Blogging for me has primarily been for fun. Like having a photo journal live. Or posting comments, except they’re longer, and usually less commented back on.

Round About Apex was my first blog, a photo blog about just about anything centered in Apex, North Carolina where I had just moved in February 2008. The first year I posted a ton. In 2009, less, and in the third quarter of 2009, I actually began to be paid to blog for local businesses, so I blogged less for myself. Later in 2009, I had a second client. In 2010, I continued, at a the beginning of the third quarter, I got a third client. So all of this meaning less time for my own blogging.

Once I had blogging clients, blogging was about showing visitors more about the business, anticipating questions they may have, and offering information they may be interested in. It’s for sure an art, rather than a science, but we can do things to increase the likelihood that we’re on target.

I get into the analysis – checking out Google Analytics to see what kind of traffic the blogs were bringing. Sometimes it’s not a pretty picture – sometimes people land on the blogs, but don’t stay, telling us that the topic was of interest, but the content may not have been what they were looking for.

It’s a fly-by-night business, people are coursing through on the Internet, searching for a billion different topics, all of which have hundreds of different angles, so no telling what anyone actually wants. Nonetheless, seeing any traffic at all is fun, and shows that we’re part of this megalithic online infrastructure of information.

Chef Greg Lewis of Raleigh's Catering by Design catering services company, flanked by two of his staff at the SAS Championship, an event they cater.

Here are some additional things I’ve learned about blogging for business.

1. Introduce your team. When you can, introduce the people who are part of the business. Show their pictures.

2. Highlight your Web content. Go ahead and surface content from your Web site, as a way of highlighting it. Just because it is in the Web site, doesn’t mean it’s getting noticed. Here’s another example of surfacing existing Web content. This post surfaces content on a FAQ list.

3. Write about things that help the business customers. This blog post about using an electric toothbrush is for a dentist’s blog. This post is about getting the most value from business catering. This one suggests getting an expert opinion before buying or building a house.

This is Carrabba's Pizza Margarita. The menu shows the printed name of the pizza, but showing a picture of what it actually looks like speaks volumes!

1. There are as many different perspectives as there are people. You’ll never please everyone, and your competitors will always have a way to tell you your work is coming up short. So go with what makes sense, and what your client is comfortable with. 

2. Customers respond to different kinds of content. We know there  are at least 7 different learning styles. Wikipedia lists these 9.

• 1.1 Spatial
• 1.2 Linguistic
• 1.3 Logical-mathematical
• 1.4 Bodily-kinesthetic
• 1.5 Musical
• 1.6 Interpersonal
• 1.7 Intrapersonal
• 1.8 Naturalistic
• 1.9 Existential

Some people respond more to design and shapes and images; others to language; others to logic and math; yet others to what they can feel and touch; yet others to music and rhythm; others when there is interpersonal interaction; yet others when they can do work on their own, interacting with themselves; still others are engaged with seasons and evolving time. (I am not familiar with the existential intelligence.)

What does this mean – it means your customers fall across this spectrum of interest/learning styles, and so will be responding differently. Lesson: vary your content.

3. In the course of a year, businesses go through seasons, anniversaries, local events, weather situations, specials, participation in charities and other local events, attendance at fairs and conferences. Gathering news in advance of and during these changes is rich content for blogs (and other social media.) The value of physical time and space remains – even on this virtual medium of the Internet. Stay connected with reality in your content.

Get perspective, take a look at social media and online resources on paper

The vital online community for the Triangle’s small business owners, or micro-business owners, inSide919.com, approaching the 2000 member level, has been a hot bed for valuable and engaging alliances, collaboration, joint projects and more.

The latest very visible collaboration was initated by inSide919 Trustee and member, Martin Brossman, a new, NC focused, social media guide / directory for business. Brossman invited about 14 inSide919 business professionals, practioners of social media, if not outright experts, to contribute helpful articles and their most valuable sites.

Brossman’s Social Media and Online Resource Directory for Business, published via Lulu, is now available, for under $10 as a PDF you can print yourself, or for under $16 as a paperback book. With the price of ink these days, buying the book may be the better bargain! It’s also a very attractive cover, and there’s lots of space for notes.

