Technology, Tools and Talk – 90 Small Business Videos From Me to You!

Hey guys! I am on a mission to get back to my roots of giving and share some of my best small business, internet marketing, and social media marketing tips with you. For the next 90 days I will be video blogging everyday, so I hope you have subscribed to SistaSense, so that you can get each video as they are posted. Truth be told I have already completed all videos, 91 to be exact and I did them in the last two days! I wanted to make sure I stick to my promise, so I got them all done just for you and am currently uploading videos to my youtube channel (feel free to subscribe to that as well). Here is a quick intro video about my Technology, Tools and Talk Project. Expect the first video tomorrow!

This is a video blog post. If you can not view the video click here.

Video: Hooray! I finished my 90 videos in 2 days!

Video: In case you are wondering… why I decided to crank out 90 videos in 2 days!

Remember: To watch all videos be sure to subscribe to sistasense.com.

Are you recycling your blog posts?

Everybody is going green, do your part by recycling your blog posts. On a serious note, I recently read this great post on problogger entitled, 5 Tips for Getting Readers Viewing Your Old Blog Posts. As bloggers, we all too often feel pressured to create quality content every single day, when we don’t have to. Think about it, how many of your new viewers read that great post you wrote last year? How many people read it the day you posted it? Recycling your posts is a great way to remain consistent and share your best posts with a new audience.

Darren added 5 great tips in that problogger post, so I thought I should add a few of my own. Here are a few things that I do to get readers viewing my old blog posts:

1. I repost my best blog posts in my blogs on  favorite social networks, like my network, Black Business Women Online.
2. When I feel like tweeting @sistasense, but I don’t know what to say, I retweet one of my blog posts.
3. I love love love that facebook allows you to import an RSS feed into your NOTES. I import my blogs RSS Feed, which also gets me more views and more facebook fans!
4. I always include links and excerpts to blog posts in my newsletters. I recommend iContact if you are looking for a quality, low cost email marketing service.
5. When I have the time, I do little mini-youtube videos on various topics and tell viewers to visit my website to read more or get more details. Here is a link to my youtube channel: lhenry

Last Tip: Making sure your blog is SEO friendly also helps search engine users find your best posts too! With these few tweeks you can guarantee that your blog is working for you even when you are not!

One More Tip: I almost forget this one… when I have a good week chuck FULL of posts, I like to do a Week End Review or Best of SistaSense this month, to give both old and new readers a chance to catch up on all the good stuff! There are so many things you can do to get more people reading your old blog posts. Be creative and if you have great tips, leave them in a comment below.

For more blogging tips from me, remember to watch my complete blogging for beginners series and signup for my money and marketing tips on BBWO. I almost forget to ask: have you seen my new starter kit?

Starting a Business Blog

Are you ready to start a business blog? The key to blogging is writing great content, being consistent, and focusing on your writing for your niche rather than dreams of being the next big blogger. Good bloggers with good content will find loyal readers, it’s just that simple. Blogs are easy to setup and easy to maintain. All you need to do is:

1. Figure out what you want to blog about. Focus on a specific topic.
2. Write several introductory posts that focus on:
   a. Who you are.
   b. Why you do what you do.
   c. Tips you can share related to your products or service.
   d. Known issues in your area of interest and how you fix and/or work around them.
   e. Experts or Headline News in your area of interest
   f. Commentary on the posts of other bloggers in your niche
3. Select a blog site that works for you:
   a. Blogger
   b. Wordpress
   c. Typepad
4. Take the time to get a nice, professional, premium theme for your blog template.
5. Figure out what links or banner images you want to add to your blog, don’t go banner crazy. The focus of your blog should be your writing, not your affiliate links.
6. Schedule your blog posts before hand; write several posts at one time and then schedule them to post throughout your desired timeframe.
7. Go out there and introduce yourself to other bloggers. Leave comments on their pages and add your favorite bloggers to your blog roll.
8. Share your blog and specific posts to others online. Repost your best blog posts on your favorite networks or include them in your newsletter. Add excerpts of your posts on social networking spaces, as promotional teasers and link builders.
9. Post your blog posts on social bookmarking sites making the most of your tags to highlight keywords.

This post is an excerpt of my eBook, ‘Selling Your Products and Services Online’. You can get this ebook + 3 more in my ‘How to Sell Online’ ecourse for Beginners.

Also watch my Blogging for Beginners Video series. Download available for $49 with discount code: B4B49 | code expires after the first 49 uses. [more details here]

21 Twitter Tips

I firmly believe that social media marketing alone can’t fix your business, but not using social media at all can hurt your business. You don’t have to tweet every hour and every day (I certainly don’t) but you should at least tweet regularly enough to stay in contact with your customers and clients and use it to meet new people. I can’t tell you how many people take my eCourse ‘Find Customers Online‘ because they don’t know where to find customers BUT truth be told ALOT of the people you are looking for are right there on social networks.

Today one of my tweeples shared this great post from Forbes.com on ‘21 Twitter Tips‘. I read it and thought you should read it too. I especially like the first twitter tip on posting coupons… I do this all the time and it works! I know people are always saying you can make money on twitter and it sounds like a BIG FAT LIE, but there are ways to monetize your twitter time and I will share a few in another post BUT I did like this part of the article on coupon campaigns:

Congratulations for getting to the end of this sentence. “As an online culture, people are not reading; they’re scanning,” says Dell Computer’s Stefanie Nelson, voice of @DellOutlet. “The shorter and more direct your message is, the more successful you’re going to be.” Dell tweets links to coupons at Dell Outlet’s Facebook page, which shoppers use during checkout at Dell.com. This strategy works for small companies, too: The abbreviated offers are easy to produce–you don’t need an ad agency to write 140 characters. California Tortilla, a chain of 39 causal Mexican restaurants based in Rockville, Md., spread coupon “passwords”–through its Twitter feed @caltort–that must be spoken at checkout to be redeemed.

Definitely read all 21 Twitter Tips and for regular money and marketing tips plus black business news you can follow me on Twitter (and I’ll follow you back): @sistasense

One more thing… I am in the process of building a list of 10,000 Black Business Women on twitter. If you are a black business woman just Tweet hashtag #blackbusinesswoman and I will add you.

Related Twitter Posts on SistaSense.com:
Tweak Vs Twitter
Social Media Alone Can’t Fix Your Business
How to Sell Online