Bulldog Marketing

Typepad Rocks!!

Wow!  I have been waiting for a feature like this almost as long as an eye cream that will REALLY work and reduce the bags under my eyes!!  Check it out, Type Pad has Pages now!   So lets say that you want to feature some information, or create a separate page for a calendar of events, etc... All you need to do is go to create a new page, type out the information that you want on that new page, and link the two, or have a separate home page for your blog. How easy is that?  Read all about it here, and I will play around with the new feature and let you know how to implement it.
I gotta run now and cancel my web-hosting account and getting rid of my FTP software that I had to use if I wanted to create a stand alone page to go with my blog.  Stay tuned!

Long Tail Marketing

Why would a bulldog care about longtail marketing? After all, they don't even have tails. But really, Long Tail marketing is right up our alley, and here's why.
Long Tail marketing is about finding Unserverved and Underserved Markets and having the right product for them at the right time. For example, let's say that you have a product or service in the Personal Development industry, and you are using Personal Development as key words for people to find you on the internet. Well guess what? So is everybody else. In fact, there are over 8 Million sites that have something to do with personal development, and there are only 359 daily searches on that term. So basically, unless you are a big dog, you may get lost. But don't give up, becuase if you 'chunk down' on Personal Development and get a bit more specific, you will find that there are some holes in the market. There is more demand for the exact key word phrase Life Coach Personal Deveopment than supply, so this is a place to start. So how do I know this?

How to care for your blog

How many times have you gone and checked out somebodys blog, and either they posted one or two times, or the last time they posted was in 2004? It seems kind of strange, but that does happen more than you think. Having a blog is like having a pet. You need to spend time with it, you need to take care of it, and you need to love it. If you are one of those people who have a bit of Blog Neglect in your life, here is what you can do about it.

There must have been a compelling reason why you wanted to start one of these darn things in the first place, or you would have never even bothered to take the first step. Revisit why you started it, and think about what is different now. If you are going in a different direction and doing something completely different than when you started, just start fresh, and get going again. The nice thing about blogs is that they are etched in ethernet, not in stone.

If you were blogging becuase everybody else said you need to have a blog, and you really don't see the value in spending time on it, I think you should delete the entire thing. Let's face it, if you aren't going to use it and grow it, then why have something that is half- baked hanging out in your energy field. And by the way, when you actually go and try to pull the plug on your beloved friend and find that you can't do it, go back and read the first part of this post. Re-Introduce yourself to your blog, and start fresh. You may be surprised at how wonderful blogs are. They never hold a grudge, and are always happy to see you.

Writers Block

You may have noticed that I have not posted in about a week or so. You want to know why? I have writers block. Yes, I admit it, it's true. But I figure that this is a learning process, and if I write about it, I could help other bloggers who have felt or are feeling this way.

My wonderful significant other thinks I have wrtier's block because I learned that my favorite horse died. For those of you that don't know this, I am an avid equestrian, and rode competitively for about 10 years. I had a horse named Larry, and he was amazing. The first time I showed him he bucked me off, and the last time I showed him we ended up 9th at the World Championship Show. I was fortunate to be one of the people who owned him, and I learned so much from him, but one of the most important things I learned was to believe in myself, and that if I put my focus and energy on something, and worked really hard, I could accomplish some pretty big things. As I think about it now, there are so many things that I learned while riding that can be applied to blogging:

1. Be patient with yourself. You will have good days when you are on, and other days where you will have to push yourself to take action. It's ok, just learn to enjoy the good days, and be kind to yourself when you feel a bit stuck.

2. Being good at something takes hard work. There is no such thing as an overnight success. If you really look at successful people, they have been working hard behind the scenes and just make it look easy.

3. Enjoy the process, not the outcome. As a blogger, it is better to focus on the process of writing great content, not trying to be famous. You never really know what is going to create a buzz, so you just have to be consistent and dedicated. The results will come if you keep at it.

4. Recovery is the key. There will be times when you get off track, make mistakes and get frustrated. So what? Get back on track and keep going.

5. Relax, smile and have fun. After hours of nit-picking from my horse trainer about keeping my hands and legs still, the advice she would give me right before I would enter the show ring was to Relax, smile and have fun. And you know what? It worked.

I am Great-Full for having so many wonderful Larry experiences, and know that so much of what I do now is because of what I accomplished with him. There were times that he would help me and bail me out of making a mistake, and look, he got me out of my writing slump. Thanks Larry, it's nice to know your spirit is still around....

What is a Trackback

How do I do one, and Why do I care?
This is another one of those things I have been getting a few requests for lately, so here's the scoop.

