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

Following are five easy tips to help you pick the best domain name for your business blog:

1. Understand extensions.

There are many Web address extensions available these days with .com, .net and .biz being the most popular options for business sites.  While .com is still the most popular, it’s perfectly acceptable to use a .net or .biz domain name, and doing so won’t detrimentally affect your site’s traffic.

2. Remember search engine optimization.

Do some keyword research using a keyword analysis tool like Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery or the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool.  Including keywords in your domain name that your target audience is likely to use in searches when they’re looking for sites and information like you provide on your business blog can provide a significant boost in search engine traffic.

3. Avoid confusing elements.

Your domain name should be easy to remember and spell.  Therefore, avoid using unusual spellings of common words.  Also, avoid using numbers and punctuation that can be confusing (e.g., 4 or four?).  The best domain names can be verbally communicated without any spelling or clarification required.

4. Consider intuitive vs. creative concerns.

Just as specific elements within your domain name can be confusing, so can words or messages in domain names.  For example, you might like the idea of making up a word for your domain name, but doing so can cause confusion until people learn what that word is, how to spell it, and what it stands for.  That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to have success with a domain name that is highly creative — think of domain names like Squidoo.com or Flickr.com.  However, it takes longer to build recognition of a creative domain name than it does for an intuitive domain name.

5. Don’t worry if the domain you want is already taken.

It is very possible that you might put together a list of 10 domain names that you would consider using for your business blog, search for the availability of those domain names, and learn that none of them are available with a .com extension.  Don’t worry!  There are a number of options you can pursue to get a suitable domain name if the one you want is already registered by another person or entity.  First, consider using a less common extension as mentioned in #1 above.  You could also add a descriptive word to your domain such as best, fast, and so on.  Many people add an article somewhere in their domain name, like a or the, and others add characters to the end of their domain names making a word plural by adding an s or adding an er or est at the end.

Most domain name registrars offer domain name alternative suggestions if the one you want is not available.  You can also find alternatives using a domain name suggestion tool.  Finally, if you’re really attached to a specific domain name but someone else already owns it, you can find the domain name owner and contact information, and then contact that person to learn if they’re willing to sell it to you.

Image: stock.xchang

Many business owners think of blogging as a chore that delivers little added-value to a company’s bottom-line, but the truth is actually exactly the opposite.  A business blog is an incredible tool for search engine optimization because of what I call the compounding effect of blogging.

First, you need to understand consumer behavior in the 21st century:

Where do you go to find information about a business, product, store, etc. when you need it? Do you check the Yellow Pages?  Nope.  The vast majority of consumers turn to Google or their favorite search engine (with Google being #1).

Here’s how the compounding effect of blogging phenomenon works:

1. You have a business Web site made up of 20 pages.  That’s 20 entry points to your business Web site for Google to find, index, and deliver in relevant keyword searches.
2. You add a business blog to your Web site, and you publish a blog post everyday for a year.  Now you have 365+20=385 entry points to your business Web site for Google to find, index, and deliver in relevant keyword searches.
3. You publish posts on your business blog and those posts offer interesting, useful, helpful or entertaining content that your audience finds value in.  In other words, those posts are shareworthy.
4. People find your blog content and realize it’s interesting and shareworthy.  They share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. with links back to your business blog.  They blog about it on their own blogs with links back to your blog.  Now, the number of entry points to your business Web site (via your blog) has increased exponentially.  Your Google search traffic increases as all of these additional incoming links to your blog and Web site boost your Google search rankings, and traffic to your site from referrers across the Web increases, too!
5. Your Web site went from a static destination with 20 standard business entry points to an interactive, engaging site with hundreds or thousands (or more) of entry points and an increase in traffic from search engines and referrers!  You can’t buy that kind of exposure!

The compounding effect of blogging really is that simple.  It’s about creating shareworthy content and entry points, and it’s a form of marketing that business owners would be crazy not to leverage!

Image: Flickr

1. Direct marketing and promotion

While businesses should never use a blog solely for self-promotion, it’s not forbidden to include marketing messages now and then.  If your business is offering discounts or coupons that benefit your consumers, then there is no harm in talking about them on your business blog.  Similarly, you can talk about your products and link to your online catalog.  Just remember that at least 80% of your online content should not be self-promotional.

2. Establish expertise

Use your blog to establish your business as the go-to place for information related to your industry, products, and so on.  If you publish great content on your business blog, others will notice and share that content.  In time, you’ll develop a reputation as an expert in your field with reliable and authoritative information that is useful.  That’s the kind of content and expertise that people actively seek.

3. Generate publicity

Again, if your content is amazing, people will talk about it.  They’ll leave comments on your blog, share your blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc., and they’ll blog about your content with a link back to your own blog.  All of that conversation and linking helps to build your online brand and is a powerful form of publicity.

