Your Virtual Wizard : Welcome to tonight’s featured VAF chat event presenting blogger extraordinaire, Grant Griffiths. This is Janine Gregor of Your Virtual Wizard and I’ll be your moderator for this evening. Grant will take questions and comments during and after his presentation from the audience, so please feel free to join in the conversation. At the end of the chat, I will name 5 participants who will be named the winners of Grant's generous giveaways. Winners will receive the “31-Days to Kick Your Blog in the Butt” ebook and workbook as well as the e-book entitled "30 days of Twitter Tips and Hints". I will PM you with Grant's email address and instructions to claim your prizes.

Your Virtual Wizard : Finally, as the Blog Challenge Group moderator on VAF, I would like to encourage everyone here to join the group http://www.virtualassistantforums.co...ing-challenge/ or click Groups on the VAF navigation menu and locate the Blog Challenge Group title. Our first challenge topic for 2010 will be based upon Grant's chat theme here; although all group members not present will still be able to participate as this conversation will be archived.

Your Virtual Wizard : Thanks. We'll get started with an introduction about Grant Griffiths.

Your Virtual Wizard : Grant moved his law practice to his home in January of 2005 and it was one of the best decisions he made. His business overhead went down and his quality of work/life balance went up. He was able to work when he wanted and no longer had to worry about commuting downtown to the office. Working from his home office also gave him a chance to spend more time with his family. But at the same time, he also found that he spent MORE time working from his home office. But the move was worth any disadvantages so he persevered. Shortly after making the transition, he started a blog entitled Home Office Lawyer to share his knowledge of successfully working from his home. The topic grew to be his passion resulting in a blog called Home Office Warrior http://www.homeofficewarrior.com/ .

Your Virtual Wizard : Grant expanded his audience beyond those employed in the legal profession and chose to reach out to anyone who worked from home. There are over 20 million professional home workers in the United States so Grant recognized a great opportunity. Grant's blog also reaches out to virtual assistants (he has a navigation tab on the Home Office Warrior site just for VAs!) as well topics for all home workers in the areas of technology, telecommuting, organization and social media.

Your Virtual Wizard : Grant no longer practices law and now blogs full time at Blog for Profit http://blogforprofit.com where he discusses using a blog to promote and market your business. Additionally, Grant is co-founder of G2WebMediahttp://www.g2webmedia.com/ a customized blog service and Headway Themes,http://headwaythemes.com/ a Premium WordPress framework for both the do-it-yourself blogger and the professional blog site developer/designer.

Your Virtual Wizard : Grant's topic this evening is "Build a Strong Blog Foundation for Promoting Your Business."

Your Virtual Wizard : Welcome Grant Griffiths to Virtual Assistant Forums...!

Grant Griffiths : Thank you so much for having me online with you all this evening. And please do jump in with any questions you might have at anytime. That is what makes a conversation a conversation. ANd I would rather not talk to myself this evening.

Grant Griffiths : Since I don't know where you all are at in your blogging experience, we are going to assume we are at the very beginning.

Grant Griffiths : However, I know some of you already blog and do know about blogging. I also feel what we are talking about will apply to you too.

Grant Griffiths : So, here we go...

Grant Griffiths : You are at a point in your marketing plan where you have decided to start a blog as one of the components of your marketing. Lets pretend for the purpose of this exercise you are in the very early stages of trying to decide what to do as far as a blog. You don’t know what design you want, nor do you know for sure how you want it to look. You may not even know for sure what you want to blog about.

Grant Griffiths : And you certainly are not sure how you will even get traffic to your blog once it is up and going. You are also not sure what you are going to blog about and how those blog post should look. You have been lurking around some the blogs out there, but have really done nothing more then lurk. You have not participated in the conversations nor have you involved yourself in any social media nor social networking at all.

Grant Griffiths : You are just starting to consider things and want to make sure you are building the right foundation for your blog to be successful.

Grant Griffiths : You need to ask two questions...

Grant Griffiths : You need to ask yourself, am I really ready to start my blog?

Grant Griffiths : Am I ready for what it will take to make sure my blog is successful?

Grant Griffiths : Before you get to a point where you are doing a design and picking a designer to do your blog, there are some critical activities you need to engage in. Activities which will certainly help you to build the right foundation for a successful blog.

Grant Griffiths : What are the activities I can do to help my blog have a successful launch?

