Coaches should blog because …

It has been a number of months now since I was having a conversation with Rosa Say (Say Leadership Coaching) about why coaches should blog. Still her words hang in the air and I’m often repeating them and sharing them with some of the many life and business coaches that I know.

If you know Rosa you know the way that she has managed to build a community around her blogging. She actively uses her blog to publish her thoughts, interact with readers, and develop a vibrant conversation about her area of focus.

Instead of leaving her wisdom to be shared only with people I speak with I thought that you might enjoy reading them for yourself (seeing that May is blogging month here are at Working Solo).

There are several times I will blog best right after a coaching call or appointment; it becomes a type of debrief for me. So much of coaching is done in conversation, and afterwards, you often think of those brilliant things you should have said at the time and didn’t! Coaching conversations can make for some great blog articles, and then later, they are notes kept for the next time you follow-up with the person who had first generated the thoughts. Therefore, blogging can definitely help you hone your craft!

In my case, I don’t think of blogging as marketing for my coaching business, though it does market my book, and it does market me as a speaker. My coaching preference is in person, and not strictly over the telephone or virtually, and my blog audience is overwhelmingly continental USA and international versus here in Hawaii. Yet there have been a few exceptions, where people here in Hawaii find me because of blogging…

Blogging is about filling my capacities intellectually with new learning, emotionally and even spiritually with the Ho‘ohana Community and the relationships which develop. I do believe it makes me a better and more interesting person, and it’s kicked up my obsessiveness with learning several notches. However it seems to me these are effects everyone can get, and not because they are a coach… I’m not answering your question very well, am I!

Coaches should blog because they can interact with a much wider audience, and they can become more empathetic in their understanding of the human element; that’s probably the biggest reason in my view.

Blogging keeps us grounded and in touch with what’s real for people, and not academic or theoretical.

Blogging keeps us current, and in-the-know.

Blogging keeps us learning language, vocabulary, jargon, and about the incredible power of words.

Blogging keeps us social, playful, and more fun … we can get way too serious otherwise!

Rosa also wrote on her blog recently about her Five Self-Imposed Rules for Blogging. Interesting reading whether you are a coach or not.

So if you are a coach Rosa’s wisdom might have answered the question for you about why you should be blogging.

[tags]coach, blog, Rosa Say, why blog[/tags]

Self-Employment Words of Wisdom

Make something worth making.
Sell something worth talking about.
Believe in what you do because you may have to do it for a long time before it catches on.
Don’t listen to the first people who give you feedback.
Don’t give up.
Not for a while, anyway.

Seth Godin

Do-Follow – How to make Typepad play nice

After yesterday’s post about thanking your commenters by implementing the “do-follow” philosophy a few readers that use Typepad were wanting to know how they could also make their blogs commenter-friendly (after all I only shared the plugin that worked for Wordpress users).

Unfortunately for Typepad users it isn’t as easy as just installing and activating a plugin. For Typepad you need to :

1. have the Professional level service which allows you access to Advanced templates
2. be confident enough to change the code on the comment-list module (or have access to some who can change this for you)

WARNING !!! CODE ALERT !! GEEKY STUFF AHEAD!!

If you want to get geeky and modify the code yourself then you need to get yourself over to Mike Sansone’s post at Converstations for full details on how to take the DIY approach. If you would like some help with this then I am happy to provide you with whatever level of geek factor you need.

I hope this helps Steve.

[tags]do-follow, Typepad, Mike Sansone, advanced templates[/tags]

Does Your Blog Follow?

The traditional question has always been “are you a leader or a follower?” but in the blog world it is more like are you a follower or a blocker?

Did you know that as a way to deter comment spammers most blog platforms have a “no-follow” rule for links in comments. This means that when a “spider” from one of the search engines is indexing you site and they come across the link the “spider” won’t follow the link, and thus the site that the link targets doesn’t get the link-love that they were looking for.

Now that is great for those spammy-bastards who bombard the web with offers for all sorts of weird and wonderful things that have no relevance to you or your readers. BUT … what about all the great people who genuinely come by and contribute to the conversation by leaving a message.. Unfortunately the [tag]no-follow[/tag] rule will stop them getting [tag]link-love[/tag] too

That is unless you have a self-hosted [tag]Wordpress[/tag] blog and you can install the DoFollow plugin. Thanks [tag]SemiLogic[/tag] for putting together this great little [tag]plugin[/tag] that allows us to reward our commenters and not ignore them.

You can now leave a comment on this blog and get rewarded for your contribution with a little more search engine heads-up from me.

BTW – If you are interested Randa Clay has created a little graphic that you can show proudly if you have enabled this plugin on your site.

Blogging Blunders comes to YouTube

Andy Wibbels is one of those guys that just seems to get you attention. I was aware of Andy back when we were both involved in coaching and since then we have both taken the path into back technology.

You may know of Andy from his BlogWild book but he has now just launched a new site called Blogging Blunders. And as part of that he is using the capabilities of YouTube to share what he considers to be the top 5 blogging blunders.