4. Build relationships

The most powerful part of social media marketing is the ability that social Web participation gives a business to build relationships with consumers, business partners, and so on around the world.  Relationships outlive short-term promotions and are an essential part of any long-term business strategy.

5. Seem more human and less corporate

Since blogs are typically written in conversational tones, the blogger’s personality can shine through and give a business a human side that consumers respond to positively.

6. Help people

If you offer tips, tutorials, and useful information on your business blog, people will appreciate that help and come back to your blog again and again.  Eventually, that traffic and word-of-mouth marketing related to your helpful content leads to sales.

7. Spread accurate information

There is no doubt that at some time someone is going to say something negative about your business on the social Web.  A business blog offers you a platform to publish accurate information without trying to control the online conversation.

8. Search engine optimization and search engine reputation management

A blog is an amazing tool for search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine reputation management (SERM).  The content you publish on your blog creates a myriad of entry points to your blog that search engines can find and allows you to optimize content so the best information about you ranks high in search engine results related to specific keywords.

9. Feedback, research, and questions

Use your business blog to ask consumers questions, get feedback about your products and services, and to do research about new products and offerings.  Once you build your blog audience, you’ve got an “always on” focus group.  Use it to your advantage!

10. Position your brand and business in relation to your competitors

Define your business niche, analyze what your competitors are doing online, and then use that information to position your own brand and business online.  Establish your differentiators and use your business blog as a tool to ensure consumers understand your brand promise.

Image: pshutterbug.

Following are 5 fundamental requirements you need to follow to BE successful with your business blogging efforts:

1. Be human.

No one will want to spend time with you online (or offline) if you sound like you’re reading from a corporate brochure or PowerPoint presentation.  Your blog posts must demonstrate your personality and be written in a conversational style and tone befitting of your target audience.  They have to be interesting and engaging, and they must be completely devoid of any corporate rhetoric.

2. Be honest.

Business blogging should offer insight into your organization.  Therefore, your blog posts must be transparent and help you build trust with your audience.

3. Be useful.

Your business blog posts should add value to the online conversation by offering useful, helpful, interesting or entertaining content.  If you’re blog posts simply regurgitate information and offer nothing new and interesting, no one will want to read them.

4. Be social.

Not only do you need to respond to comments left on your own business blog for your blog to be successful, but you also need to join the online conversation that happens off of your blog.  For example, leave comments on other blogs that your target audience reads, answer questions on Twitter or LinkedIn, join conversations on Facebook, and so on to demonstrate that you’re interested in more than just boosting traffic to your own blog.

5. Be uncontrolling.

One of the most difficult steps a business has to take when it implements a social media marketing strategy, including publishing a business blog, is giving up control of the online conversation.  By allowing consumers to take control of the conversation, joining it as appropriate, and nudging it in the right direction without trying to control it yourself, your business, brand and bottom-line have a greater chance of finding success on the social Web.

What do you think is the most important step to BE successful with a business blog?  Leave a comment and share your opinion.

First, what is a brand?

A brand is a promise to consumers that creates customer expectations for every experience they have with that brand.  As you continually meet those customer expectations for your brand, consumers develop loyalty to it, seeking it out over other brands, and advocating it (or defending it) to other consumers.

Next, how do you build a brand?

There are three main steps to building a brand that apply regardless of the industry your business is in or the tools you use to communicate your brand messages and develop your brand image.  Those three steps are:

1. Consistency: Your brand messages must be consistent across all marketing touch points.  Inconsistency leads to consumer confusion and causes people to turn away from your brand in search of another that continually meets their expectations.
2. Persistence: Brand building takes patience.  You must continually communicate your brand messages again and again without giving up.  Brands are powerful assets, but brands are also part of a long-term marketing strategy that requires persistence.
3. Restraint: While it can be tempting to over-extend a successful brand in an effort to reach new audiences and boost your bottom-line, you must exercise restraint and choose brand extensions and other branded opportunities with caution ensuring that the opportunities you pursue consistently support your brand promise.

Finally, how can business blogging help companies build brands?

Blogging is an incredible tool to spread your branded messages, build relationships with consumers who can become your vocal brand advocates online and offline, and support a sustainable, long-term marketing strategy.  Your blogging efforts live for a long time and have the ability to spread across the Internet for years to come.  Not only do your blog posts remain accessible through your blog’s archives until you delete them, but links to them from other blogs and Web sites also stay active.

Unlike a television commercial that lives for 30-seconds and reaches the specific audience who is watching a specific television channel at a specific moment in time, business blog content lives and spreads for years to come.

From a brand building perspective, business blogs are a marketer’s dream come true!

Image: stock.xchng

Hence this post. If you’re looking to set up an online store, here are some alternative services to check out:

Etsy

I mentioned Etsy earlier, and am listing it first with good reason. Etsy is a community of online shops that sell handmade items- and that includes everything from t-shirts to soaps to toys. Setting up a shop is quick and easy, and there is a listing fee of 20 cents per listed item, and a 3.5% sales fee. But from everything I’ve seen, shops on Etsy do very well because they’ve built a good, active community of buyers and sellers.

