Triona's Tech Tips

How can blogs help you market your business? Every day I meet people who are finding innovative ways to get the most out of blogs, or regularly updated web sites that integrate articles and reader commentary.

Blogs can help you reach new customers while staying in touch with old ones. They say you have to contact someone seven times before he or she remembers you. Blogs make it easy to keep people informed about news and trends in your industry. My Tech Tips blog is an example of a small business blog. It helps me maintain a rapport with existing and potential customers by providing value-added information. You can also improve your customer service and cut down on staff time by using your blog to answer your company’s Frequently Asked Questions.

Your business blog is part of your online brand. When you think of Coca-Cola or Nike, those names instantly bring to mind familiar products. You want your customers to associate your name with good feelings about the products and services you sell. Remember, to get you have to give. By providing free and pertinent information, you’ll establish yourself as a leader in your field.

Marketing your blog isn’t as hard as you think. Send an announcement to your customers, put links in your email signature, and be sure to mention it when networking. This month’s Tech Tip will tell you how to optimize your web site or blog to be more findable on Internet search engines.

In July you’ll get a special preview of the new operating systems, Windows 7 And Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Don’t forget to subscribe to Tech Tips for bonus tips and tricks plus the latest computer news.

The next session of my Blogs For Business class is Thursday, May 21st, 2009 from 12:00pm-1:00pm at the Fox River Grove (Illinois) Village Hall, 305 Illinois St. The class is sponsored by the Cary Grove Chamber Of Commerce and will include a box lunch.

Would you like to know more about how blogs can help your business succeed? Join me and we’ll learn:

• What are blogs?
• How blogs can benefit your business
• How to market using blogs

For more information and my upcoming computer class schedule, please visit www.guidryconsulting.com/news.

Thanks to all my attendees as well as the Cary Grove Chamber of Commerce for a terrific Blogs For Business seminar! If you missed the session or would like an extra copy of the handout, click here (PDF). In this class, we discussed what blogs are, how they can benefit your business, and how you can market using blogs.

If you’re interested in a talk like this for your business or organization, I’d be glad to help. Contact me at info-at-guidryconsulting-dot-com. And be sure to sign up for the email version of Triona’s Tech Tips for announcements about future events.

Don’t miss my Blogs For Business class this Tuesday, October 7th from 9:00am-10:30am at the Fox River Grove (Illinois) Village Hall, 305 Illinois St. The class is part of the Learn From The Experts Computer Series sponsored by the Cary Grove Chamber Of Commerce.

Would you like to know more about how blogs can help your business succeed? Join me and we’ll learn:

• What are blogs?
• How blogs can benefit your business
• How to market using blogs

For more information, visit www.guidryconsulting.com/news.

Don’t miss this year’s Learn From The Experts Computer Series, sponsored by the Cary Grove Chamber Of Commerce. I’ll be teaching the second session, Blogs For Business.

Would you like to know more about how blogs can help your business succeed? Join me and we’ll learn:

• What are blogs?
• How blogs can benefit your business
• How to market using blogs

Blogs For Business will be held Tuesday, October 7, 2008, from 9:00am-10:30am at the Fox River Grove (Illinois) Village Hall, 305 Illinois St. Click here for more information, or contact the Chamber at 847-639-2800. Hope to see you there!

Tech Tips readers may be interested in my latest article, “Emergency Computer Problem-Solving,” available on the Cary Grove Chamber Of Commerce web site.

We all know that sinking feeling, when the computer does something it shouldn’t. Maybe it’s a blank screen greeting your day, or an error message during a deadline. Many people don’t know that there are easy ways to fix computer problems if you know the expert tricks.

See the article for more detail, and look for my Chamber-sponsored class, Blogs For Business, coming in October.

Blogs (an abbreviation for web logs) are online forums that allow you to communicate instantly with your clientele. A blog differs from a web site in that it is interactive. The blog owner posts an article to which readers can respond, creating a discussion on any topic.