Grant Griffiths : Or, as I like to say, what can I do now to kick a stale blog in the butt...

Grant Griffiths : Start off by searching for and finding other blogs in your niche.

Grant Griffiths : And even look at your own field of a Virtual Assistant to see if there are sub-niches I should be focusing on. Or a particular area I might serve.

Grant Griffiths : Use such tools as Google’s Blog Search for starters. Find the blogs in the niche or market you are thinking about blogging about. You can search for any blog topic you want and it will give you a list of blogs on that subject. As a new blogger, you need to be reading as many blogs as you can.

Grant Griffiths : http://blogsearch.google.com/

Grant Griffiths : And those blogs should be in the niches or areas you are thinking of blogging in yourself. Consider the writing styles of these other bloggers. What do you like and dislike about how they write their post? Also, pay attention to how they might be linking out to other bloggers in the post and how they are using quotes and these links.

Grant Griffiths : Look at the design styles of these blogs. What do you like and not like? Keep a notepad handy or use an Internet tool like Evernote to keep a record of your blog surfing. This record of your blog searching and likes and dislikes will come in handy soon.

Grant Griffiths : http://evernote.com/

Grant Griffiths : And if your blog is not up and going does not mean you should not be out there reading other blogs and participating in the conversation in your niche.

Grant Griffiths : Next, Listen to the conversations which are taking place on these other blogs.

Grant Griffiths : Now that you have found some of the blogs in your niche or market, you need to be listening to the conversations taking place on these blogs. If you are going to “listen” to these conversations you are going to have to take advantage of the tools available to you to make this easier.

Grant Griffiths : I have been blogging now for almost 5 years. In the process of blogging, finding the conversations and listening to those conversations, I have come to rely heavily on RSS and you need to do the same thing. If you are going to follow any number of blogs and try to listen to the conversations on these blogs, I just don’t see how you can not use RSS.

Grant Griffiths : I also use Twitter as a major source of new content to read and keep up on. I could spend an entire session talking about twitter.

Grant Griffiths : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS Just in case you don't know what RSS is. And I no longer assume everyone does.

Grant Griffiths : There are those who are trying to read blogs and do there own blog, who are still bookmarking blogs and actually visiting the blogs they have bookmarked one at at time. Don’t do it. One of the greatest time savers you can use to keep up on these blogs is to use RSS.

Grant Griffiths : When you think of RSS, think of it as your news stand where you have subscribed to a number of blogs. Or think of them as magazine subscriptions in your news stand if you would like. By using RSS, your subscriptions will be fed to you and funneled into your RSS reader of choice. The new articles or post will come to you and your RSS reader will alert you if there are new ones. You will not have to take up your valuable time going to each blog one by one to see if there has been an updated post o

Grant Griffiths : [and please stop me if you have questions at any time]

Grant Griffiths : In explaining RSS to individuals and our clients, I am always on the look out for good blog post from other bloggers. And recently in my own RSS reader I was alerted to “What is RSS and How to Use Google Reader.” Google reader is just one of the RSS tools you have at your disposal. And the post I am mentioning does a great job of showing you how to use it.

Grant Griffiths : http://www.internetmarketingboomer.c...google-reader/

Grant Griffiths : I use a Mac and my preferred RSS reader is NetNewsWire. You could also use Google Reader if you use a PC or Mac

Grant Griffiths : Now that you have your reader set up and feeding you your subscriptions, watch the feeds and listen to the conversations going on. When you see a post headline or summary you think might be of interest, go read it and don’t forget to checkout the comments on the post. I know from my own experience and even from my own blogs, sometimes the comments are better then the actual post itself.

Grant Griffiths : The comments on your own blog and other blogs is a key to the conversation ability of blogging. The comments are really what make blogging blogging

Grant Griffiths : Listen to as many of the conversations taking place in your particular niche or market and pay attention to what is being talked about as you can. And while you are listening to all the post and conversations happening, you need to take the next step.

Grant Griffiths : Next Step -- Engage in the conversation which is taking place on the blogs you are following.

Grant Griffiths : I often am asked by individuals who I suggest this to “should they be engaging in the conversations when they don’t even have their blog up and going yet?” And my answer is always yes.

