Friday 2.0 is hosting the first ‘Blog-Off’ Competition for blog owners in Central Virginia and Roanoke. 

77% of active internet users read blogs. 900,000 is the average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period, according to Business Week.

LYNCHBURG, Virginia. – May 5, 2009 – A ‘Blog-Off” competition will be held on May 22nd at The Muse Coffee in Wyndhurst at 9:00 in the morning. Local business networking group, Friday 2.0, has put together a panel of four judges to evaluate the main criteria that makes an effective blog. Submission deadline is May 15th.

Lynchburg Blog-Off

The purpose of the event is to evaluate the effectiveness of local bloggers, while educating local business owners that those who fail to embrace social media technologies for business will be left behind. Through the month of May each judge will get a chance to share their criteria for blog sexiness, usability, search engine optimization and community engagement.

In a Coleman-Parkes Research study, companies currently using Social Media reported the following:

• Improved Feedback 78%
• Improved Customer Satisfaction 66%
• Improved Customer support 71%
• Increased Sales 40%
• Improved public perception of company 75%

The panel of judges include ShoutOut LLC’s director of marketing, Andrew Potter, Marketing-Helper.com’s Jennifer Bailey, BrowseLynchburg.com’s Phil Tucker, and Nannette Saunders from RE/Max. 

“More and more companies are using social media and blogging to position themselves as industry leaders in their fields,” said Marketing-Helper.com owner Jennifer Bailey. “A lot of companies are afraid of this thing called social media, but the truth is that if we can learn how to adapt in an effective way then we can not only cut our marketing costs but increase sales leads.”

Those interested in learning more about the competition can visit The Blog-Off Fact Sheet >

About Friday 2.0
Friday 2.0 is a local Virginia networking group who meets on Friday mornings at 9:00 a.m. at The Muse coffee shop in Wyndhurst. Friday 2.0’s goal is to get educated about social media tools and opportunities. The most passionate and curious professionals attend this un-meeting as a way to connect with like-minded individuals and discuss the topics and trends relevant to technology, social media and the future of social media. Everyone from the freshly-minted twitter-er, to the tech-advanced executive managing 500 people are encouraged to attend and participate. All voices are equal and welcome at Friday 2.0! Join our Facebook Friday 2.0 Group.

Other Resources:
Coleman-Parkes Research Findings
Definitions of Social Media

If you aren’t a web designer, know nothing about HTML, or just haven’t been using WordPress very long… then it may not be a good idea for you to use a custom WordPress theme. Unless you follow some simple rules:

1. Hire an expert. Ok… I am not trying to promote myself here. But seriously, if you are going to use custom themes, plugins, bells & whistles… but don’t know how to maneuver WordPress CMS… then don’t touch it. Ask an expert to do it. Many experts will let you hire them on retainer so they can this “stuff” for you when you need it.

I get calls all the time… “Help! I broke my site!” 

A lot of you don’t have time to learn to fix it. So hire someone who can do it in a flash. 

2. Learn to use WordPress CMS. CMS means content management system. And really, its easy. You can never be prepared for every emergency that might happen – but if you know the basics, you can save a lot of money on retaining that expert. This means knowing some simple HTML, too. And knowing how to maneuver an FTP program like Dreamweaver or just SmartFTP. 

3. Check your site after every edit. EVERY. EDIT. If you make some changes to the image on your post… save it, then check it before doing any other edits. If you make some edits to a sidebar widget, check it every time you update. If you mess with the plugins, check it after each plugin update.

Some things to watch out for:

• Some plugins don’t work together and can break your site. 
• Some custom themes require a lot of FTP file editing.
• If you change from one theme to another – check all of your pages, some of the code might change. 
• Some themes have special “featured” articles on the homepage that use TimThumb and you will need to learn to use custom fields.

First, of course, you have to have a niche. Anytime I want to create a new product I always find a need that is not being filled. That’s where I find my niche. 

For example, social media 101 was created for small business professionals who are familiar with social media but need help juggling the many social media tools available to effectively create new leads. 

So I guess part of finding a niche is also finding a good product. 

In the real estate boom a few years back I knew a realtor who only sold historic homes because he was a history buff who was familiar with the age of the home based on the architecture and type of wood used.

Once you have the essentials what are the first steps in creating a profitable niche blog?

1. A good domain name

2. An attractive, clean blog theme (we always use wordpress)

3. Valuable content that uses good key words so search engines will find you

4. A promotional plan that allows and tracks convergence

Join me for an SM101 conference call this Friday at 2:30 p.m. to discuss in more detail how you create a profitable niche blog. Sign up for SM101 here >

Pattie from Clarke Marketing and Nannette Saunders asked me yesterday (in so many words) if Wordpress was a good system to use for non-blog websites. It really got me thinking. 

The Wordpress Content Management System isn’t just for blogs anymore. The number of designers using Wordpress as for non-blog websites is increasing – and for good reason. 

A couple big reasons I can think of are: 1) Wordpress is free, and 2) Wordpress is easy if you use pre-made templates.

Wordpress is not a high-end CMS but can very easily be used for professional websites. 

ifacethoughts pointed out that the difference between blogs and non-blogs is that in a blog the posts take up the entire website, but in a non-blog the pages are what dominate. The blog also gives some other great reasons to use Wordpress for your non-blog sites. 

The performancing blog, also, linked to some reasons why you should NOT use wordpress, and others why you should. He also listed some great examples of non-blog sites that use WP, including Camacho Cigars.

So – when choosing a content management system for your website, consider cutting your cost with Wordpress.