Contributors to the book are:

Martin Brossman, Success Coach/ Trainer/Author      ProNetworkingOnLine.com

Anora McGaha, Writer, Editor, Publicity Consultant    AnoraMcGaha.com

Dave Baldwin, Freelance Writer, Editor, Consultant     Dave-Baldwin.com

Michelle Courtney, Editor, TriangleB2B Magazine        TriangleB2B.com

Greg Hyer, Founder Linking Raleigh, NC                           LinkingRaleighNC.com

Whitney Hill, President, Carolina Web Consultants     InternetPeople.net

Pat Howlett, Founder, inSide919 Community               inSide919.com

Deidre Hughey, Founder, The BUZZ Builder                   TheBUZZBuilder.com

Jay Izso, The Internet Doctor                                               InternetDr.com  

Beverly Mahone, Author, Media Expert, Speaker        Talk2Bev.com

John M. O’Connor, Executive Career Coach                   CareerProInc.com

Heather O’Sullivan Canney, Social Coach, Speaker      HeatherO.com

Wayne Sutton, Social Media Consultant                          Wayne-Sutton.com

Sharon Sweeting, Solid Office Solutions                           SolidOfficeSolutions-NC.com

Karen Tiede, Principal, Red Tuxedo                                 Red-Tuxedo.com

David Williams, Unlimited Web Solutions                      UnlimitedWebSolutions.com

The articles are by Martin Brossman, Anora McGaha, Deidre Hughey, David Williams, Karen Tiede, Whitney Hill, Heather O’Sullivan Canney and Beverly Mahone.

The press release is as follows:

inSide919.com, Online Small Business Network, Spawns Social Media Directory with NC Focus

inSide919.com social media professionals contributed to a new Triangle focused guide of online small business resources, conceived of and produced by Martin Brossman. Brossman’s Social Media and Online Directory for Business is now available.

Aug 19, 2009 – Pushing 1900 members now, inSide919.com is the online community defined by small business owners who live and work within the “919″ area code. It has catalyzed many collaborative projects and businesses. The latest one to get noticed is a guide to social networking on the internet with articles by around a dozen inSide919 members who have professional expertise in the topic, and a directory of online resources.

Brossman’s Social Media and Online Resource Directory for Business, “Brossman’s Social Media Directory” for short, was conceived of by Triangle LinkedIn and Social Media Networking trainer and coach, Martin Brossman. As someone who guides both students and mature business professionals on practical, ethical and valuable use of online social media, Brossman was seeing a need for an affordable paperback guide.

A community building member of inSide919 and a Trustee, Brossman invited more than a dozen professionals on inSide919 to contribute articles to help small business people use social media and  internet resources well. The result is an attractive 8.5 x 11  paperback which folds open easily with margins and extra space for notes, and a symbolic image of seagulls taking flight on the front cover, and high in flight on the back.

Contributors besides Martin Brossman, Success Coach, Trainer and Author, include (in alpha order by first name) Anora McGaha, Writer, Editor, Publicity Consultant; Beverly Mahone, Author, Media Expert, Speaker; Dave Baldwin, Freelance Writer, Editor, Consultant; David Williams, Unlimited Web Solutions; Deidre Hughey, Founder, The BUZZ Builder; Greg Hyer, Founder  of the LinkedIn group Linking Raleigh and LinkingRaleighNC.com; Heather O’Sullivan Canney, Social Coach, Speaker; Jay Izso, The Internet Doctor; John M. O’Connor, Executive Career Coach; Karen Tiede, Principal, Red Tuxedo; Michelle Courtney, Editor, TriangleB2B Magazine;  Pat Howlett, Founder, inSide919 Community and inSideAreaCodes.com;  Wayne Sutton, Social Media Consultant; Sharon Sweeting, Founder, Solid Office Solutions and Whitney Hill, President, Carolina Web Consultants.

A TweetUp / Book Launch is scheduled for 6PM on August 20 at the New World Coffee House in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Brossman’s Social Media and Online Resource Directory for Business is available for puchase at http://bit.ly/NCSocialMedia4BizBook.

1. Join inSide919.com. (If you’re not living and working in the 919 area code, go to inSideAreaCodes.com to find your areacode, and join that community and start connecting – person to person.)