Grant Griffiths : And if you have a blog, make sure you are engaging with your readers when they leave comments. Join in on the conversation always

Grant Griffiths : Start projecting your blogging voice now by engaging in these conversations. What I am simply suggesting is for you to start commenting on these blogs. However, don’t leave a comment unless you can leave something of value. Too often, I see blog readers leave a comment like, “Great post, thanks for posting it.” This type of comment adds nothing to the conversation, nothing to the blog you are commenting on and it certainly adds nothing to getting you noticed.

Grant Griffiths : In fact, I moderate my comments and it is sometimes hard for me to hit the approval button on these comments.

Grant Griffiths : Providing a more thought out and relevant comment will start to get you noticed by these other bloggers and they will remember you. While you don’t have a blog URL to put in the comment area, they will still remember you.

Grant Griffiths : And once you have your blog up and going, and you have your URL in the comment area, they will notice and come visit your blog. At least that is what I do and I know others who do too.

Grant Griffiths : The key is to engage in the conversations which are taking place on some of the blogs in your niche so you can start now getting noticed as a “thought leader” in that niche. I cannot stress enough the importance of doing this one activity in building the foundation of a successful blog.

Grant Griffiths : [Any questions?]

Bernice : Should we always moderate our comments?

harrisro : none yet, this sounds great! I am just getting into the blogging so this is great info

Grant Griffiths : You should ALWAYS moderate your comments. You have a duty to your readers to protect them from spam and crappy comments

At Your Virtual Door : what if you don't have a particular niche, should you just visit all blogs VA?

Grant Griffiths : I would. I would also visit blogs on copywriting and blogging too. Those blogs will help you with blogging

Grant Griffiths : I have been blogging for almost 5 years and there are some blogs I read daily. And they are on copywriting and blogging

Office Key : How much time do you devote to reading these blogs?

Grant Griffiths : I spend at least an hour a day reading and looking at blogs that interest me

Grant Griffiths : But, I do this full time and don't sleep either

Action Jackson VA : lol

Office Key :

Grant Griffiths : You need to devote time to marketing. And blogging and reading other blogs is part of marketing

Grant Griffiths : You should also devote some time to other social media tools like twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

Grant Griffiths : You can use those tools to grow your blog.

Your Virtual Wizard : Grant, how can I make my blog comments stand out particularly when commenting on a blog which has many other comments?

Grant Griffiths : Good question.

Grant Griffiths : One thing I do is try to be very early in the comments if I can

Grant Griffiths : Or, leave a really thought out, relevant and sometimes long comment. The key is to add to the conversation. That will get you noticed in the comments more than anything

Your Virtual Wizard : Do you recommend leaving the name, company and company url within the comment itself?

Grant Griffiths : Always leave that information That is your one chance to get noticed not only by the other blogger, but by those visiting the blog too. If someone leaves a really good comment on a blog I am visiting, I almost always visit their link in the comment sig

Grant Griffiths : [anyone else]

Grant Griffiths : Moving on...

Grant Griffiths : Making sure your blog does not fail before it starts...

Grant Griffiths : Technorati estimates in its recent State of the Blogosphere that it has indexed 133 million blogs since 2002. And yet there are thousands of new blogs born daily. Some of them last and some of them don’t. They don’t last because the blog publisher gives up before they even really get started. Or they die a fast death due to the blogger not doing what is needed to make sure their blog succeeds.

Grant Griffiths : Many, if not most of the people I talk to about blogging ask the same question, “how can I compete with 133 million blogs and get traffic on mine?” First of all, you are not competing with 133 million. Yes, there may be 133 million blogs being indexed by Technorati.

Grant Griffiths : The question you need to consider, how many of those blogs are even active. Do they post any longer and did they ever post to them. I would venture the guess the answer is no. Yes, there are a lot of blogs out there. But there are ways to make sure your blog will be successful.

Grant Griffiths : And not everyone is going to be posting in your niche either

Grant Griffiths : The first thing you need to do is to make sure your blog does not fail before it even gets started. And you need to be aware of why blogs fail.

[Continued in next post]

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Grant Griffiths : 1. Not setting clearly defined goals There are a number of reasons you might want to start a blog for your business. However, before you start, what are you wanting to accomplish with your blog. Is it to reach out and connect with your customers and/or clients. Carry on a conversation with them about your products or services.

Grant Griffiths : Give your clients a way to give you feedback or input on your business. Do you want a blog so you can have a way to “advertise” your wares or services? Or are you wanting a way to market by using an educational based marketing tool where you provide information to your audience so they are better informed.

