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Monday, October 1, 2007
Introduction to Blogging Class - Thank You

Hello.

I just got back from doing a seminar on blogging and wanted to thank everyone for coming out. We learned a lot. I also wanted to thank Allison Bliss, a local marketing coach, here in Alameda. Allison invited me to speak with her on Blogging for Business this evening at our local library.

The turnout was great and I think everyone learned something. If you missed it…

Get started blogging with Blogger
Promote your blog with Technorati
Make money blogging with Adsense and Commission Junction
And learn how others are making money blogging.

Also see my other posts on blogging. And read from the man who invented the blog.

It was good to see familiar faces and meet new ones.

Mike Swartz says, “Thank you”.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:09 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Saturday, January 13, 2007
Blogs Are Becoming Mainstream Media

I was going to write about making minor changes to a website can have drastic, positive results, but I already talked about that before (though it’s still important to mention again…)

Instead I thought it was important to mention Engadget a “gadget blog” received a record number of pages views (hits to some) to it’s blog.

Blogs are becoming mainstream.

A number of my clients are learning that keeping up a blog can result in dramatic, positive effects to their website.

Setting up a blog on an existing website is not difficult. Keeping a blog up to date is.

MJS Web Solutions can integrate your new blog into your existing web design. Contact us to learn more.

If you’re a do-it-your-selfer, try Blogger or Wordpress.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.”

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 4:52 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Thursday, August 24, 2006
More Blogger Benefits Are Announced In New Release

Hello.

I just helped a customer, Sandalwood Skincare, get setup with Blogger. (I seem to be a natural at this). Anyhoo…

Blogger has many great features; the best is being absolutely free. Getting setup with Blogger is a snap. You can be blogging in minutes. The quickest way to setup is to choose one of their free templates. Or you can setup an HTML template within Blogger that integrates with your own website. (This process may take considerable more time to figure out if you haven’t done it before).

Blogger has announced some new enhanced features for its next release. One of my favorites is labels or categories. Now you’ll be able to separate your blog posts by category; something that’ s been a long time coming.

I think Blogger’s top benefits are:

It’s FREE. You just can’t beat that.
It’s user friendly. It’s simple to write and publish your blogs.
You can integrate Blogger into your website so your blog has the same look and feel as your website.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out!”

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:19 am

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Comment Spam Sucks

Spam, spam and more comment spam.

All bloggers know what it is. If you don’t know what comment spam is, it’s spambots looking for comment forms so they can insert garbage content, like this:

comment spam

The image is from an email. Wordpress (my new blogging software) will moderate comments and notify you of new comments on your blog. Unfortunately, it moderates spam comment as well.

So, if you’d like to leave a comment, for now, you must register - which basically means I’m turning off comments - until I can come up with a better solution (which is a captcha add-on I have to install).

Thank you for your patience.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I didn’t want to leave without saying Hi. So…Hi.

It’s been extremely busy around here. This is a good thing. We’re helping others make money and they help us make money. It’s a great relationship.

We just completed an SEO report for one of customers and learned their site increased it’s click through rate by 5%. It’s doesn’t seem like much, but inquires have also increased. I don’t think this is a coincidence.

I’ll tell you more on how we did it in the next post.

Hope you are having a great summer.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 9:57 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Saturday, March 19, 2005
Accepting Feedback

My Dad, a regular visitor to my blog, wanted to know if the orange RSS button was a bad link, because when he clicked on it, it displayed only the RAW data from the RSS feed.

I was going to send him an email letting him know how to add an RSS feed and found it cumbersome trying to explain the current method of copying & pasting the RSS link into a RSS Reader or Aggregator. Isn’t there a simpler way? There is if you’re using the Firefox browser – which I highly recommend.

Easily Subscribe to an RSS feed Using Firefox

If you want to subscribe to an RSS feed and you’re using Firefox, all you have to do is click the red button in the bottom right hand corner of the browser. It asks you to subscribe to the feed and you’re done.

I checked out our blog and I couldn’t find the button – Firefox wasn’t recognizing our RSS feed. Determined to fix this, I searched for “Firefox RSS” in Google and found out how to get Firefox to recognize our feed. (Thanks to JB for this info).

Now you can easily subscribe to our blog (or RSS feed) thanks to my Dad, JB, Firefox and me.

This probably would have never gotten done if it wasn’t for my Dad informing me about it.

It’s Amazing What a Little Feedback Can Do.

Giving and receiving feedback is one of the most important characteristics we have as humans. The gift of giving helps all of us. Because my Dad informed me of the problem, I was able to help him out and help out everyone else visiting our site. Thanks Dad.

Always ask for feedback and always accept it. You don’t have to like it, but the feedback you get could provide a benefit to others.

That’s my lesson learned for today.

P.S. My lesson learned coincides with a book I just read, called “The One Minute Manager“. In the book the author talks about giving feedback – praising and reprimanding and the benefits it has on others.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.”

Hope your weekend is a long and relaxing one.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 12:13 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Uncategorized, Blogging, Web Design

Monday, March 14, 2005
5 Tips For Business Bloggers

Hope your weekend was good.

