Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

Traffic to Your Blog: Number 1 Challenge

Getting traffic is apparently the number one challenge for business bloggers.

We've been running an informal poll on our Build a Better Blog site, on which blogging tasks are the most challenging for business bloggers. Here are the results after a week:

1. Getting subscribers & traffic:                                 42.1%
2. Getting people to comment:                                  30.5%
3. Getting mentioned or linked to on other blogs:          28.4%
4. Finding time to blog:                                            22.1%
5. Finding interesting content to blog:                        21.1%
6. Getting people to register, vote, buy or take action: 16.8%
7. Adding appropriate widgets:                                   7.4%
8. Adding video & audio:                                           4.2%

While this isn't a scientifically valid study, I'll bet it's true for most of you, for your blogs and your websites. Want to learn how to optimize your blog for traffic and results?

Join The Blog Squad in a group coaching class in August. You can read information here.

You can still take the poll and weigh in on your challenges here.

Blog Relief Weekend Update #7

I just got an email from Coffee Cup Software about their collection of "comfort items" for evacuees in Texas.  It's amazing what people are doing to contribute. Check out what they're doing below.

Get Free Software for Donating Now!
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If you order more than $50 worth of hurricane relief items from our Amazon Wishlist you will get CoffeeCup News Flash 3.5 for free. After your order just send your Amazon receipt to aid@coffeecup.com and we will email you a link to download the full version.

Order from our Comfort Goods Wishlist Here:

  http://www.coffeecup.com/hurricane/wishlist/

A Special Thank You
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We want to give a really BIG THANK YOU to Jean S. of San Jose, CA for donating a 2003 Cadillac CTS. We worked with several local aid groups to find someone deserving of this generous gift.

Wadell Edwards stood out for his heroic efforts in single handedly evacuating 23 children from the rising waters in New Orleans. He got all the children of his family and friends to safety and has been looking after them for over a week. We hope that the car will help him reunite with his family and start his life over.

Learn more about our effort here: http://www.coffeecup.com/hurricane/

Blog Relief Weekend Update #6 - Help the Animals

I received this request for help from BestFriends.org for the animal victims of Katrina via my dear friend and animal lover, Hali.  This is yet another way to help.

Best Friends Hurricane Relief
c/o Leigh Breland
1635 Misty Lane
Terry, MS 39170

Hurricane-related inquiries, including offers to donate supplies or funds or to volunteer, may be directed to: 435.644.2001 x398 or hurricane@bestfriends.org.

We’ve reprinted the list of most needed supplies below.
People needs:
Toilet paper
Paper towels
Vegetarian people food that won’t spoil or need refrigeration
Portable toilets and sanitizer
Insect repellent
Sun showers
Sunscreen
First aid kits for relief workers
Hand sanitizer

Blog Relief Weekend Update #5

Here are the latest results from Blog Relief Weekend at the time of this posting:

Hurricane Katrina: Blog for Relief Weekend
Thursday, September 1 - Monday, September 5
A weekend of blogging focused on raising awareness of and funds for relief efforts to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina. See here for more information.

Update 9/4: See here for information about new mailing lists created to facilitate communication and coordination between web-based Katrina Relief projects.

$ 723,870
contributions detail
contributions by country
log your contribution

1,680
list of blogs
blog leader board
blogs by country
add your blog

226
list of charities
charity leader board
add a charity charities recommended blogs participating in contributions so far

You can get real-time updates at TruthLaidBear blog.  You may have contributed already, and there is sooo much suffering that I urge you to dig deeper and give again if possible.  Every $1 helps those who are so much more unfortuante than those of us able to log on to the Internet and read these posts.

Blog Relief Update #4

Just received an email from San Fernando Valley Grassroots for Democracy with more ways to contribute to the hurricane and flood relief efforts.

Contribute online:
McCormick Tribune Foundation (Los Angeles Times/KTLA)  http://www.mccormicktribune.org/mtf/hurricanerelief.htm  The foundation will match the first $2,000,000 contributed to the campaign at 50 cents on the dollar.
American Friends Service Committee  http://www.afsc.org/
Direct Relief International  http://www.directrelief.org/
Houston Food Bank  http://houstonfoodbank.org/
Houston SPCA  http://www.spcahouston.org/

Notice you can make your contribute go much futher if you donate through the McCormick Tribune Foundation as they will match 50 cents on the dollar.

You can see the foodbanks and the animal shelters are in just as great a need as the large relief organizations.