By Elsie Whitelock - blogging, digital and social media marketing and Web designing 

Ready to start blogging? Not sure what is involved? Here are some guidelines and tips.

Just what is a blog?
In its simplest form, a blog is your personal diary used to collaborate and share your experiences and other things that you find interesting. Blogging allows you to connect and interact with anyone who reads your stuff. However many businesses are using blogging to help their customers and prospects do business with them more easily by enabling immediate engagement. Well what does that mean? I think it means being actively interested in participating in the online community and being actively interested in helping others out. Sound like a good idea; sharing and helping? It does to me.

You can use blogs to share experiences, share new and product/service information, tell what you are doing, share tips and tricks, help solve problems, to name just a few. But the real important thing is to engage others.

So who can read/comment on your blog?
With blogging, you can control who can read and write on your blog. For example if you wanted to have just a family blog where you share personal family stories, events, etc. and photos, you can do that via controls so that only that specific group has access. Or you can make your blog available to the whole world; of course that means anyone with Internet access.

How do I actually blog?

From a technical view, it is really a website where you write and post your stuff on an ongoing basis. (Here at the Small Business Centre, we use a system called 'Joomla'.) However there are 2 blogging web sites out there where you can get started quickly and at no cost except for your time.
Blogger (part of Google) and Wordpress. So check them out. (No recommendation from this corner.)

A little history: The blog web site ‘Blogger’ was launched in 1999 at height of the dot.com boom or right before the bust, depending upon your point of view and number of stocks that you held. So blogging has been around for awhile.

So how do you figure out what to write and how to write your blog; at the end of the day CONTENT IS KING! Good blog content comes from your passion and research on particular subjects and is likely related to your work experience or to your hobby.
So blog about a niche that you are really excited about and will continue learning about so you will have content to write for months to come.

Tip 1 - good topic
◊ Need a good topic and of course great content. Try to think about your content in the way that your prospective readers would. Is it useful? Is it entertaining? Is it short enough and to the point?

Tip 2 - domain name
◊ Need a great domain name (remember, we covered this in my previous post)

Tip 3 - getting found on the web
◊ Learn how to do keyword research. (Keywords are part of your content and are what your friends, clients, prospects or customers use to find you and your blog. e.g. small business help Quinte, blogging how to, movies Belleville Kingston, NASCAR)

Tip 4 - search engines
◊ Spend a little time to learn the basics of how GOOGLE crawls web sites. You likely use Google or another search engine each time you search for something on the web. Being ranked high in Google is good. This is referred to as Search Engine Optimization or SEO ( a topic for another blog post).  However make note that the search engines are now using more of your online presence specifically Facebook and blogging to find and rank you.

Tip 5 - write often
◊ Write regularly. At least once a week or twice a month to start.

Tip 6 - social media
◊ Use Social Media to promote your blog. Post your blog link on your Facebook page, your LinkedIn page, via Twitter (if you are using these, if not perhaps it is time to get started)

Tip 7 - remember to network
◊ Actually network. Spend one a day a week on your networking activities both online and real time. This can help you promote your blog and your business.

Hope this information was helpful.        

By Leah Murray  - guest blogger, photographer and digital imaging artist 

A picture's worth a thousand words, we're told -- and certainly that is true when it comes to selling your product.

For any tangible item, buyers want to know what it's called (something memorable is better), what it costs (high value:low price ratio or at least a perception of that), and what it looks like -- which is where product photos come in.

Now a lot of small businesses don't have the kind of resources needed to mount a photo campaign like the big car makers, candy companies, or cellular service providers -- so we have to fall back on our own resources. Thus we decide that we can take the photos ourselves, and in the pioneering spirit of self-sufficiency that led us to start a business in the first place, off we go with our handy little camera and start firing away.  

About then we start finding out that 3 years of photographic training at a community college might actually be good for something besides getting that darn paper to hang on the wall:  no matter how hard we try or what we do,our photos don't come out looking like the ones in the commercials. 

OK, so something's missing -- WHAT?

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By Theresa Dostaler - guest blogger and owner of Synergy Research and Evaluation Consulting and social media maven of Hockey Mom In Canada

If you had told me five years ago that I would be giving up a full time, well-paying position to become a small business owner, of not one, but of TWO businesses, I would have had a good laugh, and gone back to my comfortable yet demanding job as a Research and Evaluation Office for a school board. But after the birth of my third child, something had to change because it wasn’t working any more. My family was about to explode, and I was about to snap.

Sound familiar?

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By Theresa Dostaler - guest blogger and owner of Synergy Research and Evaluation Consulting and social media maven of Hockey Mom In Canada

I have not always been social media savvy, and in the past may have gone so far as to suggest social media has been contributing to the downfall of society.

That is until I started my own small business, and realized the power and value of social media for networking, branding, and for reaching out to others across Canada, and the world! That’s how I’ve gone from not even having a Facebook account, to facilitating the largest network of Hockey Moms in the world!

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By Elsie Whitelock - blogging, digital and social media marketing and Web designing 

Just started your new business? Now you want to get going with your new Web site? Does it all seem so confusing? Well here are the basics.

You will need:

◊ a Domain Name

◊ a Web hosting company

Don't be nervous. It's not as scary as it sounds. Let's get started.

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By Leah Murray  - guest blogger, photographer and digital imaging artist 

In these days of digital imaging, lots of small businesses have trouble locating the image files they want for their business when they want them.  We can sometimes spend hours, days or (gasp!) weeks hunting down just the right photo for our web designer or for that special customer who called out of the blue and needs to be impressed right away with our product.

Mainly this happens because lots of us think of images as "not documents" - and so the individual images tend to get filed "creatively" rather than in a logical, businesslike way.  To get control of the images in your business life, you will need to start thinking of them as business assets or documents, much like your customer or supplier records, and handle them accordingly.

So let's get started.

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While attending an evening business function an associate gave me a copy of a book to read titled “212 Degrees the extra degree” written by Sam Parker & Mac Anderson.  Thanking her and thinking that if I could find the time over the next week I would have a quick glance through it and headed home.

Later that evening while relaxing by the fire with a glass of wine I opened the book intending to read the first page and set it down until later.  To my surprise the impact of the first few pages was so great that I had to read the rest of the book and watch the DVD. 

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 I love my Job!-  Contributing Author: Sandy Abbott

Anyone who knows me, knows that I like variety and change in the workpace. As Enterprise Facilitator, I get to experience this every day.  Whether on my way to a farm, shop or meeting for tea at a local cafe, I can be assured that every person I meet will have different dreams, talents and business needs. Last week was a perfect example of how dynamic (and fun!) this job can be.  

I met with Janice and Ken from Winstead Dogs to discuss their business expansion plans. Already running a very successful dog boarding facility and training operation, they plan to expand into specialty classes in agility and tracking this summer.  Also, with top notch local talent available, Ken’s goal of producing  training videos is now closer to reality. My job is to help them find really great marketing resources for these ventures.    

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