Michael Pollock of Small Business Branding blog succinctly points out that logo's aren't really whats in important.. He makes the point that your brand identity is what people think and feel about your business.

Herein lies one of the biggest bloggers advantages and this is connecting in personally powerful ways with your target audience. By establishing deeper relationships you are able to effectively influence how people think and feel about you and your business. While I submit that investing in a branded design with your blog is not a wasted investment, realize that your connection is what will create your blog's greatest success.

This is evidence by the many, many blogs that maintain simple layouts and yet connect with and communicate successfully with a core audience. Michael points out that the logo is simply the symbol of your brand. ...   more »

According to this article by Inc.com, business blogging is on the rise.

Blogs are a low cost and highly effective tools for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses to communicate and differentiate themselves. My friends Paul Chaney and Anita Campbell were quoted by Inc.com as saying:

"Blogs are a way for you to tell your story over and over again, and do it in a personable way. If you are blogging and your competitor down the street is not, then it can be a competitive advantage." --Paul Chaney

"Blogs are tailor-made for small businesses, and they are a better tool for them, Large businesses have to worry about what they can say in their blogs. They have to worry about SEC regulations and their different constituents, so small businesses have a better chance of making blogs work for them." --...   more »

The call with Denise Wakeman of Build A Better Blog System was great fun. Denise was a wonderful hostess and I'm glad I got to meet her and got the opportunity to become a part of the excellent work she and Patsi are doing. The audio from the call is now available. Here are is a list of the content we covered on the call:

What social marketing is fundamentally all about.

Why a social marketing emphasis is even necessary.

How to best position your blog for social marketing success and why blogging has changed the way marketing is being conducted online.

How to establish a successful community around your products, services and brand.

Why voice and value are the key to creating successfull community and how to actually fine tune your voice your blog to effectively communicate with your ...   more »

Wayne Hurlbert of the Blog Business World shares more with us on how Blog SEO power continues to grow.

Wayne says:

"That two word phrase, when entered into the Google search interface box, gives back 461 million returns.

That incredible number is double the amount of pages returned, when I wrote about how Blog Business World ranked Number 8 out of 158 million returns last month (March 17 2005).

That previous result for "business world" without quotes, as in... business world ...has since changed.

For the better.

Blog Business World has now moved up the rankings to Number 5 in Google for a search for business world.

When I first wrote about the high ranking in Google, despite the incredibly huge page return (now 461,000,000), the blog SEO power posting was met with some skepticism.

The readers ...   more »

I for one never tire of information on blogging and how to do it the right way. Improvement is the name of the game. Never stop learning. We live in an abundant world and there is room for anyone to carve a niche of their interest with their expertise. With the latest but the not least of the entries into the world of books about blogging, Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership blog and Patsi Krakoff of Coachzines Blog have put their collective expertise together and just recently released Build A Better Blog System.

Do you have all the clients you want? Are you getting the results you want from your marketing strategy? Build A Better Blog System will provide you with the tips, tools and techniques to building and professional blog the reflects your business, your knowledge and ...   more »

Some of you may have noticed this report being advertised by Forester Research through Google Adwords for awhile. Well I just got around to checking it out in it's entirety.

It's a very good report. You can listen to the audio summary of the report here or you can view the video summary (link on the same page as audio). To get access to the full report you will need to register on the Forrester site if you haven't done so already. This report is free and includes several graphs and powerpoint slides. It's worth the moment it takes to register (registration is free also).

Anyone researching business blogs or working on building a case for a business blog will certainly benefit from this information. Go to Forrester for more information: Forrester Research: Blogging: Bubble Or Big Deal?   more »