Action Jackson VA : Do you recommend that you only post information to your blog for just a niche? Or do you think it is okay to post to your blog for many niches?

Grant Griffiths : Depends on how closely related they are

Grant Griffiths : if close, you can combine them

Grant Griffiths : if not, don't confuse your audience

Action Jackson VA : okay, good food for thought

Grant Griffiths : Are you wanting to drive traffic to your business Web site, increase subscriptions to a newsletter or other publication. Or are you wanting to get people to talk about you either in the press or on other blogs.

Grant Griffiths : No matter what the goal of your blog might be, the key is to set some and make sure they are clearly defined. You want you and your team to know exactly what you are wanting to accomplish by investing your time and resources in this type of marketing tool.

Grant Griffiths : Having clearly defined goals is also a must, if you ever expect to be able to calculate your return on your investment in doing a blog. Recently on Altitude Branding, Amber had a great post called, ROI Begins At The End. In the post she makes this statement:

Grant Griffiths : http://altitudebranding.com/2008/11/...ns-at-the-end/

Grant Griffiths : You cannot calculate a return on anything unless you know whether or not your goals - and your definitions of both Return and Investment - are the right ones.

Grant Griffiths : As a marketer or a communicator, you may determine that you want to drive traffic to your site, increase subscriptions to your newsletter, get people to blog about you. We’ve often measured success in marketing based on eyeballs. Awareness. These things are measurable. But sometimes they’re based in our own corporate egos.

Grant Griffiths : Or our own small business, home business, blogging business or VA business egos.

Grant Griffiths : Don't let your ego get in the way.

cwilson79 : great point

Grant Griffiths : You have to have clearly defined goals if you ever expect to know if you are getting a return on your investment. So many, no make that too many bloggers are so hung up on the numbers, they are completely missing what is truly important when measuring ROI. Does what I am doing matter to the customer?

Grant Griffiths : And this is KEY...

At Your Virtual Door : I'm not sure what you mean by not letting your ego get in the way...

Grant Griffiths : The secret of good marketing is about one thing — your customers. Nothing else matters

Grant Griffiths : Four questions you should be asking yourself:

Grant Griffiths : What keeps your customer up at night?

Grant Griffiths : How do they keep themselves educated in order to do their jobs better?

Grant Griffiths : What channels (online, print, in-person, mobile, etc.) do they use to get their information?

Grant Griffiths : How do they engage with each channel?

Grant Griffiths : When you are considering the goals you have for your business blog, you have to ask yourself those 4 questions. And you need to ask whether your own goals match up with all four of them. If they don’t, your blog is going to fail before it even gets started.

Olinda Services : I would assume not letting your ego get in the way means doing what we are doing for the customer not for our own edification?

Grant Griffiths : Yes, but we still need to eat too.

Grant Griffiths : If we do our best for our clients, we will get to eat too.

Grant Griffiths : It all comes around

Grant Griffiths : 2. Unrealistic demands and expectations for your blog. I am not going to sugar coat it one bit. To have a successful blog which is meeting your goals and getting noticed takes work.

Grant Griffiths : You are going to have to make the time to post to it a lot. If you can’t do it daily, you should be setting as your goal to post to it at least 3 or 4 times a week. The frequency of how many times you post also depends on how long the post are.

Grant Griffiths : If you are doing short post which don’t take a lot of time, you should be able to crank those out pretty easy. If they are long, like this one (maybe a bit too long) you are going to have to set aside some time to sit down, research and write.

Grant Griffiths : If you don’t post to your blog, it is going to fail. You are not going to get the “ROI” you feel you should be getting and you will let it rot on a vine. And I am serious. If you are not serious about making the time to post to your blog, don’t even start one. Go out and buy Yellow Page ads and put up a static Web site.

Grant Griffiths : Then when no calls come in, you can blame the Yellow Book and your web developer.

Grant Griffiths : But if you are serious about giving your customers and/or clients a way to get their hands on up to date, relevant content, do a blog. If you want to market and not just advertise, do a blog. If you want to develop a relationship with your visitors so they become readers and later customers and/or clients, do a blog.

Grant Griffiths : A successful blog takes time and work. But it is well worth every bit of the effort and resources you allocated to it.

Grant Griffiths : 3. Not being prepared to doing research on what you should blog about and being consistent in your posting frequency. Next to the claim that I don’t have time to blog, not knowing what to write about is the next reason I see business blogs fail. Here are some ideas you can use to help you have things to write about.

