MediaJoltz

I found a very cool website called CopyBlogger that I am going to keep reading from. They categorize some of their posts into Business Blogging which I found very entertaining and helpful. One of their posts talked about “The Real Secret to Getting TONS of Blog Subscribers.” To sum the article up, it focused on taking a topic and putting an angle on it to make it as Seth Godin calls it REMARKABLE.

I’d like to add to this article and point out four things that you need to think about when starting to blog and all of them have to do with content.

The first one is that you have to HAVE content. Just start writing, don’t worry about what others are going to think when you first start because then you won’t ever start. Guy Kawasaki has a great book called Art of the Start that talks to business planners about just getting out there and starting your dream/idea. I say the same applies to blogging, podcasting, getting involved in new media-just do it!

The other point goes along with the first point about just starting. Sometimes we get too caught up with how our blog page looks and we never write anything that matters. While Allister Cameron does have a great post about things to do so your blog page isn’t distractive to those visiting called “If Your Blog Looks Crap it IS Crap!” But having an awesome looking blog with no content on it doesn’t work either-so keep that in mind.

The third point is to make sure that it is niche. For example, this blog can be labeled as a media and technology blog, but it takes a different spin. I use this blog to take geek talk and turn it into business benefits. For example, instead of just taking note that last year Google bought Youtube for 1.65 billion dollars, I can turn that piece of tech news into a lesson on the benefits Google buying Youtube might have for a business owner:

-Video is becoming more serious. If Google bought Youtube for 1.65 billion dollars, and then others step up to rival that combination then they must see video as something more than the Youtube cat flushing the toilet.

-If the Dominator in Search buys a video sharing site, then maybe that means video is going to play a bigger role in searches. Google now includes YouTube video in search. Well now what does that mean, it means that if someone is looking for a topic in your industry and you have a website and a video on youtube, both will come up in the search. New sites are already now implementing audio and video into their searches.

-Bottom line is that the outcome of Google buying Youtube means that as a business owner, there will be more ways to find you. And who doesn’t want to be found by the people looking for the topics they cover?

Now there are many different ways to put a different angle on something to make it niche. Take for example a real estate agent’s blog. Instead of writing about the industry news, to put a little spin to it, why not do a maintenance after you’ve bought the home blog, or write about the schools, events, businesses and restaurants in the areas of the houses you are selling? You could write a blog about tips and tricks to help better you home BEFORE you put it on the market?

The fourth and final point is that no matter what the topic is, make sure that you are writing about something you love. If you aren’t people will be able to tell that you don’t care through your writing. So go on, start writing about something you want to whole world to know, just go and do it, make it yours and have fun!

Two of my posts were deleted off of the server…thanks for your patience, they will both be back by tonight…

Now for blogging there is absolutely a beginning, intermediate and advanced level. Those on the intermediate understand SEO and meta tags and using plugins and linking. Those on the advanced understand their blog, have a following and want to now start making money off of it. For those two levels, go read fun. Some blog for the community feeling. And some blog for Corporate Reasons. No matter the type of blogging, there are also numerous reasons. If you type “why blog” in a search you’ll get about a million hits. To sum them all up here are my top reasons to blog:
tips” target=”_blank”>Problogger Tips.

If you want to LEARN how to blog and START blogging in a very short time, go ahead and check out Blogger. At Blogger you can start blogging and telling the world what you think.

This is a free place to start a blog, they host your blog and you don’t have to worry about space. It is very fast and simple. To make things even easier, go ahead and watch this video explaining the step by step process on how to start one, it is only 2 min. long which tells you something about how easy it is!

1. You are creating a personality for your company/hobby/passion. Instead of just a website with a lot of copy, people will get to know you, like you and trust you. They will become your fans…

2. You are becoming an expert. By giving meat on your blog-people will begin to recognize that when they need information on that topic, they can come to you. If you aren’t already established as an expert in your field, get to know others who are experts, contribute to their blogs and then you can interview them on yours…

3. Intimate Conversations: by starting a blog you are opening conversation about your topic-and facilitating conversation between your viewers too. By allowing comments on your blog, you can find out true opinions from people, research straight from the audience.

4. Because it is good for you educationally-it forces you to stay up-to-date and on top of the topic and we should never stop learning.

5. Because its fun darn it! Besides being able to have another medium that will help marketing and public relations, its a great way to connect with those that are online, another community to grow and make friends with!

