Tag Archives: blog food

Blog Food-Feed Online News Articles to Your Hungry Blog

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This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series blog food

Online news articles from news sites are one of the best ways to get blog food for your blog. If you have a blog that focuses on opinions, politics or events you can do a search on that topic and glean the recent articles that appear. You can then make your own commentary and link to that particular site.

Also, while you are there sign up with the site. You can start with a very social media friendly site like CNN. As a of fact I just went over to their site and saw a fellow baby boomer blogger Inez Bracy.

She was under the section called “Friends Activity”. This is a section on CNN where using Facebook, you can  see what your friends are recommending and sharing on CNN. Inez was sharing an article post on CNN about the shorthand language used by teens when referring to drug and alcohol use.

So you can go and connect using your Facebook and allow CNN’s software  to grab your information. Now this entitles you to post a link to the video, blog, or make a comment on a blog post and get the link back to your site. There is also a section where you can grab the permalink on a particular blog post and reference it on your blog. That’s where YOUR blog is fed blog food from CNN.

Check out the pictures below showing the blog section of CNN and the place where you get the  permalink.


After you click on one of the blog posts you will see the permalink option. (Note: A permalink is a shortlink with the name and or date  of the post in the link. You use this link to post in your blog when referring to the post on the news site.)

using permalinks for referencing blog posts

After you click on the permalink the resulting url is below:

http://ricksanchez.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/10/wanna-see-what-goes-on-behind-the-scenes-at-ricks-list/

Take that link and you could, for example write:

“Look at what goes on behind the scenes at Rick’s list” Highlight that entire statement and insert the link into the box.

So, get started now by looking for joining CNN and also search in the search engines for the news site for your state or local newspaper. Here are a few news sites to get you started.

NJ

The Seattle Times

Charlotte News

Go ahead just type in your State or major city into the search engine, i.e,  “Detroit news” and search around for a registration or sign up button. If the site is not social media savvy move on to the next one. Be sure to participate in the social bookmarking and social networking opportunities.

Was this helpful for you?

Trust me when I say that you will find an article related to your niche topic. Some sites will also have lots of blog posts. Try to find out how you can post your blog articles and link to the site. In addition you may have to go down to the bottom and look hard for it but there may be an option to post your videos!!!!!

Will this work for you?

Blog Food-Google Alerts Challenge

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This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series blog food

How many of you are using Google Alerts as a source of blog food?

Ok, I admit that sounds like a question I ask folks when I am doing blog training. But it is a critical question. Many of us are not tapping into this powerful, I mean powerful resource.

Ok, what is Google Alerts?

As defined by Wikipedia:

The Google Alerts is a content monitoring service, offered by the search engine company Google, that automatically notifies users when new content from news, web, blogs, video and/or discussion groups matches a set of search terms selected by the user and stored by the Google Alerts service. Notifications can be sent by email, as a web feed or displayed on the users iGoogle page.

Google Alerts only provides content from Google’s own search engine.

Currently there are six types of alerts sent when new content matches the search terms of the alert:

* Comprehensive – (default setting) aggregates News, Web and Blogs
* News – sent when matching content makes it into the top ten results of a Google News search

* Web – sent when new web pages appear in the top twenty results for a Google Web search

* Blogs – sent when matching content appears in the top ten results of a Google Blog Search
* Video – sent when matching content appears in the top ten results of a Google video search

* Groups – sent when matching content appears in the top fifty results of a Google Groups search

Users determine the frequency of checks for new results. Three options are available: “once a day”, “once a week”, or “as it happens”. These options set the maximum frequency of alerts and do not necessarily control how often they will receive alerts. Alerts are sent only if new content matches the user-selected search terms.

The first option, for example, means they will receive at most one alert email per day. The “as it happens” option can result in many alert emails per day, depending on the search.

Google Alerts are available in plain text as well as HTML. In October 2008 Google also made alerts available as RSS feeds.

MY CHALLENGE TO YOU

Develop a Google Alert for”

  • Topic Area of your blog
  • Your name
  • Blog Titles

Try doing a comprehensive notice everyday for a week. You can always edit it. Then blog every day and include the title of each blog post in your alerts.

Glean from some of the news listings and other blogs and add them to site as a blog post. Remember to provide all links included in that blog post and credit to the authors

Are you up for the challenge?

Please share some of your results.

PS Use an email address that can tolerate the traffic.

Blog Food-Guest Blogger Series

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Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs

Reason 5 – HTML/CSS Skills for More Than Just Web Pages and Blog Posts

By Toolie
When I showed the first draft of my website training product to my mentor 2 years ago, he sent it back saying, “where’s the Internet Marketing information?” He was absolutely right. There’s no point in putting a business website or blog on the Internet unless you plan to do the necessary homework and preparations to turn your website or blog into an Internet cash-producing machine. The days of “having a website to have a website” and “if you build it they will come” are long past. You must be attentive to and proactive with your sites to attract the customers you want. You want to make it easy for them to contact you, and if applicable, enable them to buy online.

In my “I Can Fix My Website” training program, we start with HTML and CSS skills to learn how to build a website (the skills also apply to blogs). Before we even begin, though, we start with keyword research. When someone types a search into Google, Yahoo, or MSN (the big 3), they’re typing the words and phrases that are meaningful to them.

You’d better know what those phrases are before you build your site. You don’t need to subscribe to a keyword research service like Wordtracker (though I’d recommend it for at least one month while you’re planning), but you must know what words your customers think of when they go looking for you. They don’t always use the right vocabulary for your product, service, or profession, so you must include the words and phrases THEY use, as well as the correct keywords and phrases.

But there’s more to Internet Marketing than just keywords. And there’s more to having a website or blog that markets for you than just the site itself. The initial “currency” of your site is your emai l list. How are you going to collect your emails and build your list without the opt-in box AND the sequence of pages that ensure that they complete the opt-in loop? What if you decide to give away a free report or downloadable product? Do you know how to create a squeeze page, and its accompanying thank-you page and autoresponder?

These are specialized pages that you could create using your existing web page template. However, one of the keys to a successful opt-in sequence is not allowing for other choices on the page (with certain exceptions). You will have a better opt-in rate if, when they arrive at the “squeeze” page, you limit or eliminate other things they could do on the page. If they see your website or blog navigation and can go elsewhere on your site, you miss out on capturing their email while their curiosity is highest. Do you know how to create a custom page for this purpose? You can learn how. It is NOT dif ficult: my course will teach you how.

HTML email templates are another item that many marketers use online. They’re an attractive way to deliver your message, but those templates are also fraught with layout problems. I learned recently in working with one of my clients that some of the online web-based email programs almost shred the layout of a typical HTML email if you don’t know how to set up the template to keep it together. Because of my skills, I was able to research the issues and set up an HTML Email template for my client (and one for myself) that still look good in programs like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Windows Live Mail. (Those of you who read my emails using those programs have probably already noticed how much better my HTML emails look now!)

The “I Can Fix My Website” training product comes with a free 3-month membership to my support forum. If you have quest ions or problems with your email templates, your site, your squeeze pages, your autoresponders, your graphics, or anything else related to building your site, you’re going to be able to post your issue online and get answers right away. You can also research solutions that I’ve provided to other members, not to mention having access to my virtual “Rolodex®” of website and blog tools, links to good scripts, and lists of recommended utility websites to support you as you build and customize your sites.

It just makes sense to learn HTML and CSS: they’re your ticket to building and maintaining the websites and blogs that work to bring you paying customers. My course will teach you those skills quickly and easily.
Tomorrow: Reason 4 – Making Changes to Your Site on YOUR Schedule
Toolie®

Blog Food-Guest Blogger Series # 6

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10 Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs

Reason 6 – Jazz Up Your Website or Blog with Ideas from Other Sites

By Toolie

Have you ever seen a cool image, graphic, or feature on another site
and wondered how it’s done? With a little knowledge and some
curiosity, you can find out how it’s done, and maybe produce something
similar on your website.

On most websites, it is possible to view the source code of a site in
your browser, and even examine it in your favorite HTML editor. (I do
this all the time when I’m trying to diagnose a problem for a client.)
I also collect URLS to code for neat things like countdown timers,
background snow effects, and other features that I’ve spotted on other
websites. I don’t use the code, though, without first finding out what
the terms of use are, whether it’s free or licensed code.

Most of the time, the code that makes those nifty features appear is
code someone paid for, and with some investigation, I can go find the
site and buy it myself. I am in no way advocating theft of other
people’s intellectual property. (Did you hear what I said?) I’m
talking about doing research in the code so you can go do the right
thing (by buying the code), and enjoy the benefits.

There are sites on the Internet where you can go shopping for features
by the type of code you want to use. Let’s say you want to add a
background “snow” effect for your website during the holidays. My
favorite source for such things is www.HotScripts.com, a centralized
search engine for both free and paid scripts (Javascript, PHP, and
other languages). You don’t have to be a programmer to install the
scripts, you just need to know enough HTML to place the code in the
right spot (very much like you do to install a Facebook badge or
Twitter feed).

Some scripts on www.HotScripts.com are just features you add to your
websites; some are entire programs you can buy. Most of the free
scripts simply require that you keep their website URL in the code to
give them credit, which is absolutly the right thing to do. Some
scripts will allow you to remove that credit if you pay a registration
fee, which is also fair. Here are an example:

http://www.dseffects.com — will let you use the script for free if
you keep the author credit within the code. It costs $24 for a license
for one domain so you can remove the author credit, and $80 for up to
10 websites. (What a bargain!)