Grant Griffiths : Read other blogs in your niche
• Blog about conferences you might go to
• Take client questions and make them a blog post
• Do some Keyword Research
• Invite guest bloggers or someone from inside your own organization to blog
• Do a book or product review
• Talk about new products or developments in your own business
• Do a reader poll and post about the results
• Tutorials on how to use your product
• FAQ’s you hear every single day in your business

Grant Griffiths : These are just a few and I know you can think of more. You have to have a ready source of post ideas so your blog doesn’t fail for another reason and that is consistency in the frequency of your post. If you don’t post on a regular basis, you are not going to increase your readership and your blog will not last. You will loose interest in your blog almost as fast as your readers will.

Grant Griffiths : 4. Not having a way for your readers to communicate with you. If you want to get my blood pressure up there are at least a couple of things you can do on your blog. One, not having comments and/or trackbacks at all. Two, making me login or register to leave a comment. You have to give your readers some mechanism whereby they can give you feedback.

Grant Griffiths : You must give them a way to comment about a blog post or to give you feedback about you, your company and/or service. If you don’t, you are not blogging. In fact, I have always been of the position that a blog without commenting on it is not a blog at all. It is just an ego stroking tool for the blogger. It is a conversation, but only a one way conversation. That type of blog is not accomplishing as far as educating your audience in a way they feel they can participate in that education.

Grant Griffiths : Most bloggers who don’t allow comments usually don’t out of fear. Fear that something may be said which they may not like or may harm them. I am not saying you should not moderate comments. What I am saying is you have to allow comments on your blog.

Grant Griffiths : Feedback or comments from your readers, good or bad creates a conversation and relationship between the reader and the business. Keep one thing in mind, the conversation and/or feedback is taking place somewhere, why not take the necessary steps so it takes place on your business’ blog?

Grant Griffiths : Finally, before you get too far in the process of setting up your blog, consider the above mentioned reasons why a business blog might fail. Consider in your own mind if you can set the necessary goals and stick to them or whether you may not be the right fit for a blog. Not every business should have a blog. However, if you are serious about using this type of marketing tool, and you use it right, I know you will have a successful blog. A blog which will get you results.

Grant Griffiths : There you go, now shoot your questions

Bernice : How many blogs do you maintain?

Grant Griffiths : I maintain a total of 3. But, Tina Hilton has been the main one posting to home office warrior lately

harrisro : I don't have a blog, I am definitely considering doing one. Would you say that blogging would be worth the time as far as leads that can be generated?

Grant Griffiths : Blogging is worth the time if done right

catfive : how much, if any, do you deviate into the personal in your business blog?

Grant Griffiths : I don't talk personal on my business blogs. Which is why I am getting ready to start a personal blog

At Your Virtual Door : OK for me to be a serious blogger I must now wake up an hour earlier, 3am to start blogging...

Office Key : Your thoughts on different blogging platforms? Wordpress, or blogger... etc.?

Grant Griffiths : Platforms. I only recommend WordPress. It is the most powerful platform IMHO

Action Jackson VA : If we have started a blog, dropped off from writing on it, do you think it is possible to pick it back up again and draw in the attention we are seeking? Or should we just start a whole new blog with the goals we have set for ourselves?

Grant Griffiths : I would not start over if you already have a blog up. Just jump start it

Bernice : What about guest bloggers, your thoughts?

Grant Griffiths : YOu should be guest posting as often as you can early in your blogging. And you should encourage guest posters on your own blog too

Tess : Do you spend time listing your blogs in the bigger blog directories?

Grant Griffiths : I do not list my blogs in blog directories, but you sure can. I network a lot on twitter and just post on a regular basis

Your Virtual Wizard : What is your opinion on a virtual assistant blogging for a client; not just posting but writing?

Grant Griffiths : If you can give the post the same voice as the client, I don't see a problem with it. But the voice of the blog is key

Bernice : So the "voice" of the blog should remain the same.

Action Jackson VA : I have had clients ask me to write in their blogs for them. But, they never have a goal or a way for me to blog "as them" what would you recommend we say to people like that?