Business bloggers have a ready-made niche in their own specialties. An attorney might present articles about legal services, while an interior designer might blog about the latest home trends. Choose a subject you are uniquely qualified to cover.

Next, you’ll need a host. Google runs Blogger, one of the largest, but there are other options including WordPress and LiveJournal. You can use the provided templates, or create your own. A web search for “blog templates” comes up with hundreds of options. Lay out your blog with the sidebars and links you’d like to include.

Keep your blog entries short and sweet. Include keywords, which will be listed at the bottom allowing your readers to click for articles on those subjects. You’ll notice below that this article includes the keywords “beginners, blogs, Internet, small business.” The blog software automates the moderation of comments (a necessity to avoid spam remarks).

How can you use blogs to market your business? It’s best to integrate it into your existing marketing efforts. In my case, I took my already-successful newsletter and supplemented it with a blog. This way my readers can choose the method that suits them, and still get the same great computer advice.

Tell me about your blogging experience by clicking the Comments link below. In July I’d like to ask your opinion about Disappointing Computer Store Service.

This month we’re talking about blogs – what they are, and how to use them to promote your business. Blogs (an abbreviation for web logs) are online forums that allow you to communicate instantly with your clientele. While a web site gives you Internet presence, a blog offers a way to maintain existing customers while reaching out to new ones.

In keeping with the theme of blogs, I’d like to offer a challenge to all my Tech Tips readers. Bring me your hardest computer questions, and I will provide the answers.

Windows, Mac, or whatever else you’ve got, in my twenty years in computers I’ve probably encountered the problems that drive you crazy. They’re easier to solve than you think, and I’ll tell you how.

For those new to blogging, it works like this: The blog writer (that’s me) posts an article on the blog. There’s a link at the bottom where you can reply. Your reply gets posted, I respond, others chime in, and pretty soon you’ve got a lively discussion.

Small business owners know how hard it is to maintain an ongoing marketing campaign. Writing a blog takes as little time as sending an email, and results in greater exposure for your company. The applications for your business are endless.

If you’d like to respond to my Tech Tips challenge, just click “comments” below. I look forward to your computer questions!

This is why I started Triona’s Tech Tips – because there are murky things going on in the computer world that consumers have no way of detecting. Today it’s your Internet service providers, who are once again doing things without telling their subscribers.

In starting this blog, I naturally added its address to my email signature:

www.guidryconsulting.com/techtips

In the course of checking my Monday morning mail, I sent a reply to a client with whom I’ve worked for years. Imagine my surprise at the following bounce message:

PERM_FAILURE: Rejected by the recipient domain. The error that the other server returned was:
554 554-: (HVU:B1)http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvub1.html
554 TRANSACTION FAILED.

I recognized the error because it’s an unusual one, and because I’d just seen it over the weekend when sending a non-work-related email. I immediately recognized the commonalities: both emails were addressed to AOL users, and happened to have links to Blogspot blogs.

A little web sleuthing came up with this:
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/05/aol-vs-blogspot.html

It appears AOL has decided, without telling its users, that it’s no longer going to accept email messages that happen to contain Blogspot links. And Blogspot happens to be owned by Google.

This is a horrible precident, one that echoes the arguments in favor of net neutrality. If it’s okay for an Internet provider to decide which links it will allow in email, what’s to stop them from, say, refusing all emails from non-affiliated providers? Imagine if your cell phone company decided you couldn’t receive calls from another company’s customers!

This isn’t going to provide computer security for AOL users, as the error message implies. It’s going to send those users – who are already plenty ticked about their degrading service, especially dial-up – straight into the arms of some other provider.

If you’re an AOL user and suddenly not receiving some emails, this may be part of your answer. And if you are emailing AOL users, you’ll have to break up the “blogspot” address, like this:

b l o g s p o t . c o m

Otherwise your message may never reach your recipient, and you may never know why.