Posts Tagged ‘Blogs’

On easy (and free) way to get people back to your own site is by visiting others. That’s right, spending time reading blog posts by other bloggers can be not only educational, but by posting comments you can show yourself to be knowledgeable. This in turn could find you with more of your own readers who are interested in what you have to say. Have you noticed on some blogs that some commenters have their photograph or an image next to their name? These are known as Avatars (not like the blue creatures on the recent film) and are quick and easy to set up. Go to the Gravatar website at: http://en.gravatar.com/

Gravatars are linked to an e-mail address. This should be the same e-mail address that you will use to post with on others blogs.

You will receive a confirmation e-mail to click on. Once you have done this, you will be able to walk through and select the photograph or image you would like to use.

Once you image is uploaded, you will then be prompted to set a rating for your Gravatar. Once done, that’s it! Next time you add a note to a blog that has the Gravatar’s activated, your image will show up next to your name and comments!

So, back in January I did a post about using Twitterfeed to import your blog posts (RSS Feed) into Twitter and Facebook. Although I am not TOTALLY going back on my word, I have found that it doesn’t seem to work so well for Facebook. Works great for Twitter though, so still using it for that. However, I found that at times it would log me out of my Facebook account and lose connection. It could be because I have three Facebook accounts that I am constantly logging in and out of? Also, it would only update either my Profile or my Page, not both. So, I had to search for something else. (not sure what an RSS Feed is? Check out this blog post to learn more).

Social RSS seems to be doing the trick for me. Log into Facebook and then click on the following link: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=23798139265

It will take you directly to the application for Social RSS for Facebook. This application allows you to pull in your blog feed directly into Facebook. If you are using WordPress, there are several plugins that will do this for you, but I haven’t yet found one that has the same settings and flexibility of this app.

Once at the application, you will need to put in the settings. First, you can enter in a Description. Put in a little bit about you or your business. This is going to be used on your Facebook Profile, not your Page (more about how to set that up in a moment). Let people know about what it is that you do, or what your RSS feed is about. Why would it interest me? Who is it targeted at?

Next you can put in a website link. You can make this your home page if you wanted to. You will put the actual RSS Feed link further on down in the settings. Now onto the settings for the feed itself. If you need more guidance just hover your mouse over the title of the field and it will give you more info. These are all required fields and the tag can be something simple. The field is no more than 5 characters so just put in a combination of letters and numbers that makes sense to you and what the feed is about. This is really more critical if you have more than one feed. I just used an acronym of my business name, seemed simple enough!

The Title I just used my company name. When a new post is published to your wall, it states: New Story from, then the Title you entered, so put in something that makes sense. The URL is that of your RSS feed. If you are not sure what it is, click on the orange rss icon from your blog and it should take you to the url. If you are still not sure, ask a friendly web designer, I am sure they will tell you for free!!! Do not just use the url of a regular web page, it won’t work that way. The Alternative URL will be used when someone clicks on the Title of the feed. I have it taking people to my About page for more information.

Next click the Display Options tab.This allows for more settings to determine how the new posts from the RSS feed will look. Here are my settings below, feel free to copy, or use your own. You can click on the other two tabs but I haven’t changed anything on those. Finally, click on Add to Profile.

This will ask you if you want to add Social RSS to your Profile. You can add it to the boxes tab, or the Wall and Info Tab.

Once you have done this, click on Application settings from the top right of Facebook. Click to Edit the Social RSS Settings. Select your Profile settings, and also click on the Bookmark tab. By Bookmarking Social RSS, this means it will show up when you are on the Facebook home page. You will see it listed underneath News Feed, Messages and any Applications you have book marked. This makes it easier to get back to in the future.

Once you have this all configured, the next time you publish a blog post, you will see it listed on your Profile. Below is how mine looks.

And finally, if you want it to appear on your Facebook Fan Page, click on this link: http://apps.facebook.com/rss-connect/pageinfo.php?ref=tb If you have more than one page, it will ask you which one to add it to. Click to Add Social RSS and then you will be taken to the same settings page as before. It’s a pain to set it up twice, but you only need to through this once, and that’s it. I kept two windows open, one with my Profile settings and one for my Page and just copied and pasted from one to the other.

Had success with any other applications posting your RSS Feed to Facebook? Let us know about them below!

So, you have seen all of the guest blog posts this week. Each of the clients I worked with had their own ideas before getting a blog but each of them have found success. If you understand the true power of a blog, you can have control of your own Search Engine Optimization.

We are excited to announce a great competition for the rest of this month! One lucky business will have a WordPress blog added to their website. This gives you the opportunity to keep your own clients informed about any specials or events you have coming up. You can write educational articles giving facts and helping teach others about your craft or field. You can share ideas and opinions easily. WordPress is accessed through an online portal you can log into directly.

So what do you have to do to win?

Creating a blog to fit in with your current website is a pretty big deal. For a small business owner, the cost of web design or site work can be a luxury. So, its not going to be as simple as just submitting your name, or signing up for a newsletter. What we are looking for is a little more creative. Tell us why you want a blog, what you will blog about and how you hope this will improve your own business. Must be at least 100 words, but can be as detailed and entertaining as you wish!

Simply click here to enter our WordPress Blog Contest

Be sure to read the Terms and Conditions of the contest

Guest Blogger – Laura Fields from Baby Steps

The next guest blogger is really two bloggers! Both Melissa Casserly and Laura Fields take it in turn to post regularly on their blog.The  Baby Steps Online Blog is full of great information about babies, nursing, pregnancy and so much more. Below, Laura talks about journey from having blogs in the past to truly embracing the concept and making it work for them.

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We’ve had blogs off and on since we started our business, but we wanted to have a venue to share interesting stories, articles, and editorials more consistently.  My sister (owner of Best Fit Pet Sit) told us that by integrating a blog into our website, we could have the added benefit of increased web traffic.  It was with those two things in mind that we decided to start blogging on a more regular basis.

Our blog has been active for almost 2 months now. We’ve made an effort to add new entries to our blog regularly, and as a result our website has moved up on the search engines.  Depending on the search terms used, we’re often on the first or second page of results, which is extremely high compared to where we ranked before we started using our blog.

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Laura Fields and Melissa Casserly are the owners of Baby Steps, Inc. Baby Steps offers several types of classes to fit your busy schedule, whatever kind of birth you hope to have. They offer classes all over metro Atlanta, on weeknights and weekends. They also offer labor and postpartum doula services.

Blog: www.babystepsonline.net/blog/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Powder-Springs-GA/Baby-Steps

E-mail: babysteps@babystepsonline.net

Guest Blogger – Valerie Pegg from Best Fit Pet Sit

Our guest blogger for today is Valerie Pegg, a pet sitter, dog walker and all around animal lover in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Val has managed to use the blog to her advantage and truly push her site up the search engine rankings. Type ‘Pet Sitter in Gwinnett’ into Google and you will see exactly what I mean!

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I started my pet sitting business in early 2009 after many years of experience working in boarding kennels, doggy daycare and volunteering for various animal related charities. As with most small business owners, I started out with a website and had a few visitors here and there. I wanted to make sure people could find me, and find me on the first page of Google if possible!

Megan has worked with me, one on one, to make sure my site got to the top, and stays at the top. First of all she set me up with WordPress so I could log in and make changes to my site whenever I want to. Second, she gave me a great document that explains how to log in, create a new post, and publish it out using the right keywords, titles and descriptions for search engine optimization. The biggest thing is that I feel I am in control of my own site. If I want to show up for some new keywords, I can just write a new post and keep those keywords in mind. I am at the top of Google at the moment, have more clients, and am very happy with where I am right now.

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Best Fit Pet Sit Services is owned and operated by Valerie Pegg, an experienced, professional, and caring pet sitter.  A lifelong animal lover, Valerie has worked in boarding kennel facilities, doggy daycare and also as an independent professional pet sitter.

Blog: www.bestfitpetsit.com/pet-talk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BestFitPetSitServices

E-mail: info@bestfitpetsit.com