March 2006 Archives

If you’re hitting the webosphere for the first time, you may wonder what’s more important -- a website or a blog? Good question.

First off, a blog is a type of website. Blog is short for “weblog”. The difference between a standard website and a blog is the way content is managed. A standard website is (generally speaking) managed through page updates via FTP, whereas a blog is updated by logging into the web browser, making updates and pushing SAVE. There are other differences between a website and a blog, but content management is the main.

A blog is much easier, you say, why shouldn’t I just start there. Well just hold your horses for a minute and I’ll tell you. There are several questions to think about before diving headfirst into the blogosphere, namely...Who are you?, What do you have to say? and Do you have time to say it?

We midwesterners have a special way of pronouncing certain words. For instance, wash often becomes "warsh" and groceries becomes "grorsheries". Sometimes creek even becomes "crick". Eeegad.

As I spoke recently on the phone with experts in the practice of niche marketing, I had forgotten the word "niche" also has more than one pronunciation. I grew up hearing and pronouncing this word with a hardness, i.e. "nitch". , I learned of the other pronunciation, a softer, gentler version, i.e. "neesh" during my phone conversations.

I expected my trusty Webster's dictionary to give me free reign in choosing either, but when I looked it up, there was only one pronunciation -- "nitch". However, wiki (the online encyclopedia) says.....the word "niche" is of French origin and it is pronounced "neesh" - NOT "nitch". But take heart friends, Merriam Webster online says you may say it either way. It's a good thing because "neesh" just won't roll off my midwestern tongue very easily. I guess I need that French knack, oui? And a new dictionary.

You've probably used the 'forwarding' principle involved in the 'tell-a-friend' concept by forwarding an email or web page via your browser. You can put this tool to work in your own website, too, by adding 'tell-a-friend' quick links on your website or within your newsletter or mail campaigns. The downside of this technique (and there are always two sides, right?) is the notion that someone would enter a friend's email address and such friend would not approve of this addition, if you know what I mean. But overall, I think the 'tell-a-friend' technique is a good one and worth your consideration as part of your branding and promotion.

There are a several ways to add 'tell-a-friend', you can place a form on your website which allows someone to forward your site url to a friend via email, you can use a specific 'tell-a-friend' page which allows you to enter multiple email addresses, or you can use a subscription 'tell-a-friend' service for which you pay a monthly fee. Part of my service is helping you develop branded pages such as 'tell-a-friend' that are part of your offerings to your audience.

I'm so excited to tell you about the new eWorkbook I've been working on - Web Abundance! Power Tools for Coaches, Speakers, Trainers and Consultants. I've been hunkered over my keyboard for several hours each day so I can bring you a useful tool to build your ideal website.

The book includes -- the fundamentals of a dynamic website including must have features you shouldn't go without; tools for finding your voice and making your website speak directly to your target market; a 'Eureka!' module to help you define and develop the product of your choice whether it's an eBook, coaching package or teleclass series or whatever; a storefront section to help you select your ecommerce shopping cart and merchant account so you can create an exchange with your clients; lessons on attraction in which you activate tools to attract clients to your website and keep them coming back for more; a 'how's it going' section to help you refine and improve so your website continues to work hard for you; and a reference section including recommended tools and services, a glossary of terminology, and links to great resources.

What d'ya think? Are you interested? Click over to my website and sign up to stay informed, I want to keep you in the loop! I'm shooting for May 1st.

I stumbled across this really cool photo gallery tool created by the folks at Airtight Interactive. Love it. They also have a postcard viewing tool which is equally engaging. Fun. Can't wait to put it to work!

The first step in signing up for someone's blog is to select a news reader, aka news aggregator. There are a ton of them, some of the more popular ones may be Bloglines, Newsgator, My Yahoo, and FeedDemon ( this is a really short list, there are too many to name).

Many news readers are free, the main choice you will have is whether you want a browser based tool or a desktop tool. If you choose browser based all youwill need is a username and a password, and for the desktop version you will need to download the software to your desktop, some integrate with Microsoft Outlook.