Some sites let you take their images as long as you make a copy,
rather than linking to their image. Here’s where I found a page of
animated snow GIF files:

http://www.scri8e.com/h/xmas/CICED/SnoAni/

The site owner allows you to make a copy for personal use, and
explains on this page why you cannot simply link to the images.

http://www.scri8e.com/5/1TermsOfUseNoLinking.html

If I decided to use one of his images, I would create a shortcut to
his website in the folder where I store the images so I remember where
I found them.

Now, to do the research initially, you need to know a little HTML. But
once you do, it opens up a whole world of possibilities. This isn’t
just about having the neatest effect to impress your friends; this is
about finding and utilizing features that will benefit your customers.

For example, I found a fabulous live chat program on someone else’s
site, and decided to switch. That allowed me to stop paying a monthly
fee for a chat program that was overkill for my little business. I
found that new chat software developer by inspecting the code,
tracking down the company website, and buying a license for all my
websites. I even recommend and install that chat program now for my
clients.

So what are you waiting for? It won’t take long for you to learn HTML
and CSS and be able to track down the features you’ve liked on other
sites. You don’t have to imitate, you can customize. Most of all, you
can assist and please your customers with the website and blog
features that help them buy from you. My website training program will
get you started learning HTML and CSS right away.

Next:  Reason 5 – HTML/CSS Skills for More Than Just Web Pages and
Blog Posts

Toolie®

Blog Food-Guest Blogger Series

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Blog Food-Videos

Jocelyn ‘Toolie’ Garner, will be a guest blogger for a series of posts for the next couple of days. The name of the series is

 10 Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs. A series is great for blogging because it gives your reader a reason to come back to your blog each day. (Or any other time you specify.)  Hopefully your guest blogger will introduce their own style and engage your reader with stories, and great fresh exciting content.

A good time to have a guest blogger do a series is when n you are tied up with another project or just need to give your readers a new voice. Remember we are talking about” blog food” so consider your guest blogger as a guest chef serving great dishes of well balanced meals to your readers.

I must also note that if and only IF you have faith in the products or services your guest blogger provides you can endorse and encourage your readers to invest in them. I have and still learn a lot from Toolie so I will endorse her learning tools.

P.S As blog owners it is ok if you add your affiliate link , if your guest blogger has one, to your post. So, I encourage you to consider this recipe as part of your blog food menu.

Now, normally when you post a series you do one(1) post every 24 hours. However, I may break the rule. So, you see an additional segment of her excellent series less than 24 hours apart. But, I am very excited about these posts and just want you to have them quickly. So, I suggest you place your email in the subscription box on this site so you will know when I have posted

Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs:

Reason 10: It’s One Less Thing to Be Afraid Of…

In 1991, I was laid off from a job in a new career with only 18
months’ experience. I was devastated emotionally, psychologically, and
financially. My marriage had ended just 2 years before and I was
getting back on my feet from that when I lost my job. McAlister and I
had been together only a few months when this happened, and after
seeing me sob and moan day after day, he finally turned to me,
exasperated, and said, “You’re just out of a job, you’re not out of
talent.” He was right, of course. I was letting my fear paralyze my
future.

When I came out the other side of that experience (still not
understanding why I was meant to endure it), I finally came to the
conclusion that having been through it, I was in a position to no
longer be afraid of difficult economic times in the future. I wasn’t
wishing difficulties on myself or anyone else, but I didn’t have to be
afraid of them because I now knew what to do.

There are a lot of frightened people in a similar situation right now,
especially entrepreneurs. We often live “promotion to promotion”
anyway (instead of paycheck to paycheck), and if we had staff, we
might have had to let them go. Now we have to do some of that work
ourselves, and much of it involves wrangling our websites and blogs to
best effect.

Our websites and blogs are our lifelines to future income. Without a
solid understanding and skills to operate them, we’re forever stymied
and frustrated because we let our fear of web technology govern our
actions. The good news is that having an effective website doesn’t
mean you have to learn everything there is to know about HTML and
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). There is a reasonable subset of
information that will get you about 80% of the way, and the rest you
can learn only IF and WHEN you need it. It’s your chance for a sense
of empowerment, of having one less thing to be afraid of…!

And I’ll be here to show you want you need to learn to make it work.

Jocelyn ‘Toolie’ Garner

Blog Food-Teaching Videos

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This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Blog Food-Videos

Teaching videos or videos that teach you something are great blog food. Why?

They are not just a sales promotion

  • They provide content that you can put into action right away
  • They are great for everyone, including baby boomers if they are done well
  • I love them

Now, you don’t always have to post the video directly on your site. You can link to the video post.  To illustrate enjoy this gourmet serving of blog food from my good friend and WordPress expert, Cathy Perkins,The WordPress Wizard.

This engaging and insightful video discusses what you can do with old blog posts sitting in archive.