Here is a list of the blunders and the links to each of the YouTube messages.

Blogging Blunders – #1: Not Having Your Own Domain Name

Blogging Blunders – #2: Not Having a Tightly Focused Niche

Blogging Blunders – #3: Too Much Crap in Your Columns (a very funny message from Andy with suds and loofer)

Blogging Blunders – #4: Not Measuring Traffic and Statistics

Blogging Blunders – #5: Not Having Email Alerts

Worth taking the 2 minutes (approx) for each message.

A New Calm Home for The Clearing Space

One of the things that has been keeping me busy over the past couple of weeks (and there are a number of them at the moment) has been creating a new “calm” space for Káren Wallace and her online home The Clearing Space.

Up until this week The Clearing Space had a separate website (that was really in need of an update considering Káren’s renewed focus) and a Typepad hosted blog. Now was the time to move both the dynamic and static parts of The Clearing Space into a single home (using a Wordpress platform), all under the www.theclearingspace.com.au domain name. Not only does it make it easier for her readers and prospective clients but having everything under her domain provides extra SEO brownie points.

We still have a couple of things on the to-do list for this site (keep your eyes peeled for a re-design of Sanctuary) but I know Káren would love it if you dropped by her new place and said hello.

I wonder if we can encourage Káren to share her thoughts on the topic I’ve been covering here over the past few days …. Káren, why do you have a blog?

[tags]The Clearing Space, Wordpress, Typepad, Karen Wallace, Working Solo, design[/tags]

Why should Small Business have a blog?

There are no real shoulds, musts and have-tos in small business. For every “rule” there is someone who has succeeded without it (or even by breaking it) and for every path to success there are dozens that wandered aimlessly not going anywhere fast.

So when it comes to reasons why [tag]small business[/tag] owners should have a [tag]blog[/tag], there are many good reasons but only you can make it wrong or right for your business.

You can take a risk and start a blog, and see where it might lead. A number of my friends and colleagues have take that road. You don’t have much to loose but opening another channel of [tag]communication[/tag] with your market.

But what have you got to gain? Why would you do it?

Here’s my small list of why you might want to consider it …..

Clarify what you do

Is there a space that you have online that clearly states what you and your business does? You might have static “services” style of web page somewhere but where else is that message being reinforced. A blog will allow you to reinforce (or not, as Des Walsh found recently) what you do in small incremental steps.

Uncover who you are

Unless you put some of who you are into your writing then you will just sound like a robot, or an advertising copywriter (ok, I’m ducking now). A blog will allow you to show not just what you do, but also who you are. Considering that people generally prefer to buy from people that they like, getting to know you via a blog would be a good first step.

Share what you know

I’ve said this before, and I will keep on saying it – Share it, don’t hide it. Your customers are not so much interested in your product or your service as they are about what is in your brain. A blog is an effortless way to publish your wisdom in bite-sized chunks. It provides you with your own publishing platform.

Create a community

When you ask people who have been publishing blog posts for 12 months or more what are the most surprising benefits of a blog, almost will mention the community (or network if you like) that has been developed. Paula G mentioned the conversations only yesterday in response to me asking readers why do they blog.

Create a client workspace

Ever wanted to find a way to share information, tools and resources with your clients in a really easy and straight-forward way? A way that will deliver a note to the client telling them when you have loaded up something new? A private blog space is a great way to do that! (A note to Working Solo clients – you will be seeing one of these coming your way very soon).

Provide keyword rich content to both your readers and search engines

Blogs are one of the most natural forms of written [tag]business communication[/tag] I have come across. In good blogs the marketing speak is kept to a minimum (well in my book anyway). And when people open their favourite search engine and type in a query do you think that they will use words that match your USP (unique selling proposition or ugly soporific promotions, your choice)? Or do they use natural language? Words that might actually be a problem they have or a solution they are looking for? Natural, conversational language is keyword rich.

Improve your online findability

Not being findable online is like setting up your shop in the back alley behind the butcher (great if you happen to be a fertiliser producer). Dave Taylor, said it wonderfully in his book Growing Your Business with Google.

Findability is about content! It’s about content, lots of content, that’s relevant, interesting, compelling for your potential customers …

Blogs are one of the easiest ways I have come across to add content to your online space.

With all these reasons that support your as a small business owner, why wouldn’t you take the step now and start a blog space for your business?  You could always continue to resist an idea who’s time has come.
Image from Hugh McLeod at gapingvoid

[tags]findability, keyword rich content, improved marketing, develop community[/tags]

Why Do You Blog?

When it comes to blogs the one question I get asked more than any other is “Why do you blog?”

I presume that what they are really asking me is “Why should I blog?” but they are not being that honest. I find it interesting that this question is asked more than the practical how-to type questions.

So instead of me just providing the answer from my own perspective I thought I would open it up to the many bloggers who are part of the Working Solo community and ask you to share your perspective on why you blog.

Feel free to comment below or take this question back to your own blog and answer it there (remember to link back so we can all follow the conversation.