Shopify or BigCartel

If something like Etsy isn’t for you, you might want to consider one of these “all-in” hosted solutions. These services take care of everything from hosting your shop to handling payment transactions for you. Set up is usually very simple, and both of these services offer great-looking shop templates, so you won’t have to worry about having an ugly shop. BigCartel has a free plan, limited to 5 products, and Shopify offers a 30-day free trial on any of their plans. BigCartel does not take any percentages of your sales, while Shopify takes anywhere from zero (for their highest priced plan) to 2% per transaction.

WordPress with a Plug-In

That’s right, you can set up an online shop using our favorite blog software. It’s as simple as installing a shopping cart plug-in such as WP e-Commerce (free), Shopp ($55 for a single shop), or Quick Shop (free and very lightweight).

eBay

Of course I couldn’t ignore eBay. Because it’s so well-known, your customers might be more comfortable buying from you- and a lot of people do have success selling on eBay. Their Basic plan is $15.95 a month, with a variety of fees depending on what items you’re selling and how.

How do you power your online store?

Most businesses not only understand this, but understand how to use Twitter to their advantage. Online marketplace Etsy, for example, regularly tweets about upcoming promotions and deals, and responds to customers right away via Twitter. Starbucks, the company from whom I purchased the coffee I’m drinking while writing this post, also uses Twitter wisely, responding almost immediately to their followers and posting information that any Starbucks customer would find interesting.

And then there are the businesses that get it wrong. I’m not naming anyone in particular, but you see these every day: Twitter business accounts that put up their logo, fill out their profile, then proceed to post nothing but junk. They may gain followers, but aren’t using Twitter to their full benefit. If you use Twitter for your business, here are some Do’s and Don’ts for you:

Do not post pure marketing tweets.
Something we see way too often: a page of a business’ tweets containing nothing but “We are the best! Visit us now at http://blahblah..” over and over again, in different wordings. Really, what’s the point? If someone is taking the time to read your tweet, offer them something useful. A discount code, perhaps, or a link to a special deal, if you want to promote a product.

Do sound like a real person.
People like talking to other people, not machines. If your Tweets don’t sound like a real person wrote them, you’re in danger of losing touch with your customers. And speaking of being in touch with your customers…

Do reply to tweets.
Whenever someone sends you an @reply, remember that there’s a real live person, possibly a customer or client, behind it. Don’t ignore these- and especially don’t ignore direct messages.

Do give your Twitter profile some personality.
Take the time to customize your business’ Twitter profile with a nice background and colors that reflect your company.

If you do use Twitter, do use Twitter.
That is, make it known to everyone that your business is on Twitter. Put a Twitter button on your website or blog, add a link to your email, put the URL on your business card and company brochure.

Do plan your strategy.
Read through Twitter’s official 101 for Business, have a look at their best practices, and develop a strategy for using Twitter to your business’ full advantage.

Finally, have fun with Twitter. It’s a powerful tool, but it’s also meant to be a fun and easy to use tool, which is why it’s become so popular.

Do you have tips for using Twitter for business?

Most freelancers’ work habits lean toward a preference for less work rather than more work. This might make sense to a professional who values his time and creativity. Therefore, freelancers could be focusing on a few select clients, in order for quality to be kept at par with his and the clients’ expectations. But for a small business, more clients means more money. If you feel you are ready to expand, then you would have to either make some changes in your working habits, or your work setup.

Outsource some of the work. An increasing trend in online work these days is outsourcing. If you are in the business of designing websites, then perhaps you can partner with programmers and coders who can convert your raw PSD layouts into CSS-based themes for popular content management systems like WordPress. If your main line of work involves writing, then perhaps you can subcontract some work to able writers, and then just edit and proofread their work. Or maybe you hate to do administrative tasks like client support, scheduling and other such things that can be tedious to the creative professional. You can outsource these activities to a virtual assistant.

Partner with fellow professionals. There are a handful of freelance professionals out there who might not be as good with marketing their service as you. One mutually beneficial thing you can do is share the load–and the monetary benefits–with them. For instance, I’m not a designer myself. My forte is in developing and marketing blogs and web applications. Knowing this limitation, I have partnered with several colleagues whom I pass on design work to. We split the load. Clients are happy. My designer friends are happy. I’m happy, with the thought that I don’t have to force myself to do work I’m not an expert at.

Some freelancers are perhaps allergic to the idea of turning their profession into a small business. For some, the concept of having to invest time, money and effort into a startup might be disheartening. To some, it’s the idea of sharing the benefits with other people that might lead to reservations. But before you turn down the idea altogether, try to think of the benefits. Try to think of how you can reap the rewards. Sure, a startup might be more difficult to manage than a simple freelancing gig. But it’s potentially more rewarding.