Learning How to Blog …

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 at 10:01 pm  
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Beginner to Blogger in 4-wks

75 owl elephants Learning How to Blog ...I want to talk about different Blogging packages.  This  is a series of 3-articles that will cover programmes I’ve used and tell you about my experience in using them to get my blogs optimized and monetized etc.

Traci Knoppe is a bit of a WordPress Queen and brought out her package Beginner to Blogger at the beginning of June this year.  It consists of a 4-wk course on how to get a WordPress blog (using your own domain and hosting).

It arrives into your email one week at a time and each one consists of 5-Lessons – the intention being to have something to work on each day.  Of course if you’re enthusiastic or prefer to do things in one fell swoop,  you’ll probably go at it and have them out of the way in a couple of days, dependent on your knowledge from the outset.  This course is designed for you if you’re newly online and want to have an optimized site where Traci’s follow-up course will take you to profit in Blogger to Profit.

Traci’s style

Traci’s voice is quite natural and conversational in approach as she takes you through the course.  She’s highly knowledgeable (with a 10+ years background as a web designer) working with independent business clients, and for her describing the how-to of getting your blog up and running is a doddle.  But hopefully once you’ve done it once or twice and got a bit of a system together, with Traci’s help, you’ll find the same.

There are a plethora of plugins that she includes as recommendations.  These are the oxygen of improving performance in running a blog.  She also asserts the philosophy of not installing tons of plugins just for the sake of it … instead she recommends only installing anything above what she includes with the programme on a needs-must basis.  If you find the need they’ll be a plugin that will fill the need :)   She takes the practical approach and its very welcome, especially when you compare it with a lot of the over-the-top ‘blag’ and ‘blarney’ that a lot of online courses tend to perpetuate.  That’s probably a topic for another day!

Too much information

As someone who can relate to the overwhelm and information overload experienced when first getting online, the only niggle with the program (and maybe its a transatlantic thing) is that there were times when she gave the newbie more credit than warranted.  This is demonstrated where she gives choices, when I may not have the experience to draw from, i.e. when choosing the type of domain for a business or hobby, and whether it should it be a .com .org etc.  It may be me being too literal  :( and  as Traci’s probably forgotten more than I’ve yet learned, its perhaps not too bad of of a thing, that she imagines her students bright enough to know what they want!

And to address that … my understanding is that SEO (search engine optimization) prefers a .com (as numero uno).  However if you live outside the USA then by all means take a .co.uk or .aus when you are wanting an online presence for your local offline business.

Traci is a kind and generous soul and her customer service is responsive and willing and any queries will be answered within a reasonable period, she’s a conscientious lady who likes to help.  When I got online just over a year ago if they’d been a package around like this I’d have snapped at it. Unknowingly I took a rather long and laborious route (when I built my first blog following a so-called ‘guru’ whose simply dropped off the radar!  Longevity rules!

And the problem with learning from someone who adds all the frills and nonsense is that you get lots of unnecessary information and finally require a course like Traci’s in order to check you haven’t missed any vital steps.  Because you can guarantee that all the padding in the route I took was sure to act as a replacement for more vitally important information, that a marketer like ‘the guru’ would have no qualms about omitting … Here today and gone tomorrow … whereas Traci Knoppe (@traciknoppe) is in it for the long-haul.   She’ll continue to be online in another 10-yrs, still giving great service and sharing her extensive knowledge with other people.  Its in her nature, she can’t help herself.

In Summary

The service for the product is swift … everything arrives immediately through auto-responder, therefore you won’t have to wait for a parcel to arrive – and when you have to wait for something to travel all the way from the USA to the UK it can be tedious.  Nor will you have to wait very long for the email with Wk 1 Lessons1-5 and you dive straight in.  The product is clean and clear and the rest is up to you.

If you want to start your first blog in 20-easy steps then you won’t go far wrong with Traci Knoppe’s Beginner to Blogger in 4-wks check this out …

Jane

Fundraising with Social Media …

Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 11:14 am  
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Getting the Word Out

The OwlHere’s an article that should be of great interest to any company with a ‘Paying it Forwards’ policy.  Don’t let the social networking terminology deter you from this fast growing avenue for fund-raising ideas. It’s time to understand why this approach should be part of your organization’s overall fund-raising strategy. Fund-raising is all about telling as many people as possible about your mission and reaching them where-ever they are and right now many people are networking online.

The reach of member communities, which includes Social Networking and Blogging sites, increased its active reach 5.4 percent during the past year, according to a Nielsen report and Nielsen Online has NetView panels in the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Australia.

The Growth

Red Nose DayFrom these countries alone, there was an incredible growth of 18% in time spent online between December 2007 and December 2008.  And although that number is significant, what’s mind blowing is the time people are spending online in these Social Media communities.  According to the Nielsen Online report this number exploded 63% to 45 billion minutes.  Facebook time increased by a mammoth 566%, (from 3.1 billion minutes in 2007 to 20.5 billion minutes in 2008).  According to the survey, these communities even beat ‘email’, once seen as the New Frontier only a few years ago, in their Active Reach by December 2008.  So this gives you an idea of how BIG this ‘technology’ is and the worth of looking at including it as part of your Fund-Raising Strategy.

Here are some clear definitions of The Basics:

Facebook

Is a free Social Networking site that is operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc.   Users can join networks organized by:

  • City
  • Workplace
  • School
  • Region

And connect and interact with others, including friends and family and send them:

  • Messages
  • Pictures
  • Updates
  • Personal profiles to notify friends about themselves

Most importantly for fund-raising, people can join ‘groups’ and ’causes’, such as non-profit organizations and/ or support individual fund-raising efforts.

Twitter

Is a free Social Networking and Micro-Blogging service that enables its users to send and read other user’s updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s Profile Page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as ‘followers’). Tweet to your friends, family, colleagues and network about your organization’s great work, inform them of an upcoming fundraiser, call for volunteers – it’s positively tweet-a-rific!  However its an important part of Twitter etiquette that you similarly tweet about other people’s products, organizations, business and social in order to develop a two-way street.

Widgets

For fund-raising purposes,  widgets can be associated with different campaigns within your website or direct people there from other locations such as Facebook.  A widget is anything that can be embedded inside an HTML page (in other words a web page) and this can add some content to a non-static  page.  Generally widgets are originated by third parties but they can be homemade.

It’s time to step up to the plate in this new and exciting world of fund-raising  where the opportunities are open for business and social purposes.   The great thing about these tools is that they are virtually free and in the case of Facebook and Twitter, completely free.  Combined with tradiiional fund-raising methods there is a dearth of online opportunity.  And consider how Social Networking can enhance your overall fund-raising strategies by bringing  in fresh ideas, attracting new audiences and potential donors.

Jane

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_M._Dockter

The author is a non-profit professional with over 20-years of fund-raising and non profit management experience. For more fund-raising ideas, free tools and results oriented resources, please visit her website at http://www.fundraising-guide.com