So, why do I blog? For me it is fairly simple – 1) to share what I know, and 2) to give people who are considering working with me a better feel for who I am and what I’m about.

And you?

Blogging Provides Platform for Virtual Conferences

Blogs are not just about one person sharing their wisdom, or the wisdom that they come across, in isolation.  They have also proven to be capable of supporting a virtual conference. These virtual conferences are held in real time and discussion takes place via the written world rather than the spoken one.  Liz Strauss at SuccessfulBlog provides a weekly example of this with her Open Mic nights.

In the next few hours another virtual conference will start and is timed to coincide with SOBCon for those of us that can’t make it to Chicago this weekend.  Carolyn Manning is hosting the  at Thoughts & Philosophies and she has gather together a great range of presenters, and I was honoured when she invited me to speak on Siesta Time.

The conference has been broken into 2 sections so as to cover as many time zones across the world as possible.  Below are the times in both eastern USA time and eastern Australia time.

Make sure you drop by and participate in at least one of these great presentations.  The hardest thing to do will be to keep pressing the refresh button on you web browser.  And make sure you get involved in the conversation too.

WEST SESSION

USA Time : Noon – 1pm Friday 11th
Australia Eastern Time : 2am-3am Saturday 12th

dismissing the junk, it doesn’t pay the rent
Rick Cockrum, USA, Shards of Consciousness

#~#~#~

USA Time : 3pm – 4pm Friday 11th
Australia Eastern Time : 5am-5am Saturday 12th

today’s urgencies often mean nothing tomorrow
Jessica Doyle, Canada, jessicadoyle.ca

#~#~#~

USA Time : 4pm – 5pm Friday 11th
Australia Eastern Time : 6am-7am Saturday 12th

scheduling your best life
Bes Zain, USA, The Reasoner

#~#~#~

USA Time : 5pm – 6pm Friday 11th
Australia Eastern Time : 7am-8am Saturday 12th

prioritizing before you go crazy
Carma Dutra, USA, Carma’s Window

#~#~#~

EAST SESSION

USA Time : 10pm – 11pm Friday 11th
Australia Eastern Time : 12noon – 1pm Saturday 12th

siesta time
Leah Maclean, Australia, Working Solo

#~#~#~

USA Time : 11pm – 12am Friday 11th
Australia Eastern Time : 1pm-2pm Saturday 12th

long-term projects need short-term attention
Nneka, Trinidad, Balanced Life Center

#~#~#~

USA Time : 12am – 1am Saturday 12th
Australia Eastern Time : 2pm-3pm Saturday 12th

scheduling your best life
Lyman Reed, USA, Creating a Better Life

#~#~#~

USA Time : 1am – 2am Saturday 12th
Australia Eastern Time : 3pm-4pm Saturday 12th

today’s urgencies often mean nothing tomorrow
Klearchos Kapoutsis, Greece, Klearchos Guide to the Galaxy

#~#~#~

USA Time : 2am – 3am Saturday 12th
Australia Eastern Time : 4pm-5pm Saturday 12th

prioritizing before you go crazy
TechZ, Bahrain, TechZOnline

#~#~#~

USA Time : 3am – 4am Saturday 12th
Australia Eastern Time : 5pm-6pm Saturday 12th

dismissing the junk, it doesn’t pay the rent
Chris Owen, Australia, Pink Apple Connection
(My good friend and wonderful client Chris will really do this subject justice) 

If you want to translate these times into your timezone you can visit www.timeanddate.com 

Simple Steps to Better Blog Reading

I can see the healine now -

Blog Reading Sucked the Life Out of Her!

 

That might be a little exaggerated but at times I am sure that my family have thought that I am happier reading blogs that I am sitting in the living room watching TV with them (?). On the serious side thought reading all the great blogs that are out there can be a very time consuming thing. Commenting on them all is another thing all together.

Up until about a few months ago my RSS feed reader of choice was FeedDemon. I like many things about it was was happy to be able to read off-line (not that I ever really did) and the arrangement of the reading windows. I was satisfied but not a complete raving fan.

Until now!

Google Reader  has changed all that.  I can now flick through the articles to read in about 1/3rd of the time that it previously took me – just gotta love at ‘J’ key.  In fact Google Reader has some keyboard shortcuts that allow me to run through the unread posts without touching the mouse (now that’s good occupational health & safety karma).

This application is useful for all level of blog readers, from the novice through to the super-user.  If you have been holding off subscribing to people’s blogs because you had no idea about how to subscribe using the RSS feeds (more acronym madness that actually stands for Really Simple Syndication but could stand for whatever you wanted it to) then Google Reader is definitely for you.

And because you access it using your favourite web browser there is no software to download and it will work on PCS, Macs and even Linux machines.

Good blog readers make good blog writers!  So if you have a blog or are planning to at some stage (when you can find the time) then I suggest you start allocating some time to better blog reading.

Coming Soon – Why Should I Read Blogs and Where Do I Find the Time? 

Next Page »