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

5 Social Media Blogs on My Required Reading List

This week a colleague asked me what social media blogs she should be reading. She knows I strongly recommend reading and commenting on other blogs in your niche for a number of reasons. I had to think about it.

I don't read blogs that are specifically about social media and social marketing. Or at least I read very few that are ONLY about social media. The exception I think is Social Media Examiner.

I subscribe to and read a lot of blogs about online business and many address social media in the bigger context of doing business on the web. That includes blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email marketing, ecommerce, search engine optimization, and on and on. I follow many blogs on diverse topics by my colleagues and clients.

I decided to dive into my email and Google reader and see what social media blogs I'm subscribed to. I read a lot of stuff and decided to pick a few to recommend. Remember, this is just a few of the blogs I read. I HIGHLY recommend you do your own research and find those that resonate for YOU. While I'm happy to be a filter, you may prefer different emphasis on subjects, content and different writing styles. So, don't rely solely on me. Create your own recommended reading list as well.

4 Articles You May Have Missed That Can Help You With Your Blog

One of the challenges of having several blogs, especially ones that have similar subject matter, is that sometimes the content could go on either blog and ultimately one blog gets a bit neglected.

Sometimes that happens here with Biz Tips Blog and Build A Better Blog. Lately, it seems most of my posts are going on BABB and if you're not reading that blog, then you're missing some information that could help with your online marketing. So the purpose of this post is to direct your attention to four recent articles that you may find valuable.

How to Use Blog Analytics to Improve Your Blog

The Basics of Content Syndication and RSS

Your Business and Your Blog - Interview and Mini Case Study about how using social media and boosting your visibility really does lead to more opportunities.

How to Keep Readers Coming Back to Your Blog

Just for fun...

Via Michael Martine at Remarkablogger, I discovered a site called Link Bait Generator. It's simple site where you type in a keyword for your blog post and it generates a bunch of provocative blog post titles for you like:

5 amazing things you probably didn't know about business blogging

10 epic fails involving business blogging

Why business blogging sucks: myth vs. reality

The 8 most baffling things about business blogging

10 common misconceptions about business blogging

8 reasons to fear business blogging

10 common misconceptions about online visibility

10 ways people have gotten rich exploiting online visibility

Some are funny and some that I didn't include are a bit outrageous. Certainly though, you get some good starting points for article or blog content if you're feeling stuck!

Blog on!

Happy Blogiversary! Celebrating 5 Years of Business Blogging

Today, September 28, marks 5 years since I wrote my first blog post on this blog. It was a pretty boring post, by blogging standards -- the typical "welcome to this blog" post.

In five years I have blogged on at least 10 different blogs, some more than others, and used many platforms including TypePad (of course!), Movable Type, Wordpress, SquareSpace and Blogger.

A lot of people wonder why I still use TypePad. Frankly, I love the platform. Being where I started, it's comfortable for me and every couple of weeks the folks at Six Apart introduce new features that make it an even simpler, more powerful blogging platform. I also cannot imagine trying to move 10 blogs and thousands of blog posts and comments to another platform. Just not happening.

I was planning on creating a contest to celebrate 5 blogging years. But with all on my plate right now, I realized I could not give a contest the appropriate attention to do it right, at this moment. I'll be traveling nearly 3 weeks in October to workshops, mastermind meetings and BlogWorld Expo.

However, I really do want to celebrate so look for a contest announcement in the next couple of weeks when I'm in between trips.

How many years have you been blogging? When do you celebrate your blogiversary?

Email vs RSS Debate - Quick Poll

This is a quickie post. I've posted a poll on Build a Better Blog with one question: How do you prefer to subscribe to blogs?

I want a good cross-section of responses so I invite you to take 30 seconds now to vote.

Thanks!

Google Launches Web Elements for Your Blog

I got a heads up yesterday from a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News that Google was launching some new tools for bloggers today at their annual developers conference, and she wanted to ask my opinion after the announcement (today).  Never say "no" to a media interview, right?!

So I did some snooping around and found the page for Google press releases and refreshed the page at the appointed time of 9:00 a.m. PT. Voila, there was the release right on schedule.

Among other announcements, here's what Google has launched for blogs and websites: