Bloggin your way to the freshest Web content

Last month, we talked about how a business might influence how it can be listed higher in a search engine. To recap, you want to make sure your designer fills in proper code parameters: keywords, page titles, page descriptions, alternate text tags, etc. After your pages have been properly built, and are up on the Web, you should take an hour or two and submit your site manually using the “submit a site” feature on search engines. (Check out search.com’s nice tutorial on the whole search engine thing here: www.search. com/guides/submit/index.html. At the end of the tutorial is a list of 11 major search engines, links to their respective “submit” pages, and useful tips for each site.) Make sure your site is linked with other applicable sites. Make sure you’re listed in local online business directories, and on Chambers of Commerce sites. Use a link when posting on local web message boards. And when we left off, we were discussing how keeping fresh content on your site would also help your search rankings. The problem is, how can you affordably and easily update content on your site?

In the past, there really wasn’t a great solution. Your options? Well, you could learn how to use an FTP program (FTP is a program for uploading and downloading Web sites to servers) and learn how to code HTML, and you could write your own changes and upload them. Of course, learning a couple of programs takes time, and it’s not easy to do without instruction. Or, you could pay your designer to make changes for you. Less of your time is involved here, but you have to pay for your designer’s time. Or lastly, you could have built a database driven site, complete with control panels that let you log in to your site and make changes to certain objects. Of course, those sites cost big bucks up front.

Now, though, I’ve found a solution that’s easy, affordable, and quick. You need to run a business blog.

What’s a blog? Well, it’s a contraction of WeB Log. It started like an online diary, where humble people like you and me could keep a simple Web page, and keep unique and original writing on it. It’s become a little more specific now. Some would say that a proper blog is really just a list of sites that someone (the blogger) finds interesting. They post their findings to the web is a sort of “sharing what’s cool” mentality. An online journal is an online place where the public is invited to see what’s up in the life of someone online. For example, on my webpage (www.billyrhythm.com/traa.html) I post personal things, sites I think are interesting, what I did during the day, how my gig went last weekend, and other trivial tidbits that I hope make interesting reading for those that know me. An online diary is usually a private place for an individual to let his emotions hang out. The difference is that instead of using paper and pen, the author publishes his writing on the web. And if he doesn’t make that address known to you, you might never know it’s there. (I have a friend with an online diary, and she only gives out the address to the chosen…) But usually, we just lump them into the “blog” category.

So know you’ve got all the behind-the-scenes history. How do you make it work for you? Here’s how. Let’s take a look at the Rockland Kiwanis Web site. It’s a simple site, made with a little template that a novice can work with, and that the volunteers of the club can use easily. Ideally, I’d have enough time to keep up the maintenance myself, but such is life. So a few people have access to change stuff on the site—I didn’t put up anything that blinks or moves! :-) Anyway, take a look at www.midcoast.com/kiwanis/notes.html. Every week, I take the club’s minutes, and after I email them to the club, I post them on our Web site. Now, I could change that page manually every week, but that’d be a real pain—and take up more of my already too little time. So instead, I blog it. I created a free account with a software entity called “Blogger” (www.blogger.com). I then designed the Kiwanis notes webpage to accept the information provided by Blogger. When I want to put the weekly minutes online, I log into blogger.com, and give them the club username and password. I then get the control page that looks like this:

I then copy and paste the club notes into the box on the top labeled “New post.” Then, click the “Post and Publish” button. That’s it! The Blogger software logs into the midcoast.com server (where the Kiwanis page is hosted), uploads my information automatically, and then logs out. I self publish to Web quickly and easily—and at no cost too!

Downsides? Well, you have to build a page for the Blogger software to publish to. Makes sense, right? I mean, if there’s no page on the ’Net, where’s Blogger going to put the info? But if your Web site is already built, just have your designer build you another page, and code it to accept the Blogger upload. It’s not hard at all. You’re looking at a couple of hours’ labor, maybe. After that, you can publish to that particular page as much as you want. Put something new up every day! Another downside is that the Blogger software runs on the Blogger server. So if they’re down, you can’t upload. If they go out of business, you’re outta luck. But what do you want for free?

There are some step-ups from Blogger. I use a blogging program called Greymatter. In fact, I used it so Tom Derby could publish to his Web site, www.dirigoresearch.com. Take a look at his site. On the home page, towards the bottom, you’ll see a bluish-gray box with a red headline. That’s Tom’s “blog,” so-to-speak. He can log into his Greymatter system by going to a specific web address on his site, and using a log-in screen as below. (This log-in screen is actually from my site.)

After you log in, you’ll get the control panel screen.

From here, you just click the box that says “Add a New Entry.” You get this box:

In Tom’s case, whatever he puts in the “Subject” field becomes his headline. He puts his press release, or his news item, or whatever, in the “Main Entry Text” box. After that, he clicks the publish button. Whammo! The Greymatter software logs into his site, uploads the text, and logs back out. I also implemented the same software at www.press.midcoast.com. Whenever we have something newsworthy to say, we can just log in, cut and paste the text, and self publish easily.

Plus sides to Greymatter? It runs on your own Web server. It’s software that you control. If it breaks (which it doesn’t—at least not in my 2+ years of using it almost daily), then you fix it. You don’t have to wait for some third party to do it for you. Log in to your server and fix it. You don’t have to worry that your blogging company will go out of business. You’re running the ship here. (Maybe a little scary, but hey, you’re an entrepreneur—you’re used to being scared!) And again, this software is free!

There are other blogging software tools available. Movable Type is very popular (www.movabletype.org). And there are dozens of others. Doesn’t it make sense to consider running a blog for your business? Put your daily menu online. Weekly specials. A newsletter. Whatever. Your customers will benefit by seeing your new products and services in a timely manner. Your pocketbook will be fatter, because you’re not paying a Web designer to make changes for you every week. You’ll have more time to run your business, because making small but significant copy changes to your site will be easy. And search engines will be drawn to you because your site has fresh content all the time. It’s an all around winning situation, and one your business should seriously consider.

Bill Batty, Jr. is the Director of Public Relations and Marketing for Midcoast Internet Solutions and the hardworking drummer for five (yes, five!) midcoast bands, including Blind Albert and Three Button Deluxe. Contact Bill by email: <bbatty@midcoast.com>, or visit his eclectic Web site, www.billyrhythm.com.

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