I just read an article in Information Week about how 5 executives are using blogging to their personal and professional advantage. The author offers 5 tips. I thought I’d add my 2 cents worth.

Tip #1: Use Your Clout
Be the expert. That is the beauty of the blog. Writing about what you know considers you an expert.

Tip #2: Don’t Mix Work and Play
Have a focus or theme to your blog. There are over 8 million blogs (and growing). Yours better be unique.

Tip #3: Keep it Human
Your human, keep it that way. The internet is a very impersonal environment. Blogs provide a more personal side.

Tip #4: Find the Time
This is an important one. If you don’t have the time to write, people won’t take the time to read it. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Tip #5: Don’t Be Afraid to Take Stock and Eat Crow
You know your own boundaries. If you’re putting it out there, you better be ready to accept responsibility. What you think may not be what you want to write.

Read my post on Blogging for Business. Also read my full length article on how to blog and the advantages and benefits of blogging for your business.

‘til next time.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:46 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Thursday, February 3, 2005
Blogging For Business

An article I wrote for the Alameda Chamber of Commerce Newsletter was published today and I wanted to share the full article and an excerpt about the benefits of blogging for your business.

Blog Benefits

Blogs are incredibly beneficial in so many ways. Here are a few that really stand out:

They’re personal – In an impersonal world called the internet, it’s refreshing to read the more human aspect.
They’re interactive – Readers can post comments and interact with the blog writer and vice versa.
Search Engines love blogs – Keyword rich, easy to index and popular.
They’re easy to setup and maintain – You can setup a blog in a matter of minutes and maintain it without knowing HTML code.
They can increase traffic to your website – If you’re providing valuable information on your blog, they’ll be a reason for visitors to return and more likely to contact or buy.

Blogs Have Many Uses

Librarians are using blogs to provide updates to their staff and patrons. Project Managers are using blogs to distribute updates to team members. Writers are using blogs to showcase they’re writing skills to publishers. Blogs can also be used to deliver company news alerts or announce new products or services.

There’s no end to the possibilities – only your imagination.

Here is the full length article on Blogging for Business.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out”.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 9:01 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Tuesday, February 1, 2005
2004: Year of The Blog

I subscribe to CIO magazine. It’s good for catching up on some of the latest trends and the inner workings of the IT world…and articles about Robotic Parking creating an Automated Parking System in New Jersey. Awesome! I’d love to see that in action and maybe see it in San Francisco soon.

Anyhoo…where was I? Oh yeah. In the latest issue of CIO there’s a small article on the popularity of blogs in 2004. Here’s the stat that jumped out at me.

Blog readership jumped 58% between February 2004 – November 2004
Readership means more visits to your website. And the more people who visit, the more they’ll come back, the more they’ll trust you, and maybe even contact you or purchase your services and products. Whew!

Don’t underestimate the power of the blog.

Read the CIO article here.

Read my Blogging for Business post and full length article.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.”

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 1:01 am

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Monday, November 15, 2004
Blog Comments

Isn’t that why blogs were created? To allow a two way communication between us bloggers and our readers? Well, I’ve added the ability to post comments to our blogs.

Adding comments to a blog post has many benefits, including:

Driving Traffic to Your Site - When you post a comment, you usually add your website address with your post. So when other people read your comment, they have an opportunity to link back to your site, thereby increasing traffic to your site.
Increasing Your Website Ranking - Adding your website when you post a comment can also increase your website ranking. The more relevant links you have to your site the higher your results in the search engines.
Improved Communication – The greatest benefit, of course, is your feedback to the poster. Your comments and suggestions will only help improve the communication between you and your audience (i.e. customers).

I added comments to some of my recent posts and to some of my more popular posts.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask my readers what they would like to see in upcoming posts. Do you have any suggestions for new topics? Any web or internet related questions you have? Also, if there are any other posts you would like to comment on, please let me know and I’ll allow comments for those particular posts.

I look forward to your comments.

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 6:46 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging

Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Blog Burnout

Wow! It has been a quick week.

I was hoping to write a couple of posts each week, but it looks like I’m falling behind on my wishes. Well not to fear - I am writing once a week.

Speaking of falling behind, I just read an article about how many bloggers are getting burned out. Most bloggers have other responsibilities (i.e. family, job, kids, a life) besides keeping up with their blogs so they’ve begun to retire. I can’t blame them. It takes a lot of work to come up with a meaningful topic to share and write about it without boring your audience. And then, if you have a significant following with visitor feedback you’re responding to, it could easily become a second job. And this second job usually doesn’t pay very well for some.

But I’m still here and I can’t ever imagine giving up this blog.

If you think blogging is for you and want to take on the challenges, check out these sites.

Blogger.com
Live Journal
Type Pad
Moveable Type

P.S. MJS Web Solutions is not affiliated with any of these companies…though we may want to be.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.”

Posted by: Michael Swartz at 5:14 pm

Comments: None | Filed under: Blogging