Grant Griffiths : The voice of the blog should be that of the blogger/company/client

Grant Griffiths : You need to ask the client those questions I put below. What is their goal. If it is to build a relationship with their own clients or customers, they need to connect with them and engage them. Relying completely on a "ghost writer" may not be the best way to do that

At Your Virtual Door : In the infancy stages of your blogging, is it okay to reference other really good material out there to get the readers coming

Grant Griffiths : YOu should link to other blogs as often as you can. No matter what stage your blog is in.

Your Virtual Wizard : Are trackbacks effective?

Grant Griffiths : With WordPress, doing a trackback is not necessary as it does it for you. But, yes, trackbacks are effective

Your Virtual Wizard : Should the blog be attached to the website or a separate entity>

Grant Griffiths : f you don't have a website, don't do one. A well done blog will beat a website in getting you traffic everyday if you have a website, make the blog separate and link back and forth

ShanteM : You talked about posting to your blog on a regular basis. How often should one post to their blog?

Grant Griffiths : ShanteM -- I think you should post a minimum of 2 to 3 times a week if you are serious about getting traffic. People like new content and so does Google

TargetStars : How do you feel about blogs that do not immediately post comments?

Grant Griffiths : Target -- I don't post my comments as soon as they are left because I moderate them. But I try to get them up as soon as possible

Janniere : Is there a way to encourage comments on your blog? I see many blogs with posts for months and no comments

Grant Griffiths : Janniere - I have done a number of posts on getting comments. The best way is to always ask for them.

Grant Griffiths : And when you do get comments, reply and engage. this shows you care

Action Jackson VA : May I ask, is blogging more like article writing or should it Not be like an article?

Grant Griffiths : Action Jackson -- It should be a conversation. Articles belong in journals and newspapers.

Janniere : Thanks (its Gennia)

Grant Griffiths : use your blog to answer questions and provide solutions

Action Jackson VA : Okay thank you

Clerical Advantage : responding to comments works, it's something I hadn't done and now do (thanks Grant) and my comments are increasing a little at a time

Clerical Advantage : or here on the forums as my latest posts have done!

Grant Griffiths : Tina - I don't always get comments on my blog post. But the conversation can take place on twitter and Facebook too as you are well aware.

Grant Griffiths : There are a number of plugins you can use to get comments and encourage them too.

Grant Griffiths : WordPress plugins that is

Grant Griffiths : Comment Luv is one

Grant Griffiths : And use Threaded comments too

Grant Griffiths : this aids in the conversation

Your Virtual Wizard : Do you announce your blog posts on twitter, linkedin, etc?

Grant Griffiths : Your Virtual Wizard -- I have my post sent to twitter and facebook and linkedin every time I do a post and I have an app that does it for me

Action Jackson VA : Would you mind putting your blog link up for us?

Grant Griffiths : http://blogforprofit.com

harrisro : what app is it you use to post simultaneously?

Grant Griffiths : I use EasyTweets

Grant Griffiths : And Now Feedburner/Google has a way to send your post to twitter when you post them

Grant Griffiths : On Headway, we actually built a feature in that sends the post to twitter for you

Your Virtual Wizard : Grant, I'm just going to pop in here and give the names of the winners. Grant has offered to stay on for additional questions.

Grant Griffiths : Action Jackson - ask away when you can

Action Jackson VA : Can we post an excerpt of a blog post to our blog then put a link in to the actual blog? Or does that infringe on the other persons blog?

Grant Griffiths : Action Jackson, as long as you quote it and give a proper link, you should do that

Action Jackson VA : okay thank you

Your Virtual Wizard : Thank you, Grant. I’ll take a moment here to announce the names for Grant’s giveaways.

harrisro : Grant your info tonight was great! Thanks a bunch!

Action Jackson VA : Thank you so much for your information. I appreciate your taking time off from blogging to help us learn

[Continued in next post]

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Grant Griffiths : You are very welcome. My pleasure

TargetStars : Thank you!

Action Jackson VA : Thank you Janine for holding this chat It really has helped me a lot.

JoCarole : Thank you for this valuable information, appreciate it!

Your Virtual Wizard : you're welcome...

Your Virtual Wizard : winners are...catfive

Your Virtual Wizard : tsmith

Bee Bolder : Thanks for sharing such great info.

catfive : THANK YOU GRANT!

Action Jackson VA : WAY TO GO Cat Congratulations!!

catfive : Cool - I never win anything! This is great!

Action Jackson VA : WAY TO GO T~ Congratulations!!

ShanteM : Congrats to the winners!

Grant Griffiths : There will be 3 more winners...

Bernice : Thanks for a very informative chat. Congratulations Ladies!! I need to go jump start a blog..

Your Virtual Wizard : Target Stars

At Your Virtual Door : Grant, thank you so much for the info, sure gave me a lot to go with to be a successful blogger

Your Virtual Wizard : and Action Jackson

Your Virtual Wizard : I will PM all of you with instructions as to how you can receive your prizes. Congratulations!

Action Jackson VA : WAY TO GO LaTosha Congratulations!!

leedrozak : Thank you Grant for the great info.

Your Virtual Wizard : I’ll just repeat this here… if you have not already, please join the Blog Challenge Group http://www.virtualassistantforums.co...ing-challenge/

Your Virtual Wizard : Our hour has passed by rather quickly. If you are interested in starting a blog for yourself or for your clients, check out Headway Themes; a WordPress Framework you can use to build a professional looking blog, website or blog site. http://headwaythemes.com

Grant Griffiths : If you all have any questions anytime, drop me an email grant@g2webmedia.com

Grant Griffiths : You can follow me on twitter too http://twitter.com/grantgriffiths

catfive : I have TWo blog posts on my blog so hopefully this will help me get moving!

Action Jackson VA : Same here Cat

Action Jackson VA : I just thought they were always articles. But I learned differently.

catfive : I caught that - but I am going to have to look at some now with that in mind because I really thought most of them look like articles

catfive : want to see the difference

Your Virtual Wizard : Any last minute blogging questions?

Tess : I did have one question about the garbage can sites that are out there scraping content via RSS - do you pursue them in terms of having your content taken down or do you just leave it alone?

Office Key : Yes, thanks to all. It's the first chat I was able to attend. It was great!

Action Jackson VA : That it a good question.

Grant Griffiths : I don't, Tess, but I do put something in my feed's footer that alerts readers that the content was stolen

catfive : Could Grant speak a bit on the difference between an article and a blog post? You said a blog is like a conversation....

Action Jackson VA : Great to know we can do that.

catfive : but we have to be careful to keep the personal out so i can't wrap my mind around a conversation....

Action Jackson VA : I got the point, if a question has been posed, then answer it in your blog. But, not like an article.

Grant Griffiths : When you think of a conversation, think of the conversations you have with other VA's about business or your clients The biggest difference is the writing style and format of the post

Grant Griffiths : People scan when they read online You need to keep your sentences short

Grant Griffiths : paragraphs short

Grant Griffiths : use subheadings bullet points and number paragraphs

Grant Griffiths : And if a post gets too long, break it up into a series

Action Jackson VA : Okay, that makes sense and again awesome info.

catfive : i see what you are saying

Grant Griffiths : I am not saying you can't do an article type post from time to time. Just not on every post

Action Jackson VA : okay

Action Jackson VA : I just know how long winded I can be lol

Clerical Advantage : it takes time, I still get too wordy

catfive : i like the idea of breaking it into a series though

Grant Griffiths : Series post are great to get your readers to come back too

catfive : Then one topic could take care of 3 or 4 posts

Grant Griffiths : One topic could take 31 days

Grant Griffiths : Hence, 31 days to kick your blog in the butt

catfive : wow - yes it could

Grant Griffiths : 30 days of twitter tips and hints

Tess : But quickly do we have links to where we can purchase your ebooks, etc.?

Grant Griffiths : http://www.blogforprofit.com/kick-yo...g-in-the-butt/

Office Key : I have a personal blog on posterous. Not sure that platform is well suited to business though. Grant, are you familiar with it? You might like it for your personal blog.

Grant Griffiths : Office Key, Posterous is fine for personal, but IMHO not business

Office Key : I do like the way it reposts so easily.

Grant Griffiths : You need to use a platform that gives you a lot of options on how you can provide information to your audience

Office Key : I haven't pursued my business blog yet. I am in process of moving, so in transition anyway.

Grant Griffiths : Get a self-hosted WordPress blog. Don't use WordPress.com either; you want your own domain

Grant Griffiths : don't use blogger.com please

Office Key : OK. I do have my own domain and have been 'playing' with Wordpress there.

Grant Griffiths : Most hosting companies offer a one click install of WordPress

Office Key : Just to get used to it, it's on a sub directory.

Grant Griffiths : Office Key that is fine for just playing around and getting used to the platform But, if you want to get the best SEO juice, be on your own domain

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