Join us for four exciting webinars to learn about start out on Facebook.  See more at:  http://www.beginningfb.com

After listening to a few webinars from Robert Plank and Paul Counts, I’m realizing that finding a niche is truly the first step to building an online business.   Developing my reputation as an expert in a specific area isn’t difficult.  Since my niche is where I’ll reside for awhile, I want it to be something that I’m passionate about.  No point in becoming an expert or developing a niche in an area I don’t thorough enjoy.  Folks can TELL. Folks can sense if you don’t love what you do. continue reading…

Over the past few months, I’ve been sensing it is time to take my business in a fresh direction.  After 10 years selling, developing and designing websites, social media is taking marketing on the web to a different place. While I’ve always recognized SEO (search engine optimization) as an important component of website design and development, it wasn’t the only key to the success of a quality website.  The online environment has changed again.  Five years ago creating SEO for your website was often more time consuming that it was worth (for a small to medium-sized business).  Today, it is much easier for a business to learn and to succeed at improving their search engine rankings.  And today it is critical to be part of the discussion in a multitude of social media locations.

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The other day, one of my clients asked me for some ideas on what she should write in her blog.  It was a good question and one that I am constantly asking myself.

There are many types of blogs;

• diary blogs,
• commentary blogs,
• political blogs,
• cause-focused blogs
• travel blogs
• family blogs

but my focus is on helping businesses to use their blogs effectively.

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Helping folks setup a new Wordpress website is a blast.  However, I’ve been a bit befuddled about tags and categories.  I was attempting to find a simple way to explain them to my clients.  What are tags and categories and why should I care?

My first thought was to explain tags and categories as keywords.  Since most people have used Google, Yahoo, or Bing to do a search, they comprehend the need for keywords.  Keywords are defined by the choice of words someone might use to search for your webpage or blog post.  Keywords just doesn’t seem to be enough to clarify the difference between tags and categories.

Wordpress has a great video on adding categories.  Take a look

After a bit more research (and little remembering), I discovered Wordpress used to ONLY list categories.  The challenge with using ONLY categories was using too many sub-categories (called children of the parent category).  Basically folks just made a list of keywords under a particular category.  Because of those long lists of subcategories, the Wordpress programmers, created tags.

With the creation of tags, categories became the more global keywords and tags became the detailed keywords.  For example, for a blog post called Redesigning my Living Room, your category could be Interior Design and your keywords could be living room, furniture, color scheme, painting, layout, etc.  Thus catgories become the parent and tags become the subcategories.

In the end, categories and tags do impact SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  You can learn more about it at:

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/09/09/categories-versus-tags-whats-the-difference-and-which-one/

There is value to categories and tags outside of SEO.  They  make it easier for our reader to find relevant blogs to their needs.  By simply clicking on a category or a tag, the reader receives a listing of available blogs under that topic.  A tag cloud also helps define what your blog is globally about simply by reviewing the higher priority (and larger) tag words.

Your tags and categories do make a difference on your blog.  As you add them consider how they impact your SEO and how easy they make scanning your blog for your readers.

The new year celebrations have come and gone.  Now it’s time to get back to work.  Everywhere I look are questions about a New Year’s Resolution.  During all the reverie, it’s easy to pass off an anecdotal comment as resolve without putting much thought into it.  Now is the time to start that thought process.

My preference is to start at the end to get to the beginning.  What is it that you wish have accomplished by this time last year?  Be realistic, but do dream some.  A goal is only worthy if you need to stretch outside your comfort zone a bit to accomplish it.  However, there is no use saying you’re going to run a marathon next week if you didn’t start training last year.  Determine a goal you believe you could reach if you did the work to get it.

Here are a few guidelines to get you started:

1. BE SPECIFIC – Keep your goal narrow enough that you’ll know when you accomplished it.  Use numbers to help codify it ( for example:  I will serve 5 new clients each month or I will earn an extra $100 per week).
2. BREAK IT DOWN – To get to your goal, you’ll need to start with baby steps and grow.  Break down the steps into “TO DO” items you can check off each day or each week.  (for example:  I will collect 5 business cards each week and follow up with every one or I will write 3 paragraphs in my blog each week).
3. PUT A DATE TO IT – A goal is just a dream with a date attached.  Be sure to put dates on the goals.  (for example I will make an extra $100 per week by March 1, 2010).
4. WRITE IT DOWN – Sounds simply, right?  So have you done it?  None withstanding that the Harvard (or Yale) class study was a hoax ( See Sid’s blog for more discussion) , writing down your goals on paper and reviewing them regularly make a difference.  This doesn’t have to be fancy.  My husband keeps his on a few sheets in his planner.

Give it a try.  We’ll do it together.  I’m starting to write my goals as soon as this post is finished (especially since this blog is also one of my goals).

Happy New Years!

The other day, I was reading about the state of the blogsphere by the CEO of Technorati.com.  The article is worth reading at:  http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/

For me, the real benefit of this article is their survey of 2,900 bloggers from around the world.  I enjoy statistics describing just about anything, but the ones on blogging were especially fascinating.   Let’s look at the breakdown of WHO is blogging as shared in the article above:

• 72% – Hobbiest
• 15% – Part-Timers
• 9% – Self-Employed
• 4% – Pros

Isn’t it great that blogging is MOSTLY done by folks for fun (that’s the Hobbiest).  The question I would like to ask the other 28% is HOW did they get started blogging.  I would venture to say that many the blog for their businesses or companies got started by blogging as a hobby.   Regular blogging gets those creative juices flowing and can grow into something that is supportive to your income.

Blogging has become an important business development and marketing tool in our growing social media society.  More than 1 in 4 people in the survey blogged for business reasons and almost half of them are doing it full-time.   Who would have thought a hobby could become a full-time business or position?