog (Work in Progress), so I can attest to the fact that Forbes blogs do run on WordPress.

5. National Geographic

This is a cool one!  The National Geographic site in the Netherlands is built on WordPress showing its popularity around the world.

6. Harvard University

Need to see an Ivy League school using WordPress to really be impressed?  Check out the Harvard Gazette.

7. Nokia – Now Playing

Want to see a well-known consumer products brand using WordPress?  Check out Now Playing by Nokia.

8. United States Mission Geneva

Even government agencies use WordPress.  Visit the United States Mission to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva site to see an example.

9. Pepsi Refresh Blog

Another big brand using WordPress is Pepsi as part of its popular Pepsi Refresh campaign.

10. The Toledo Museum of Art

Even museums use WordPress!  Check out the Toledo Museum of Art site.

What cool business sites do you know of that run on WordPress or another popular blogging application?  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

It’s easy to create a blog, publish a few posts, and think you’ve got a great business blog.  But guess what?  A successful business blog requires a lot more work than that.  The social web does not operate like the Field of Dreams, and if you build it, they will not necessarily come.

Building a successful business blog takes commitment, persistence and patience.  Most importantly, there are a few fundamentals that you need to make sure you address if you want your business blog to thrive in the long term.

Five of the most important fundamentals are described below to help you take your business blog to the next level of success:

1. Unique design and branding

Don’t start a blog using one of the free templates that comes with your chosen blogging application.  Doing so does nothing to communicate your brand promise and makes your business look “small-time” because there are likely to be many other blogs of varying calibers across the web that use the same design.  Instead, invest in a premium theme or custom design by working with a freelance blog designer to make your business blog match your business brand and instantly communicate your brand image.

2. Well written About page

Take the time to write a concise yet compelling About page that describes who you are, what your business does, and what sets you apart from competitors.  Also, make sure that your About page communicates what value your blog brings to your audience.  Consider working with a professional copywriter to make this page really shine.

3. Contact form

Your business blog needs a good contact form.  If you use WordPress.org as your blogging application, check out the free Contact Form 7 for an easy-to-use solution.  If you use WordPress.org and are willing to invest a bit of money to get a powerful contact form tool that you can use for far more than just contact forms, check out Gravity Forms.  This plugin has a price tag, but it’s excellent!

4. Social links

If your business has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, SlideShare, or any other social site, make sure you promote those destinations on your business blog by including prominent links and inviting visitors to connect with you on those sites.  You can even include social media icons to cross-promote your other social profiles.

5. Subscription area

Take the time to create your business blog’s feed using a tool like Feedburner, and then include an area on your business blog where you can invite visitors to subscribe to your blog via feed reader or email, which gives you an opportunity to stay top-of-mind amongst an opt-in audience who has already made it clear that they are interested in you, your content, and your business.

Image: stock.xchng

Recently, I published a call for submissions from businesses that use WordPress to create their business websites asking them to participate in the WordPress for Business Websites series here on BusinessLogs.

The purpose of this series is to show all the amazing things businesses can do with WordPress.org.  Suffice it to say, WordPress.org lets you create much more than a blog!

You can submit your WordPress site for inclusion in the WordPress for Business Websites series by following the link and leaving a comment with your URL in this post.

Today’s WordPress for Business Websites featured business is Small Farm Design.

As Craig Kistler of Small Farm Design explained in his submission:

“I can’t recommend Wordpress enough. Even if my clients have no desire to update their own site, I’ll still build it on WordPress just to make my job of updating easier.  I use my site as an example of what is possible.”

One of the things I really like about the Small Farm Design site is the attention to detail applied to the color palette.  Notice that link colors, background colors, comment section colors in blog posts, and even image colors (such as the Twitter icon near the top of the sidebar) are seamlessly integrated.  Check out the screenshot of a blog post on the Small Farm Design site shown below.

Craig also explained in his submission:

“I recommend WordPress to many of my clients that want a CMS. It makes things easier for me as a designer. The code is pretty easy to design templates around as well.  My site is WordPress all the way. It makes it easy to add portfolio items quickly. I also love the easy Twitter and Flickr integration.”

A sample page from the Small Farm Design online portfolio is shown below.

Even the forms on the Small Farm Design site are clean and use the same color palette that gives the brand a unique image.