2. Sign up to follow Martin Brossman on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his trainings and classes; subscribe to ProNetworkingOnline.com; consider attending the ProNetworking on the Web group; and get and use the Brossman Social Media Directory.

3. Sign up on Bill Davis’ Team Nimbus site for his newsletter and reserve your spot for the Double Your Income 90 minute talk. If you’re not already doing what he talks about, sign up for 100 Days to Abundance. Even experienced sales people have been jump-started by Bill’s power packed straight talk and challenges. Check out his other offerings. Give him a call at (919) 926-9810  if you have any questions.

4. Join Greg Hyer’s LinkingRaleighNC on LinkedIn, you’ll need to request membership from your LinkedIn profile. Join the group on its own independent site, LinkingRaleighNC.com, take note of the dates of the in-person networking events.

5. Join the Small Business Meetup at the Business Networking Center in Cary, NC for Triangle Small Business Owners, and mark your calendar for the next event you’re interested in.

Studies say that 63% of families no longer use the yellow pages and do all their searches on line. So if you’re not on the internet, you probably need to be.

If you’re not easily found on the internet by business category in the towns within driving distance of your business, you’re missing out on customers looking for what you offer. While lots of customers may know you because they are local people, but NC has lots of newcomers and you want to reach out on the internet so they can find you.

Here are 10 ways to get your business or your friend’s business found by customers on the internet

1. Research your business’ visibilty on the internet. Sometimes even if you don’t have a website, directories have bought your name and address in a database, so your biz might be listed. But it would only be a listing. No content, no photos, nothing personalized.

If you do have a website, check out the business categories by surrounding towns and see how well you show up. Look at your site and see what questions your site answers, and what questions arise, how easy it is to contact you and to locate your business – directions from different places.

2. Review how you are advertising your business, what it’s costing you and how well it is working. Can you tell how many people responded to an ad because they bring in a coupon or mention the ad for a discount or free gift? Find out what additional advertising you can do for free.

3. If you have not site, consider getting a free or affordable site from a site with no hosting fees, to one with a $10/year fee when you add your custom domain (www.yourname.com), to other sites that may be under $15/month to host, and usually under $15/year for the domain name. If you have $800 – $1300 – $1600 – $3000 – $5000 to spend, please do. You’ll get a fancier site with potentially more visibility, but not necessarily. Depends on your industry and how well the site was created to be optimized for showing up early in searches on the internet.

4. Find the free directories and fill out your company information in the ones you like.

5. Get pictures taken of you and your store to add on those listings and your website, and press releases, and your inSide919.com profile.

6. Write articles, interviews and press releases to post on the internet, so when people search for your industry in your area, hopefully they’ll find much more than a listing with address and number, they’ll find real content that will tell them of the value in your services, and why they should visit you. Find out about the many places you can post them for free.

7. Consider the internet advertising alternatives, including the new low, fixed cost, locally targetted Local Ad Link ads. These are focused on specific zip codes – so that you’re only paying for the people in the areas you want to reach to see your ad, you’re not paying for 48,000 areas in the US to see your ad. If you’re a local business, you don’t need the who world to see your ad.

For $50/month you can advertise in 3 zip codes, for $100 in 10 zip codes, and for $200 in 50 zip codes.

8. Research the business power of social media, there are a hundred people in the Triangle, if not several hundred, who offer services to help you understand what social media is, and how you can use it to network, strengthen your existing relationships and promote your business. There are dozens of articles in blogs on the internet too.

You may not be interested in social media, but people are talking, and they may be talking to your customers, so you really do need to have an eye and an ear to the net.

* If you’re a professional and you’re not on LinkedIn, you may want to talk to someone like me.

*If you’re a small business owner and you’re not on inSide919.com, then you might want to do that, add your personal photo, and start getting to know people in our community.

* If you’re not on twitter – the ‘micro-blog’ you might want to find out how you can be using it to learn a lot and get known

* If you’re not using a blog, there are some questions you can answer that would help determine if a blog could be helpful to your business.

