Squarespace Vs. the World: The Best Blogging Platform Quest Continues

Choosing the best blogging platform is a critical first step for new bloggers. It's important to choose a tool that matches your goals and your abilities. For many (including Big Picture Web), Squarespace is an excellent publishing choice because it provides a comprehensive, best-practice blogging platform that's easy to use right out of the box. But as the middle weight content management system (CMS) class continues to grow, will Squarespace see its success continue or will some missed opportunities and some fierce new competition see a new industry sweetheart emerge?

First off, what do I mean by "middle weight" CMS? I'm defining this class loosely as a tier of blogging platforms that is between full-on CMS solutions like Wordpress and templated CMS solutions like Ning and these other simple CMS. Squarespace is a mid-weight favorite because there are no extra modules to download or configure and yet it's easy to create a customized, beautiful site in the eyes of your visitors, search engines and social media networks.

Big Picture Web has been powered by Squarespace for several months now. And while my review of Squarespace has been largely positive, I will acknowledge that nothing is ever perfect. For example, Squarespace's blog commenting system sorely lacks any reply or email notification capabilities that would enable visitors to engage more fully with the Big Picture Web community, key functionality that's critical to the blog's "stickiness" factor. (Disclaimer: I'm in no way connected to Squarespace other than being a mostly happy customer of theirs.)

While Squarespace has been good about releasing smaller updates to fix obvious flaws (e.g., SEO-friendly 301 redirects came out back in December), their ravenous community is beginning to point out the platform's faults and cry out for the next major upgrade. Nearly all of the 12 comments on Squarespace's most recent blog post involve some sort of speculation and/or dismay about the blogging platform's next big step forward. And Squarespace's response? Nothing. Not a single employee comment on their blog in response to the conversation. And in a day and age where ignoring your community can be a death knell for any company, does this mean the mid-weight CMS market may just be ripe for the picking?

If they're not careful, Squarespace could see a dip in sales or even worse, a mass exodus of its core fan base. Where would they go? Tech giant Google recently announced a major upgrade to Blogger's  design interface (some of it even oddly resembles Squarespace's interface). I'm sure Google would gladly take on any Squarespace defectors. And if that weren't enough, anticipation of Drupal Gardens continues to mount as its beta efforts gain steam. I have to imagine Gardens' free custom domain package will somehow cut into Squarespace's market. Bottom, line, blog platform creators would be wise to realize that the competition for this market is about to get a lot more fierce.

Whether its Squarespace vs. Drupal Gardens or Squarespace vs. Blogger, the best blogging platform will be the one that enables bloggers to grow their blogs easily and share the most with their communities. That said, what do you think is lacking the most from blogging platforms today?  What new features would make you try Drupal Gardens or Google's Blogger? If you're a Squarespacer, what features would compel you to switch? Or should everyone just learn how to use Wordpress? Leave a comment below to help us create a list of important missing blog platform features for blog platform creators that are willing to listen.

3 Blogger SEO Tips: How to Attract Traffic to Your Website

Creating a blog for your company provides opportunities for having conversations around the topics that brought your visitors to your blog/website. And attracting more traffic means answering more questions about the topic you know and love. During the course of answering all of these questions, you'll realize you've created a nice, low-cost lead pipeline. In fact, a recent eMarketer article reports that the blog continues to be one of the most cost-effective means of creating new leads. And a great way to attract traffic to a website is through search engine optimization, or SEO.  Today's post centers on three blogger SEO tips on how to attract traffic to your blog or website.

1. Free Google Blogger SEO Tools

When you're writing your blog posts and especially post titles, it's important to include popular phrases and terms specific to your line of work. Including these "keyword phrases" more throughout each article helps Google deliver more searchers to your doorstep. Google has several free tools that always come in handy:

• Google Insights for Search - This search aggregate tool can help you spot trends in what people are searching for over time and by geographic location. Make investments in future SEO traffic by writing about topics that are gaining in overall popularity.

Insights for Search provides search trending analytics.

• Wonder Wheel shows relationships between search keywords.Wonder Wheel - In Google's mind, all search terms are related. Blogging about closely related topics over time will create signals of authority from your site that Google references in its search algorithms.  You can access Google's Wonder Wheel through any standard search result by selecting Show options from the top navigation, then Wonder Wheel from the secondary navigation that appears.
• Search Keyword Tool - Still the best free SEO tool out there, this Google tool allows you to see which keywords people are searching for most and how much competition there is to rank highly for each term. Bloggers typically have the the most luck attracting SEO traffic by selecting keyword phrases that are the ideal mix of high volume and low competition.

 The Keyword Tool shows potential traffic and competition for target keyword phrases.

