The Blog Coach returns

Well, I hardly consider myself “prodigal” but, with a return to updating The Blog Coach being massively overdue, I’m pleased to announce that I will be once again blogging here again as from this week.

From the questions I get asked every day, I see that more and more people, both as individuals and as representatives of their companies, are looking for help in making sure that their blogging is working for them. It might be for an individual blog, or for one as part of their main website or for one that’s taking a leading role in their social media campaign. All are out there and being developed on a regular basis.

Of course, there’s a huge amount of information scattered around the internet about blogging including

Check out Better Business Blogging

I wanted to let you know that, for the time being, I will not be updating The Blog Coach site with further articles and posts. The arrival of my first child has meant that I don’t think that I can maintain two blogs in the manner that I want at this time with everything else that is going on.

Instead I will be focussing on the Better Business Blogging site where you will still be able to keep up to date with the advice, tips, thoughts etc. on blogging and new media that would have appeared on these pages.

Blogging in the News – w/e 18 February 2007

Well, as the TV people would probably say, this is now back to its normal Sunday evening slot. So, without further ado, here are some UK based news articles on blogging which have graced the media this week.

Forrester Research report identifies blog strengths for marketers

which focuses on the ROI of Blogging which is a subject that taxes us all. I have a couple of posts coming up on the subject for my corporate readers which I hope will be of interest.

UK consultancy calls for training and HR companies to start blogging

is an appeal that I am not likely to disagree with from Righttrack. “A communication and community-building tool”, you say? Spot on again.

I blog, therefore I am £70,000 richer

Not what you might exactly call a business blog but clearly a way to attract publishers with your writing and do that book deal you’ve often dreamed of. Solopreneurs take note – a blog is a great way of spreading the word on that book or indeed getting a deal to write one!

Analysis: the future of user-generated content

is a predominantly MySpace based article on what will undoubtedly be the growing area of user generated content online and a subject which includes the area of blogging and the business side that it embraces.

Web offers dream of riches

has the Financial Times reporting on the rise of Personal Finance blogs in the UK. A lot seem to err on the side of “personal” rather than “business” blogs (and some just seem to err, to be honest) but its clearly a growing area and business related so takes its place here.

Famous Cartoonist and “UK’s Most Influential Blogger” Dupes Tesco Into Helping him Find a Dream Date for Valentine’s Day

is nice twist of a Press Release for Stormhoek but I love the way Hugh McLeod (he of Gaping Void fame) does it, hence the mention.

Blogging in the News – w/e 11 February

Get to grips with business blogging

is an article which first appeared in PC World and looks at how business blogging can help companies as well as opinion from a number of commentators (including yours truly).

Getting the blog spammers to hang up their affiliations

looks at the problem of comment spam and particularly that caused by affiliate marketers looking for inbound links to their sites. [Comment: luckily using an anti-spam solution from Akismet, I've cut mine down to almost zero and there are other simple ways to stop it. We'll be looking at this subject in more depth soon.]

Business Link Urges Yorkshire Businesses To ‘Get Blogging’

shows that Business Link is helping to encourage businesses to look at the benefits that blogging can bring. Hopefully this will extend across more of the country and we’ll be able to get interested businesses quickly up to speed.

New Sony viral marketing ploy angers consumers

is actually from the end of December last year but reflects just how badly wrong even large companies can get blogging and social media marketing.

Blog your way to success

appeared in The Independent (and I get another short mention!) and focuses on how business blogging is proving successful in the US but is still in its infancy here in the UK, indicating the opportunities available for those companies which embrace it this year.

The Blog Coach: new and improved

Well it’s finally time to get The Blog Coach back on the road, so welcome to the new and updated version of the site!

We will be looking at all aspects of blogging from the planning and design of blogs and blogsites which deliver on their business objectives, through to their marketing and ongoing development. In all cases, the focus will be firmly focused on the business aspect – not in terms of monetising your blog with adverts and the like, but in using a blog to develop business for your company.

The Blog Coach blogsite is designed and aimed at three main groups:

• corporates, small business and solopreneurs which are either planning or merely thinking about setting up a business blog to work for their businesses;
• those companies looking for ways to develop and/or market a blog which they have already set up for their business;
• anyone interested in understanding more about how to use the Social Media Marketing Toolkit they have at their disposal.

While it isn’t specifically aimed at experienced individual bloggers, I hope that The Blog Coach will be able to offer you something as well and I would welcome comments and feedback from you so that it can be shared with others.

In addition to the main categories which will help you identify areas of particular interest, there are also some guiding categories which will help to give focus to the posts. These will be:

• Planning and Setting up a Blog
• Writing and Developing your Blog
• Business Blog Marketing
• Blogging for your Business
• Corporate Blogging
• New Media / Social Media Marketing Toolkit

Although it will be aimed at and looking at the use of blogging in business sense and how to make it work for you, I hope that people running individual blogs will certainly gain from some of the sections.

So, whatever stage you are at with your Business Blogging, I invite you to dip in on a regular basis – to make that as easy as possible, why not add The Blog Coach to your favourite RSS Reader as well? Hopefully you’ll find the areas that we’re going to be discussing useful as well as interesting, and that you’ll feel the urge to join in!

I look forward to hearing from you.