I also encourage you, remember I love blog coaching, to practice at least one of her suggestions before the end of the week! Let me know.

Note: Notice how she DOES NOT rush through her presentation.

Ok, enough talking now view this excellent video. This link will take you directly to the blog video of The WordPress Wizard.

How to Get Blog Food-Articles

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This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Blog Food-Videos

Articles found on article directory sites are great sources of blog food.  Where do you find article directories? I am glad you asked.

GOOGLE

That’s right just enter the term article directories into Google and you will get a host of selections. Now, if you want to narrow your focus to match your blog niche then search on something like, “article directories for baby boomers.”

Once you get the site look in the category listings for your blog food topics. You will have the option of posting the html or the text porting. But always remember to keep the entire article and the links intact along with the authors name.

Now to give you an example, I am posting an article on blogging for your reading pleasure. Enjoy and tell me what you think of this kind of blog food. Will you try it?

Corporate Blogging: 7 Best Practices by SONU1

Blogs have become one of the hottest communication tools on the Web. Offering the opportunity for anyone to create their own free Web site, encouraging opinions and interaction, blogs provide forums for individuals to create their own highly personal presentations to the Web audience. They also provide for consortia of all types to experience the sort of online community feeling that was pioneered by early newsgroups and by the phenomenal success of AOL in the 1990s.

Blogs have reached into the corporate and government sectors as well. What started out as an outlet for teenage expression and grassroots journalism has turned into a lucrative communications tool for small and large businesses alike.

Corporate Blogging refers to a company producing or supporting a blog that it uses to accomplish business objectives. As with anything, there are certain best practices to be followed to ensure your company reaps the maximum benefits. These seven tips guidelines will help make your blog a success.

1. Fine Print. Blogging can lead to legal issues. Companies should have real concerns about liability, exclusions and limitations, and indemnity. Although there are laws that protect against libel, misappropriations and other injuries suffered as a result of posts on the Web, companies can still be held vicariously responsible for statements made by employees that are harmful to others. Since there are so many legal issues surrounding blogs, it is imperative that the site has some sort of disclaimer and limitation of liability.

2. Know What Your Doing. Senior management should be educated by the corporate communications and legal department about what blogs are and how they might affect business. That way, they can be contributing members of the blog, further improving employee relations. Their support and participation is often what makes a blog more effective.

3. Create blogging policies. In any medium where an employee is sharing information, there is the possibility of leaking trade secrets or financial information. Blogging also has a tendency to become personal. A company should have a list of policies regarding blogging to ensure that trade secrets are kept secret and personal lives do not become public. Policies may include keeping financial information from being posted, as well as severe consequences for anyone using the blog for negative publicity.

4. Avoid the Marketing Blog. Making your blog into a blatant marketing campaign is a bad idea. Customers are looking for real answers and honest opinions. They will pick up on insincerity instantly. Use the blog for what it is for, transparency. This is an opportunity to make a real connection with your customers. Do not ruin it by filling it with empty advertising.

5. Keep It Fresh. Blogs are usually judged by their amount of new content. Easy to add on to, they are designed to be updated constantly. To keep your readers coming back, make your content relevant and timely. Do not forget, content can include anything from product releases to job openings, recent news to thoughts from the CEO. It is practically impossible to run out of material.

6. Reinforce the company s core values. Use your blog to reflect your company s inner soul: its mission, goals and direction. A blog is just another medium by which you interact with your customers and employees. It’s another part of the brand experience. It should be consistent with the impression the company wants to make.

7. Encourage employees to use it. Create an atmosphere where they are comfortable asserting their opinions and concerns. You will be surprised how the quietest employees will speak up when given such an opportunity. With all communication, blogging can become negative, so remind employees of the public nature of the blogs and the ramifications for their actions.

Did you find this article useful For more useful tips and hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to Internet Business, do please browse for more information at our websites.
http://www.allhottips.com
http://www.bookstoretoday.com

Article Source: Articles for Boomers

How to Get Blog Food-Videos

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This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Blog Food-Videos

I call blog food any nugget or meal that feeds your blog. It is like having frozen dinners in the freezer.

There is a very popular video circulating on You Tube on a new way to peel potatoes. Now, how is this blog food?

  • Video features a TV Star and already has over 1 million views
  • You could post the video on your site and ask folks to make additional comments on your blog
  • All the testing has already been done for you, it works and attracts folks interested in that topic. If you have a readership that likes this topic area then it is blog food.
  • You can also ask folks to read existing comments and make comments on those comments.

A very good baby boomer blogger , Pam Archer sent this video to me. After I watched it I said, “great blog food!”

So keep following this series and also make suggestions on blog food baby boomers can use to f eed their blogs.  Remember if you love shopping at food warehouses you have lots of ideas for your blogging food pantry.

The video is below please also share your views here also by clicking on comments.