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Build your digital imprint

August 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

In “Why I keep a blog” I detailed the five reasons I’m here in cyberspace:

To learn, compete, help, entertain, and build credibility.

Building credibility

Through the power of social media, my digital imprint is taking on a life of its own. 24 people wrote a compliment about me on Biznik. And four wrote entire articles about me.

  • In “Social Media Training with Joe,” SEO expert Barry Hurd wrote, “Joe has … an extreme grasp of both tactical and strategic marketing … a sparkling resume … Joe is the ‘full meal deal’ when it comes to marketing strategy.”
  • In “Don’t spend a dime on marketing until you read this,” Professional Life and Business Coach Tshombe Brown wrote, “I just read two absolutely amazing articles by Marketing Genius Joe Hage … you will be blown away at how much value you’ll get from them.


    • It’s indulgent all right, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the attention. :-) [Read more...]

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Joe, why do you keep a blog?

August 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I get this question surprisingly often.

“I don’t get it,” they start. “Why do you keep a blog? I thought you liked your job.”

“I do. Very much. I’m not looking.”

“Then why do you keep a blog?”

Why I blog

I blog for lots of reasons. [Read more...]

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OMG! It was so easy to set up a blog site!

July 19, 2008 By 3 Comments

The ‘blogging for kids’ concept for my children is a hit with my family. So it was time for me to figure out how to create a simple blog-based website from scratch.

GoDaddy.com

I started this article as I was learning how to set up a blog, to share it with you here. It seemed like an intimidating effort but it was SO EASY BECAUSE a GoDaddy.com representative stayed on the phone with me for 63 minutes and took me step-by-step through it.

Step 1 is picking a name. I went to whois.net and typed in the name I wanted. Luckily, it was available.

Step 2 is registering the name. I went to GoDaddy.com to register it. (That’s where I am now — while starting this blog.)

Step 3 is finding a coupon code to get the address at a discount. Before I buy (just about) anything online, I go to Google and type in the name of “the thing” and add the word “coupons,” as in, “godaddy coupons.” The top result saved me $3 on a $10 purchase.

[Read more...]

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SEO, social media, and a full-time job

July 9, 2008 By 1 Comment

There is SO much to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. It’s a full-time job!

I met a host of prolific bloggers at BizJam Seattle 08 today. I heard as many points of view of “what works” as speakers who took the stage. I understood DL Byron of Textura Design say that blogging monthly makes you irrelevant; and weekly, passable. It’s not until you blog five times a day that you really break through.

Jason Swihart, also from Textura, said that your business blog should be all about your business and your products. Aliza Sherman, named by NEWSWEEK as one of the “Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet,” disagreed.

She said that if people only wanted to read about your product, they could look at your website or a brochure. “Make it interesting, reveal part of yourself,” she said. “Humanize yourself and your company.” Then she went on to share dozens and Utterz.comdozens of social media sites including Utterz — you phone a number, leave a message, and it gets uploaded to your sites — and Hellotxt.com, “the one site to remember if you only remember one today.”

Matthew Haughey, who writes for the New York Times Technology section, said that SEO “consultants” pretty much waste their clients’ money. Five percent of what they teach is good: Flash doesn’t work in search, basics of wireframes and tags, but 95 percent of it is trickery and “Google changes its algorithm all the time,” so most of the tricks will be irrelevant in a few months.

They did agree on one thing:

Blogging is vital to your business.

Blogging is vital to your business. Your website serves a function: it showcases your products and services. Your blog enables you to reach out to your customers and demonstrate your expertise.

They also said that your blogs — my blogs — don’t have to be perfect. They don’t have to all wrap up with a pretty bow at the end. You don’t have to be clever all the time. Just let the readers know what you’re learning, doing, and why they might care. And invite them to comment.

And so, Readers, any comments? Are you blogging yet? How are you using it?

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