Small Farm Design demonstrates that WordPress can do so much more than enabling you to publish blog posts.  Whether you need a fully customized elaborate website for your business or a very simple design and structure, you can do it with WordPress.

To have your website considered for the WordPress for Business Websites series here on BusinessLogs, follow this link, and leave a comment on the Call for Business Submissions post with your company website’s URL.

An important part of building a business blog is the commenting feature that turns your blog posts into active, engaging, and ongoing conversations.  However, it can be challenging and time consuming for visitors to your business blog to follow those conversations because they have to manually return to a specific post periodically to check for new comments, not knowing if they’ll find new comments when they get there or not.

Fortunately, business blogs built using WordPress.org can make it extremely easy to keep up with ongoing conversations on blog posts with the Subscribe to Comments plugin.

In simplest terms, this WordPress plugin is a must-have for business blogs.  One of the most amazing parts of blogging as a marketing tool is the ability it gives you to create a community around your blog and build relationships with the members of that community.  Comments turn your blog into a two-way conversation, and the Subcribe to Comments WordPress plugin makes it easy for that conversation to continue.

Here’s how it works:

1. You install and activate the Subscribe to Comments plugin from your WordPress dashboard.
2. Once activated, visitors to your blog will see a check box followed by the message, “Notify me of follow up comments via email” after the comment form at the end of all of your blog posts.
3. Visitors who complete the comment form and leave a comment on one of your blog posts can check that check box to subscribe and be notified when more comments are published on that post only.
4. Once subscribed, visitors will receive an email message each time a new comment is published on that post.

The image below shows what the comment section looks like at the end of a blog post (along with the Subscribe to Comments check box and message).

The Subscribe to Comments WordPress plugin is one of the first plugins you should add to your business blog.  It’s extremely easy to set up and use, but it’s effect on your blog’s growth and interactivity can be significant.

What’s your favorite WordPress plugin for your business blog?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Find more WordPress plugins for business blogs.

Images: stock.xchng and WomenOnBusiness.com

The success of your business blog is dependent on multiple components, and three of the most important components are: brand, design and usability.

Think of it this way — your business blog content is only as good as how it is received by visitors.  That means you need to not only write shareworthy content, but you also need to adhere to your brand promise by presenting a business blog that is well-developed and designed.  In other words, brand, design and usability must live cohesively in order for your business blog to be the best it can be.

Let’s look at those three keys to business blogging success more closely:

1. Brand

Your business blog is an excellent channel to communicate your brand promise, messages and image and enables you to connect with and build relationships with consumers around the world.  It gives you a unique opportunity to develop loyal brand advocates who will help you spread the word about your brand, defend your brand, and build your business both on and off the social web.  Follow the link to learn about business blogging and brand building.

2. Design

Your business blog design creates an immediate perception in consumers’ minds about your brand and instantly creates expectations for the business behind that blog.  It’s essential that you invest the time and money necessary to design a blog that clearly communicates your brand promise.  For example, when I created my blog for women working in the field of business, Women on Business, one of my goals was to bridge the gender gap that’s inherently part of the business world.  Therefore, I avoided using pink and other overtly feminine elements in the design.  Ensure that your blog design is appropriate for your business, brand and audience for maximum impact.

3. Usability

Your business blog should be easy to use.  In other words, it should load quickly, have clear navigation, and just work.  For awhile, every new website and blog was filled with flash animation, pop-up ads, and other nifty features that seemed cool but really only hurt the user experience on the site or blog.  That’s because people want to be able to find the information they want or need quickly.  The Internet is a cluttered place and people are fickle in their travels across the web.  If they can’t find the information they’re looking for on your business blog quickly, then they’ll leave and find another blog to suit their needs.

For example, visit the Walt Disney World website when you have a few minutes (or perhaps many minutes).  This is a perfect example of a website that is simply not usable.  It takes forever for pages to load, often they load incorrectly, and it’s simply a cumbersome site to navigate due to all the extra animation, features, etc. cluttering every page.  I love Disney.  I live near Disney World.  I have reasons to visit the Disney World website often (e.g., to check park hours, make dining reservations, etc.), but I dread every time that I have to visit because I know I’ll end up annoyed and spending five times longer than I should have to in order to accomplish a simple task.  That’s exactly what you want to avoid on your business blog, so invest both the time and money necessary to ensure your business blog is very usable.