After you select your newsreader you can click on "Subscribe to this blog's feed", the address in the browser bar can be copied and pasted into your newsreader's 'add url or add feed' page. Or, if the blog has the icon of your newsreader in the sidebar, you select it and your feed will be added automatically when you sign into your account.

To find other feeds in which you may be interested, check out listings in your aggregator or begin winding your way through the blogosphere. Lotsa good stuff out there but lots of time grabbers, too.

That's about it. Hope this helps.

If telling jokes or funny stories is not your style, try spending the first three minutes of your presentation tapping into the emotional pipeline of the audience. This is not only the gate to the heart and soul of listeners, but also the key to establishing trust and audience rapport. Consider the following.

Step into their world. Ditch physical barriers by moving from behind the podium or off the stage with your microphone. Try walking into the audience, Oprah-style, to ask your opening question.

Show how 'I'm like you'.How can you meet the needs of the audience if they don't relate to you? Show your listeners how you are alike. For example, if you live in a small town and are addressing an audience of rural professionals, making light of small-town life can warm listeners up to you.

Paint word pictures. You don't have to be an artist to paint vivid pictures in the minds of audience members. Rely on anecdotes or other narrative techniques to explain key concepts. For example, using the analogy of rolling a boulder from point A to point B over a hill can illustrate the concept of timing.

Just when you think you're getting up to speed, along comes a new thing with it's related lingo and terminology. Blogging is kinda that way. Here is some of the phraseology.

RSS (really simple syndication) is a way to syndicate content across the web. It allows you to format your content using xml so it will flow as an RSS feed, RSS channel, or RSS stream. RSS files are read with an aggregator.

Aggregators are news readers. They come in two types - web-based or desktop. Web-based aggregators allow you to read your feeds online in just one site. Nothing to download or install. Desktop aggregators require you to download and install a program to your computer. This type of reader may have quite a few more functions. Visit the rss toolchest site for a list of free readers.

Feeds are RSS/XML documents with headlines and descriptions. In short, your content. Also called a channel, news feed, content feed, xml feed or web feed.

Ping is a acronym for 'Packet Internet Grouper.' Pinging your RSS feed involves sending a small automated packet of data to announce updates to your feed.

Podcasting is the process of syndicating audio files, often mp3's.

A blogroll is a list of links in the sidebar of a blog, often linking to other blogs. Can be managed via a blog link management system such as www.blogrolling.com.

A trackback is a system by which a ping is sent to another trackback-aware website (usually another blog) to say 'hey, someone's talking about you'.

What will they think of next? Check out the online sticky note type website found at Protopage.com. Very cool. You can select design elements and customize the page to your liking, even adding feeds. I'm still exploring.

We live in such a self-centered culture, i.e. this is 'me', this is what 'me' is about, what do you think of 'me', etc. It's easy to fall into the trap of making your website all about 'me', too. What if we thought past this standard approach and tried on our customer glasses for just a sec. I suspect my customer wants to know a little about me but they are more interested in themselves and what I can do for them (there's that 'me' again). So what web design and navigation approaches work best from that angle?

First off, I would make my site simple to navigate. Make your choices easy and right up front. Don't give too many choices, a confused reader is indecisive. Think about value - what do I bring to the table for my people? Then make categories or pages based on that idea.

Make your site quick-loading. Some of the universe is still in dial-up land and heavy pages with large image files are a real turn-off.

Keep your site consistent. I love CSS styles for this reason, every page can be updated wih the same theme at the click of a mouse. If you change your mind on a color, image or background, CSS makes it easy to experiment and make a change.

Add interaction of some type. The form is a basic tool which you should always have. This allows you to gather, at the minimum,name, email address, and permission to contact. The next step up is opt-in email which is a more sophisticated version of a form and which allows your customer database to be built and stored automatically by your program of choice. More on this another time.