2. SEO Site Tools Chrome Extension

SEO Site Tools is a new extension for the Chrome web browser that quickly allows you to compare the relative SEO value of a web page.  I had the opportunity to provide some beta testing to Twitter friend and fellow blogger, Carter Cole, who recently launched his new SEO tool on his blog and SEOmoz. SEO Site Tools presents standard SEO scores (e.g., AlexaRank, MozRank and Google's PageRank) as well as all sorts of other SEO bells and whistles, such as features for social media and SEO suggestions.  Tools like Carter's help bloggers aggregate SEO research into one tool, helping them to quickly assess their ability to rank for a particular keyword.

Carter Cole's new Chrome SEO extension

3. Create Excellent, Linkable Content

Many traditional on-page SEO tactics just aren't as effective as they used to be.  Optimizing the placement of keywords throughout your site provides less benefit than it once did.  Instead, the overall trust and authority of the site plays a much more important factor on how a page ranks for Google.  And the ultimate signal for Google for trust and authority is an inbound link from a related website.  If people with similar sites are including links to your site in their content, it's a pretty good indicator that they're referencing you as an expert. Creating plenty of excellent, linkable content is one of the best ways to attract maximum SEO traffic to your blog.

Blogging on behalf of your business can be a great way to establish credibility and obtain low-cost leads. But SEO is just one of many tactics to attract traffic to your website. And there are many more tips out there. Leave a comment below to share your blogger tips, SEO or otherwise, on attracting traffic to your blog/website.

4 Pro Tips for Managing Your Brand Online

Branding has become a topic of great interest to me lately. A few recent work activities followed by meeting some new branding experts/friends have brought the power of a brand into perspective. A brand is the sum of everything you know, think and feel about a product or service.  It's the feeling you get when your favorite product's jingle is on the radio or TV. It's the specific look of the bullet points on the product feature list on the website. It's what assures and comforts us when we choose one product over another. Today's post features four pro tips for managing your brand online.

1.  Your Brand is as Good as the Customers' Experience

New friend and brand expert Pat Dawson recently launched his website/brand consultancy with TheBrandChiropractor.com. Dawson and fellow branding experts blog about their observations of brands that convey a message far different than the version of the brand customers experience, both online and offline.  For example, Dawson's most recent post outlines a difference in customer experiences across Rainbow Foods grocery stores in the Twin Cities and suggestions for how their owners could put their brand back "into alignment."  Managing Your Brand Online Tip #1: Strive for alignment between customer expectations and customer experience.

2. The Power of a Brand with Power

More new friends include John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell, founding principals of Pollywog, a Twin Cities naming and branding firm.  Their patent-pending brand process helps you create a powerful brand that will stand out in an online landscape, cluttered by over 5.5 million worldwide brands. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #2: Create a brand that stands out and is easily understood and spread by word of mouth.

3. Let Your Customers Help Shape Your Brand

We recently tested a few visual design changes on our website at work with a few of our customers.  We developed three different designs and then asked our customers to select five adjectives from a list of fifteen that best described the designs.  We were then able to leverage the customers' feedback in our decision-making process with evidence supporting the path we selected. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #3: Let customers help make big branding decisions.

4. Use the Online Brand Management Tools

Conversations occur about you online whether you're listening or not.  It's easy to mange your brand online with free tools and little time here and there.  Check out this recent blog post about free online brand management tools you can use to stay on top of what's being said about your brand online. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #4: Use free and cheap tools to alert you when your brand is mentioned.

What tips do you have for managing your brand online? Have you seen a particularly memorable brand recently? Post a comment with your thoughts.

Sign up for FREE tips via Email

Selecting Blogging Topics: Fresh Advice on What to Blog About

So you've decided to start a blog but aren't sure what to blog about.  By now you've heard that blogging is a great way to stand out in your market and delivers a platform to reach, help and connect with your community. And, as Twin Cities online marketing expert Lee Odden points out, blogging is an excellent way to build Search Engine Optimization (SEO) traffic.  It's important for new (and seasoned) bloggers to consider a few things when selecting blogging topics.

• Focus on helping people and building a community.  Not every visit will result in a sale.  Blogging allows you to demonstrate your expertise to people over time so that you're on their minds when it's time to make a purchase.  Give today to invest in in relationships for the future.
• Blog about things that will be entertaining and engaging to your visitors but are specific to your market. Don't be afraid to tell a story or make them chuckle.
• What problems could you solve through your blog posts? Where applicable, tell people how to do what you do. You'll help folks out and maybe even get some new customers who don't have the skill or time to do it themselves.
• Resist the urge to deviate from the theme of your site. Many bloggers start sharing cooking tips and vacation stories as soon as they get an audience. Stay the course when selecting blogging topics. Be consistent.