9. Write a guest blog post about your business and review blog strategies for making a blog work for you. Blog posts can give a friendly and familiar presence that also can show up well in search engines.  Strategies include search engine optimization, widgets, tracking visitors, increasing traffic and developing relationships with other bloggers.

10. Call local experts  in internet marketing and publicity and see what they offer, how comfortable you are with them, and what it costs. Of course I’d be delighted to discuss what I can do for you. So many things can be made so much easier when you’ve got knowledgeable and trustworthy advisors and service providers.  Anora McGaha, ClearSight Publicity. 919-741-9449; 828-398-0390

As a writer, artist, creative spirit, if you’re having fun (I was having fun) expressing yourself through your blog, then it could be worth your time. It’s a hobby like any other. If it delights you, you can keep choosing to do it.

As an internet entrepreneur, creating a blog that becomes a passive stream of income through ad clicks, ad payments, sales of items, amazon book affiliation, or other affiliate programs, I can’t speak to that. I don’t have that experience. Lots of other bloggers and web entrepreneurs address that, all over the internet.

As a business person, trying to make a living from one’s business, hoping to get more business from the blog, I’d have to say that the answer to the question is, “It depends.”

Every business is different in how crowded its business category is on the internet (realtors for example), and how difficult or easy it is to distinguish your business. Every business has a different profile on the internet – some have top listing in their business category, a strong well established website. For these, a blog isn’t needed to get them found in google searches. For the first category – good luck. For the second category, you’re already up there in google.

So if you blog when you’re already seen by Google you blog for other reasons. For engaging your customers. (Though it’s possible that twitter is more lively than that.) For communicating on a more personable level. For giving customers access to someone easily.

For those businesses that don’t have good exposure on the internet, and maybe can’t afford to pay someone to optimize their website, if they even have one, having a blog – if they populate it with relevant content about their business category,  and with unique qualities about their business, the blog can really help get them seen in Google searches.

Recently I’ve begun exploring online advertising. A free account with Merchant Circle could get you more exposure than your blog – but then it’s not so personal, not so closely representing the warmer side of your business.

What’s the bottom line? Make sure not having a blog, or having a blog, is part of your marketing and communications strategy. It’s got to be part of the bigger picture of how you are represented and seen on the internet.

At this point,  if you choose to have a blog, know why you’re having a blog; know who you’re trying to reach, and evaluate if what you’re doing is relevant to them – then focus your blog to that end.  It’s simple, but it’s amazing how easy it is to get lost in all the myriads of ideas at our fingertips.

The reason I stopped blogging alot was primarily that I was learning so much on Twitter – not only about how to use Twitter, and the unbelievable number of related applications, but also, from the people on Twitter. (A secondary reason was that with increased project work for business, I had less time and found myself impatient with the time it took to load pictures. I loved blog posts with pictures.)

I had already learned a lot about blogging, both on blogger.com and wordpresss.com. I had learned how incredibly accessible my blogger.com content was on google. Feedjit was an invaluable free monitoring tool. Statcounter was terrific, especially for a multi-blogger like I was, as it gave me dashboard. I learned about widgets and gadgets. New capabilities came aboard making it possible to post blog content from other software, so incredibly easily. But, twitter upped the ante.

With twitter I shifted from learning about how to get people to find my content, to learning from pioneers on the web. In twitter, there were so many technologically savvy, pioneering people to learn from, that it only made sense to shift from the playful, creative, occasionally business posts I was doing.

So that’s that!  Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/norienc and http://www.twitter.com/clearpublicity.

Today’s post offers a list of 8 Free Social Media services that will allow you to monitor your reputation online. At the November 19 2008 Internet Summit in Chapel Hill, Andy was adamant about companies and individuals staying on top of their reputation – you’ve just got to do it to stay up with any fires that may emerge.

The 8 services are:

Twitter, Back Type, Board Reader, WatchThatPage, Trendrr, SocialMention, Brand Jacking and Lexicon. Here’s the link to the post for the valuable details.

A brief intro to Andy Beal on the site says this:

Andy Beal is renowned for his expertise in online reputation management. The founder of Trackur, editor of Marketing Pilgrim, and co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring & Managing Reputations Online, he is arguably the foremost authority on online reputation management.

Trackur, the software, and Radically Transparent, the book, are two of his important contributions.