One of the biggest differences between a blog and a website, is that a blog is interactive, not unlike a huge virtual cocktail party. You know how it is, you walk into this party, and if you look at the entire room, you will see cliques of people, and usually one big herd right by the bar, becuase, after all, that is where the action is. So you grab your cosmo, and begin circulating. If you are like me, you search the room for someone you know, and you kind of hang out with them. All of a sudden, somebody taps you on the shoulder and says, " Hey, I overheard you talking about bulldogs, and how funny they are. I have a bulldog, and here is what my dog did yesterday". Now I am engaging someone new in a conversation that I was having, and I have made a new connection. That my friends is a trackback.
So how does this work with blogs?

Are You in Transition?

I work with a lot of people who are ‘in transition’. You probably have met one of them, they are the people who have a great job in the corporate world, but would really like to go out on their own. The problem most people have when crossing the chasm, is that their ‘Day Job’ is paying the bills, and going out on their own would put them in a financial disaster unless they knew they had clients lined up for their services. So how can somebody bridge the gap?

TypePad Domain Mapping

Here is Part II of Domain Mapping with Go Daddy and TypePad and I have to admit I have a dilemma. I have mapped several URL’s in the last few months, so I know how I do it. In order to write this post, I had to go back and think about how I learned how to do it in the first place. I tried a few times to write this post, and found that I didn’t have a lot of motivation to write it. The reason is, I used this from The Blog Squad to map my first URL, and quite frankly, it is a very good tutorial. So why reinvent the wheel! This is the power of blogs and linking. If you find something that somebody did that is of value, share your resource, and give credit where credit is due. Let me know if you have any questions about it when you try it, but take it from me, it works like a charm. Thanks again to Patsi and Denise for being a wonderful resource!Download TypePadDomainMapping.pdf

DNS forwarding vs. Domain Mapping

What a juicy topic! In a recent post about the 10 mistakes bloggers make, I said that one thing you need to do is get your blog a real name, and point it to your blog. That way, people can find your blog with a normal address, such as www.kirstenfarris.com vs. a long URL like
http://bulldogmarketing.typepad.com All this seems to make sense. but HOW should you do it?

Google...Schmoggle!

Are you having a productive day? I hope so. Normally when I post on my blog, I really try and focus on ya'll out there that read my stuff. I'm sorry, but today, it's all about ME! Here is how my morning went:
I got up early, grabbed my cold TAB (Yes, they still make TAB), sat down at my computer and started doing the daily browse. Stopped by my friends Denise & Patsi and saw this post about boosting your blog rankings.
Interesting stuff, and something a lot of you have been asking about, and so I figure you would want to know about it, so I dig a little deeper. Turns out that PageRank is actually named after Larry Page, and not physical web pages. Hmmm...Read a bit more, and find out PageRank is really about sites that link to your site which is called Backlinking. Where it gets even more interesting, is that some links don't count toward your PageRank score, which by the way is a number that they say is between 0-10. The links that don't count are links that are called No Follow links, and those are links that may come from message board posts, and even some blogs, since people could just do mass postings and link to their site, and artifically inflate their ranking. If you have real sites linking to your site, you would get credit for that link, and if you have a real well known site linking to your site, then you would get extra credit for that one. Get the picture? Hopefully that was good information for you, but remember, this is about me!

It's that time of year again Part II

Like I promised, here is the Top 5...

5. Not using a "real URL"
I know I am a bit picky, but hey, if you are truly serious about your blog, get it a real name and be proud of it!

4. Not enough content on a regular basis
We all get busy, right? But again, if you are serious, you can check in on your blog at least once a week and post. If you think this will be an issue, create posts, and then schedule them for future delivery. That way, you will be able to stay ahead of the curve.

3. Not Sharing information and other sites and blogs with your readers
For some of you, this may seem counter-intuitive, but that is really the purpose of a blog. You are the expert in your niche, and you probalby have a few sites that you visit to get ideas, inspiration and content. So share it! If you find a good shoe store, you tell your friends about it right?

2. Blogs that never launch. Ever.
If you have started a blog, I congratulate you. If you are waiting until you get everything perfect before you post anything, shame on you! It never will be perfect. Get your message out there, and don't worry about what other people will think. If you are that afraid of critisim from people you don't know, then blogging may not be for you.

1. Blogs that aren't blogs, but just another 'HEY-YA' Marketing Campaign
I have said it before, but it is worth repeating. When I think of my blog, I think of my clients, readers and prospects, first, then I figure out what they might want to know about, and then I write something with them in mind. A blog is supposed to be more personal and actually impart real, usable information that people can take action on, and I don't mean action like going to the next seminar or buying an expensive tape set. If you have a blog and give people valueable content, when you have a product to sell, or a seminar for them to enroll in, you will have loyal, raving fans who will support what you do.

WOOF!!
Best wishes for a wonderful New Year!