Kaushik's new book. See our book referral policy.Once you've figured out what to blog about, it's important to consider how you're saying it. One of my biggest heroes on the Internet is Avinash Kaushik (blogger, writer and Google's "Analytics Evangelist").  Folks like Kaushik can look at data from web analytics tools like Google Analytics and pull out brilliant insights on how to improve your website to better meet your business goals.

Anyway, Avinash recently posted about web metrics and a neat service called Wordle, which allows you to create a word cloud using the words appearing most prominently on your site.  Think of it as a way to see what overall themes and messages you're sending out through your blog. For example, you can see that Big Picture Web is big on Internet marketing, planning and setting business goals, etc.

After you've been selecting and blogging about topics for a while, use their free tools to put your articles into their word clouds.  What themes stand out?  It's important to take a look at these things to see if your blog is on course to serve your business or if you need to reconsider what to blog about.

And for that matter, this principle applies to your social media interactions as well.  Does your overall presence end up serving your community and your market?  What themes are you sending out through your tweets and updates?

What else should bloggers consider when determining what to blog about? How do you select your blogging topics?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

The Top 8 Best Free Audio Podcast Downloads on the Web

Have you wanted to start learning more about Internet marketing but just haven't found the time? If you have a commute, household chores or any other time sink during which you could be learning, podcasts might be the answer for you. Podcasts are free audio downloads. They span many topics but there some especially wonderful Internet marketing podcasts out there. And today, Big Picture Web brings you our Top 8 Best Free Audio Podcast Downloads on the Web.

Free Podcast Downloads Could Save Your Company

Internet marketing is becoming more and more important each day to how our businesses grow and run. In fact, MarketingCharts.com presented data from a Forrester Research study predicting that Internet marketing will grow annually by 17% until 2014, from 12% to 21% of total spending. With so many companies shifting their eggs into this basic, education is the key to the future for many. Podcasts are a great way to learn and can be accessed from practically anywhere. I've listened to dozens of different free podcasts and have come up with my Top 8 Best Free Audio Podcast Downloads on the Web (in no particular order. Just kidding, it's alphabetical.):

• 10 Golden Rules Internet Marketing Podcast. Longtime Internet marketer Jay Berkowitz, CEO of 10GoldenRules.com, produces one of the best Internet marketing podcasts out there. Jay has worked for legendary marketing giants like McDonald's and Coca-Cola and brings to his audience a biweekly helping of industry news, expert interviews and listener questions. Big Picture Web and I owe a lot to Jay and 10GoldenRules.com.
• Digital Marketer from Quick and Dirty Tips. These 5-10 minute pearls of practical marketing wisdom range from social media "dont's" to which Internet marketing tasks you should automate. Quick and Dirty Tips also produces the very enjoyable free audio downloads from the Get-It-Done Guy and the Public Speaker podcasters.
• Internet Business Mastery. I heard one free audio episode of this best-of-breed podcast and was hooked. Sterling and Jay are flat-out inspiring as you hear them talk about getting an Internet business off the ground. These guys have one of the best shows out there and will really get your blood pumping with new ideas and energy towards Internet marketing.
• Managing the Edge. This fantastic show out of Des Moines, Iowa (yes, Des Moines, Iowa) brings weekly podcasts on learning the fundamentals of Internet marketing. Doug and Andy present everything at just the right level to make it both valuable an accessible to folks new to some of the concepts. Spend about 45 minutes and get to know my neighbors to the south.
• Marketing Over Coffee. Hosts Christopher S. Penn and John Wall meet up Thursday mornings for coffee and a chat about Internet marketing. It's a great back-and-forth from two experts steeped in experience. These 20-30 minutes podcasts are dense with insights that will have light bulbs going off over you head the entire time. Marketing Over Coffee is definitely in my top three.
• SEO Rockstars. Search engine optimization (SEO) (link to article) is a hot topic for Internet marketers and SEO Rockstars brings a great podcast about the most interesting events and stories within the industry. Their coverage of Affiliate Conventions's session on Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO was like listening to an epic battle between good and evil. WebmasterRadio.FM produces this and other great free podasts like Domain Masters.
• Social Media, What?. Produced right here in Minnesota, Social Media, What? is a fresh and insightful podcast on one of the Internet's hottest trends, social media. Hosts Ian and Graeme practically live and breath music, the Internet and social media.
• This Week in Tech. Despite the acronym, TWiT, by which its listeners affectionality refer to it, This Week in Tech is a superb source of news and insights for the technology industry as a whole. Tech Luminaries Leo Laporte, Patrick Newton, John C. Dvorak and more produce a weekly podcast that is a mix between comedy, news round-up and panel talk show.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed Big Picture Web's Top 8 Best Free Audio Podcast Downloads on the Web. There are many different podcasts and even more ways to learn about Internet marketing. Are you listening to Podcasts and if so, what are some of your favorites?