I hope that no matter the reason, blogging becomes a great way to communicate with others near and far, so get to and have some fun!

I had to write this post because I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately. Recently I have been invited to be on the Utah New Media Conference Committee. Here are the details about the Conference:

When: June 28th

Where: Salt Lake City, Utah Marriot

Who: Anyone beginning or advanced who wants to learn more about New Media

We have some very cool speakers to be announced soon. What we want the theme of the conference to be though is that being online is very cool because it is about networking and community. Yes, it has benefits for businesses, thats because you are having real conversations with real people about what is going on-and people do business with people they know like and trust.

But the online community is more than just another place to do business, it is about reaching out and making awesome friends-without having to pay for that airline ticket! I have several people who I keep in touch with on a daily basis whom I feel comfortable enough to call friends-and have never met them in person before!

Its all about looking out for each other and having fun exploring the whole world right from your office or house or even car!

I am directing you over to C.C. Chapman’s Managing the Gray where he did a presentation at a conference about the New Media Playground and how it is like we were kids and you made instant friends with the person on the swing next to you-and that is what it is like online today. You’ve got to hear it!

Here is an excellent example of how the online community has your back in times of trouble:

You’ve heard the phrase Web 2.0 tossed around, but what does it really mean?

So I looked up what Web 2.0 means in the Wikipedia and got a dry definition, but here is what it means to a business owner like you: it means there is a gathering of people online and they are looking and talking-and they could be looking for you, and talking about you as well.

There were 1,114,274,426 people worldwide who used the internet in 2006 according to InternetWorldStats.com

Now an example of people being online is demonstrated in the fact that I didn’t look stats up in a book, but online. I didn’t look up the definition of Web 2.0 in a book either, I looked it up on Wikipedia

I also found an article you can find here on Clickz called “Study Gives Web Video Ads High Branding Marks, but Repetition Detracts” It talks about online commercials fairing better than commercials on regular TV. The reason for this is that there aren’t as many commercials online-so you are in a smaller competition pool. It does talk about the repetition of the same commercial in an online episode being distracting, but I think it is great for the company-a whole episode with not a single competitor.

And even if you don’t have the budget to get an ad in front of a television episode, being online in a podcast, blog, in the social networking circles helps you to be in places where people are gathering. This new media space is cost effective too, with little or no money you can start conversations with your target audience.

So go ahead, give it a try!

 02 MediaJoltz Podcast [7:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There is a site called BubbleGuru that makes installing video on your website very easy.  All you do is register, and then follow the instructions on recording your video right there at your desk.  Then they show you how to put this video on your website.

While I am a fan of doing SOMETHING to be involved with media, I’m not sure how I feel about this service so I’m going to post all my thoughts about the pros and cons and ask you to take a look at it and decide for yourself if it is something you want to do.

First, I’ll start out with the pros.  Hats off to them for making it a fairly simple task to get video on your site.  All you do is connect your webcam and off you go.  If you don’t have a webcam, they provide links to get one-and webcams come pretty inexpensive now.  You don’t have to redesign to embed the video nor does it take up any space. And I think that having video on your site definitely is a must and to have something like Bubble Guru will bring attention to the specific page or information you want your site visitors to pay attention to.

That said, I do have a problem with pop-up video.  Have you visited a site that plays music that just started out of no where?  How many of us didn’t look for the “turn music off” button on the website.  If there wasn’t a way to turn the music off, did you stay at that website or move on?  In a day where everything is becoming more and more what the consumer wants WHEN the consumer wants it, intruding into their browsing experience with a pop-up video might not be the best way to go.  A button that allows the visitor to play the video if he or she wants it is an option at Bubble Guru, but it should be the default.

There is a way to stop the video, but not a way to pause it or rewind and so if you miss something, you have to start from the beginning of the video.  You also will get this video every time you visit the site-there is no “skip” method to the video, so after the 3rd or 4th visit, the video is already very old…

Also, the video takes a long time to load, so a message bubble might sit there with nothing in it for a while.  Then when it does load, even on my Mac 1.5 ghz 1 gig of ram computer, the video stumbles along sometimes stopping and skipping.

So things we can grow and learn from Bubble Guru is that video is a good thing and is fast becoming more than a fad, but a necessity.  What we don’t want to start doing though, is intruding our site visitors with “listen to me now!”  applications on our site.