BlackBerry Curve 8330 Wireless Blogging

This is my first attempt posting to wordpress directly through the Blackberry web browser. Everything seems straight-forward.

How did I do it? Go to browser on home menu screen. Once the browser page has loaded, click the menu button and select “GO TO”, then type the url of your wordpress admin page.

The admin menu is lengthy on any mobile browser. I look forward to investigating plugins aimed at simplifying mobile blogging over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Time to catch my flight.

Things To Write In Your Business Blog

Great News! Your boss has informed you the friendly IT department has setup a personal blog area for each staff member, linked to from the primary corporate site, now what the hell are you going to include on this thing?  If you can’t figure out the first step you aren’t alone, I’ll be your teammate.

Things I’ve ruled out posting about :

What I did over the weekend.  Why I hate Mondays and weekends.  Trade Secrets.  Trying to define what Sensitive Information is or isn’t.

Things I consider positive about this type of blog:

It’s like a brochure for yourself, that is up to date and evolves.  The entire blog should be a carefully crafted sales pitch that doesn’t offend the user by making them feel like they are reading a bunch of bullcrap.   If you, or your products/services suck, you should not create a blog.   Tell your boss it will hurt your sales.

I think including brief posts about potential deals in a way that strokes the potential client’s ego could be a useful tool depending on what industry you are in .  You can always remove the post (or edit it) if they don’t sign.

If you don’t plan to update your blog more than twice per month, you should make sure the date tags are basically removed from the major areas and only contained on the posted article’s page itself.  This will keep your primary blog area from seeming outdated.

Here are the top 10 business benefits of blogging.

1. Search Engine Marketing
Spidering search engines like Google love websites that are regularly updated with fresh, well written, keyword-rich content. People will be able to find your website more easily (because Google will list more pages), Google will re-index your site more frequently (meaning new pages you put online will appear in the search results more quickly) and it will also give your rankings a boost

2. Direct Communications
Over time will you will build up a readership of people who have subscribed to receive updates to your blog because they are interested in what you have to say. Every time you publish a new article it gets pushed out to all your readers giving you the ability to communicate directly with your target audience. For example we are primarily a web design company so we write about web design and everything relating to it.

3. Brand Building
A blog is a great way to get your brand in front of thousands of people who otherwise would never know you existed.

4. Competitive Differentiation
How will your potential customers know what makes you different from your competitors? You will tell them on your blog! Show them how you work, what sets you apart and how your solution to their challenges is unique.

5. Relational Marketing
Successful selling is all about building relationships. By posting honest, transparent, heart-felt articles on your blog you will instill trust and respect in your potential customers. The best blogs are a 2-way communication where your readers can comment on your articles. This interaction gets them more involved and more engaged.

6. Social Media Marketing
Community sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and social bookmarking sites like delicious, Stumbleupon and digg can produce astounding results. If you are lucky enough to have one of your blog articles go ‘viral’ on one of these sites you should brace yourself for a surge of new website visitors and possibly some high quality inbound links.

7. Media & Public Relations
The chances are if you are running a blog but your competitors are not the media will contact you, not them.

8. Position Yourself as an Expert
Are you an expert in your field? Well tell the world on your blog. If you really know what you are talking about people will pay attention and before you know it you will have a dedicated following of readers who hang on your every word! These people are also far more likely to buy from you.

9. Reputation Management
Do you know what is being said about you online? Do you have a platform to counter any negative press your company is receiving? With a blog you do. It is one way you can help to manage your online reputation.

10. Low Cost
Setting up a blog doesn’t cost very much and maintaining one costs practically nothing.

Special Thanks to Simon Rycoft from the Benefits List.

Confessions of a First Time Blogger

It’s been a little over a week now and I have posted almost a dozen blogs. I find that writing my thoughts down is stress relieving. It also is a way to help me organize my thoughts. I have wanted to start a website for some time, but I never really knew how to begin. With the help of a friend, I just picked a domain name and he set it up and said, “Get to it” and I did. It is so easy and only takes a few minutes to write a few sentences. Any time I have a second, I try to write a few lines. Waiting on the bathroom to open up, waiting for dinner to be ready, or even five minutes before bed. All are plenty of time to write out a few lines.

Now that I have become fairly familiar with posting my thoughts, I am going to start digging around on the site to see what other cool things I can add to it. I have noticed there is a place to post pictures, so I plan on adding some in the near future. I may also look into customizing the theme of the entire site. There are a few themes available to choose from now, but I think if I look around a bit, I can find some more to add to it. Overall, the whole creation and maintenance process is fun, entertaining, and easy to accomplish without using up a lot of valuable time. Check back regularly for updates.