Image: stock.xchng

Building incoming links to your business blog is one of the most important initiatives you can pursue in order to grow your blog.  Not only do incoming links add to the compounding effect of blogging, but they also help boost your search engine rankings. However, before you go out and try to get mountains of incoming links to your business blog, you need to understand the differences between link building and link baiting.

Link Baiting

Link baiting is a short term blog marketing tactic.  Link baiting refers to the process of writing blog posts for the primary purpose of attracting incoming links and boosting traffic.  Link bait posts are typically written about hot topics, they might break news, or they could be controversial.  Sometimes a link bait post might not even be directly related to the blog topic on which it is published.

Link Building

Link building is a long term blog marketing strategy.  Link building refers to the process of writing shareworthy content and building relationships with people both on and off your business blog in an effort to boost organic links and traffic to your blog.  Evergreen blog posts (that stand the test of time) and pillar blog posts (your very best, most informative posts) are examples of  some of the best link building content you can publish on your business blog.

So how can you marry your short term link baiting tactics with your long term link building strategy in order to develop a successful business blog?

Link baiting helps to drive new visitors to your business blog who may not have found it otherwise, particularly if you are one of the first online sources to write about breaking news.  Hopefully, some of those visitors will like the content they find on your blog and return, eventually becoming loyal readers.  The key is to keep them on your blog and coming back again and again by offering value-added link building content as well as traffic-driving link baiting content.

Therefore, writing link bait blog posts that are directly related to your business blog topic are far more likely to drive new traffic to your blog that might turn into loyal readers than irrelevant link bait blog posts are.  Furthermore, you need to add something of value to the link bait topic if you want new visitors to be motivated to read more of your content than the link bait post.

Finally, it’s important to understand that link bait posts should enhance the conversation happening on your business blog rather than detract from it.  Building a blog is like building a brand.  Consumers develop expectations for a brand over time just as readers develop expectations for a blog over time.  Don’t confuse your loyal audience by publishing link bait contests that are meaningless to them.  In other words, don’t sacrifice confusing, frustrating, or annoying your existing audience in an effort to pick up new readers through irrelevant link bait blog posts.

Image: stock.xchng

As you work to grow your business blog, you’ll notice that the traffic that comes to your blog from search engines can be significant.  How do you get more of that search engine traffic to your blog?

By using search engine optimization techniques as you write your business blog posts, you can attract more search engine traffic to your blog.  Following are five steps you can employ as you write each post you publish on your business blog to make your posts more search-friendly.

1. Use keywords in your blog post title.

First, do some keyword research to learn what keyword phrases related to your business blog are attracting traffic, and select the keyword phrases that you want to focus on to increase targeted traffic to your blog from search engines.  Then, use that keyword phrase in your blog post title.  Following are suggested tools for keyword research:

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool: free
• Google AdWords Traffic Estimator: free
• Wordtracker: free trial available before fees are incurred
• Keyword Discovery: free trial available before fees are incurred

2. Focus on specific keywords in a post.

Pick a keyword phrase that best suits the blog post you’re writing and focus on that one keyword phrase in that post.  Attempting to stuff a single blog post with multiple keyword phrases is likely to do more harm than good.

3. Use keywords in and around links in your blog post.

Search engines like Google value text within and around links higher than other body text in your blog posts.  Therefore, try to use keywords in hyperlinks when you can.

4. Use keywords at the beginning and end of your blog post with a sprinkling within your post, too.

Try to use your keyword phrase within the first 200 characters of your blog post, several times throughout your post (depending on the length of the post), and near the end of your post.

5. Use keywords in images.

Search engines like Google use the text included in the image HTML Alt-tag (the alternate text that displays online if an image cannot load) as part of their search ranking algorithms.  Therefore, it’s important that you take the time to name your image files with keywords in mind and use those keywords in the Alt-tag when you publish those images in your blog posts.

Whatever you do, don’t sacrifice the quality and readability of your blog posts just so you can fit your keyword phrases.  Remember, much of your business blog’s success comes from writing amazing, shareworthy content that people want to write about, talk about, and link to.  If your blog post quality suffers because you’re trying desperately to fill it with keyword phrases, no one will want to write about it, talk about it, or link to it, and you won’t benefit from the compounding effect of blogging.

And of course, be sure to read about the 5 easiest ways to get banned by Google and avoid committing those wrongs on your business blog.

Image: stock.xchng