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Our judge for Blog Sexiness (Look and Feel) will be Andrew Potter of ShoutOut Marketing.

Andrew will be judging on a combination of your blog’s aesthetics and also it’s content, asking the question: is your site “sticky” (does it make people stay?).

1. Does your blog have a good color combination?

Following conventional rules of good design, your colors should be both complimentary but also contrasting. If you don’t know what good color combinations are, look it up in Google!

2. Does your blog use attractive and complimentary fonts?

Beginners should start with 1 font, playing with the sizes and the different font styles like Bold and Italics. Ideally, however, you should have two font types: one serif font and one sans serif font (look em up if you don’t know what they mean). Again,they should compliment but also contrast. 

3. Does your blog have bells and whistles? 

In other words, does it use nice pictures, videos and other forms of media?

4. Does your blog have good content?

Make sure your blog’s content is separated in a hierarchy of important information, using bolds and font sizes to break up the text. Also your text should be relevant to your target market. Is your content properly edited? 

5. Is your blog sticky?

Does it make people want to stay? Does it make people want to come back? 

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Our judge for Blog Usability will be Jennifer Bailey of Marketing-Helper.com (that’s me!).

I will be judging on the visitor’s ability to understand, comprehend and interact with the website without frustration or anxiety.

1. User’s ability to find the site’s main purpose upon first glance

Most websites only have 3 seconds to introduce themselves to a visitor before they click the “back” button. Is your logo is visible, usually upper left hand corner at all times? Do you have a slogan or website title that is visible with a short and to the point description of the site’s purpose? Do you have a description of purpose or services on home page and easily visible on the navigation bar? 

2. Does the information flows in such a way that you can find what you are looking for without having to think about it?

Do you use H1 to H3 tags, bold, different color contrast, etc? 

3. Is the navigation consistent, simple and visible?

Is it conventional? (Across the top of the site). Does it go more than 3 levels deep?
Does it stay the same on every page? Can you click on the logo to get back to the homepage?

4. Website accomplishes functional goals

What is your end goal for the user? What information do you want to take away, what action do you want them to take at the end? Do the applications work?

5. Newsletter Signup, contact, or other Convergence method

Do they work and are they easy to find and use?

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You can enter the Blog-Off competition here >

Blogging is proven to build reputation because it builds credibility and gets you in “front” of more people. It creates visibility. This will help you become the center of influence within your industry.

1. Create a Good Impression

2. Position Yourself Above the Competition

3. Market Your Blog

You will probably need to test your readers/ audiences to see what works best for them – see what kind of topics are popular and track the results.

Social Media Seminar 2009

Above, Joe Gerstandt @joegerstandt speaks about leadership and social media. 

Earlier I spoke about social media tools and how to use them. Here are some tools you can use:

Slides and YouTube videos from today’s workshop

Be Social on the Web in 5 hours/week: checklist

Other Notes and Resources from Today’s Workshop

Traditionally men are the early adopters of new technologies, but studies show that women far outpace the men in social media. (Business Week Article)

Why Women? 

Social media is less of a “technology” and more of a “social gateway” … while women don’t necessarily run the behind the scenes of social media applications like twitter, digg and linkedin – they certainly know how to use them to put on a good show. 

Social Media Phenomenon + Women = Influence that we cannot ignore!

Whether is for your job, your cause, your church or your family… social media can give us influence.

What Women?

Who is using social media? My mom is… to keep up with her kids! My sister is… to communicate with her friends across her college campus.

Me and my old babysitter. One day I got a facebook invite from a couple who used to babysit me when I had curly blonde hair. I remembered them because they used to do ‘Wheres Waldo‘ puzzles with my brothers and I.

But more importantly…

Lynchburg Bridal Expo is getting people signed up for their event through Facebook.

Dayna Palmer created a group for lynchburg women business owners on Facebook.

Linda Settles, author, blogs and uses facebook to build interest for her new book.

Amy Clark established Momadvice.com – well researched and in-depth articles on frugal living, saving money, work at home opportunities, recipes and tips.

Allison Worthington – uses facebook and blogging titled “mrsfussypants.com: we cant both look good, its me or the house.”

There was a high school girl named Sarah Sowerwine who started a Breast Cancer awareness cause page on facebook that now has over 30 thousand members.

A woman named Christa Laukevicz started a cause on facebook called ‘Prevent Child Abuse America’ and has over 2 million members and 30 thousand dollars donated!
…

Now that we know social media can help us increase our influence, then we know it is powerful enough to also help us find solutions for immediate problems.